Chapter 12: Petunia's Story
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the below characters. They all belong to the world of Harry Potter so cleverly created by JK Rowling.
A/N: I am really sorry if you guys got a bunch of e-mails on my story saying that I had updated it. I was trying to fix the format on my first chapters so it matched the format of my later chapters and I accidentally deleted chapter four. As my 5 year old niece would tell me "I wasn't paying attention to the details." Anyway, I re posted it so if you got an e-mail about that, just ignore it. I also accidentally switched the order of chapters 5 and 6, though I think I finally got it straightened out. Anyway, sorry about that and here is chapter 12. It will answer some of the questions you have had about Petunia, but it will probably open the door for a few more. Please enjoy and as always, pretty please review!!! Thanks and enjoy!!!
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Hermione sighed and rolled over what felt like the billionth time that night. She had been lying awake since she and Harry had gone to sleep nearly three hours ago. She had forced
herself to calm down after Harry had asked her if she was sure she was ok for the tenth time. She had evened out her breathing for the next forty-five minutes and he finally fell asleep.
That was just over an hour and a half ago. Hermione sighed again but this time she sat up. She looked the boy sleeping soundly on the floor and smiled slightly. He had been amazing
over the last forty-eight hours. Harry had been the one constant in her life. Knowing that she wasn't going to be getting to sleep anytime soon, Hermione carefully slipped off the bed
and tiptoed around Harry toward his door. Before she stepped out into the hallway she quickly checked the clock confirming it was well past 3 in the morning. 'Perfect,' Hermione though,
'no one will be up.'
Silently closing the door behind her, Hermione quietly made her way down the hall and stairs and into the kitchen. Once she was there she quickly made herself a cup of tea. She
started to put it in the microwave to heat it up, but thought better of it and used a heating charm instead. That last thing she wanted to do was to wake anyone in this household up.
Hermione sat down at the table and once again, began running everything that had happened over the last few days through her head. After Remus had told her about her father, she
had tried to ask him about the prophecy, and what she was going to do. She knew that Sirius had been left with the first clue, so she had no idea how she was going to obtain it. Much
to her surprise and annoyance, her former professor refused to talk about it. His silence and refusal to help had left her with yet another mystery to work out in her head. The thing that
had her the most flabbergasted was how her father and Sirius were able to keep his identity such a secret, and even more, how they were able to keep her identity such a secret, even
from herself. Hermione let out frustrated groan before folding her arms and putting her head down on the table. Hermione sat like that for a few minutes before she sat up straight
again. When she lifted her head though, she gasped and grabbed for her wand. When the figure that had startled her stepped out of the shadows, she only relaxed slightly. Hermione
found herself staring at Petunia Dursley, a woman that she hardly knew but had come to despise for her treatment of Harry. At first Hermione didn't know what to do. She lowered her
wand, but did not speak. She was expecting the woman before her to make a nasty comment about Hermione dirtying her cup, but that never came.
Instead Petunia walked in the kitchen a little further and said, "Harry is in danger isn't he?"
To say Hermione was floored was an understatement. At first she wasn't even sure she had heard the woman correctly. She looked at Petunia and saw that she was staring back at
her, waiting for a response. Hermione took a careful breath as she thought of her response. Suddenly, all of her own problems that had been troubling her vanished and her defenses
came up. Suddenly, the only thought that occupied her mind, was that she wanted and needed to protect Harry.
"Why now?" Hermione said not really bothering to disguise the anger that laced her voice. "Before I can give you an answer to that question, I need to know why now. After all these
years, why are you suddenly so concerned? You've never cared before, in fact you've have gone out of your way to make Harry's life miserable. It is thanks to you that he doesn't have
a single happy memory prior to Hogwarts. Why, after sixteen years of making his life miserable, are you suddenly concerned about his well-being?" Hermione finished looking at Petunia
directly in her eyes. For years she had only dreamed of having a chance to confront this woman that shared the same blood as her best friend. She wasn't about to stand down now
that she had the chance.
If the situation had been any different, Petunia would have smiled at the young woman before her. It was apparent that this girl cared for Harry deeply and that made her happy.
Sighing Petunia came to the table and sat down in the chair opposite Hermione. "I suppose I deserved that," she paused and looked at Hermione before saying, "ok, I know I deserved
that and the truth is, I don't have an answer that will satisfy you. My reasons for doing the things I did were purely selfish. I guess the only way that I can really explain things is to go
back to the beginning, to the start of the incidents that shaped me and turned me into the woman that I am today, a woman that I have come to hate." Petunia stopped for a moment,
lost in recollection and for the third time in the last two days, Hermione found herself settling in to listen to a story.
"As children, Lily and were very close. In fact, we were best friends and quite inseparable. We did everything together and Lily looked up to me for everything. I adored my baby sister
and I loved being the person that she came running to for help and advice. Of course, all of that changed when she got the letter from Hogwarts. Suddenly, for the first time since she
was born Lily didn't need me for something, and I didn't like it. To make matters worse, Lily was suddenly the center of attention and I hated that. All summer long I had to endure
hearing bout how wonderful Lily was and how excited mum and dad were for her. That is when I found myself pushing her away. Lily noticed of course, and she didn't understand.
Instead of changing though, I did the worst thing I could, I completely turned against her. I made life miserable for her. I made her cry probably at least once a day the last week before
she left. She never told mum and dad though. One time they caught her crying after I had called her a name and instead of telling them the truth she told them that she was crying
because she was going to miss me. After she left for school though, I regretted everything I had done. I realized how much I had missed her. Still, when she came home for Christmas, I
did nothing to change my behavior. Things continued like that into her third year there. She tried her best to restore I relationship, but I blocked her at every turn. The summer she
came home after her third year though, something happened that started to change things. Our mum had sent us both to the store to get some groceries. On the way there we got into
an argument that I started. You see, around her second year, Lily stopped trying so hard. She never started the arguments, and she rarely argued back, but every once in a while, she
would. Of course, I was too stupid to see that the only reason she argued back was because she couldn't take it anymore. I wasn't used to her defending herself from me. I
was so mad that I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing and stepped out in front of an oncoming car. Lily who had scene the car coming pushed me out of the way putting
herself directly in the car's path. I thought for sure that the car was going to hit her but somehow managed to stop inches away from her. I later realized of course that it had been
magic that stopped the car. After that, things slowly began to change. Of course, it took time to undo all the damage that I had done. Over the next year, I no longer went out of my
way to pick fights with her and insult her. I still didn't welcome her home with open arms but things slowly started to get better. By the time she reached her sixth year, we were friends
again. We still weren't as close as we had been as children, but by the Christmas break of her seventh year, we were getting there." Petunia paused and smiled slightly as she recalled
a specific memory. She took a deep breath and continued.
"That was when James entered the picture though. I remember I couldn't wait for her to come home for the summer because I had so many plans for us. Then she came with him and
my plans went up in flames. The thing that killed me was that it was impossible not to like him. He was charming and he and Lily always made a point to include me in whatever they
were doing, but still I hated being the third wheel. It was also difficult because I was dating Vernon at the time and he knew nothing of Lily and James's magic, so it was difficult to
include him in anything. I didn't dislike James, but I resented the fact that he had stolen Lily's attention away from me. That was summer Vernon proposed to me though, so pretty soon
I was busy with wedding preparations. Lily of course was my maid of honor, and that gave us a chance to spent quite a bit of time together. About four months after my wedding
though, the unimaginable happened. Our parents were hit and killed by a drunk driver late one night on their way home from a friend's house. After their funeral though, I remember I
began to see Lily less and less and pretty soon it seemed like we weren't speaking at all. Then I about a year and a half after my later, I got the shock of a lifetime when Lily showed up
on my doorstep. I had just found out I was pregnant with Dudley when Lily came to tell my that she and James had been married six months prior. To say I was shocked was an
understatement. I yelled at her for the first time since that car incident all those years ago and told her to leave. I couldn't believe she hadn't told me. In my hormonal rage that night, I
accidently let it slip to Vernon about her magic and I am pretty sure you can guess the outcome of that. I'm not sure why, but he assumed that I hadn't known about it prior that and
that was what had me so mad. I have no idea why he thought that, but I didn't exactly marry him for his intelligence. Anyway, rather than correct him, that was what I let him think.
About a month later, I got a letter from Lily letting me know she had just found out she was pregnant. I didn't here from her again until a week before she died. She came to see me
and she told me a little bit about the war and everything she had been through. When she walked out that door that day, I had a horrible feeling that it would be the last time I saw
her, but I had desperately hoped I was wrong. Then a week later Harry showed up on my doorstep."
"It was so hard for me to look at him. To me he was the confirmation that I would never see her again. I hate myself for not being a better sister to her, but instead I took it out on
Harry. I couldn't bear to look at his eyes because they reminded me so much of her; they reminded me of what I had lost. He looked so much like James though, which was a reminder of
the first person that had stolen her away secretly. And the of course, the whole magic thing was still difficult for me, especially with Vernon in the picture. The thing that upset me the
most though, was the fact that I knew in my heart without a doubt that she had died protecting him, so part of me blamed him for her death." Petunia sighed as a single tear rolled
down her face.
"I know that none of my reasoning and excuses mean anything, nor do they justify the way Harry has been treated. I have been making the same mistake with him that I made with Lily
all those years ago and I have been too proud and too stupid to see it. I know that now, I can't make up for it, but I at least want to know what is happening. I am not completely
ignorant and stupid. I have known that he has been in danger since that incident with Dursley two years ago. He came back last summer so depressed and I just sat back and watched.
I don't want to make that mistake again this summer. I know that Harry probably will never trust me or forgive me and I am fine with that because I know that I don't deserve either.
But please, I am asking you, I want to at least know how bad it is." Petunia genuinely meant every word she said. She did want to know what kind of danger her nephew was in, but
she also needed this girl to believe her. She still needed to follow through with the last thing her baby sister had ever asked of her, the last thing Lily had needed her for.
Hermione stared hard at the woman before her. She hated every horrible thing that this woman had ever done to Harry and yet, she could see the sincerity in Petunia's face. "It's bad."
She stated simply. "It is really bad. It seems like nearly every day someone is dying or disappearing. Harry has had to watch person after person that he has deeply cared for die in
front of his very own eyes. It is no secret that Voldemort's only goal is to kill Harry and he won't rest until he has accomplished that." Hermione didn't feel the need to go into anymore
detail. She got and quickly washed and put her mug away. She started to return to Harry's room but stopped as she reached the bottom of the staircase. "Harry needs all the love and
support he can get right," she said as she turned to face Petunia. "I can't say whether or not Harry will believe or trust you, but you should tell him what you told me. I won't say
anything to him because it simply isn't my place, but I think you should, he deserves to know the truth."
Petunia was about to respond when a sudden yell sounded from Harry's room. Fearing the worst Hermione was up the stairs with her wand drawn in a matter of seconds. She was
about to open Harry's door when it flew open a very confused and very scared looking Harry nearly collided with her. They stared at each other for moment before they turned their
attention to see Petunia coming up the stairs as quickly as she could. Seeing that Harry was ok, she simply nodded at Hermione before disappearing into her room. Harry, who had been
extremely confused by his Aunts actions and therefore temporarily distracted, quickly returned his attention to Hermione.
"I had a dream and woke up and you were gone. I thought…I thought," Harry broke off unable to finish his thought.
Hermione sighed and pulled him back into the room. "I'm fine, I just went downstairs for a cup of tea, that's all." Hermione was slightly surprised when Harry got into the bed and
indicated for her to join him, however she didn't protest. She figured that he probably just wanted to assure himself that she was really ok. They laid in silence for a minute or so when
Harry finally spoke.
"By the way," Harry said sleepily, "what was the deal with my aunt just now." Hermione who had been wide awake only minutes ago now found herself fighting to stay awake.
"Tell you in the morning," she replied before allowing sleep to overtake her. Harry followed her only seconds behind.
