The Boy Who Lived

The Worst Birthday

A/N The chapter refers to physical abuse, please skip if you will find it triggering.

'Boy, if you can't control that owl, I'll ring its bloody neck!' the obese man who'd appeared late the previous evening bawled through the locked door of Harry's bedroom door. 'Tomorrow, I'm taking it to a sanctuary.'

All Harry's other belongings; his spellbooks, his wand, robes, cauldron and top of the range Nimbus Two Thousand broomstick had been locked in the cupboard under the stairs by this stranger who called himself Uncle Vernon. He told Harry gleefully that he fully intended to burn the lot before he had locked Harry in his bedroom.

After ten years of separation, Vernon Dursley had managed to wheedle his way back into Petunia and Dudley's life. It had started out with profuse apologies and gentle courting. Vernon seemed to have turned over a new leaf, or so Petunia thought, and she cautiously accepted him back; he was, after all the father of her son.

She realised, too late, it was little more than a falsity. He was still a cruel and angry man but now he was bitter with it; he wanted revenge. She bore much of the brunt of it and she didn't know who to turn to for help. She blamed herself, she thought she deserved it, after all, she had accepted him back in her life and if she didn't get things quite right; well, it was always her fault. That was what Vernon said anyway, before he lifted his fist against her. The worst thing was, he was teaching Dudley to be just like him and it didn't seem to take much for Dudley to adopt his bullish and nasty behaviour.

When the fearsome witch came to drop Petunia's nephew off the night before his twelfth birthday, Vernon made sure he was out of the house. He also made sure that he'd threatened Petunia and made it clear the consequences of her telling anyone that he lived with her again. He wasn't going to have that interfering old busy body ruining his life anymore and he was going to teach his young nephew a lesson he wouldn't forget. He was going to beat this nonsense out of him and stop him continuing this rubbish belief that he was something special. There was no way on earth he was going to let that brat go back to that dratted school and learn more about that bloody nonsense.

When Uncle Vernon had appeared after Minnie had left, he pulled Harry out of the lounge by his ear. 'What makes you think you're good enough to sit in here, boy?' he yelled before dragging him up to his room. 'You'll stay in here until I say otherwise,' he hissed and the poor boy didn't understand as Vernon shouted and raged at him about his unnaturalness and how he was going to beat it out of him if necessary and then send him to a Borstal for Delinquent Boys that would finish the job for him. That he was never going back to that heathen school that encouraged those nonsensical and un-Christian beliefs and he wouldn't be seeing his other weird friends ever again. He said that if Harry told anyone, tried to contact anyone or he tried to escape, even; then he would mete out the boy's punishment on his wife and he knew the boy wouldn't want to be held responsible for her life if something terrible were to happen to her because of him. Harry could smell the whisky on the man's breath mingled with overbearing stale sweat.

Perhaps Harry didn't love his aunt like he loved Minnie but he knew he couldn't allow any harm to come to her. He also knew, deep down, that she was important for his own survival although Minnie hadn't exactly been very clear about the details. He understood he had to make these yearly visits.

When Vernon left, he locked the bedroom door. Harry didn't fail to notice there were bars on his window too. It meant Harry was now a prisoner at the mercy of this stranger who seemed to rule his aunt's house with tyranny.

He cried himself to sleep, utterly confused about what was happening.

When he woke up, he should have been overjoyed to be celebrating his twelfth birthday and looking forward to his party at Ron's house later. Molly Weasley had invited him to stay for the remainder of the summer holidays and Minnie had promised he could go straight there from the Dursleys. He sat on the edge of his bed, feeling utterly numb, and waited for what the day would bring.