Petunia stared down at her nephew as he pulled the weeds out of the garden. She was standing in her bedroom, just looking out of the window. The poor boy looked more like a pile of washing than a boy with his cousins tattered hand me downs. But she could see a smile pulling up the corners of his mouth.
Turning away from the scene, she glided across the room to her wardrobe. Opening the door, she slowly pulls out a small wooden box. Taking a deep breath, she rubs her finger along the intricate pattern on the top.
This box hold the last few trinkets of her beloved sister. The decoration of a petunia and a lily wrapped around each other signalled the sibling love that she still felt for her dead relative. The engraving carved crudely on the side was a piece of her childhood. Lily and Petunia, Evans forever. The duo did it when their parents first explained the concept of marriage to them when she was 8 and their neighbours got married, with the female changing her surname.
She reminisces about the two of them sneaking into their dads office. With Lily on lookout she felt she could do anything. They managed to nick his letter opener, and between the two of them, they scraped meticulously for days to get the letters into the wood. But Lily's smile when they were done, the way her dad couldn't even be mad at them, the tears in her mum's eyes. It all made the time worth it. They were the Evans family.
“Mum!” Dudley yelled up the stairs.
Shaking her head slightly, she came back to reality. “Coming!” She spoke loudly in return. Tucking the small box carefully into her front apron pocket, Petunia straightened up and walked out of her room and downstairs.
“What is wrong Diddykins?” She asked the boy plastered in front of the tv with food all around him.
“Dad is saying I can't go with him today and have to leave to get the bus. But I don't want to! Piers isn't getting the bus today and he said he has a new video game for us so we can meet him at school early. I DON’T WANT TO GET THE BUS!”
Taking a deep breath, Petunia nodded. “I will see what I can do.”
“No you will not. I am leaving now and he is not ready. I have to go.” Vernon said, strolling into the room. Giving his pet a kiss on the cheek he told Dudley to hurry up or else.
Sulking, the teenager turned back to the tv whilst Petunia signed. She now had to deal with his tantrum. Great.
Hearing the door close behind her, she briefly turns around. Harry was coming in from gardening. She needed to catch him now before he left for the day and she lost her chance. Turning back to her son, she sees he is still engrossed in the tv, and uses that to her advantage. Stalking to her nephew, she grabs his arm and tried to carefully drag him to the kitchen behind her. Feeling her heart clench when he just methodically follows her.
“I need you to listen to me and listen carefully. What I am about to say and do cannot be shared to anyone. Got it.”
His eyes flick up to hers. “Got it?” she grits out as he continues to look at her in confusion.
“Yes Aunt Petunia.” He quietly says.
Flicking her eyes to the living room, and seeing no change in her sons attention, she slowly goes into the pocket to pull out the box. Closing her hand around it, she pauses, and closing her eyes she draws the box out of its temporary resting place. Feeling the grooves and the crevices and relicing the feelings the box brought for one last time.
“Aunt Petunia?” Slowly broke her concentration and her eyes snap open to connect with the green of the ones in front of her. So much like Lily's in shape and colour.
“This is incredibly special. It means the world to me and I am still questioning if I should share it with you.”
“What is it?”
“It was your mother's and mine. Our trinkets. The things we felt most important, and the jewellery she gave me the day I got married. It is the last remnants of our sisterhood.”
“Oh.” Harry says, as he stares at the box in her hands.
“Now, I do not like you. I cannot stand your magic, your attitude and I know it was because of you that madman killed her. However, you are my nephew, it is your 18th birthday tomorrow which is big in my world and she was your mum. I wish I could make myself love you. Even if just for her. But I can't. I hve tried and I have repeatedly failed. And I know you do not love me either.”
“Aunt Petunia?” Harry whispers, raising his hand to wipe her tears. “I do not hate you.”
She snorts, rather ungracefully. “I do not hate you either Harry. But neither of us love each other like family should. And I also will never forgive myself for what I have let Vernon do to you in my grief. So looking at you is never going to make all these emotions stop. However, she was your mum.”
“Just like she was your sister.”
“Exactly. So, as a sign of you becoming a British young adult. And in the knowledge they will probably kidnap you one final time tonight. I am giving this to you. Look after it. Look after her memories. Look after my prize possessions. And bring them back to me when you bring yourself to me when you are free. I may not be able to love you, but she does.”
“I…’
“Shut up. Do not say a word. I don't want to hear it. Just be safe Harry.”
He nods. Pulling herself together, Petunia nods in response before walking back to her tantruming 17 year old son. And leaving her 17 year old nephew with his family. Feeling lighter than she has in years and feeling like she made Lily proud.
Stopping at the doorway, she turns her head around. “I love you, my little Lily. I hope I can fix things with your son.” She whispers to the ghost she imagines is behind her. Not knowing that her spirit is with her. Facing her son, she walks ahead, leaving the bits of the past she can, behind her. But not before she hears whispered behind her: “I hope one day I can love you too Aunt Petunia, thank you”. She smiles.