AN: Whoo, long time since I posted for this story, I had a few other irons in the fire and this was put further and further back.

Well there is that, and life, life will wait for no one, after all we are all Life's lil Bitches.

I was going through my story stats while posting another story and I saw just how many fav's, alerts and views this story had in comparison to my other works, I'm totally floored at just how much this story, out of everything that I've posted, has been read.

Just seeing the traffic stats alone makes me a very happy man.

Well, enough of my ramblings off we go.

For a long time, ever since her parents had come home from the hospital with her baby sister Lily, Petunia had felt a deep insecurity over her looks; felt that her parents overlooked her in favour of her baby sister because of her looks, that she was ugly in comparison to Lily.

It was a thought had that clung to her relentlessly, that no matter what happened, no matter what she tried Petunia was always going to feel unpleasant in contrast with her sister.

Which was why, when Petunia had had that first glance into the bathroom mirror, she screamed at what looked back at her.

Petunia screamed for what felt like minutes, but her lungs, in reality only let her mouth expel sound for just over ten seconds before making Petunia stop to take a breath.

The high pitch noise in the bathroom had the immediate effect of waking all persons inside the house of 4 Privet Drive, a frantic Harry and a massively confused Dudley as they ran to the source of the noise.

The two boys, coming through the bathroom threshold, got their first look at their mum and auntie, and saw something, someone completely different.

"Who are you?" Dudley asked, quite scared to see someone he'd never seen before in his mum's bathroom.

"What are you talking about Dudley? Can't you tell, that's Auntie Petunia! Doesn't she look pretty?" Harry asked, quite taken in by the appearance that his auntie now sported.

Petunia now had a face that would stop men on the streets, Petunia was patting her face in various spots, nearly unable to believe what she was seeing starring back at her.

"No! I don't like it, change it back, change it all back!" wailed Dudley, turning to Harry with his face quickly gaining a shade of red that raised the resemblance to his dad a few notches; a look that had Harry immediately on edge and Petunia, shocked out of her disbelief and in an instant a hairs breath from taking her son by the ear for talking to Harry like he was.

"I want my old mummy back that gave me whatever I wanted and you nothing, the way it should be! Change her back freak, change it back now!" Dudley decried, striking out at his cousin, docking Harry in the shoulder with a chubby fist that sent Harry stumbling back and hitting the doorframe to the bathroom.

This action from Dudley caused a near like knee jerk reaction from Petunia, who, acting on the sudden burning anger from watching her Harry get hit by her son; sped up to the flabby boy, took hold of his ear and pulled, inciting a high pitch squeal from the boy.

"Listen to me and listen well, Dudley Dursley; if you ever do anything like that to your cousin ever again, I don't care the reason for it, I'll dump you at an orphanage!" she spat, pulling him by the ear down the stairs to its cupboard where she unceremoniously pushed him into, slamming the door closed.

An instant later Petunia was racing back to the bathroom where Harry had fallen, to see her nephew wincing in pain from the impact of his back to the doorframe and the punch to his shoulder from Dudley.

Rushing to Harry, Petunia fall to her knees, pulling Harry into a comforting embrace, careful of Harry's injured back and shoulder.

As she cradled Harry in her arms she heard him sniffling, trying to stifle the sobs from his pain, a behaviour that Harry had learnt to peruse from as far back as he could recall, a habit that he hadn't been able to shake.

"It's alright Harry Dear, I won't hurt you for crying…you can let it out, you'll feel better not holding it in." she told him, patting Harry's back gently. Slowly, with his aunts cajoling Harry let slip his control and cried his pain out.

Minutes later, when Harry's tears had ceased flowing, the green eyed bow faced his aunt with a smile.

"Thank you Auntie." He told her with a sniff.

"I'd do it again in a heartbeat." Petunia replied, kissing Harry's crown. "It should be me thanking you, for changing me into this, you gave me the power to change…not just the inside, but the outside as well."

"I did that? Wow…" Harry said in wonder.

"Wow indeed, now I feel even closer to your mother, thanks to you." There they sat for a minute of bliss just the two of them, before Harry's stomach gave a growl, reminding the both of them that they neither had had any breakfast as of yet.

"What's say you and I have pancakes for breakfast?" Petunia offered Harry as they got off the floor of the bathroom.

"With honey and butter?" Harry asked, brows raised in hope.

"Yes, with honey and butter," Harry was up on his feet going for the stairs before his auntie spoke again. "But you'll have to get dressed first, to your room young man."

Abashed that he's forgotten something so fundamental, Harry retreated to his room to change out of his pyjamas while Petunia returned to the bathroom to finish the rest of her morning bathroom routine; losing herself in the mirror every few seconds, still scarcely believing what was looking back at her.

Petunia met Harry in the kitchen, digging out the pan and mixing bowl for the pancake mix.

"I'll be right with you to help with the gathering of ingredients and the mixing Harry, I just have to do something first, so don't start yet alright?" she told Harry before going to the stairs cupboard and unlocking it, showing Dudley cramped up in a ball, barely able to fit in such a confined space, nursing his very sore ear, his face stained with tears.

"Do you know why I put you in here Dudley?" She asked rhetorically. "I told you that if you did anything to hurt Harry like that again then you would end up here… you didn't listen so here you are. Now go get dressed and come back to the table…I'm going to make you some toast for breakfast." Petunia told her son in a tone that brokered no argument. Her piece said Petunia turned on the spot and returned to the kitchen leaving her son free to do as he was told.

A downtrodden and sad boy left the cupboard under the stairs to do what his mother told him.

Another piece of Dudley's perfect world shattered.

His mother didn't even look like herself anymore.

He was living a nightmare!

Dudley returned from his room to the dining room to the smell of pancakes wafting in from the kitchen.

"Sit at the table and wait for your food." His mother told him. Begrudgingly Dudley did so, a frown marring his face.

"As a consequence of your actions earlier Dudley, you can only eat the toast I made you." His mum said, setting a plate of two slices of toast with honey on top in front of him.

"I wanted pancakes like the Fre- I mean Harry and you." Dudley whinged.

"If you didn't hit your cousin you could have, but because you were nasty this is what you get instead, you will just have to learn from your mistake and not do it again; when a person is bad, no matter who it is, that person has to be taught a lesson, sadly this time that person is you Dudley." His mum told him before returning to help Harry miss and make the pancakes on the stove.

It was a lesson that Dudley would find very hard to come to grips with as the years went by.

His days or harassing his cousin at school in class, in the playground and in the neighbourhood were at an abrupt end and he didn't know what to do.

0v0

Unfortunately for Dudley, things didn't go all that well in the coming weeks turned months; as he recalled a policeman had come to the house to inform his mum that his dad had had an accident while he was in jail and was now in intensive care in hospital.

"…were it someone a little less bulky, the damage your husband suffered from his beating would not have been so severe; as it is however he's suffered massive internal organ damage to his digestive tract and repertory system with five broken ribs, a snapped arm, a broken foot and a cracked femur." The officer at the door told him mum.

"I see, that's horrible news." There was a pause. "Did he, per chance get into a fight or argument, was it his fault or was accidental?"

"I'm sorry ma'am, we don't have those specific details, we were only told the bare minimum before being told to come speak to you in person rather than over the phone, as there seems to be some kind of interference with the phone lines in this area and couldn't get in contact with you any sooner." Informed the officer.

"Oh I see, well thank you very much for coming to tell me this." Petunia replied solemnly.

"Hopefully the phone lines get fixed and no one will have to come tell you such bad news face to face in the future ma'am, try to have a nice day." The officer said before departing. Petunia silently closed the door before shaking her head.

"Vernon you stupid idiot…" Petunia muttered before calling for Dudley to give him the bad news.

Having the news that his dad had been hurt so bad from the police was one thing, but to hear from his own mother speaking about his dad like that set him off and he lashed out at her, striking out at his mum with a clenched fist to the face.

No sooner had the skin of his fist made contact with the skin of his mother's face then there was a loud snap like an electrical discharge that blew the young boy backwards into the wall opposite him, though not hard enough to hurt him.

"You…you just tried to hit me! Your own mother!" Petunia cried out, in disbelief.

"You're not my mother, you don't look like her or act like her, ever since the police took dad away! I hate you!" Dudley screamed out at her.

Undeterred by her sons words, which if the circumstances were different would have destroyed Petunia Dursley's world; she took hold of her son by the arm and led him to the stairs cupboard, slamming the door shut before locking it and going back to the study with a determined glint in her eye.

Unknowingly to Petunia, as Dudley was screaming at his mother, Harry had unconsciously tapped into the Domes code and added in a new line:

You had to love those under this roof to stay here.

Meeting Harry's eyes, Petunia took note of the awed look Harry was giving her.

"Harry, what is it?" she asked.

"The magic symbols have changed for some reason around you, I don't understand why but they seem to be singing, like something really big happened…was it that loud snap just then?" Harry asked, confused.

"Yes I think it was, whatever that loud snap was, was definitely what changed the symbols, I can actually feel it now that the shock of what Dudley just did has worn off." Petunia answered as she began to look through a stack of books on a shelf.

Harry's face sprouted a dark scowl.

"I can't believe that Dudley tried to hit you."

"I wish I could say I didn't, but truthfully I had a sinking feeling that something like this would happen, ever since your uncle was taken by the police I had a sinking feeling something like this would happen, I just didn't know how to deal with it, and that delay has led us to this." She told her nephew, taking out a thick book and opening it on the desk.

"What are you doing auntie?" Harry asked, a little worried for his auntie as the magical code circling his auntie changed its tone. Petunia held off an answer for a dozen seconds till she found the right page with the right number and began to dial.

"I'm going to make a phone call, so please don't try talk to me or make any loud noise until I'm finished, ok Harry?" Petunia asked gently as the phone began to ring.

"Ok Auntie, I'll be quiet." Harry promised, pinching his index finger and thumb and drawing them across his mouth like a zip. Petunia's hard gaze melted a little bit at Harry's small act, before the phone stopped ringing; someone had picked up on the other end.

"Hello Surrey Child Services? Yes hello, this is Petunia Dursley née Evans I was calling to ask about…"

0v0

Within 2 days of that call to Child Services, several government affiliated employees with Child Services had come to 4 Privet Drive and, upon Petunia signing half a dozen forms, they had taken Dudley from the house, despite Dudley's loud shouted protests.

When the front door closed and the cars drove away Petunia let out a sad sigh before cuddling up to Harry.

It was sad that she had to send Dudley away but it became increasingly clear that she had made the correct decision to call Child Services to have Dudley taken away, as he just could not understand the increasing number of changes happening around the house, to Harry and herself specifically.

Dudley, as a result of these changes, had spent so many hours under the stairs, outside of when he was at school, that Petunia was at the end of her rope until she had received the call from Child Services that they had scheduled an appropriate time for all parties involved to pick up Dudley to take the unruly child off her hands.

In fact, it was just after the cars from Child Services had completely driven away from Privet Drive Surrey that there was a knock at the door, jolting Petunia and Harry to attention.

Opening the door, Petunia and Harry were met with quite a few of their neighbours, all primed to ask a multitude of questions.

Many of Petunia and Harry's neighbours, including the weird cat lady Mrs. Figg from a few houses down (which Harry could see faint magical traces on her, not in her), were a bit weirded out that Petunia had sent her son away leaving her with just Harry.

Petunia then did her level best to explain to her neighbours that Dudley could not handle the changes around the house after his father had been taken in by the police and thinking that Harry and Petunia were the cause of it all, the poor boy had lashed out at them, making the house unsafe for the two of them, prompting the call to Child Services.

This explanation seemed to curtail Petunia's neighbours' weirded out feelings about Dudley being sent off, making the single mother relax a bit more.

"Ah, I had a feeling that something like this was going to happen, never liked that Vernon fellah and he raised that Dudley to be just like him, I don't blame you Petunia." One neighbour said.

Interestingly, after Harry and his aunt had begun to explore this magical code of the surrounding street, the neighbours, almost parallel to Petunia herself, became less stuck up and self-obsessed and more friendly… a more altogether friendly suburb.

And this change showed itself then and there, as Petunia's neighbours consoled her for the fallout of her young son acting like he had, that ultimately ending with the pudgy boy being taken away by Child Services.

Whereas before, if this had happened there would be no group gathering, only people sneaking a peak through their windows at the action happening in the street.

Whilst the magic surrounding the neighbourhood compelled Petunia to, ultimately, care for Harry above all else, she did still have a spot within her that felt bad for what had happened to Dudley; though Petunia felt better that now that her troublemaker son was out of the way she should focus her attention solely on Harry.

After several more minutes of answering questions from her neighbours, Petunia felt Harry tug on her sleeve.

"Thank you for your concern, all of you; I, no, we," Petunia said, holding Harry to her side to emphasise her point it was more than just her she was talking about. "Appreciate it a great deal. Hopefully these will be the closing pages of a dark part in our lives, we can only hope that they get better from here on. Now Harry and I have some housework that we have to get through, so we have to say goodbye now."

Slowly the crowd at 4 Privet Drive dispersed, allowing Petunia to close the door, letting out a sigh of relief.

"Hopefully we can avoid such questionings in the future, right Harry?" Petunia asked with a weak smile.

Not one to like crowds either, Harry happily agreed, before his face grew contemplative, his mind going back to Mrs Figg.

A look that Petunia picked up on.

"What is it? What's got you thinking?"

"It's …Mrs Figg…she's got signs of being around magic…like she lives around it, I think she might be watching us, watching me." Harry said, his imagination running away from him, coming up with the most bizarre scenarios.

"Relax Harry, I'll speak with Mrs Figg when you go to school tomorrow and ask her about it; everything will be just fine, you'll see." Petunia said, trying her best to console her nephew and his overworking imagination.

"What if she is an alien cat from outer space that eats magical people like you and me, why else would she have so many cats, maybe she's feeding people like you and me to her cats? Or a cat people person training up an army to take over the world? Maybe she just eats cats? Or maybe she…"

Petunia mentally groaned, this was going to be a long afternoon/evening.

AN: You would not believe how long it took me to write this thing, and as i'm not a professional writer (like almost everyone on , lets be honest here, if we were we wouldn't be writing on this site or any others like it) i know there's going to be mistakes, i'll pick them off as i reread these posts, yes i read these things too, reading in different formats reveals errors you would otherwise miss, if you didn't already know xD.

as this IS a fanfic, there is something i want to say about reviews, so if you were kind enough to stick around and read the AN here is comes.

*Takes a deep breathe*

Lack of reviews is the greatest killer of fanfic writers out there and of stories of writers. Here are just a few things that you, yes you the reader, can help prevent this from happening.

Drop a review every other chapter or every chapter. It may not seem like much, but reviews are actually what many of us want to see. That, and hits. Hits do make us happy, but we don't really know if people like our story or not.

Send an email. While usually, We would prefer a review, emails are just as good. Really, it warms our hearts to communicate with another reader or writer.

And Finally...

What you call being "too lazy to review" is what we call "a flame to the pages" as the writers. That one minute or two that you felt "too lazy" to review is another minute of creeping discouragement that all writers feel as they begin to think...

And I'm done. Now if you are or aren't familiar with what has been written up above, this was taken from a bio from a friend of a friend and while it is not my own words, it is something that i am an avid believer in.

I just hope you will take a moment to consider it.

Till next time.

(Oh and no, the next end chapter AN won't be this long next time, i'm 85% to 90% sure on that.)

Heh.