Chapter 11:
I am really sorry it took me so long, I could give you a bunch of excuses, but I bet you are not interested. I hope you had a merry Christmas (if you celebrated) and I wish you a happy new year, what would I do without you lot!
Enjoy!
A few moments later Petunia and her boys were sitting on the sofa, each of them with a big hot chocolate.
Petunia hadn't quite figured out, what and how much to tell the boys. But before she told them, she had to know something.
"Harry, did someone else see you do it?"
The little boy looked at her with big frightened eyes. "I don't think so."
"Good", Petunia sighed. For a moment there was silence, while she searched for the right words. Both boys looked at her in apprehension.
"Harry, you know I don't like to talk about your mother?" She didn't wait for him to answer: "Well, it is time you learn the reason. When we were young, the two of us were inseparable. We did almost everything together, much like you, even though I was a year older than Lily. When I learned to read, I always read her a good night story. When she went to school too, we always helped each other with the homework. Your mother was a bright child. She always had the best ideas, even if her mischievous streak sometimes got us into trouble. I only wish it could have always stayed like this: the two of us together, as close as sisters can be."
"What happened?", Dudley asked, Harry watching on, absorbing any information about his mother.
Petunia sighed again, then she went on with her story. "Your mother has always been a bit different. Strange things happened around her. She would let flowers appear out of nowhere, wild birds would sit on her hand, if she called them and the likes. Little things, easy to ignore for me. Then one day she met a little boy like her, who told her she was a witch and that she had magic."
Here Dudley couldn't help but interrupt. "Does that mean Harry has magic, too. So he's a real wizard?"
Petunia nodded gravely.
"Cool!", the little boy exclaimed, his eyes shining. But Harry, who had heard the seriousness and the sadness in his aunts voice wasn't so sure about it.
"What happened to you and mum?", he asked timidly.
For a moment Petunia hesitated, then she finished her story quickly, hiding the tears in her eyes.
"Shortly after she got a letter, that she was accepted at a boarding school for magic. She went away for the whole school year and we only saw each other in the holidays. Never again were we as close as we used to be. And when she married your father and moved out, we lost all contact to each other."
"But that's horrible!", Harry exclaimed.
"Don't worry, it won't happen to us!", Dudley tried to sooth him.
"But if I am a wizard, I will have to go to that boarding school, too!", the little boy exclaimed.
Petunia nodded: "They will invite you, yes."
"If it means leaving you, I don't want to go to that magic school!", Harry cried.
"Just stop using magic and you won't have to", Petunia told him. "Now get upstairs and play, I have work to do."
As soon as the boys left, she collapsed on the sofa, her eyes watering. There where just too many conflicting emotions inside her head. Deep inside she knew her story had been pretty one-sided. She knew that her jealousy had driven them more apart than their different schools. She just wasn't ready to face that truth just yet.
Also she felt guilty for making Harry afraid of who and what he was, but at the same time she was glad that she convinced him, to give up magic. She didn't want Dudley to stay behind, like she did. If Harry stopped using magic, his letter may never come. In the end it was all for the good of her boys. With that thought she got up, after all, she really had work to do.
Petunia Dursley was not a bad person, she had come a long way to accept Harry as her second son. But she wasn't ready to accept his magic yet. So it wasn't surprising that she didn't want him to use magic ever again, besides, what would the neighbours say!
If only she had known, that upstairs, her own son did his best to convince Harry, that he would be fine to use magic, as long as nobody caught him.
Petunia Dursley didn't know the trouble she was in for.
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