In the morning Petunia woke up to the feeling of something crawling over her face. As she opened her eyes she saw the cutest little marsupial, no bigger than the palm of her hand. Then she noticed the tentacles where it's mouth should be and the events of last night returned with a rush. Jerking back slightly she let out a small squeak, not enough to wake Vernon, but more than enough to wake Harry, who was lying next to her. At the sudden movement it quickly climbed round her head and buried itself under her hair, holding onto the back of her neck.

She watched as Harry went from waking up to full alertness in a couple of seconds and felt her heart break again at his upbringing and the part that she played in it. All thoughts of her hitch hiker fled from her mind as she saw the look of sheer panic at waking up in an unfamiliar location.

"It's OK, your safe."

At the sound of her voice he visibly calmed, a look of confusion coming over his face. Looking around quickly, she found his glasses and pressed them into his hand. Fumbling them slightly, he managed to put them on. Turning to look at her he went to speak before she shook her head and looked meaningly towards Vernon. Seeing comprehension in his face, she stood up and softly walked over to where their shoes and coats were and grabbed hers. Seeing Harry doing the same she walked over to the door and turned the key in the lock as gently as she could. The Ch-Thunk still sounded loudly through the cabin as they both froze and looked towards Vernon, who stopped snoring at the noise. After a long moment, he coughed, snored and turned over in his sleep. Carefully she opened the door, the unoiled hinges letting out a piercing shriek that seemed loud in the early morning silence. Both of them stepped out onto the stone porch before she closed the door behind them. After they put their shoes on they walked away from the cabin a little way and stopped to look at the countryside around them in the faint morning light. In front of the cabin was a muddy bank that lead down to a lake with faint traces of morning mist wisping up from the surface. The grass around them was long and unkempt, the boundary wall of an old tumbledown home to the right. Looking up and across the lake they could see the boat house and carpark that Vernon had been trying to find last night, as well as the island that he told Dudley he used to play on, and they could leave Harry on.

Seeing nothing else to sit on, they wordlessly headed over to the wall and brushed off the dew before sitting down.

Breaking the comfortable silence, Harry voiced the question that had been on his lips since she shook her head at him.

"What happened?"

"You had a nightmare, do you remember it?"

"Vernon threw me into a corner and started beating me with his belt, I managed to escape but Dudley and his gang kept catching me and dragging me back to be beaten again. Then I found a hiding place that felt comfortable, but that only stopped them for a while before Vernon reached in and dragged me out and beat me worse than before. I'd keep escaping to the hiding places, but they kept finding me until the white light came."

"That wasn't the only thing that happened." She described what happened after she started hugging him to calm him down. As she finished she felt something move under her hair on her neck. Carefully she reached under her hair and pulled out a small creature that looks like a numbat with furry little tentacles instead of a mouth and nose. It lifted it's tentacles and seemed to sniff the air before scampering onto Harry and climbing onto his chest and running it's tentacles over him like it was ferreting out food.

Harry laughed involuntarily as it felt like it tickle over his skin through his t-shirt. Then it seemed to find something, and with a yank it pulled it out and seemed to munch on it contentedly.

"Hey, stop that, that tickles. Ouch! What was that for?" Harry gave the creature an offended look that made Petunia laugh. They settled into a companiable silence as it finished eating whatever it was it had found. It then moved back to Petunia, settling down in her lap and seemed to go to sleep.

"It's nice out here, it's a pity Vernon is so attached to his creature comforts, as it's been in his family for years.

"Technically, it belongs to his brother as the eldest, but he told me that we could use it any time at our wedding."

They continued to sit there in companionable silence until they saw a car drive past in the distance.

"Let's go see what we can put together for breakfast, and then we'll wake up the two lumps." Harry giggled at her description of Vernon and Dudley. The giggle caused her to freeze and think back at the words she used. Blast, where did that come from, as it felt entirely natural but she hasn't done that for years not since Vernon… No, it wasn't just Vernon, there was also that white beard, being happy while she was forced to sign a document in blood, and suddenly she wanted to please Vernon and do what he said. It was more than that, it was after she'd managed to get to a shelter with both the boys, they were still breastfeeding and she'd been so happy that she was pregnant again. Then he was so Angry, and there was blood, so much blood, so she ran. A few years later Dudley wanted a sibling and so they tried again, but nothing worked, and that was her fault.

Harry stopped as he heard his Aunt collapse behind him and start weeping. Turning back he saw a look of absolute horror and despair on her face.

"Aunt Petunia? Aunt Petunia? Are you OK Aunty?" Not knowing what else to do he carefully walked up to her and touched her shoulder. When he did she shrieked and pulled away from him, curling up into a ball on the floor. The creature came out from under her hair, stood on her shoulder and hissed at him.

Putting his hands up he backed away a couple of steps and sat down in the grass.

"OK, OK, I get it I'm not going to hurt her.

Look, I'm just sitting down over here and I'm going to watch over her and make sure she's safe."

Looking mollified the creature turns around a couple of times then curls up on her shoulder.

He was so intent on his Aunt that he didn't notice Vernon shouting for them, or even when he came up behind him. He jumped when a meaty hand landed on his shoulder and hauled him to his feet. The creature on Petunias shoulder stood up and hissed at Vernon, but was completely ignored.

"What did you do boy! What have I told you about using your freakishness around us?"

"But I… I didn't do anything sir, she just collapsed."

"Don't lie to me boy, I know it was you as it's always your freakishness that causes trouble." A meaty thunk followed as Harry had the wind knocked out of him and Vernon began a beating worse than any he'd experienced before.

The quiet whimpers of pain broke through into the world where Petunia was being beaten again and again for daring to bring another crying brat into the world when they already had two to look after. Something in those whimpers reminded her of the children and she pulled herself back into the real world. Coming back to reality in a rush, she saw Vernon beating Harry who looked more like a bloody mess than a boy at this point.

"No, Vernon, Stop! You're killing him." Staggering to her feet she rushed over and tried to push him away, only to be backhanded away to land in a crumpled heap. Pulling herself up again she screamed at him in anger and fear "Stop it! Get away from him!". As she shouted the last bit Vernon went cartwheeling away to land in a heap by the wall, a look of naked fear on his face. She half staggered, half crawled over to Harry and cradled his head in her lap. A series of cracks echoed out over the hills and 3 people in robes appeared. The creature that had somehow clung to her shoulder squeaked and hid under her hair. Looking up, she saw Dudley standing by the cabin, and she could see how pale he looked from here.

One of the people raised a wand and made some intricate gestures.

"No wands, so it looks like it's the kids first serious accidental magic. Standard procedure, obliviate the two muggles and heal up the kid, then write up the report when we get back. And no half-arsing the obliviation like last time Peters, we don't want to come back and find that it wore off and he beat them to death next time." They said in a male voice.

The person then came over and crouched down beside Petunia. "Hi, I'm Auror Williamson, is it ok if I cast some spells on your kid?" Mutely she nodded, still trying to process what happened. She watched as he cast a couple of spells, and then did a few more to close the wounds and heal a couple of fractures.

"What's your name love?"

"Petunia."

"OK Petunia, I've done what I can here, but what we'd normally do is obliviate the memory of an event like this from the kids mind so that it doesn't cause them undue stress and make their magic act out more later. Is it ok if I do that now?"

She nods.

"OK, and done. You've done really well, would you like me to obliviate you as well?"

Mutely she shakes her head and he nods approvingly.

"That makes things easier. With that out of the way, is there anything we can do to stop this from happening again as soon as we leave?"

Finding her voice she takes a couple of attempts to reply before getting out, "Could you get those two back into their sleeping bags in the cabin and help me get him down there?"

"Sure, come on I've got your kid, and the other two will bring your husband.

"Now I'm going to need your last name for the records, and your kids name."

"Dursley, it's Dursley, and he's Harry."

"Nice, named him after Harry Potter did you? I've got a kid starting Hogwarts in a few years, and Harry's all he can talk about. Did you know that Harry Potter is supposed to be going to Hogwarts this year?"

Petunia shakes her head.

"Right, that's all done now, do you want me to wake them up now?"

"No… Just Harry."

"OK, the other two should wake up in half an hour."

He waved his wand at Harry before disappearing with a soft crack.

Harry came around in the cabin, how he got there was a little hazy and he felt like he'd been caught by Dudley's gang and used as a punching bag. Looking around he realised that he had his glasses on his face, and his Aunt was sitting on a stool by the door looking shocked.

"Aunty, are you OK?"

"I'm not sure, maybe, yes?"

He got up and walked over to her. "Do you want a hug?"

"Yes please."

With that he threw himself into her arms and they gave each other comfort. While they were hugging, the creature came out from Petunias hair and sniffed around Harry's head. Climbing over to him it started rooting around in his hair before it found something and tugged hard. Harry stiffened as the memories of the last half hour before he blacked out from pain came back to him. The creature then sniffed around some more and scampered over to Vernon. Realising what had just happened, Petunia scrambled to catch it before it could do the same to Vernon, and then hugged it to her chest, where it settled and seemed content to draw something out of her finger.

That brought both of them out of the moment and they hurried to get breakfast ready for Vernon and Dudley before they woke up again.