Author's Notes: I got this idea while watching Harry Potter movies, surprisingly enough. I'm hoping this will be a never-done-before thing, but if someone's already written it, then I apologize in advance.
Ahem… extensive… research… tells me that James and Lily died on 31st October, 1981. In other words, I wikipedia'd it. x)
Summary: To protect Harry Potter, to prevent the Boy who Lived from dying, Petunia Dursley can only do one thing… hate him. Another look at the bitter woman long portrayed as vile.
Disclaimer: I, unfortunately, don't own HP. Oh woe, agony…
To Protect You
It was that day again. The one day Petunia Dursley dreaded above all other days. The day when Harry Potter arrived to her household…
And the day of her sister's, Lily Potter's, death.
'Perhaps,' that little corner of her mind whispered, 'perhaps if she never became a witch, she wouldn't have died.'
A knock on the door shook her out of her reverie. It opened to reveal three children dressed in Halloween costumes, identical grins on their faces.
She took one glance at the girl dressed as a witch, with auburn hair and bright green eyes, and slammed the door in their faces, breath shallow.
Petunia had assumed, always assumed that as long as Harry, the last living remainder of her sister, never found out about magic, he'd be safe. Assumed that if she locked him away from the rest of society, magic would never find him.
Then he wouldn't die.
But it did find him.
And he might die.
She didn't mind her nephew hating her, as long as he was alive. But there he is now, in bloody god-knows-where and performing his little magic tricks, the same man who was responsible for her sister's death on his trail, after only one thing- the blood of Harry Potter.
She hated them.
She hated wizards, hated magic.
If it wasn't for magic, for the existence of that foul thing, her sister wouldn't have died.
Then, perhaps, Lily would still be alive and by her side, and her son would be normal… he'd be out with the rest of the children of the neighborhood, going door to door to gain sweets.
If only that bloody letter didn't arrive, addressed to none other than Lily Evans.
She knew how selfish she was being. She knew that she had no right to hate magic. If her sister hadn't become a witch, hadn't known magic, then He Who Must Not Be Named would still roam free.
But still, it was her sister, her dear sister, who had to make the sacrifice.
Petunia Dursley hated Harry to protect him from magic. She does so now in order to protect herself…
For if the Boy Who Lived died, she would feel at fault.