Petunia

Petunia sniffled as she took down the box of photographs from the high shelf in the corner of the closet. She had put these off till last of Vernon's things. And these pictures, she hadn't seen in years. Her own collections from her girlhood were in this box, and all the ones she had collected since. Sitting in that box in the closet, waiting for a rainy day, when at least she could no longer avoid them.

Resigning herself to the task, she slowly emptied the box onto her bed, next to the blank pages of the album and the new jar of photo paste she had purchased. The first stack was easy. Several pictures of her as a baby, and a young girl, in brightly flowered dresses. She dutifully pasted these into the book, copying the year and place below each.

She thought she was ready for the next stack, but the wave of emotion she felt as she saw the next picture was unexpected. She was sitting in her grandmother's old rocking chair, in a white dress, feet crossed underneath her, with the tiny redheaded baby on her lap. Petunia moved the album away as a wave of tears and memories engulfed her.

She had loved Lily, when they first brought her home from the hospital. Lily was a beautiful baby, with soft red wisps of baby hair and those green eyes. She was small, just the right size for a doll baby. And the baby clothes were so darling, and everyone was always coming over with presents for her mother, and the new baby, and they would bring presents for her too, beautiful trinkets, jewelry, dress-up clothes. She had gotten the dress she wore in the picture for Lily's christening.

But after a few years, she was too old for dolls, and too old not too understand that the people who gave her presents were doing it so she wouldn't notice that it was Lily they cared about. Lily who was the bright one, the beautiful child, the obedient one. Whose every action was sainted. And after a while, Petunia stopped trying to be engaging, to gain attention. She dressed in plain clothes that she had gotten with her own money, earned being a salesgirl at the shop down the street.

And just after she finished school, when she thought that she would finally be able to get a small flat of her own and not have to deal with it anymore, Lily went and got the letter to that freak school. Their parents had made Petunia come to the station to see her off, and Lily had given her love and wished her goodbye.

And it had been six years before Petunia saw her again. They managed never to be at home for the same Christmas or Easter, and Lily was off at school for most of the year. So it was just before her wedding day that she had seen her sister again. Vernon wanted everything traditional, in a church. Petunia didn't have any girl friends she was close to that she could have as a bridesmaid, and she didn't much care for Marge, Vernon's sister. And so she invited Lily, and moved the date to Easter week, so Lily wouldn't have to miss school.

Lily's dress was white with a dark green sash and trimming, so it looked different from her own. Their mother had picked out the flowers carefully, mostly yellows, so nothing would clash with the brightness of Lily's hair. And Lily came home with the Potter boy she was dating, another freak, but at least one who could pass for normal in a suit. All the Evans's old friends that hadn't visited since Lily was born saw Lily in her white dress looking so clean and fresh, and where had she been and she had grown up so much. Yet another day Lily had somehow managed to outshine her. Petunia had vowed, then, that it would be the last.

So Petunia really hadn't seen her since. Not at Lily's graduation, or at her wedding to the freak, or even at their parents' funeral. Lily had been caught up with her war then, and was so very pregnant, and it was really dangerous for her to be out, and she wished so much that she could go, but it just couldn't happen. Petunia had received the invitations and cards Lily had sent for all the events, and for Harry's birth, but she just filed them all away with the rest of the pictures, for some future year when it mattered less.

And for the next year, it was easy not to think about Lily, to forget about her glowing sister for once. She had Dudley to take care of, and the house to manage, and until the day Vernon asked if he had heard from her, Lily had been the last thing on her mind. Then she tried to push back the memories, until the next morning. And after that, it was pointless to try and forget about the only other pair of eyes so green and luminous.

One by one she pulled out the pictures of Lily. It would be a waste to cut her face out of that many pictures, even worse than bitterly tossing the whole lot in the rubbish bin. And so she got a small box, and tucked them in neatly, with packing wrap around the stack. She had taken Harry in all those years ago to atone for her envy of Lily, and perhaps these were enough that her treatment of him could be forgiven, and she would be forever rid of those haunting green eyes.

Disclaimer: I don't own any Dursleys, Evanses, or Potters referred to in this story. They all belong to Mrs. Rowling, with our support.

A/N: I'm not sure if I'll continue this or not. I didn't intend it to be a one-shot fic, but it ended up more conclusive and less episodic than I originally intended. And I came very close to making myself cry.