After a restless nights sleep, Harry's eyes snap open as he wakes up to the soft tread of his aunt walking down the stairs. At some point during his dreams, he decided that he has two aunts. The nice one, and the nasty one. As her footsteps reach the bottom of the stairs, Harry holds his breath, and waits silently to see which aunt is going to open the door.
As the door opens softly, Harry's heart tries to jump happily, but he clamps down on it. As she crouches down outside the cupboard, he tries not to smile.
Petunia turns the small light on in Harry's cupboard, and gives him a wan smile. "Why?"
Harry stops clamping down, and allows himself to smile sadly as he crawls out of his cupboard. Once he's close enough to Petunia, he reaches up and touches her eye, "Because I heal faster than you do."
Petunia gives him a soppy, sad, smile and opens her arms in a silent invitation. As he hugs her, she stands up with a grunt, and frowns at how light Harry is. Walking around to the sofa, she sits down with him sitting in her lap, and she starts to stroke his back. "Oh, you stupid boy. I'm supposed to protect you, even when it hurts, not the other way around."
When Harry flinches for the second time, Petunia runs her hand under his pyjama top and continues rubbing his back. The next flinch comes when her fingers cross a long scab.
Taking her hand off his back, Petunia softly says, "Go and get washed up. Then bring back the TCP and some cotton pads so I can clean up that wound."
As she watches Harry softly walk up the stairs, Petunia whispers, "I'm sorry I didn't remember sooner Lily, but now I do, I'm doing my best."
With practiced haste, Harry does his ablutions before stretching on tiptoe to take the TCP from the bathroom cupboard. It takes him a moment to find the cotton pads, as they're an item he's not usually allowed to touch.
═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════
In the kitchen, Petunia puts the kettle on for tea before turning to Harry as he walks in with the TCP.
"Lean against the counter by the window, I need to get a good look at that wound."
Petunia winces as Harry silently leans where she asked him to. Gently, she pulls up the back of his t-shirt and looks at the angry red scab that runs across his back. Her eyes can't help but pick out the scars from similar wounds that went untreated, and they'd they're drawn to the faded yellow bruises that should be a vivid black.
"Harry, I need you to take your t-shirt off, as the wound is infected. Can you do…"
Petunia trails off as Harry just shucks off the t-shirt without a word.
As she rummages around in the drawer for a suitably blunt spoon, Petunia mutters, "I love you, you stupid, stupid boy."
From his position leaning against the counter, Harry smiles broadly, but otherwise pretends he didn't hear her.
With the spoon in hand, Petunia purses her lips as she looks at the scab, "I'm going to have to take the scab off to clean the wound. I'm sorry, but it's going to hurt."
Harry just nods as Petunia uses the edge of the spoon to pull most of the scab off in one clean pull. A couple more scrapes and pulls has the entire wound clear. As she watches, a yellowy red mixture of blood and pus well to the surface. Damping a cotton pad with TCP, she wipes off the wound until only red blood wells up as she presses the inflamed sides.
Once she's happy that the wound is completely clear, she soaks a pad in TCP and gives it one last gentle clean, and marvels at the fact it starts scabbing over almost immediately.
Gently, she touches Harry on the shoulder, "I'm all done, you can put your t-shirt on again now."
As Harry does that, Petunia makes a pot of tea, and pulls out the pot of honey, before carrying them through to the dining room, "Harry, could you bring a couple of mugs and the milk with you?"
Slightly surprised, Harry does as asked, and is surprised when Petunia puts two coasters out on the table. "Um, are you sure?"
Petunia nods, "I'm sure, as we should have about half an hour before we need to start breakfast."
═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════
While Petunia is on the phone to Mrs Polkess, Vernon comes down the stairs almost athletically, and leans over to kiss her on the cheek, before making his way to the front door, and waiting for the post.
Harry is just putting the last of the toast and bacon on the table when Vernon walks through carrying four letters, and doesn't even say anything to Harry.
Harry tries to hide the amazement on his face a few minutes later, when Vernon carefully squeezes around the table to his chair. Then he leans over to Petunia and gives her a chaste kiss, "Good morning Poppet. Sorry about last night, yesterday was a hard day."
Petunia just smiles before she tucks into her small bowl of cereal. Even Dudley seems to be well behaved.
As Harry is almost ready to admit that he must have disappeared in the night, Petunia looks at Dudley. "Dudley, I need to get some new clothes today, as well as the food shopping for the weekend. So I've arranged with Mrs Polkiss that I'll walk you round at 10, while I take the boy with me to carry the bags."
Dudley's face immediately screws up, and he whines, "But mum! I wanted to play Sonic."
Placatingly Petunia offers, "You can still play Sonic until we leave."
Dudley's face starts to turn red, and his whine begins to become a shout, "But I wanted to finish the game today."
Vernon's low voice cuts through the conversation, "Dudley, listen to your mother. You've got all weekend to play Sonic, and you can play with Piers at his house too."
Dudley's eyes widen as he remembers Piers has a console too, "Can we go earlier please mum?"
Petunia shakes her head, "The housework still needs to be done, and I need to get ready to go out."
As Dudley starts to sulk, Petunia turns to Vernon, "While we're out, I was also going to get the boy's things for Stonewall. Would you be able to take Dudley out tomorrow? For his own uniform, and maybe you could also explain the purpose of each bit while you're doing it."
Vernon just smiles sweetly, "Anything for you Pet."
A few minutes later, Harry masks his confusion by clearing the table.
═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════
Once they've dropped Dudley off at the Polkiss', Petunia takes Harry to a café on the High Street.
"Can I have a pot of tea, Harry, is there anything you want?"
Harry looks up at Petunia with wide, blank eyes, and then looks at the menu in surprise before looking back at Petunia, "I don't know, I'm sorry."
Petunia gives Harry a brief one-handed hug, "Can we also have a coke float please?"
The cashier smiles, "That will be £2.30 please."
Petunia takes a few coins out of her purse, before pocketing the change. "Come on Harry, they'll bring the drinks over."
Harry looks around as he follows Petunia to a table by a wall. As he sits down he asks, "What's going on?"
Petunia looks down at her hands, "I'm treating you for your birthday. It's something I should have done a long time before this."
Harry gapes at her, before shaking his head, "No, I mean you're the nice aunt today…" His mouth snaps shut, as he realises he might be pushing his luck.
Instead, Petunia reaches out and takes his hand, "Is this about this morning?"
As the cashier brings the drinks over, Petunia lets go of Harry's hand briefly to take the drinks off the tray with a smile.
Once they're alone again, Petunia sighs, "It's because of last night. Normally, I'd give you and Dudley some medicine to help you sleep with a mug of hot milk. But last night you broke that plate. He always does this occasionally, has a 'bad day' at work. Comes home to drink, and then takes it out on someone." Petunia's eyes go distant with remembered pain, "If I'm lucky, he'll get violent before we go to bed. Then the next morning, he's like the man I married, sweetness and light, and so very apologetic. Then he buys me flowers on the way home from work."
Harry's face blanches as his most treasured memories are tarnished with that information, and he blurts, "But you're the good aunt today."
Petunia puts her hand on Harry's, and she smiles, "It's easy to be the good aunt when you're not in pain. Once you went to bed, Vernon fell asleep in his chair. I'm glad it wasn't me for once, but never do that again. It's my job to protect you and Dudley, not your job to protect me. I haven't done a very good job so far, but I'm going to try and do better."
Harry shakes his head, "I don't understand…"
Petunia interrupts, "It's ok, you're only 11, you're not supposed to understand yet. One day you'll have children of your own, and then you'll understand. Lets get off this subject, as it's supposed to be a day where I treat you. I brought something I wanted to show you."
Confused, Harry sits back and takes a sip of his drink through a straw.
Petunia reaches into her handbag and pulls out a large brown envelope with 'Do not bend' printed on it in red letters. Taking a sip of her tea, she reaches in and pulls out a bundle of papers and cards.
Taking the top card she turns it to face Harry, "This is your first ever report card. I was so proud of you when we received it in the post. I even made your favourite dinner." She swallows hard before she continues, as she starts to choke up, "Then you came in with Dudley, and I remember pulling out his report card. I wanted to tell him how disappointed I was in him, but instead I got so angry with you." Taking a napkin from the holder she carefully dabs her eyes, "I don't know why, but suddenly the fact that you'd scored higher was an affront to me… I thought it was insulting. I'm sorry for taking it out on you, I don't know why I did it. All I know is that something broke in me yesterday when I saw you so terrified in the cupboard yesterday, and I remembered."
Petunia takes another sip of tea to help calm herself, "What I'm trying to say, is that when you go to Hogwarts. That's the school that Lily went to, I want you to do your best. Not for me, Christ knows I don't deserve it after everything I've done to you, but for your mother. For my sister, Lily. She always excelled at everything she did, and I want you to too, for her."
When Harry just stares at his report card with an unreadable expression, Petunia shakes her head to clear it. "I know that you're not going to Stonewall. But we still need to buy you clothes so Vernon doesn't get suspicious. So we're going to buy you some new clothes to wear to school. But you have to promise that you won't try them on until after you've left for school."
Harry looks up from his report card as everything sinks in. It's clear that this isn't the same aunt that he had last week, but she's still there occasionally. Glancing back at the card, he look up at Petunia, "I promise auntie, I won't try on the clothes so that Aunt Petunia doesn't come back."
Petunia feels as though she's just had the most wonderful massage when Harry calls her auntie. Though it's quashed when he adds the rest.
Shaking her head, Petunia smiles at Harry, "I hope that side of me doesn't come back too." She glances up at the clock, "It's almost lunchtime, so I think we should go to BHS once we've finished out drinks, and then grab some lunch, we can do the food shopping on the way home this afternoon. How does fish and chips sound for lunch."
Harry can't help it, his mouth drops open in surprise, as his eyes widen in cautious desire. Then his aunt starts laughing, a clear laugh that sounds happy, rather than the barking laugh she normally uses. Looking around wildly, harry tries to see if there's any cameras around, like the ones they use in 'Beadle's About'.
Petunia puts her hand on Harry's arm again, "It's ok, this isn't some sort of joke. I'm not setting you up for anything."
Harry can't help it, he turns back to her and asks, "What's going on? Why are you so different?"
Petunia shakes her head, "I don't know. I know it doesn't help you much, but it's all I've got. As I said before, it happened yesterday morning, you were terrified and you handed me the letter from your mum, and it was like something inside me snapped, and. I don't know, I feel freer than I have in years. I know I've not been a good parent to you for years and, whatever the reason, that's something that I'm going to need to live with for the rest of my life. But now that I'm free, I'm going to do my best to do right by you, for as long as it lasts. I can't promise it will last, but while it does, will you promise to do your best as well? Now, is there anything else you'd like to do this afternoon?"
Harry stares into space as he tries to process everything while Petunia finishes her tea. As she's standing up, he squeaks out, "Could we go to the library?"
Petunia sits back down, and Harry grabs his now melted float, and sucks for all his worth, "Sure, we can do that straight after lunch. But if we're there for long, we won't be home in time to make dinner. That will mean I have to go out to eat with Vernon and Dudley. Is that alright?"
Harry hums and nods around his straw.
═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════
As the two of them are walking to BHS, Harry looks up at his aunt, "Could it be depression?"
Petunia looks down, "Could what be depression?"
"The reason you're so different. It was in a book I was reading yesterday about families like ours, that fight. It said that some people that are abused often suffer from it. It also said that they can have P… T… something."
Petunia shakes her head, "Sorry, I don't know, it could be. Your mother would have probably known, as she was always the reader in the family. Do you like reading? Is that why you wanted to go to the library?"
Harry looks down at the floor, "I don't know. I went to the library to learn about meditation, cause I don't want to disappear. The librarian was nice and helped me with the complicated bits, so I went back again yesterday. Then she gave me a book about families that fight and leaflets for ChildLine."
Fearing the answer, Petunia asks, "What do you like?"
Harry hesitates before he answers, "I, don't know, cooking maybe?"
Putting her hand on Harry's shoulder in a comforting gesture, Petunia sighs as she realises just how badly they'd raised Harry. Looking at the store ahead of them, she softly says, "Come on, let's get you some new clothes."
═══════ ೋღ ღೋ ═══════
With two baskets full of t-shirts, jumpers, two pairs of shoes, socks, shorts, and trousers, Petunia and Harry head towards the checkout.
Just as they're about to enter the queue, Petunia spots some stuffed toys in the children's section. As she walks away from the counter, Harry looks confused and follows her.
"Auntie, I thought we had everything."
Petunia reaches to the top shelf of the stuffed toys, and picks up a stuffed fox, before handing it to harry and crouching down.
"I just saw this, and it reminded me of your mother. It was the last time she came home to mum and dad's before she got married. I remember she was so excited that she'd finally learnt this new skill she dragged me up to our room. Once we had some privacy, she wedged a chair under the door handle, smiled at me, and promptly turned into a fox with the greenest eyes you've ever seen. Her fur was a slightly darker red than this, but she was a fox. I screamed when she changed, and she collapsed on the floor laughing. Until then, I didn't even know foxes could roll on the floor laughing. I just thought that maybe you'd like it?"
Harry stares at the fox in wonder, and clutches it tightly to his chest. His mother could turn into a fox. Belatedly, he realises that it was a question, and nods eagerly.
Petunia holds her hand out with a smile, "You'll need to give it back to me so that we can pay for it, then it will need to stay in the bag until you leave. After all, we don't want Dudley or your Uncle to find it, do we. Do you think you can do that?"
Reluctantly, Harry hands over the fox, and Petunia puts it into a basket. As they head back to the checkout, Harry dashes his tears away with his sleeve.
After a half hour wait for the bank to authorise Petunia's debit card, the two of them get to the fish and chip shop, and Harry is allowed to order what he wants from the children's menu.