Work Text:
Along the road of Privet Drive, the sun shined on the many children who came out to play in the warm summer afternoon. The primary school-aged girls from numbers 8 and 10 held hands as they skipped happily together down the sidewalk. The young boys from house numbers 2, 5, and 7 gathered in the center of the street’s circle to play cricket. Another group of older boys had gathered to wrestle in one of their backyards where they knew no mothers could see them roughhousing.
Outside the many houses, women tended to the gardens, picking the fruit and vegetables they would serve their families for dinner that night or sell to the local farmer’s market. The husbands and fathers were away at work for the day and would not return until the evening. Almost no one was inside except for the mothers tending to their infant children and the elderly who tired easily in the sun.
Except, of course, for one child in number 4.
“Haley, get away from there at once, you haven’t even finished dusting yet!”
The sharp, shrill voice snapped young Haley Potter out of her daydreaming. Before she realized it, there was a firm grip on her hair pulling her off the couch.
“Ow! Please let go of me, Aunt Petunia!” she begged, gasping from pain as she fell to her knees on the floor. The hand holding a fistful of her flaming red hair yanked her upright and she held back tears of pain.
“Look at me, you brat, you still have chores to do. There is no daydreaming while you’re in this house, understood?”
“Yes, Aunt Petunia,” Haley mumbled, her eyes looking down at her hands. “I’m sorry.”
Aunt Petunia pulled her hair up firmer. “Look at me when I am speaking to you! Do you understand, no daydreaming.”
Lip quivering, Haley held back tears.
“Y-yes, Aunt Petunia,” she said, louder this time, her voice breaking as she began to cry.
“Better,” Aunt Petunia snapped, releasing Haley from her firm grip and shoving her back onto the floor. “But not satisfactory, unlike anything you’ve ever done.” She glared at the young child. “Return to dusting. Then wash, dry, and fold Dudley’s clothes, do the dishes, and help me cook dinner. Afterward, you will return to your closet for the night without dinner. Is that clear?”
“Yes, Aunt Petunia,” Haley said.
“You should be done by the time your uncle gets home from work. If I catch you slacking off again on your lazy arse then I will send you to him to deal with your consequences. I expect that you don’t want to be like your brother now, do you?”
Haley shook her head.
“I thought so. Return, now. Do not speak to me unless I speak to you,” Aunt Petunia ordered before dropping off the laundry basket with Dudley’s clothes for Haley to tend to and leaving the living room. “And if I catch you trying to free your brother again from his cupboard you will be isolated from him for a week.”
Tears slowly falling, Haley rose to her feet and began working. She was a prisoner in her own home. When she was allowed out of her closet, she was Aunt Petunia’s servant and her cousin Dudley’s favorite punching bag. She was never allowed outside to play hopscotch with the girls she attended primary school with. The girls wouldn’t even let her play with them because she was a freak.
At school, she and Harry, her twin brother, were everyone’s target for taunts and bullying, especially from her cousin Dudley and his gang of friends. Of course, the teachers never spoke up about anything due to the Dursleys’ influence at the school. Mr. Dursley was the school’s most generous donor, they could not speak or step out of line to report accusations of bullying their biological son was pressing on Haley and Harry or the other children without the possibility of being sacked.
Never enough, never loved, never cared for. This is the life Haley had grown to know. If only someone out there cared enough to free her from this hell. For now, all seven-year-old Haley knew was this life as she let the tears slowly fall as she scrubbed her little arms across the ottoman as she cleaned it.