ᴛʜᴇ ꜰᴜʀʏ ᴏꜰ ʜɪꜱ ᴘʜᴏᴇɴɪx

55I Discomposure [ONE SHOT]

A/N: This is not my story. All credit goes to someone on fanfiction.net, who is the original writer, but I've forgotten their name, unfortunately. 

Petunia Dursley found herself a seated in a two-person booth tucked away in the corner of a nearly empty restaurant. She had missed the lunchtime rush as it had taken her longer than she anticipated to run her errands. She looked down at the rose gold watch on her wrist and huffed. It was nearing two o'clock and she had ordered at least fifteen minutes ago. Her jaw clenched as she pulled out the mobile phone that Dudley had convinced her to get. Why she needed things like text messages, Internet, and applications was beyond her comprehension.

She squinted down at the screen and noted the little red bubble in the corner of her messages tab. Dudley was the only one who texted her, because he was incapable of actually dialing his mother's number and talking on the phone. She rifled through her pocketbook for her reading glasses.

Resting the glasses on her nose, they slid down to the very tip. She pressed the little green button and up popped her messages. She saw not Dudley's name gleaming up at her but her son's mother-in-law's name. Petunia pursed her lips. The woman was a menace. She felt positively horrid that Dudley had such a woman as a mother-in-law despite his protests that she was wonderful.

The bell on the restaurant door rang in the distance and a wave of chattering voices wafted through the restaurant. Petunia sucked in a breath, her eyes closing, as she listened to the childish voices attempting to talk over one another. Petunia jabbed her finger on Estelle Digby and tried to block out the noise. How parents could be so inconsiderate to allow their children to act like a bunch of hooligans in a restaurant was beyond her. She would have been mortified if Dudley had ever been so loud in a restaurant as a child.

The waitress sat down her steak and kidney pudding in front of her. Petunia nodded vaguely in her direction, her lips twisting as she sat down her phone next to her. She sucked in a breath as she picked up her fork before she froze.

"Afternoon. Six, please," a familiar male voice carried throughout the restaurant.

She shook her head as she stabbed a carrot. She was being silly. Of all the places that she would see him. It was the middle of the day on a Friday. Surely, he would have a job if he was taking a family of six out to a fairly decent restaurant despite the slow service.

"Follow me."

Petunia glanced over. She caught sight of the woman first. She was short with her red hair pulled back into a high ponytail that swung with every step she took. A little boy with messy black hair was attached to her hip. He had large, green eyes on a thin face. He could have been no older than six or seven. Petunia held her breath at the sight of him. Her eyes glided to take in the other members of the family.

Two more boys who were older than the first. Both with extremely untidy black hair. The younger of the two had spectacles on his face, his nose splattered with an array of freckles. The older boy had to have been at least fifteen, towering over the other children with a heart-shaped face and a seemingly permanent grin splashed across his features. The boys were laughing loudly, the older one wrapping an arm around the younger one's shoulders.

Lastly, a very tiny little girl. She was the youngest of them all. She had red hair like her mother but a deeper auburn. Brown eyes hid behind a pair of obnoxious spangled, purple glasses. The features were so familiar though – the thin face, the almond-shaped eyes, the knobby knees.

"Daddy!"

The little girl turned around and held up her arms to the man Petunia thought she'd never see again. He still had the mop of untidy hair where it stood up straight in the very back of his head. Just above his ears, a speck of gray shone prominently on the otherwise dark hair. His face was still thin though the rest of him had filled out. He had grown muscular, the lines in his arms peeking out from his t-shirt tensed as he lifted the girl up into his arms and swung her on his hip. There was a smile spread across his face. Petunia couldn't remember a time she ever saw him smile before. It lit up his whole face. He looked a lot more like his father when he smiled.