A/N:
Head ups, I'm American. I have no clue if Britain has Child support or not
Summary: When her sister died, Petunia didn't let herself mourn. Having to raise two children didn't let her have time. But with Dudley off to Smeltings and Harry off to Hogwarts, Petunia finally lets herself feel the grief for her lost sister a decade too late (Divorced Dursley fic)
Warning: Grief, Vernon in a rage, head wound
Words: 654
Prompts:
Ministry of Magic Discord Group: Mix and Match
Color: Black
Character: Petunia Dursley
Action: Crying
"Bittersweet"
It was bittersweet, finally having her boys away at school without her. With Harry at Hogwarts and Dudley at Smeltings–thankfully Vernon insisted on paying for boarding school for his son, even though they were no longer married–the house was really quiet. She was able to live off of her meager salary at the garden center, but with the coming cold and expected winter, her hours were going to get cut considerably. She was already penny pinching to save up for Christmas gifts for the boys, but it also helped that she had two less mouths to feed.
Both boys had just turned eleven this year, and while she had held out hope that Harry hadn't inherited any of the magic that had taken her sister away from her, he eventually had manifested in the weirdest of ways.
The first burst of magic she remembered from Harry was him trying to bring her the container of flour that Vernon had put on top of the cupboards. She was just too short and her step stool had broken just the day prior. Harry had seen her struggling and had pulled the flour jar off of the cupboard with his magic. It had flown off and hit an unsuspecting her in the head. The jar shattered on the floor, she went down, and when she came to, Vernon was yelling at a four year old Harry so badly the toddler had gone quiet in his screams, Vernon's grip on the poor boy's arm so tight, Harry's hand had gone purple.
She didn't remember much of that day from the concussion, but she remembered scrambling over to her nephew and pulling him into her arms, shielding him from her husband with her body.
She had filed for divorce the day after.
Since then, it was just her and her boys at Number Four Privet Drive in Surrey. They didn't have luxuries, but they made do with what they did have. The courts had even made Vernon pay not only child support but pay for the house as well for as long as they lived there.
Petunia dabbed the tears from her eyes as she set down a framed photograph of her, Dudley, and Harry at the Zoo from this past summer. She missed them terribly, and couldn't wait for the Christmas Holidays where she could have both of them under her roof once more.
Picking up another framed photograph, Petunia felt a sob choke her. Looking at another framed photograph, this one she stared at was of her and her younger sister Lily–Harry's mother–just before Lily went off to Hogwarts herself. Both were dressed in black, Petunia in a black sundress and Lily in her Hogwarts robes.
"And that's the last I remember of you, my darling Tiger Lily," Petunia whispered harshly. She staggered over to the couch and collapsed onto it, the picture clutched in her hands.
Dead. Her sister was dead. Had been for almost a decade now. When had she ever had time to grieve properly? Halloween, 1981 changed all of their lives. Harry not only lost a mother, but she lost a sister. It hadn't really hit home, having a house full of growing rambunctious boys, who were her whole life.
And now? With an empty home and an empty heart, she couldn't help it.
Petunia sobbed into her hands, the precious framed picture frame in her lap. Her baby sister, whom she was so jealous of, but also so proud of her abilities. Had she just tried harder, perhaps she wouldn't have lost Lily to the Wizarding world. Perhaps Petunia herself would have been drawn further into it. But it was no use wondering about the what ifs. Harry was alive and healthy, and Petunia did her best to treat him like her own son.
She only hoped it could make up for her own poor treatment of her sister now long gone.