5Petunia Dursley-nee Evans lived a perfect cookie-cutter life, she had her gingerbread house nearly identical to all the others in its row apart from her pristine rows of flowers in her garden and the Wisteria tree growing in her back garden, a gift from her parents on her wedding day. She had a perfectly chunky and healthy baby boy and everything was just that. Perfect.
Until one day, in early October there was a knock on her door. Her husband was at work, and frankly, she was not prepared to receive guests at the moment, let alone the solicitors or door-to-door salesmen she was prepared to see through the peephole. What she wasn't expecting to see was her sister, swaddled up in a thick cloak with her arms tucked around a small bundle.
"Tuney? Can you let me in, please? It's quite cold out here." Lily gave a sheepish smile up at the peephole.
So with a sigh and a brief moment to compose herself, Petunia opened the door and shooed her inside. "Quickly, quickly before the neighbors see."
Lily came in with a sigh of relief and looked around the nearly pristine home, sitting down on Petunia's couch. "Thank you. I know we haven't seen each other since my wedding but-" She seemed to bite her tongue, unsure what to say.
"Well, could hardly leave you out in the cold could I?" Petunia turned her nose up and sniffed, "You may have completely embarrassed myself and my husband, but unlike you I still have decency, I'd offer you tea but frankly I don't want to, so. Tell me why you're here."
"Well," Lily began, hesitantly. "You know that James and I, were expecting when we got married, and I.. I'll be honest, Petunia, the wizarding world isn't what it's cracked up to be and you were right. The short story is that a murderer is going around and we've been asked to go into hiding. Since, unfortunately, I've made more stupid decisions and run my mouth when I should've kept quiet. So.. I've come to collect my favor from my big sister? I need you to take care of Hydrangea if anything should happen to me and James. I know, I know it's a lot, but I've written into my will that if you have to take her you'll get money for whatever she might need and all I ask is you raise her as your own, and she's so little right now, she might not even have magic, that normally doesn't show up till they're two." Tears were running down Lily's face as she looked down at her daughter.
The two sat in silence for what felt like hours until Petunia finally spoke up. "Can I hold her?"
Lily laughed through her sobs and smiled while handing over Hydrangea to Petunia, who looked down at this tiny baby, probably no more than four months old, and looked up at her sister, knowing that in that instant, they were closer than they had been in a long time, and Petunia would want the same thing if anything had happened to her or Vernon because there was no way her Diddykins would ever go to that awful woman Marge.
The next year went by without much fuss, of course, Petunia did tell her husband about the deal she and Lily had made, about how she would take in her niece as their own, should anything have happened to her sister. Dudley was growing up into a big strong boy and she would be lying if she wasn't a bit disappointed that his first word was "Dada" and not "Mumma", but it was his second word, so that did help her disappointment. He had just had his first birthday back in June, just a few weeks before her niece's birthday, it was a wonderful little party. He stuffed his whole face into his cake and she had been sure to get plenty of pictures of him smothered in that off-blue icing and his adorable smile. It was beginning to get colder, Halloween was just around the corner and she had Dudley's costume all ready since she and the other moms were going to throw a little playdate/tea party over at Mrs. Doxxan's house. Dudley loves playing with Piers, the Polkiss boy, a part of Petunia she had buried deep longed for her sister to be with her, and she found herself reminiscing of the days when they were young before magic came and spoiled everything. Where they'd point at boys and giggle and talk about their futures together.
Vernon, unfortunately, ended up working late on Halloween since one of the machines had blown something and he had to be there to fix the collateral. It was a lucky thing, since as he got home, he found the little basket containing barely one-year-old Hydrangea Violet Potter, swaddled in a thin pink blanket, with a letter tucked next to her side. He scooped up both her and the letter and went inside, carefully cradling her and calling out for his wife.
Petunia came down the stairs as quickly as she could, having just finished washing up for bed. "Oh… Oh god." She slumped against the back of their couch and began to cry. Her gallant husband pulled her into his arms, careful not to jostle the baby, and held her as she cried. "It's alright Pet, we'll figure this out."
"They just dumped her on our doorstep! It's… it's -1* outside! She could have frozen! She could have died!" Vernon led her to the couch and handed her the baby while blundering about in the kitchen struggling to make tea for himself and his wife, and fixing up one of Dudley's old baby bottles with milk, unsure if the baby in his wife's arms still drank milk. They didn't know the first thing about her needs, and a glance at the letter showed it was all useless information, signed by some prick named Dumbdore or something. Vernon straightened his shoulders; he is a director of Grunnings, one of the best damn drill-making companies this side of London, he can handle one more baby.
He could not handle one more baby. She cried and cried and didn't understand where her Mommy and Daddy were, and for the life of him, Vernon could not understand who "Unca Mooney, Paffoo, and Worm" were, or apparently "Cookshank" which was a cat that Hydrangea was searching for as she toddled all over there house looking under things and meowing and calling out for the thing. The only one constant in her life that seemed to calm her down, thankfully, was having Dudley around, who at first hated her and would tug on her hair, but Hydrangea would bite back and they thankfully started getting along better.
Soon the years started to fly by, and Hydrangea was never seen without Dudley and vice-versa. They would play together, nap together, and occasionally, to the horror of both Vernon, and Petunia, levitate a ball back and forth in a strange game of catch as they had to come to terms with the fact that not only did they have one magical child on their hands, but TWO.
When they started preschool, Petunia and Vernon got many letters from the school about their precious Diddykins and Vivy bullying the other kids, but that was swept under the rug because their precious babies could never do anything wrong, and when Hydrangea turned five, Petunia and Vernon finalized the adoption papers, and Hydrangea Violet Potter became Hydrangea Dursley.
As they got older, Petunia told them stories about Hogwarts and the Wizarding World and Vernon made sure they understood the value of money, and the way the world worked by hosting dinner parties at their home, and having the children sit back and observe everything that went on. The type of food and alcohol served, the conversation topic. Hydrangea, or Violet, as her parents called her, became increasingly sensitive towards noting the smallest of changes in demenor and loved finding the hidden meanings in someones words.
For Dudley's eighth birthday, their parents gifted him with enrolling him into a boxing class, and Violet was enrolled in a self defense class for her birthday, so you could often find them trading what they had learned in the class in the backyard, occasionally actually fighting and destroying their mother's garden which landed them both in trouble.
When they were ten, Dudley and Violet could often be seen doing generally degenerate things, like swinging all but two of the swings up until they had tangled up into the bars, and sometimes nicking things from shops whenever their mother wasn't looking.
On Dudley's eleventh birthday, they went to the zoo, spending the day looking at all the different animals and settling down around lunchtime for overpriced sandwiches and knickerbocker glories. Then they went to the snake house, and Petunia waited outside while Vernon took the kids into the cold building. Dudley, being Dudley, immediately found the biggest snake in the exhibit and tapped on the glass.
"Dad, make it move" He whined, and Vernon rapped his knuckles against the glass, the snake opened one eye lazily and barely lifted his head. While Violet was going around commenting on the prettiness of all of the snakes scales and secretly wanting to take all of them home with her. So she found her brother in crime and poked him. "Hey"
"What?" He turned to look at her, pausing his attempts to catch a glimpse of a green mamba hidden in it's tank.
She leaned in and whispered "I wanna release all the snakes, they keep saying how bad it is in here."
He thought for a minute and then nodded. "Still think it's unfair you can talk to them but I can't." She shrugged her shoulders. "I dunno Duds, magic's weird, come help me get rid of the glass."
"How are we gonna do that?"
"Same way we stuck Miller on the school roof, and replace Ms. Thompson's wig with a rabid possum we found in the dumpster. Want it real bad."
He grinned, remembering the chaos they had gotten into that day, and she took his hand and squeezed her eyes shut realllllllyyyy tight and wished for all the glass in the snake emporium to vanish, crossing the fingers on her other hand in hope that it would work, and then opening her eyes and gasping in pure joy when the yellow boa constrictor she had been talking to earlier curled it's way up her leg.
"Dudley, Dudley it worked, quick. Help me hide the snake."
"Mom's gonna kill you if you bring that home."
"Mom doesn't have to know, come on before they notice!" So they hurriedly tried to hide the snake in Violet's hoodie, while she whispered to it that she was gonna take the snake home and thankfully, it agreed with that idea and curled around her tighter so it's large coils were easier to hide.
Vernon escorted both the children outside once he realized the snakes had escaped and Petunia proclaimed it to be "Far too much excitement for today" and they went home. Where the two quickly made a nest for the snake underneath Violet's bed and deposited him safely there, unharmed and very very happy with these new conditions, a nice dark and warm spot for him to curl up and very excited for the pot roast that Violet promised she'd sneak some up to him.
Dinner was uneventful and as promised, Violet delivered a heaping help of food to her new friend, whom she named Deamon, and began looking up proper ways to care for him, since he was already a full grown adult, and thankfully her age, they would have forty more years together if she took care of him well. He was only three feet long, and probably wouldn't grow any bigger, but the gentle natured snake would be her best friend, besides Dudley, and she couldn't wait to sneak him to Hogwarts, and share that whole new world with him.
Hello readers, I hope you've enjoyed this rewritten chapter and if you have any comments or constructive criticism let me know in the comments below. Chapter 2's rewrite should be posted in the coming days, where we'll meet a certain visitor to deliver Dudley and Hydrangea's Hogwarts letter, and then off to Gringotts and Diagon Alley. Cheers, Tamwyn.