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Hogwarts: 365 Prompts
Prompt - feather
Hogwarts: Quarterly Event - Gym
Madam Pomfrey's Fun Fitness - Mini Trampoline - Theme: Guilt
Hogwarts: Writing Club
Showtime - 7. Consider Yourself - (object) Rolling Pin
Hogwarts: April Auction
Day 7 - Auction 3 - Harry&Petunia
HPFC: Favorite House Bootcamp
Prompt - warlike
HPFC: Character Diversity Bootcamp
Character - Harry, Prompt - jar
Guilt
Character: Petunia
Maybe the way Harry was raised helped him. He was brought up in a warlike environment, being forced to constantly fight for survival. Maybe the way she raised him, if you can call it that, made him strong. Prepared him for the worst when the one who killed her sister came back to life.
Her fingers brushed over a picture of a smiling Lily with a touch as light as a feather as guilt overwhelmed her. It was easy to say that she did a good thing for Harry. If he had been weaker, he might not have survived the second war, but she knew she was a coward.
She remembered many instances where she bullied a young child because she was jealous that he and his mother had magic while Petunia didn't. She was angry that magic stole her sister away from the normal world and then stole her life. It was easy to blame Harry.
She remembered smacking him on the behind with a rolling pin after he dropped a glass jar, shattering it into a million pieces. She remembered pressing his tiny fingers to the stove, purposely burning them when he accidentally burned their breakfast.
"I'm sorry, Lily," she muttered to the picture. Petunia knew if their places had been reversed, Lily would have cared for Dudley as if he was her own son.
It was no wonder that she hadn't seen Harry since the war first ended and the Dursleys were allowed to come out of hiding. Harry didn't say much; he just talked to Hestia and Dawlish in whispers. And with only a cursory glance at them, he disappeared with a crack.
Petunia would have loved to apologize to Harry, but no matter how much the guilt ate at her, she didn't think she was brave enough to do so, especially when she knew he wouldn't accept the apology.
Petunia put the picture away in the book, pressing it between the crisp pages. It was the one place she knew was safe because neither Dudley nor Vernon were readers.
Harry wasn't a part of her life anymore. She had let down Lily and would just have to live with it.
(word count: 365)
