Disclaimer: I could never think up such an intriguing title as The Casual Vacancy.

Did you lie when you spoke to me?
Did you stand by me?
No, not at all.

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

Mrs. Dursley was very nearly done with the roast she was preparing for dinner, and a good thing, too, as it was a quarter to six. Mr. Dursley would be home at any time; he'd begun staying later and later at the office as he rose through the ranks of his drill manufacturing company. Their son, Dudley, sat propped up in his highchair, smearing apple sauce across the tray. Such a precocious child.

Petunia heard the distinct sound of her husband's car pulling into the garage and checked once again on the roast. Cooked to perfection. She set it on the table just as her husband burst through the door.

"Smells wonderful!" Vernon boomed, kissing his wife on the cheek.

"Did you have a good day, darling?" she asked as she spooned baked carrots onto their plates.

"Excellent," Vernon replied as e bent to kiss their son. "Very nearly signed the Smithingham account. Another week and I'll have them cracked for sure." Dudley laughed hysterically and smacked his father.

Vernon boomed once more and tucked in to dinner, plopping a monstrous slice of roast onto his plate. Petunia smiled, satisfied, and spooned peas onto Dudley's tray. Half of the peas were instantly strung about her hair, but Petunia didn't mind. She was blessed to have such a perfect child.

Just as she sat down to her own dinner, a sharp rap echoed from the front door. She and Vernon turned toward it instinctively.

"Who the ruddy hell could that be?" Vernon demanded. "Don't they know it's the middle of dinner?"

"Language, dear," Petunia said quietly, inclining her head toward the baby as she rose. "No, no, don't get up, Vernon, you've just got home. I'll answer it."

There was another knock as she made her way to the door, more insistent than the last. She shook the remaining peas from her hair and swung open the door. It took all of her willpower not to slam it shut instantly.

"You," she hissed.

Her ungrateful sister fidgeted with the sleeve of her sweater. "Hello, Petunia."

That terrible boy she'd so disrespectfully brought to their father's funeral was there as well, his hair as untidy as it had been those years ago. He spoke directly to Lily. "We shouldn't be out in the open, Lil."

"You've gotten yourselves into some sort of trouble, haven't you?" Petunia whispered in rage.

"We haven't done a damn thing," the boy - man, now - growled indignantly.

"Petunia," her sister said calmly, "there are some things we really do need to discuss with you and…Vernon, and it'd be better if we weren't on your doorstep when we do. May we please come in?"

Here Petunia was conflicted. She most certainly did not want them in her house, not near Dudders. And goodness, what would Vernon say? Social convention required that she feed them as well. Vernon would not take kindly to that, no, no, no. On the other hand, though, the longer they stayed on the doorstep the more likely the neighbors were to see them. Of course, that would lead to questions, questions she wouldn't be able to answer. Vernon would understand that much, at least.

"Fine," she ground out, opening the door wider. "Come in. But don't touch anything and leave those…things away."

They filed into number four, that man from four summers ago with his hand on the small of her sister's back. They waited by the stairs as Petunia dead bolted the front door. Wordlessly, she led them into the kitchen.

"Who was it, Pet?" Vernon asked, his mouth full of potatoes. "More of those damn vacuum salesmen?" He looked up and began to choke. Petunia rushed to him and thumped his back as Dudley giggled profusely.

"What are you doing here?" he spat, coughing up potato bits. "Get your freakishness out of my house and away from my son. Petunia, why did you let them in?"

"I was afraid the neighbors would see."

Lily's husband, at least Petunia assumed he was from the rings, scoffed. "You two are still on about that?"

Vernon's face turned a deep red, worrying Petunia. The doctor had been rather concerned about his blood pressure at his last exam. "Out!" he bellowed. "Out this instant! I'll not have it, not in my house. I tolerated it when your father was alive, but no more. Out!"

Lily's eyes glazed with the faintest tears; her husband growled threateningly, causing Vernon to quiet and turn very nearly purple. Lily's nose twitched, just as it had when she would try not to cry over a broken toy as a little girl. Petunia swallowed.

"Vernon, perhaps we ought to hear what they have to say." He looked at her incredulously. "Just to make sure it doesn't affect us."

Her husband scowled but acquiesced. "We don't have enough food for them, though."

Lily's husband eyed the food uneasily, raising feelings of indignation in Petunia. "No thanks," he said as he pulled out the chair for his wife.

Lily leaned forward as he husband sat down. "I am sorry about just showing up like this, but we really have no other option."

"You need money, don't you?" Vernon spat. "I always knew this would happen. Didn't I tell you, Petunia; I knew that someday they'd appear to darken our door. Well, you'll get nothing from us."

"We have plenty of money, thank you."

Her husband put his hand on the back of her chair. "Look Dursley, we're not looking for you to pay us off or whatever. We're perfectly capable of providing for ourselves."

"Then what are you doing here? How did you find us?"

Lily and her husband exchanged a look. He shrugged. "Simple part first, I think. Lily's spent the last few day's tracking you down; she looked in all the fond books."

"Phone books, darling."

"Yes, those."

The protruding vein in Vernon's forehead throbbed violently at their exchange; Petunia could hear his teeth grinding together. "That doesn't explain why you felt the need to come here in the first place."

Lily opened her mouth to speak just as Dudley decided to rain peas upon her. She turned to look at the boy, apparently seeing him for the first time. She stared intensely at him to the point where her sister felt exceedingly uncomfortable. "Petunia, you've had a baby."

Petunia shivered as her sister continued to gaze upon the boy. The long-haired man stared, too, his hand reaching up to rest on the back of his wife's neck. Lily suddenly shuddered and turned dolefully back to address her sister directly. "How much do you know about what's going on on our side?"

Petunia shrunk back at the accusation as Vernon turned to her wildly. "Nothing," she hissed. "Why would I know what you freaks are up to?"

Lily's husband's white knuckles cracked under the pressure of his clenched fist. "You'd know because it's starting to affect you as well."

Lily slipped her hand into his, gently prying his fingers apart. A rush of nervousness coursed through Petunia, filling her with inexplicable dread. Her sister looked away from her husband and spoke.

"We're at war."

Petunia was dumbfounded. How could Lily's...people be warring and the rest of the country not know it? Surely someone would notice the (she shuddered even as she thought it) magic. She gaped at her sister like a trout.

"What the ruddy hell do you mean you're at war?" Vernon barked.

The other man glared at him. "We mean that we're at war. We're on one side, and the other side is trying to destroy everything good we've built in our government and society."

Vernon sneered. "You would get yourselves involved in some cockamamie to-do. I knew you were violent the moment I met you."

Lily's husband stood abruptly, his chair flying back behind him. Vernon threw his arm out in front of his wife as Lily grabbed her husband's arm and carefully ran her palm up and down it. Dudley emitted a solitary wail.

"Sweetheart, sit down," Lily half-whispered. "We talked about this."

The man hesitated for a long moment, his eyes glowering at Vernon as his hand twitched at his waistband. Slowly, he lowered himself back into the chair. Lily patted his hand before turning back to the other couple.

"There is a man, a very powerful man, who believes that our kind are superior to yours." She pointedly ignored Vernon's snort. "He would very much like to kill anyone whose ancestors were not magical, and that includes wizards and witches as well as Muggles.

"Muggles?" Vernon growled.

"Non-magic people." Petunia clasped a hand over her mouth in horror. Where had that come from? Vernon turned to her in disbelief as Lily's husband gawked. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

Lily smiled sweetly. "That's quite alright, Petunia."

"To make a long story short," her husband interjected, "this wizard has developed a following over the last few decades, and they're trying to take over the government."

"But how would we have known about that?" Petunia asked. "How would we be affected."

"They enjoy attacking your people as much as ours, Petunia," Lily said. "More, probably. Haven't you noticed strange things happening? That hurricane in Dover. That tube tunnel that caved in. That serial killer in Leicester. That's all him, all of it."

Petunia's blood chilled. All those things, they couldn't be magic. They just couldn't. Not something as normal as a tunnel collapse, no matter how unexpected. Magic couldn't be creeping into their lives."

Lily's husband caught her eye. "If the other side does succeed, does take control, it'll mean absolute havoc in both our world and yours: mass killings, public executions, Muggle hunts. He won't rest until pureblooded wizards are the only ones left in Britain. And then he'll move on to the rest of Europe."

"But you're beating him," the words rushed from Petunia's mouth, "aren't you?"

"No," he muttered darkly. "We're losing."

"Which is why we're here," Lily added gently.

"We're not hiding you," Vernon said sharply. "You two have obviously gotten yourselves in too deep with something and now you want to hide here. Well, let me tell you, under no uncertain terms will you ever again be welcome in my home."

Lily's husband shouted something at him, but Petunia didn't care to listen. Instead, she looked carefully at her little sister. She was much too pale, as though she hadn't left her home in weeks, and much too thin. Her emerald eyes were rimmed by pale purplish discs. Ghosting along her hairline was the thinnest, faintest white scar. Petunia turned to observe her bellowing brother-in-law; his hands were marred by jagged scares as well, from his knuckles to the hem of his sleeves, and she had a sinking suspicion that they continued on to the rest of his arms and under his wedding band. Dear God, they weren't lying.

"You really are in trouble, aren't you?" she whispered.

The men stopped shouting as Lily turned to her, eyes pleading. "Yes, we are. But not in the way you think."

Petunia couldn't breathe. Oh God, oh God, oh God. Lily held her gaze as the men quieted and sat themselves.

"We've been actively opposing him since we left school." She gestured to her husband. "He was even a part of our secret police for a while. But we had to make one too many sacrifices."

Lily became mournful, filled with a despair Petunia suddenly prayed she would never realize. Her eyes flickered once again to the scar near Lily's ear.

"We been in hiding ever since," her husband was saying.

"And you can't hide anymore? Is that it?"

"Not exactly."

"Petunia," Lily said gently, leaning forward once more, "he's after us. Or, he's targeting us more aggressively than before, and we're having to face the possibility that he might find us. Us specifically, you understand?"

Petunia swallowed and held her long fingers as still as she could so the others wouldn't see her tremble. "What is it you want from us?"

Lily looked warily to her husband, who began to fumble with the inside pocket of his jacket.

"Put it away," Vernon barked as the other man made a show of displaying his wallet. From within the wallet he drew a picture, which he slid across the table for them to see. Vernon peered over Petunia's shoulder to get a better look at it and physically recoiled at the sight.

"We don't have any that don't move," Lily said. "Sorry."

Petunia stared at the photograph, paralyzed. It captured the moving image of a little boy, a baby, with a head full of dark hair. He was sitting on a woman's lap, Lily's, if she wasn't mistaken. Petunia gulped dryly.

"Who is this?"

"My…my son," Lily whispered.

Petunia's stomach turned. This was too much. "Oh, Lily."

Her sister leaned in urgently. "He's the reason we've come here. We're taking every precaution to ensure that if we are discovered Harry will make it out alright, even if we don't, and if and when that happens we need to know that he'll be someplace safe."

Petunia's eyes flickered down to the mockery of a photo again. The baby - Harry - was most certainly her sister's son; his little eyes were miniature replicas of hers. His little infant smile was not unlike her sister's had been when she was small.

She looked back up at Lily. She was gaunt to be sure, but sitting there in her russet sweater she looked every ounce the angel their father had always said she was. Her lower lip was squeezed tightly between her teeth, a nervous habit developed at the beginning of her education. Petunia looked into Lily's eyes, and for the first time in her life saw fear in them.

"You want us to take him."

Lily nodded.

"Don't you have any of your people that could do it?" Vernon asked, exasperated.

"Anyone we could trust Harry with is as or more heavily involved as we are. Besides, he should be with a blood relative," Lily's husband muttered.

"We wouldn't ask you if it wasn't absolutely necessary," Lily added.

"Will he be like you two?" Petunia whispered.

"You mean, will he be a wizard?" her brother-in-law clarified sneeringly. Vernon flinched involuntarily, and Dudley, having sensed his father's discomfort, took the opportunity to lob a handful of mashed potatoes at his uncle (Petunia was baffled by the notion that the shaggy-haired man before her was of any sort of relation to her son), missing spectacularly. "It would be highly unusual if he wasn't."

"Magic runs deep in his father's family," Lily muttered. Her husband returned his hand to hers.

A wave of nausea suddenly overtook Petunia. How had this happened? How had her perfect little sister acquired a bounty on her head? It wasn't fair. She was so young; she'd just had a baby. It wasn't fair.

"Alright," she breathed.

"Alright?" Vernon and Lily's husband near-shouted.

"We'll take him, if..."

"Thank you," Lily whispered, her jewel eyes glassed by tears.

"Don't you think we should talk about this, Pet?" Vernon grumbled rapidly in undertone.

"What's to talk about? The boy is family. What would we be if we didn't help him?"

"We'd be looking after our own son. Who knows what sort of freakish dangers he could impose upon us."

"Harry is not a freak," Lily's husband growled, his voice dropping several octaves, "nor is he dangerous."

"Lily was never a real danger when she was a child, annoying and abominable though she may have been," Petunia affirmed.

"Thank you, Petunia," Lily said again, the sincerity in her jarring her sister into quietude.

They remained silent for a time, even little Dudley. Petunia knew not what to say, what more could be said. Vernon twitched repeatedly beside her, and Lily's breath was coming in quiet shudders. Her husband wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"We ought to get back to them," he murmured. "We've been gone for quite a while."

Lily nodded and stood from the table. Petunia rose as well and led them back through the house to the front door. They turned to her in unison, equally silent; Petunia knew not what they were waiting for her to say. She gestured to the door.

"Oh God!" Lily cried suddenly and flung her arms around her sister's neck. Petunia stood shock still. Neither of the sisters had made any move to embrace the other in a good ten years. But as her little sister trembled against her, Petunia couldn't help but pat her on the back.

"Love him for me," Lily pleaded in her ear as she pulled away, but Petunia couldn't respond. Several tears had escaped her sister's brimming eyes, which were hurriedly brushed away.

"Thank you, Petunia," she said for a final time. Her husband nodded gruffly at her, and they were out the door.

Petunia rushed to a window, pulling back the lace curtains in hopes of watching her sister walk away from her house, from her, but she never caught sight of them. She sighed heavily as Vernon came up behind her.

"Would you care to explain to me what the bloody hell just happened?"

"I had to Vernon."

"Why? Why on Earth would you bring this down on us, on Dudders?"

Petunia gulped quietly and looked at her husband, who was as red in the face as she had ever seen him. "Because," she sighed again, "because however much of a freak my sister may be, she would gladly take in our son if something were to happen to us."

"We'd never want her to."

"Vernon, do you honestly think she wants us to have him anymore than we'd like her to raise Dudley?"

Vernon was quiet, his skin nearly purple again. In his small eyes, Petunia saw a fear akin to that which she had briefly seen in her sister's. "Pet, we can't raise that boy."

Petunia felt her lips thin. "Then we had best hope that Lily doesn't get herself killed."

Dudley squawked in the kitchen; Vernon turned away from her, returning to their unfinished meal. Petunia glanced out the window one last time in mild hope, but Lily and her husband were already good and gone. A foreboding gnaw crept into her stomach.

I'm not even sure how many months it's been, but I do know that it's been too many. Sorry; the period between the holidays and the end of term is difficult for me and I can't really summon up the nerve to write much of anything. Thankfully, that time as passed once again and I'm again on the mad dash to finish the race that is this story. You can thank my euphoria over Man City's having won the league for shaking me out of my funk. I've been waiting to write this chapter for such a long time; Petunia has always fascinated me as I'm sure that somewhere in her black and white mind there is a part of her that deeply loved her sister. Jealousy has a way of getting the best of people. I hope you liked this.

The chapter title is Train In Vain by The Clash.

Thank you to everyone who as continued to review and read this story; your support means more than words can say. We're very nearly there, everyone.

Til Next Time!