Chapter 9 Falling and Christmas

It had been nearly a week since the visit with Marge and she still had yet to even call and apologize. Although, who really expected her too honestly? She was just the type of person who believed what she wanted and no one could change her mind. The nightmares Harry had were not coming every night but they were there enough and as much as everyone in the house wanted to help him no one could. Petunia had been thinking about those and she thought they may be the night the potters were killed. She knew that it would be hard for Harry in a few years to come to terms with the fame he had in the other world and she was not looking forward to it.

She sits on the couch with a book and starts to read a bit of it while the boys were outside playing. It would be time for lunch soon and she would need to make something for both of them. In the past few years she had gotten into reading more and often it was something she would do whenever she had some time alone.. She turns the page just as she hears a cry come from outside. Looking up at that moment almost throwing the book down as she sees Dudley running in.

"Dudley, what happened?"

"Harry, he fell off his bike." He says rather fast.

She looks at him and could tell he was worried about his cousin. "Come on lets go out there to him." She walks out there quickly to find her nephew on the ground a cut on his arm and the side of his face. It didn't seem to be too deep.

"Harry, can you come in with me? We can get you cleaned up. I will even get you a glass of cold apple juice after." She says with a smile. She knew he loved the drink and after being upset it would get him to calm down.

He sniffles a little and looks at her through his wet lashes with those bright green eyes. "Will you tell me a story about my mom?" He asks softly.

"Of course I will" she kisses his forehead. "We just need to get you cleaned up first."

She grabs his hand and walks inside with both boys. She brings Harry upstairs to the bathroom and has him sit on the toilet seat as she walks over to the cabinet and pulls out the first aid kid. "Ok, lets see." She says as she looks out and grabs the stuff needed.

"Ok, I am going to wipe it with the alcohol pad. It will sting a bit." She says to him as she waits for his nod.

"I'm ready" he bites his lip a little as he feels her touch his cheek with it. "Oww…" he says softly.

"Shh….I'm almost done Harry." She grabs another one and cleans his knee. "There we go. Now I am just going to put some antibiotic cream on them and then some of these." She holds up the butterfly stitches.

"What is that?" he asks as he points to the butterfly stitches.

"They will close up the gash on your cheek. They are called butterfly stitches. They are used when a cut is not bad enough to need regular stitches but still needs to be closed up." She hoped that worked enough. He had seen Dudley get stitches before she he knew what they were.

"Oh, ok" He bites his lip a little. "Aunt Tuney, will it leave a scar? I already have one and…I don't want another one." He says softly as he looks at her tears filling his eyes.

She smiles softly as she grabs one and pushes the wound closed a bit and sticks it on his cheek. "It shouldn't leave one. Just in case though we can rub some of the scar reducing cream on it once its healed up."

"Okay!" he says with a smile.

"There we go, all done. Your knee just needs a regular band-aid since it's just a scrape." She says as she grabs a a bandage and places it on his knee after putting the antibiotic cream on it. She kisses his knee and cheek.

"Now it will get better since you kissed my knee and my cheek!" He says happily as he hugs her.

She laughs a bit and hugs him back. "Yes, I believe you will be fine."

"Mom,I brought his bike back into the yard." Dudley says as they stand up.

"Thank you Dudley, that was very nice of you." She kisses his forehead and ruffles his hair a bit. "Now, what do you say we go and get some lunch and I can tell you both a story about Lilly?" she looks to both boys.

"Yea! A story about mom!" he takes off with Dudley to the kitchen.

She laughs a bit as she walks into the kitchen after cleaning up everything from the bathroom and makes them some grilled cheese sandwiches. This didn't take too long. She places one on each plate and sits it in front of them. A glass of milk is set in front of Dudley and a glass of apple juice is set in front of Harry. "Now lets see…" she says as she thinks of a story. She smiles as she thinks of one that she is sure Harry will like and begins the tale.

A Few Hours Later

After a long day of work he pulls into the driveway and gets out of his car, walking into the house. He looks over to see both boys sitting in the living room watching a movie. He frowns a bit when he sees the cut on Harry's cheek. He sets down his stuff and walks into the kitchen. "Pet, what happened to Harry's cheek?" He asks with concern.

She looks up from her chopping. "Oh, I didn't realize you came in. He is okay, it only happened to be a small cut along with a scraped knee. He fell off his bike. Not sure what he hit to cut his face though." She says thoughtfully.

"Oh, well as long as he is okay" he says as he walks up and kisses his wife softly. "So the butterfly stitches worked okay then?" he asks as he looks in there to both of them

"Yes, it was not deep enough for more so they worked nicely. He calmed down after everything was cleaned and asked for a story about Lily." She says with a smile. That was one thing that could always calm him down and petunia tried to give him that one small comfort she could as she knew that it was good for him to have memories of his mom and hear things about her.

He smiles a bit at that. He knew Harry liked the stories Petunia told about Lily. He had his own from the few times he spent with James and he told them to Harry. "There were a few good ones. He just hoped that soon Harry could meet someone who would be able to give him more stories. "Well, I am glad that he loves those stories so much." He says as he looks to his wife who had started cutting again.

"I know, it can always calm him down. Now, you should go get cleaned up and changed before dinner." She says to him as she gives him the look that she meant it. "It will only be about 30 minutes and everything should be done. She smiles as he kisses her cheek and walks upstairs to change.

Christmas day and a week later.

It had been about a week since Harry had fallen off his bike. The cut he had gotten on his face seems to be healing well and did not seem like it would leave much of a scar. With the cream being rubbed on it you would barley be able to see it within another week or so. She sits with Vernon on the couch and waits for both boys to wake up. She knew once they realized it was morning it would not take too long. Under the tree there were presents pilled in two piles one for Dudley and one for Harry. They got them a few things each from them, then of course there is the ones meant to be from Father Christmas. Also, which she was not sure what to think about were presents from Marge. She could only hope that she did not get Harry something that would upset him like she has in the past. She noticed there is two from Miss Figg as well which she smiles. She often would watch the boys for her and seemed to be a sweet lady. She did know that she was a squib as well as she had told petunia that she would be there incase she needed anything.

A few minutes later pounding could be heard coming from the stairs. Both boys ran into the living room and gasped at the presents. They both smile and look to each other running up to them.

"Harry, this side is yours and Dudley, this side is yours." She says with a smile.

"Can we open them now?" Dudley asks as he looks to his mom.

"Yes, you can, but after we will need to have breakfast." She says to both of them.

"Then I should think after you will need to help clean up all the paper and bring your gifts to your room." Vernon says as both boys nod.

"Yes Dad/Uncle Vernon" Both boys say to him. They knew their uncle liked for them to help around the house when there are things to do. IT was usually not something too hard that they couldn't do though.

Only about 5 minutes later both boys had pretty much opened both of their presents. Harry had gotten a football (Soccer for U.S) as he loved to play and was quite good at it. There was also the Star Wars movies as he really seems to love them and watched them every chance he could. The best was when Harry opened the present that Petunia herself had gotten made for him. He had asked Father Christmas that year for something to help him remember his parents.

"Wow…" he says as he opens it his mouth open a bit. He looks to his aunt. "Look Aunt Tuney…. This blanket has pictures of my mom and dad printed on it." He looks down "Pictures of me with them too!" He says excitedly.

"well, didn't you tell father Christmas that you wanted something to remember your parents by?" she smiles at his nod. "With so many pictures you will be able to see them as you sleep each night. Even in a few years when you go off to Hogwarts. She says with a smile.

"Yea! I will always make sure this is with me!" He snuggles up to the blanket a bit as tears fall from his face. He really loved it. He puts It down and opens the last present which was from Marge She had gotten him a sketchbook and some drawing pencils.

":Look what Aunt Marge got me." He says as he shows them to his aunt and uncle.

Both look at each other shocked. She had actually gotten him something good. "well, if you look I think you will find something from us to go with that." She says with a smile as she looks to Dudley "What did you get sweetheart?"

"I got a new skateboard!" He says excitedly as he looks down to the rest of them. "A new game for my play station and then a remote control car from Aunt Marge." He says excitedly. "Oh then I got a new set of books too." He was not sure what they were but he would look at them later he thought.

"Well that's great Dudley! I think you have some pretty good gifts there son." Vernon says with a smile. "Although your present from Father Christmas seems to be over there still."

"Oh! I did not even see that." He grabs it and opens it ripping the paper. "It's a set of boxing gloves." He smiles and looks to his dad. "Now I can learn to use them so I can stop the bullies from always messing with Harry!"

Vernon could not help but smile at that. He had heard what he asked for just as petunia heard what Harry did. He had asked for a way to learn to protect his cousin. With boxing he would be able to get enough strength to fight for him if needed and that made Vernon smile knowing he wanted to help his cousin. "Yes, this will help you become strong enough to help."

A few moments later petunia smiles and looks to all of them. Everyone seemed so happy and she could not have been happier for that. "Well, its time for breakfast now." She says as she gets up and walks into the kitchen. Everything was already made as she knew they would want to open presents first but would be hungry after. She had decided to make ham and cheese omelets.

"Yum! My favorite!" Dudley says with a smile as she sits down just as his omlete is being placed on his plate.

"Mhmm, and I believe Harry loves them as well." She says as she sees Harry's nodd.

Vrernon sits down as does petunia and begins to eat with them. It did not take long as both boys were hungrier than they realized. They both wanted to see what they had gotten so did not even realize that they were skipping breakfast for the moment.

"Now, time for both of you to come and help with the cleanup."

Harry looks over at everything and sighs a bit. "Yes Ma'am" he knew it would take awhile.

Dudley looks too then to his mom "we really made a mess didn't we." He says with a smile.

"Yea, this is going to take a long time!" Harry says as he walks in there with his aunt and cousin.

She laughed a bit at them. "It will not take too long. It only seems like a lot because it is scattered everywhere." She says as she starts to help them.

About an hour or so later they had everything cleaned up and both boys had decided to sit on the couch and watch the Star Wars series that Harry had gotten. Petunia was in the kitchen preparing the dinner for Christmas. She loved to cook but at these times it was her favorite as she could make a lot of different things. She hums to herself as she takes out the roast beef to find it done. She could make a turkey everyone seemed to like this far better. Then she walks over and stirs the mashed potatoes in the boiling water. Vernon had gone downstairs after a bit and decided to watch the movie the boys were watching. He knew that right now was not a good time to get in Petunia's way.

A few hours passed as Christmas dinner gets done. Petunia smiles and walks in the living room just as one of the movies were ending. "Everything is ready" It was well pas lunch time but both boys had been so into the movies that they did not even realize it. They both run in the kitchen to find the table filled with food. There was Roast Beef, Mashed potatoes, Roasted carrots and Brussels sprouts with chestnuts. Cranberry sauce, Stuffing, and so many other things. There were even a few pies.

"Wow, Aunt Petunia, this is a lot of food!" He says with his mouth open.

Laughing a little she puts some food on the plates for the boys. "Yes, that's true. Although that's normal on Christmas." She says with a smile as she sets them in front of them. Then puts Vernon's next to him as she sits down and fills her own.

"It looks soo good!" Dudley says as he looks down at everything.

After the blessing everyone starts to dig into the food. There was the normal family talk and a few stories again of Lily and some of the stories she had heard from her about Hogwarts and the magical world. Which both boys were always excited to hear as they w anted to know as much as they could when it came time to go. About an hour later found each boy upstairs in their rooms full and content. As she walks into Harry's room she sees him drawing with a look of concentration and contentment on his face.

"Harry, what are you drawing?" she says with a smile. She would have to thank Marge for getting him this he really loved it.

He shows her the picture. "It's a picture I saw on my cover." He points to it. "its of me, mom, and dad." He says with a smile.

She looks at it her eyes widen a little. "wow Harry, it seems you have your mothers talent for drawing." She says as she looks to him.

"Really? Mom liked to draw?" He says his eyes shinning with interest.

"Yes, she did. She would draw pictures of everything. She even drew a picture of our cat once." She says as she laughs a little. "Tell you what, I will look and see if I have one of her sketchbooks somewhere."

"Okay!" He says when she mentioned that. "I would like to see some of her drawings. That would be cool!" He says as he bounces a bit on the bed.

She laughs a bit and nods. "That it would be." She kisses his cheek and gives him back the book. "Now, you finish your picture then its time for bed okay? I will be in here to check soon."

"Okay Aunt Tuney" He says with a smile as he gets back to his picture.

She smiles and walks into Dudley's room to find him reading the book. "I am guessing you like those books?" she says as she sits next to him.

"Yes, I do. I never thought I could like reading something though." He had not really liked to read before but these were interesting. It was the famous five series and he loved that hey all went on adventures and hoped that him and Harry could have their own.

"I am glad you like them." She kisses his cheek as well. "Now, You may read another 2 chapters and then its bed time understand?" she says to him with a look that means she meant it.

"Yes Ma'am" he said with a nod.

"Ok, good night Dudley, I will be back in here to check in a few minutes." She says before she walks into the living room.

A few hours passed as she was sitting on the couch watching a movie she looks to the clock and shuts off the TV. She walks into each of the boys rooms to find them both fast asleep in their beds she smiles and reaches down wrapping Harry up with his blanket. Then walks into Dudley's room and marks his book placing it on the table beside him. She could not help but smile as it was a pretty good holiday. She walks into her room and crawls into bed next to Vernon with the thought that things really were going well. She could only hope that they would stay that way.

Authors notes: Thank you so much to everyone who has been reviewing! Also to everyone that has voted, I will have to just choose one for Harry on houses though as Ravenclaw, Slytherin and Gryffindor were all even. So looks like I have a decision to make along with Dudley as well. Thank you all so much though for your votes it did help know what you would like to see!

Also, I hope everyone likes this chapter. I really liked writing it. Im sorry it took so long. I had it written once and was about to save it and our electricity went out. So I ma just now getting the chance to rewrite it,. Although I think this one turned out better. Anyways please Review! :D