thinking about an AU where petunia and vernon dursley died and dudley got left with lily and james instead of harry getting left with the dursleys. obviously, james and lily wouldn’t treat him as bad but im certain one of them would hold some resentment towards dudley—especially if in this AU dudley was slightly older when his parents died—just old enough for him to resemble both of his parents, especially the negative qualities.
james would HATE petunia for making lily feel like a freak, for hating his kind, for trying to teach her own son to hate his aunt, for abandoning lily when their parents had died. he would hate vernon for simply going along with it, for agreeing, for the snide comments he had overheard at the dinner table that one christmas (the first christmas he had met lily’s parents and had been introduced as ‘remus’ friend’), for the way he looked at harry—james young son—with such pure hatred, as though his existence had haunted him. he would get one look at dudley and see vernon’s chubby cheeks, petunias curly hair, and his spoiled behavior and would think of the people who had hated his family for just existing.
then he’d look at dudley’s eyes, a bright, blinding green. the same green eyes petunia dursley—once evans—had. the same green eyes lily evans-potter had. the same green eyes harry potter had. and that small, practically insignificant fact was what kept james from relating dudley to all the bad that was the dursleys. for everything they had done to his family.
lily, on the other hand, could never place the parents sins onto the child. sure, when she looked at him she sometimes wanted to cry out ‘why did you leave me when i needed you most?’ or, on days when he had particularly chubby cheeks and a snarky attitude ‘why did you take my sister away from me?’ but she held that resentment inside. his green eyes redeemed him. they reminded her of her own son, his innocence, and the fact that dudley was just a child.
so they treated him kindly. gave him what they asked for if it was reasonable. un-spoiled harry, once they realized that they had their own spoiled son (sirius still didn’t believe harry was spoiled. just ‘well loved’). they brought the boys up together, and when harry was off at hogwarts they tried so hard to make dudley feel included (lily definitely caught him writing a letter to dumbledor requesting admission at hogwarts).
plus, if it had been lily and james who had died and left their only child at the hands of the dursleys, lily would want nothing more than for them to treat harry with as much love and support as they gave dudley.
(if someone makes this, or anything similar is already made, LET ME KNOW)
