The Telltale Cupboard

A Harry Potter Fanfiction

by: Drauchenfyre

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A/N: Why do the rabid plot bunnies always bite me at 2am and not let go until I type?

It was beginning to get to him.

Vernon Dursley had been having a problem for months now. It couldn't be the freak- he'd gone back to that damned school already, after those bloody redheaded freaks had picked him up for some freak World Cup or something and utterly destroyed his sitting room.

No, the freak wasn't directly involved. But there was something...

It happened at the oddest times- when the house was quiet, when he was alone, sometimes in the middle of a client dinner- and no one but Vernon Dursley seemed able to hear it.

The sound, faint but distinctive, of a sobbing child.

It seemed to radiate from the freak's cupboard- he never should have given the ungrateful whelp Dudley's second bedroom, but if that lot had found out...

Everytime he looked, the sound stopped. There was never a source. He'd ripped the contents out of the cupboard more than once, looking for a tape recorder or-something.

But there was never anything there.

The sound interrupted his sleep. Disrupted his meals. Broke his concentration when wining and dining his potential customers.

A sobbing child. Over and over.

Petunia couldn't hear it. Dudley hadn't heard it over the Christmas Hols. He was afraid to ask his clients.

Afraid that would lead to awkward questions.

Afraid it would connect Vernon Dursley to... that lot.

It was gnawing at him. The tattered remnants of his conscience were rising up at the sound, once more making themselves heard after being dormant for over a decade.

He could feel himself approaching his breaking point. It wouldn't be long before the sobbing started again, during a client dinner, or one of Petunia's bridge games. And he'd spill. He'd spill ALL he'd done to the freak.

There. The sobbing once more...

Remus Lupin, Disillusioned, stood in the back garden at 4 Privet Drive and smirked an invisible smirk. After everything this fat tub of lard had put Lily and James's son through, breaking him would be so enjoyable. Soon, he'd be screaming his guilt from the rooftops. The bobbies would arrest him. The Yard would investigate thoroughly. The truth would come out, and the Dursleys would never see freedom again, let alone be taking 'care' of Harry.

And the best part was, no one would ever know he was a part of it.

All in all, a perfect Marauder revenge.

END