As promised, Petunia fic

[melwil]

Title: Vigil
Author: MelWil
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I neither own nor make money from them. JKR does.
Feedback: lina_wilson@hotmail.com
Summary: Petunia stands, watches and thinks

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Petunia Dursley always considered her son to be the most precious thing in the world. Then her husband, her kitchen and the jewelry her mother left her when she died. Once there had been more precious things, but those things were gone now, and she didn't like to be reminded of their previous existence.

It was easier to be grateful for the things she still had.

She repeated the words over and over again, like some hedonistic chant as she stood in the doorway of Dudley's room. Vernon had helped him up the stairs as Petunia followed behind, wringing her hands and muttering her mantra: I am grateful for what I have.

Her son shifted and moaned and Petunia worried that he was having nightmares about the horrid Dementors. She fretted because he was a sensitive boy who might not be able to deal with it, and she felt her heart rise in her throat whenever she thought that Dudley might have lost his soul.

It was too easy to blame it on the boy and she knew it. Without him, there would be a pleasant absence of magic in their lives. They could forget he ever lived and go on to live happy, trouble free existences. But forgetting about the boy would mean forgetting about his mother and that was something Petunia wasn't quite ready to do.

Voldemort. Her lips moved around the name, but she would not speak it out loud. Lily had been fighting against Voldemort: she had been scared of him but still she fought. And he had killed her because of it.

Petunia squinted, trying to remember the past while keeping a constant eye on Dudley. She remembered conversations; with Lily, late on the night before her sister's wedding; one she overheard between the boy's father and her own father; the one she had with a long haired, bearded wizard after her sister was killed. Voldemort didn't just want to kill wizards and witches – he wanted to kill normal people too.

Like their parents. Petunia's hand went to her neck, clutching at her smooth skin. Her parents had been killed the year before her sister died. The grim looks on Lily and the boy's fathers' faces confirmed Petunia's worst fears: the deaths were magical.

“I want you out of my life,” Petunia had yelled at her sister. “Our parents are dead, along with the last connection you and I ever shared. I never want your life and all its associated horrors,” she glared at James, who shifted uncomfortably, “to make my life miserable again!” She stamped a foot and turned, running away from her parents' house.

Petunia never saw Lily again. Which, well, it wasn't really what Petunia wanted. Lily and Petunia yelled stupid things at each other all the time. Most of the time they meant each other no harm. But Lily died and Petunia as burdened with her son and Lily's magic continued to make Petunia's life hell.

They'd never let her live happily ever after.






In other news - just went on an icon making spree. And I've now picked every Big Brother evictee except Saxon.

Also. Go Phillopousis.

Comments

[cebbie.livejournal.com]

That was very powerful. It made me look at poor aunt Petunia in a new light. That could very well have been what happened. I lurv your short stories :)