On December Something

About The Letter

She couldn't believe it.
She just couldn't believe it.

Petunia had just received a letter from her sister a few days ago talking about the new word that Harry learned and now...well now she was dead. She paced in the kitchen while Vernon watched the news to see if any other kind of funny business was still happening. There wasn't.

The wizarding world had calmed down since yesterday but she should have known something was wrong. There were signs everywhere but she had chosen to ignore them. She ignored them like she had tried to ignore her sister. She just pretended they didn't exist. She couldn't do that now. There was a living and breathing reminder of her sister upstairs. A reminder that they could never be normal again.

Petunia thought her nephew was one of the most beautiful babies she had ever seen, besides her own of course. She could never admit that out loud. She especially couldn't do it around Vernon. He had pushed her so far into normalcy that sometimes she longed to be rid of it. Even though she had shrieked when she saw him, she was actually quite happy to see her nephew. She had just wished that her sister had been attached to him. She wasn't. She never could be again. They were going to plan a birthday party for their boys but Vernon rejected the very thought.

"My boy will have no part in those silly shenanigans!"  He had shouted.

She could still hear Vernon's thunderous yells from that morning she suggested it in her ears while she hurried up the stairs to put Dudley down for a nap so he wouldn't wake up. Vernon had never been accepting of the situation and Petunia put on a front. Truth was that she had settled for Vernon and she made the conscious decision to go about the rest of her life pretending to be unaccepting towards Lily and James. She had to pretend to hate Lily's friends that she really rather enjoyed. One more so than the rest.

As all of these thoughts and past fights flew through her mind and almost deafened her, she heard a high pitched cry sounding from upstairs. It broke her train of thought immediately.

She knew it was Harry. It was a little more high pitched than Dudley's and it wasn't a particularly long wail. He had been pretty vocal all day. No doubt he missed his mother. Petunia wasn't as familiar as she was but she was like Lily in many ways. They were built the same and she was sure a heartbeat of a muggle was similar to that of a witch. Whether you were a witch or not, when you didn't have a mother then everything was thrown off. To a baby it was just cruel.

Vernon huffed loudly and looked to her with a scowl on his face. His mustache twitched with anger and he looked like he was ready to blow. Petunia put her hands up to reassure him that she was the one to go upstairs and check on him. He slouched back in his chair to finish the news. She climbed the stairs quickly so that the cries would dissipate faster.

When she arrived the cries had slowed to light sobs and he had hiccups. He was frantically looking around for someone to hold him. He had pulled himself up enough to look and that was when he spotted her. His eyes were red from crying and he held out his hands to be held which she obliged quickly. He snuggled under her chin and his breathing hitched as he tried to calm down. He placed his thumb in his mouth as she shushed him gently.

She was, after all, a mother. She may not have been his mother but she knew how to be one. She knew how to be caring and she knew how to be protective. She was sure she had the same instincts that Lily had. That was one thing they were sure to have in common. She grabbed his baby blanket from the makeshift crib she arranged last minute. The crib she ordered wouldn't be here for another week and then he would have something to sleep in. She wrapped the blanket around him and held him tight to her chest. His eyes were closed and his thumb was in his mouth. He was listening to her heartbeat.