Author's note

Forgive me for taking so long, but I wanted to give you something worthy of reading, not any of the usual crap from my other stories. I hope that I did just that, and if I didn't, then pleaase, fell free to let me know how I can make it better for you. This is long, but it moves kind of fast. Anyway, thanks for your wonderful and awe-inspiring reviews of my previous work. - Millie-mione

" Don't stare. It's very rude!" Petunia snapped at Harry as he walked by. He'd been tiptoeing around her for the past three days, and she was just sick and tired of it.

" I wasn't staring at you," he said.

" Don't be smart," she commented.

"I…never mind," he said. He was more than sure that answering back would only lead to a big fight.

He prepared to go outside to mulch the flowers, and she said," stop. I haven't given you breakfast yet."

" I can't work on a full stomach," he said. Why was she so concerned about his nourishment all of a sudden? Was it her guilty conscience? Harry didn't know, but he enjoyed watching her go through her guilt. It was satisfying in a way.

" You'll do as I say," she said.

" I'm touched, Aunt Petunia, but I don't need anything, really," he added, hoping to rile her. He knew that what he was doing was rotten, but it felt so amazingly good to turn the tables on his abuser.

She gritted her teeth and threw her new copper skillet onto the floor, severing its black plastic handle. How dare he do this to her, the little monster? You'd think that he'd appreciate the gestures that she offered as of late, but no. He preferred to keep the bad feelings stirring between them. But then again, what had she offered him during his life but the cold shoulder? Maybe they were right when they said that payback was double the pain.

Harry sat at the table snickering, but as soon as he saw her finish cleaning the mess off the floor ad ascending the stairs, pangs of guilt kicked at his insides. He waited a while, and then started up after her.

He reached the door and then knocked.

" Go away, please!" she shouted.

" I'm sorry, Aunt Petunia," he said.

" Please, just go away," she said.

" All right, if that's what you want," Harry said pretending to walk away. He expected her to come running out of her bedroom any minute, but she didn't. He got worried. What if she'd tried to kill her self again, and succeeded this time?

Harry opened the door, and Petunia jumped up in shock.

" I told you to go away!" she whined.

To Harry, she looked the most ridiculous sight, and when she placed her head into her knees, she reminded him of his five-year old self when she used to lock him in his cupboard.

" You don't need to be alone right now; you're too upset," he said.

" Oh? And just what makes you so sure that I need you as company?" she asked, sounding like a six-year old.

" Well, I don't see anybody else around here that you can talk to," he commented hoping to lift her a bit with his witty comment.

" Don't be smart," she said.

He smiled, a gesture that she couldn't help but return.

"I'm glad that you're better now. I'll go and mulch the garden," he said.

" Wait. Don't mulch. We can do that later. Vernon and Diddy won't be back for another week and a half. I've got something better planned."

" Okay," Harry said, sounding a little bit confused.

" Follow me down, and grab the third magazine off the coffee table," she said.

" Yes, Aunt Petunia," he said.

They entered the first floor, and then went out into the backyard.

"Sit down beside me," she instructed after she pulled a piece of blue tarp off Uncle Vernon's new speedboat and laid it down.

Harry did, and she closed her eyes. He heard her hum a funny tune, and butterflies began to surround them, followed by a light mist that cooled them while they sat in the sun.

" Okay. Now we can begin," she said.

" What was that…" Harry asked before she shushed him

"A little exercise that I used to do with Lily when she was a little girl. Now, pass me the magazine that I asked you to get before we left the house," she bade.

" Here," Harry said eager to see what else she would do.

" Stare at the picture and grab a hold of my hand," she said as soon as she found her desired page.

He did, and then he found himself floating. Pretty soon, the backyard transformed and became the beach in the picture.

" How did we get here?"

" Astral projection," she answered.

" What? That's dangerous. I mean, what if we end up like Professor Binns?" he asked feeling worried.

"We won't. It's natural to inverts like me. Besides, Professor Binns was a novice," she joked.

" But when will we go back?" Harry asked nervously.

" Not a moment too soon. Now, relax and enjoy the scenery a bit."

Harry sat for a second and then excused himself to take a walk down the beach by the ocean. Never had he ever felt so free in his life. He'd wished that Ron and Hermione were there with him. He picked an empty shell up, and then skipped it at the water. Then when he turned to his left, Ron and Hermione ran over to join him.

He stared at them in disbelief. This was impossible. They couldn't be here.

" The beach is so beautiful, isn't it, Harry?" Hermione asked grinning at him.

" Uh, yes," he said, now wishing for them to disappear. This was too weird He closed his eyes for a few instants, and then he opened them to see that they were both gone. He then closed his eyes and wished for Sirius and his parents to be there. He was sure that if his wishing had worked for Ron and Hermione that it would work for his family.

They appeared, and they shared a wonderful picnic for a few hours, until Aunt Petunia came to get him. Harry didn't want to leave. The day was too perfect.

" Harry, we have to go back. We've been gone long enough," she said.

" I don't want to leave. I have everything that I want right here," he protested.

" None of this is real, Harry. I only meant it to be a diversion for you," she explained.

He grew annoyed and then watched his utopia fade. This wasn't fair. He should be allowed to enjoy what he created. He resigned himself to his fate and then took her hand.

When they came back to their bodies, Harry wanted to cry. It had all seemed so real, yet it wasn't. It were almost as if he'd dreamt the whole adventure.

"I was happy there. Why couldn't I stay?" he asked stupidly. He already knew why he couldn't stay. He'd just felt so emotional that he had to say something.

" Because, we have two lives, the one here, and the one there. We were meant to affect things for the better here; although, we can do whatever we want there," she explained.

" Where did you and mum used to go?"

" We'd either go into her 'Captain Howdie' book or into her 'Snow White' coloring magazine. She wanted to stay there too, but I had to bring her back; she always got teary-eyed when I did. It used to break my heart."

" I wish that we could've done this last summer."

" I do too. Perhaps, then you wouldn't have felt so caged."

" And I wouldn't have acted so impulsively and gotten Sirius killed either," he remarked.

"What if I were to tell you that his death wasn't necessarily your fault?"

"What are you saying?"

" You recall the astral adventure that we both just witnessed, right?"

" Yes."

" Well, that's where we all go when we die, unless you're earth-bound, and you have unfinished business. Well, Sirius was impulsive during his life, and he made many a mistake that hurt many a person emotionally. His chance to rectify it came when he went to defend you."

" I don't get it," he said.

"You see; he was destined to die that night any way. He should've died from being given an emetic. That 'thing' in his house was going to bring him a bit of absinthe to calm his nerves, and unbeknownst to him, it was going to lace it with copper salt to induce a toxic seizure that would result in Sirius' death by stroke. However, Fate offered him the chance to mitigate the pain of his passing by performing an act of redemption as payment for his mistakes."

" Sirius wasn't evil!"

" I never said that he was evil. I merely said that he'd behaved recklessly and embittered a few people. His innate nobility and willingness to love you as he did James enabled him to die painlessly and to finally have peace from the torment that he suffered during his last days of life."

" House-elves can't harm their masters," Harry commented. He felt the need to grasp any straw that would allow him to defend Sirius against Petunia's attempts to lessen his pain. He knew that he was at fault.

" But Sirius was excommunicated from his family. The wizarding community takes this ritual very seriously. He only had certain rights as far as that creature was concerned. However, another fully blooded Black who had family honor could've superceeded Sirius and then bade that thing to poison him."

" Knowing all this doesn't make me feel any better," Harry said.

" I know, but that's growing up, facing things that make life all the more guesome. Just rest assure that Sirius is at peace and very happy."

" Aunt Petunia," Harry started.

" Yes?"

" What will you have to do, I mean with reference to your parents?" he asked swallowing a huge lump, regretting his decision to speak so bluntly without thinking.

" I never look at that part. I'd rather it be a surprise," she said, just in time to be knocked unconscious by Peter Pettigrew. Harry reached for his wand, and Peter hit him with the 'Imperius Curse.'

He dragged Petunia inside and then ordered Harry to follow him.

" Good boy, Harry," he said.

Petunia woke and then stared at her sister's betrayer with blood in her eyes.

" You bastard!" she yelled.

" Now, now, Petty. That's not nice," he chided playfully.

" You leave my nephew alone before I …"

" Before you do what exactly?" he asked grinning foully as he pointed the tip of his wand between her eyes.

" You know very well what I can do," she said.

" Which is why I'm not going to do anything to you. Harry is," he said laughing gleefully. " Say goodnight, Petunia. Use the 'Avada Kedavra,' Harry!"

He did, but Petunia leapt out of the way just in time and darted up the stairs. Peter apparated before her and moved to push her back down, but she pulled him causing him to fall to the foot of the staircase.

She ran into her bedroom and then locked the door. She knew that this was a futile gesture, but it would at least buy her the time that she needed to think of something.

Peter regained his momentum and then apparated into the hallway upstairs. He opened each door and searched each bedroom until he entered hers.

" Come out, 'Pretty Petty.' You know that sooner or later Peter Rabbit is going to find you," he teased, but after a few moments had passed, he gave up. Then he got an idea. He knew that Petunia hated rats and harbored a morbid fear of them, so he shifted his form.

He ran into Petunia's closet, and then he skulked about hoping to scare her out into the open space where he could get her. He found her feet and then bit at them causing her to scream, run downstairs, and then outside into her backyard where she seemed to have disappeared completely. He grew frustrated at first, but then he remembered that she was an excellent shapeshifter; so he looked high, and he looked low to be wary of predators like snakes, cats, and birds that could possibly devour him in his Animagus form. Of course, he could always turn back into a man, but he knew that somebody from the Order or the Ministry could possibly identify him if they suspected an attack and arrived before he got the chance to escape.

He looked around him and spotted the shed. She was probably in there. That was a good move, but then again, she couldn't stay in there forever. He scurried around the corner and then burrowed into the garden at the side of the house, where he was sure to catch a glimpse of her whenever she decided to come out.

For all of his clever planning, Peter never once thought to look behind him. He felt something pierce his side like a dart, and then he felt himself go numb with paralysis.

He squeaked in terror as a vine surrounded him and yanked him up to be swallowed in the center of an abnormally huge sunflower.

He could hear his heart race as he neared his final moments. He could even feel the warm wetness flow through the bottom of his immobile form. If there were a time when Pettigrew needed repentance; this was it.

The faces of those he betrayed flashed before him in his mind, as he prepared to fce the eternity of torment that awaited his brethren; liars, thieves, charlatans, traitors, and all other manner of ne'er do wells that'd caused pain during their time on earth.

A huge cracking sound stopped the flower in its tracks. It was Dumbledore and a few others.

" Petunia, no! We can get information from him," he ordered.

" Why're you talkin' to that plant over there, professor," Tonks asked. She got her answer when Dumbledore pointed to the rat that was entangled in its vines.

Petunia turned back and stood clutching Pettigrew's prone form in her hand.

"Bloody hell," Tonks commented looking at Petunia as if she were some kind of freak." What kind of an animagus are you?"

" I'm no Animagus. I'm an invert," she said, hating the sound of that term. It made her think of shirts that were turned wrong side out.

" Blimey, are you really? I mean, I've heard of your kind, but I didn't know that they were real."

" Hey, you two, it's time to skedaddle. Other Death Eaters might be coming," Remus called.

Petunia was happy to see Remus. She ran over to him, said her hellos, and then got packed and fled for Number Twelve. When they arrived, Petunia vowed to let the excitement of being in the magical world engulf her, instead of shunning it like a nun in a cloister.

Harry took the eighth bedroom, and she slept in the seventh beside his. She heard him stir during the middle of the night and walked into his room to feel his head. She ran downstairs to get a white pebble from the front garden. She returned and then placed it in his hand and pressed hers against it likewise. She envisioned a bright white light and then let it course from her into Harry. I began to make headway, until she felt something throw her to the floor just as she reached Harry's cerebral center.

She licked her finger and then walked over to light the candle beside Harry. After it lit, she saw a violet hue pulsate at its center. This wasn't good at all. She crept through the house and then looked for old clothes that may have belonged to the Blacks. She knew that they were the guardians of the house, so she was sure that they would not let any unwholesome force breach it without welcome.

For a brief second, the light from the lanterns blew out around the house, and a brief chill rushed through causing her to shiver. Seconds later, the lanterns came back on, and she turned to see Harry standing behind her looking unusually pale.

She started to ask how he got down there so fast, but them stares into his eyes and gasped in terror. Before she could scream, Harry clenched her by the throat and then lifted her off the ground.

" It's nice to see you again, Petunia," the icy voice said. " Surely you didn't think that you'd escape, did you?"

" No," she rasped, all the while thinking of a way to thwart this murder attempt.

" You must've known that I'd get you sooner or later. Had you remained in your less than satisfactory existence at that ratbox you called a home, I'd have let you be. Although, if I may, watching you waste all the training that I gave you when you came to me all those years ago sickened me. Of all my acolytes, you showed the most promise. In a way, you still do. You see, after I kill you, I'll kill Harry, and this s whole sorry mess will be over.

I will come to rule, and you and your nephew can return to the other side. After all, you always did prefer it there, didn't you, Petty?"

Petunia concentrated on the pulse in her neck and sent the bright light that she used on Harry earlier to his pulse and then formed an aural noose about Voldemort's body. She yanked all three of them from their bodies, and they hovered in mid air.

She could see that Voldemort had Harry in a neck grip as if he planned on snapping his neck. She ascended and tried to pull Harry with her, but Voldemort held Harry by the ankle.

"Don't be afraid, Harry! Pull with everything you've got! He's too scared to follow you up here," she yelled.

" I can't. He won't let go!"

" Then relax and feel yourself slipping through his fingers."

" I can't."

" Do it!"

Ths reminded him of the time that he and his friends had struggled with that Venomous Tentacula in their first year. He stilled himself and then tried to be patient. He felt himself floating up, and then he felt a shapr pain pierce his ankle. He turned to look below him and saw Lord Voldemort hooking his foot with a set of red claws.

Petunia knew that she had to do something and do it fast. She opened her arms to suck in astral light from the air around her, formed it in the shape of a whip, and then she lashed it down at Voldemort. He retreated without any effect, but that didn't matter. She'd gotten Harry free of him. She pulled the gesture again, this time coiling it around him as he screamed in agony, and then watched Voldemort disapparate in a puff of green smoke.

She pushed Harry back down into his body and then followed him back down to hers.

They shook their disoriented feeling and rose to return to bed. Harry screamed in pain, and she helped him over to the table. It was his ankle.

Mrs. Weasley heard the fuss and came downstairs.

" What have you done to him?" she asked angrily.

" Nothing, Mrs. Weasley. She just helped me. I had another nightmare attack," she said.

" Yes, and he was hurt in the struggle," Petunia said.

The others soon descended the stairs instants later, and both Harry and Petunia found them selves explaining their ordeal.

Harry slept most of the day, and woke from s the best rest that he'd had in a while.

His aunt gave him tea and beignets for a snack and then stroked his head to feel for any signs that Voldemort might still be there. When she saw that there were none, she rested her head atop his and shared in his feeling of dread with refereence to awaiting possible death. She sighed and then took comfort in the thought that they'd at least be together if it happened.