1 Chapter 01

Thursday, August 15, 2019 7:45 PM

Nine year old Harry Potter watched with undisguised shock while his heavyset twelve year old cousin, Dudley Dursley, pitched a fit as his grossly overweight uncle, Vernon Dursley, stormed in and out of the house several times hauling a small fortune's worth of brand spanking new computer and gaming equipment. Young Harry was stunned speechless that his uncle was throwing away the computer, the gaming console, the state of the art Nerve Gear, and all of the brand new (and rather expensive) games he'd purchased for his son over the past couple of months.

He just couldn't believe that his uncle would take something away from his [Harry's] cousin after he [Uncle Vernon] had spent so much money on the gaming system in the first place and when it was patently obvious that Dudley still wanted said computer equipment.

It was unreal because Uncle Vernon never denied Dudley anything. If one was to look up the definition for the phrase 'spoiled rotten' in the dictionary one would find a picture of Dudley Dursley; that was how much the boy had been spoiled by his parents. Late night snacks, late night movies, expensive toys, all day trips to amusement parks, brand new clothes, all the latest techno-gadgets; it didn't matter what it cost or how unreasonable the desire. If Dudley wanted it, then he got it; pure and simple.

What could possibly drive an overindulgent father into taking away a prized possession from his beloved son? To answer that question, one would first need to know a little history about the Dursley Family.

The Dursley family is comprised of four individuals; Vernon Dursley, his wife Petunia Dursley (née Evans), his son Dudley Dursley, and his older sister Marge Dursley. Mr. Dursley is an ordinary man with an ordinary job who loves his ordinary wife and wonderfully ordinary son. Mrs. Dursley is the perfect housewife who thinks she landed the perfect husband, knew she'd given birth to the world's most perfect boy, and she is perfectly content to spy upon her less than perfect neighbors in order to spread perfectly scandalous gossip about town. Dudley is just Dudley and he cares for nothing and thinks of no one but himself. And Ms. Dursley swears her brother's family is the best family one could have and takes pleasure in gloating over how fine a boy her nephew is turning out to be.

Over all, they were a perfectly normal sort of family that was perfectly satisfied with their perfectly normal life.

Unfortunately, for the Dursleys, their perfectly normal life took a sharp turn towards the abnormal when Mrs. Dursley unexpectedly found her one and a half year old nephew, one Harry James Potter, sleeping on their porch in a basket one brisk autumn morning. With the arrival of their nephew, the Dursley's normal lifestyle was a thing of the past. For starters, normal families did not have newly orphaned relatives dropped on their doorsteps without so much as a by-your-leave with nothing but a letter telling them an estranged family member had been murdered during the night. Normal families also did not attempt to hide all evidence that said child existed.

Worse yet, in the eyes of the now no longer normal Dursley family, was the fact that the unwanted child that had been dumped upon their doorstep had been born with a rare ability. He'd been born with the ability to use magic. A freak in the eyes of the family upon whose doorstep he'd been left. An unwanted burden. A terrible secret that would ruin their 'normal' lives completely should anyone learn that he was related to them.

Now, some may jump to the conclusion that the Dursleys would physically abuse the abnormal and unwanted child that they had been saddled with but the truth was that they went out of their way to avoid touching little Harry. They feared that they might contract some horrible disease if they were constantly coming into physical contact with the boy and so left him alone. That didn't stop them from tormenting him verbally, mentally, and emotionally or from threatening him with all kinds of terrible punishments any and every time something went wrong (including more than one death threat).

They also tended to blame him for everything that went wrong; even if there was no possible way for him to have been involved.

Despite their harsh and borderline unethical treatment of the child, he was at least taken care of, after a fashion.