Chapter Thirty-Three

He was a rather intimidatingly large man, though his smile softened that a bit. As did the pained look in his eye, the look that probably matched the one in mine. I flashed a quick smile and nodded toward the empty chair, not really trusting my voice at the moment. He sat down with his tea and sighed.

"I'm Vernon," he said. "Vernon Dursley."

"Petunia," I croaked automatically, unable to forget Mum's instructions to always be polite.

He smiled, a bit wider this time. "That's a lovely name. It fits you."

I flushed a bit, completely aware of how I actually looked: makeup cried off, hair continually scraped back from my wet face, and very crumpled clothes. "Thank you. I'm not looking my best right now, though."

"Nonsense," he said, waving my words away with his big hands. "Even a blind person could see how lovely you are."

I laughed, probably a little incredulously, but I laughed. "Well, thank you. It's very kind of you to say that."

"I don't say anything I don't mean," he replied, a little smirk playing around his lips before he took another sip of tea.

"Vernon, it's time to get going." A large woman who looked far too much like Vernon to be anything other than his sister charged into the tea room. "Mother is asleep, and they doubt she'll wake again before morning. And if that's the case, we really need to be going. Colonel Fubster won't look after the dogs overnight."

Vernon gave me a regretful look. "It seems I must be going, but it was lovely to meet you, Petunia. Not for the circumstances, of course, but still," he told me, standing by his sister.

"It was nice to meet you, as well," I agreed. He'd been able to distract me for about five minutes, after all. "And I hope your mum gets better quickly."

"Thank you," he said, and it looked like he was about to say more, but his sister's impatience cut him off.

"Vernon, the dogs will be looking for their supper. We must be leaving."

I watched the siblings leave, then decided it was probably time for me to leave, as well. Though that was made a bit more complicated by the fact that I had come with Mum in the ambulance and couldn't drive myself home. If Mum had been a witch, we'd have taken her to St. Mungo's, and I would have been able to Apparate home without a problem. Instead, I had to find the nearest loo to Apparate in secret and hope no one was watching and waiting for me to leave it, otherwise they'd be waiting for a long time.

I did drive the next day into Greater Whinging, feeling horribly caught between two worlds. And I couldn't feel wholly at ease in either of them. The feeling intensified as I spent the day at Mum's bedside, helplessly watching as she slept. There was absolutely nothing I could do to help her, even for all the wanting in the world.

The tea room called to me again around three the next day, where, to my surprise, I found my new acquaintance. He called out to me nearly the moment I stepped into the room. "Petunia!" he bellowed, far above the normal volume in a hospital, but his relieved look sort of made up for it. "Come join me!"

Collecting my cup of tea, I did sit next to him. "I didn't think I'd be seeing you again," I told him.

"Just like a bad penny," he said, chuffing a laugh. "Mum had a bit of a nasty fall yesterday and broke her hip, so I'll be hanging round for the next few days until we can take her home."

My heart went out to him instantaneously. "My mum fell yesterday, too!" I cried. "She didn't break anything, but she's still got another day or so before she'll be able to go home."

"Well, I'm glad I have someone who can sympathize. There's my sister, of course, but she's never had the best relationship with Mum."

We talked for over an hour. Well, Vernon talked mostly and I listened, chiming in occasionally. In the hour, I learned that he had just been named a junior executive at a large drill making company, he was several years older than me, his sister bred dogs in the country, and he had very decided opinions on nearly every topic we discussed. Which wasn't a bad thing, necessarily. I just didn't always agree with them. But on the whole, he seemed rather nice.

…

Mum ended up spending nearly a week in hospital. Vernon's mother also spent that week in hospital, and I met him every day in the tea room, though never by design.

"How was Vernon today?" Mum asked me, a little smile on her face as I walked back into her room on Thursday.

I rolled my eyes. "He's just fine, Mum. And besides, I've just met him. It's not like we're going to get married and have dozens of children." Even for my light sarcasm, I couldn't help but take her hand the moment I was seated next to her. I tried, I really did, to behave like I always had, not afraid that I was going to lose her at any minute, but it was so hard. And physical contact helped with that, just a little.

"A mum can only hope," she teased, her pale blue eyes dancing in her tired face.

"Don't hope too hard, on my account, anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if Lily came home for Easter engaged, so that will have to do for you," I joked back.

Mum squeezed my hand harder, enough to really pull at my attention. "I want you to be happy, Tunia. Gid would want you to be happy. Daddy would, too, and you deserve to be happy. Promise me you'll allow yourself to be happy."

Her words, quiet but somehow so desperate, tore at me. I knew she said it because she wouldn't be with me much longer. And my heart broke, but I couldn't show it. I had to be strong for her. "Of course, Mum. I'll be happy. I'm getting there now," I lied, but threw everything I had into making it sound believable.

She studied me carefully, for a long moment, until she suddenly relaxed. "You will be, my Tunia. You will be." And she said it so forcefully that I couldn't help but believe her.

…

Finally, on Friday morning, I was allowed to take Mum home with me. And just as I was wheeling her out to the car at the front of the hospital, Vernon came hustling out. "Petunia, could I have a moment?" he asked me, somewhat breathless. I wasn't sure if it was from nerves or exertion, however.

The nurse accompanying me smiled and patted my arm. "I'll get your mum settled in the car, dear," she assured me, and Mum nodded in agreement. Mum even made little shooing motions at me when I still hesitated.

"Of course," I told Vernon, smiling a bit unsurely at him.

We walked a few steps away, enough to ensure privacy. And then, he hemmed and hawed, seeming slightly unsure of himself. Which was terribly unlike the man I'd gotten to know over the past few days.

"I'd like to take you to dinner," he finally blurted. "I know it's not the best of timing with your mother, but perhaps I could give you a bit of a break. And I'd like to get to know you better. You're a lovely woman, Petunia, and I'd really like to see you again."

Whatever I'd been expecting, that wasn't it, although it really should have been, in retrospect. But the last date, if that's what he was proposing, I'd been on had been with Gid, and I wasn't sure I was ready for that just yet.

"She would love to!" Mum yelled from the car, pulling a laugh from Vernon.

"Apparently, I'd love to," I told him, not feeling like I could say no after that.

But he smiled widely, so I didn't regret it. Much. I gave him my telephone number and he promised to call shortly, before escorting me to my car.

"I hope I didn't make you too uncomfortable," Mum said, several minutes down the road. "I just want you to be happy, to be able to move on."

"I'm fine," I lied, yet again, with a smile on my lips. I was getting rather good at that.

AN: And I'm even a day earlier than I had planned! I know I have a busy day tomorrow, so I decided to give you this chapter early. I hope you all like it! Well, not that anything to do with Vernon is really to be liked, but it is necessary. I don't have much left in this story, probably another ten-ish chapters to go, and then it's on to What Now Is. I'll need to do a bit of editing for that one, with a few things I've changed since I started, but I'll keep you all posted on that. Thanks for reading, and a big thanks to those of you who review!