Sweet Child of Mine
November 1, 1981
"How dare she!" Lily raged, stomping her feet on the carpeted entryway of her sister and brother-in-law's home. She had never set foot in this house alive, and now here she was, no more than a spirit come to look after her precious baby son. "She had two bloody extra bedrooms upstairs and she puts him in the cupboard like some sort of broom!" Her heart ached as she watched her sister, not much older than herself, latch the door to the cupboard shut to prevent Harry from pushing it open and crawling out again when she was trying to get Dudley down for a nap.
It was just this morning that Harry had arrived on the doorstep of Number Four, Privet Drive, closely looked after by his mother and father all through the remainder of the night. He had slept soundly, his forehead no longer bleeding, a scar the shape of lightening shining bright and new there, unable to ever be completely healed due to it being the result of dark magic. Petunia had opened the door to put out the milk bottles and retrieve the morning paper and instead, been greeted by a sleeping toddler wrapped in a quilt and blue pajamas bearing a letter stating that she now needed to be looking after him. She had read the note and quickly hidden the boy in the cupboard under the stairs, willing him to remain asleep until Vernon had left for work so that she could decide what to do before she broke to news to him.
The letter clearly stated she was to be the guardian of Harry James Potter, to look after him, care for him, and raise him from the age of fifteen months until he grew to be a legal adult, able to provide for himself and live on his own. It also stated, that come his eleventh year it would be expected that he would be attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry just as his parents, who had been murdered by Lord Voldemort, before him had and would she kindly explain all of this to him as he grew.
Now, Petunia had a lot of pent of hatred for her sister and that freak husband of hers, but, she also had an old kinship with her as well. They had been the best of friends once, when they were younger, had played together and gotten along fairly well until Lily had been swept away to Hogwarts, leaving Petunia by herself and feeling quite abandoned. Perhaps, if she could convince Vernon that they must keep the boy, after all, how would it look to the neighbors if they just shunted him out? Perhaps, if they took care of him in a way unsuited for their own child, they would be able to squash the magic out of him and make him grow into a decent human being. Perhaps, if they made it past his eleventh summer without word from that wretched school, then maybe, just maybe, she would end up with two sons instead of the one.
Harry whimpered as he pressed at the door, standing up and banging at it with his little firsts and crying, wanting to be let out. He had never ever been locked away like this. Mummy and Dada had always been there to free him from his crib and any mishaps he'd gotten into once he'd become mobile.
Lily just about tore her hair out as she sat down by the door, unable to undo the latch and let her crying son free from this hellish nightmare he'd been placed in. What in the world was Dumbledore possibly thinking by sending Harry to live with her sister of all people? She'd always known he was off his rocker, but this was ridiculous. "Shhh baby, it's alright, Muma's here, I'm right here Harry." The pounding quieted and four tiny fingers appeared beneath the door of the cupboard, reaching out.
"Uma, Uma." Harry chanted and Lily's heart soared. It was just like with the lullaby she'd sung him last night. He was still so young… he could hear her. She was almost positive of it.
"That's right, Harry." James smiled and sat down next to Lily.
"Dadadada!" Harry laughed, his fingers disappearing and he seemed to be a bit happier now. "Dada out?" Or not.
"No, Harry. You've got to stay in."
"Dada out!" Harry cried out, beginning to wail and pound at the door again, not liking how he couldn't control what was happening. "OUT OUT OOOOOOUT!"
"What the bloody hell is that?" Vernon Dursley roared from the kitchen as Petunia did up his tie. He turned to look at Dudley who was quite happily munching away at his donuts while the crying continued to come from the hallway.
"It's… " Vernon threw the cupboard door open and jumped in shock as a tiny black haired boy tumbled from the cupboard as though he'd been pressed against the door. Harry blinked in shock and looked up at Vernon hopefully. Upon finding that this was neither his mother or father or Padfoot, he burst into tears, wailing loudly and causing Petunia to come running into the hallway where she scooped him up.
"He was just here this morning. On the doorstep, with a note saying that his parents have been k-killed." Petunia bit her lip, absently rocking Harry who calmed slightly at the motion, the familiarity of it.
"Who in god's name leaves a kid on a stoop?" Vernon asked, eyeing Harry like he might be carrying any sort of disease imaginable. "Find the closest orphanage. He's not staying here."
"He… Vernon, he's our nephew. Harry. L-lily's son."
"All the more reason to be rid of him! I won't have it, I tell you! I won't have that thing in my house with my wife and child. Who knows what sort of… trouble he'll get us into. What if someone finds out? Surely he'll be just like… like them." Vernon spat out the last word, looking even purple-faced by the moment.
"Vernon, I would if I could, but I can't. He has to stay here."
"Why the bloody hell…"
"How would it look if the neighbors found out we shunted our own nephew in his time of need?" Petunia asked. "Besides, who says he'll be like them? Maybe we can.. squash it out of him or something."
"Squash…. Squash it out of him!" Lily roared heading towards Petunia with her hands out as though she very much wished she could strangle her sister right then and there and would not have felt the least bit of remorse about it.
"Can… can that happen?" Vernon asked.
"I think so. She mentioned… Squashed ones once or twice."
"Squibs you idiot! I said squib, not squash! You can't squash the magic out of anyone!" James had to hold lily back now as she aimed for her sister, looking ready to do more than just strangle her. How dare Petunia speak about her son that way? How dare she allow Vernon look at him like he was a bug!
"Well then… I suppose… but I'm not having any of it in my house, Petunia. The second he starts showing signs, he is out of here, is that understood?"
"Yes, Vernon." Petunia nodded and Vernon huffed a bit before leaning in to kiss her on her boney cheek.
"Off to work then. Don't let that boy near Dudley for too long. Who knows how that stuff travels."
"Yes, Vernon." Petunia sighed and as soon as the front door had closed behind Vernon, she carried Harry into the kitchen and set him on the floor. Dudley finished off his donut and then held out one hand for more while the other banged against his tray. Petunia gave him another donut, smiling and kissing the top of his head. She then grabbed a plastic bowl from the cupboard, poured some Cheerios into it and set it on the floor in front of Harry. Harry shoved both hands into his cereal, hungry after his long ordeal last night. He brought a handful to his mouth, managing to get one or two pieces into it while the rest fell and scattered all over Petunia's shiney white kitchen floor.
"No Harry!" Petunia scolded him, taking the bowl away. "We don't make messes here." She sighed as his eyes welled with tears. She may hate him for what he was… but he was still her nephew and he was still just a baby. She grabbed up Vernon's newspaper and spread it out on the floor. She moved Harry onto it before she set the bowl back down. There. Now if he made a mess she would at least have an easy time cleaning it up.
Lily's eye twitched from where she was sitting on the floor next to Harry. Newspaper? HOW DARE her sister treat her son like a dog! She could have at least fed the boys one at a time rather than making her precious toddler eat on the floor. A bottle on the floor was one thing, cereal however…
"Alright, Diddy-kins, let mummy wash you up." Petunia wet a cloth in the sink and reached out to wipe off Dudley's face. The little pink beach ball of a boy screamed bloody murder, putting his hands up and kicking out at his mother.
"No no no no no!" His feet banged so hard against the high chair, Lily thought it might fall over. Panic filled her as it tilted, but Petunia quickly grabbed it by the tray, righting it. She held Dudley's hands and got his face cleaned up before setting him free. The boy ran straight for Harry and snatched up the bowl of cheerios, shoving fistful after fistful into his mouth as quickly as he could. Harry's green eyes went wide, and then he began to wail.
"No no, Dudders." Petunia took the bowl from him and set it on the counter. "You've had your breakfast, that's Harry's."
"Mine!" Dudley screamed, kicking his mother and running to the counter. He reached for the bowl but could not quite grab it. "Mummy, hungry!" He flopped down on the floor and burst into tears, reaching upwards for the bowl. Petunia took it and gave it to him, much to Lily's astonishment. Harry crawled over and reached to grab some cheerios from the bowl, but Dudley lashed out, hitting him hard on the top of the head with the bowl, sending cheerios flying everywhere, and causing Harry to burst into tears again.
"Oh for god's sake, would you stop that?" Petunia picked Harry up off of the floor and set him down in the high chair who's tray was still covered in bits of slobbery donut. She grabbed another bowl from the cupboard and poured more cereal into it. She set it in front of Harry who stopped crying, whimpered a bit, and then began eating.
Dudley, having managed to cram the cereal that had actually stayed in the bowl, into his mouth, threw the bowl away from himself. He laughed, listening to it clatter. Petunia sighed and went after it, picking it up and dropping it into the sink before she went to the small cupboard in the corner to retrieve the broom.
Lily's eyes widened as Dudley spotted Harry, sitting up in HIS seat, eating from one of HIS bowls. He got up onto his chubby feet and walked to the high chair. He reached up, trying to grab the bowl, but Harry, seeing him, grabbed hold of it and pulled it closer. Dudley, now full of two year old rage, grabbed hold of one of the highchair's legs and began pushing at it. It teetered… Lily's breath caught in her throat.
"Harry!" James almost yelped, shooting forward as the highchair lost it's balance. Harry screamed, and as the high chair clattered to the floor and James's arms went straight through Harry, unable to hold him, the fifteen month old did not fall. Instead, he hung in midair, a foot from the ground. His magic had kicked in as the chair had fallen and he'd been shot out of it, not buckled in. Petunia turned around.
"Harry!" She screeched and Harry, shocked, fell, landing safely on his diapered bottom. He bounced a tiny bit and then burst into tears, reaching his arms up in James's direction, having heard his shout.
"Dada! Dada!" He wailed, standing up and looking around through his tears. He ran out of the kitchen and into the living room. "Dada! 'Uma! Dada! 'Uma!" He cried, trying his very hardest to find them. Where were his mummy and daddy?
"Harry." Petunia sighed, leaning against the doorjamb between the living room and kitchen, looking down at the completely distraught toddler… and those eyes… so startlingly green and almond shaped like her sister's... For a moment, Petunia could almost picture her sister, a small child, her red hair a mess, and those eyes, staring up at her big sister pleadingly as she had when she wanted to play. He heart sank as the red hair changed to black… but those eyes… they were the same. Pleading, a little bit of Lily still here. An ache filled Petunia, knowing, with absolute certainty, that her sister was dead. Not just gone where they could exchange Christmas cards because they felt like they had to, but really, truly, gone forever. "Harry, come here."
Harry turned around, sniffling and staring up at his aunt. His little lower lip quivered and he cried harder, holding his arms out to her, begging for affection. Petunia lifted him up and held his head against her shoulder as she did with Dudley whenever he was in a right state. She shushed him and sat down in the rocking chair that had been moved from Dudley's room to the living room when Dudley had grown into a non-cuddley stage. She rocked back and forth gently, rubbing Harry's back gently until his sobs began to calm.
Lily watched her sister, sitting down on the couch, astounded with the other woman's ability to sooth her poor baby's heartache when she couldn't even touch him. She crossed her arms over her chest and moved from the couch, where James had joined her, to sit down in front of the rocking chair. "Oh Tuney." She sighed, hugging her knees to her chest, staring up at her sister and son.
"You know, Harry. You have your mother's eyes… I was always jealous of her eyes, and she knew it." Lily cracked a bit of a smile, glad to see Petunia treating her son a bit better now. Maybe this would be alright after all. "So bright and green, like our father's. Everyone loved Lily's eyes. And you, you lucky little boy, have been blessed with them. Maybe, if we're lucky, you can be a normal little boy like your cousin, how about that? None of that... abnormal stuff and you can be my second little boy? Vernon won't condone more than one child, he says Dudley's enough. But perhaps, he won't be able to say no to one already here, hmm?"
"Hmmmm." Harry nodded, grabbing at her hair, feeling better now that he was getting some proper attention. "Uma?" He asked, looking around.
"No. No mummy here. Just Aunt Petunia."
"Aun Tuna?" Lily snorted, knowing how much Petunia didn't like being called 'tuna' by anyone. She had only ever condoned Lily to call her 'Tuney' and, as she'd said back then, that had been bad enough.
"Aunt Petunia." She corrected him.
"Aun Tuna." Harry nodded, grinning up at her with teeth like tiny pearls. Petunia sighed and smiled back.
The moment did not last, however. Dudley, having cleaned the cereal out of Harry's bowl, toddled into the living room looking for his mother. Upon sighting her with this other child, this intruder in his home who had taken both his chair, his bowl, and his cereal, Dudley went into another rage. How dare his mother pay attention to this other baby when he, her ickle Diddykins, was bored?
"MUMMY!" He screamed, running over to the rocking chair. He grabbed hold of the armrest and tried to shake it with all his might. "MY MUMMY!" He reached out a hand and whacked Harry who burst into tears and reached a hand out, hitting Dudley back with all the might he could muster, apparently done with being hit. Dudley stood there in shock for a moment, his blue eyes wide and brimming with tears until he fell to his bottom and burst out wailing.
"Harry!" Petunia, upon seeing her own precious angel upset, set Harry unceremoniously on the floor, shaking a finger at him. "You do NOT hit Dudley! Bad boy!" She scooped Dudley up in her arms, coddling and kissing him as she stood up and carried him into the kitchen where there was better light so that she could check him over and make sure he hadn't bruised.
Harry sat there, crying but slightly awestruck at the sudden change of events. He had finally been getting some good attention and now this. He cried harder… his leg hurt where Dudley had hit him. He forced himself forward, lying face down on the floor, crying loudly. He kicked his feet a bit, upset at the world. Where was his Mummy? Where was his Daddy? He wailed louder, sitting up, his eyes squeezed shut. Lily opened her mouth to shush him, but she was too late.
The glass in the windows and in the photo frames all over the living room shattered, bursting and sending glass clattering to the carpet, not hitting Harry who sat in the middle of it all, his little lungs using all the capacity they had to send air out of his mouth with as much noise as was humanly possible for a fifteen month old.
Petunia came running, holding Dudley, into the living room. Her eyes widened, staring around at the great mess of glass everywhere and the fact that the wind was blowing in through the windows, a chilly autumn air filling the room. Petunia scooped Harry up from the floor, placing him on her hip opposite Dudley and carrying him into the hallway. "That was a very, very naughty thing to do, Harry! What did I tell you about that? NO magic!" She opened the cupboard under the stairs and placed Harry down inside, slamming the door behind herself and locking it shut so he couldn't push it open. Harry cried, banging on the door.
Petunia sighed, turning around and peering into the living room. This was going to take a lot of vacuuming, but she was dreading, even more, having to explain the smashed windows to Vernon. He was not going to be happy about having to replace all that glass.
Lily sighed, flopping down outside the cupboard, wishing she could get inside and hold her baby. She blinked, realizing… maybe… She looked at James who nodded. She closed her eyes, concentrating and then, her hand went through the door. She smiled, pressing the rest of herself through it. James quickly followed after her, both of them glad that they could sit in the cupboard with their son rather than him having to be there alone. "Shhh, Harry. It's alright. I'm here…"
"Uma?" Harry looked around in the dark cupboard, groping his hands, reaching to try and find her.
"Yes, Harry. Now lay down sweetheart and mummy'll sing you a nice song." James said, reaching out and willing his hand to touch his son. But it didn't, so he just hovered it over the little boy's tummy as Harry actually did as he was told, which was unusual at such a young age. And so, Lily began to sing again, the same old lullaby, wondering exactly how her son was going to manage living in this house.
Hey! I hope you enjoyed the second installment! I'm sorry it took so long to write, life is busy lately. I'm hoping to have more time soon though. Anyway, let me know what you thought and if you think I should continue.
Love always,
S.Q.O.
