Petunia Dursley awoke with a chill in her bones. She brushes her blonde bangs back to wipe off the cold sweat that gathered there. She mentally notes that Vernon is still sleeping soundly next to her. Deciding to get up to check on Dudley, Petunia looks to her bedside clock. 'Only a bit after one. What could have woken me?' She quickly slips her feet into her slippers and pulls her robe around her.
Silently padding out into the hallway, Petunia couldn't shake the feeling that something terrible had happened. She thinks about the phone call she never received last night and wonders. Petunia comes to an abrupt stop just before Dudley's nursery and shakes her head. "Now don't you think like that, Petunia. Everything is absolutely fine. You just had a strange dream that you don't remember." She whispers to herself.
Slowly opening the door to Dudley's nursery, she creeps in to find her precious baby sleeping soundly. She smiles at the little blonde cherub snuggling the blue teddy his Aunt Marge had gotten him for his first birthday. Her smile drops off her face as she realizes that she still has that terrible chill. Something was wrong. She just had yet to find out what was wrong.
Exiting the nursery, Petunia descends down into her hallway. 'Perhaps I forgot to lock the door last night before I went to bed. I did go to bed quite late, waiting for the phone to ring.' She thinks as she stares at the door. Several minutes go past before Petunia steels herself and walks towards the front door of Privet Drive Number Four.
She glares at the lock. Noting that she did indeed lock the door when she finally trudged up after Vernon. But that awful chill remained. And it seemed that it was stronger now that she was standing before her own door. Petunia stands still and takes several deep breaths. 'You're a strong woman, Petunia. You can handle most anything.' With that mental affirmation, Petunia turns the lock and wrenches open the door.
At first she stares into the dark of Privet Drive, seeing nothing of consequence. She shakes her head, about ready to close the door before hearing a small gurgle. Petunia freezes, feeling her heart stop as well as she looks down to her lovely floral doormat. Sitting on top is a large basket, with a lovely thick knit blanket folded over the contents. Another more irate gurgle comes from the basket. Petunia slowly lowers herself to the ground and pulls the basket over. Barely breathing, she unfolds the blanket and lets out a guttural sob. Inside the basket were a pair of green-eyed babes. One with hair dark as the night and a lightning bolt cut still bleeding on his forehead. And the other with hair so fair it glowed in the moonlight.
Petunia let out another moan of despair as she scoops her niece and nephew up into her chest, not caring as an envelope flutters onto the filthy ground. She finally understands why she had such a chill moving through her. Why dread had seemed to fill her very being when the phone had never rang like it was supposed to on Halloween night.
Her beautiful, vibrant, and powerful sister was dead.
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Author's Note:
Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed the prologue to Year of the Stone! And yes I know originally I said this was going to be called The Potter Twins and the Year of the Stone. But as everything developed from this prologue I realized that due to changes that ended up happening it could no longer be called that.
Also on another note, this entire story has deviated from how I originally wanted it to go. And that's all thanks to how Petunia ended up. Yes...it's Petunia's fault. Basically thanks to Petunia Dursley nee Evans this has turned into an AU version of what was actually supposed to happen with the original PTU tale. And all that happened was I had the thought of, "What if Petunia and Lily rekindled their sisterly bond before Lily's murder?"
So yeah...this is officially my new headcanon for my own universe. And I hope that you all love Petunia as much as I've come to.
With Love,
Siren