Summer 96

Harry returned from the bathroom and collapsed on his bed again. He had been lying there for a few minutes when he heard footsteps on the stairs. He wondered for a moment who it could be. Dudley was out, his uncle was at work ... it must be ...

There was a knock at his door.

Harry didn't move, hardly daring to believe it. Aunt Petunia, knocking at his door? What did she want? He rolled off the bed and opened the door a crack.

He could see his aunt's face framed in the doorway. His room was growing dark, but the hall light was shining so bright it almost blinded him. Harry wished he could get back inside his nice, cool room. He heard the door slam downstairs and knew his uncle was home.

"May I come in?" she asked suddenly.

Harry stared up at her. Why in the world ... She never came in his room anymore, she hadn't for years. He was all ready to say no when he noticed something.

There was something different in her eyes. They looked at him with a softer expression than they normally held. In that moment, his aunt seemed ... almost human. She had the same eyes, the same hair, the same stupid apron, but there was something different about her.

"Sure," he said, and pulled the door open.

He stepped back and she came in. She looked around her, taking in everything, from the messy floor to the calender on which he marked down the days until school started, but said nothing. She looked lost for words.

"Did you want something?" he asked, staring at her. Why was she in here? What could she possibly have to tell him that was so important, when she had barely spoken two words to him all summer?

"I want to talk to you."

She had never done anything like this before ...

His aunt sat down on the rumpled bedcovers of the bed. Harry sat down gingerly after a brief inner struggle, unsure of how close he should sit. In the end, he sat fairly close to her.

"I want to tell you about someone," she said.

Utterly bewildered, Harry said, "Okay."

"She was a beautiful girl," said Aunt Petunia. "Long, curly red hair, beautiful green eyes. Everyone who saw her loved her. I knew her, too. I loved her, too. She was my sister – how could I not?

"She was more than beautiful, she was also kind," she continued. "We had secrets together, secrets we kept from the whole world. Like girlhood crushes and those sort of thing." She was staring down at her lap. Harry was looking at her with a sickened expression on his face. His mother ... she had no right to talk to him about ...

"What are you trying to-"

"Shush and let me finish," she said, though her words didn't have the usual sharpness they always held. The words seemed rounder, softer. The words hadn't changed, her tone had. Her voice. It was the same kind of change her eyes had gone through – they were no longer the same. What had brought about this change?

Why was she talking about his mother?

"You know who I'm talking about by now, don't you?" she said. "Lily. Your mother." Harry could hear his uncle calling for her from downstairs, but his aunt didn't answer.

"I know." He couldn't bear to look at her any longer. He looked down at his hands.

"The truth is," she said, "I miss that part of her, that part that used to be, before she went away to school. I wanted things to be simple again, for me to be jealous and her to comfort me. I became angry when I grew up enough to realize that life is constantly changing and we can't hold on to the old memories and refuse to accept the new, because we miss out on so much ... I didn't go to her graduation, or her wedding ... and she didn't come to mine ... I was young and stupid and couldn't accept that things could be different yet still be just as good as they were before.

"I've messed the past twenty-five years up and I hope you can forgive me."

He looked into her face at the same time she looked into his. Their eyes connected, and for a few moments they were struggling, both of them wanting to break the awkward connection, but neither of them wanting to be the one to do it. Finally, as if in agreement, they looked away together and his aunt continued.

"I don't want you to forgive me now, that would be selfish, because it's impossible to forgive twenty-five years of understanding in a few minutes. But I'd like it if you'd think about forgiving me and all the pain I've caused, and if you can't forgive me for yourself, do it for Lily ... "

Harry nodded, thinking about what she had just said. 'I couldn't accept that things could be different yet still be as good as they were before.' Things sure were different now ... and he wasn't thinking about his aunt.

"I've got to give Vernon his dinner now," she said, "but think about what I said, all right?" He nodded again, and then got up to show her out of the room. He didn't bother to close the door. Dinner would be ready soon, and he found that he was hungry.

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AN: This is the same conversation the two of them had in Sisterly Love, but with a different POV. Please review! I will get the next chapter up soon!

Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me. I'm just having fun with JK Rowling's creations.