Title: The Woe's of Petunia Dursley
Chapter: Petunia's Heart
Type: One-Shot
Six months after the appearance of Harry Potter on the Dursley’s doorstep found the baby sitting in a high-chair, waiting to be fed by his bony aunt. A porky, slightly older child was sitting next to him, already shoving his face with some sort of crumbled Cheerios and mashed bananas.
Vernon Dursley sat at his end of the breakfast table, reading the paper and watching his son shovel food into his mouth. He shot a nasty glance at his nephew who was eying Dudley’s food with a look of longing. Petunia Dursley headed over to Harry’s place setting and put a smaller amount of food onto the baby plate in front of him.
With a look of delight on his face, Harry began to mash his fingers in the bananas and licked his fingers clean. Petunia did everything she could not to smile.
“Well, off to work then,” Vernon said as he folded up his paper. He smashed his face into his wife’s bony cheek, rubbed his son’s porky head, shot a reproachful look at his nephew, and walked out the door, briefcase in hand.
As soon as Petunia heard his car leave the driveway, she put the remaining portion of food onto Harry’s place. Harry let out a squeal of pleasure as he noticed the larger mound of mushy goodness that he could play with.
Petunia Dursley laughed as her nephew mixed his cereal crumbs and mashed banana into one pile and spread it all over his face. Her favorite part of the day was when her husband went off to work. He would never approve of her fond feelings for Harry.
As she sat looking her young nephew, her own son began to squirm and cry as if trying to escape his high chair. She slowly walked over to him, pulling him out of the chair. Seeing Harry content with his food, she hurried up the stairs to put Dudley down for a morning nap.
As she headed back downstairs, she heard Harry whining from his chair. She pulled him out and sat him on the living room floor. Taking a small red ball from under the couch, she rolled it to him. Harry recognized the game. He grabbed it in his two tiny hands, raised it over his head, and attempted to throw it back to her. He resulted in dropping it less than a foot in front of him.
He picked up his hands and clapped them together with a wide smile spread across his face. Petunia giggled and picked up the ball again. She was grateful that Harry wasn’t ever as tired as Dudley was. It gave her a chance to give Harry attention that he never got during the day. Petunia had to hide her affection for him whenever Vernon was home.
As she absentmindedly rolled the ball back and forth to her nephew, she thought about her sister. She never told anyone, but Lily had been her best friend as well as her only sister. Vernon would never suspect that she was jealous of Lily, and she hoped he never found out. Yes, at first she thought that Lily being a witch was frightening and abnormal, but as time went on, she began to respect it, and even become jealous of Lily’s talents.
Their parents always seemed to be more proud of Lily. Lily had everything. She had a good looking, loving husband, an adorable son, and talents that Petunia could hardly even understand. Looking past all of the abnormalities that Lily’s world contained, Petunia had been very close to her sister until her engagement to Vernon.
Petunia had to cover all of her feelings toward Lily and James when Vernon found out what they were. He didn’t approve of anything abnormal to his world. Petunia pretended to hate the Potters, and took every chance she had to cut them down. It tore her heart in half.
She was an internal wreck until the day she found her one-year-old nephew on her doorstep. All at once, she was filled with two emotions. Overwhelming joy and sadness filled her as she read the letter a man named Albus Dumbledore left with the baby. She could hardly comprehend that her sister and James had been killed. The only thing that kept her from breaking down was the baby lying on the front steps of her house.
Petunia had loved the little boy form the moment she had met him. He was always so happy and smiling, and he seemed to be rather attached to Petunia. It was hard for her to ignore him whenever Vernon was home, but she had a good portion of the day to devote to bonding with him.
After a while, a faint crying sound coming from the upstairs bedroom awoke Petunia from her day dreams. She scooped Harry into her arms and began a trek upstairs to get her crying son.
In what seemed like no time to Petunia, Vernon returned from work. Harry was playing with the red ball in the center of the living room and Petunia and Dudley were in the kitchen.
Petunia scurried into the living room to greet her husband like she did every day. When he walked in, Harry looked up and reached his hands up toward his uncle as if to say, “hold me.” Vernon looked at him with disgust and turned away.
Harry sucked his bottom lip in and his chin quivered. Small, silent tears began to trickle down his face. As soon as Petunia was sure Vernon had gone upstairs to shower and change, she picked up the crying baby and cooed him into a calm state.
She scurried into the kitchen and placed Harry into his chair as soon as she heard Vernon coming back down the stairs. As soon as he was situated, Harry began to poke Dudley in the arm. Dudley retorted by poking him back.
They kept up their poking game until Vernon Dursley sat in his chair and barked, “Cut that out boy!” He swiped Harry’s hand down.
Harry pulled his hand across his chest before settling down still in his chair, patiently awaiting his dinner. Dudley, on the other hand, kept on attempting to get Harry to re-start the game.
When Vernon noticed this, she chuckled and muttered, “That’s m’boy.”
Petunia tried to keep her hand steady while making the steak for her husband. She could not believe how horrible he was to Harry. He was only a baby, after all. As she served dinner to the table, she pulled Harry’s chair closer to her and away from her son, who was now trying to stick his fingers in Harry’s already smaller portion of smashed carrots and potatoes.
When dinner was finished and Vernon had retired to the living room to continue reading his paper, Petunia picked up the boys to give them a bath.
Cleaned and in fresh pajamas on, they were finally laid down to bed. Dudley was out in an instant, but Harry sat for a short while, staring up at his aunt who was leaning over his crib. With one last smile and something that looked like a wave of his hand, Harry fell asleep, too.
Petunia let a small tear escape her eye. She watched as it fell onto her nephew’s forehead. He scrunched up his face for a moment, but then relaxed again into his peaceful sleep. She reached in and wiped off the droplet of water. “I love you, Harry,” she whispered before closing her bedroom door to resume her cleaning.
The Woes of Petunia Dursley by xCoHoRoIoSoToAx
Chapter Notes: This idea came to mind when I was thinking about Harry as a baby. Read and review!