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Challenges listed at the bottom.
Word Count - 575
She Knew
Petunia moved from room to room, checking that she hadn't left anything behind. There were so many memories in this house; not all of them good, but still present in her mind nonetheless.
She passed Dudley's old room and smiled sadly. He was grown now, with a flat of his own and he was doing well. She was proud of him, undoubtedly so. He'd aged into a fine young man, and she had to admit, even if it were only in her own head, that it had been questionable at times if he would ever grow up at all.
The room she'd shared with Vernon for so many years came next, and she leant against the door frame, a deep sigh leaving her. Many people had disliked her husband over the years she knew. He could be arrogant and unkind when he didn't like something or someone, and he was never scared to share that view.
He'd taken care of her and Dudley though; never let it be said that Vernon Dursley wasn't a family man through and through.
She ignored the spare room.
Walking down the stairs slowly, Petunia gripped the banister tightly. She wasn't as spry on her feet as she had been in her youth, and a broken hip was the absolute last thing she needed at the moment.
She was about to enter the lounge when her eyes were drawn to the lock on the cupboard under the stairs. As though moving without her permission, her body neared it, and she flicked the lock open and pulled on the door handle, opening it up.
There was nothing in the cupboard that would tell someone that a child had once lived in that cupboard. Of course, Petunia wasn't ever going to breathe those words to another soul, she wasn't stupid.
She knew what she'd done, born from her anger and jealousy at her sister. When they'd been children, she'd never have been able to predict what her spite would allow her to do. She'd slept in her bed upstairs without pause, while a small boy lay in this cupboard and cried for his parents.
Cried for the love he was neglected, and the basic care that was the right of every child, but was denied him.
She'd done her nephew a disservice, and she knew that. She'd done herself a disservice by allowing herself to stoop to the level of taking her anger out on a defenceless child.
Petunia knew what she'd done, both to herself, her nephew, and the memory of her sister. She also knew that she wouldn't meet her sister anytime soon.
Lily had been many things, and Petunia was almost completely certain that she'd been claimed by the angels upon her death.
She knew she wouldn't be so lucky.
Taking off the hat she'd worn to her husband's funeral, she hung it on the peg on the door of the cupboard under the stairs, and closed it behind her. She was moving into a one bedroom flat later that day; leaving all of her memories behind her in the place that had been her home for the longest of times.
When it was her time to die, and it wouldn't be long she knew, she wouldn't be joining her sister in heaven. She'd been joining her husband in hell.
They weren't bad people, but they'd done a bad thing, and eventually, they'd pay for that.
Petunia knew that.
…
Written for;
Character Appreciation; 6. Cupboard under the stairs.
Showtime; 5. Sisters.
Hamilton Mania; Act 1, P2. Moving. / Extra Prompt; 30. Predict.