Chapter 6: Wilted Flower
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I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.
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28th July 1991, Privet Drive, Surrey
Harry was so preoccupied with his dreams of studying magic that he didn't notice his aunt unlock his door and open it. He heard his aunt's horrified gasp at the sight of his letter and looked up at her pale face. Harry looked up at her, eyes expressionless, and asked her with a dead tone, "Good Morning, Aunt Petunia. I believe we have a lot to talk about, don't we?"
It took a long time and a lot of screaming for things to settle down in 4 Privet Drive. Petunia had completely freaked out at the letter in Harry's hand and started yelling at him just for opening it. After the woman finished ranting about freaks ruining her family, Harry stood there, completely immobile with a face that didn't even twitch at his aunt's temper tantrum.
After the woman was practically gasping in exertion, the young wizard raised an eyebrow, "Are you done?"
"I'm forbidding you from going to the freak school," Petunia screamed.
Her nephew did not scream back at her and instead spoke up with a very calm voice, "I don't really understand you, Aunt Petunia."
"What are you on about, boy?"
"You keep grumbling to yourself that I'm a waste of space, that I'm the reason you don't have a second child because you can't bear the expense, you don't even call me by my name, just 'boy' or 'freak' and yet when you have the opportunity to practically give me away and never see me again, you're forbidding me from leaving."
As Petunia started spluttering but her nephew didn't give her the opportunity to make a coherent sentence, "Because it's not about me, is it? It's about you, it was always about you. It's about how jealous you are that you're not like me, that you're not special. It wasn't enough for you to ignore me as you did, to pretend I don't exist, you hid my family's legacy from me ever since I was a child. I was never angry at you because I saw you as you always were, a jealous woman that would never amount to anything more than being a housewife, while I knew that even without my magic, I would rise far above you."
Petunia couldn't handle it and slapped her nephew in the face. The boy looked at her disbelievingly, "Are you seriously saying that what I said was untrue? Considering the way, you just reacted by hitting a child is proof enough of what your nature truly is. I am going to Hogwarts and that's final."
The elder woman glared at him, "I'm still not getting you to go to that school. Oh, my sister was just like you. She got her letter and disappeared, forgetting about us, about me, in favour of that freak boy. My parents were so proud to have a witch in the family, but I saw what she was, a freak. Then she met the Potter boy, got herself blown up, and we were saddled with you. And you were such a freak, even when you were a boy. Always too knowing, too smart, too freaky. The moment I laid my eyes on you, I knew that you were as much of a freak as your mother."
"So, all of this, was just because you were jealous of your sister? You knew that I was a wizard for so long, and you just thought that it would just disappear in time. You knew that this was coming, that my letter is coming, just like you know that I am leaving."
Petunia actually growled, "Like hell, I'm letting you."
"Well, it's not like I have to do anything. I have an idea that if I don't show up, the school will just send wizards to get me, adult ones that know what they're doing. Are you going to yell at them too?"
The woman paled in fear, realizing that she really wasn't going to get out of this, "But you can tell them that you refuse. You can tell them to go away."
"And why would I do that?"
"I'm your aunt, your guardian…"
Harry glared at her and raised his voice for the first time in this fight, "You are nothing to me, and you know it. Just like I am nothing to you. Oh, I would have taken your input if you so much as pretended to be slightly maternal towards me. But you're not, are you? You treated me like I was barely more than dirt, like an obligation, not a nephew. Is it that surprising that I am washing my hands of you the moment I could."
"I knew it," she bellowed, "I knew that the moment you would get your cursed letter, you would leave us behind as Lily left me behind."
"This has absolutely nothing to do with magic. Trust me, I've been planning on leaving the moment I could. I know when I'm unwanted in this house. This might be your home, but it was never mine. The moment it was legally possible, I would have left this place. This is just a way to leave earlier. Think of it this way, you will barely see me for a couple of months a year, and if I can arrange anything, you will never see me again. Wasn't that your deepest wish, aunt?"
Petunia's eyes were glistening, "You can't. You're Lily's child."
"And I would care if I knew the slightest detail about her. But never spoke a word of her and yelled at me when I asked. You can't hold her over me when you obviously don't care about it. Now, all I need from you are the details on how to enter the magical world, and I'll leave you be."
Yes, Harry needed as much detail about it as possible because the school was obviously under the illusion that he knew about magic, that he was a wizard. Considering how Muggleborns would have disregarded the letter as a prank, it would make sense that a professor would come to explain everything and at least demonstrate some magic to prove that Hogwarts was a real thing.
And yet, no one had come to see Harry. Everyone obviously thought that he didn't need an introduction, which should include a generic explanation as to where to get their shops. It was probably at Diagon Alley, but the boy had promised himself to not consider the stories as absolute facts. The lack of a scar on his forehead was enough proof that it wasn't infallible.
Petunia though didn't seem to be inclined to help him, "No, I'm not."
"Again, you don't do it, the wizards will be coming, and they won't be kind about it."
Harry's aunt glared at him, "You think you're so smart, aren't you?"
"I know I am smart, no matter how much you want to pretend I'm some simpleton like your oaf of a son. But this is the logical outcome, and you obviously know it. So, let's not pretend like it's about me and not about your unresolved feelings towards my dead mother, and get things going so that I leave. Just point me in the right direction and I'll be going in peace."
Petunia still didn't look like she was going to play ball and before Harry could even try to convince her, they both heard Vernon's voice and stiffened, "What's all this ruckus?"
The man entered the room, watched the letter in Harry's hand, and his crying wife and was consumed by a blind rage, "YOU LITTLE FREAK. I WILL NOT LET YOU GO TO THIS SCHOOL. I HAVE TOLERATED YOUR FREAKISHNESS, BUT THIS IS GOING TOO FAR…"
He didn't continue his rant because Harry raised his hand in panic and the obese man was telekinetically thrown at the wall and stayed frozen in the air, eyes filled with rage and fear.
Harry, not wanting to show that his uncle was by far the heaviest thing he ever telekinetically controlled, stared at him impassively, not wanting to show how much this was straining him, "I don't even know why you care about this, or even why Petunia told you if she wasn't going to even tell me about it. You're just going with the flow, accepting your wife's bitterness as a fact, and going with it. I don't care for your ignorance and brutality. Besides, Uncle, I thought you would be happy. After all, if you send me to this school, you will barely see me for more than two months a year. Isn't that what you always wanted?"
Oh, Harry had no intention of returning here, but he had no guarantee on how the wizarding world worked, so he kept it as a backup. With that said, Harry let go of Vernon and the man still glared at him but was far more subdued, "He's got a point, Petunia. We always complained about him. As long as I'm not paying for anything, I don't care what happens to the freak."
Well, that's one of them accepting. And Petunia was a very traditional housewife and would almost always submit to her husband's decision. It was disgusting to see while growing up, seeing her forcing herself to almost obey her husband just to conform to what she thinks is her ideal life of normality.
Harry was proven correct when Petunia sniffed and nodded, "Are you sure about this, Harry?"
The boy nodded, "Yes. It's time we go our separate ways. You all don't like me, and I don't like you. I am going to where I belong since you made it very clear that I didn't belong here."
Oh, Harry had an idea of why she was so conflicted. In her own narrative of her life, she made herself hate the magic that she was denied, but she still loved her sister, even after they lived different lives. Harry was proof of this paradox. She wanted nothing to do with the magic she still longed for, which Harry was born with. And yet she didn't want the only thing she had of her sister to leave her, hence why she didn't want Harry to go away.
That's all speculation, of course, and a mix of Harry's experience with the woman, and what he knows from the stories, but it made sense. Petunia Dursley's motivations were transparent. She hid in her own illusion of being the perfect housewife, in the perfect house, with the perfect neighbours. It was how she dealt with her lack of magic. And Harry was the bug in the system, so to speak.
Resigned, the elder woman nodded, "Fine, we'll both take you there today on the condition that you'll make arrangements for yourself until next summer."
Harry nodded, satisfied by their decision, "Thank you, Aunt Petunia."
The two adults left the room and Harry took a deep breath and relaxed. This came out of nowhere, but he got what he wanted from the Dursleys. It was now the time for his life to truly start, to join his true people, his true society, as a wizard.
This was the beginning of his journey, and he was excited. He was going to learn magic, actual wand waving magic. He was going to discover this world, unearth its secrets and rise to the top. He was going to start by finding out what happened to Voldemort and his parents. He needed to know what was different from the stories and this was a good way to start.
Although from what Petunia told him, his parents seemed to be dead in this life as well. He still didn't know for sure, and he sure as well wasn't going to ask the woman after their fight. Oh, he might have been harsh in their argument, but he wasn't really wrong about it. Petunia and Vernon had done their best to alienate and ignore him. They shouldn't be surprised that he wanted to get out of a house where even Dudley could tell Harry wasn't wanted. No matter what Petunia's relationship was with her sister, the way she treated him was wrong, and she had what she said coming.
It's not like it mattered now. Because this was the start of Harry's magical journey, and he couldn't wait for it to properly begin.
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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.