#dursleys

[sybill-the-seer]

A Bath or Two

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Summary: Bathtime at Number 4 Privet Drive in 1984 is very different to bathtime at Harry and Ginny's house in 2002. Harry plans to keep it that way.

Note: Thank you so much to @turanga4 for her incredible beta help, and to the TTB discord server for their wonderful wizarding bath toy ideas (all credit goes to @not-steve42 for the Grindylow idea)!

TW: Child abuse

Harry sat, stiff and cold in the tepid bath water, trying to cheer himself with the thought that his ordeal would soon be over. Aunt Petunia scrubbed his arm roughly, then let it splash back down into the now nearly opaque water. As she reached for the shampoo, Harry only just stopped himself groaning in despair.

“Please don’t let it get in my eyes this time!” he whinged, but he knew it was useless. Aunt Petunia never listened to him.

Sure enough, Aunt Petunia merely pursed her lips at his words, scooped up some water with the plastic cup she used for bathtime, and dumped it on his head unceremoniously, wetting the dark unruly strands in preparation for a scrub.

Harry screwed up his eyes as the water poured down his face, bracing himself for what he knew was coming next. Now he felt Aunt Petunia’s bony fingers on his scalp, rubbing the shampoo into his hair none too gently. Harry felt her fingers leave his head, heard the splash of the plastic cup in the water behind him, and reached up to cover his eyes, but it was too late. The soapy water cascaded down through his bangs, straight into his eyes before rushing down the rest of his face and dripping off his chin.

“Ow!” Harry cried, as the stinging began, his fingers flying to his eyes automatically. But rubbing only made it worse, and Harry began to cry as another waterfall of water and shampoo fell over his head.

Harry was crying in earnest now – he was blinded by the soap and the stinging, and Aunt Petunia’s dumping was only making things worse. Now he could taste the foul, bitter soap in his mouth.

“Stop!” Harry wailed, pushing Aunt Petunia’s hand away in an effort to make the water cease. It worked for a moment.

“Stop this nonsense, boy, I have to get the soap out of your hair!” she snapped, scooping up another cupful of water.

Still blinded by water and soap, Harry thrust out his hand again to block the water cup, but missed. At least, he didn’t feel his hand make contact with anything other than the slippery side of the bathtub. And yet he still heard Aunt Petunia screech at the same time as a splash – but the splash didn’t land on his head. He heard the thump of what he thought was a crouched Aunt Petunia losing her balance and hitting the floor before –

“What in heaven’s name do you mean by it, boy?!”

Harry tried to open his eyes to see what had happened, but he was too late. Aunt Petunia’s hand had grabbed his hair roughly, and now he was face down in the water.

He couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t come up for air, the hand was holding him down and Harry tried to yell at her to let him go but only bubbles came out…

It was only a moment before his aunt’s grip loosened abruptly, though it felt like an eternity, and Harry sat up, gasping and spluttering, blinking the water out of his eyes in shock. He looked over to see Aunt Petunia staring at her hand with astonishment and horror, water splashed all down the front of her blouse, the plastic bath cup far away from the tub on the floor. He wanted to ask what had happened, but stopped himself, deciding it would be unwise in Aunt Petunia’s current state. Instead, he watched her warily until she seemed to come back to her brisk self, ordering him out of the bath and tossing him a faded towel. He thought he heard her mutter something about “unnaturalness,” and “abnormalities,” before he scurried back to his cupboard to change into his pajamas.

________________________

Almost a lifetime later, Harry sat near his own bathtub looking down at the small boy splashing happily in the water. He held up a rubber duck to show Harry (a gift from Ginny, who found Muggle children’s toys delightful), chattering away about the story he was creating with all his bath toys. As he did so, his hair turned exactly the same shade of yellow as the duck.

“- he’s just crashed into that ship, see, and now the ship’s sinking – uh oh –” Teddy reached for the small ship, snatching it up into his little hand just before it hit the bottom of the bathtub.

“Saved it!” he cried, now holding both the ship and the duck in the air victoriously.

“That’s good,” Harry replied, “because we’re nearly done, and I don’t think we’d want to end bathtime with a shipwreck.”

But Teddy had already turned away, his mind lost to his imaginings once more. Harry filled the bath cup with water, cupped his hand to Teddy’s forehead, and poured the warm water over his bright hair. Teddy hardly noticed, now muttering an imagined conversation between the rubber duck and some sailor figurines who were shaking their little fists furiously.

While once Harry’s unpracticed hands had moved tentatively and unsteadily, unsure of how to angle the cup and his hand to avoid Teddy’s eyes, afraid of somehow slipping up and making him cry, now they were well used to the bathtime routine. In fact, Harry quietly prided himself on the fact that bathtime was never protested whenever Teddy came to stay.

Harry reached for the shampoo now, poured it smoothly into his other hand, and began massaging it gently into Teddy’s vivid hair, which slowly changed from yellow to black as he relaxed at Harry’s touch. Bath toys momentarily forgotten, Teddy tilted his head as far back as it could go and grinned up at Harry, his hazel eyes sparkling.

“That feels good.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

And with a little hum of contentment Teddy rolled his head back, Harry’s hands following his movement as he continued to massage in the shampoo. Teddy then reached for his little enchanted grindylow figurine that had been swimming lazily through the bathwater. As his hand approached it, it darted quickly away, and the boy laughed.

“Ok, time for a rinse,” Harry said, reaching again for the bath cup. “And then we’re all done.”

“All done?” Teddy whinged. “But I’m not done yet!”

“I’m sure Ginny will be waiting for us though – she probably has a game for us to play before bedtime. And don’t you want to try the hot chocolate we made?”

“I forgot about hot chocolate!”

“I thought you might have,” Harry chuckled, as Teddy turned away, now waiting impatiently for him to finish rinsing his hair.

Soon, Teddy had been helped out of the bath, into a warm towel, and finally into his pajamas covered with tiny custard puffskeins.

“Ginny!” he cried, rushing into the sitting room where Ginny sat, curled up on the sofa with a cup of hot chocolate. “Where’s my hot chocolate?” he asked, looking intently at her mug.

“Hmm, are you sure I didn’t drink it all myself? You were in the bath a long time…”

She grinned over at Harry, who shrugged helplessly. He had never been good at getting Teddy out of the bath promptly – it always took more than one coaxing to get Teddy out of the tub when Harry was in charge, and Ginny knew it. He didn’t mind though, as long as Teddy was having fun.

“No you didn’t! That cup’s not big enough for it all! I’m going to go check.” Teddy turned to race into the kitchen, Ginny getting up off the sofa to chase after him.

“You’ll have to beat me to it!” she called, and Teddy squealed happily.

Harry grinned and followed after them into the kitchen.

Note: I have a feeling I might get questions about this, so I’m just going to address it now: Petunia was NOT trying to drown Harry! It was an act of both rage and fear after the first instance of accidental magic, and an attempt to startle him out of crying. Still a completely unacceptable thing to do, and blatant child abuse, but no, she was not intending to drown him and I can’t see her ever attempting to go that far.

[sweetcatteahp]

When I tell you that I am CONVINCED that the reason it was so easy for the Dursleys (including Petunia) to hate Harry and starve him was due to his race aswell as the fact he was the son of Lily and James.

I also think it was one of the reasons they hated James so much and called him a drunk easily.

[hp-shippy-prompts]

Prompt:

Harry fought to hold back tears as he was marched through the dim corridors, his hands secured behind him. He supposed he should have been thankful to the Dursleys for their opinion and treatment of him over the years, but he felt like his already miserable life had now taken a turn for the worst, and he almost wished for the finality his so-called family were about to be given.

Vernon, a greedy and foolish man, had been found guilty of embezzlement. He and his family were already reasonably wealthy, and yet he’d sought more, disregarding the inevitable consequences, thinking he wouldn’t get caught. He was wrong.

He was tried and found guilty by the Lord Emperor’s courts, and, as was the law for the ungifted folk, all members of his family were found guilty along with him and would receive his punishment. They were all to face death by curse at sundown.

All but Harry.

All the Dursleys possessions were cataloged and compared against the official register, and then they were redesignated as property of the Emperor, and this was where the Dursleys cruelty saved their nephews life. Harry had been officially registered as a slave, as a household possession, and was therefore not considered a person and so was not technically a member of Vernon’s family. While the Dursleys were dragged off to be executed, Harry was taken to be added to the Emperor’s estate.

[startledstoat]

I'd say I did nothing productive today but I think the five hours I spent drawing up an organized version of the Black family tree that branches off and includes the Potter, weasleys, longbottoms, love goods, etc, was very productive of me

[wookiecookiesfactory]

My Self indulgent harry hc is that His favorite song is "I am still standing" by elton john, he managed to get (stole) one of dudleys's old ass walkman and he has one single cassette that he found and that he uses it to play this song on repeat, for hours, he can only hum to it when he is home alone because vernon hates elton.

[aficionadoenthusiast]

idk how it works in the UK, but in the us when you assume responsibility of someone else's kid, a social worker comes and checks on your house at least once a month (it may be more)

I feel like all of Harry's stuff being in the cupboard under the stairs would be something people would notice, but maybe that's just me

so if my suspicions are correct, someone (Dumbledore) was actively stopping anyone from taking harry out of an abusive household

[ginnyw-potter]

Do you think Harry would have any quirks from living with the Dursley's?

And do you have any headcannons about the Dursley's?

Definitely! I think there's a lot that's just engrained in him that he doesn't realise is a little fucked up. Like he gets to know that people do like him and are nice but there's underlying stuff there. I can imagine if other people fight he'd disappear and go into his bedroom and don't come out.

Imagine Mrs Weasley yelling at one of the kids and Harry doesn't understand why the rest of them don't run for cover and actually find it entertaining.

Or if he makes a mistake like while cooking for example he'd probably apologize profusely.

These may be a bit more than quirks but I think his time with the Dursleys really lives within him, often in small ways he's not aware of.

I don't have many headcanons, the books already gives us plenty. They're a stuck-up suburban family that mainly care about what the neighbors may think because appearances is all they have. They want to live an ordinary life so bad and then someone drops them a wizard child from her estranged sister. imagine the horror.

I think Dudley really betters his life after they had to go into hiding and he actually learned something other than what Vernon told him about magic (plus overcoming his magical trauma) like he's a spoiled 18 yo brat but he can still come around

Vernon is just an abusive asshat I don't have anything to say about him.

Petunia is a very layered character but I think her fear of how she's perceived + her husband and her experience with Snape, keeps her from really growing out of that mindset. She had to grieve her sister while taking care of her 1 yo she never met while she had a kid of her own that's barely older. She's had a hard time but it doesn't really do much to excuse her behaviour.

[lifeinbrick]

WHAT IF...Hagrid was followed. Much shorter story...

Imagine, a Superman: Red Son style take on Harry Potter where he's raised by Death eaters - Now that is 8 movies I want to see.

[marystulips]

“Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbors.”

Who knew that in a sudden fit of art rage, I’ll make fanart of Petunia Dursley and she would promote herself to a favourite character in the process?

[farieshades]

:) :) :) :) :) :) :)

What parts (if any) would you change about Harry Potter?

I had the initial thought of “Scrape it all and start anew” but as I was writing that I was deeply reminded that the books, while deeply problematic in multiple ways, were a core part of a lot of people’s lives. 

So, what would I change? I can think of 5 main things off the top of my head. 

Slavery

And by that I mean, of course, the entire race being enslaved by Wix that only Hermione seems to find problematic. Like, there is absolutely no need for this. The Weasley house doesn’t have any House elves and yet there is enchantments on items to do the work for them, and in the Fantastic Beasts series we see a meal being made by a flick of a wand. So what’s to stop them from going ‘all these things can be done by magic’ not a slave race that ‘enjoy’ their status as slaves to wix. 

Now, Nothingeverlost on tiktok does a video to a comment on how “She took brownies and tisted them into an enslaved society that people could abuse and belittle” and their video spoke about how Brownies/Brooni/eBrùnaidh/Gruagach worked on their free will and would be paid in a way for their service through milk or bread or cream, but these weren’t elves, they were household spirits. 

[Illustration of a brownie sweeping with a handmade broom by Alice B. Woodward from Wikipedia]

So, what part would I change? Just the entire removal of this. It serves nothing in the lens of household chores and cooking. The only actions that it seemed to serve was when Regulus ordered Kreature to get out of the cave to destroy the locket. This could reliably have been done without the aspect of slavery put into place and most of the House Elf characters could have easily been replaced with just plain workers and staff. 

2. Jewish representation. 

I’m realising this is the second post im mentioning both House Elves and Goblins, but thats just a neat fact to myself. 

Goblins, as throughout history, have been portrayed with antisemitism stereotypes and carictures [https://www.ushmm.org/collections/the-museums-collections/collections-highlights/500-years-of-antisemitic-propaganda-the-katz-ehrenthal-collection] , which isn’t a Harry Potter series issue, but a historical one in general that, apparently, a few articles have mentioned earlier in 2022. But nevertheless, there is still the portrayal of the Goblins with hateful anti-semetic tropes running the underground bank for Wix, while being called untrustworthy, greedy, and generally not positive. 

Indeed, our first look in the books is in Philosopher’s Stone, when Hagrid, who raises monsters as a passion, warns Harry about goblins before he enters Gringotts with "They're goblins, Harry. Clever as they come, goblins, but not the most friendly of beasts." Despite the fact that Goblins are not "beasts," but rather a fully sentient, intelligent race much like humans.

I am of Jewish descent from my parents, thought I've only started reclaiming my faith through readings and research due to displacement from WW2, so i'm not quite 'qualified' to speak on matters like this in my opinion, but I wanted to mention it anyway, as it has distinctly been identified by others in the past. The images from Nazis look also strickingly like the Goblins we also see in the show, such as "Der Ewige Jude" and other such pictures and works. 

[Der Ewige Jude - Ein Dokumentarfilm Uber Das Weltjudentum - Gertaltung: Firtz Hippler - Musik: Franz R Friedl - Herstellung u. Vertrieb: Deutsche Filmherstellungs u Verwertungs || The Eternal Jew - A documentary about World Jewry [The term Weltjudentum is derogatory for a global network of influential Jews that supposedly rules the world or aims at that] - Directed by Fritz Hippler - Music by Franz R. Friedl - Production and distribution: German film production and processing]

Now, in folklore, goblins are often depicted as cruel creatures, untrustworthy and likely to take any item they could get their hands on, not bankers that want to be in control of an economy with paper pushers and cartriders and dragon tamers in their heirarchical employ. This doesn't help with the lessons Hogwarts teaches in the droll class that Professor Binns teaches on that there are centuries of goblin oppression, segregation, mistrust, bad relations, exclusions, and revolts. 

[Illustration of hooked nosed, hunched backed, dark haired with beard Jew with hands clasped together with a sense of greed or untrustworthy/connvining expression]

Of course, there is antisemetism through the works unrelated to the Goblins as well

The only canonically known Jewish character is Anthony Goldstein, and possibly the other Goldstein family members, which when it was announced did feel like a random name she remembered being said but then, Anthony is a Ravenclaw and we don’t see much of them outside of Cho and Luna. 

Now, Frankie_Rose19 on Reddit mentions Severus Snape  "being hook nosed, pale, dark hair and eyes and very academically minded and ambitious when he was younger is Jewish coded", they also reference Hermione in that. Now, Snape has a lot of symbolism that has been used to depict villains, and unfortunately, alot of that is based in antisemetic roots, but then Wix religion isn't quite talked about. Which makes sense in a heavily Christianized Europe under the KJV belief of "Thou shalt not suffer a Witch to live". Now on Snape, I think @prismatic-bell has a post for the topic there.

So, what part would I change? Do we need to have Goblins running a bank, because I don’t think so. I like that there is mythical, sentient creatures, but the steeped antisemitism in their depiction within the race is unnecessary. The existence of Goblins could still be around the HP universe, but why are the Wix trusting a race known for untrustworthyness to protect their money when there have been revolts in the past. According to History taught by Binns, its that there is a law that prevents Wix from opening their own bank, but in what world [well, obviously this one] did Goblins want to serve Wix when Wix treat them as an inferior race.

And on the other religious representation, there could have been more characters than an offhanded comment by the creator. Rather, there could be plenty of references to diverse backgrounds, even in simple comments like offering a dish at the dining table to have someone refuse it or a piece of jewlery that is noted on.

3. Just to say fuck you, Trans!Hermione, because I too am a bookish fiend who will info dump onto unsuspecting friends, and I too am most assuredly not cis. And, like the above statement, the potential of Jewish-coded Hermione.

4. Wix Gay Marriage Rights.

No idea if there’s any comment on this in the books, but I want there to be. Even just an offhand couple doing random shopping things. Or two classmates getting together and it being told about through Lavender (who doesn’t change from a POC to a white girl when she becomes a love interest thanks). 

5. The Dursleys. 

There is alot wrong here. 

In the first chapter of Philosopher Stone, young Harry is sent to live with his non-magical Aunt and Uncle proceeding the murder of his parents. While standing on the end of the street and conversing with Professor McGonagall, Dumbledore says, “It’s the best place for him— His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he’s older. I’ve written them a letter.” The Dursley’s were incredibly neglectful towards Harry. Harry often went days without meals and spent weeks locked inside the cupboard under the stairs. Later in Half-Blood Prince we also get the wonderful quote of “You have never treated Harry as a son. He has known nothing but neglect and often cruelty at your hands. The best that can be said is that he has at least escaped the appalling damage you have inflicted upon the unfortunate boy sitting between you.” 

In fact, there are many times (at least once a year according to Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone) when the Dursley family went on holiday and they left Harry behind with Ms Figg. In 1995, she admitts that while she didn’t enjoy it, she intentionally kept Harry bored and miserable, as she thought that the Dursleys would remove him from her care if they thought he enjoyed it.

So, what part would I change? I’d choose to show the audience that the depictions of abuse are horrifying. That the adults, Vernon and Petunia, should have been punished. I’ve no idea what the Child Protective Services looked like in 1980-1998 but surely something could have been done. If not by the muggles, then by Ms Figg who was in contact with Dumbledore, and I don’t care how important the blood wards were, that's no excuse to leave a child in an abusive home environment. I’d also try to give positive muggle influences in the series outside of vague references to Hermione’s parents.

[springairs]

Urges

“C-come now,” Vernon chokes out, voice trembling horrendously. “I’m your uncle.”

The anger in Harry doubles at that. “Damn fucking right you were,” he snarls. “And you treated me no better than the shit on the bottom of your shoe.”

or

The one in which Harry finally gets his revenge.

[sybill-the-seer]

Dudley’s old coat may be a bit too big for Harry, but at least it keeps him toasty warm on his way to school!

[hogwarts201]

The Complex Motivations Behind Petunia and Vernon Dursley's Care for Harry Potter

Why Did Petunia and Vernon Dursley Take in Harry Potter Despite Their Hatred? In the world of Harry Potter, Harry’s aunt and uncle, Petunia and Vernon Dursley, harbored strong dislike and mistreated him. However, the question remains: why did they take him in? At the start of the first Harry Potter movie, Professor Albus Dumbledore arrives at Privet Drive. McGonagall, disguised as a tabby cat,…

[ihsnamih]

[asktheheirofslytherin]

How do you feel about the abuse Harry suffered at the Dursleys hand

This is an interesting question.

I suppose on the one hand I feel nothing - I was not the one to be suffering, and Potter is not anyone I have any sliver of interest in the well being of. In fact I want him dead.

At the same time how dare the Durselys treat a superior in such a manner. They were tasked with the honor of raising a wizard - something I would never task a muggle to do, ever - and not only was their execution of such a task an atrocity, but they did so deliberately.

The principle of the thing is that muggles mistreated and abused a wizarding child (from a renowned family, no less) and they should pay a price for such an act.

[nowlander]

What is your overall opinion on the Harry Potter book series? TBH I feel like the series was random and unnecessary cruel at times, Snape was a better written part of the series, probably because he was based of a real person

I understand what you mean by random. It was originally conceived as generic children media, in fact reminds me a lot of 90s made-to-television movies, like 1998 Madeline, or 1996 Clubhouse detectives, none of them supposed to be taken too seriously, so neither author or editors concerned with creating a diegesis that actually made sense, what for?

It was only later that they decided to try and sell it as a more serious saga, but the tone was already set and several details just didn't add up. It's clear that little historical research was made and the series has quite a few anachronisms.

I totally agree it was unnecessarily cruel often times. Plot-wise, and character development-wise, is very lazy that Harry has to stay with the Dursleys and that they never get better. I suspect that Rowling thought it had to be that way because in classics like Matilda or A little princess, the kids don't get away from their abusive environments until the very end, and I mean, the Dursleys are just a Wormwoods ripoff.

The house elves! 😡 Slavery apologism! I always hated it. People have acused me of making that up, that "of course I didn't care that much as a kid". I did. I don't know what kind of children these people were, but I actually was taught that slavery was evil. I also didn't like pokemon by the way, with pokemon existing just to serve humans and them unremorsefully having them get hurt. I prefered digimon frontier, with the kids transforming and battling by themselves, thank you very much.

Hagrid attacking Dudley to punish Vernon, Harry's violent attack to Malfoy in Prisoner of azkaban, Harry constantly ditching Neville and literally being embarrassed to even be seen around him (thought of course that is regular teenage behavior), "Moody" abusing Malfoy... It's as if being one of the good guys™ grantes you right to be nasty and it was magically funny when bad guys™ were tretaed unjustly. Unjustly, I reiterate because I don't oppose Malfoy, Dudley or Vernon getting consequences for what they did, but random low blows isn't that. I would feel different if it had been sone isolated incident, but it's actually a pattern.

Dumbledore's clear favoritism to Gryffindor/"subtle" despise for the other houses (especially slytherin). Dumbledore going from affectionate to completely withdrowing, leaving Harry needy, confused and thinkig he had done something, was emotional abuse. I personally think he might have been similar with Hagrid, who admires him in a way I find borderline unhealthy. Quite the father figure, Dumbledore.

Having said that (and I honestly have more to say about it) I fell in love with the series when I was little and it was HUGE part of my life and my family. I don't know if I'll ever outgrow it, even as I find more and more details that irk me 🤷🏻‍♀️

Snape is in fact my favorite characater (and was so since Philisopher's stone). More than being based on actual person -after all, all characters must have some thing or abither from real people and even Rowling herself, as much as we fight it, we really can't create from nothing; every mask is a self portrait, and I think every writing has the author's desires, fears and memories weved in the characters, settings and themes, even if the author is not aware.-- the reason I think Snape is well written is that he wasn't created neither a good guy™ nor a bad guy™, so with him more than anyone else did jkr allowed herself to create a human . She possibly didn't even get there on purpose! I've read that Tolstoi started Anna Karenina intending to mock feminist ideas, but inadvertly got himself convinced by his own character's arguments, when he had created her what he believed to be stubborn and clueless of the real world. By not trying to make Snape perfect and not trying to make him perfectly evil, she managed to dive in a complex story that she maybe didn't plan, of a victim of abuse released to the world, eager to go from abused to abuser, but who ultimately got to know the better parts of humanity, like friendship and compassion.