Moments.
TheTinyestOne
Petuina Dursely has only looked her nephew in the eyes a handful of times. The first being the moment she dropped the milk bottles upon finding him on the doorstep, those eyes staring at her out of the little white head with a fresh bloody red scar, those eyes did not belong to this little baby, they belonged to Lily, the sister. Her sister, she didn't need Dumbldore's letter to know what happened to Lily, she had awoken late in the night feeling as though half of her own self was missing. Now here was Lily's eyes staring at her out of her nephews head.
Lily had gone, and all that was left of her was this little scrap of humanity that had the eyes of a twenty-two year old women staring out of his skull.
So she never looked Harry in the eyes if she could help it. When she managed to, Petuina got a twinge of guilt, becuase the accusing gaze in those eyes didn't belong to this small boy, the belong to a little girl, red hair swirling around her face, tears following down her face. Begging her sister to talk to her, to not hate her for something she can't help.
The first night Harry spent at Hogwarts was the best night of his life, the first night Harry spent at Hogwarts was a night that Petuina Dursley didn't sleep at all. She couldn't keep him safe anymore he was in that world now, she could no longer protect him. Was Lily upset at her? Or, did she understand that in a weird twisted sort of way Petuina had been trying to keep him safe, off the radar. Well, Vernon wasn't but Petuina only had so much power in that relationship. When she got a letter from that headmaster, her heart stopped for a moment, she had failed Lily.
Finding herself alone in the room with her nephew was not in the plan, and in that moment where his eyes met her, Petuina could have sworn she saw Lily staring out at her. In that moment she had so many things she wanted to explain, so many things she wanted to explain. Why the treated him so bad those first few years, to save him, she wanted to tell him of the love she had for her sister, how she'd tried to save him from magic for her. But the moment passed, and so did her courage.