Petunia wakes up shortly after they've all gone to sleep. She lays there for a couple of seconds as she tries to work out what woke her.
A thump from the corner drawers her attention, when a mewling sound comes from the same corner, her heart leaps into her mouth. With a level of panic to her motions, she wriggles her arm out of the sleeping bag, and starts pulling the zip down. An activity that is hindered by Vernon's bulk squeezing her against the edge of the sleeping bag.
After almost a minute, the zip finally gives way, and she spills out of the sleeping bag with a sigh of relief. Carefully she pulls her legs free, even though she knows it would take far more than an accidental kick to wake Vernon.
Now free of her confinement, she turns over onto her hands and knees and crawls forward in the pitch-black room towards the sound Harry's making.
Shaking him gently, she whispers, "Harry, wake up, you're having a nightmare."
When that doesn't work, she taps him gently on the face. With none of the normal methods working, Petunia moves so that she's sitting against the wall, before bodily pulling Harry into her lap and resting her chin on his head.
As she does the faint green glow of her watch catches her attention, and she watches with morbid fascination as it ticks over to 1:22 [note BST is one hour ahead of GMT/UTC, which reflects solar time. Additionally, solar noon/midnight is later or earlier the further you get west or east of 0 degrees east.]
As she breathes a sigh of relief, the room starts to brighten. At first she assumes that the moon has just come out from behind the clouds. But as the light continues to grow, she can see it coming through the walls. Incongruously, a large bolder appears sitting where Vernon's head should be. A fact that forces a hysterical giggle from her mouth. Slowly the wall behind her begins to feel less and less solid, pulling her out of her laughter.
Pushing herself upright, she looks around more seriously, and starts to sing a lullaby that she used to sing to both the boys.
Once the last of the walls disappear, she looks around fearfully, while keeping her voice steady. Behind her, the moon hangs heavily full in the sky, clearly illuminating the desolate landscape she's sitting in. As the faint silhouettes of trees starts to appear, movement from a rock draws her attention. There, a six-legged lizard scampers onto Vernon's head, well the rock that took its place.
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She's not sure if she's imagining it, but as the trees become more solid, they seem to be doing so faster than the walls disappeared. Soon enough, the clear moonlight is replaced by darkness, lit only by the faintest hints of moon light that comes through the canopy. As her eyes adjust to the darkness, she looks around in wonder as fireflies and luminescent fungi give the forest a soft, otherworldly look.
Suddenly, her nightdress becomes soaked with water, as it stops feeling like she's sitting on stone, and instead, she's sitting on moss.
A hooting monkey runs across the forest floor in front of her, though it seems to have a beak rather than a snout. Chasing after it is what seems to be a common house cat.
While she continues to sing, the sounds of the forest come alive around her as the animals and wildlife decide it's not a threat.
She's almost disappointed when the faintest hint of white appears along the floor, and moonlight once again starts to illuminate the area.
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As the new landscape becomes clearly visible, Petunia's singing dies on her lips. In front of her, about 50 yards away, is a large shaggy white bear with a spiral horn protruding from its nose.
Beyond the bear is a deserted tundra with ice and snow covered rocks dotting the landscape. The scant vegetation only shadows against the moonlit snow.
Suddenly, the feeling of damp moss disappears, to be replaced with a bone chilling cold. A few seconds later, the last of the forest disappears, only to be replaced by the shadows of the next world.
However, that is poor comfort for Petunia, as she can't help but squeeze Harry harder as she begins to shiver. As she does, he lets out a piteous whimper in his sleep, and tries to thrash around.
In front of her, the bear turns in their direction and sniffs the air. As it's horn locks onto the two of them, it starts to lumber towards them, and the ungainly movement quickly turns into a rapid run.
Screwing her eyes shut, Petunia stifles a scream in Harry's hair and waits for death to find them.
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Once she can feel her damp skirt dry out, Petunia opens her eyes once more, and begins to sing again, a song that fades in intensity as her eyes widen in wonder.
All over both herself and Harry, streamers of wispy light float in the air. As she watches, a bird with tentacles instead of a beak launches itself from a tree with blue, paper like, bark, and latches onto one of the wispy lights, and flies off with it. As it does, her head rocks back as she remembers Lily walking into the living room when she made a mistake with dinner, and Vernon was beating her.
A couple more birds fly down and snag their own streamers from both of them even while the trees seem to smoothly become a denser forest.
A memory of standing as the maid of honour at Lily's wedding is quickly replaced by one of Vernon being repeatedly hit with stinging hexes while he's held on the floor with a body bind jinx.
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One of the birds that's pulling a streamer from Harry's head squarks as another bird flies through Petunia's head, and the wispy streamers seem to solidify in visibility, and become part of a general aura that surrounds both of them.
As her eyes follow the bird as it flies off with a squealing howl, to land on one of the new trees. A feeling of something climbing on her hand causes her to look down. As she lifts her hand, she sees that a small marsupial, with tentacles instead of a mouth, is deftly holding on. Its large soulful eyes look at her for a moment, until a loud screech fills the air, and it jumps from her hand, to her shoulder, and finally buries itself under the hair at the base of her head.
At the same time, Petunia's gaze snaps to the source of the noise, and watches as a large raptor swoops down on another marsupial. The event having an even more surreal property given it's happening while they're transitioning to another world. Leaving it looking ghostly and translucent.
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As the next world passes in a bare few seconds, Petunia's attention is split as a ghostly lily flower starts to form around both herself and Harry. At the same time streams of light flow through the sky, like rivulets of water running down a window.
Petunia can't even bring herself to speak as the rivulets fill out into streams, and then rivers. At the same time, Harry starts to calm down and their progress almost comes to a halt.
Petunia shivers in fear as she watches one of her fingernail's dissolves into motes of light, and the flower around them shines brilliantly.
The flower, and the world around them is starting to fade away when Harry wakes up briefly. He looks around for a moment and says, "Pretty" before looking up at Petunia and kissing her on the chin.
Before Harry's eyes close once more he says, "I love you auntie."
As his eyes close, Petunia starts to cry softly as the world becomes more solid again. Abruptly, Harry's breathing falls into a deep and restful sleep, and Petunia feels like the world has been pulled out from underneath her, even though she hasn't moved. The flickering of the different worlds going past faster than she can make them out.
Suddenly, they come to a stop in the pitch-black cabin. As she sits there staring into darkness, a flash of light illuminates the room followed by a roll of thunder a few seconds later.
As she lets the tension out of her body, and leans against the wall. Petunia falls into a restful sleep while the marsupial on her neck munches on the magic surrounding her head.
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As the late summer sun fills the cabin, Petunia wakes up with a contented yawn. Her sleep filled with dreams of spending time with Lily and James, and promising that if anything happened, they would be welcome at her house.
As she's smiling at the dream, the memory of what happened a mere week before they died drives itself through her brain, and how she seems to have become a parody of herself when she turns Lily away in the middle of the night with harsh words and invectives. As she doubles over on the floor as she tries to drive heave. A sharp pain in her forehead causes her eyes to fly open as she lets out a squeak of pain. Lying on its back in front of her is the cutest little marsupial with tentacles instead of a mouth. Tentacles that seem to be chewing on something delicious. As she watches it, the memories of last night come crashing back.
Behind her, Harry wakes up to the sound of a pained sound. Lying motionless, he listens to the room before he opens his eyes. All he can hear are the deep snores coming from both Dudley and Vernon.
Suddenly someone jerks behind him, and he quickly rolls over and puts his back against the other wall, his heart beating a rapid tattoo in his ears. As a Petunia shaped blur turns over at his rapid movement, he thinks he sees something climbing over her shoulder.
As he opens his mouth to say something, Petunia softly says, "Shh, you're safe, we're safe."
At the sound of her voice, Harry lets out a long breath he didn't even know he was holding. As he opens his mouth again, Petunia uses a large motion to point to Vernon, and he closes it again with a snap.
Harry stays silent as Petunia looks around for Harry's glasses, before finding them under his backpack. Taking his hand, she places them on his palm.
While Harry's cautiously looking around the cabin, Petunia softly gets to her feet and walks over to the door before picking up her shoes.
As she stands up, Harry nods in understanding before picking up his own trainers.
Slowly, she turns the key in the lock, and winces at the seemingly loud Ch-thunk as the bolt springs back. As she opens the door, Vernon snuffles in his sleep and they both freeze until his snores even out again.
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On the small stone patio outside, they both lean against the cabin as they put their shoes on. The morning sun chasing the chill from the night off.
As Harry finishes first, he walks a few meters away from the cabin, and stops to just look around.
In front of the cabin is the lake, with a short, grassy incline that leads to a muddy bank. Around 20 yards away from the bank are the ruins of an old stone wall cutting off access to the rest of the lake, except for a narrow channel halfway across the wall. As his eyes follow the wall, he first spots the boat house Vernon was complaining about, and then he spots the road almost a quarter mile away. Between the car and the cabin are a couple of ruined stone walls, that caused him so much trouble in the dark. Looking the other way, it becomes clear that the cabin is a restored building that used to be part of a larger compound. As he can see another two walls that used to be buildings.
Petunia walks up behind Harry and gently taps him on the shoulder. Quickly, he spins around before relaxing when he sees who it is. Wordlessly she walks around the cabin away from the road, and up the rather steep hill towards an old rockslide.
Before they reach the rockslide, she stops at a partially fallen wall and sits down facing the lake.
"I always loved it when Vernon brought me here before we were married. It's so peaceful and picturesque. He stopped coming when his parents died, even though his brother gave us permission to keep coming. They didn't see eye to eye on a number of things…"
Sitting on the wall beside her, Harry has to agree. With the cabin down below, and the curls of morning mist still clinging to the lake, the place looks almost magical. After a moment, he asks, "What happened last night?"
Petunia puts her hand on Harry's thigh comfortingly, "You had a nightmare. Do you remember any of it?"
Harry nods, and describes what he remembers, "…And then I woke up in my dream, and the sky was full of rivers. You were hugging me, and we were surrounded by a giant lily. So I kissed you and snuggled in while you sung me a lullaby."
Petunia smiles softly, "That part wasn't a dream. Though I was trying to sing the lullaby before…" she then goes on to describe what she saw while she tried to calm Harry down. As Harry looks at her in disbelief, she laughs freely and reaches behind her neck to gently pull the marsupial out and hands it to Harry.
While Harry is looking at the creature in disbelief, the creature waves its tentacles around in agitation before it seems to catch a scent. Then it's tentacles move with more deliberation, before, suddenly, it leaps at Harry's chest and hangs onto his t-shirt while it grabs something.
Harry laughs as its tentacles tickle his hand, and then his chest. His laugh briefly pauses as it feels like it wrenches something from his chest, and it tumbles down into his lap, and onto the floor happily munching on something.
"Ow! That hurt."
Petunia can't help herself, as she bursts into laughter at the offended look Harry gives the creature. Bending over, she scoops it off of the ground and puts it in her lap.
When the creature seems to fall asleep in her lap, Harry reaches out to stroke it, "Auntie, what are you going to call it?"
Petunia looks down, "What's that?"
Harry smiles at her, "What are you going to call it. I mean, it seems to be attached to you."
Petunia shrugs good naturedly, "I don't know. I suppose as it came to us at night, we could call it Nyx after the Greek goddess of night." At Harry's look she laughs again, "Hey, I did pay attention while Lily talked about her favourite subject at school. Anyway, I think that might be a bit dark, as she supposedly wasn't the nicest goddess. How about Nixie. It sounds similar, but it doesn't have the same…"
Harry laughs, "Nixie sounds nice."
The two of them sit there in peace and quiet as nature goes about its business around them.
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As the faint sound of a car going past reaches their ears, Petunia shifts and wakes Nixie up. As Nixie scampers up her arm, and behind her hair, she stands up to stretch, "Come on Harry, lets go and see what we can put together for breakfast. Then we can wake up the two lumps."
As Harry giggles at the description and heads towards the cabin, Petunia frowns at her words. Wracking her brain as referring to Vernon as a lump feels so familiar, like it's a pet name.
As she thinks, back she starts to cry with great wracking sobs as all of the bad memories of the last 10 years come back in a rush. Of a man with a white beard waving a wand at her as she comes home from her last visit with Lily just after Harry was born.
Of the same white bearded man watching as she happily signs a document in blood shortly after Harry came into their lives, and that feeling of happiness turning into a desire to please Vernon.
Of running away to a shelter with Harry and Dudley because she's pregnant again. Only for the white bearded man to take her home. Then Vernon beats her, and there was blood, so much blood.
On and on, the memories come, though that was the last time she remembers the white bearded man.
When she starts crying, Harry spins around and runs back up to his aunt. "Aunt Petunia? Aunt Petunia? Are you ok auntie?"
When she doesn't respond, he reaches out to touch her on the shoulder. As soon as he does, she lets out a piercing scream full of fear and sadness, before curling into a defensive ball.
When Nixie climbs out from under her hair and hisses at him from her shoulder, Harry backs away a few steps and raises his hands. "Ok, ok, I get it. I'm not going to hurt her."
As Harry sits on the grass looking at Petunia, Nixie circles around a couple of times, before lying down on her shoulder.
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Harry is so concerned about his aunt that he doesn't notice Vernon's faint shout from the cabin. That means he's blindsided when Vernon grabs his shoulder hard and hauls him to his feet.
Roughly, Vernon turns him round and holds both shoulders, "What did you do boy! What have I told you about using your freakishness around us?"
Harry stammers, "But I-I didn't do anything sir. She just collapsed."
Vernon lets go with his right hand, and clenches it into a fist before punching Harry in the stomach, "Don't lie to me boy! It's always you, you and your freakishness that causes trouble. What did you do to your aunt!?"
Harry tries to answer, but he can't draw in the needed breath. Helplessly, he is unable to protect himself as Vernon throws another punch with the same question. And so begins the worst beating Harry has ever experienced in his life.
On the floor, caught in a vicious cycle of flashbacks, Petunia starts to hear the sounds of Harry's whimpering cries. This takes her back to the first night she found Vernon shaking Harry, and the cries he made then. As her past self jumps at Vernon to make him stop, her eyes flick open, and she does the same in real life.
"No Vernon! Stop! You're killing him."
As she clumsily gets close to Vernon, he casually backhands her down the hill a little way. As the shock of the hit pulls her out of her flashback, she tries to get to her feet and watches as Harry coughs out a mouthful of blood.
Pulling herself to her feet, she screams at Vernon before running at him. As she reaches him, she shoves him with over a decades worth of pent up anger and fear, "Stop it! Get away from him!"
Rather than the ineffectual push that Vernon would have expected, he is instead sent cartwheeling up the hill until he lands heavily against the wall.
As he tries to push himself up again, Vernon looks at petunia the way someone might look at a tiger, they've just been throwing stones at, when it finds out the gate is open.
Collapsing to her knees, Petunia sobs as she pulls Harry's head into her lap, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry I couldn't protect you."
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A trio of whip cracks rend the air, as three robed figures appear by the wall. As Vernon angrily tries to get to his feet, one of the figures points his wand and a red bolt of light spits out and hits him on the arm, and he falls back to the floor unconscious.
As Petunia realises that it's over, she cautiously looks around for someone with a long white beard. While she doesn't see anyone like that, she can see Dudley staring up the hill. By his body language, he looks terrified, even from this distance.
Her attention is brought back to the three figures when a man says, "No wands, so it looks like it's the kids first serious accidental magic. Standard procedure, obliviate the two muggles, and heal up the kid. Then write up the report when we get back. Peterson, you've got the man, and don't half arse it like last time. We don't want to come back and find out it wore off, and he beat them to death. Marsden, you've got the kid down the hill, be gentle."
While she's still cradling Harry's motionless head, and trying to understand what's going on. The man that spoke walks over and crouches down beside her, "Hi, I'm Auror Williamson. Is it ok if I cast some spells on your kid?"
Mutely Petunia nods, afraid that she was too late. As he's casting spells, Williamson says, "It will be alright, he's still alive and he doesn't have any broken bones. That means that we can have him up and about today, rather than an overnight in St Mungo's. What's your name love?"
As Petunia sags in relief, she answers without thinking, "Petunia."
Williamson smiles as he starts to cast spells to get rid of the blood and heal the few cuts Harry has, even the one inside his mouth. There's a few more that don't have any obvious effect, before he cleans off the blood again.
"Ok Petunia, I've done what I can here. Make sure he doesn't do any heavy play or running around for at least a day, and his bones will be good as new. What we'd normally do is obliviate the memory of an event like this from the kid's mind. That way, it doesn't cause them undue stress which makes their magic act out more later. Is it ok if I do that now?"
Not trusting her voice yet, Petunia just nods.
Less than a minute later, Williamson looks back up, "Ok, that's done. You've done really well, would you like me to obliviate you too?"
Mutely, Petunia shakes her head, and Williamson nods approvingly, "That makes things easier. With the statute stuff out the way, is there anything we can do to stop this from happening again as soon as we leave."
"Co…" Petunia swallows hard a couple of times, before licking her lips, "Could you get those two back into their sleeping bags in the cabin?" She points at Vernon, and then down the hill where Dudley was, "I also need to get Harry down there."
Williamson smiles, "Is that his name. I bet you named him after Harry Potter, there were a lot of boys born after that called Harry." Williamson stands up before casting a spell to make Harry levitate, "I've got a kid starting school in a few years, and Harry's all he can talk about. Did you know that Harry Potter is supposed to be going to Hogwarts this year?"
Not trusting her voice, Petunia just shakes her head, and the two of them walk down to the cabin.
As Harry's lowered to the floor, Williamson asks, "One last thing before I wake them up and leave. For our records, what's your last name?"
Petunia frowns, "Could you wake up Harry and leave the others to wake up on their own?"
Williamson nods, "Sure, now I do need your last name."
Petunia smiles in relief, "Dursley, it's Dursley."
Williamson smiles at Petunia as he waves his wand, "Have a nice day, and pop into the DMLE if you need help getting your wand back. There's a public Floo in the nearby town."
Petunia nods as he disappears with a quiet crack.
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While Harry's coming around, Petunia reaches under the table and pulls out a padded cube. With a little wiggling, a stool slides out of one side of the cube, and she sets it down before she takes a seat and starts to think. Occasionally, Nixie will find something small still attached to her, and pulls it out with the return of a memory or two.
Groggily, Harry wakes up on the floor of the cabin. As he starts to move, he groans, as it feels like he's been worked over by Dudley's gang. Once he adjusts to the pain, he sits up and realises that he's wearing his glasses.
With a frown, he looks around and spots Petunia sitting on a stool, an obviously sad expression on her face. Pushing himself to his feet he asks, "Auntie, are you ok?"
Petunia looks up at Harry, "I don't know. Maybe yes?"
"Do you want a hug?"
Petunia nods, "Yes please."
With her permission, Harry throws himself into her arms, and the two of them give each other comfort the same way they have been for the last week.
While they're hugging, Nixie climbs onto Petunia's shoulder, their tentacles waving in the area. With a sudden lunge, she's jumped onto Harry's shoulder and grabbed something that's attached to his head.
In her arms, Petunia feels Harry suddenly stiffen while Nixie chews something on his shoulder. Her eyes widen in understanding and she quickly grabs Nixie before putting a finger over Harry's lips.
As she's struggling to control a writhing animal, her thumb somehow ends up inside it's tentacles, and Nixie bites down. Petunia doesn't even notice the bite, only that Nixie had wrapped her thumb in their tentacles, and is now suckling it.
With the moment of shared comfort broken, Petunia directs Harry to pull a folding table from under the same table she got the cube from. Then they set up a small single burner camp stove on the patio outside and starts a kettle on to boil using a bottle of water from the bag.