mostly fan and self-service this chapter lol

VERNON DURSLEY

(AN EXPECTED CHAPTER AND WITH SOME TW: EXPLICIT VIOLENCE)

The wards were hard to break. Though Regulus hated to admit that much, the Lestrange family was smart, cautious and very aware of the danger of the world they were living in and, with their wealth being one of the most important things in their lives for them, the wards were carefully constructed to last for decades without re-strengthening them.

"You should take a break and eat, Young Master Regulus," said Kreacher, standing in the middle of this bedroom, watching worriedly as Regulus tried, once more to break the small ward he had made around a bird feather in his desk. "Master Regulus has been here for four hours."

"I'm working, Kreacher," dismissed Regulus.

"But Miss Anne told Kreacher that Master Regulus shouldn't work for more than four hours straight."

Regulus froze, putting his wand down and turning to look at Kreacher in surprise.

"Anne talked to you? When?" he asked.

"This morning, Master," said Kreacher, eyes widening. "Kreacher shouldn't have? Kreacher shall punish himself right away. Kreacher thought he was helping Master to be happy because Master is happy with Miss Anne."

Regulus ended up blushing quite a bit as he started shaking his head.

"How did you talk to her?"

"Miss send her Coco to talk to Kreacher," he explained.

"And why didn't you warn me?"

"Because yous was working," Kreacher answered.

Regulus blinked a few times. He couldn't believe Anne had sent her domestic-elf to talk to Kreacher instead of trying to talk to him directly through the parchment or even a letter, if anything she had to say wasn't incriminating.

"Did Miss Anne say anything else?" he asked, still half-lost in his thoughts.

Kreacher looked at Regulus and held onto his own ears, nervous. That was enough answer to Regulus, so he narrowed his eyes to the elf, who whimpered miserably before nodding and tugging his left ear.

"Miss Anne told Coco to tell Kreacher that he wasn't allowed to tell Master Regulus, but Miss Anne is working just as hard as Master Regulus and wanted to know if there would be a day where Mistress would be out of the house," admitted Kreacher. "She wants to see Master Regulus."

"Well, Mother will be out tomorrow and –"

"Miss Anne won't be here tomorrow," Kreacher said, cutting him off.

He raised his eyebrows.

"And you know that, because?"

"Kreacher asked," he explained. "Coco said Miss Anne had a date."

Regulus' stomach dropped. Sure, Kreacher might have been wording it oddly, but there was this pit on his stomach that made him turn back to his table.

"I'm not working anymore, Kreacher, you can go now," Regulus dismissed.

Kreacher hesitated, taking a peek at Regulus as he pulled some parchment and wrote something down. Once he recognized it was nothing but a letter, Kreacher took a step back before popping away with a loud noise.

That letter was sent immediately, but it took almost three hours for him to receive an answer and not even a whole letter back, just a note.

"Dealing with a family situation. I'll talk to you when I can. If I'm back before six, I'll come over," he read in a low voice.

It was recognizing the handwriting and hating the lack of details. He knew that she needed to be very careful with her words and what they could mean if mail was intercepted, but still, it made his heart beat harder, as if the automatic movement was hard, as if his heart was not used to that.

He put the letter down on his bed, all his hunger and his exhaustion disappearing. He was scared of what those vague words sounded and what they could actually mean. There was so much that Anne overlooked (would call an important meeting with the greatest wizards in the Light in the Order a 'tea party', even if it was a joke) and thought there was nothing important enough to tell him about, now, however, that small amusing trait was becoming worrisome to him.

Once Regulus had eaten something after Kreacher insisted after the fourth hour of worrying and whining. He lied in bed, taking fifteen more minutes of a break before continuing his research. Lying there, he stared at the ceiling and sighed, a mixture of anxiety, boredom and exhaustion catching up to him as he struggled to keep his eyes open, but even then, he wasn't feeling sleepy – the conflict kept him awake, but tired.

Still, both made him jump to sit down on the bed when there was movement on the first floor.

The noise of the floo made him dread the fact that his mother was probably coming back home and would stop by his bedroom, wondering if he was fine and probably would strike a silly conversation that would allow her to talk and him to listen for far too long; at least, he thought, that would make him feel sleepy, finally.

Nobody knocked on the door, it just opened.

He narrowed his eyes, expecting his mother, but it wasn't. It was Anne, standing at his doorway with the smallest of smiles.

"You'll never guess what I've done today," she started as, slowly, Regulus seemed to understand that she was standing in his house.

She sported a black, closed eye with a smile on her face.

It was right after lunch and Anne felt the heat of July make her feel slightly light-headed as she slowly sat down in front of Sirius in the Muggle ice-cream shop, hoping that the chocolate ice-cream in front of her would be a refresh-source.

"You look pale," Sirius said, worried.

Lily came by, sitting beside Sirius, attacking as soon as sat down her vanilla ice-cream.

"You do look pale," confirmed Lily. She looked a bit more nervous that worried. "You don't need to be here, Anne, we can deal with him without you."

"I promised Petunia I would be here," she answered.

There was a ball on her throat, or at least it felt like that. There was a mixture of dread and the purest and deepest type of primal fear making her nauseated, and the heat wasn't helping her at all.

"If she knew the truth, she would understand, I'm sure," Lily insisted.

"Well, she doesn't know the truth, does she?" Anne snapped. Lily bit her lip, leaning away. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap."

Though Lily seemed to want to scold her for not having any fault at her situation, not knowing completely what Vernon did to her, Sirius was faster by shaking his head and slowly reaching for her hand, touching her only after Anne saw the hand coming to touch her skin, and he forced a smile.

"We understand, Annie," he dismissed. "I've been there before. I wouldn't like to see Walburga again."

Lily looked down. There it was, another thing that she would never be able to completely understand. She had a good life, in general, parents that loved her, a mediocre financial situation and good friends that came and went like any other person her age; when Sirius and Anne would say or do things that she couldn't understand and thought to be rude or weird, she always had the horrible feeling that they were protecting themselves from the environment, or worse, from her.

"Sirius, please, don't let him touch me," Anne mumbled. "If I feel his hands on me, I don't think I will manage. If I have a flashback in public, I swear that I'll drop dead in embarrassment."

"He won't get any closer than necessary," Sirius answered in a promise.

"We can't use magic," Lily reminded them.

"I don't plan on resolving this situation with magic," Sirius said. He looked down at his hands. "It's been a while since I last punched a Slytherin, but I think I can still throw a punch or two at the whale."

Anne's lips twitched in an almost smile. If Sirius knew how much fatter that man was in her time, he might have an actual heart-attack.

Her smile dropped as soon as she glanced to the side, seeing Petunia walking into the shop clutching her purse in front of her dress in silence as Vernon followed her, already loudly ordering two strawberry ice-creams. Petunia was looking around the shop and Anne raised her hand discreetly, the older girl seemed somewhat relieved before Anne turned away from her, quietly taking a spoonful of chocolate ice-cream to her mouth.

"If James was here, he would be more than happy to jump him now," Sirius said through his teeth. "Fucking prat."

He hated how easy it was to hate that man and he hated how he felt like he needed to take revenge for Anne. She could do that herself, and yet it was easy to forget that. Sirius still fought with the thoughts his mother had forced into his head that women were gentle and delicate, but he knew Anne well enough to know that she could do more damage to that man than he ever could.

They all watched under the Notice-Me-Not charm Anne quickly used under the table as Petunia and Vernon sat down not too far from them. Far enough that it wasn't suspicious, but near enough that they could hear Vernon loudly boasting about his job promotion, clearly wanting other people to hear about it.

And then Petunia made a squeaky noise.

Vernon's hand was resting on her thigh, pushing her dress slightly up.

"Oh, God," Lily moaned in disgust.

Anne saw the fear. Anne saw the dread. Anne saw the shame. Anne saw the preparation. Anne saw how Petunia just accepted what was about to happen.

Anne saw herself looking up at the ceiling of that small bathroom, praying for anyone to save her, but nobody ever came – she wouldn't allow the same to happen to somebody else.

Petunia glanced towards them and Anne shot up.

She wouldn't make Petunia feel anymore helpless than she needed to.

Anne was ready to save little Anne away from that man, even if that little Anne took the form of a young Petunia.

"Oi!" she called out.

Vernon turned to look and his eyes widened.

"You are –" he started.

"Anne Potter, you wanker," she said.

Sirius was standing right behind her, ready to intervene if needed. Anne's anger was not something he wanted to be in the way of, but he had promised James he wouldn't let Anne do anything she would regret.

Anne had promised herself she wouldn't allow herself to feel like the victim anymore, but the Anne standing in front of the couple was not it, she was a vigilante, ready to take everything from the man through someone else's revenge.

"You're one of... them. A freak!" Vernon accused, this time voice lower, not wanting to cause a scene and get too much attention.

Anne glared at him as she felt Lily standing beside her.

"Don't you dare call her that. And take your hands off of my sister," Lily ordered.

"She is my fiancée!" Vernon said. "I can do whatever I want to her. Soon enough, she will be my wife, not your sister and –"

"Vernon, I don't want to marry you," Petunia blurted out.

The group went quiet as Vernon turned to look at the woman beside him in shock, as if the idea that the woman not wanting him was something he had never thought of. Surprising, seeing that he was everything most women hated – cocky, loud, arrogant, rude, obnoxious, abusive and, more than anything else, ugly.

"What did you just say to me?" he asked, voice low and dangerous like a snake preparing for the attack.

"I don't want to be your wife, nor your fiancée, nor your girlfriend... or friend. I don't want to see you ever again," Petunia said, slowly taking the ring off of her finger. She looked like she would change her mind at any second; one word from Vernon and she was done. "I – I'm sorry."

Sirius, sensing the anger rising, quickly casted another Notice-Me-Not charm and a silencing charm around them. The owner of the shop looked away from the group, whom he had been watching, and looked for another customer to stare.

Vernon didn't even look at her anymore, turning to Anne with blinded rage, bloodshot red eyes turning to glare at her in anger.

"What did you do to her? What curse did you use on her with your bloody candles and –" he started.

"We don't use candles," Anne blurted out.

She almost laughed to herself. That much she knew that Harry would have said if he had been there. He had always been one to go against his uncle, never caring much for the consequences that would bring him, though he would jump into apologies and careful make-up acts to make sure nothing too bad would happen. It felt good to do the same, it felt like a nice way to honour his memory though nobody but her would have understood.

She watched by the corner of her eyes the hands of Sirius Black disappearing into his back pockets; one of them held his wand and the other cupped the small pouch of heavy, golden coins that he always carried. Both attacks ready, if needed.

"Do you think I fucking care what you use in your disgusting practices?" he asked, getting up from his chair, this time loud enough to make Petunia flinch. Sirius moved to her side quickly, grabbing her arm and pulling her up from he chair, dragging her to get behind Lily, only then he let her go, when Lily held Petunia's hand. "Do you think I care about what you do in your free time? No! I care about what you did to my bride."

"I've done nothing but show her the truth," Anne said. "I showed her the future... the future you would give her, and she didn't like it. That's your fault, not mine. You're just not enough, Vernon Dursley."

He hit the table with a slap.

Anne jumped at that. Her Vernon would do that at the breakfast table as well, especially during the time Harry was away and his breakfast wasn't perfectly toasted to his taste, whenever Anne would make a single mistake.

Sirius moved closer to her.

"Who are you to say that to me?" he asked.

"Someone who knows very well the type of man you are," she spat towards him. "I know what's happening inside your mind."

"Oh, so now your kind can read minds, too," he mocked.

"We don't need to," Lily answered. "You're simple enough for anyone to figure out, you dunderhead."

"Who are you daring to call a dunderhead?" Vernon screamed, face starting to get red.

"YOU!" Lily yelled as loud as she could.

Petunia whimpered, tears getting to her eyes.

"Petunia, come here," Vernon said. She whimpered again, physically forcing herself to stay behind Lily, though her mind screamed at her to move to him; it was always worse if she didn't follow his instructions. "Petunia, come here now! PETUNIA!"

"The lady clearly doesn't want anything to do with you, mate, leave it," Sirius said in the best cordial pureblood tone.

"Aren't you that queer wimp that was using makeup at Christmas?" Vernon asked, as if it had been the best comeback he had ever thought of, smirk growing on his lips.

His homophobia had been strong back in the 80s, but there was a venom in his tongue that Anne didn't see back in her time. This was fresh, this was meant to be painful, but not only to Sirius – it was like he was reminding himself what others would have to think about Sirius' actions. All of that because Vernon wanted to be just like Sirius.

"Yes, I am. And that tall, strong gang-looking man holding my hand is my werewolf boyfriend, who could make put you on your knees in a second," Sirius said.

"A bitch like you is threatening me, how manly," he mocked.

"I am very manly, thank you," Sirius answered, forcing the fakest of smiles on his lips.

Vernon, seeing that there was nothing he could get from Sirius, turned to Anne once more. She was good at getting his attention, and she hoped she was good enough to keep it on her as Petunia cried, holding onto her younger sister for dear life, as if she was drowning in her own tears.

One thing about abuse: it's hard not to go back in.

There's this dark feeling on the pit of one's stomach that tells them again and again that there's nothing better than that out there, that everything one went through was deserved and, therefore, justifiable in a logical manner, even if it wasn't. Once the abuser calls, the victim answers and if they don't, they just expect to be punished, even if the cycle was broken. It's hard to not be angry at the victim for always going back to them, but when they feel there's nobody that will ever love them outside of the small world that had been left to her, they chose terrible things over the nothingness that loneliness usually brought forth. Petunia would forever expect terrible things to happen after a mistake, she would forever have to deal with the mental scars he left on her, but with that Anne could help.

"She doesn't know what she wants," he said.

"She just told you what she doesn't want; that, being you," Anne said. "She said this is over, therefore, this is over and if I ever find out you as much as looked in her direction, I'm coming for you," she explained.

"Beautiful threat," Vernon laughed. "But you can't take me."

"You have no idea what I'm capable of," she warned. "Don't bite more than you can chew, Dursley, because I'll break your teeth."

He moved fast, but not faster than Anne.

Once his hand was raised for a slap, her knuckles were hitting the space between his lips and nose with a swing that used most of her body weight, just like Monty had taught her. She stumbled when he grunted and fell back, stabilising herself by holding onto the table.

Lily squealed in surprise, holding Petunia when she moved to help him get up from the ground.

"Hell yeah!" Sirius celebrated.

Vernon hit his head as he fell to the floor, but quickly got up, sending a good punch towards her and hitting her on the eye, sending her falling over the table and the two cups of ice-cream to the floor, table breaking under her whole weight. The inertia of the movement had her rolling on the ground as her hands blindly went around, trying to get herself up.

"Get her out! Get her out of her now!" she heard Sirius screaming. "LILY NOW!"

Petunia was sobbing somewhere, but Anne couldn't open her eyes and her head was certainly hurting, even though she hadn't hit that on the ground. She had hit her elbow though, because when she pulled herself to sit down the electric shock of pain made her grunt.

At this point, the Notice-Me-Not charm was dropped purposefully and Sirius jumped forward towards Vernon like a lioness pouncing on an animal moving towards her cubs.

Vernon's attention moved from Anne to Sirius and he swinged once more, Sirius with all his training, leaned down and moved up with his head as fast as he could, the back of his head hitting the man on the chin, as he also pushed his belly and made him fall on his behind with a loud noise since he tried to hold onto the chair and brought it down with him.

The owner of the shop started screaming in Italian. Someone from the customer group on the other side of the store screamed a very loud 'oi'.

Anne was standing now, stumbling to the side as Sirius fell to the ground, holding the back of his head in pain, grunting as he struggled to the get to his knees. She could feel blood running down the side of her face, but she didn't care about it, she just jumped on top of Vernon, straddling his stomach and throwing slaps and punches to his face and neck.

Vernon had an angry-red bruise forming on his chin, a cut from Anne's ring on his philtrum and on his top lip, his nose wasn't bleeding, but it did look slightly red. There was where she aimed her last punch: on his nose.

She felt hands grabbing her as women screamed, men yelled and the owner of the shop threatened to call the police.

"Young people these days!" complained the owner. "Girls are not even ladies anymore!"

"If you ever touch Petunia again, I'll kill you, motherfucker!" screamed Anne as a man she didn't know dragged her away from the man lying on the ground, blood now dripping from his nose. "If you ever fucking look at Petunia, I'll find you and I'll kill you. Rapist! Abuser!" the man let go of her in shock, finally understanding what the man on the ground had done. "HE HITS WOMEN! HE RAPES WOMEN!" Anne yelled.

The group of young men pushing some girls away from the fight turned in shock at the man that had been bragging about his promotion in disgust. The man dragging Anne away put her beside his wife, who was fussing over her, worried about the amount of blood dripping from the cut on the side of her eye.

Sirius almost crawled towards her.

"DAMN, his chin is hard!" he complained as he got up. "Merlin, Anne, you look like shit."

"Says you," she laughed.

"Why are you laughing?" he asked, though an amused smile came to his lips.

"I hit him!" she laughed.

Sirius ended up laughing as well.

"Hell yeah! You did!" he said back, a big smile on his face.

The woman stopped fussing, confused and scared by the reaction of the bleeding girl leaning against the wall.

"I'll call the police! The police!" insisted the owner.

Sirius looked around.

"This is when we disappear," he said.

"Let's go, then," she said, holding his hand.

They stumbled out of the shop together, because friends that beat rapists up together, stay together.

"However proud I am of you, Anne-Girl, it doesn't make whatever you've done any less reckless," Regulus said, frowning as he held the cotton, carefully cleaning her wound as she winced. "Where's your Slytherin self and all your self-preservation?"

"It's still in me, Regulus, but I thought I deserved a few punches," she said coolly, cutting him off.

Regulus couldn't find in himself to say that she shouldn't have done that, he knew Anne well enough to be angry at Vernon as well, of course, but he still worried that the muggle, brute of a man would somehow try to get his revenge on her. Anne always had so much to deal with, another person trying to get her head would just get in the way of getting through this war alive and sane. Though, by the way she had been acting, sane was a bonus, not an expectation to her; that worried him, but he had no right to insist for anything else but her to keep her heart beating.

"Princess –"

"Oh, you're calling me that again," she said, faking amusement.

He sighed.

"Anne," he said. "Please."

"If you start that thing of 'we can't let our fights be in the way of the war', I'm going to freak out," she said. "I came to tell you this because I thought you'd be proud of me, I don't need scolding, though. And I want to understand why you hate what I've done so much, because you were supposed to know I'd need to use more than just you and Snape at some point. You must have known what you were signing up for."

"I knew I was to be yours... I knew I was to be a part of the machine, but I didn't know I was signing up everybody around me to be the same," he explained. "I know that I hurt you by comparing you to Dumbledore, but I was angry and I said things I shouldn't have."

"You left without telling me you loved me," she said. "I don't care what you said in anger, Regulus, I care of what you didn't."

He looked down, putting the bloody cotton to the side. She was clean when he reached for his wand and made a small spell to close the wound. The bruise was still there.

The guilt hit him in the stomach. She had been to this fight with the monster of her life, the man that certainly could be her biggest fear and all she could think about was how terrible she felt because he didn't say he loved her.

"I'm so sorry," he said.

"I don't need your apology if you don't actually feel bad about it," she said. "If you're still angry at me for doing my duty, you mustn't lie to yourself and say that you're sorry."

He knew that she was using his emotions, knew that she was wording her phrase to remind him of how she had been angry at him for doing his duty as well in the party his parents had thrown him. Still, he allowed her to make him feel hurt because he had hurt him.

"I am truly sorry, Anne," he insisted. "I didn't think that you had been hurt by that. I wouldn't have done it again, if I knew that would hurt you like this. I just didn't want to taint those words by anger."

"Even if I was angry at you, that doesn't make me stop loving you," she said. "And it made me feel like I had done something so monstrous that you couldn't even bring yourself to say those words to me... and we had sex a bit before that, and it made me feel so used and disgusting. I know that's not what you wanted or what you intended to you, that I had been the one to initiate it all, I was logical enough to think all of it, but still... Regulus, I'm sorry that Elizabeth needs to be involved, but I won't turn back on this one plan that might actually work."

Knowing her unhealthy thoughts to sexual relations before them, those words made him feel nauseous.

"I understand why you felt hurt and I understand my unthought actions hurt you. I'm sorry," he said. "And I mean it. I truly do." He sat beside her on his bed, holding her hand on his lap. "Anne, I understand that your plan is one of the only ones that might work without much attention and I can, also, understand that you need Elizabeth. But I like her a lot, she was kind to me when nobody could do the same for me before people stopped seeing me as just Sirius' young brother and was actually the Heir of the House of Black. She's such a kind person, but so... weak. I fear for her. I worry for her."

"More than you do for me?"

"I trust your abilities a lot more than I trust hers, if that's what you're asking," he said, shaking his head a bit. "I love you, but I do care for her in the same way I care for Severus, if that's the question you're trying to make."

She blushed, looking down in embarrassment.

"I'm being childish again, aren't I?" she wondered out loud.

"No! No," he insisted. "Anne, I'm sorry I gave you some reason to be untrusting of my relationship with her."

"You didn't. You really didn't," she said. "I just... I fear you might leave me. I fear you'll see me as purposefully cruel or unfeeling. I love you and I don't think I can get through this without your support. I mean, I can... but I don't want to."

"Anne –"

"I don't need you, Regulus, but I want you. That must be worth something, right? But I fear that might not be enough to make you stay," she admitted, the one eye-open tearful. "I want you. She needs you. She's not a fighter, not a dueller... she'll die in this war if I don't get her out of here in time, and I've been trying to get all the preparations to get her out of here as soon as possible."

"I know," he said, smiling just a little bit. "I know you'd never hurt her if it wasn't necessary. I know you two don't know each other well, but I've seen you smiling at her and it didn't look fake. And you know I care for her, so I know you wouldn't hurt her."

The understanding was quiet comfort as they understood both of their sides on their small row.

He put his hand on her thigh.

The comfort disappeared.

"Not today," she quickly said. "Not after I touched him."

Regulus took his hand away from her.

"I'm just touching you, not trying to start something. I'm not that stupid," he laughed a bit, uncomfortable.

She smiled a bit a him, glad that he seemed to understand.

"I love you."

"I love you more," he answered.

Anne kissed him on the lips and pulled back almost immediately.

"I need to go, I just came to tell you my little adventure," she said, smiling a bit. "Thank you for the medicine and thank you for healing me. I'll take your paste," she warned taking the pot. "Love you. I'll send you more of it back, I promise." And she left.