First Bite

Cassia went through her wardrobe and despaired. She could almost hear Lily jeering at her. “Why are you dressing like a frumpy fifty-year-old before you are even forty, Cass? Looking forward to dressing in flower patterns and yellow lace, are you?”

In the end she found something that she passably liked. Probably one of few garments that she had not tossed out or put in the attic from the time that she had chosen her own style. Whoever had messed with her head had done so properly and made her into someone she truly wasn’t, in every way imaginable. She really hoped that she had moved all her actual clothes to the attic and not gotten rid of it all. She had found a long black silk dress with a flowing skirt, short sleeves and a collar. It fit nicely with a black blazer she also had kept, black wedged sandals and her favourite pearl set that Lily, James and his family had given her when she got engaged to Vernon. Apparently, the Potter’s traditionally gave jewellery to brides-to-be when they got engaged and Lily had been all too happy to tell James and his parents about Cassia’s weakness for pearls. She still couldn’t understand how the Potter’s had seen her as close enough family to give her such a priceless gift, but she would forever be grateful.

Her hair was another horror altogether, but fortunately one she would get under control long before she would be able to say that her body was healed. Short hair had never suited her, and now she had both short and curled hair. She had always had natural waves and been happy with the thickness and lustre off her blonde waves. Now it actually looked like she had bleached it at home for years, it was so brittle. She knew better than to treat her hair like that. With a small sigh she found a black scarf and bound it around her head, both to keep her hair out of her face and to hide some of the damage.

Her skin felt raw under the silky dress, and she soon removed the jacket again as it chafed. She had scrubbed far too hard on her pale skin. Rage and self-disgust burning in her breast and making tears leak from her eyes. She was holding on to sanity by the skin of her teeth. If not for the fact that Harry needed her to be strong, needed her to try to right all the wrongs done to him, she would surely have had a massive mental breakdown already.

Someone had messed with her head.

Someone had changed her personality.

Someone had made her into a puppet.

Someone had made her abuse her nephew.

Someone was going to pay for the rest of their life, as soon as she found them.

But first, she needed to make sure Harry was as safe and as healthy and as happy as she could make him. Then she needed to take care of her own health, and that of the rest of her family. Vernon had lost family members to a heart condition. He needed to go on a diet immediately and to start exercising. Dudley needed the same. There was no question about it.

Yes, she would have her breakdown. Tonight, alone, or maybe with Vernon if she could keep him in the house. It would depend on his reaction to it all, his reaction to Harry’s place in the family. She would have her breakdown when they were all safe. Then she could scream into the pillows until she lost her voice. Because someone had messed with her head. Someone had turned her against her beloved sister and her nephew. Someone had almost starved Harry and herself to death and put her husband and son in danger by not letting her take the necessary measures when they ate far too much. All of them had some kind of eating disorder. Harry might be the more normal one, if they just let him eat what he needed. On the other hand, he hadn’t been allowed a normal relationship with food his whole childhood, so maybe not, and then there was … the blood. Harry had tasted, or maybe even drunk, her blood. That was what had started it all. That was what had freed her from that malicious magic that had trapped her, changed her …

The door to the bathroom opened and she waited for another three minutes before getting up from the small vanity in the bedroom she shared with Vernon and went to knock on Harry’s door. When he hesitantly opened the door, she stood on the opposite side of the hallway to give him as much space as she could, and she saw him relax when he noticed the space between them. His hair was wet, and he smelled of coconut and almond milk, but his clothes were nothing but a disgrace that hang off him, even if he still had them layered. He needed new clothes, and glasses, and shoes and toiletries … He needed everything. Her nephew needed everything, from the bottom up and the inside out. He would get it, as soon as she could manage it. 

“Harry, we need to have a little talk and make a plan before Vernon and Dudley gets home.”

He eyed her, but nodded slowly.

“I’m not angry and I do not blame you, but I have to ask … When you tasted my blood, did you do something else too? Because I have no doubt that it was whatever you did that snapped me out of the spell, or curse or whatever it was. And I’m very much afraid that I’m not the only one that has been under that curse for a very long time. I will not let either Vernon or Dudley harm you, but they might not listen to me if a curse is controlling them.”

“You are not angry?” Harry asked after several moments where he just watched her.

“No, I’m not. Surprised, but not angry. You healed my wound and got me out of the curse, and you did not hurt me by taking too much blood. I have no reason to be angry.”

“But … drinking blood … that’s … that’s really freaky?” he whispered.

“It certainly is different, but it isn’t freaky, not for a blood drinker. I would guess some kind of vampire, or half vampire, or something like that, but I know too little about it. We will figure that one out, don’t worry. It’s most likely a kind of Inheritance from James’ family. It’s one of many things I would have known about if not for the disaster with this curse. I would not have let you grow up without knowing that you would get an Inheritance like that, but then, I would not have let you grow up without knowing about magic …”

Or in a bloody cupboard, either.

“I don’t think I did anything more than just … just tasting your blood … It … it smelled … really good.” He swallowed hard and shrunk in on himself.

“That’s fine, Harry, just remember to ask and get consent before you drink someone’s blood in the future. And also, make sure that they aren’t sick and can make you sick through their blood. If you are a kind of vampire, you might not get sick through blood, but let’s not take any chances.”

He stared at her for a long while after that, with his mouth half open. She guessed he was a bit confused by the fact that she wasn’t freaking out about it all. But she would freak out tonight, when she was alone, and not before. No, absolutely not before. She had needed that little cry in the shower, but now she had to wait until she was alone.

Now she had to act as if it was perfectly normal to drink blood and break curses that way, because chances were that it was normal for whatever Harry was or would become. She hadn’t been able to help ease Harry into the magical world, she had done anything but that, but she could help him accept himself and his Creature Heritage. It made absolutely no sense that he didn’t have a Creature Heritage, given the proof she had already seen and felt today. They just had to figure out what kind of Heritage and how to help him deal with it. Complete support, and no freaking out at all, was the least she could give him.

“So … what are we going to do about Uncle Vernon and Dudley, if they won’t listen to you?” he whispered.

“I don’t want to involve you at all, but I … I am afraid I have to, Harry. If the only way to get them to listen is to break the curse on them, like you did with me …”

They looked at each other for a long time. She absolutely hated asking this of him. Hated even thinking it. But it might be necessary to save the rest of her family from the curse. Harry had been through more than enough, to ask him to save the people who had abused and tormented him … But she had to ask, because she knew that Vernon as he was now, wasn’t the man she had married. She would never have married him if he had been like he was now. Dudley might be harder, because they had raised him wrong, so wrong, but some of it might still be the curse …

So, Cassia drew in a deep breath and asked.

“Would you agree to taste their blood like you did with me? I will make sure they don’t hurt you and I will cut their finger myself, and even if it doesn’t work, none of them will punish you for it.”

He looked at her with those shining emerald eyes for long moments before giving jerky, reluctant nod.

“Thank you, Harry. Thank you for being willing to try and help Vernon and Dudley, even after everything we have done to you. Everything will be different after this. I promise you.”

“What if it doesn’t help? What if I can’t break the curse?” he asked in a low voice.

“I will wrangle Dudley into behaving, no matter what. He is my son and the way he is going leads to jail, or an early death.” She took a deep breath to stop the world from spinning at the thought of her son dead. “If the curse is permanent on Vernon, or if he reacts badly after having it removed … I loved him when we married, I really did, but Vernon back then is not the Vernon we live with now. It will make me sad, but I will not have any problems leaving him. It’s my house, bought with the inheritance I got after my parents died and I got some extra stashed away after Lily …”

And Harry should have had an account for his upkeep too, she suddenly realised. They had never really needed it, of course. Vernon earned very well, and with the house already paid for they had never hurt for money, that was just a nasty excuse they had used against their poor, little nephew.

Actually, even if they had lived in a smaller cottage and even if Lily never explicitly told her about it, Cassia had always gotten the distinct impression that James and the Potter’s was a well-off family. No, they had been an extremely wealthy family. Just look at the jewellery she, someone not even in their family, had gotten as an engagement present from them; a necklace with two strands of pearls, earrings, bracelet and a ring in rose gold and golden South Sea pearls. That was not a small gift, not at all. Harry should have had an account for his upkeep and an account with his trust fund, too. The trust fund might be where he had got the money to buy his school supplies. That was good, at least. She would ask about that later. Just in case he had gotten a stiped instead and was trying to save money by not buying everything that he needed.

“I will leave Vernon if necessary, but I very much want to try to help him first, if I can. If we can,” she said.

Harry looked at her for a moment longer and then gave a decisive nod.

“We will help them, Aunt Petunia.”

“Thank you, dear. If you are ready, we should go down and set the table. Both the food and Vernon and Dudley will be here soon.”

Ten minutes later, with the pizzas on the table, Vernon stomped into the hallway. Harry sat at the table already, trying very hard to look as if he belonged there, but shrinking down in his seat when Vernon’s voice boomed through the house. Cassia gave Harry a reassuring smile, picked up her marble rolling pin and waited. She very much didn’t want to have to use the rolling pin on Vernon, but she would rather have it at hand and not have to use it, then have a need for it and not have it at hand. And Vernon had been violent towards Harry on many occasions. That would not be allowed to happen again. Not while she still drew breath.

“Muuum! What’s freak doing at the table!” Dudley whined, and why, why, why had she ever let him get away with such whinging or such language?

“Dudley, dear, sit down now, and do not touch Harry with as much as a finger or you will be grounded for a week. Do not try my patience today, love.”

Dudley blinked and tried to retreat back to the hallway and his father. “Daaad! The freak did something to Mum!”

Harry still sat at the table, silently shaking now and not looking up at anyone.

“What!” the roar made Cassia grit her teeth as it made her nephew even smaller where he sat. “What did the freak do!” Vernon thundered into the kitchen and ended up with the rolling pin pressed against his chest. Slowly he looked up and met her eyes.

“Vernon Benjamin Dursley,” Cassia said calmly. “Raise your voice again, threaten Harry again, and I will break your bones. And when I call the police to remove you from my home, it will be judged as defence of a minor in my care.”

“Freak, what did you do to my wife!” he roared, and Harry whimpered, and Cassia struck. Vernon yelped and tried to jump away from her and her rolling pin. The frying pan had more heft to it, but she was going to get rid of that as soon as she possibly could. She would never be able to use it again, anyway.

“I warned you!” Cassia snapped. “Harry is a part of this family and what we have been doing to him is wrong!”

“He is a freak, a nobody, a filthy whelp that …!” It ended in a confused and hurt sound. This time she had used her hand, because she went for his face and not his hip.

“Be glad I haven’t found my gun yet …”

Her gun … Yes, that was right, she had had a handgun because Lily had died by the hand of a psychotic killer, and she had taken in Lily’s child. A boy that could still be in danger from the followers of said psychotic killer.

No, wait, she had had the gun before that. Years before that. Because that war had already lasted years when Lily had been killed, and she was a Muggle that needed Muggle means to defend herself and her family.

This was not the time, but she would find her gun again. Not to use on Vernon, of course, she had her voice and her rolling pin for that, but she would have to move around in the magical world to help Harry and many magicals had a strange view on Muggles. See the aforementioned war and psychotic killer.

“Harry, do you remember Plan B?” she asked without looking at him. They had made four short plans while setting the table.

“Yes, Aunt Petunia.”

“I will try that now.” She wanted to give him a clear warning so he wouldn’t fear that she had turned against him again, just to be sure. She looked Vernon in the eyes. “You are right that something strange has happened to me, Vernon, but Harry saved me. He did not hurt me. Someone else hurt me, has hurt us all for years now. One or more of the freaks messed with my mind and Harry managed to get me free.”

“How dare they touch my wife!” he bellowed.

“Vernon, calm down and listen to me!”

After blustering some more, he finally did.

“The freaks messed with my mind and I have reason to believe that they did the same with you and Dudley. It was bad, Vernon, very bad.”

“They wouldn’t have done it if not for the dirty freak …!”

She used her rolling pin to slowly make him look away from Harry and to her again.

“Harry is a child and not guilty of anything adults have done around him or to him or because of him. He is a child. We will now recreate what Harry did to help me, with you and Dudley and hope that it will help you too. Understand. Not a word, Vernon, just nod. You are under a curse and not yourself. We will speak again when you are free from the curse.”

He looked at her for long moments, almost purple in the face and then he pursed his lips and nodded once. She gripped a sharp, clean knife that she had made ready and took his hand in hers.

“Harry, dear, come here please. Vernon, sit down.”

Vernon sat down on the little bench in the hallway and Harry came closer, slowly. She made a small cut on Vernon’s pointer finger and before the first drop of blood could reach the floor Harry had Vernon’s hand in both of his and the bleeding finger in his mouth. Again, it was obvious that Harry showed a strength that he truly shouldn’t have, given his size.

Vernon tried to protest, but he hardly got any words out before he became subdued. Cassia guessed that it was something in Harry’s saliva or magic that made his victims calm down when he drank their blood. She also noted the relief, the utter bliss, on Harry’s small face. The fresh blood washed away more of the signs of starvation and exhaustion and when he finally stopped after long seconds, his skin tone was almost the usual, healthy dusky hue.

Vernon blinked and looked dumbly at Harry that backed away fast now. He blinked again and looked up at Cassia.

“Cass?” he asked hoarsely. “Cass? What … how … who ... when?”

“I know, dear, I know.” She kissed his cheek and hoped he wouldn’t break down as completely as she first had, not right now, because they still had to help Dudley. “Go to the bathroom and freshen up, we will talk later. Dudley is still under the curse.”

“Dad, what did they do? Dad? Dad! The freak got you to! Dad!” Dudley had seen it all from the kitchen and was now backing away as fast as he could, towards the kitchen door.

Cassia hurried towards him, but a small shape slipped in front of her and before she knew it Harry hung on to Dudley, right by the kitchen door, while Dudley pushed and slapped him and screamed to let him go, before he suddenly slammed Harry into the wall. Dudley couldn’t force Harry to let go, but Harry was small enough for Dudley to toss around despite that.

“No!” Cassia screamed and tried to drag her son away from her nephew, but now Harry had bitten Dudley and Dudley had calmed, just like she had and just like Vernon had.

The next half hour was one of the most exhausting and emotionally draining Cassia had experienced in her life. A title Dudley’s birth had had up until that point. She had three people to calm, reassure and explain to. The only good thing about it all was that Harry’s bite truly had broken the curse on her husband and son. She realised to her horror that she had never truly known her own son. Someone had changed him before he properly had his own personality. He had been a calm and happy boy as a baby and toddler. Except, of course, that horrible autumn when Lily had been murdered and Dudley had been sick for several weeks. They had spoiled him on purpose then, to keep him calm while he had to stay inside or in bed or at the hospital. Cassia had always planned to rectify that when her son was well and no longer house or bed bound. She had thought that their abysmal child rearing skills under the curse would have ruined Dudley, and she was certain that he still would be spoiled, but the first thing he did when he was able to stop crying was look at Harry and say that he was sorry. Vernon was right behind him in his apologies.

Harry had been terrified that everyone, and maybe especially her, would turn against him because he bit Dudley and went against Cassia’s plans. She had heated the pizzas in the oven while reassuring him that even if he hadn’t followed the plan, what he did had been right. She wished he hadn’t had to do it like that, because she had promised him that he wouldn’t be hurt, and he had been. But Dudley could have left the house, he could have gone and told on them to a neighbour or the police. That would have made the magical police, the Aurors, show up and that would have been very, very bad right now. When they knew who had cursed them, they might go to the Aurors themselves, but not before they knew with absolute certainty that they were safe.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t fast enough, Harry, and I’m sorry you got hurt, but you did the right thing,” she told him while she plated the last pizza. They had managed to become a bit too cold to taste good while they went through their drama. “How is your head?”

“It’s fine, not even a bump, Aunt Petunia.” He hesitated. “Or is it Aunt Cass?”

“My full name is Cassia Petunia Evans-Dursley. I have always used Cassia and I have no idea why I would choose to go under Petunia for the last twelve years.” She gave a small sigh and looked down on the small but far more healthy boy beside her. It was about two hours since he had looked close to starving to death. Now, while still slim, he was lithe, and he looked absolutely healthy. His face was filled out and his skin almost glowed, and he moved confidently, smoothly and fast. He also had taken off two of his three sweaters and opened the shirt to show his dingy and far to big t-shirt underneath.

“You may continue to call me Aunt Petunia, if you prefer, as that is what you are used to. Or you might call me Aunt Cassia or Aunt Cass, if you would like.”

“Aunt Cassia.” He tasted the words and gave her a small, unsure smile.

She smiled back at him, even if her heart hurt and exhaustion dragged at her.

“Harry, while you did the right thing with Dudley, I am very, very, very sorry that you had to, and I will do my very best to make sure you never have to be in such a situation again. I will do my very best to make sure that you are never hurt again.”

“Okay, Aunt Cassia,” he said.

And oh, it hurt her heart, because it didn’t at all sound like he believed her. It sounded like he expected pain. Like he was so used to pain that he didn’t know how to not expect it. It wasn’t truly surprising, he had known little else but pain in her care, after all, but he had spent two years at Hogwarts amongst adults that would care for him and keep him safe …

She stiffened, bent over the table to put Dudley’s pizza in front of him. Harry had told her that he had no adult he trusted to ask for help. No adult at all that he believed would help him in this situation or any other. No teacher or Head of House that would come to his aid if he asked.

Cassia almost snarled while she sat down at the table and began to force the food down her throat. Hogwarts had failed her nephew. They had failed Lily’s and James’ son! While some of the adults that should have helped him might have the same excuse that she had, if the bastard behind the curse had enough power and connections, surely not all of them had that excuse? They had magic and ways to stop interventions, ways to find out if they were cursed. And people around them to notice if they changed personality, the way Vernon and she had changed.

She continued to force herself to eat until she no longer could, because her stomach was full. It was far too little food for a grown woman, but she knew better than to try to stuff herself after practically starving herself for so long. She also knew that she had a fight on her hands to get to anywhere near a healthy weight. The only thing she could do was to eat small meals several times a day and remember that she did it for Harry and the rest of her family. She needed to be strong and healthy for them. A proper meal plan and a therapist would have to come later, when they were all safe. Right now, the only thing she could do was eat and hope that her body would be able to heal from the massive damage her eating disorder had caused.

It was when everyone was full, and she and Vernon had begun to clean off the table that Dudley asked the question that made her knees weak.

“Mum, Dad? Where and when do you think we were cursed? Do you think it’s like a regenerative curse, that curses us every day at midnight or something? Or every time we leave the house, or come into the house? Or, because it made us be horrible to Harry, every time Harry comes into or leaves the house?”

Cassia sat down hard on her seat and stared at her son and then at her nephew, and back at her son before she looked at her husband. He gave her a sharp, decisive nod. Oh, how she had missed being able to communicate with him with only a glance. They had been so close before the curse, so very attuned. Lily had called it sickeningly sweet at one point, before Cassia upended a bucket of soapy water over her head in retribution, and thus started a water war amongst four grown adults.

“Right, boys,” Cassia turned towards her boys. “We are going to go live at a hotel until we are certain that it isn’t anything in the house that’s behind the curse. Pack everything you want or need for a week. If we can’t move back in by then, we will get our clothes cleaned elsewhere. Harry, take whatever you want, but we are going shopping for you even before we find a hotel. Alright?”

Harry stared at her with big eyes and swallowed. “I … I have enough, Aunt Cassia.”

“No, no you do not. I understand that you might want to think that, everything considered, but you do not. And now that I’m myself again, I will not let Lily’s son and my nephew suffer rags like that for even a day longer. I want us to leave this house in no less than ten minutes, so pack fast.”

Dudley got up, but then turned towards her. “But Mum, what if the curse comes back when we leave the house? I don’t want to be like that anymore!”

“We need to leave, Dudley, so we have to take that chance. I will leave first, with Harry, and if the curse comes back …” She stopped, she really, truly did not want to put anything on Harry. He was a child to be cherished and protected, but he was also the only one that could get them free of the curse right now. She would change that as soon as she could, but for right now he was all they had, and she hated that fact.

“I will bite you all again,” Harry said, matter-of-factly, as he had never been in any doubt. As if he had always known that it would come down to him. As if he knew that it would always, always, come down to him.

Cassia would change that, or die trying. Lily would have done the same for Dudley, if she had been in Cassia’s place.

“Even if you trounce me again, Dudley,” Harry looked at his cousin. “I won’t let the curse have you.”

“I don’t want to do that!” Dudley denied. “I’m really, really sorry that I did, Harry! Really sorry!”

“That is good, my boys, but right now you need to pack and then we will leave.”

Three minutes later, while she packed the few clothes she could stomach wearing in a bag, she heard Harry calling from his new room and she wasn’t ashamed to admit that she ran. So afraid that something would happen to him. Something more. Harry blinked at her when she almost fell in his door, a small pile of clothes and toiletries on his bed.

“I only have my trunk to pack in?” he said as a question. “Should I use a plastic bag?”

“Right, no, dear, I will find you a proper bag or suitcase. Do bring your schoolbooks and wand too, so you can start on your summer homework. And everything of value, just in case.”

It was the work of moments to find a suitable bag on the floor of her wardrobe and give it over to Harry who had put his books on the bed too, together with his wand, a photo album and a silvery cloak that her memories tried to connect with James and laughter somehow. She already knew that she didn’t have all her memories, not at the right place, at least. She could only hope that they would come back and be sorted right, with time. Harry stood holding a broom and tried to hide it behind his back when she entered the room with the bag.

“We can’t bring the broom into the hotel,” she stated, “but I see no reason why it can’t spend the next week or so in the car trunk. It should be safe there and if we, for some reason, won’t be able to come back here, you will have it with you.”

Harry watched her for almost half a minute before nodding and holding the broom in front of him again.

“Yes, Aunt Cassia. Thank you.”

“Think nothing of it, Harry. James loved his broom, too. Lily joked that he would probably have married it, if he couldn’t have married her.”

The little smile Harry gave her for that nugget of information was a precious gift.

Twelve minutes after leaving the table, they left the house. There were no differences in any of them and Cassia could feel everyone relax a bit as they drove away from 4 Privet Drive.

Strangely enough Cassia didn’t feel too bad at the thought that they might never again live there.

Most of the time that had been her home, she had been an unknowing prisoner in her own head.

Most of the time someone had forced her and her family to be someone they weren’t.

Most of the time she had been a horrible abusive bitch towards her brilliant, little nephew.

Most of the time someone had used her family to abuse and shape Harry into someone so used to abuse and pain that he would do anything and everything for just some kind words and a smile. Abused kids were a suspicious lot, but they were also very easy to both deceive and mould, as they most often didn’t know how real families, friends or human connections actually were supposed to work.

No, Cassia wouldn’t feel too bad if she never lived at 4 Privet Drive again.