Growing Up: Part 3

Harry Potter is currently 6 years old. He has been living with his aunt, Petunia Dursley, and her husnband and son, for five years now. In all honesty, it was not great. You see, his aunt does not really care about him. She ignores evryhting he does and focuses only on her son Dudley. She is not really the problem though. He wished that he was just ignored. The true problem is his Unlce, Vernon Dursley. Vernon Dursley is an ignorant fat bigot that deems anything that was not normal freakish. He knew where Harry was from, even if Harry himself did not. So when Petunia is out of the House or not near them, Vernon will switch from calling him boy, to calling him freak. Whenever Vernon did not like something Harry did, he would find ways to punish him, often physically.

Harry is forced to stay in the cupboard under the satirs and sometimes he is not even able to get a meal everyday. Harry did not know what to do. He was malnurished and he was forced to where his cousin Dudley's hand me downs, and as Dudley takes after his father made the clothes comically large. Also, with Vernon threatening Harry if he does not get lower grades than Dudley at school and Dudley using his gang to bully Harry and get him in trouble at school. All of this lead to Harry being labelled a trouble maker so no one was willing to help him, even when he begged the neighbirs, the teachers and even policemen. Harry was slowly losing any faith for humanity, as the little he had seen was of people of people ignoring a small boy literally crying for help and no one doing anything about it.

One day, however, was exceptionally bad for Harry. Harry had just gotten chased by Dudley and his gang of friends when he finally arrived at home. It was the day that he had recieved his report card. He saw his grades and he thought that he would be safe as they were not particularly good. But when he saw his Uncle Vernon's angry red pig face, he knew that he had made a mistake. Apparently, Dudley's grades were so bad that even Harry's subpar grades beat them. This lead to Harry recieving the worst beating of his life. During this time, he recieved broken bones and a concussion. So there Harry was, beaten on the floor in a pool of his blood, hit by both his unlce's fists, kicks, and belt.

It was then that his Aunt Petunia came in. She walks into the house and saw her husband standing over a bloody object surrounded by blood. She then recognized the object as her nephew, wich was relativeky easiy as his face was mostly untouched. She screamed, "What did you do, Vernon? How could you? He was just a boy?" She began to sob.

"He's a freak. He deserved to be beaten like this. He thought that he could be smarter than our Dudley." Vernon Dursley answered.

Petunia was horrified of what her husband did. She than screams for him to get away from Harry. She goes into the kitchen and calls the police and an ambulance. Within 10 minutes, the police came into the house and saw the state Harry was in, with Petunia using a chair as a shield to keep an angry Vernon away from Harry. Vernon was quickly apprehended by the police and Harry was taken to the hospital. Vernon was going to go on trial for child abuse and attempt of murder. Petunia decided that she did not want to be married to a man who would beat an innocent child for Harry, and she doesn't know how long it had been going on. She felt guilty that she did not pay enough attention to her nephew to realize that he was being abused by her husband. The divorce pulled through, of course, and Petunia gained full custody of both Harry and Dudley. Vernon would also recieved more than 20 years in prison for doing such a thing to an innocent child.

At the hospital that Harry was staying in, Petunia came into his room. Harry was still sleeping because of the anesthesia after the surgery. Harry had so many injuries from over the years that went against Vernon on his trial. It was so bad that the police questioned if Petunia should be allowed to have custody of either child because of the severness of the injuries, though she fought tooth and nail to be able to keep custody.

Once Petunia was in the room, she sat next to Harry's bed and waited for him to wake up. She watched his sleep with eyes full of guilt and regret. When Harry finally woke up, he saw Petunia and looked up at her in fear. He was afraid that she was going to take him back to Vernon for more punishment. It was common for him to recieve more punishment if he passed out.

"I'm so sorry Harry," wispered Petunia, "He won't be able to hurt you anymore. I'm sorry that he was able to do something like this at all."

Harry just looked at her with wide doe eyes. His eyes were watering slightly. She never used his name and she never noticed him before. She usually ignores him every chance she can, only to recognize him as boy if she must. What surprised him the most, however, was the enuine look if regret and compassion in her eyes. Harry had always known that his parents had abandoned him, as his Uncle made sure that he could never forget that he wasn't wanted, but in this moment, he felt like he had someone that actually loved and would take care of him.

Petunia and Harry just sat in silence after that. Soon it was time for Petunia to leave and she went home. Petunia would come everyday to visit Harry whenever she could. Sometimes she would bring Dudley and sometimes she left him to sleep over at a friends. This continued until Harry was out of the hospital 2 weeks after the incident.

From the day they went home, it markd the change in an era in Harry's life where he wasn't an abused freak living in the cupboard under the stairs, to being Harry the normal kid who was actually intelligent and hardworking in school. He also was bullied a lot less as the teachers and neighborhood adults watched over him as they knew the full story of what was happening to Harry, regretting not helping him and ignoring him instead when he went to them for help.

Petunia also went out to buy Harry clothes that would fit him. When he went to change though, the scars on his chest and back sent a pang of sadness and regret through her heart. It hurt her to see the scars that her ex-husband had caused her nephew.

Years passed, and all signs of abuse he recieved had faded. The physical ones are still there but they have become barely noticable to the untrained eye unless that are pointed out. His malnutrition also faded when he had started to eat more food. He was moved to The spare bedroom that was previously being used for Dudley's broken toy collection. His grades also improved a lot, which allowed him to skip quite a few grades. At the age of 10, he ahd finished all of the credits for a normal education before university. Everynight, Harry will go to sleep content and feeling loved by his Aunt and even becoming friends with his cousin, who lost weight as the years went on. Because he was so happy with his new life, and knowing that he was abandoned by his old one, he asked his Aunt if he could have his name changed to Harry James Evans. From that day forward, he was no longer a Potter but an Evans.