06 - Guilt
Petunia has gone to bed early, but she can't sleep. The bed is huge without Vernon's bulk beside her, and she misses the snoring that had driven her mad at the beginning of their marriage.
When Harry starts crying, she doesn't get up. She listens with cold apathy until after half an hour a sleepy Dudley is standing in the door to get her. When she finally comes to him, Harry is sobbing spasmodically, his face flushed and smeared with tears and snot.
The children will soon forget about it, but not her. Never before has she felt so guilty.
.-.-.-.
07 - Torture
Harry is three years old, and whenever they go out, Petunia wishes the plague on the people they meet. Every time, she can hear them whisper, see them stare.
"Such a big boy and still in a pushchair," random strangers tell Harry. "Why don't you walk like your big brother?"
She wants to yell at them, then, that he would walk if only he could, and that they should think before they talk, and thank God for being healthy. But she swallows her bitter words along with her pride, and sometimes, she even manages to smile.
Hell is other people.
.-.-.-.
08 - Understanding
She feels uncomfortable with all eyes on her, and for some moments, she wishes she hadn't come. But then she thinks of all the tears and sleepless nights, and the desperate hope she had felt when she'd found the ad of the self-help group in the paper.
"My name is Petunia," she finally starts, head bowed, hands wrapped around her cup, "and it's about my nephew, Harry..."
Ten minutes later she is crying, a comforting arm around her shoulders, surrounded by people who don't judge but understand her. For the first time since the diagnosis, she doesn't feel alone.
.-.-.-.
09 - Joy
It's a Saturday afternoon in March, and Dudley is with his father. Petunia is ironing in the living room while Harry is quietly playing with his bricks at her feet.
She has looked away only for a moment, but suddenly he is up and walking, one small, shaky step after the other.
A second later, Petunia has swept him up in her arms and is kissing him. She feels a joy that takes her breath away, a joy so sharp that it hurts. A joy she has never felt with Dudley.
It's moments like this that make it all worthwhile.
.-.-.-.
10 - Disobedience
Five-year-old Dudley knows that he mustn't hit others. His mother is very strict about that. Once, when he'd slapped Harry when they'd been smaller, he'd had to spend all afternoon alone in his room.
But when he sees Harry crying, his teddy bear lying in a puddle of mud next to his broken glasses, he doesn't care. A short fight later, Piers and his friend are no longer laughing, but crying as well.
Dudley wipes his bleeding nose and looks after them as they run away. No matter what Mum will tell him later, he knows he won't be sorry.