Harry Potter and the Order Of the Phoenix [182]
“Do they, that is… the Dursleys… know that Dudley is a wizard?” asked Harry.
“Oh no,” said Voldemort. “Whenever a magical student, Petunia in this case, is not accepted to any magical school, their memories of their magical powers are erased. Petunia forgot that she ever had any magical powers, and they forbade her parents to ever tell her that she ever had any.”
“But, if she doesn’t remember any of her magical powers, then why does she still hate my mom? Shouldn’t she have forgotten about not being accepted to Hogwarts?”
“Oh, that… well, actually, that is a whole other story. You see, even though your mother’s parents were forbidden to tell Petunia that she ever had magical powers, there was nothing stopping them from reminding her the Lily had them. She was very well aware that Lily was a witch, and in fact, in her youth, she enjoyed seeing her sister perform magical tricks before she was sent off to Hogwarts.”
“Then why does she hate her?”
“That happened many years later, just two years before you were born, Harry. You see, Petunia and Lily’s mother got sick, she got… oh, what is the Muggle word for it… ah! Cancer, yes, that’s it.”
“How did that make her stop liking her?”
“I was getting to that!” snapped Voldemort, getting out of, for an instant, his newfound kind demeanor. However, he quickly put his fake smile back on. “Well, Petunia knew Lily was a witch, so, she asked her if she could cure their mother by transfiguring the cancer cells, transporting them outside of the body, or by just making them disappear. As expected, your mother refused.”
“Why did she do that?”
“Well, do one, she couldn’t physically do it. Wand laws have been bouncing all over the place ever since magic was discovered, Harry, and it just so happened, that at that time, non-graduate wizards weren’t even allowed to take their wands home during the holidays. Since her mother got sick during the summer holidays, she’d have to somehow go back to Hogwarts and steal her wand from the secure vault they were all kept in. First of all, she would have to find the school, and since it is not on any map, and the Hogwarts train does not even exist out of school season, it would be next to impossible to find.
“Then, if she somehow found the school, she would have to break into it, and steal her wand from the wizard guards. Even if she managed to do THAT without using any magic, she would still have to return to the Muggle world, and perform the magic that she barely knew how to do. The second the spell came out of her wand, the Ministry of Magic would be on her faster than a… a…”
“A cannibal on a missionary?” suggested Harry lazily. Voldemort sighed.
“Well, it will have to do. Anyway, she would be expelled for sure. So, naturally, she had to refuse. Once she told her sister that, she practically disowned her, and hated her from then on. Since she left before Lily could explain, she just figured that she thought she was superior to the rest of her family since she was a witch.”
“How do you know all this?” exclaimed Harry.
“Well, I do have sources… everywhere Harry. Even when I was nothing more than a ghost, I still had my non-human sources constantly feeding me information. But, mostly, I got it all from just asking your mother. After all, it wasn’t until after she married your father that she realized who I really was, and didn’t talk to me anymore.”
“You said you had another backup plan,” said Harry. “What is that?”
“Oh, I cannot tell you that, Harry,” said Voldemort. “For even with my most brilliant plans, there is a chance something could go wrong, and I don’t want my other plan to have been in vain, now do I?”
“I suppose not,” said Harry, shaking his head, and trying to comprehend all that he had been told. But suddenly, it was all coming together for Harry! The new spells Voldemort had invented! Neville using the spells that no one had ever heard of! His mysterious invisible book!
“I know your backup plan….” grinned Harry.
“Oh really now?” asked Voldemort, looking quite