Days in a Year

by Morning Lilies

A patchwork year snatching days from all across time. From Marauders to the next generation, everything in between, and maybe a lot before. A ficlet a day. December 3, Teddy manages to cheer Harry up for the Holidays.

62. March 29

Eudemonia: happiness; well-being

March 29, 1981

The house was perfect. She walked the big, spacious rooms, trailing her fingers lightly along the sideboards and trembling with delight. She would pick the perfect colors for each wall, hang ornate picture frames with images of their fairytale wedding day, their angelic little son. There would be a big television for the living room – just a hair bigger than Mrs. Number Seven's across the way. Vernon would park his luxury company car in the drive so everyone would know how important his job was. They would hold dinner parties and boast about Dudley to the neighbors and it would all be perfect.

"Do you like it, dear?" Vernon asked, coming into the hall.

She threw her arms around him. "It's wonderful!"

"Good. It cost a fair sum, but I thought it would make you happy."

That night Petunia stood in her new kitchen with Dudley dozing on her shoulder and Vernon clearing away the dinner plates for her. The shiny new appliances hummed, the TV in the living room came through so clear it hardly sounded like a TV at all.

She thought to herself that she could be the happiest she'd ever been in that moment. Too happy to keep it all to herself. And her hand was already on the phone before she remembered. Lily didn't have a phone. And Petunia never wanted to speak to her again. Silly how mindless impulses like that stuck around, coming out when you let your mind wander.

Petunia Dursley never realized that she really could have been the happiest she'd ever been in that moment. All she would have had to do was write a letter.

XxX

Miles and miles away, tucked in a little cottage with rooms so cramped the furniture all touched, Lily rocked her sleeping son, laughing as her husband and his friends downed butterbeers and recounted old school misadventures. She hummed under her breath. Nothing was as it ought to be. At barely twenty-one they had buried more of their friends than her parents had. They could barely leave their cramped little safe house. At only a few months old, their baby was already in more danger than they had ever been.

But here in the warm glow of their sitting room, with her baby and her husband and her friends, Lily was the happiest she'd ever been.

A/N: Meh. It'll have to do. Hope you liked it! :)