The Life that Never Lived ? (Goblet of Fire)

THE INVITATION

Sirius sighed with complete distaste as he began. They were already off to a terrible start with all this Voldemort and the traitor talk, now he got the misfortune of getting the chapter that would most likely turn him into a murderous fool all over again at what these Dursley's had been up to involving his pup.

"A feat I hadn't thought possible," James snorted.

Remus may have felt pity for anyone else, having to eat unsweetened anything, but found that this was probably the best form of torture that could be inflicted on these Dursley's, and it was self-inflicted, so he had no qualms.

Lily made a scathing noise, vividly remembering how both her's and Petunia's marks had been carefully monitored and if not up to their parents standards they'd at least have a talking to, but compared to what all she'd heard she wouldn't be surprised if Dudley flunked every class and Petunia didn't bat an eye.

"Yes, every single teacher at that school misunderstands him; not one of them could grasp, at this elite school they've sent Dudley to, how to teach him," James snorted.

"I don't think Merlin could have taught this fool how to count," Sirius smirked.

Harry in particular gave an eye roll at that exaggeration, as he had the childhood marks to prove otherwise.

"No, Hagrid has big bones," Remus enunciated as if the idiots were present. "That child has more fat than bone."

"I, really am stumped at just how blind, or stupid she is," Sirius shook his head at how pathetic this kept getting.

"I really cannot picture that, that's just terrible." Lily's frown kept deepening. Even if she didn't like Dudley, it was because of his parents he was this way. It was made all the worse that it mainly seemed to be Petunia's fault he got like this, though Vernon certainly wasn't stepping in to stop anything.

"Considering how he reacted when Harry got his second bedroom, I think we should be grateful shouting seems to have been it," James huffed.

"At least there wasn't a turtle thrown this time, I seem to recall that," Sirius nodded in agreement.

"I'm also fairly certain it was mentioned he kicked one of his parents, so I'm with you on this," Lily grumbled.

"Wait, what?" Lily yelped, turning concerned eyes on her already malnourished son while he was at that house. "They were on the verge of starving you before, now you're only getting how much?"

Harry though had a new kind of smirk on his face, not one the others saw too often, which only made the boys more excited and happy as he said, "Don't worry, I don't follow it."

Lily did not look encouraged, but James was definitely more eager now to find out how Harry got around this.

"Are you kidding me?" Sirius frowned. "You had to be the skinniest one at that table, but you still somehow got less food than Dudley?"

Harry gave an absent shrug, well aware of Petunia's view that if Harry suffered just that little more than Dudley it was somehow okay.

"No! No that is not how that works, you foul horrible excuse for a person!" Lily seethed. "One boy should not have to suffer to make the other feel better! Merlin Petunia, is that why you went out of your way to try and ruin my life growing up?" Lily went on a tangent for a few more minutes before she finally ran out of steam. There was a lot more colorful and violent things tossed in there, which left the boys shrinking back in genuine fright, even if they did agree. She'd clearly been wanting to say all of that for quite some time, and just seemed to have finally found her perfect opportunity. It was quite the opposite reaction she'd had from back in the first book when Petunia had called her sister a freak when Hagrid had arrived, all of this had probably been building since then. She finally came to a stop taking deep and slow breaths, then looked around half ashamed as she muttered, "Sorry, didn't mean to take that out on you lot."