Gossipers
“Hey, have you heard from [REDACTED] lately?”
“No, she might be faking sick to get out of school again though.”
“Hm, maybe, but it’s weird, she’s been gone for like two days and hasn’t texted anyone yet. I tried calling but I didn’t get an answer. I’m starting to worry now.”
“You know, that is actually really weird, ‘cause I haven't seen her since last Thursday, and last time she did this, she told almost everyone. ”
“Yeah, and I don’t think her grandma would let her miss three days of school in a row unless it's something serious.”
“We could probably dm her sister on instagram and see if somethings wrong.”
…
Harry woke up from a scratchy-wet feeling on his cheek followed by a loud howl. ‘Ew. What the fuck.’ They thought, still a bit drowsy from the spell that traitor Dumbledoor put on him.
“Shhh!” hissed Professor McGonagall. “You’ll wake the Muggles!”
‘Well, guess nobody cares about ‘the-saviour-of-the-wizarding-world’s’ sleep then.’ Harry scrunched up his face, but fixed it quickly before he was noticed. He doesn’t want to see that traitor's face, with his dumb ‘innocent grandfather that only wants the best for you look.’, he’d probably give him a sad smile and then go to a party or something like he does in the book.
“S-s-sorry,” sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. “But I c-c-can’t stand it – Lily an’ James dead – an’ poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles –” “Yes, yes, it’s all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we’ll be found,” Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry’s blankets and then came back to the other two. For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid’s shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore’s eyes seemed to have gone out, giving the little bundled up Harry a sad smile.
“Well,” said Dumbledore finally, “that’s that. We’ve no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations.”
“Yeah,” said Hagrid in a very muffled voice. “I’d best get this bike away. G’night, Professor McGonagall – Professor Dumbledore, sir.”
‘Wow, great, yeah, leave me here, in the cold, to go party. Totally called it.’ They thought, falling back asleep in the cold night of November.
…
The Dursleys of number four Privet Drive were a nice family. Vernon Dursley was a big man with little neck and pinkish skin, and he was a director of a drilling firm called Grunnings, and bought drinks for all of the employees on Fridays. Petunia Dursley was a tall woman with a long neck she used to peer over her fences, and held a nice book club/meeting for all the mothers of Privet Drive on Wednesdays, and always had all the gossip about the whole neighbourhood, and while Dudley looked a little bit like a pink beach ball and had one-to-many temper tantrums for a 17 month old baby, he was somewhat nice to have around the other boys for their weekly playdate.
The most noticeable thing though, about the Dursleys, is that they always had a clean lawn and nothing was ever left on their porch or anywhere else where the nosy neighbours of Privet Drive could see.
However, something was different today. Today there had been a basket by the door. Mrs. Piper Polkiss only saw it for a quick second before Mrs. Dursley quickly picked it up and brought it inside. She was still down the road, but while she was walking past their house, she could hear the slightly horrified shouts from Petunia and Vernon.
‘Whatever was in that basket must have been something so absolutely horrible.’ Piper thought as she completed her morning walk. She walked right up to the phone to talk to her friend and neighbour Freya about it. After all, she might’ve seen a dead body in that basket, you never know.
>>>
“Have you heard? That nice Dursley family got something so horrifying in a basket about two days ago!”
“I heard it was a dismantled corpse that looked like a child but it was actually a bunch of dead rats with tangled tails in a bloody skin suit.”
“No, no Sharon, it was definitely a devil that inhabited the body of a baby.”
“Olive told me that Amelia told her that Isla told her that it was a bunch of different colour eyeballs.”
“Well Ava told me that Ivy told her that Charlotte told her that Mia told her that Emma told her that Sophia told her that Addison told her that Audrey told her that it was an animal carcass with five rows of human teeth.”
<<<
Petunia didn’t know what to expect when she opened her door that morning to get the post. Actually, she did know. She was expecting the post, not her good for nothing sister and her good for nothing husband’s good for nothing abomination of a child and a letter explaining why it was there and that she just had to watch it while it wasn’t at that blasted school for her sister's kind. It was so ugly, with it’s unruly brown hair that looked black sometimes, and it’s eyes that are an impossible shade of green that almost seem to glow in the dark, and the scar, don’t even get her started on that ugly scar. It was the most ugly thing that she had ever seen. It was an angry pinkish red lightning bolt looking scar that went from the top right of his forehead all the way to the left side of its collarbone. It was so unbelievably ugly she couldn’t stand to look at it for more than a minute.
What she also didn’t expect was that Piper Polkiss would be walking by her house that morning just so conveniently to hear her and Vernon’s screams. Or for her to start rumours and get people gossiping about her. Her! She honestly couldn’t fathom that she would do this to her. But, whether she could fathom it or not she still needed to do something about this. She decided she could explain it at their weekly meeting and get all these rumours to stop before it gets too out of hand.
…
“Hi ladies, come on in.” Petunia said, doing her best as a hostess, as always.
“Hi Petunia, how are you doing today?” Lillian, bless her heart, replied as all the other mothers were to busy snooping around trying to confirm the rumours.
“I’m doing just wonderful thank you for asking! Now ladies, I have important news to share with you all.” That got all the ladies attention. “Come, sit on the couch, make yourselves comfortable. You can place the children in the play area, my Duddydums is already there.”
All the ladies put there children in the play area, which was right by the sitting room, and sat down quickly, eager to maybe be able to find out what was in that basket.
‘Alright Petunia, remember your story, don’t slip up.’
“Petunia, is this about the basket?” All the ladies, excluding Petunia, looked at Harper with various faces that all meant ‘Why can’t you keep your mouth shut, Harper?!’ Harper, who absolutely cannot read social cues whatsoever, kept her face calm and waited for an answer.
“Why yes, Harper, this is about the basket.” All the ladies stated asking questions then, wondering if it really was a bunch of rats who’s tails were tangled together, or a devil baby, or an animal carcass with five rows of human teeth.
“No no, ladies? Where would you get those ideas from?” Petunia looked right horrified at there assumptions. She knew they were bad, but she didn’t know they were this bad.
She explained to them a fabricated story about how she’s recently come into possession of a delinquent nephew from his delinquent parents who died in a car crash in Berlin, and then got struck by lightning. She told them about how her sister and her husbands were drunks and how they didn’t know how to raise a child. To further explain her point, she pointed out how her nephew was upstairs because he had hit Dudley in his stomach. Harry hitting Dudley was true, even if he did it on accident, but the other mothers didn’t need to know all that.
“Oh my goodness, Petunia, I don’t know how you’ll be able to handle all this. I heard that if a child starts acting out now, then unless you do something about it, they’ll only get worse.”
“My sister Audrey’s sons are just like that, thye started out from a young age and even though they were punished they still kept acting out. They’re about 13 now, and she had to send them to disciplinary school.”
“If you ever need someone to watch him, just know my door is always open.”
“Me too Petunia, as mothers, we understand how hard this is, especially now that you’ll have to take care of two children.”
“Thank you, darlings. I really appreciate all you’ve done for me already. I-” Petunia was cut off by a screaming Dudley, she immediately ran to him and tried to quiet him down.
What had happened was that Elena, Ava’s child, had tried to help Dudley build his tower, like all the boys are doing, but since Dudley doesn’t quite like girls he kicked it over and blamed it on her.