After taking a quick look around to make sure there was no one nearby, Petunia hissed like an angry goose. "We didn't want you, but we took you in anyway. We put a roof over your head, clothes on your back and food in your mouth…"
"And you were well paid for doing that," Harry interrupted her attempt at self-justification, "though you never spent any of that money on me, the one it was intended for. Instead you treated me like a slave. Don't talk to me about taking me in out of the goodness of your hearts. It was greed for you pure and simple. The money you were being paid and safety for your family as long as I lived there and called that place home. You want to know something Aunt Petunia, I'm willing to bet the protections that were supposed to be in place collapsed a long time ago, because as soon as I was able to understand what a home really was, I never thought of Privet Drive as home. Which means if my kind could've been bothered to really look, they probably could've found your home without any trouble whatsoever."
"Just more proof that you and your kind can't be trusted." Petunia retorted.
Harry spoke up before she had a chance to get away. "The wards might have worked correctly if you were capable of loving someone other than yourself, Petunia. I don't think you even loved Dudley or Vernon. You indulged your son yes and you acted the part of a loving wife and mother, but I think it was more pride and your fierce determination to be seen as normal, than it was real love. I think you knew deep down that what you were doing to me was wrong. And as for Dudley, I think you knew that letting him grow up without any discipline was going to backfire one day when you could no longer blame me for his crimes. All that aside, I have a question for you Petunia, and I would like you to give me an honest answer… if you are even capable of it."
"What?" Petunia had her nose in the air as if she were certain that what he wanted to know couldn't possibly be of interest to her.
"If you and Vernon had died and my parents were the only ones available to take Dudley in, do you think my parents would've treated Dudley the way you treated me? Or would they have treated him like their own child?" Harry inquired curious to see what her answer was.
"I don't see the point in wasting my time with what ifs." Petunia countered. "Your parents are dead, so trying to figure out what they might or might not have done is a pointless exercise."
"You're afraid to answer my question." Harry countered. "You know they would've treated him better than you ever treated me. I wonder how you will explain YOURSELF to my Mum when you pass on, not to mention how you will explain your actions to the god you claim to believe in. I doubt he would approve of how you treated me either."
"It's well known he doesn't like your kind ." Petunia sniffed haughtily. "It says so in the bible."
"I wouldn't be too sure of that if I were you." Harry countered. "The word witch might be mistranslated from the original language it was written in. The word in its original language might not mean witch or wizard, but instead may be describing one who practices harmful magic. You know like how the Commandment: 'Thou shalt not kill' might actually be: 'Thou shalt not murder'. Otherwise the bible is full of contradictions, because in the Old Testament, he approves of stoning adulterers and that is killing isn't it?"
Before Petunia could come up with a response there was the sound of people filing back into the courtroom. The jury had made their judgement.
...
As Harry took hold of the portkey that would take him to visit Azkaban, he couldn't help but smile at the appropriateness of Dudley's sentence.
While the whale had lost weight during his stay in jail, given Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon hadn't been able to raise the necessary money to get him out until the trial he still appeared to weigh enough to match any sumo wrestler.
The verdict was that Dudley was guilty on all counts. He remembered the judge lamenting the fact that the option of offering a first offender like Dudley the choice of signing up to serve in the military rather than go to jail was no longer available. He had told them that he had found that the majority of those who took that option went on to become a productive member of society, instead of being a useless layabout in prison with their food and other necessities being provided at the taxpayer's expense. He had also commented that the option might not be able to be offered to Dudley, even if it were still available because he was so obese and might not survive the very demanding basic training.
Dudley was sentenced to ten years for the extortion charge and two years each for the five assaults he was found guilty of with the sentences to be run consecutively, which meant that Dudley would be in prison for at least twenty years. True it was possible that he might get time off for good behaviour, but it was also possible that Snape would wash his hair and develop a love for dancing the ballet with Harry Potter too.
Harry had grinned broadly at that as he saw both Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon go red in the face when he claimed their son would be a useless waste of space in prison. Harry reflected that Dudley had been a useless waste of space outside prison why should that change once he was in prison.
The next part of the sentence though had made Harry's day if not his whole year and made Harry want to kiss the judge. The judge told Dudley that while he was in prison he would be placed on a mandatory diet until he reached the proper weight for someone of his age and height. The judge told Dudley that he wasn't going to get out of prison by dying or by having a heart attack that would cause him to be moved to a prison medical facility for the remainder of his sentence and make him an even bigger drain on the British taxpayer.
The expression on Dudley's face was even better than Vernon and Petunia's had been. He looked as though he'd just been told he was going to be shot by a firing squad at dawn. Then the stupid git had to have a temper tantrum that made him look like he was all of five years old, stamping his feet, wailing for his mum. The only thing that had been missing was Dudley falling on the ground and pounding his feet and fists on the floor because he'd been told something he didn't want to hear.
.....
Join my p@treon and read ahead by more than 60+ chapters.
Link : [email protected]/Sonic_Spectre
Free members can read the next two chapters for free on my p@treon