Title: Decaying Calla Lilies by Elle Abel
Genre/s: Angst, Romance, Friendship, Family, Hurt/Comfort
Pairing/s: Petunia x Sirius (crack, I know), James x Lily (canon)
Summary: There was just something familiar about that Black boy - something that made her feel warm inside for some reason - but when she tried to wonder why, her mind always went blank. A Petunia x Sirius crackfic.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, much to my dismay.
WARNINGS: crack (because this is a pairing most people don't expect), a little Dumbledore bashing in future chapters, will only last for a few chapters – probably less than ten
My expectation for this fic: that you guys would be able to see why I found sense in a crack shipping such as Petunia and Sirius, which, really, is very unlikely, but, hey, this is fanfiction, anyways.
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PROLOGUE
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"Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live." ~ Norman Cousins
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Petunia Evans was a pretty blonde child who adored the attention everyone gave her. That attention lasted for quite some time, until her perfect sister arrived and ruined everything. Oh, she tried to love her sister, but with her parents praising Lily all the time and everyone just magically loving Lily, it was hard to love someone who you envied.
Especially when that someone had everything she ever wanted and dreamed of having.
Thus, Petunia felt like the spare child, the one that couldn't compare to the better child, despite being the eldest – felt worthless, average, normal. But still, she grew to love being normal, until one meeting, one locked gaze between dull blue eyes and lively grey ones, changed everything she believed in.
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At Privet Drive, one Harry Potter was staring at his wall blankly, ignorant of the loud crashing sound effects from his cousin Dudley's favorite show. He was breathing and living, but at the same time, he wasn't.
His godfather was dead, and he couldn't – wasn't able to – do anything about it. His godfather was already wrongly accused and imprisoned in Azkaban for years, and he was never really cleared by the Ministry because of that blasted rat, Pettigrew. He was supposed to live as a free man – supposed to live with Harry and take him away from these god-awful people – but he was killed, and he didn't deserve it all.
Morbid thoughts continued plaguing Harry's mind, making him completely detached from his surroundings and unaware of his Aunt Petunia leaning on the door-frame, watching her nephew with curious eyes.
He was never like this. Whenever they abused him, she caught the annoyed, disgruntled looks he sent their way when he thought she wasn't looking. When Marge was here two years ago, he snapped and got so angry he ran away. At least then, he wasn't bottling up his emotions.
Now, though, he was, and as much as she hated to admit it, it terrified her.
Her sister – her annoyingly perfect sister who got the brains and the beauty – was always bubbly and cheerful, even with her nagging and intense hatred and jealousy. Her sister's husband – who was equally annoyingly perfect what with his looks and humor – was just the same, although he never truly got angry around Petunia or Vernon. Her nephew – her blessed nephew – at the moment, was so different from his parents, and his usual brilliant green eyes – that looked so much like Lily's it hurt – were darker.
That fool, Dumbledore, had approached her once, while she was tending to the garden. She shrieked slightly and looked around to see of the neighbors heard her, or had seen the man who was, thankfully, sporting Muggle clothing. She recalled the old man telling her that he was under a Concealment Charm, and so no one could see him.
Very briefly, he informed her of what had recently happened at the Ministry of Magic – and how could those freaks have a government when they were so freakish already; must be an equally freaky government – of how one Sirius Black was killed in action.
At that moment, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
Sirius Black?
Sirius Black.
Sirius. Black.
Black.
Black...
For some reason, she felt a tugging sensation in her chest and a warmth she felt when she was a schoolgirl looking at the boy she fancied. The feelings scared her and she looked up at the old man only to see him looking at her with assessing eyes.
"I don't care. Good riddance," she said, although she would later realize that she had said the words with so little venom – when she should have been happy that her good-for-nothing nephew was even more miserable – and maybe some kind of despair? She wasn't sure. Then again, she would always be unsure of anything and everything related to magic.
"I see. Nevertheless, I do hope you pardon Harry if he shows his grief from time to time," Dumbledore said, preparing himself to Apparate. "Oh, and by the way, Petunia, I will have someone drop off some possessions of Harry's godfather soon. I believe he left Harry many things in his will."
"Hmph," she huffed, uncaring about the objects, though she knew Vernon, after getting past the fact that those belongings used to be a wizard's, would try to find something of value in them to sell them.
Dumbledore once more turned his calculative gaze on her before disappearing with a loud cracking sound.
Now, as she stared at her nephew, she clutched her aching chest with her hand.
Who in the world was Sirius Black and why did the name sound so foreign yet so familiar to her?
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Me: Hi, guys! Thank you for taking the time to read my story. I know it's an unusual pairing, but I see some logic in it, so I decided to write this story and try to show you my reasoning for the justification of this pairing. xD
And in case you found this story familiar, I also uploaded this fanfic on .
