Chapter 4

There was a sound of the front door opening, not even 5 minutes after Harry popped away with Mipsy. The excited chattering of a child could be heard.

While Vernon and Petunia were saying goodnight to Dudley and sending him to bed, Tricky appeared and, according to Lily's instruction, hid behind a curtain. When they entered the living room, they were too engrossed in talking to each other to notice the portrait.

As it was obvious, Petunia noticed something was wrong in her perfect living room, and turned towards it and let out a loud shriek. "What are you doing here?", she screamed, as Lily and James smirked. Vernon jumped up from the sofa he had sunk into and turned towards where his wife was pointing, as fast as he could with his weight.

"Hello Pet, it's good to see you too", Lily mocked. James too said, "Hello dearest sister-in-law", smirking. Vernon, when he saw them speaking from a portrait, first turned pale and then, more rapidly than should have been possible, changed colour to red, from fury.

He bellowed, "How is a painting speaking? What's this abnormality? The freak must have done something." "I don't know Vernon", Petunia lied. "Come on Petunia you know well that magical portraits can talk, that's why you asked what I'm doing here when you first saw me", said Lily.

She prevented whatever retort Petunia was going to come up with by starting to speak. "Shut up and listen! I'm not here to hear to listen to you insult me, my husband or my son. I have had enough of that already. That's all that you did since I was discovered that I am a witch. I won't lie and say that it didn't hurt, the way you treated me. My only sister, who used to be my best friend, started calling me a 'freak' and behaving badly with me out of a reason as petty as jealousy but I could still live with it. I could even bear with your dislike for James though, I again admit, that too hurt", she said, getting angrier by the second, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.

Petunia had frozen in her place with shock, she knew that Lily felt bad about the way she behaved with her but she had never told shouted at her like she as was doing now. She was the type of person who bore with everything in silence. Seeing her shouting, Petunia was too stunned and had started to realise her mistakes. Lily continued, "What I cannot take is the way you treated my son, when he couldn't go anywhere else. You took out your jealousy on him? A child whose parents had died? Who didn't know what he had done wrong to be hated by his own aunt? How could you do that to a child…any child, let alone your own nephew? Even after everything, I didn't except this of you Petunia….I d..didn't". Tears had started streaming down her face by the time she stopped talking.

James, hugging Lily one-handedly, looked towards them and said, "We would never have treated your son like you treated ours. Even now, if we have to look after him, we will not take out our resentment for you on him. We have already sent our son away and will do my best to make sure he never has to set foot in this house again". He called Tricky and were out of there within 5 seconds of saying this.

Petunia flopped down on the sofa crying, with her elbows on her knees, hiding her face in her hands. Lily's words had made her realise all her wrongs and she couldn't think of any way to make up for it. Harry was gone and it was possible she would never get to apologise to him, let alone make up all she had done.

Vernon still resented them but didn't try to mention this in front of an already distraught Petunia. Instead, he settled for hugging her in an attempt to comfort her.

/hp/

Harry felt himself landing on solid ground. He looked around himself to see where they were. In front of him, at some distance, he could see some houses and people wearing robes moving around. It was clearly a wizarding village. He felt a strange but pleasant sense of belonging with the wizarding folk. Smiling, he turned towards Mipsy and asked, "Which of these houses is ours Mipsy?".

Mipsy smiled at him in return and answered, "None of those Young Master". Harry's brows furrowed in confusion but before he could ask anything she spoke up, "Your home is being behind you", in a voice more squeaky than normal, due to excitement. Harry whipped around and exclaimed, "Wow!".

In front of him was a huge wrought iron double gate with his family crest in the centre, connecting them together. The boundary wall was very high and appeared to be made of stone.

"How do we enter Mipsy? Will you pop me inside?", he asked. She shook her head, and said, "No, Young Master Harry only needs to be putting his palm on the crest. The wards be recognising him and letting him enter".

His parents had told him about wards and Harry had been amazed. He put his palm on the crest as he was told, and felt a tingling all over his body, the wards had recognised him. The gate opened very smoothly for its size and after they had entered, closed behind them.

Harry turned away from the gate and looked towards Mipsy who said with flourish, "Welcome to the Potter Manor Young Master Harry". Harry looked towards where she was pointing and his jaw dropped.

It was the largest house he had ever seen in real life. It was like the manors owned by the nobles, in the shows the Dursleys watched on the TV. "T..This is my home?", he asked Mipsy, unbelievingly.

The elf nodded her head excitedly. Still, not able to believe this, he looked around, there was a cobblestone path leading to the building, in front of which was a beautiful marble fountain, shaped like a woman watering the garden, and sparkling clear water from her wand joined the water in the circular pool in the centre of which the fountain was situated.

On one side of the Manor was a beautiful garden and on the other side were woods. "We made sure the Manor was always being kept in a good condition. There are 4 greenhouses in the garden. Tizzy be tending to the garden and greenhouses. The woods are being totally safe and some plants the Masters be using in potions and need more wild condition to grow be growing there".

"Are there unicorns or hippogriffs in there?", asked Harry. Mipsy nodded, "The Potter Masters always be good to animals and animals be loving them. There are many others there too. You can go there but first Young Master should be going to the Manor. The other elves be wanting to meet him too."

Harry let the little elf lead him into the Manor. He was excited to see what his home looked like from inside. He would have loved it even if he could live in a hut, as long as it was with his parents.

This time he would make sure not to forget about his real home, like he did from when he was a baby. He would also make sure he didn't have to leave the place ever and that he could live there with his parents his whole life and as a portrait after his death.

/hp/

silvermagic210- Thanks for the review and the advice. 😊

AshJaz- At first, they were too excited and involved in talking to Harry and as soon as they had started paying attention to the surroundings Harry told them that he had always lived with Petunia, they were smart enough to figure out what must have happened (they don't trust Dumbledore). They wouldn't have wanted to tell him that before they were sure of it themselves and anyway, Harry wouldn't have known anything about Sirius. Thanks for the review. 😊

Ruk- Thank you😊