Chapter Text
It was the first of November, cold winds attacked the silent street. The silence of the street would not last however, as a baby started to wail. Little Harry, had been placed on the doorstep with nothing but a blanket and a letter.
His finger tips rosy red, it must’ve been torture to not be able to communicate his pain and frustration. And so he cried, louder, and louder wails echoed through the neighbourhood.
The once dark street began to fill with light, as nosy neighbours, poked their heads out of their windows, like meerkats. The neighbours whispered as they wondered what had disturbed their sleep.
At first they had assumed it was the cries of petunias ‘Dudykins’, however, that was proven false as they peeked through their windows.
The neighbours all greedily watched the scene, in front of them. What secrets were Petunia, or Vernon keeping? Was the baby one of theirs? Was there a spicy love affair going on? Had the mistress dropped the baby off at the house? The neighbours continued to speculate, as they watched.
Soon the light pitter patter of steps came from behind the door. The door of 4 Privet Drive swung inwards. Petunia's long neck surveyed the scene before her. Her eyes grew abnormally large as she noticed her neighbours prying eyes completely focused on her.
She then looked down at the ground.
A baby was on her doorstep.
It was Lily’s baby.
She snatched the baby into her arms, and closed the door in a quick manner. She did not care for the cry’s of the child, as she carried it into the kitchen. As she entered the room, she flicked the light on. Before, placing the baby in Dudleys high chair; as she began to scan the letter, that was left with the baby.
“What?” Was all she could angrily utter.
Just then whale-ish stomps came from the stairs. “Who’s baby is that?!” Vernon exclaimed.
“It’s Lily’s.” She whispered. “What! What’s that thing doing here!”
“It’s that freakish headmaster, he wants us to take the freak in.” Petunia pushed the letter towards her husband's face.
“Well that’s not happening in my bloody house! Can’t we just send it back?” He growled.
“You know what those freaks are like, they’ll just return ‘it’ straight to our doorstep again.” Cried Petunia.
“Well what about an orphanage?” Vernon pondered.
“No,no,no they’ll find ‘it’,and send ‘it’ back.” Vernons already pink face, turned red.
“Well what else is there to do! I’m not keeping that freak in my house,think about what ‘it’ll’ do to Dudley!” Vernon pointed his sausage-like finger at Harry.
“I don’t like it anymore than you do,” Petunia paused, “I mean we could…” Petunia mumbled the last part of the sentence.
“We could do what Pet?” Petunia looked at Lily’s child, and then at Vernon. “We could permanently get rid of ‘it’.” Petunia whispered
“What do you mean by that? Like you said, we can’t ship ‘it’ off to an orphanage.” Petunia mumbled again.
“I mean they wouldn’t be able to send ‘it’ back to us if ‘it’ was… dead.” Vernons eyebrows knitted together, before he formed a response.
“How would we do it?” He questioned. “You know those freaks, I bet they didn’t even get ‘it’, to a regular hospital. So that means ‘it’ doesn’t really exist in the eyes of the law.” Vernon listened intently.
“I mean you could take ‘it’ to the countryside… maybe the seaside, the current would drag ‘it’ in, and it would make it difficult to recover ‘its’ body.” Silence devoured the room, as they stared at each other.
“When do we get rid of ‘it’?” He questioned. “Tomorrow, early in the morning. I’ll tell the neighbours that some vagabond left her child on our doorstep. And we had to take him to an orphanage.” Vernon nodded in agreement, the fat of his neck nodded along with him.
“Where should we put ‘it’ for the night? I don’t want to be woken up by ‘its’ cries.” Vernon pondered for a moment, his fat fingers meeting his equally fat chin.
“Put ‘it’ in the boot cupboard.” He said dismissively
The next day the door for the cupboard swung open. The baby was roughly picked up by the obese man, the baby whimpered in distress.
The man grunted angrily in response. Vernon rushed out of the door, his key fumbled in his hands, as he attempted to open the car. He dropped the baby into the car seat, and made his way to the front seat.
He started the car, the engine roared as the exhaust sputtered. The car zipped out of the driveway and onto the narrow road.
Vernon ignored the cries in the back seat as he made his way to the countryside. However, he could only ignore the shrill crying for so long. His face turned purple and he began to shout. “Shut up! This is your fault, you know, if you hadn’t been born to such a freakish woman, I wouldn’t have to do this!” His short burst of anger did nothing to quiet the baby, in fact it made the cries worse.
Soon the obese man reached his destination. The wind was stronger out by the seaside, it whistled and howled and shook nearby trees. The man looked at the baby one last time. “You’ve caused a right fuss,haven’t you.” He chortled. “No matter, this'll all be over soon.” The baby did not reply.
The man parked on the side of the gravel road. He grabbed Harry from out of the back seat, and made his way down the narrow cobble steps that lead down to the beach.
The beach was surrounded by cliff faces,no one would be able to see what he was about to do.
He walked into the November water. “Bloody Hell that’s Cold!” He walked further until he was waist deep in the sea.
He then dunked the baby under the water. Harry thrashed against the man's grip, his head momentarily reached the surface, before being dunked back in again. His lungs and nose began to fill with water, the burning was excruciating. His lungs felt overexpanded like they were going to burst. For some reason Vernon stopped, maybe it was guilt, or maybe it was the distaste of getting his own hands dirty.
But, whatever it was that made him stop, didn’t matter. Vernon walked back to shore. He left the freak in the water, and didn’t turn back to see if he’d really killed ‘it’.
Something, watched as he left.
Something, saw what just happened.
A couple days later, Petunia's story travelled around Privet Drive. Everyone was talking about how generous it was of Petunia and Vernon to send the baby off where he could be loved. They also liked to talk about how horrible the child’s mother must have been.
Petunia was overjoyed, even if they didn’t know they were talking about Lily, it still made Petunia's life better knowing her neighbours thought she was a better mother, than her sister.
However, Petunia's story travelled to everyone in the neighbourhood, everyone, including, Arabella Doreen Figg.
When she heard the news through the gossip chain, she swiftly alerted Dumbledore. It only took 30 minutes for him to arrive, with McGonagall in tow.
McGonagall was fuming, as soon as she got out of the fireplace, she started to barrate Dumbledore. “What do you mean you lost the boy!” The witch yelled.
“Now Minerva, calm yourself-” however before he could finish he was cut off.
“Calm myself? Calm myself, Albus, do you realise what you’ve done! I always knew they were the wrong sort of muggles!” She was so angry, that you could see her hair turning grey.
“Now,now the boy’s not lost, he’s simply in an orphanage. I’ll just ask the Dursley’s where they placed the boy, and convince them to take him back.” He explained calmly.
“Take him back? They obviously don’t want Harry, why would they take him back?” Minerva looked at Albus dumbfounded, she had known him for a long time,he was the smartest and most powerful wizard of the Century. However, it seemed as if, the concept of a family not wanting a child, was alien to him.
“Well, I must’ve failed to write, how important it was, for Harry to stay with them. I’m sure they’ll understand, once I speak to them in person.” Dumbledore knocked on the door.
The door opened before being slammed shut. “Oh dear, it seems as if they don’t want to talk.” The headmaster pulled out his wand and cast a spell. The once locked door popped open. “Albus this feels highly unethical.” Her comment was ignored.
“Get out of my house!” Petunia screeched. “Now, let's talk like Civilised adults, you wouldn’t mind calling your husband down here, would you?” Petunia's face tightened as if she had a lemon in her mouth.
“Vernon, we have visitors.” She spat out. Vernon made his way from the kitchen and into the hallway. His face turned an ugly shade of red, once he saw the two magic users.
“Now,is there anywhere we can sit to talk about this?” Petunia glared at the headmaster. “Yes,come this way” venom dripped from her voice.
“Now that we’re all seated, I’d like to ask a question.” There was a pause. “Where’s the boy?” Dumbledore looked into Petunia's eyes. “We left it-him at the orphanage.” Petunia avoided the headmaster's gaze.
“Which orphanage?” Silence filled the room. Petunia bobbed Dudley on her knee, avoiding the question.
“Where is Harry?” Minerva glared daggers at the couple.
Dumbledore then looked into Vernons eye, and then stopped. His calm eyes turned into a look of horror. “Minerva, I think we should head out for a moment.” Dumbledore glanced at Vernon again.
“What, but they obviously-” This time it was Dumbledore who cut her off. “Now, there’s no time to explain.” Dumbledore and McGonagle hurried out of the house.
“No Albus what do you think your-“ Once again she was cut off. “They didn’t put him in an orphanage.” Dumbledore stated. “What do you mean he’s not at an orphanage!” Minerva was irate. “I saw into Vernons mind, I don’t know exactly what he did to Harry, but we must contact the Aurors immediately.”