Chapter Five

Petunia spent the night at Annabelle's apartment, and the next morning there was a knock on the door. David stood there, wide-eyed and frantic. Petunia hid behind the door as Annabelle answered.

"Is she here?!" said David in a clear state of panic.

Annabelle winced. "Yes, but I'm not sure if she wants to talk to y -"

"Petunia, listen!" Petunia hid on the other side of the door, tears in her eyes, listening. "I - I didn't know, alright? You have to believe me, I didn't know it meant so much to you!

"But I want to marry you, and I'm willing to try other things. Adoption, in vitro. I'm willing to try it with you. And - and you may not always be able to go out to fancy restaurants with me, but we'll have fun and I'll love you and -"

Petunia suddenly rushed out, upset, and hugged him very fiercely.

"I know," she whispered in his ear. "It's okay. Because I love you."

He hugged her very hard.

She and David moved in together. They were living in sin, so to speak, but really, after all this, Petunia could give a crap.

The wound and disappointment slowly began to heal over, and life moved on. She was happy with David. They made a nice life together. They both worked. He had his music and open mic nights, and she had her poetry and her culinary masterpieces. He cooked, she cleaned. They had the same ideas on animal friendliness, on the importance of reading, on the unimportance of public appearances.

Petunia was happy. She felt like she was living with, had fallen in love with, a friend. Someone she had no doubts she could spend the rest of her life with.

Slowly, she began to talk more about her family, her past. When she admitted her sister and her brother in law were a witch and wizard, Annabelle and David didn't understand.

"So… they're Wiccan?"

"... Sort of?" she said uncomfortably.

But what they found far more important was her relationship with her sister. "Your parents are dead, she's all you have," said Annabelle intently. "Aren't you happy now, too? You can't hate her forever. She has lots of traits you value now, you said so yourself."

"You'll never forgive yourself if something happens to your sister and the two of you never made up," said David seriously.

Petunia opened her mouth to protest - then remembered the wizarding war, and that Lily was a target, and she closed it again.

Privately, she summoned an owl and sent it off to Dumbledore. She got back a piece of parchment with the hideout address, a little village cottage out in the countryside.

Lily Potter opened the Godric's Hollow cottage door one day and was stunned to find Petunia standing there, looking sheepish. "Can - can I come in?"

"... Of course, Tuney, of course!" Lily stepped aside, stunned, to let her through. James stopped in the middle of whatever he was doing and stared. Petunia looked and felt awkward and out of place in the cottage, with Lily's swelling belly.

"I'll just, uh - I'm going to go water the garden gnome," said James, stumbling from the room.

There was a moment of silence.

"I may be a Muggle, but I'm fairly certain you're not supposed to water a garden gnome," said Petunia dryly at last, and Lily snorted with laughter. That got Petunia going - and pretty soon they were both laughing hysterically together on the sofa.

"Oh, Tuney, I missed you," said Lily with feel. "I'm sorry about the wedding, about Hogwarts, about -" It all came flooding out at once. Petunia wanted to hate her, for being so forgiving on top of everything else.

"It's fine," said Petunia stiffly. "I - owe you an apology. There was envy there, and - Well, you're still my sister. You're - you're not a freak."

Lily stared at her, emotional. Petunia looked away.

"I have a boyfriend now," she said. "David Birch. He, erm - thinks you're Wiccan. He thought this would be good for me. So did my friend Annabelle. He and I, we - we just moved into a city apartment together. He's a waiter and he goes to open mic nights. I'm a typist, and I've - I've taken to writing poetry. Can you believe that?" She laughed softly, sadly.

"Yes," said Lily gently. "I can. Oh, Tuney, that's wonderful -"

"He can't have children." There was a heavy silence.

"... I'm sorry," Lily whispered. "I know how much you wanted that. A - a daughter."

"I love him," said Petunia quietly, looking forward. "It's okay. He - he has a wonderful sense of humor and he's quite kind. I - I think you would like him.

"I've - I've been trying to gossip less. Be a little more relaxed. That sort of thing. I've taken to meditation and animal friendly products and facials - things I've never bothered with before. I'm listening to classical music. I'm learning French cuisine from a book.

"I don't really regret anything, the way I used to." Petunia trailed off in thought. Lily was watching her with a funny little smile. "What about you?" She took a deep breath and turned to look at her sister, bracing herself for envy.

Instead came this:

"We've been in hiding from the war against Lord Voldemort. We've become targets." Lily winced as Petunia stared at her, flabbergasted. "James was a duelist and I was a Healer. Now we're in hiding from - from that madman."

"That's terrible. I'm sorry," said Petunia with feel. She felt helpless and hated it. "Where's, erm - where's Sev? I never did find out. Too angry and bitter, I suppose."

"Oh, Sev…" Lily looked pained. "He's fighting for Lord Voldemort."

Petunia snorted. "Well that figures." And at last Lily cracked a smile.

"On a happier note, I'm trying to decide on a name for my daughter." She smiled wider with effort and looked up.

"That," said Petunia, "I can help with."

They ended up going through baby name books. Petunia knew Lily would want one romantic and fanciful, but that didn't bother her as much as it used to.

In the end, they chose Juniper. Juniper Amelie Potter. They had great fun doing it, too.

They kept in touch and Petunia bragged about her sister often, keeping a photo of her on her writing desk. She got the birth announcement, visited often and became the auntie, took pictures. Juniper Amelie Potter was a cute little girl with a headful of shiny black hair and Lily's gorgeous green eyes. James and David met and genuinely enjoyed each other's company.

It was around the time James charmed all the table settings at Christmas to set themselves that David and Annabelle began to get the impression the Potters were not exactly Wiccans.

Petunia grew comfortable about magic, moreso indeed than she had ever been before, talking with the Potters' friends about the war and what was going on during it.

The last time she saw her sister alive was just like the other times - she waved goodbye, got into the car, and drove off. The Potters' tiny forms faded in the rearview mirror.

Petunia opened her apartment door one morning, and a baby was lying there swaddled on the doorstep. She had a headful of black hair, bright green eyes, and a lightning bolt shaped scar on her forehead.

A letter from Dumbledore was tucked inside her blankets.

The Potters were dead. Voldemort was gone.

Juniper was an orphan, and guess who her only living family was?

Author's Note: We will now switch over to Petunia's perspective on raising Juniper. This story will end when Juniper is ten.