Consequences of Magic

Disclaimer: I don't own anything of the potrayed characters

Summary: An Easter accident leads aunt Petunia to seek assistence from one Harry Potter. Warning of Character Death (off screen)

1

The weather was dreadful when the man called Vernon Dursley was buried. Gathered around was a small group dressed in black; the group consisted out of friends and co-workers, with in the center, the Dursleys themselves. The family had grown since Harry last had seen them; alongside Petunia and Dudley, now stood a slightly plumb, young woman and two childern, a boy and a girl. The woman was clutching Dudley's arm, grieving, while the two childern struggled to understand what was happening. They were afterall, only four and six years old. That said, it was later said that the younger of the two, a girl named Violin did seem to have a look of understanding and sorrow on her face. She had always been a clever and quick on the uptake and for that, Vernon's favourite grandchild, right up until the end when it had happened. It was for that reason that the final member of the family attended the funeral, unnoticed by all but his aunt Petunia. Perhaps, if other muggles had been aware of the wizarding world as well as his aunt, then they too had reconized him. For Harry Potter sat in a nearby tree disguised as an unusually large raven with bright emerald eyes, his animagus form.

2

After the ceremony, when all had retreated to warm themselves in the lunchroom with some tea, Petunia shared some last tender moments with her husband. It was at that moment that Harry the raven flew from his perch and landed beside his aunt. He transfigured back to his robed human form and spoke.

"My condoleances for your loss."

Petunia turned to the man, she had last seen as a boy and noticed that Vernon's name for Harry, could no longer be applied. He really was no longer a boy, but then he had not been just a boy for quite some time. She too had heard the whispers some ten years ago. "Voldemort is gone.", "Potter got through." And some girls actually swooning over his name. At the time however, Petunia had been disgusted, but now as she looked at him; she had to give him some due respect. Besides, she wouldn't solve anything if she chased him off right away. Her entire family's well being depended on it, so with that actually called him by his name.

"Harry."

"I've gotten your owl."

Petunia winced at Harry's quick reply. She had not expected this to be easy, but the direct tone of her nephew's voice put her off, nevertheless. Plus, it served to remind her of the most degrading trip she had ever made, scouring the forest in search of an owl; to beg the creature to take the letter describing all that had occurred to him. Right at the time that Vernon had struggled to hang on to the last remnants of his live. She remained silent and only gave a small grunt as acknowledgement.

3

Harry studied his aunt's face and saw the damage that ran into her psyche. For a moment, she was no longer the woman that had tormented him during his first seventeen years, but a grieving middle aged woman. Yet that moment didn't last, it did however soften him up to some extend.

"I...I mean, you know I don't care much about you, just as you don't care much about me. Yet, it seems that faith just won't let us go our own merry way."

Harry paused as he let his aunt absorb the words and considered for a moment the previous occassion that he used these particular words. It had been right before destroying Nagini, the final horcrux. The snake had begged him for a way to save it's live, when Snape had stepped in and did the job for him. Voldemort had been furious at the betrayal and ordered Snape to be killed. It was in that instance, despite Harry's own confusion, that Harry had been given the necessary edge to defeat Voldemort once and for all. Now nothing as momentous would occur, Harry assumed, but still on a personal level, it just might. So he continued, just as he had with Snape.

"You wrote to me asking me for help, however I am not sure I want help you. You wrote for all the wrong reasons. You see magic as a disease, which it is not. You point it out as the cause of the problem, which it is not. Magic doesn't give an individual other rights, nor should it be the cause of fear."

Hermoine would be so proud of him, if she could hear him now. The political activisist in his sister-in-law, had worked for equality for all sentients for the better part of last decade and now it seemed that she was rubbing off on him. An huff from Petunia from however announced that she was not buying it.

"Your uncle died because of magic..."

Petunia stopped, when Harry seemed to be interrupting her, but before he could form the words, she continued nonetheless.

"I know your lot well enough. I witnessed your father and those bloody awful Marauders of his, plenty of times pulling pranks on us. I know of your darker side, which killed your grandparents, your very own parents and still you say, it is not a problem. We tried to raise you better then that."

"You didn't raise me at all!"

Harry raised his voice for this, but quickly calmed down. Four years of teaching experience had learned him to control his temper to some extend.

"The darker side, Voldemort, wasn't raised at all. The problem with our darker side isn't magic, it's human nature. It also wasn't magic that killed uncle Vernon. A child simply isn't capable of the hatred needed to perform a killing curse. Certainly not a four year old girl, whose playing with her grandfather. You said uncle Vernon had the ears of a rabbit, which probably means he was simply transfigured, just like Dudley all those years ago. It's just been Easter, right?"

The question took Petunia aback, but quickly nodded and asked why.

"Is it so hard to picture uncle Vernon playing with his granddaughter, him hopping around like the Easter bunny."

Harry himself couldn't picture his own words, but his aunt seemed to buy it so he continued.

"His granddaughter being a imaginative four year old with some magic talent, picturing him as the Easter bunny and trying to transfigure him in to said Easter bunny. The shock may have killed him, or the anger that undoubtingly followed, but it wasn't magic. You know better then anyone that uncle Vernon's heart wasn't in top condition."

4

Petunia considered her nephew's words and although she couldn't picture Vernon getting angry at Violin, even if she had proven to be magic. What she did know of was Vernon's heart. She had often told him to take it easy when playing with his grandchildern, but he never did seem to listen. So she decided that since the problem was acknowledged that they could look for a solution; so asked the question, which had been the point of her writing.

"Is there something that can be done?"

Harry shook his head, but Petunia understood that it was not neccesarilly the answer on her question. However Harry's answer was one that could have been given by that very gesture.

"You still do not get it. Magic is not a disease, nor would I give you the cure, if there even was one. You should treat her no different then you would her brother; be mindful of her abillity of course, but never in a million years dare to treat her like you treated me."

"But why us? Why not the Johnsons or the Hilfings living down the street?"

5

A lecture once given by Hermoine about something called genetics, recessive and dominant traits and transfiguring gametes, or something like that flashed before Harry, but he couldn't explain it, not to his aunt anyway. So he went for the simple answer.

"It runs in the family and apparently Dudley got lucky and found himself with a girl from another family with potential magic within their blood."

Petunia seemed to consider it for a long time and in that time Harry took a first look at the grave of his uncle. It was quite an unremarkable stone, with just the basic muggle inscriptions put on it. He did find it a bit peculair as he pictured a man as his uncle having a grave that was a bit more extravagant. Then again years of feeding Dudley and himself, must have had a adverse effect on their financial situation. He read the text to himself, found that he couldn't actually find himself to care. Considering however that the only link they ever shared was their animosity for eachother, it wasn't that odd.

Here lies Vernon Dursley

1954-2007

Beloved Husband, Father,

Grandfather and Friend

May Heaven smile upon him

Finally Petunia spoke up and asked if he would like to see Violin now. He gladly accepted, he would see who had the misfortune of being born in Dursley household with a magic talent.

6

Dudley Dursley watched as the last of the guests left the lunchroom to go homewards. He turned to the door on the other side of the room, muscles bulging underneath his suit, to see if his mother had yet appeared. The fat that he had once possessed had been long since replaced by muscles, acquired through years of rigorous training to be ready for his upcoming boxing career. However he had sustain far to many injuries to be able to ever make it past the amateur league and lately had begun to wonder if there wasn't more that he could do. Fortunately he had met Nicole at the start of his boxing career after another incident that had left him in the hospital and he was now actually happy to be there for his childern when they needed him. However Dudley wasn't a happy man right now, between his father dead, his mother a nervous wreck and his daughter being a freak like his cousin, it took all his strength not to falter. His father and mother-in-law looked at him, as if they too were thinking along similar lines, while his wife was entertaining Bob, his son. Violin however was seemingly solely focused on the door, which chose that moment to open, revealing his soaked mother. Following his mother, was a person he didn't want to see at all right now. Wearing a black robe with green lining, came in none other then Harry Potter.

"Mother, what is he..."

Dudley never finished his sentence as his mother interrupted him, even though her voice sounded like little more then a hoarse wimper.

"In light of recent events and the resulting problem." Petunia said, eyeing Violin, who had shifted her attention from the door to Harry. "I would like you to meet my nephew, Harry. The way he is dressed may give you a clue, but he like Violin here, has certain abillities."

She formulated the last part very carefully, almost pained as to admit that it came from her side of the family. However she did not have to worry as the other side was more then relieved to finally have possibility to get some answers. Thus began a full out assault on Harry, question wise that is. Which only stopped when a silent voice asked a question, too grave and fearful to normally come from a four year old.

"Mister, did you kill men?"

Dudley looked at his daughter and when he saw the look of fear on her face, he wanted to comfort her, but found himself frozen on the spot. Then he looked at his cousin and read in his face, a conflict which he hadn't known to be exist within him. He began to suspect that his cousin lived in a world in Dudley's fists, one of his greatest prides, were meaningless. And suddenly he knew with an absolute certainty that he would have been dead if it weren't for the freak. Then he did find that he could move and found his arms, Nicole and Bob, there comforting Violin.

7

Harry as well as the other adults in the lunchroom were stunned by the question of the four year old girl. He began recounting his school years and the hero complex that slept within him, was threatened to be awoken. However at the last moment, Ginny was there in the back of his mind threatening the threat with a Bat-Bogey hex. He then proceeded to recount him actually killing people and found none, not even Voldemort could be qualified as a kill. Voldemort had long since become less then a man and all Harry really did was vanquish all the darkness within Voldemort. In Voldemort case that had been just about everything, thus Voldemort had simply ceased to exist. With that he turned to the little girl, which was now surrounded by her family.

"No, I didn't and neither did you."

Violin nodded, not fully convinced, but there was no need for Harry to convince her of that. She had her family who did just that. Harry felt a ever so slight smile creep up his face; Dudders did came out reasonably all right, after all. So he turned to the grandparents and awaited their further questions.

8

At the end of the day, when Harry himself had returned home, after making sure that all questions were answered with a satisfying answer. He felt that everything would work out on it's own. The extended Dursley family, may not be the most tolerant family around when the subject was magic, but Violin had one thing working for her. She had been just about everyone's favourite prior to the incident and given that Harry ensured the family, that the accidents would be rare and sporadic if she led a normal live she would do just that. Until of course it was time to go to Hogwarts. That had actuelly been the most difficult subject to cover, for how do you explain all the classes to muggles. He had been asked about alternatives, but he felt as Hogwarts teacher, that the other two magic schools in Great Britain, were just not up to par. In the end, it had been Violin who had convinced everyone when she had opened up and heard about unicorns and other magical creatures living nearby. She had become even more excited when she had heard that she would be meeting more family once she was ready to begin.

"How did it go?"

Harry was interrupted in his strain of thoughts as he was greeted by Ginny with a kiss and a stampede of two carrot tops and black furball. The twins, Lily and Arthur alongside Simon. Harry led himself be toppled taking Ginny with him and thus the entire family ended up lying on the floor.

"I take it then, that it went well."

"Can't imagine how, but do tell, how did you know?"

"You're not brooding...too much."

The End