"A bully is always a coward."- Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Starting a conversation like this one is never easy with people already at the end of their rope, and by that, Harriet meant more than usual, especially when they were in her presence.
The cheerful little group had relocated to the living room by now, seated on creaking chairs, the strain of father and son's combined weight clearly having taken its toll on them over the years, and unfortunately, there wasn't enough money left to buy new ones.
Father and son said nothing, too nervous to speak, but the real surprise was Petunia, who had somehow managed to hold onto her composure so far, back straight, hands folded tightly in her lap, the only sign of strain the white of her knuckles.
Yuna still had the gun resting in front of her. It was something these people understood, after all, magic could mean anything or nothing to them, but a gun only ever meant one thing, and everyone knows perfectly well that a wounded animal, backed into a corner, tends to let its instincts take over, exactly as Vernon had just demonstrated with his remarkable lack of self control moments ago. A deterrent they could actually understand was simply necessary, for people this primitive.
"I see you've redecorated," Harriet said, calmly taking in the house she'd spent eleven years of her life in, lamenting its pitiful state, the house, of course, not the people living in it. "What happened, did a zombie apocalypse film crew ask to use your place as a filming location and forget to clean up after? Honestly, Petunia, you could at least make an effort."
"You never came back for Christmas," Petunia said, changing the subject, trying to get her usual dig in. "What happened, they don't want you there anymore either? Sounds like nobody wants you, really."
"You never change, do you, dear aunt, still every bit as stupid, even in your arguments. To answer you, no, I just decided to come visit. I'm allowed to, aren't I? Oh, and actually, they do want me. Maybe a little too much, which is sort of the problem." Harriet said, looking her straight in the eye, searching for something there and finding none of what she'd hoped for, but...
"Dear aunt, the little glances you keep throwing Vernon's way, and the way you're sitting... oh, I see. He's been hitting you, hasn't he? Under normal circumstances I'd be angry about a woman getting beaten like that, but on the other hand, feels different now that it's you on the receiving end, doesn't it? I took hits from Vernon too, you know, but it seems like, compared to you just taking it, I actually fought back... You didn't just lose to your sister at everything, you lost to a six year old too, back then... You're honestly pathetic." Harriet said, thoroughly smug. Petunia's jaw tightened, but she said nothing, staring hard at a point somewhere on the carpet instead of meeting anyone's eyes. Vernon tensed at that and glanced nervously at Yuna's gun, breathing a small sigh of relief when it wasn't pointed his way. He wisely chose to stay quiet.
"Shut your mouth, you little brat!" Petunia said, after catching herself, half rising from her seat before sitting back down just as quickly, seeing Yuna's hand drift toward the gun.
"You show up at my house with a gun, I could call the police, and they'd arrest you." Petunia said, grasping for any way out of the situation.
"Oh, don't mind the gun," Yuna spoke for the first time, looking at them with something close to genuine fascination, it was her first time actually seeing the infamous Dursleys, and they were every bit as dim as advertised. "It's just there in case, you wouldn't be foolish enough to make me actually need it for self defense, would you?"
"I never introduced you properly, did I? Dursleys, this is Yuna, my best friend. Yuna, these are the Dursleys, my foster family, though don't read too much into that, I'm my mother's daughter through and through, and I have absolutely nothing in common with these people." Harriet said, perfectly relaxed, as though introducing her friend to a group of mildly interesting hospital patients.
"Like she said, don't mind the gun. Honestly, it felt a bit excessive given that you already know I can do magic, but you three seem to be exactly as clever as usual, so it wasn't such a bad call after all. By the way, aren't you going to ask why I'm here?" Harriet asked.
"Why? I think I already know," Petunia said, looking resigned to the situation. Even her useless waste of a niece felt superior to them now, how humiliating. "You heard about our situation and came to laugh at us, didn't you?"
"Not just that! I didn't come here purely to mock you, though what's happening to you couldn't have happened to more deserving people, honestly. No, I also came because I currently hold your entire lives in my hands, and I don't mean that physically. One word from me, and you'd lose absolutely everything." Harriet said, her expression turning serious now.
At that, all three of them tensed, intrigued despite themselves, and this time it was Vernon who spoke. "What exactly do you mean by that?"
Harriet pulled out three sheets of paper and passed them over, each with fairly self explanatory names printed across the top: a deed of debt assignment, a foreclosure notice, and a forbearance clause. All in their names. The threat couldn't have been clearer now, Harriet had become their creditor. One word from her, and they'd be living under a bridge with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
"Don't bother trying to tear them up, they're just photocopies anyway. I'm not stupid enough to hand you the originals, I wasn't raised to be an idiot, after all." She said, with a small, mocking smile.
"Why... why do you even have this? Everything that's happened so far..." Vernon managed to connect the dots. "It was you, wasn't it? Everything that's happened, it was you, getting your revenge..."
"Well, quick on the uptake for once, but small correction, it wasn't her who handled all of this. It was me." At that, Yuna spoke up. "Ah, right, I should introduce myself properly too. I'm not just Harriet's friend, I'm also her financial manager. I control the fortunes of two old families, Potter and Black, along with every company registered under their names. I actually started a holding company recently too, Kuma Holding. Perhaps you've heard of it?" she said, setting her business card down on the table.
At that, Vernon went pale, his hand gripping the arm of the chair hard enough that it creaked under the strain, and this time, the gun might not even be necessary anymore. "Kuma Holding, that's you, you're the one who bought out Grunnings, you... everything that happened to me at work, that was you." He couldn't afford to get angry. If there was one thing Vernon had learned in his life, it was to never lose his temper in front of people who actually mattered.
"That's right. It's because of me that you've suffered this much. I really wasn't a fan of how you treated my friend, so I made you pay for it. That's where all of this started, plain and simple." Yuna said, without a single trace of remorse. "And just so we're clear, the threat from the gun is very real too. For people with money like me, making people like you disappear isn't really a problem, honestly, it's fairly easy, and no one would ever come looking twice. I know it's unfair, that's just how the world works, and personally, I don't mind being called a hypocrite if it means taking care of people like you."
"But you can't do this! You're targeting us just because..." She stopped herself there, twisting her hands together in her lap, then pressed on with renewed defiance. "We gave her food and a roof over her head, in spite of everything, what more could you possibly want from us? It's not like we asked for her. It's not like we chose any of this. If you want someone to blame, go find the people actually responsible for all of it, we're victims in this too." Petunia said, intimidated herself but unable to hold her anger in check any longer. "And another thing, let me tell you exactly what she is, she's a freak, a witch, God punishes witches, so I'd suggest you stay well away from her!" she finished, trying this time to convince Yuna and justify how they'd treated Harriet.
"I'm not blind, thank you, I saw her pull out her wand. And so what? First, I already know about that world, in fact, every elite family in this world knows about it. Second, she's still my friend, and you mistreated her, so what I'm doing is entirely justified." Yuna said, looking Petunia straight in the eye, unwavering.
At that, Petunia realized she wouldn't get anywhere with Yuna. "You'll go to hell right alongside her. Don't say I never warned you."
Yuna let out a sigh. "All right, that's enough now. Honestly, hearing you talk about religion like that makes me deeply uncomfortable. Either way, if Harriet's meant to be punished for what she is, then you'll probably end up in hell for simply becoming who you are. There won't be any way out of that one." Yuna said, clearly irritated by her rambling.
"I've never done anything wrong, I..." Petunia said, outraged, but Harriet cut her off.
"All right, that's enough," Harriet let the silence stretch for a moment before continuing. "Petunia, don't use religion to justify yourself. You don't actually care about the harm you've done anyway. You've read the Bible closely enough to know exactly where people like you end up, haven't you? Don't fool yourself... or maybe you'd like your soul properly evaluated? Getting an angel down here might be difficult, but I could always call a devil instead, why not." Harriet said, her tone certain and quietly threatening.
At that, it was Dudley who reacted first. He'd been holding himself together since the moment the gun appeared at the door, quietly, the way he'd learned to over the past few months, but hell was apparently where the line finally sat. An expression of pure horror crossed his face, fear written plainly across it, his whole body curling in on itself in the armchair, and both his parents, momentarily rediscovering their parental instincts, went to comfort him.
To them, devils and angels actually existing wasn't something within the realm of possibility, it was something they believed in, in theory, without ever really applying it to their own lives, leaving the consequences for after death, in short, something to lean on during hard times and conveniently forget during easy ones. Even Petunia, deep in her current religious fervor, didn't actually expect to face any of it while still alive. That was exactly where they went wrong, and Dudley, having accumulated far less hypocrisy in his short life, and having only learned a few years ago that witches and wizards were even real, understood immediately that Harriet wasn't joking.
"Petunia... magic is real, in case you'd somehow managed to forget." Harriet said, sounding worn out by the whole conversation, but it was something she needed to do. "And it doesn't stop at Hogwarts, or at your jealousy. No, Petunia, the world is far bigger than you think, and yes, they really do exist. You might have even run into some of them yourself, don't you remember ever passing someone devilishly good looking on the street?"
It was something she'd learned from Yuna recently: the beauty of supernatural beings couldn't normally go unnoticed, but there was an ancient kind of magic at play, something closer to a rule woven into reality itself, that made people simply overlook the detail, beyond finding these individuals attractive, since their beauty was itself supernatural and couldn't otherwise pass unnoticed in the mundane world. It was practically a necessity, otherwise the truth would have leaked out long ago.
But when you've spent enough time living close to the extraordinary, close enough to start understanding even a fraction of it, sometimes all it takes is pointing directly at the rule for the real memories to come flooding back.
"No, no, no, no! Angels and devils don't exist! You are not bringing one of those abominations into this house! How far exactly do you intend to sink?" Petunia shrieked, nearly hysterical. It should have taken far more convincing than that, but her own jealousy toward other people's beauty had made her believe it far too easily. And just like that, the memory came rushing back with perfect clarity, an eccentric, impossibly beautiful girl she'd once seen wandering the shopping center, buying absolutely anything she wanted without a second thought, while Petunia herself could never afford the same luxury. Vernon, for his part, found a few memories of his own resurfacing too.
"That's enough, no need to lose your temper, no need to waste anyone else's time but the people actually involved here, you don't deserve that much consideration. So, rest assured, you're simply not worth it." At that, all three of them calmed down slightly and settled back into their seats, though the fear from this fresh revelation still lingered beneath the surface, overshadowed for now by the far more immediate danger sitting right in front of them.
"Sit down. Now, don't forget, you still need to convince me not to send you straight to hell. Oh, I mean the human kind of hell, you know, living under a bridge somewhere. Little Dudikins wouldn't handle that very well, would he?" she asked, with a small, crooked smile, settling back into the creaking chair as though she owned the place, one leg crossed over the other. It was the first time she'd held every single card in a conversation with people this absurd, and she fully intended to get to the bottom of things.