In the aftermath of Lily's ZoomBroom testing positive for a Hurling Hex and the investigation that had been opened, Professor Longbottom made the decision the next day to postpone the removal of the curse until such time as the investigation was closed.
Lily was just fine with this. In fact, she was leaning more and more towards continuing to use her Firebolt even if her ZoomBroom was eventually dehexed and returned to her. The emotional pull of her Firebolt having been a Christmas present from James the year before she'd started at Hogwarts was very strong. Furthermore, the more she thought about the ZoomBroom, the more she despised the idea of using it. Even if it could be dehexed and returned to her and even if she could then use it safely, she was finding the very thought of using a broom that she knew had been meant to harm her repugnant and repulsive.
On Sunday, September 27th, 2020 at 1 p.m. Hogwarts time, it was Once again time for James, Albus, Devon, and Lily to meet in the Room of Requirement to learn about Potter-Dursley family history.
Owing to the emotionally difficult time that James, Devon, and Lily had been going through the prior week, the Room of Requirement had instructed James, Albus, Devon, and Lily to use the prior week's meeting for review only.
This week's meeting would cover the person was ultimately most responsible for the enmity between the Potters and the Dursleys reaching the level that it did.
James, Albus, Devon, and Lily all turned their Potter-Dursley family history books to chapter nine. Chapter nine was titled Vernon's Venom.
James, Albus, Devon, and Lily read:
For his entire life, Vernon Dursley had always been a person who had despised anything even remotely strange, mysterious. abnormal, unusual, or even remotely out of the ordinary. Even as a very little boy, Vernon Dursley was such a stickler for normality that he hated cartoons and comics due to their portrayal of objects and animals behaving in ways in which they did not in real life. As a muggle who had grown up with no knowledge of the existence of the Wizarding World, Vernon would come to hate witches, wizards, wands, and magic because of how abnormal and therefore freakish he viewed them as. Vernon would ultimately grow up to be the opposite of the pureblood supremacists in the magical community. It must be said that Vernon's prejudices against and bigotry towards witches and wizards were ultimately just as bad as the prejudices and bigotry that the pure blood supremacists in the magical community have against muggles and muggleborns. It amounts to the same thing; Those who are different from me are inferior to me and should be treated as such. Simple human decency should make it clear how disgusting this is. At the end of the day, all people are people and that's what should matter. Sadly, Vernon did not merely fear magic and magical people; he genuinely hated them. Vernon Dursley can also be said to be a very materialistic man. He was always a person who valued having the biggest and the best (especially when it came to cars.) and was known to be boastful of his high end possessions. Vernon had never been a person who placed much value on love or affection and as such he never really provided much love to Dudley. While it is true that Vernon both spoiled and favored Dudley and allowed him to bully other children, especially Harry, without fear of discipline, Vernon didn't really give Dudley much love or much affection. What capacity for love and affection Dudley does possess, he got from his mother, Petunia Dursley nee Evans. With her resentful and bitter feelings towards the magical community due to her jealousy of her sister, Petunia was more than happy to marry into a an all muggle family. She proved to be compatible with Vernon and they ended up getting married. After her marriage to Vernon, Petunia started to pretend she didn't have a sister, a pretense that Vernon encouraged. In mid-1980, Petunia gave birth to the couple's only child, their son Dudley Dursley. The birth of Dudley had been one of the proudest days of Vernon's life and one of the happiest days of Petunia's life. For the first year and few months after Dudley's birth, the Dursleys couldn't have been happier with their lot in life. Vernon had a well-paying job that he loved and could throw himself into, Petunia was a happy stay at home mom, the Dursleys were easily able to make ends meet, and thanks to Petunia's efforts, the Dursleys had the cleanest house ever known to exist. But the Dursleys world was flipped upside following Halloween of 1981. After Lily Potter nee Evans had sacrificed herself for her son Harry, Voldemort had been unable to kill baby Harry Potter and had lost his powers and fled when his Killing Curse had rebounded onto himself. Dumbledore, making Harry's survival his top priority, had placed Harry Potter in the Dursleys care because Petunia had been Lily's only surviving relative. Because Petunia was Lily's sister, being able to call the place where her blood flowed "home" had given Harry very powerful protection until he had come of age. Dumbledore had known that Harry would be treated poorly at the Dursleys but realized that he had to do what would make Harry safe as he knew that the Dark Lord would rise again. Dumbledore had written Petunia a letter and left it on the doorstep with baby Harry wrapped in blankets. When Petunia had found baby Harry on her doorstep the very next morning, she had been furious. However, she had just enough sisterly love left for Lily that she would not let Lily's son die on her account. Therefore, after reading Dumbledore's letter explaining about how taking Harry in would give Harry powerful blood protection, she agreed to do so though she was very bitter about doing so. Vernon had wanted to toss baby Harry into the nearest dumpster and be done with it, but Petunia managed with some effort to convince Vernon to allow Harry houseroom. The key to convincing Vernon to allow Harry to be taken into their home was to present the idea that they could "stamp out" Harry's "abnormality" by keeping him downtrodden. Unfortunately for the Dursleys, Petunia had activated a binding magical contract when she had taken Harry in. While Petunia had no intentions of ever being nice to Harry or of giving him love or affection, her treatment of Harry became far worse than it might have been so that she could stay in Vernon's good graces and protect her marriage. As a child. the Dursleys had forced Harry to do adult tasks such as washing dishes, doing laundry, mowing lawns, pruning bushes, cleaning cars and windows, taking out the trash, and cooking. Worse than having to do adult tasks was the punishments Harry would receive if the work was even slightly off. Even very slightly burnt bacon meant a whack on the back with a frying pan for Harry. Then there was Vernon's absolute intolerance of Harry's accidental magic. As is often the case with young witches and wizards, Harry had his share of bursts of accidental magic. These incidents led to anything from corporal punishment from Vernon's belt to the withholding of meals to being shut up in his "room" for over a week at a time. This "room" was nothing more than the cupboard under the stairs and it had been a cramped childhood for Harry. Vernon was also completely unwilling to spend any money on Harry. Harry's only clothes were hand me downs from Dudley that were way too big for him and he had never provided Harry with the dental and medical care that he needed. It had been both a relief and a horror for Vernon when Harry went off to Hogwarts. On one hand, the shame of being unable to squash Harry's magic out of him had been unbearable. On the other hand, Harry being away at boarding school got him out of the house and left Vernon, Dudley and Petunia to be their own happy family. To Vernon's horror, he and his wife and son had been forced to go into hiding with the Order of the Phoenix during the second Wizarding War. Lord Voldemort had known that Harry's protection would break on his seventeenth birthday and the Dursleys had to abandon the house in case Voldemort targeted Harry there. After Voldemort's death, Vernon and Petunia had returned to Number Four Privet Drive as empty nesters. Dudley had gone away to college in the United States and when he had returned home, he had married Debra Dursley nee Bennett. Eventually, Debra would give birth to her and Dudley's only child, their son Devon. This was the event that was the catalyst for Vernon abandoning the family. At first, Devon Dursley seemed like another typical Dursley. He had shown no signs of magic as a baby. However, at age six, during the summer before he started first grade, a frustrated Devon who had misplaced his favorite toy train managed to summon his toy train back to himself without realizing how he'd done it. Dudley, who had been in Devon's room at the time, knew then that his son was a wizard. He had then informed Debra about the magical community and written to Vernon and Petunia to explain the situation. A few days later, Vernon and Petunia had visited Dudley, Debra, and Devon. As it so happened, during this visit, Devon had been reading a book and had set the book down to get a soda from the fridge. When Devon came back to his book, he saw that he hadn't put a bookmark in it. As Devon seemed irritated, the book seemingly opened itself of its own accord to exactly the page Devon had left off at. Recognizing Devon was indeed a wizard, Vernon had ranted about how Devon was a "freak" and had encouraged Petunia, Dudley, and Debra to disown Devon. To Vernon's fury, Petunia, Dudley and Debra all professed their unconditional love for their son/grandson and made it clear they were with Devon 100%. At this point, Vernon disowned his entire family and spent the rest of his life pouring himself into his work. This life gave Vernon more pleasure than marriage or parenthood ever had, and he had felt unburdened as he worked tirelessly at Grunnings. While Petunia had been a bit sad at her husband's abandonment, Devon was coldly indifferent to it. Devon Dursley was a very perceptive boy and when he had visited grandpa and grandma's house and they had visited his it had been clear to him that grandma Petunia truly loved him with all her heart whereas Grandpa Vernon hadn't really cared much for him. As a young boy Devon had been unaware that Vernon didn't really care about anyone. But, having realized though observation that Vernon didn't care about him, Devon had always had the attitude that he shouldn't care about Vernon if Vernon didn't care about him. Two years after abandoning his family, Vernon died from a stress induced heart attack that was attributed to overwork. After Vernon left the family, Petunia lived alone at Number Four Privet Drive until her death from injuries related to a fall down the stairs in September of 2019. Devon, meanwhile, would play a key role in healing the wounds between the Potters and the Dursleys as will be seen in chapter Ten.
"I'm just going to be honest," said Devon matter of factly, "Even if he was my grandfather, I not only have no sympathy for Vernon that he died, but, I feel, and it may not be the most appropriate thing to say, but I feel like Vernon got what he had coming to him."
"A man who would disown and abandon his entire family over his hatred of magic is not a person who deserves any tears shed for him," said James firmly.
"Damn straight, " said Devon fiercely, "And the book is 100% correct about how bad his bigotry was."
""The way he treated dad makes me so mad," said Albus hotly, "To give out harsh and unfair punishments and then to not even give dad a proper room. Vernon Dursley was a right nasty piece of work."
"If you ask me," said Lily sadly, "Vernon is responsible for Petunia's death. Had Vernon not abandoned his wife, she wouldn't have been living alone when she fell down those stairs and Vernon could have called someone. Medical attention might have arrived in time to save her life."
"Vernon never cared about her," said Devon bitterly, "Or he wouldn't have abandoned her."
"It seems to me," said Lily slowly, "As though the only thing Vernon ever truly cared about was his work."
"This is sadly mostly true," admitted Devon, "And it really is true that I never felt anything when he left the family because I never felt loved by him in the first place."
"The bouts of accidental magic Devon is described as having are typical kinds of accidental magic," observed James.
"Vernon Dursley was a hateful bigoted and spiteful man," said Devon matter of factly, "Truthfully, we already all had some degree of knowledge of this topic."
"That's why there isn't much emotion here," said Albus, "We've just read about things we either knew or could have easily guessed."
"I'll be interested to see what chapter ten says about me next week," said Devon, "I suspect some little detail I haven't thought of may come to our attention."
"You're probably right, Devon," agreed Lily.