Written for round one of the Can You Make It To The End Challenge (Petunia Evans), the Colors of the Rainbow Challenge (White: Winter), and the Hogwarts Forum for Psychology- Melancholic (prompts: loyal, orderly, stubborn, dogmatic, fixated on the past, focused on family traditions/respectability)

The thing is, Petunia Dursley doesn't do it for Albus Dumbledore or for the world. She doesn't like magic any more than she did back when she was ten years old and Lily used to make herself weightless, suspended in midair, the Snape boy following her around like a lovesick puppy.

That never really changed, no matter what boundaries Lily set.

She hates magic, she really does, because she lost her sister to it years ago and she never got her back, no matter how hard she tried.

…

The last time Petunia saw her sister before it all changed, they had a hissed argument outside the bathroom of their parents' home, during an uncomfortable dinner where Lily's fiancé made Vernon mutter disgusted words under his breath for hours after that.

She remembers how Vernon broke up with her two weeks later, stating unnaturalness and freakishness as an excuse, as a reason to shatter her heart to pieces.

It took Petunia two years to put herself after that, to realize it wasn't her or Lily's or that weird Potter boys fault. Vernon was a coward. Petunia refuses to be.

She has learned the hard way what kind of trouble being a sheep can get you into.

She does not make the same mistakes twice.

…

Petunia Evans is many things- stubborn, snappish, and vicious; a gossip and a liar. But Lily never cared about any of that, about any of her faults, just called her Tuney and told her thank you for being patient, for being orderly, for staying loyal, for being my sister. They used to balance each other, sisters forever before Petunia wrote to Albus Dumbledore once and never to Lily.

She wrote to Lily after Vernon left; after she had crashed and broke and put herself back together.

But now, staring down at the boy in a basket on her porch, Petunia is just angry. Angry at the world for taking away her nephew's parents; angry at Albus Dumbledore for thinking a letter was enough to leave a child outside a house in the freezing winter; angry at herself for that brief moment where she wanted to slam the door and never look back.

But he has Lily's eyes (so green it hurts to look at) and a mop of black hair that is so, so familiar (Lily loved the Potter Boy and Petunia never even got the chance to meet him). She has already failed her family once.

Not again.

…

This time around, she scoops out the little boy out of the basket. This time, she will be loyal, she'll be cautious, she won't let anyone hurt her family. The world is cruel and so is she. She will teach her nephew to be strong, to lie, and to love. Nobody will take him away from her.

When Petunia slams the door, child balanced on the sharp edges of her hips, she doesn't look back.