The day Petunia Dursley found a sleeping baby in a basket on her front porch seemed like the day the universe answered her prayers.
Petunia and Vernon already had a beautiful baby boy, but originally they had wanted quite a big family. Unfortunately Dudley's birth had been quite traumatic for Petunia and she would never be able to carry a child again. This had been a blow to the couple but all the more reason to love their baby boy with everything in them.
Seeing the sleeping tot on the doorstep felt like a miracle. Even after reading the letter with its horrible news Petunia felt as though she had been granted a great gift. Lily and her had been estranged since just after she married Vernon, but she never wanted her dead. And to leave behind such an adorable and bright baby was a tragedy all its own. The fact that Harry lost his parents before he could really form memories of them was something that broke Petunia's heart.
Bringing the baby out of the cold Petunia checked his nappy and when he was dry set him in the playpen with Dudley. The boys were both still quite groggy from waking up but seemed interested in one another. Dudley was clutching his stuffed giraffe and Petunia had put the blue blanket she found with Harry in his hands when she set him down.
Satisfied that the two wouldn't murder each other in the next few minutes Petunia started into the kitchen to pull eggs and bacon for her husband and two servings of porridge for the boys. It only took Vernon 15 more minutes to stumble into the room wiping sleep from his eyes and heading straight for the kettle. Petunia held out a cup for him and after serving them both a plate sat down.
“Vernon love?” Petunia started.
Vernon looked up from his tea with a slightly glazed look and grunted in acknowledgment.
Putting down her fork Petunia placed her hand on one of her husbands and gave a breathy laugh. “I found a surprise on the front step this morning. Seems like more than milk was delivered last night.”
Vernon's eyes sharpened and then squinted in suspicion.
“Did one of those cats you keep feeding leave you a present again?”
Petunia couldn't help but grin. Vernon said it was a bad idea to plant the cat nip in the side yard flower beds, but Petunia couldn't help but love seeing their cute little whiskers twitch as they rolled in it.
“No love. Though Silver did bring one of her new kittens to see me yesterday. No, this was a much bigger, better surprise.” Petunia knew she was drawing it out, but the way they messed with each other was one of the bits of their relationship that brought them joy even after all these years.
Vernon sighed and gave his wife a little smirk. “Spit it out love. You're positively vibrating so whatever it is must be quite exciting.”
Much to his surprise Petunia got up from the table and walked into the living room. Returning a second later carrying not one grinning tot, but two, was very much not what Vernon had expected.
“Of course Harry is going to have to sit on my lap until we can get another high chair, but i'm sure we’ll make due.” Petunia had a huge smile on her face with a hint of a mischievous twinkle in her eye.
Vernon's eyes once again squinted in suspicion. “Love, did you steal a baby?”
Petunia plopped baby Harry into Vernon's lap and went about setting Dudley into his high chair, buckling the boy down, and clipping the tray into place.
“As you know I am a very stealthy thief and would be plenty able to sneak into a house in the night and steal this cutie, but sadly no, this was the present I found on the stoop today.”
The deadpan retort had Vernon snorting. His wife was a peach.
“Who would leave a baby on our porch in November?” As soon as the thought popped into his head he felt absolutely livid. Who would leave a small child, one who clearly was old enough to toddle around or at least crawl, on a porch in the middle of the night? The boy could have wandered away and froze, never to be heard from again. He could have died from exposure! The weather said it’d be as low as two degrees last night!
Vernon cuddled the poor child to his chest, the boy could have died a hundred times over in the time since he was placed there?
“He was a little chilly when I picked him up but I think that he was left by one of my sisters people because the blanket around him was still quite warm.” Petunia never quite liked talking about the magical world with Vernon. When she had married him and informed him of the secret world around him and her squib status he had, quite understandably, not believed her. Petunia actually had to have Lily come and make his briefcase fly around the room before he believed her!
They hadn't talked about it much since then except to decide what they would do if one of their children turned out to be a wix. In her youth she had felt slighted by the wizarding world for taking Lily and not her, but as she grew the love she held for Lily overshadowed the jealousy. It wasn't until she had gotten caught up in the current conflict that they had cut ties. It was just too dangerous for Lily to be seen coming and going from what appeared to be a muggle house. It would have painted a target on Petunia's back and Lily wasn't willing to risk it. They made plans to see each other the moment the danger had passed and reading the short note left with Harry had caused her to break down right there on the stoop.
“Ah, I see it now. The tike has your sister's eyes and James crazy hair.” Vernon watched Petunia attempt to feed Dudley while he entertained Harry with his tie. He’d feed the boy once the high chair was free. Vernon was ready for work in his suit and tie and there was no way he was getting porridge on it. “Why is he here though love?”
Petunia spooned another mouthful into Dudley's mouth and turned her head to look at her husband with tears gathering in her eyes. “There was a note with him. Apparently the leader of that terrorist group they were so worried about came in the night and murdered Lily and James. The little scar on his forehead is where that madman tried to kill Harry too but failed.”
“He failed? How is that? Kills two full grown, perfectly capable, wizards but can't kill a baby?” Vernon couldn't exactly call himself an expert in the wide array of wixen powers but he was fairly certain that that was out of the norm.
Petunia sighed and spooned another bite into Dudley's open mouth. The boy was really a joy. So quiet and happy, with chubby little cheeks and an adorable laugh.
“The letter didn't really say much more than the fact that they were dead, Harry survived and a plea for us to care for the boy. This is a horrible way to add to our family of course, out of such tragedy, but part of me says that it's a gift.”
Vernon stood up with the tot on his hip, walked around to his wife's side and cupped her cheek. “I know pet. It's joy out of misfortune.”
Unfortunately Vernon still had to go to work and this left Petunia to go to the authorities with the boys by herself. As much as they would have liked they couldn't just take the boy in without his parent wills, birth certificate and vaccination records. They needed to do everything the right way so that they were officially Harry's guardians.
Oh his way out the door Vernon bent down to kiss his loving wife and their TWO boys