A Mother's Love and a Sister's Sorrow
Even in the middle of the night it was very apparent to Jane that Privet Drive was so absurdly boring. Every house looked exactly like the one before it and if it weren't for the fact that one of them had a baby swaddled on a doorstep, she never would have figured out which one belonged to the Dursleys.
She carefully picked little Harry Potter up and wrapped him in another blanket that she had grabbed from her house before coming here. She plucked the letter that was tucked with him and placed it into her Pockets. She apparated to Remus's little cottage where he had a cot set up for the night for Harry in the living room with Jane. The miraculously still sleeping Harry instantly grasped the stuffed deer placed next to him. And while Jane silently cried herself to sleep clutching the stuffed black dog that Remus kept there for her own daughter to her chest, Remus Lupin sat in his own room staring at the photos on the wall of more than seven years of friendship that he never thought he could have, but had been broken entirely over a betrayal he never thought would happen. And all around the world glasses and wands were being raised for Harry Potter the Boy-who-lived.
—-
Number Four Privet Drive looked even more boring and uniformed in the morning. Knowing that the Dursley's didn't take too kindly to all things magic Jane tried to dress as muggle as possible. She wore a wide-plaid knee length dress with a tan wool overcoat black tights and brown heeled booties. She pulled up in her car with two babies in the backseat.
If the other residents of Privet Drive were looking out their windows they might have seen the unfamiliar young woman with a baby held carefully in one arm and a carrier with a smaller baby in another hand approaching the steps of the perfectly normal Dursley's at a quarter past 11 in the morning. Remus had offered to come but they both had eventually decided that two wizards at the Dursley's was two too many for them. That and it had been a rough morning for a young Jazlyn Black who had demanded to see her father and none of the 3 adults present knew how to explain to her young mind why she could not see him. She had thrown far to many fits and tantrums for Mary Macdonald to handle on her own. Remus eventually agreed to distract her some more until Jane could return to sit down and explain to her two year old as best she could all that had happened the past few days and how she won't be seeing her father again anytime soon.
Jane wasn't sure if it made her a terrible mother for postponing that conversation with her daughter but she wasn't sure if her emotions would hold together long enough for that. If there was anything this morning had shown it was that Albus Dumbledore was unfortunately right, Jane could not handle 4 babies on her own let alone the 3 she was suddenly charged with (as the fourth had yet to come). She hoped that Lily and James weren't disappointed in her.
She placed the carrier with a 2 month old Avalon Potter beside her as she reached up to knock. She took a breath and picked up the carrier before the door opened.
"YOU!" Shrilled Petunia Dursley. "You are not welcome here."
She moved to shut the door but Jane stuck her foot out to stop it.
"We need to talk." Jane said. "And we can do that out here where everyone can see. Or you can invite me inside for some tea. Your choice."
Moments later she stood in the Dursley's sitting room.
She placed baby Harry on the floor beside her to crawl around. They sat and Jane tried to explain everything. She told her how Lord Voldemort killed her sister and brother-in-law and explained as best she could about how Harry might've survived. Petunia did not interrupt her once. The only signs of her listening were her tightening more and more as the stumbled through explanation continued. When Jane finished she pulled out her handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes. They sat in an uncomfortable silence before Petunia Dursley finally spoke.
"Get out." Petunia said standing up.
"I-what?" Jane said looking up at her.
"You and your magic," Petunia spat out with absolute disgust. "have been nothing but trouble. Ever since Lily went to your awful school she's brought nothing but trouble. And now she is dead. I will not allow your kind to stay any longer and plague my house."
Jane wasn't sure what to say. She could see where Petunia was coming from. Looking at Petunia's perspective magic seemed more like a curse than a blessing. Jane herself sometimes wished she could hide away from the war in the wizarding world even though she knew that the Wizarding War against Voldemort still heavily affected the muggle world. Not that Petunia knew that of course, the Ministry of Magic worked overtime to cover it all up.
"Please." Jane pleaded. "I understand. I know that you didn't care for the world Lily was in, the one I come from. But I assure you not all magic is bad."
"I don't care," Petunia said. "It has brought nothing but trouble. It is abnormal. The neighbors are probably already going to talk."
"The neighbors!" Jane exclaimed. "You can't possibly be caring about the neighbors after what happened with your sister!?"
"Well what do you expect? They don't even know I have a sister let alone a —a witch for a sister! How am I supposed to explain you!" She spat.
"Look I completely understand. You think this is normal for me? I grew up with magic. Your world is just as abnormal to me as my world clearly is to you. But please I need your help. And Lily was still your sister and she would need you to help her." Jane insisted. She spoke calmly. Or as calmly as she could. Honestly she wasn't sure why she was trying so hard to get Petunia to even listen to her. Jane was the one who wanted to keep Harry with her anyways. It was Dumbledore who insisted that Harry stay here. Even to the point of visiting her in her already chaotic morning just to make sure she brought Harry back here.
"What could I possibly do for her? She is gone." She said with finality.
Jane stood and crossed the room to where Harry had crawled off to. She picked him up and returned to where Petunia still stood stubbornly. Jane practically forced Harry into her arms.
"This is your nephew, Harry James Potter." Jane said. "I believe this is the first time you've met."
Jane then picked up a sleepy Avalon. "And this is your niece, Avalon Lily Potter. She was born two months ago and for the safety of the family I was one of the only few who knew she existed. Lily wanted to send you a letter but didn't want it to get intercepted by the wrong sort."
She paused and watched as Petunia stared at the two babies. Avalon looked just like the baby pictures of Lily that Petunia had tucked away and refused to ever look at again. And Harry. He had the same bright curious eyes as Lily and they were staring right into her soul.
"You have a son yourself, right?" Jane asked quietly.
Petunia nodded. Dudley was upstairs having finally settled into his morning nap.
"So as a mother, you understand that you want what's best for your kid." Jane said. "And you would do anything you could to protect him. Wouldn't you?"
Petunia nodded again.
"That's what Lily did for Harry. She died to protect him. And she needs your help to continue that protection."
"But- I, I don't have magic. I can't do anything," Petunia stuttered.
"Dumbledore theorizes that Lily set off some sort of blood protection spell." Jane used the hand not holding Avalon to pull out the letter Dumbledore had written and placed with Harry last night. She handed the letter to Petunia so that she could read it. "He believes that Harry needs to live with a blood relative to continue the protection."
She watched as Petunia read the letter and looked up with confusion.
"This was dated yesterday," Petunia said questioningly.
"Yes," Jane scoffed. "Dumbledore seemed to think it was a good idea to leave Harry on your doorstep last night. Of course as soon as I found out I picked him up to bring him here in the morning instead."
Petunia raised her eyebrows.
"And we're sure this Dumbledore is right about this protection theory thing?" She asked.
Jane thought that was a fair question.
"It's the only explanation we have for how a baby could've possibly survived," she responded with a shrug.
"Aren't you a relative?" Petunia said.
"I- what?" Jane asked. "How'd you know that?"
"Lily brought you home one summer and she never stopped talking about you. Wasn't your last name Potter or something?"
"Well yes. I'm just a little surprised you would remember that. And it's not Potter anymore. I got married."
"So couldn't you take him? You're a relative and you have magic."
"I would love to," Jane sighed. "But I might not be close enough related. I'm James's cousin not a sister. And even then Dumbledore believes that it was through lily that Harry was protected. I believe in the letter it already explains that Dumbledore placed the wards needed to make sure the blood protection stays in place so it doesn't matter that you don't have magic of your own. And although Dumbledore doesn't want me to say this, I think that there is a small possibility that it was James's magic that enabled the blood protection to take place as blood protection is an old wizarding ritual. Or that it was possible that the sacrifices of both Lily and James that allowed Harry to live."
"Well if it is uncertain I don't understand why you can't take him. I think it would be better if he was raised by his own kind." Petunia said stubbornly.
Jane placed Avalon back in her carrier before taking a deep breath and settling back down on the Dursley's couch. Petunia did the same except after placing a wiggling Harry down she picked up Avalon and held her close. Avalon stared at this stranger with curious hazel eyes. Tufts of red hair spread across her little head. To Jane's surprise, avalon did not make a fuss at this new person and thought that perhaps this small baby might have made some kind of connection between this woman and her mother.
"Yes well." Jane paused unsure of how much she wanted to tell Petunia Dursley, a woman who didn't know her and probably didn't care for her. But before she could stop herself, she set off in a ramble. "There are also other circumstances that make it difficult for me to take in Harry. I have my own daughter who is slightly older than Harry. She is currently staying with a friend. I also just recently found out I am expecting another child. And there is also the matter of James's younger sister, who is underage and currently at Hogwarts, who will now be in my care as her parents are also gone. And then there is Avalon, if you would like, you are welcome to take her in along with Harry. But if not she will be placed in my care. I would be more than happy to have both Harry and Avalon if I could. Personally I think it'll be better if they stay together as much as possible. However, as of yesterday, my um… well my husband is no longer in the picture and cannot help me at the moment."
Jane stumbled through the last sentence. She pulled her handkerchief out again and was slightly unsure of what to say next. She didn't want to explain that her husband was allegedly the one who sold Petunia's sister out to Voldemort. To Jane's surprise Petunia sat there patiently, letting the younger girl collect herself.
"As you can see, 4 soon to be 5 children would be difficult to handle alone especially if 3-4 of them are all going to be under the age of 3. And when Harry and the other children are older and more manageable and if Harry so chooses and of course if it is deemed safe enough, Harry can come live with me."
Petunia watched awkwardly as the young witch in front of her trailed off. She watched through the silence as Jane fiddled with her skirt. It was quite overwhelming for Petunia to find out that her sister was killed and that she was suddenly charged with protection of her wizard nephew and possibly her newly found niece. No. That wasn't possible. Her husband, Mr. Dursley, would not stand for it.
She reflected on her day yesterday and remembered hearing the weird things about owls on the news and seeing those wretched birds constantly going to her neighbor's, Arabella Figg, house. She also remembered her husband asking her about her sister despite knowing that his wife hated talking about it. Was it possible that he knew something? How could he find out before her? He had made it very clear that his family was perfectly normal, unlike hers. She had been anxious all of yesterday with the odd behavior around her, and she had unfortunately been right in her suspicion of it having something to do with her sister and that world. She may have hated her, her magic, and how much their parents doted on her for being so special, but she never wanted Lily to be dead. The amount of information she was trying to process at the moment was perhaps the only reason Petunia wasn't crying like the girl next to her. That and her pride of not wanting to cry in front of a witch over her witch sister.
Petunia glanced at the woman who was sniffling next to her. She was young, like her sister Lily. Petunia knew that they had been close friends. And while Petunia had barely understood what the younger girl had told her about the spells, the blood thing (which in Petunia's expert opinion seemed somewhat morbid), and all the children, she had known that there was a war in the wizarding world. Lily had told her about it when she found out that her family might be targeted. Petunia had naively dismissed her sister's concerns, thinking that this whole magic business was not her problem. And as she listened and watched Jane Potter (or whatever her new married name was), she could tell that this young girl had lost more than Petunia could imagine in the last couple of days perhaps even more before then as well. She wasn't sure if it was because of this younger girl's age, or because of this girl's strength and determination to personally come and speak to Petunia despite her own obviously overwhelming grief, or because of the two babies in front of her who looked exactly like Lily but Petunia was painfully reminded of her little sister. And no matter how much Petunia tried she could never hate Lily.
She stood and walked to her kitchen and started to make tea and small sandwiches as it was close to lunch time. She wasn't sure if the young woman noticed that she had left, Jane didn't say anything and it looked as if she was still trying hard to gather herself up again.
Petunia hated bringing food into her nice living room. But she carried a serving tray with the tea and food there anyways and placed it on the coffee table. She gently pushed a cup of tea into a startled and confused Jane's hand. With pursed lips she finally spoke.
"Alright. Harry can stay with me." She said and Jane's eyes widened in shock. "However, I cannot take two magical children, my husband would be absolutely livid. He'll be livid anyway with just Harry. But you clearly need help. And you're right. Lily was my sister."
Jane relaxed slightly, letting out a relieved breath. She was surprised at herself and Petunia. She had spaced out in the silence as she waited endlessly for Petunia to respond to her little rant. Jane felt small and had let the wall she didn't know that she built in the last two days crumble down, here, in some (kind of stranger to her) muggle's living room. She felt like quite the helpless child.
"Thank you," she said softly.
"Now eat up. It appears we have much to discuss." Petunia said curtly.
The two women sat together and made arrangements for Harry to move in. As well as plans for visits and financial assistance which Jane was more than happy to contribute as much as was needed and then some. Jane also tried to explain everything that she knew about Harry and his needs at this age. Something she was sure Dumbledore would not have explained in a letter.
AN: Next chapter will take place a few years later and a few years before hogwarts.
Also I will do my best to update more often.
