Being Petunia Dursley

Being Petunia Dursley

By Ebony Quill

That boy, that awful boy. Just when things had calmed down this had to happen. At least it wasn´t as embarrassing as the last time something like this happened. Last time, he found his way to the rooftop of the school kitchens. His school headmistress sent a note home about that. She talked about climbing school property, but I knew it was his unnaturalness. The other mothers in the Privet Drive Ladies Tea Association talked about it for ages. At least I had already made it clear that he was my nephew, a product of a bad seed. No, this episode wasn´t as embarrassing as that. That episode momentarily wrecked my private life.

This episode was a public spectacle. The zoo director thought it was his fault. The oblivious thing thought it was some kind of strange accident. But I knew what really happened. It was that wretched little boy´s fault. With his...er...strangeness he made the glass in a boa constrictor´s tank vanish and set a horrible snake to kill my dearest Duddle-wuddle bear. And on my baby´s birthday no less! And just think, I was going to actually give him a birthday present later that year. I was beginning to think that I was being too hard on him. After all, it wasn´t his fault.

However, that last malicious attempt to hurt Dudley showed me that it is his fault. I´m only this way to him because he is an evil little boy with no goodness in his heart. I should have known he was planning something. He looked so happy when he found out he could go to Dudley´s birthday trip to zoo.

Of course, I didn´t want him to go on the trip. It was Duddywuddy´s birthday, and I know he didn´t want Harry to come (and for good reason). I was going to try to be nice to him that day. But first he made Vernon angry on the drive there. Not that I blame Vernon. Talking about flying motorcycles, honestly! I don´t know what goes on in that boy´s head sometimes.

Actually, I do know what goes on in his head. Evil plots against my poor Dudley! Augh, that boy makes me angry. That´s why he stayed in the cupboard of his until the summer holidays began. Who knows what he could have done to my Dudley? At least I had the security of knowing that after the holidays were over, he would go to a different school. It would be hard for him to pretend my Dudley was hurting him then, wouldn´t it?

But things had settled down. They were much more calm as time went on. Dudley and his friends were even nice enough to let Harry play with them every once in a while too. They would play hunting, or something like that. Harry, being an ungrateful prat, didn´t like playing that game. He refused to tell me why when I asked him why he didn´t like it. He liked to hide things, that boy did.

One day, while we were eating breakfast, he tried to hide a letter from everyone. Luckily, my dear Duddy told Vernon the boy had a letter.

First, Vernon read the letter. As he read it, he began to look very sick.

"P-P-Petunia!" he gasped. After keeping the letter out of Dudley´s curious reach, he handed it to me. I wasn´t worried. Who would write to Harry anyway?

But then I read it. It was from that horrible place. That horrible place that took Lily from me and made her a freak. That horrible place where Lily met that good-for-nothing husband of her´s. That horrible place that eventually gave me the burden of rearing Harry. The letter was from Hogwarts School of...of the unnaturalness that ruined my world.

That wasn´t the only letter that came either. The very next day three came. The day after that twelve letters came, despite the fact that Vernon had boarded up the mail slot. Soon, letters came through every crack and crevice in the house. The strangest part was, they were addressed right down to his room. Those people probably had spies. Or maybe they had other methods.

I didn´t want to know what methods they were using. Not that I would understand it if they told me. When Lily would come home during the summer holidays, she would always show me tricks she had learned at that horrible place. I would try them sometimes. They never worked for me. I just don´t understand it all! Lily and I used to share everything. And this...this skill of hers had taken that all away. It sucked away our friendship. I was left alone. Now my son was going off to Smelting´s, Vernon was being more and more involved with his career, and even this mangy stray dog of my sister´s was leaving me. But I guess being alone is being me. Being alone is being Petunia Dursley.

I felt even more alone then. The letters drove Vernon mad. We left our house, which was being flooded with letters. First, we were in a hotel. But those people found us there too. Vernon took us even farther away from home. But I just wanted to go back. Back home where I could be a mother and go to PDLTA tea parties. But instead, I was taken to a rickety, old, broken-down house on top of a rock in the sea.

Vernon was happy about that old house. He figured the letters wouldn´t make it there. We were finally safe. I guess I was happy too, deep inside me. The outside was too cold to be happy. But I was determined to make the best of the whole ordeal.

I made a bed for Dudley on an old couch in the living room of the house. Then Vernon and I slept on the old bed in the bedroom. I didn´t make a bed for Harry. It was his fault we were there in the first place. He deserved the hard, cold floor.

Soon, I was drifting to sleep. It was hard work to fall asleep. It was extremely cold due to a raging storm going on outside. But Vernon held me for the first time in days that night, and I was tired. So very tired...

BOOM!