Disclaimer- Just playing in JK Rowling's toybox. Promise I'll put everything back like I found it.
Its amazing how much things can change from the smallest diffrences. Most of us have heard of the butterfly effect the theory that a butterfly can flutter its wings over a flower in China and cause a hurricane in the Caribbean. There is also another theory as well that everytime a significent enough change happens a new reality is created, a new timeline. In our timelime we know that Rose and William Evans died in a car crash shortly after the birth of their first grandson Dudley Dursley. They never even got to see their younger grandson Harry Potter. But there are other realitys. This is the story of one of those realities. A reality where everything was diffrent, where a small thing changed everything. This is a reality where 3 days before the car accident that would have taken their lives William Evans left for work a little earlier than usual and that changed the world.
Rose Evans was just finishing the breakfast dishes when the knock came at the frount door. She gave a slight frown as she wasn't expecting anyone but dryed her hands and went to the door peeking out the window to see their paperboy Tommy Warkins there looking a bit tiered his shouldars hunched a bit.
Oh yes. The payment was probably due. Usually William handled that but he'd left a hour or so early today hoping to get off early as Petunia, Vernon, and the baby where suppose to come over for dinner that night. Rose opened the door giving Tommy a warm smile.
"Hello dear." She said warmly. "Come into the warm for a few minutes I'll grab my purse."
"Thank you Mrs. Evans." The 12 year old replied stepping inside and coughing into his hand sniffing to hold back a sneeze. "Its awfully cold out today."
"Oh dear Tommy are you feeling alright?" Rose asked reaching out to feel the boys forehead with the worried expression of mother's the world over. Even when the child in question wasn't theirs.
"Oh sure just a cold." Tommy answered. He was determined to save enough money to buy a new bike so didn't want Mrs. Evans calling his mom to warn her that Tommy should be home in bed.
"Well alright if your sure." Rose said her frown fading a bit at the boys assurance. She had more experience with little girls than boys but surely if the boy was really sick he would have admitted it. She quickly went and got her purse returning to give Tommy the money for the paper bill and a little tip. "You make sure you drink plenty of orange juice and go to bed a bit early tonight." She told him.
"Yes Mrs. Evans." Tommy answered with a grin before hurrying off the finish his paper route.
-
Rose returned to her daily routine quickly forgetting about the encounter never knowing that it was one that had birthed a new reality.
"Are you feeling any better honey." Rose smiled up at William taking the last sip of her tea.
"I'm fine dear. Stop fussing its just a little cough. Now come and eat your breakfast." William Evans rolled his eyes slightly at his wife's stubbornness. Their daughters had both inherited that particular trait in spades. Whether he'd been blessed or cursed in that he still couldn't decide.
"You should have let me make you breakfast. Its Saturday." William told her kissing her cheek before he sat.
"Don't be foolish William you know I enjoy cooking." She replied a slight scolding tone in her voice even as she turned her head coughing. "I'm afraid we may have to skip the play tonight though. I don't want to sit in the audience disturbing everyone with this cough."
"Umm shame that." William said opening the paper as Rose scooped eggs onto his plate. He'd bought the tickets as a surprise for Rose, but it wasn't really his thing he'd be much happier staying home and watching football on the telly.
"Maybe I'll call Petunia and see if she and Vernon would want them." Rose said happy at the though of giving her older daughter a treat pushing her thick red curls back from her face. "I don't think she and Vernon have been out since the baby was born."
William snorted at that. "Oh course not might cost the fat slob a pretty penny for a babysitter."
"William." Rose reprimanded firmly. Not that she was really surprised. William had never hidden his feelings about his son-in-laws. Like any father he didn't think either of the young men where worthy of his precious girls, but at least James Potter seemed to know that. James treated Lily like a princess, Vernon on the other hand seemed to want to control Petunia especially since their son had been born.
"If he'd treat Tunie the same way James treats Lily I'd never say a word against him. As it is as soon as she comes to her senses her room will be waiting and Dudley can have Lily's old room." William said rattling his paper.
"Oh you." Rose said and ran a hand over his hair as well before heading for the kitchen to call Petunia.
It was 23 minutes after midnight when the phone rang. Phone calls at that hour where never good news. Rose rolled over in bed but William had already answered the phone and was speaking quitely as Rose yawned trying to get her brain in gear. She was surprised when she heard William let out a cry that sounded pained then dropped the phone doubling over in gut wrenching sobs. Rose had only seen William cry twice in their 26 year marriage once when his father died and once when their old dog had to be put to sleep but never like this never as if his heart had been torn in two. Seeing it she knew. She didn't want too know but she did. She wanted nothing more than to stop time so that she wouldn't have too know for sure, so that William would never have to say the words that would destroy their world. But she couldn't do that to William she couldn't leave him alone with the knowledge of the truth and the agony it brought.
Rose knelt behind him and put her hands on his shoulders tears already forming in her eyes. "Lily?" she questioned softly. Her youngest her baby in the middle of a war, pregnant, hunted, in hiding from a madman, only her young husband, their friends and the vague magics they had been told about to protect them. Oh course her mind went there first but William shook his head. Still nearly choking on his sobs William forced out a much more mundane story. One of a young couple on the way home from a play, the exhausted driver of a SUV, and a head-on collision that took the life of all three.
Rose and William hadn't lost their youngest daughter, but their oldest, their smart pretty and sarcastically funny little Tunie was gone along with her husband leaving only their son little Dudley behind. A tiny baby only a little over a month old who would never know the parents who had loved him more than life. And her grieving parents who loved her more than Petunia had ever believed.