Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
AN: I really liked writing this one. Surprise, surprise.
Petunia looked blankly at the letter clutched tightly in her white fist. She brushed absently at the tear that rolled down her cheek. This wasn't the way it was supposed to happen.
Her sister was supposed to be normal. They were supposed to grow up together, do everything together like they always had before that ruddy school had changed everything. They were supposed to have children who played together while she and Lily watched and gossiped.
Her sister wasn't supposed to be a freak who left and never looked back. She wasn't supposed to marry another freak and have a freaky baby only to get blown up by other freaks.
Petunia crumpled the letter and tossed it into the fireplace where it curled and sparked before going up in flames. She pushed her heartbreak at her sister's death and her concern for her nephew to the back of her mind, imagining the fireplace's flames burning those feelings like they had the letter.
Out of the ashes rose a new Petunia, a harsher, colder Petunia who felt nothing but contempt for the freaks. She looked down at the boy before her, picking him up carelessly with a sneer she carried him to the only place within her home good enough for him - the cupboard under the stairs.
Fin