Harry Brown and the mauraders

Amelia, Conrad’s youngest sister in law, smiled when she saw Muriel almost running into Costa in Enfield looking for her table.  She spied it and made her way over and sat down and was just about to take a bite out of the triple iced lemon drizzle cake in front of her. when Severus ran in behind her  claiming accusingly loud enough for the whole of the restaurant to hear “DO YOU WANT TO DIE!  BECAUSE IF YOU EAT THAT CAKE YOU WILL”  Muriel looked up guiltily and passed the cake back to Amelia with a sigh.  Severus came and sat at the table and continued “YOU’RE A DIABETIC and you know what you can and can’t eat! You promised me that you would not eat the wrong foods.  The books say that if you eat the wrong foods then they will kill you”   

“No love! I had just brought the cake for Aunt Amelia honest. Why don’t you go and find daddy and the rest of the family” with that Severus appeared modified started to walk away, returned to the table and snatched the cake and proceeded to eat it as he left the restaurant.  Muriel sighed and stated “I will slowly and painfully kill my husband!” Amelia looked at Muriel and her eyes asked the question of why, Muriel supplied the information “Dave just ever so casually mentioned to Severus around a week after he came to live with us that I am diabetic.   Severus being curious researched the topic…ergo….if I eat the wrong foods even once I will die”  Amelia couldn’t help herself, she burst out laughing at the statement, Muriel just looked disgusted and continued “It’s not funny, having a shot of heroin is easier than me getting my hands on a Mars bar……Severus with his learning disabilities… almost believes everything he reads literally…so when he read and I quote that diabetes kills if it is not controlled properly he became worried…then he read the books I got when I was first diagnosed and found out that with the correct diet and exercise then I can control the diabetes, therefore if I exercise and follow strictly to the letter the blasted diet I will live……and he makes sure I follow very closely to the diet!”  Amelia just nodded agreeing with her sister in all but name, but still laughing at the very clever manipulation of Severus by David regarding Muriel’s health.

Normally Muriel would be working in the Enfield post office today which Amelia managed for her mother  Rosemary who owned and run two Post Offices.   For three days a week Muriel worked for them,  Muriel although retired early from the local hospital she had worked for, needed a part time job to help her relax from looking after Severus, which now included Nanny Jean and Grandpa Brian becoming a major fixture of  her household.  The elderly couple were had been a God send for the Browns.  Brian and Jean did the majority of the Severus minding now, almost seven days a week would find the trio of Severus and his beloved nan and Gramps getting into mischief on a daily occurrence. 

Muriel also needed the extra money the post office job gave her to supplement her works pension, and she loved interacting with their customers!  It wasn’t till Muriel had joined the post office staff that they had become part of the community literally, Muriel had a knack for befriending and finding out customers lives.  Some days the conversations they now had with their customers would make excellent plots for the British TV soaps. 

To be fair Amelia had always got on better with Muriel, then either of her other two sisters, both Janice and Rosemary were alike.  Rosemary had never been able to have children herself, so all the nephews and nieces that were produced from both sides of the family were loved, spoilt and expected to have ambition to go far in school and the careers they pursued.  Rosemary had concentrated on her career, and was now a PA one of the deputy assistant commissioners of the Met Police.  Janice had worked hard in her career to, but it had taken second place somewhat to her son Vernon Dursley and her husband’s career in the British Army.  But Janice had now become a PA to the CEO of a firm.  

Amelia was like Muriel content to drift and let life sweep her along, she and Muriel worked hard and loved their families and partners.  But Muriel even though she had qualified as a nurse years ago, after obtaining her first degree whilst working for a major computer company and leaving the company start to training as a nurse.  Had after obtaining her first position as a newly qualified staff nurse drifted along, never really trying to get the promotions she had been after.   So very often three days a weeks at lunchtime Muriel and Amelia would settle down at either the local Starbucks or Costa café and catch up on family business.  Normally today would one of the days Muriel worked for her, but she had taken the day off to send Harry off to Hogwarts for his second year there. 

The whole family had congregated on the platform to see Harry off on the train, except for Amelia who had to reluctantly be managing the post office.  The family were meeting her  here to update her on what had happened on the platform, and if Severus had any meltdowns regarding not being allowed to attend Hogwarts this year.

It had been a summer literally of firsts this year for the family, three teenage children had been added and integrated into the extended family, the first one had been Severus who with his special needs had posed a problem when the Browns had suddenly found themselves the guardians of two teenage sisters from David’s side of the family.  The girls twelve and thirteen had found themselves orphaned tragically when their parents had been involved in a fatal car crash just outside their home town of Cokeworth.

David and his younger brother were the only remaining family that the girls had, a family meeting had been quickly convened and although David’s brother had now moved into the Browns new house, it had been agreed that the girls should be adopted by Conrad and Rosemary.   It made very real little difference they had thought who the girls lived with.  And the fact that Conrad and Rosemary were childless had been seen as a solution to the problem.   Severus would always need a lot of care and attention now and for the remainder of his life.   Harry, with Vernon, Jordan and Mona with the rest of the children in the family had already and accepted realised this, Severus could and did have major meltdowns over the smallest things imaginable.    

The first meltdown for the Brown family with their son Severus came the Saturday of the Blackpool weekend holiday,  the introductions of Severus to the extended family had gone remarkably very well.   To try to ensure that Severus was not to over whelmed by too many new and frightening faces, the extended family had ensured that Severus was placed with only with them in the middle of the Hertfordshire county seating section in the resorts large restaurant for the weekend and especially the First night.   Nanny Jean sat with Severus the whole time and ensured that nobody else came near Severus to ensure that he felt safe and would at least try to eat, and that his dinner consisted of a balance meal and not just chocolate pudding!  Soon after dinner Severus was safely tucked up in bed and Nanny Jean and Grandpa Brian was babysitting him in her chalet where she was staying with Harry and Jordan.

The sleeping arrangements had undergone a major review by Nanny Jean and had been rearranged to her satisfaction after intense discussion within the family.  Harry, Jordan, Jordan’s sister Mona, Vernon and Severus  were staying with her in one of the chalets,  Jordan parents had been kicked out to the boys hotel room.   Nanny Jean had stated quite firmly that the boy’s parents needed some space and much needed rest after the intense week they had with Severus at the hospital.  Severus couldn’t be left alone at present, and she felt that staying in the deluxe disabled chalet with Grandpa Brian and the children would be the answer, everybody would have their own room and the chalet  was sited at the back of the resort in a quiet and secluded spot.  Giving Severus the illusion of quiet and privacy.  Nanny Jean or Brian could ensure that Severus was settled down for the night in the same bedroom as Brian, the girls would share a room and Harry and  Vernon would share and Jean had the last rooms. 

So that Friday evening saw Severus settled in his room, and Jean and Brain playing cards quietly in the main large bedroom that the girls were sharing.  Waiting for the rest of the children to be dropped off at the chalet by somebody in their group when the evening’s entertainment was finished that night.

Severus woke up at his usual time Saturday morning, which turned out to be six in the morning.  He had quickly got ready and Brian took him for a walk along the beach’s promenade to kill some time before everybody started to make their way the hotel’s restaurant where the morning breakfast service would be started.   It was quite a nice day and Severus was entranced by the trams that run by the promenade, and the decorations that hung along the promenade, the innocence that Severus showed at all the new and wonderus things he saw made Brian happy for the child, but all so very angry and sad that anybody could abuse an innocent child as badly as Severus had been by his parents. 

Harry last evening had told everybody how intelligent and independent Severus had been at Hogwarts, it was after dinner and the extended family had been sitting around discussing Severus and his problems.  A family friend had befriended Severus and with the assistance of Jordan, Mona and Vernon with nanny Jean had taken Severus to see a film that the resort was showing that evening, allowing the family to discuss how to help Severus lead as normal life as possible.  

Although the severe brain injury that Severus had suffered had obviously caused life changing and deliberating problems, he now had major cognitive, behavioural and physical difficulties.  The physical difficulties had been compounded by the physical abuse that he suffered through his short life.

But it also appeared after very careful and subtle questioning of Harry that Severus appeared to have major problems at Hogwarts last year before he sustained these latest injuries.  Severus according to Harry had been very intelligent for a child his age but he had  trouble interacting and communicating with people, especially his peers.    Harry had explained how Severus appeared to unable to decipher social cues and interaction that people made, he had always had slight balance and walking problems. He had at Hogwarts appeared to become easily fixated by a subject and would become so engrossed that he forgot everything else,   Severus also had a daily routine that he hated to be disrupted. 

 But  for all his major problems and difficulties Severus was a sweet child, that would now most probably be dependent on people for the rest of his life.    If Brian wasn’t so frail, he would have taken a hammer to Severus parents himself, ensuring they lived in the misery that they had subjected Severus to.   Brian would gladly except any punishment that the courts sentenced him to, just to pay back the scum that had so physically and mentally damaged their child, Conrad had sat next to Brain after Nanny Jean had taken Severus to bed and the rest of the family had split into three groups, the first group consisting mainly of the women members were watching the resorts entertainment, the second group were playing a group sport and the rest were relaxing at chatting in a quiet area by one of the hotel bars.   Conrad leaned and quietly whispered to him “Don’t tell Dave but don’t worry, I am going to ensure that Severus parents especially his father  are visited by some of my old man’s contacts….who still come into me, to have their hair cut in the shop…..I’ll ensure as much as possible that the scum pay for hurting Severus.   After all if there is one thing most cons hate, it is the abuse of kids!”  Brian nodded in agreement with Conrad, glad that Severus parents would be paid back in some small way for the treatment of him.  Conrad’s and Muriel’s father had been a barber, and had ended up before his early death owning his own shop and business.  Conrad had followed his father and best friend into the hairdressing trade.  Conrad’s father over the years had managed to accumulate a wide social range of customers, from the poorest to the richest customers.  To the law abiding to the unlawful citizens in society, Conrad had inherited his father’s talent for making and keeping friends, and most of his father’s personal customers had stayed and some had become personal friends with Conrad and the family, when his father had retired from the business shortly before his death.    It was obviously one of the career criminals that Conrad knew, who would be approached to do a small favour for Conrad and his family.  Hopefully the lesson that Severus parents would be taught  by Conrad’s friend would be very long lasting and painful for them.   

But the meltdown that morning had been due to Severus hair, something had to be done with it.  It was obvious that Severus had never looked after it, and the morning before breakfast he wouldn’t let anybody including Muriel brush his hair.   So it had been reluctantly decided that Severus needed a haircut badly.  Conrad had offered to cut Severus hair, like he did with the rest of male members of the family.  But Nanny Jean had vehemently vetoed that idea, and Severus had been taken to a barbers in Blackpool City centre.   Severus had kicked off as Harry would describe the confrontation in the barbers shop, he had screamed and fought like a wild tiger against sitting in the barber’s chair.  Luckily a biker customer had helped them, and had held Severus firmly while the poor barber washed and cut his hair very short.  Not once did the biker complain when Severus kicked and hit out at him, it was worth every penny that Muriel had paid the poor barber and biker for helping with Severus.  Severus looked a totally different child with clean, short and neat hair.    The morning did not improve when they went clothes shopping for Severus, it was when Muriel was nearly crying in frustration after Severus refused to even try wearing the clothes Muriel and Jean picked out for him.  That Muriel realised that it wasn’t that Severus cared particularly  about the clothes style or colour, Severus just couldn’t cope with wearing certain textured clothes next to his skin, and he hated the feel of brand new clothes as well.   So a quick phone call back to the resort and Conrad was dispatched to exchange Severus for Nan Rosemary younger sister sons Aiden, he was roughly the same size as Severus, so it had been agreed that Aiden would be getting new clothes in exchange for Severus having his old clothes that he brought that weekend.   

Now Muriel always ensured that any new clothes brought for Severus were washed till the newness as Severus named it was gone.   Every day was a potential minefield with Severus,  it helped that Harry, his cousins and circle of friends loved and tried as much as possible to include Severus in the life’s.    The children and the rest of the family were very grateful that Nanny Jean had once found again a child in the family to fuss and look after.   Almost all of Jeans focus and life revolved around Severus, he had replaced for her Harry and cousins role in her life.    Jean loved all the families children, but as the children grew older and more independent she found it hard to let them go and make the mistakes that children are supposed to in their lives.   The more independent the children had become, the more restrained the relationship between them and Jean, the love would always be there between them.  But Jean had found in Severus, somebody who had not only quickly loved and idolised her, but would normally follow Jeans orders or commands to the letter and allow himself to be babied.  If Severus did rebel at times, Jean just rolled her eyes and blamed Severus disabilities and his scummy parents. 

Jean could never be bored with Severus, when he explained his theories and ideas to the family members.  It was Jean and Brian that sat patiently with Severus listening and giving him ideas to further his research into the subject he was currently engrossed in.  From potions to physics, Severus included them into his world and to keep up with Severus, both Jean and Brian had taken it upon themselves learn all about the subject that Severus loved.

So the Browns knew they were too old to look after an extra two teenagers, so Conrad and Rosemary  had offered.  Where Muriel was in her late fifties and David in his sixties, Conrad and Rosemary were in their early forties and thirties respectively.  Added to the fact they had always wanted children but Rosemary had never been able to, they had all the patience and love needed to raise the two girls.  The family was relieved to find out that the youngest girl was magical and attended Hogwarts with Harry and Severus.  Admittedly they were in different houses, but obviously that was a minor aspect and consideration.  After all everybody knew and understood that family and real friends stuck together and helped each other through life’s tough and rough times.

How wrong had the family been!  And everybody in the immediate family circle had breathed a large sigh of relief when Harry and the youngest girl had got on the Hogwarts express that morning.    It had become quickly apparent that for all Severus disabilities and learning difficulties, he was an angel compared the devil incarnate that the youngest girl was.   For the first time in the family’s history that anybody could recall, Nanny Jean had refused to look after the girl the one time that Rosemary had reluctantly asked her to, and nobody blamed her!  That day had ended up with Muriel reluctantly taking the girl with her on two day outing that her and her old work colleagues went on every year in London.  Never again vowed Muriel would she look after the teenager, the girl acted out the whole time they were in London and Muriel had never been so ashamed in her life. 

So while the two sisters waited for the rest of the family, Muriel told her what had transpired on Platform 9 that morning. 

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Lilly was livid and so happy that her life could now continue as it should till the Christmas holidays when she would have to slum it with her new guardians and family.   She met her friends Alice, Mary,  Victoria, Grace and Florence in the train compartment that one of them had reserved.  All the girls shared the same dormitory, and they all knew they were the part of the elite of Hogwarts.   They passed the train journey catching up on each other’s news since the  start of the holiday.  All to soon it seemed that they were watching the first years being sorted into the four houses.

Lilly happened to look over towards the Slytherin house when Sirius Black brother sat down at the table after being newly sorted into the house.  She glanced at the Sirius three cousins the Black sisters, and saw Bella (the mad one) make a cutting motion across her throat at Lilly, she lost her colour when she realised that the rest of the house were nodding in agreement to Bella actions.  She knew then that the Slytherin house had been informed of her behaviour the previous evening.   It was totally not fair that her perfect life had been flipped on end, since her parents death at the start of the holidays she had gone from being the favoured and perfect child of her family, to being the problem child.  Her sister Petunia the horse face mundane cow now had the privilege of being miss perfect.  Her parents had never used corporal punishment on her, always believing her side of events against Petunia.  Well last evening one of her supposed new aunts had applied a wooden clothes brush to her bare behind, and that hadn’t been the end of the matter.  Her new guardian had put her on restriction for the next two weeks, and had sent her head of house a letter to that effect.   It galled her to think that she had been punished for doing nothing wrong, what they called bullying by her was just putting the little retarded shit in his place, and ensuring that he realised that she was now top dog and he was an inconsequential piece of dirt like her sister.

The feast was drawing to a close  when Albus Dumbledore rose to address the school, he welcomed everybody back and the new students.  The boring school notices regarding the forbidden forest etc were yet again alluded to (but everybody knew that Gryffindor never have to abide by them, after all Dumbledore always batted for them) the new head boy and girl were introduced, they were of course the king and queen of the Lion’s den. 

The school sung the stupid school song and they were all dismissed to their dormitories, where Lilly could once again reign supreme, she hoped that Harry Brown stayed as far away as possible this school year, after all it would not bode well if her house mates found out that she was related however tenuously to a snake.  It also seemed that Harry, had managed to get Slytherin on her case regarding the incident that happened last evening, she wasn’t sorry for her actions.  After all the little shit needed to know exactly where he place was in regards her, she was and would for ever be the top dog and he would be as far below her on the human evolution scale as he could be.

Lying in her dormitory bed that first night back, Lilly thought about how unfair her life had become.  She had lost her parents and had to move down south to live with the Borings family.   Lilly had thought that she would continue to be top dog when she moved down south.  Instead she had been ousted by her sister, the cracker retard and the rest of the family misfits.  She knew in her soul that the borings really wanted her instead of the Snivellous cracker, how he had managed to make them believe that he was had severe learning difficulties she couldn’t fathom.  If that was the case, then why had the Borings not ditched Snivellous of at the first retards home and welcomed her with open arms.  She understood that they wouldn’t to look after her sister Petunia, after all she was nothing special like Lilly.

She had loved and missed her parents that was true,  but what hurt Lilly the most was that for once in her life her needs were not automatically put first and paramount by the adults looking after her.  All her life her parents had fulfilled her wishes and needs. 

The real shock was that Lilly’s perfect life had ended, when her parents had been killed in the car crash that day.  The Borings had informed her and Petunia that they were to move down south to live in a hovel near  one of the first New Towns built after the second world war (believe her once you had seen the new town and the nearest towns, you never wanted to visit the area again).  Petunia would be attending a prestigious specialist school everything paid for the Borings her sister now having the advantages that were hers by right, not her horse faced stupid sister, when Lilly had complained loudly her guardians had informed Lilly that she wasn’t anything special and that her stupid bint of sister should have the same advantages that she was getting.  Namely a good private education, but that was not the worst of it.

Gone would be the fashionable clothes and robes from the best and prestigious shops, no Rosemary had informed her.   One of Mrs. Borings considerable talents was dressmaking, so to cut costs Mrs. Boring would be making Lilly her robes from now on.  The robes would be better quality and the price of them would be considerably cheaper than the apparently inferior robes that Madame Malkin made.  Her and Petunia’s muggle clothes would be coming from high street shops such as M&S, Tesco and Debenhams from now on. Rosemary assured her she would never notice the difference (yeh! thought Lilly, Rosemary definition of fashionable was the fifties, not now, and high street chain clothing just were not the same at all), there would be other little savings, cheaper parchment and quills etc., good quality second hand books, as her course books were at least ten times more expensive than Petunias school books would be, everything thought Lilly that made her top of the heap and one of the popular girls at school.  When Lily had complained about the unfairness of Petunia getting (she didn’t put it that way of course) what she deserved and needed, Their guardians would be buying Petunias clothes and school books as well as Lilies, and in order to afford the two set of school fees for the girls, then small sacrifices would have to be made by everybody.  Her answer to that statement had been met with her first unfair punishment by her new guardians when Lilly explained to them “That if they had taken in Snivellous and her sister, then she could live with the Borings and have the same lifestyle that she had in Cokeworth and that she deserved and was accustomed to said lifestyle” To say her new guardians had gone ballistic was an understatement, she had spent the next two weeks grounded and under the watchful eye of the old crone Nanny Jean.   And then Lilly had realized it was official, Mrs. Boring and her family hated her and would do everything to ensure her life at Hogwarts was hell.

So to summarize thought Lilly, she was going to live with the Borings brother and wife in their perfect four bedroomed cottage in a little town village just outside Biggleswade, there was absolutely no entertainment in the village for children her age. Her her sister got to have the life now that she deserved, and she had to live with the unfairness of second hand books and homemade robes, high street off the rail clothes. Yep her life was going to be hell thought Lilly unless she managed to turn things around so she was on top of the heap again.

Lilly would always remember the day that her life had been changed for ever.  The day her parents had gone to help an elderly church friend in the next village, the police car that pulled up outside their house and the waiting with Petunia a woman police officer for her father’s cousin and wife to travel up North from the Hertfordshire. 

In a matter of hours, her parents had been killed in a fatal car accident.  It was well after midnight when their new guardians  David and Rosemary Brown had arrived at their house   (Mr and Mrs boring, I’ve got everything though hard work couple).

For the next few days were a haze,  Lilly and Petunia attended her parents cremations and wake, both of them numb and adrift without the support of their parents.    The house was quickly packed up and the furniture put into storage, much to the girls surprise the Browns did not sell the house quickly, but put it with a letting agency to rent out for the girls.  The insurance money would pay the houses mortgage, so any profit from renting the house out would be put into an account to go towards the girls future.

Bright and early the day after the house keys had been given to the letting firm and the contracts signed, saw Lilly, Petunia and the rest of her  father’s relatives set off for their home down in Hertfordshire, from the premier inn that they had been staying in.

Mrs Boring brother had taken the girls belongings etc in the van he had hired, and with her uncle they had left late last evening to make the journey back down south, so he return to work this morning.  How boring could you get thought Lilly, sitting in the back of a old ford Mondeo with her horse faced sister Petunia, they had quickly finished the small talk, and the four hours it took them to get her home were tortuous, oh no they couldn’t stop for breakfast at McDonald, it had to be a pokey Little Chef.

Rosemary just wanted the journey to end, next time  she vowed Lilly would be informed before the trip of how she was expected to behave! Or she would be the passenger in Conrad’s vehicle, and Dave’s brother could endure this hell.  She had tried to make massive allowances to the girls behavior, especially since the girls had both lost their parents.  But she could not stand another road trip like this, an angry silence except for the music prevailed in the car, Petunia had been no bother at all, but Lilly had pushed her luck with her husband, and when she whined once to many times, he pulled over in a layby on the A14 link road, and told her if she didn’t shut the f…k up, then she’d be walking the rest of the way to too Hertfordshire, because he for one was not going to put up with crap attitude any longer.

For the rest of the journey home, all could be heard was the radio and her husband muttering under his breath, “That he had enough of putting up with the little bitches crap for the last  two weeks.  She may have lost her parents, but that didn’t mean that you forgot the common courtesy’s and manners of life and thank God that Conrad and Rosemary would be looking after her.   Severus with his major problems, or Vera’s devil spawn kids were saints compared to Lilly”

So after that very unusual outburst from her husband (thirty years of marriage, and she could count the number of times he had used to word bloody on one hand, and never anything else) the journey was completed in silence, and thank God, she thought, at long last we have arrived at our house, and just as they pulled up into the drive way the door opened to reveal Severus with Jean who had obviously been looking out for them.

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They had all left Cokeworth for the last time bright and early one morning, Lilly never understood why they had to leave so early, to make it down south that day.  It not as if the retard wasn’t being well looked after by the rest of family boring after all, really it was inconsiderate to put anybody’s needs before her own wants and desires.

Well they had made back to the Borings new house, where she met the retard and the slimly snake, who had of course already managed to put the boot in regarding her to family Boring!

Then the next day, which was a Sunday, the whole family had congregated to ‘officially welcome them into the family’, well she was looking forward to ensuring that Snivellous the retard was firmly put in  his place now she was here.   Imagine her bloody horror when they had been informed that Petunia and herself were being farmed out to Mrs Boring brother and wife, one Conrad and Rosemary.  Petunia had of course excepted the news gratefully and well she should, after all she was after all like her parents had always said a ugly stupid bint, who would be lucky to land a job in Fine Fare or marry.  She on the other hand, deserved the best in life, her parents had always managed to ensure that she knew how talented, beautiful, intelligent, and mature she was!  So to be told that she had to live with Conrad and his wife in a small four bedroom cottage whilst Snivellous lived in the borings  mansion, with his every need being taken care of was unfair and unjust to her. 

But secretly Mrs boring thought no matter what the little talk or punishment, Lilly would always be a ‘mean girl’ as they were called now a days. No although she didn’t believe in corporal punishment for children but in Lilly’s case the saying ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’ could have been made for her, she had never had to face up to her actions or disciplined for breaking the rules, her parents had allowed her to get away with almost everything, even going so far at times to blame Petunia for any trouble Lilly got into. Well Mrs Boring thought it’s too late to start to try to rectify that now, no Lilly and her outlook on life would never change, she was a nasty, manipulative piece of work, and she would continue to be, thank god the two sons they had weren’t  like Lilly.