Rowena Potter

Before the run

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or the songs.
The Dursley's were normal.  Vernon Dursley was director at Grunnings.  Petunia Dursley was a stay at home mom.  Also, Dudley Dursley was growing boy, little boy.
     However, they had a secret.  The Freak.  Rowena Potter.  Rowena was found on their doorstep, November 1st, 1981.  Rowena remembered everything from the day she was born. Her parents, her friends, her uncles, and magic.
    Rowena saw that her cousin was a spoiled obese brat.  Her aunt was a snooty, hateful woman who was always snooping.  Her uncle was abusive, obese, and stupid.  They made her life miserable and hard.  Very hard.
     At the age of two, Rowena was doing basic chores and practicing her magic.  Every day she would exercise her magic by shrinking things, making them grow, and making them float.  She would also read the books that left around.
     At three, she learned to cook and garden.  She now could do all the work that mothers tended to do.  Her magic was still exercised daily.  She could now make things shrink, grow, float, get lighter, get heavier, extend undetected, heal things, make things appear and move things around.  She discovered she can talk to snakes by talking to Salazar, the white-lipped island pit-viper.
      About a month after she found Salazar, she wondered into the wooded area behind the house, where she saw a dying mother cat trying to have her kittens.  She quickly went over to help.  " It's ok, sweetie.  I'll help you. I promise. I'll care for your kittens and raise them like my own." She whispered, her voice like silk.
She bent down next to the cat and ran her hand along her spine. The first kitten came seven minutes later a white kitten was born. Rowena quickly cleaned the kitten up and prepared for the next kitten. Ten minutes later a black kitten was born. She cleaned the kitten up before getting a gallon jug to appear. She let her magic milk the cat, helping it to lactate.
After she was done, she conjured two kitten bottles, a blanket and a basket. She lined the basket with the blanket, filled the bottles with the milk, and tucked them underneath the blanket with only the nipples out. Then she put the kittens in the basket and snuck them into her cupboard.
     At four, she started getting beat and punished for not finishing her chores.  She had to do every chore in the house.  Her gardening and cooking was near Professional level, and she could get anything pristine looking within minutes. The kittens had grown up well and now lived behind the shed.
Salazar had become a great friend and teacher. He taught her parseltongue and started teaching her about snake breeds. He also was her eyes in the magic world. He would gather information about things happening and then tell her.
Early December she found a young snowy owl in a tree. She nursed the owl back to health and named it Hedwig, named after a thirteenth century saint, meaning battle, combat, fight and duel. She picked the name because of Hedwig's attitude and her strength of character.
Hedwig joined Salazar on his trips to the magic world. She would sit outside of shops and listen to conversations. Anytime people left their Daily Prophet alone, Hedwig would take it.  She brought it to Rowena, who would read them.
     Rowena read as much as she could.  She followed a strict schedule.
5:30- wake up
5:45- start cleaning.
7:00- cook breakfast
7:10- set table
7:15- garden
8:00- leave house and get away from Dursley
8:10- feed animals
8:15- go to library
11:00- go back to Dursley's
11:15- do dishes
11:45- make lunch
12:00- sneak out food
12:10- train magic
3:00- back to Dursley's
3:10- clean house
4:00- sneak out to feed animals
5:00- make dinner
6:00- set table
6:10- sell flowers at market- last weekend of August- or finding things to sell.
8:00- back to Dursley's
8:15- clean kitchen
9:00- go to bed.
     The the only days she did not follow this schedule was Dudley's birthday and the two week stay of Marge Dursley.  When Marge stays she wasn't allowed near the house.  She spent those days in her secret garden, growing flowers to sell.  She would also sell carvings if animals during Christmas season.
     She made three pounds per bouquet of a dozen flowers and two pounds per carving.  She sold them, telling people that her parents were busy and she was just a short seven year old, which was believable because she was 122 cm tall.  Anyway,  she sold about three dozen bouquets of flowers and ten carvings that year.  Making one hundred and twenty eight pounds, which she hid for emergencies.
     Two days before she turned five she found two puppies.  One was a purebred German Shepherd that she named Helga. The other was a purebred Siberian husky that she named Godric. The pups were playing with Merlin and Morgana. Salazar and Hedwig had come back early, talking about what they had discovered.
The next day she woke up and went about her normal schedule, until lunch. Where her uncle saw her and said " Girl, today you are cleaning the attic. The room is a mess and your aunt and Dudley are out for the weekend. If that room isn't clean when I come home from work, you're going to wish you were never born, you hear me, Girl?" He emphasized the last girl, making it clear what he would do.
"Yes, sir." Rowena answered. He turned and left the house. Rowena walked up the stairs and took the ladder up to the attic. When she got to the attic she found it was a mess. There were trunks and papers everywhere. She immediately got to work. She looked into the trunks and found they were filled with her parents old things.
Everything that was her parents she shrunk down and put in her pockets. All that was left was a chest and papers. She looked into the chest and found 'Muggle' things that had been toys for babies. She knew they were hers so she shrunk it down as well.
She read through the paper and found they were all different letters she got from the magic world. The envelopes contained money and different gifts. She had about a thousand galleons and many Muggle and magical toys. The money and toys were put into her chest before it was shrunk again.
When her uncle got home at 5:30 that evening, her day had a turn for the worst. Her uncle started yelling at her. " You brat. I knew you were the reason that I couldn't make the deal. They didn't even listen to me and it's all your fault." He started kicking and punching her before throwing her into the kitchen and going up to the study.
She couldn't take it anymore. She had to leave, forever. She got into the cabinets and got all of the caned vegetables, shrunk them, and went outside. When she got to the forest, at 6:00, she called all of her animals. She looked at them and said "It's time to leave, now. It's time to run."