Daisy and Dahlia

All had not been well for the Dursley family during Harry's absence. Well, Dudley hadn't done too badly at Smeltings. As a second-year, he still had to 'fag' for a senior student, and his new senior was less free with the Smeltings stick than the old one, but more inclined to look over Dudley's prep ('it's not homework, this is boarding school') and make him re-write it with fewer mistakes. And he pushed him to take exercise, and when Dudley complained to the school nurse about it, she told him she quite agreed, and Jenkinson was doing a marvellous job of looking out for Dudley, and he should appreciate it! So Dudley sulked, but he was getting fewer detentions, and he was doing better in P. E. He was actually starting to enjoy rugby, and the coach suggested he might like boxing, too. Sporting men got a lot more praise and attention than swots, and Dudley knew his dad would approve. Vernon, too, spent the winter in blissful ignorance, and had an excellent Christmas with his fine strapping son and his pretty little princesses, his wonderfully capable wife and his jolly sister.

Petunia, on the other hand, was starting to notice that things at Privet Drive didn't always stay where she left them. Not just that infernal Where's Kitty, which had a knack of reappearing in one or other of the girls' cots even after she got so frustrated she threw it in the dustbin. Chocolate biscuit crumbs would appear around the girls' mouths, when the chocolate biscuits had been shut away in the kitchen cupboard, on a high shelf. The girls would come downstairs with just their dolls to play with, but when it was time for them to go back upstairs again, they would have mysteriously acquired their teddy bears as well. Petunia never actually saw anything unnatural, and she didn't like to think it of her girls, but however much she tried to put it out of her mind, she kept wondering. Ordinarily, she would blame things like that on Harry, but he was away at that school, so it couldn't be him doing it. She tried to tell herself she was just being absent-minded, that she must have given the girls biscuits or fetched them their bears and then forgotten about it, and indeed she did her best to make more of a point of fetching them things herself, in the hope that it would stop happening. It didn't.

Then she tried to pin her hopes on only one of the girls being abnormal. She had never seen anything happening, and it might very well be only one of them doing things. She watched them like a hawk all spring, going so far as to ask their playgroup leader to put them in separate groups for a bit 'so they can make other friends.' Before long, Dahlia was in trouble for snatching toys from other children - children who had been standing three feet away from her at the time. For the next few weeks, Daisy could do no wrong, and Dahlia could do no right. Petunia could hardly bear to touch the child to change and bathe her, and adamantly refused to cuddle her. Daisy got biscuits; Dahlia wasn't given any (but still seemed to acquire them). Toilet training began, and Daisy got stickers with 'good job', 'well done', and 'nice try.' Dahlia got scowls. Even Dudley noticed something was off, when he was home for Easter break. "Come on, Dahlia," he would say, scooping her up, "you can watch me play Mega-Mutilation 3." Dudley refused to actually read to his sisters, or play baby games with them, but he didn't mind watching telly with them (his choice of programme) or having them watch him kill monsters on his computer. He could tell them what a good job he was doing, and they would agree with him. Even Vernon had a word with Petunia about getting sticker charts for both girls, rather than having them share one: "got to get their money's worth, you know, Pet." Petunia made more of an effort to treat the girls the same while Vernon was around, but when he was at work, she ignored Dahlia as much as possible; and Dahlia, in reaction to this, seemed to become even more unnatural. Petunia actually saw the things Dahlia was denied whizzing through the air now. It was a miracle she was able to hide it from Vernon, and she had no idea how long she could keep it up. Then things went from bad to worse. Petunia had taken the girls to the park, and was blithely ignoring Dahlia while applauding Daisy's efforts on the climbing frame, when Daisy reached the top, jumped off - and floated down slowly, rather than falling. Petunia looked around frantically, but Dahlia had her back to them, and seemed wholly preoccupied with the twigs and dirt she was playing with. They were both unnatural. And there would be another nine years before they were old enough to go to boarding school, when she'd be rid of them at least for most of the year. And whatever would Vernon say?

The whole family found out exactly what Vernon would say, a few weeks later. It wasn't pretty. Vernon had managed to get Dudley an exeat from Smeltings for his birthday, and the whole family had lunch at a burger restaurant in the town near Smeltings. Well, they had booked in to have lunch. The burgers were taking a long time, Daisy and Dahlia were grizzling, and Dudley had started whining, too. The waiter passed by, carrying a tray of particularly delicious-looking and -smelling burgers for the next table, and Dahlia shouted "Want!" and reached out her hands. The burger sailed into them, and she bit down, then offered some to Daisy. Vernon erupted. Purple in the face, he towered over the little girls in their high-chairs, shouting, clenching and unclenching his fists. Both girls were screaming in fright, while Dudley and Petunia sat horrified, and the rest of the restaurant stared. Vernon had turned Dahlia over the table and was smacking her, when Daisy reached out, grabbed her father by the shirt-sleeve, and threw him halfway across the room. They were in the process of being thrown out of the restaurant for causing a disturbance when the Obliviators showed up, and it didn't exactly help Vernon's temper when Petunia told them she and her family already knew about magic, and he had to watch those freaks wave their magic sticks, freeze people, mend furniture, and then make everyone else forget they'd ever been there.

"I don't want freaks for daughters!" Vernon raged. "Are they even mine, you whore? I don't see how else they could be freaks! Were you off with one of those weirdos?" Petunia shook her head frantically, tears running down her face. "I won't have it!" he roared. "I won't have any of those freak types around!" By this point, Dahlia was clinging to Dudley's legs and howling, Daisy was on the verge of passing out from exhaustion, and Dudley was slowly backing away. He caught sight of a fish-and-chip shop, and ushered his sisters in. Food would make everything better, and he did have that tenner in his pocket that Dad had given him earlier, for the tuck shop. Double cod and chips for himself, and fish fingers and chips for the girls. It was only a few quid, and the lady behind the counter gave them pineapple fritters for free when Dudley told them it was his birthday, and his parents were arguing outside. (She had noticed the angry middle-aged couple standing in the street, and the way the chubby boy seemed protective of the little girls. She would probably have given him the free dessert anyway.)

Outside, Vernon was delivering his ultimatum. He would return Dudley to Smeltings, and would change his contact details while he was there. Vernon would then take Petunia and the demon-spawn back to Privet Drive, pack his things, and go and stay with Marge. He would order DNA tests for all three children. If Petunia hadn't been cheating on him, and if she managed to find somewhere else for her freak daughters and her freak nephew to live, he would graciously take her back; otherwise, she'd be divorced and out on her ear, and fat chance she would have of seeing Dudley again. He probably owed it to Dudley to keep him well away from all the freakishness; and she could forget about having any more children. Dudley was enough. At least he was normal.

Jenkinson the 'prep' tyrant was surprisingly kind to Dudley when he burst into tears and wailed about his parents having a massive fight, and dad thinking Dudley's sisters weren't really his, and his birthday being ruined. "You'll get through it, Dursley," he said, patting him on the back. "You're a Smeltings boy, and we're the best and the toughest, aren't we?" Gossip ran rampant when the man came round for Dudley's DNA test, and Piers was one of the most unkind, having found other people to latch onto who were bigger and better bullies than Dudley. Some of his classmates were kinder to him. One, Brompton minor, confided that his parents had divorced two years ago, and while it had been horrible at the time, it was quite nice not to have them yell at each other any more, and he had two homes now, with two bedrooms and two sets of presents, and he got two birthday parties every year. Dudley still didn't want his parents divorcing, but he appreciated the thought.