Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Harry Potter Or Its Characters!
AN: Hi everyone! How's it going? In case you didn't hear, I'm having trouble with my laptop and cannot really write. I'm using my sister's... but she wants so, I have no idea when I'll get back to my stories.
Luckily I had enough time to write this one-shot of a story I would have liked to have read, but it doesn't exist as far as I know. Like with MagicianPetunia!
I also have a new tablet, but I'm still figuring out how to write stories on it. Please be patient a little longer, okay?
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this one-shot and have a wonderful day. Also, to those who celebrate it, Happy Thanksgiving!
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Petunia stares at the wall of the room, thinking. Apparently she was in a nasty car accident that took the life of her husband and his sister. Apparently her son, while expected to fully recover, would have a scar where the glass cut him on his forehead. Apparently she's the sole provider of not only her son, but her orphan nephew as well.
Apparently her sister and her husband died in the same way, a car accident, leaving their son in her care. Apparently they hadn't been on good terms before this happened. Apparently something happened that drove them apart.
And for the life of her, she can't figure out what.
Sure Lily can get people to love her without doing anything while she struggles. And Lily can do amazing, and impossible things while she is ordinary no matter how hard she tries to be otherwise. And Lily has a way to brighten up your world with just a smile while she's ignored.
But Lily loves her and she loves Lily. She was going to show Lily how to be proper and to take care of herself. She was going to make sure all of Lilly's boyfriends know just where they stand in Lily's life, and how she'd hunt them down if they break her heart.
They were going to be each other's maid-of-honor, standing proudly as they marry the man of their dreams! They were going to have a family of their own, yet let their children grow up as siblings! They were going to take over the world! They were going to be sisters and best friends forever!
So why did they become practically strangers before Lily died?
Petunia releases a sigh of frustration as she puts her hands on her head and slightly pulled on her hair, the part not covered by bandages. Apparently her head was hit pretty hard that causes her to lose her memory of MOST OF HER LIFE!
She tries not to think about it, not to think about the chance she may never get it back. She tries to wrap her head around the fact she's a mother and an aunt, with two boys who need her. She has to recover enough to raise them, even though she doesn't remember them.
She met her… husband's, parents. She doesn't like them but she never said anything about it. She doesn't know what she was thinking, marrying into this… boring family.
She has to get used to being older than she remembers.
Her body is recovering well. Her head doesn't hurt as much anymore. The doctors expect her to be well enough to return home in about a month.
Yet her home is with Lily and their parents, not here. And just like many times before since she woke up, she cries. She cries for the loss of the family she had, and the life she doesn't remember.
xxxxxxx
Petunia gave a sigh of relief as she puts the phone down. A year since the day she woke up, missing decades of her life, has passed. A stressful year for sure, and she isn't certain it's going to get better.
Her family-in-law wanted her son, claiming she isn't fit to be a mother. They used her injury and amnesia as the reason why she'd be unfit. However, they had no problem with her keeping her nephew as the legal guardian.
She's very lucky to have found a lawyer who not only worked within her budget, but got the courts to see how she and the boys are the victims in all of this and how the family doesn't really care for them. To separate the boys when so much has happened to their family, and to punish her for living while their children died!
She's very lucky with how things went. The courts saw how spoiled her son is, being indulged with sweets and toys whenever he wanted. But her nephew is hardly getting anything and gets into trouble for something his cousin has done!
They saw how her in-laws raised the boys, and if it weren't for her lawyer giving her a chance, they would have ended up in the system.
Dudley, her son, is still too big and too loud, throwing tantrums in a blink of an eye. Harry, her nephew, is too small and too quiet, often shying away in fear. Petunia knows she needs to get them help as soon as possible, and is determined to get it.
Getting a job is hard, especially since she's still recovering. Her attention had been on her boys, that she didn't go through the therapies to help her both physically and mentally.
She also needed to take tests to determine what she does remember and what jobs would be available to her. To be honest, she doesn't have much hope.
For now, she can breathe. She has full custody of both boys and her family-in-laws cannot see her son without someone watching. They can't even come over to visit unexpectedly.
But she knew it wouldn't last. Her in-laws are already trying to reopen the case and she knows she cannot fight them should they succeed. She doesn't have the income to keep fighting.
She can't have a normal life, can't raise her boys right, if they keep harassing her like this.
Petunia doesn't think she's special, not when compared to her sister. However, there is one thing she has that her sister never did, and that was to plan and outthink her enemies. She needs to sell the house, get as much money as she can and leave before they try something.
With her boys taking a nap, Petunia sets out to find a life for them. Find a place and a way where no one would find them. She will find the perfect place for her boys to grow up safe, healthy and happy, even if it's the last thing she does.
No one knew in a month's time this family of three would disappear.
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It's like a big game of hide-n-seek mixed in with dress-up and pretend. The only difference is she has to stay as the same person she's pretending to be and she can't stop pretending by the time bedtime rolls around.
Sometimes she wonders if her boys would be sick of pretending as she is.
As far as she's concern, Petunia Dursley never existed. She's Petunia Evans, lost in a year not her own though she has adjusted to it. But Petunia Evans might as well be a fugitive, being hunted down.
She needed a new name, a new identity. Keeping a flower name was never a problem; there are so many to choose from and happen to be quite popular. The last name is a bit of a problem.
If she keeps the Evans' name, they would find them. If she uses her sister's husband's name, they might find them. If she chooses a name from someone she knew, then they might find them.
It has to be familiar enough to their family, yet far from it at the same time.
She also needs to change her boys' names as well, as much as it hurts her to do so. She isn't sure if it's just the daughters, the girls, who have flower names or if the boys, the sons, could as well. If she was giving that knowledge, it would have been after the last she remembers before waking up.
In the end she chose the name Gardener. It's not too different from her nephew's name so a piece of her sister's legacy can live on. She picked the name Iris for herself, after looking up the meaning and origin of the name and not just the flower.
Now she needs to pick a new name for her boys.
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Time passed for this family of three. The boys are raised to believe she is their older sister, something that comes easily to her anyway, and no one is the wiser.
If motherhood is like being an older sister, then maybe she's got this.
Even though time passed, her memories hadn't returned. As frustrating as it is, even having countless sleepless nights fretting over it in wonder, she realized that while it would explain how she got to this point, it doesn't matter as she has two boys to raise into proper men.
And while she wished to visits their grave for some closure, she knew she had to let her family, her dead family, go.
As Iris Gardener she was able to write and publish a book series. It's about two sisters, one with special abilities and one without, discovering a magical world with one not being able to ever venture into it. The story starts lighthearted and fun, but gradually grows darker as the once-close sisters grew apart, one blinded by the ideals of the magical world, one blinded by jealousy.
She often wonders why she wrote the story in such a way. She always wanted it to end happily, but she could never get that ending out. In the end, much to her fans disappointment, the two sisters were unable to reconnect before one's untimely death. By then, the bitterness and resentment is too strong to mourn over the loss, at least it sure seemed like it.
Sometimes it keeps her up at night, wondering why she wrote her books like that. Other nights it's the thought of her memories returning and she either hate who she had become before that incident or she'll change and hate her new self.
More often than not it's if her boys would grow up like the two sisters. They act like brothers, and her nephew has that strange ability his mother had, though different. She fears a magical world full of wonder and adventure would take her nephew from her and her boys would grow apart… like they had.
Yet her boys living so happily and free, growing into the men she wants them to be and not some monster/servant they were bound to become had she… had that…
Troubles for the future should be dealt with once it comes. The future that'll never be needs to be forgotten. She needs to enjoy the moments she has now, since no matter what it'll be gone too soon.
And all she can hope for in the end is for everything to work out for all of them, for their family.
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AN: I call this "Snowdrop" for the flower's meaning: Hope. I'm sorry to say that I don't have much idea for this AU other than what is written here. I wanted to keep it blank enough for people to come up with their own ideas, and hopefully write their own version.
That, and the first version I wrote had Petunia/Iris working for the Grangers but it became too complicated for my skill-level and knowledge. Got to stay with what you know, right?
Please leave a review. I really would like to know what you think.
For the Sonic fans, can you please read my sister's story? The Aleena Hotel Preview? She doesn't write often and literally wrote that in an hour, just before we had to leave for our plane. We'd like to know what she needs to improve before writing the actual story.
Thank you.