Disclaimer-I don't own Harry Potter
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Eye's Promise
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It was wonderfully mild, early September in 1989. Lily noted the perfect weather, hoping it foreshadowed the meeting she was about to have.
As she turned onto Privet Drive, she wondered at the fact that she had never been here before. She had sent letters, of course, one in particular last July.
And she had not received an answer.
"Ma---ma."
"Yes, it's mama," she said, hoisting the baby into the air. He was so adorable; this little angel. He was just barely over a year old, already with a fuzz of black hair, so much like his father. But he had her green eyes, the eyes that could peer into your soul.
Lily had never been able to read her soul.
Maybe now she'd get a chance.
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Dudley was crying again. A chubby baby, also with black hair, but with ordinary, none-to-bright brown eyes.
"Shh, shh, Diddykins, Mummy's here."
A very thin, very pale Petunia lifted Dudley from the high-chair. He seemed to put an immense strain on her shoulders, but she didn't mind. He was her baby. And all babies are perfect to their mummies.
She had just settled Dudley with his pacifier and set him in his playpen when there was a knock.
"Coming!"
She turned the lock, twisted the knob, and swung the door open.
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Green eyes met brown eyes in a very silent, shocked stare. The baby clutched to Lily's neck looked back and forth from his mummy to this strange woman. Why was she glaring at her, and vice versa?
"Lily."
"Petunia."
"How- - - unexpected."
"Don't pretend politeness. It doesn't suit you," Lily said.
"Come in, Lily," Petunia said, but with a jerkiness to her voice as she stood aside and beckoned inside.
Lily walked in. She stopped on the welcome mat and surveyed the living room. Spotless, of course, everything matching and in proper order.
"You've got a lovely home," she said.
"As do you, I suppose." Petunia shut the door.
"You wouldn't know." Lily turned to face her sister. "Well, Petunia, I don't suppose you would know, but this is my son, Harry. Harry James Potter. I sent you a letter to tell you I'd had a child, but you never responded."
"I couldn't, I- - -"
"Never mind, that's not what I'm here to say." Lily gave a dismissive wave with her hand.
Suddenly, the baby in the playpen let up a wail.
Petunia went to her child and picked him up. She tried soothing him with "Shh" and bouncing him up and down, but he wept on. Finally she put the pacifier in his mouth. He didn't look too happy, but he shut up.
"And that's- - -Dudley, I suppose?"
"How'd you know?"
"Mum mentioned him when she visited me in the hospital. She was surprised I didn't know."
Petunia looked slightly uncomfortable.
"But, once again, a guilt trip is not what I'm here to give you."
"Well, what is it, Lily?"
Lily sighed. "You'd better sit down."
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Lily sat at the table, leaning over it, holding up a glass and turning it in her hand, watching it twinkle in the sunlight.
"Please don't do that," Petunia said coolly, returning to the table with a pitcher of iced tea. "Tea?"
"Thanks," Lily said, as Petunia poured it for her.
Petunia sat down opposite Lily, where she could keep an eye on Dudley in the other room, who was now joined by Harry. The two babies did not seem happy with the arrangement.
"Now, why is it you have come?" Petunia asked.
Lily sighed, swirling the contents of her cup by moving the glass. "I know you dislike the wizarding world, Petunia, but in order for me to give you this message you must lay aside your hatred of it. At least for until I leave."
"Well then, pray continue so we get this over with."
Lily sighed again, and stopped moving the glass. "There is a very dark wizard roaming about, Petunia. He calls himself Lord Voldemort, but for God's sake never let anyone know that you or I spoke his name aloud."
"And that is?"
"People are scared. He's been killing off some very fine wizards and witches, and even Muggles."
"Excuse me?"
"Non-magic people, such as yourself. Now, Petunia, I belong to a society that is organizing an army against him, James and I both. We weren't planning on having a baby just now, but things happen in married life. Anyway, protecting our son is a huge priority with us, even if it means we die to protect him."
"What has this to do with me?"
"This has everything to do with you. Now, James and I are going into hiding with Harry. There is a very powerful charm, called the Fidelius Charm, on us, and we have what's called a Secret-Keeper. That Secret-Keeper does exactly as the name implies, and Voldemort can never find us unless our Secret-Keeper betrays us."
"You want me to be your Secret-Keeper?"
"No, we're giving it to one of James's friends. However, there is always a problem. If our Secret-Keeper betrays us, or is tortured into giving names of places, Voldemort can very easily come and kill us all. If he does, Petunia, I'm going to give my life for my son. To a witch or wizard, it's a very powerful charm to give your life for someone else, so much that the person you rescued is given your protection for the rest of his life- - -if and only if he has some of your blood near him for at least part of the year."
Petunia seemed unsettled. "But this- - -this Secret-Keeper person, he won't give you up, not if he's a friend of your husband's, isn't that right?"
"These are uncertain times, Petunia. You can't trust anyone outside your immediate family, and sometimes you can't even trust them."
"But- - -I still don't know what this has to do with me," she said lamely.
"Whether you like it or not, Petunia, you and I are blood. If I do die for my child, I'm going to pass him along to you."
Petunia's mouth fell open in shock. "ME? Lily, you must be joking."
"No, I'm dead serious, Petunia. Your blood and my blood are the same, and if Harry is near you for at least two months out of the year, he will still have that protection. One particular month does not really matter, but it's best for the other to be July, because that's when he was born, when I gave my blood to bring him into the world."
Petunia was staring at her sister, dazed.
"Of course, you don't have to take him in. I'm not going to turn into a ghost and haunt you if you don't. I would just prefer it that way, if I do die."
"And what am I going to do if he grows up to be a wizard just like you? Am I going to be subjected to harboring a freak?"
Lily did not flinch, but fixed Petunia with a hard, stony gaze. "I never understood why you hated wizardry, Petunia."
"I hate you, that's why. I hate you for running off to some weird school, for marrying scum like him. I hate you for foisting your brat on me because you up and decide to get yourself killed. It's things like this why I hate your kind! For murderers like this Voldemort! For idiots like you, who waste your time waving around a stick and chanting nonsense while we decent people get killed!"
Lily's eyes snapped like a fire began blown precariously by the wind, holding on just barely lest they start an inferno. She stood up abruptly, her chair scraping backwards against the tiles. She whipped her jacket from the back of the chair and whisked it onto her person.
"Thank you for the tea, and thank you for hearing me out," she said icily. "You might never hear from me again, whether I live or die. Consider what I've said. If I die, Harry will come to you. Whether you chose to take him in or send him to an orphanage is your decision. I've said what I came to say. Good-bye and good luck."
She stormed to the playpen, whisking her child up and settling him in her arms. She made for the door, seething with rage.
She swung open the door and was halfway down the walk when Petunia's voice stopped her.
"Lily!"
"What?!" Lily stopped and whisked around, the fury not gone from her eyes.
Petunia bit the fleshy inside of her cheek, looking embarrassed, her eyes downcast. "Take- - -take care of yourself, okay? Don't get killed, all right?" Her eyes lifted. "I mean, I don't want your child here."
Lily stared into her sister's eyes, and suddenly she saw two little girls playing doll house and tea party together. She saw herself, holding her sister's hand while they bravely entered primary school together. She saw a girl who had sobbed when she was told her sister was going away for school, who clutched at her arm and yelled that she wanted to go with her.
"Yeah- - -I don't want him here, either."
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Petunia put the letter, written in loopy, unfamiliar handwriting and signed A. Dumbledore, aside. It just told her what she already knew.
The cold November chill cut in even through her closed walls. She pulled a blanket tightly against her shoulders, watching the baby she had only seen for the first time two months ago. It stared back at her. It was a stand-off, each waiting for the other to do something.
Petunia's eyes traveled up and down the baby's personage, surveying what she saw. The black fuzz was messy and definitely unfamiliar. And he was certainly built skinnier than her own son.
Her eyes went to his face, and then she caught sight of them. To emerald orbs shining out of from pale, soft skin. Two eyes that held so much in them, so much pain, so many memories.
Tears filled her own eyes and she looked into his. She could see Lily, Lily as her sister, Lily as her best friend, Lily as an intangible being as she stepped into a brick wall and disappeared from sight until next June.
"I hate you, Lily," she whispered, as tears poured down her cheeks. "I HATE YOU!"