Petunia's daughter, Lillian Evans

Ch 16: If A Portrait Could Mock

[ A/N: The Artwork is done by me.♡ ]

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Lillian's absence was a prominent feature in the household.

The dark bruises under Petunia's eyes could win a purple color contest. Her voice could scare away a murder of crows.

Petunia was losing sleep. That much was obvious. She kept Dudley from doing the same by keeping him busy with school and other activities. She couldn't force him but he was pretty much diving into it all.

Keeping themselves together was hard. Though they knew Vernon was as uncaring as always. He seemed to revel in the silence of 'freakish' incedents.

As though Lillian's entire existance was a splatter of mud on his car. She was an unimportant spot in his life.

Even as Petunia put her all into helping the police find her baby. Vernon seemed to go through life as though nothing had changed. Only putting up a facade of worry when others were around.

His show of nonchalance made it difficult for Dudley to be at home. He hated seeing his own father beat his mum for stupid reasons.

Seeing his father beat his mum because of Lillian was worse.

Dudley loved his little sister and he tried his best to protect her. He couldn't do anything, but wait. Waiting, however, was slowly starting to chip at his heart.

He heard his mother cry at night, just like he did when no one was around. He couldn't focus on his school work, but he tried his best. He helped his mum with everything Lily had before.

Cooking, some extra cleaning, gardening. He was terrible at the first and last, but cleaning was something he normally helped with. Filling his day with lots to do helped him escape from the termiol in his mind.

Even so, trying to live without a big part of his family felt impossible. He missed his sister.

Dudley's classmates, teachers, and friends would ask how he was doing. It was obvious, all they had to do was look at his pale face and sunken eyes.

It had been a full month and they still couldn't find her. The only lead was a white car, and a blond man with blue eyes. Who had been seen before.

He had been taken in a while back, for loitering around a playground. They had him on check, and yet, they couldn't find him. The man that fit  the kidnappers description was nowhere to be found.

☆☆☆

After a long while, even Vernon seemed to feel the true absence of Lillian's presence in the house. He seemed to fidget, as though half-dreading and half-hoping her to pop up.

Even as he dispised her 'abnormal' existence, he also felt that without her there, the 'normal' he was used to was cracking apart.

Her smiling face in the pictures hanging on the wall seemed to sweetly mock them.

As if to say, 'here I am, look at me! I'm not REALLY here, don't be silly.' Her smiling face was a torment like no other. All Dudley and Petunia could do was either stare longingly at them, or avoid the sight of her.

The guilt from being unable to help her, to find her sooner, was sucking every bit of life out of everything. Her sparkling green eyes in the photos seemed to dull as more time passed.

Everything was turning grey, salty, and painful. If only they could have done more. If only they could do more. She was everything, the color, the life, the true vibrancy of Petunia's and Dudley's little family of three.

☆☆☆

It had been nearly three months since Lillian was taken away. The police were starting to lose hope in finding anything else useful, in terms of finding evidence of her whereabouts.

Acid seemed to have eaten at their throats, as fog suffocated their grieving minds.

No one knew when she would be found, nor if she would be found.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

[ A/N: Happy birthday to our Lord and Saviour: Harry, just Harry. The Pottah of the year. Hooray.
(I apoligize for not posting these last few Saturdays, my brother was in and out of hospital which made it hard to concentrate on anything.)
Alrighty everyone, it's grand writing for all of you lovely chaps, good day/night and Thank You to everyone reading my story!♡ ]

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆