Author's note: I'm sorry that I'm skipping a few years. (and now every chapter it seems like Ginny's pregnant. :) ) If this bothers anyone, let me know.

Chapter 14: Apologies

My second-born son, Albus Severus Potter, was born February thirteenth, 2006, nearly two weeks late. At first Ginny and I were worried, but after Albus was born, it was clear that everything was going to be okay. Ron and Hermione had a little girl named Rose on December fifth, and she had inherited Ron's red hair. In early December, 2007, Ginny and I discovered she was pregnant with our third child, and we hoped the baby, who would be born in June, would be a girl this time, as we had already decided this baby would be our youngest child.

Also in December, I received not one, but two unusual Christmas cards. The just happened to be from my Aunt Petunia and my cousin Dudley, both of whom I hadn't seen since not long after my sixth year, but ever since the war, I had been on "Christmas card terms" with them. I opened Petunia's first, expecting nothing more than the usual signature underneath the cards message. It was always only signed by Petunia, as I'm sure my uncle Vernon would have a fit if she made him sign it. But, this year, a letter fell out when I opened the card. What I read in the letter shocked me.

Harry, It began. Not dear, just Harry. But then again, what did I expect from the aunt who had neglected me for nearly seventeen years?

Harry,

I would completely understand if this letter means nothing to you, but I wish to inform you that two days ago, Vernon passed away of a heart attack. I've tried to tell him for years that he needed to eat better and exercise more, or else something like this would happen, but he refused to listen to me, and now he has paid the price.

The reason I am informing you of this is because I would like you to attend his funeral on Saturday, December. I doubt you would except this invitation, but I sincerely hope you do, as I feel like… well, to be honest, I feel like we need some time to warm up to each other, and possibly get on even friendly terms than just sending Christmas cards. Now that Vernon's gone, I think we can finally do that.

One more thing: If you do decide to come to the funeral, please bring your family. I hope to see all of you soon.

Sincerely,

Aunt Petunia

If that wasn't strange enough, I also got a card from Dudley.

Dear Harry and family,

Merry Christmas! I hope to see you and your family soon.

Love,

Big D

That was even stranger, because I couldn't think of any other time that Dudley said "love" before he signed his name. When I showed Ginny the Christmas cards, she said absolutely, we definitely should go to the funeral.

That was why Ginny and I were carrying our two young sons as I searched the church for a familiar face.

"Harry, over here!" A voice called. I turned to see a tall, muscular man walk toward me.

"Dudley? Is that you?" I asked, amazed at how much my cousin had changed.

Dudley smiled weakly. "It sure is." He said softly.

"Wow. You look so… different."

"And you're just as scrawny as always." Dudley said with a smile. He suddenly noticed Ginny standing awkwardly beside me. "And who's this?"

"Dudley, this is my beautiful wife, Ginny, and our wonderful boys, three year old James, and twenty-two month old Albus. Ginny is also pregnant with our third child."

Dudley smiled again, and reached out to shake Ginny's hand. "Dudley Dursley, Harry's cousin. I'm sure he hasn't mentioned my name before."

Ginny bit her tongue to prevent herself from saying something she'd regret. "Well, actually, he has…"

"Oh… I get it." Dudley said softly, and then turned to me. "I assume you didn't say anything good about me. If you did, I don't deserve any of it."

Dudley paused for a moment before continuing. "Harry, I'm really sorry about the way I treated you when we were kids."

"Don't worry about it, Big D." I replied. "People change, and I believe you have grown a lot from when we were younger, especially after the dementor incident."

"Dementors… They're those things that attacked us once when we were fifteen, right?"

I nodded. "Exactly."

"Dudley? What are you doing over there! You left me alone with the children and… oh, hello." I turned my head toward the woman who had spoken. She was pretty, with dark brown, shoulder-length hair, and was just as petite as my aunt Petunia. Two infant girls were cradled in her arms, and a young boy who looked like a younger version of Dudley – except for the fact that he was skinner at that age than Dudley was – was trailing after her.

"Who's this?" The woman asked curiously.

"Debra, this is my cousin Harry, his wife Ginny, and his sons, James and Albus." Dudley replied. "Harry this is my lovely wife, Debra, our four-year-old son, David, and our eight month old twin daughters Danielle and Diana.

David reminded me a lot of Dudley. He looked almost exactly like him, with blond hair and blue eyes, but was a lot skinner than Dudley was. One of his sisters reminded me of Petunia, and had many of the same facial features as her, but I was shocked to see that her twin had fuzzy red hair and green eyes, just like my mother.

"Nice to meet you." Debra said, giving Ginny and I a friendly smile.

David however, wasn't so friendly. "Daddy, who's that?" David asked, pointing to James with a look of disgust on his face.

"That's your cousin James."

"I don't like him." David pouted.

"David, don't be rude!" Debra exclaimed, while Ginny glared at him for being so mean to her little boy.

"Sorry about that." Dudley whispered in my ear.

I merely shrugged. "We didn't get along as kids, so why should we expect our children to?"

When Dudley led us to where Aunt Petunia was standing, she smiled weakly when she saw us coming and gave me an awkward hug. Thinking back on it, I believe it was the first and alone hug she had ever giving me. "Thank you for coming." She said softly.

"I'm sorry for your loss." I replied simply.

When I introduced Petunia to my family, she spoke in a voice that was barely audible. "Your mother had red hair."

"I know." I said with a smile. "I like to call it the 'Potter family curse'. We're real suckers for redheads."

For the first time that I could remember, Petunia laughed. It was a weak laugh, but a laugh just the same. She looked as if she wanted to say something more but decided against it.

After the funeral, Petunia invited Dudley and our families over for tea. While Petunia, Dudley, and Debra disappeared into the kitchen, I decided to give Ginny a little tour of the house I grew up in. For old time's sake, I opened the cupboard under the stairs, the one that used to be my old bedroom. When Ginny realized what I was doing, she gasped, and tears began to flow from her eyes. "Is this…?" she began, but stopped because she knew the answer. "How could they?"

I sighed. This cupboard was the place where I had spent most of the first eleven years of my life, and like Ginny, I often wondered: How could they do this to me? "I wondered that myself many times when I was little." I replied.

Just then, Petunia came back out into the hallway and found Ginny in tears, and me standing with my arm warped around her as I tried to comfort my wife. "Is everything alright…?" Petunia began, but once she saw that the cupboard door was open, she stopped talking, and her cold eyes softened. "Harry, I'm sorry…" Petunia whispered.

"You should be!" Ginny snapped. "How could you keep a little boy, your own nephew, trapped in such a small space for most of his life, when your son was a spoiled little –"

"Ginny…" I warned, but Petunia interrupted me.

"No, she's right." Petunia said with a sigh. "Harry, I truly am sorry for making you live in that cupboard for eleven years. I now regret that decision."

I sighed. "Well, we can't change the past, so there's no point in being angry. I'm willing to move on, if you are."

Petunia smiled weakly, but for the rest of the afternoon, she was silent, as if something was bothering her. Finally, when we were all sitting in the sitting room, she just couldn't take it anymore. "Harry?" She asked softly. "Can I talk to for a minute? Alone?"

"Sure." I replied, and followed Petunia out of the sitting, and into the kitchen.

"Sit down, please." Petunia said, gesturing to the table. I did as I was told, and then Petunia sat down across the table from me.

"Where to begin?" Petunia muttered to herself. "How much do you know about your mother?"

I hesitated, and then explained most of what I knew about my mother, from her relationship with Petunia, to her death, leaving some details out, such as how she at first, hated my father and other details that weren't so important to Petunia. When I finished, I saw that Petunia had tears in her eyes.

"I should have been the one to tell you all of that Harry, not whatever source you've heard that information from." Petunia said, her voice full of sadness. "I have so many regrets, you couldn't possibly imagine. I regret the way Vernon, Dudley, and I treated you like dirt, and how Vernon and I lied to you all those years about what happened to your parents. I didn't really think of your mother as dirt, I was just jealous of her. We used to be so close, but when she got her Hogwarts letter, I didn't want her to go to that school and do things that I couldn't. My parents were so proud of her, and I felt alone, as I'm sure you felt before going to Hogwarts yourself. I tried everything to be what Lily was, including sending a letter to the headmaster, but everything failed. I turned my anger out on Lily, and we grew apart. I never really stopped loving her. What bothered me the most about her death was that I never got to tell her I was sorry. I just hope she, and you as well, can forgive me…" By the end of her little speech, the tears were no longer in her eyes. Instead, Petunia was sobbing.

Slowly, I gave my aunt a hug. "I know for a fact that my mother would forgive you, and so will I."

"Thank you, Harry." Petunia said with a weak smile.

As Ginny, James, Albus and I were getting ready to leave, Petunia asked, "You'll come back sometime, won't you?"

I told her I would. In the letter he wrote to me before he died, my godfather Sirius once said, "Family, in my mind, does not necessary mean your relatives. My definition of family is 'people in one's life whom they are close to and may or may not be related to.' Even though I am related to my parents, my brother, Bellatrix, and Narcissa, they are not my family. This may be true for Sirius, but it is only partially true to me. When I was younger, I would have agreed with this one hundred percent. Now, I know that even though Petunia and Dudley were not the kindest people to me growing up, people change, and they were still my family, no matter what.

Author's note: Okay, I've decided to ATTEMPT to hold my story hostage until I get three reviews from three different people. Why? Because I posted three chapters, and only got one review between the three. (Three reviews is not very much, and people who's reviewed before are free to do so again, and they will count as one of the three.) I will not update until then (for a reasonable amount of time) and I'll just let the chapters stack up in my files without posting them, so I suggest you review. :)