Chapter 1: Surprise at Number 4

When Vernon arrived home from work on 31 October 1981, what he wasn't expecting was a aged, old man and a stern-looking woman sitting on his normal furniture wearing the same abnormal clothing he'd been noticing all day driving to and from work. Furthermore, he was not expecting them to be holding a bundled up little girl with jet-black hair sticking out all over the place with a red mark on her forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt. Nor was he expecting that his wife would be sitting there with them drinking tea, though she did look to be rather on edge about the situation. Based on what he saw, Vernon could only come to one conclusion: the magicians were in their home and something had gone terribly wrong.

Petunia, his lovely, normal wife, had arisen to greet him, having heard him come in the door moments earlier. She gave him a kiss that was of proper levels of affection to display in front of guests, then glanced at their guests and back to Vernon nervously, saying, "Vernon, dear. You remember me telling you that my sister was a little different than us, that she could do things that cannot be explained normally? That she went to a different sort of school than we did growing up?"

"Yes, Pet, I remember," Vernon replied, looking again over at the two sitting on his couch. As he walked over to his favorite armchair, which sat at a 45 degree angle to the couch, Vernon looked at the infant girl once again. Sitting down in the delightfully comfortable chair, Vernon would bet his best suit that if the girl wasn't sleeping that her eyes would be electric green, not unlike the eyes that his sister-in-law had but much more intense. As he got himself comfortable, Vernon was certain that this was his niece from the weird side of the family that was resting in these strangers arms. Vernon addressed them, "If I recall correctly, your sort are the magicians right?"

The stern-looking woman retorted, looking slightly offended, "I assure you, mister Dursley, we are much more than mere street and stage performers conducting sleight of hand and tricks of light for entertainment. I am Professor Minerva McGonnagal, deputy headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and my counterpart is Professor Albus Dumbledore, who is the current headmaster of said school."

Vernon regarded Professor McGonnagal, thinking that, though she was a witch, that she had a no nonsense way about her, which was something he could appreciate. "Well then," Vernon said, "suppose we should get on with why you are here. After all, your sort usually leaves us normal folk alone unless you absolutely must contact us. Aside from Petunia's sister and her even weirder husband, we don't have a reason to be in regular contact with others of your community. And I don't think it is any coincidence that you lot are sitting here on a Saturday evening bearing a young child, of whom I suspect is our niece."

"Very astute, Mister Dursley," Dumbledore spoke, "This is indeed your niece and I'm afraid we are here under unfortunate circumstances."

"You don't mean…." Petunia began, her facial expression going from nervous to anxious, "Surely not… Were they not in hiding?"

"They were indeed in hiding," Dumbledore answered, "and they would not have been found had their location not been revealed to him by their very own secret keeper."

"But Lily promised this would make them safe!" Petunia exclaimed.

"And it would have if they had trusted who they originally intended to be the secret keeper," Dumbledore responded as the little girl began to cry. Hearing the little girls distress, Petunia went to her niece and collected her from Dumbledore.

"There there, Holly," Petunia soothed as she held her close, "Auntie has you now."

McGonnagal, who had remained quiet to allow Albus to break the news, couldn't remain quiet in light of the recent revelation, "but wasn't the plan to make Sirius the secret keeper?"

"That was my thought exactly until Sirius himself explained that it was Peter who was made the actual secret keeper as no one would have suspected him," Dumbledore explained, " seeing as how he swore upon his magic and still is in possession of said magic, it is the truth."

"But Peter?"

"Excuse me," Vernon interjected, adjusting himself in his chair, "I assume you lot know what it is you're talking about but what does this have to do with us? Why have you brought our niece here this evening? Where are her parents?"

"I believe it is prudent for us to get to the point then, Minerva. We can have an at length discussion about this later," Dumbledore said, turning towards Vernon, "Mister Dursley, your sister-in-law and her husband have been murdered by Lord Voldemort early this morning, from whom they were trying to hide but were betrayed by their own friend. He also tried to kill your niece but, for some reason we can only guess at this time, his killing curse backfired on him and instead his own body was destroyed. We believe Holly is still in danger from those supporters of his that remain and that is why we are here this evening: to place her here in your family's care."

"But wouldn't she be better off with others who will be like her?" Vernon asked, "doesn't she have any magical relatives?"

"She has her godfather, who is distantly related through James' mother's family," Dumbledore answered, "but he will be busy tracking down the one who betrayed Holly's parents to Voldemort. This may take a long time and it will take a lot of his attention. However, he would like permission to be able to visit Holly at least once a month."

Petunia thought for a moment, then said, "of course he may visit Holly as much as he likes so long as he arrives and leaves by normal means and he arranges a schedule with us that he will adhere to as I know it is nearly impossible for us to get into contact with people like you."

"We could arrange for you to have an owl," Dumbledore began.

"We'll be having none of that in our house," Vernon stated matter-of-factly, "we live very normal lives and have no need for that sort of thing."

"Mister Dursley," Minerva spoke up, "Holly is a magical child. Eventually she will begin to display accidental magic. At some point you will have to deal with things that aren't normal that revolve around her."

Vernon sat in thought, contemplating that very thing. "There's always a chance that she couldn't be magical, like Pet here, isn't there?"

"I assure you, Mister Dursley," Dumbledore answered, "while there is a slight chance that she won't have magical powers, it's better to prepare for when she does. Her parents were very magically powerful. I suspect she will also be."

Vernon again sat in thought. It was perplexing. The Dursleys prided themselves on their normalcy and here was their niece who stood to ruin the whole thing. "Say she starts expressing these powers. Will you assist us in helping to teach her how to appear normal until she undoubtedly goes to that school of yours?"

"We can most definitely assist you with her magical abilities and when they manifest," McGonnagal replied, "not ourselves personally as we have many duties to the school to attend to. Her godfather will be invaluable to you in this regard as he knows the right sorts of people to ask for assistance as well as himself. And if you find yourself not comfortable with someone he suggests please tell him immediately."

At that moment, a baby boy's cries could be heard coming from upstairs. Petunia glanced upstairs and then to Vernon, "Vernon, can you take Holly while I go see to Duddykins?"

Vernon harrumphed for a moment, then gestured to Petunia, "of course, Pet, give her here."

Petunia crossed the living room and deposited the small bundle into Vernon's arms. Vernon handled her much as anyone would handle a fifteen month old girl, not quite ready to break at a moment's notice but fragile all the same. Holly stirred a bit during the transfer, blasting Vernon with those electric green eyes only for a moment before she closed them again and began resting in his arms. 'Poor girl,' Vernon thought.

The professors looked at each other, then both stood, deciding it was time to leave them to it. Dumbledore spoke, breaking Vernon's attention from his niece, "There is much more to discuss, however, the evening is late and I imagine that what we have talked about this evening is already a great deal to process. There are some legal things to go over, of course, but we have time to take care of them. I shall task Sirius, Holly's godfather, with explaining most of what those legalities are, as quite a few of them involve him."

Vernon nodded to Dumbledore as he stood from his chair, "I suppose we'll be seeing this Sirius character sooner than later. I must admit, this is a lot to take in. Petunia and I definitely were not expecting something like this ever. It will be a bit of a struggle being involved with this magic business. We like to live normal lives after all."

"I understand, Mister Dursley," Minerva spoke, "as Deputy Headmistress, it is my duty to introduce and welcome students who are magical themselves but their parents are not whatsoever, much like how Lily was. I know from personal experience how easily overwhelming it is to go from not knowing about magic to being suddenly aware of a whole other society living in secret. Rest assured, you are not alone and, if you need help with Holly at all, you can bring your concerns to Sirius or send a letter through your post to the school."

"I believe Petunia knows the address, as I seem to remember her sending a letter to me when she was very young," Dumbledore added, "One thing before we leave, Mister Dursley."

As the group walked to the front door of the Dursley residence, Vernon queried, "and what might that be?"

"We would like your permission to cast protective enchantments on your house so as to further protect Holly from dark wizards and witches who will be looking to cause her harm," Dumbledore said, "your family will also benefit from these protections and there will not be any indication as to their presence. They will be invisible, so you won't need to worry about your neighbors seeing anything abnormal, and you won't be able to feel them, as you are not magical."

Vernon considered the notion before nodding his assent, "If it keeps away anyone who would seek to harm our family from your section of the world, then by all means."

"Excellent," the headmaster said as Vernon opened the door for them to leave, "We will leave you to it then. Until we meet again."

"Yes, yes," Vernon agreed, watching as they exited his home, "and please make sure that you lot aren't seen."

Professor McGonnagal smirked, "We would be excuses of magicals if we couldn't make sure we weren't seen. Good Evening."

Vernon watched them for a moment as they moved out onto the front walk leading up to Number 4 Privet Drive. Before they started casting, Vernon closed the front door and locked up for the evening. Hearing his wife at the top of the stairs, Vernon turned and looked up at her. Petunia was silently crying, tears streaming from her eyes. Apparently the news of her sister's death had finally sunk in whilst she was attending their son. Vernon beckoned for her to follow him as he turned and walked back into the living room.

Sitting down on the love seat, Vernon waited for Petunia to join him. She did after a moment, leaning into her husband's right shoulder as she started to make more noise in her sadness. Vernon made sure Holly was secure in his left arm before draping his right around Petunia. Once he achieved that positioning, he held his wife tenderly as she finally broke down.

Vernon knew that Petunia had resented her sister for being magical for much of their teenage years. Rather it wasn't that she resented Lily but more so herself for not being magical. After all, they had come from the same family so why wouldn't she be magical? The resentment had created quite the rift between the sisters. It was only further deepened by Petunia having to take care of their parent's funeral and all the arrangements that went with it by herself. Lily had barely even made it in time for them.

It was only recently that Lily and Petunia had decided to repair their relationship. They had decided that, no matter what they were in regard to magic, they were sisters first and they should start acting like it. The restoration of their relationship was slow-going, especially since apparently Lily had a deranged lunatic who was looking for them because of some war between the magicals that they had also only been recently made aware of, and only in the fact that a war was happening. Vernon supposed this war was a major factor in Lily's reason for wanting to reconnect with her sister.

Now, whatever hope the sisters had for repairing their relationship was gone and the only thing Petunia had to remember her by was in Vernon's arms.

Petunia had started calming down, looking at her niece. "She's going to be like them, Vernon, I know it," she stated in a broken voice.

"What are we going to do then?" Vernon asked, "we know nothing about what they do and we don't need the neighbors saying things. But we can't force her to not be like them either now can we?"

"No we can't," Petunia answered, "Lily's magic wasn't easily controlled in the beginning when she was young. I don't think we need to worry if someone sees something, we usually explain away the unexplainable anyways. As long as we pretend nothing happens, others will do the same.

"I want her raised the way Lily would've raised her. I want to honor my sister's memory. And if there are those who wish to do Holly harm then she's going to need to know how to use her powers to defend herself. Lily didn't talk about the followers of that lunatic much but when she did it sounded like they were the worst sort of people."

"I suppose that Sirius fellow will be invaluable then," Vernon stated, frowning a bit, "hopefully he will know to be discreet when he visits."

"Sirius," Petunia paused, remembering the one time that she met Holly's godfather, "is almost the opposite of the word discreet. We will have to teach him how to act like us or at least act normal."

Holly began to fuss again, indicating her hunger. "I suppose I should fix her a bottle," petunia said, getting up and going to the kitchen, "it's a good thing she's a little smaller than Dudley because she'll fit in his old crib."

"Yes, Pet," Vernon agreed, following his wife to the kitchen as he rocked Holly while he walked, "it's strange that no one contacted us about buying that old thing but I suppose that we'll need it for a while longer so that's good."

Vernon and Petunia shared a look as she prepared the formula. Both of them agreed silently that their lives would be different from this day forward.

A/N: Welcome to the world of Holly Jane Potter. This is going to be a clearly AU story. I've not read any Good Dursley type stories yet in all my years of reading fanfiction. This story was actually inspired by Welfycat's Rachel Snow series, which I highly encourage anyone who's looking for something new to go read (the seventh book is currently being written, so there's plenty of reading to do to catch up). I hope that y'all will be patient with me as I strive to get this idea out into chapters, as I do not have a formal outline of what this story will look like. I want to write all seven books. I will be making Holly a bit overpowered but in less explored avenues. I'm not sure which house I want to place her in, just not Slytherin. I am going to be making her a bit gray. Any feedback is welcome, understand that all I am working with is an idea so it's very possible I may write myself into a corner and wonder how am I going to get out of this. It will be as much of a journey for me as it will be for y'all. I will be striving for at least a chapter every other week as my update schedule as this will be my first story I've committed to (my other two being some passions that I have fallen out of). Please do enjoy.