I
Magnolia Evans admired the petunias in her window, she had always loved the flowers. Deciding on a name for her first babe had been easy because of that. Her beloved Petunia had become the love of her life the moment since she first held her. Her late husband had always joked that Petunia had been hers while Lily was his. Even though the love she held for her youngest daughter was no less than the one she held for her eldest.
Without wasting anymore time she left the house.
Petunia always insisted on coming to her childhood home with her grandson, but Magnolia was planning on surprising her daughter today. She had made a basket filled with her favourite cake – Treacle tart. Both her daughters loved it, they got that from their father for Magnolia detested the much too sweet dessert.
She grew sombre at the recurring thought of her sweet Lily, she had not heard from her youngest daughter in almost a year now. The last time they had met was at William’s funeral two years ago when she had been heavy with her first child. The otherwise healthy man had died suddenly thanks to a heart attack. She missed her other half. Yet she missed her daughter more. Lily had explained that they had to go into hiding not long after the birth of her second grandson. A dark wizard apparently felt threatened by her grandchild. Ridiculous really. Yet Lily had kept contact for a while, sending letters by owl. Until she did not. It hurt tremendously to not be included in her sweet daughter´s life but Magnolia knew that Lily was finding her own path in life and that she had no right to hold her back.
Magnolia had despite that spoken with Petunia and asked if she had heard anything from her younger sister, but her eldest daughter had not wanted to speak of Lily.
The broken sisterhood too apparent.
It saddened her that the two sisters couldn’t see eye to eye these days. The wonder that was magic had worked like a clever knife, severing the wonderful bond between the two. She knew not how long she would live now that she was alone in this big house, but she hoped something dearly that her children would find their way back to each other someday.
Magnolia knocked on the door, it took a minute before her daughter answered it. Blue eyes widened in surprise. Magnolia hurried inside and walked into the kitchen.
“I better put the basket down, my old age is getting the better of me I’m afraid.” Magnolia quipped, her eyes taking in the very neat home. Petunia and she was very alike there. A tidy home is the fundament to a tidy life as her grandmother used to say.
“What are you doing here?”
Magnolia frowned at the frantic tone. “I thought to surprise you, now where are my precious grandson?”
Petunia paled and stammered. “Who?” Magnolia rolled her eyes at her daughter who was acting very strange. “Dudley Dursley, I presume, or have you birthed another one since we last saw each other?”
Her daughter laughed strangely. “Of course not, I’ll go and fetch him.”
Magnolia hummed and turned to the basket, removing the cake she brought.
She was surprised to see Petunia hurry to her with Dudley in her arms. Her daughter practically shoved the toddler in her arms before shooing them outside. “The weather is much too nice to ignore, I’ll bring everything outside.”
Magnolia ignored her strange behaviour in favour of the grandson in her arms.
Dudley looked very much like his father, but she could see traces of his mother in those blue eyes and jutted chin.
Petunia had been William’s copy while Lily had been quite the blend, disregarding the red hair of course. The red hair had been a surprise as neither she nor William had red hair, but those green eyes had not as Magnolia herself possessed the same eyes.
Dudley’s blonde strands were thin and light just like Petunia’s had been. Not like the dark locks Magnolia had once possessed, dark locks that had since her youth turned white.
“You seem quite stressed my dear,” Magnolia commented the moment Petunia took a seat in front of her. “Is everything alright?”
Her daughter blinked and nodded. “Everything is fine, you just surprised me,” she said with a smile as she looked at her mother and son. “You know that I rather go to Cokeworth than have you come all the way here, mother.”
Magnolia sighed.
“Forgive me dear, I simply wanted to visit you for once. To leave the house for a bit and kiss my grandson.” She said as she kissed Dudley’s cheek. The toddler smiled at her and squealed.
Petunia had to put Dudley to bed two hours later, she had told Magnolia to sit and rest but knowing her daughter’s hard-working attitude she decided to bring the plates inside and start washing them.
She had just put away the last plate when she heard something akin to a sniffle. Frowning, she walked to the stairs, had Dudley started crying again?
She could hear nothing from upstairs and credited the sound to her old age.
Magnolia turned around to go outside again but stopped as she heard the sniffle again, it was not from upstairs.
She tried to concentrate to hear it again and was surprised to locate a whimper coming from the stairs. Walking towards the sound she saw a small cupboard door under the stairs. Curiosity made her open the door, was it some sort of animal? She would have to ask Petunia if they had any problem with vermin.
Magnolia investigated the cupboard and felt her heart stop at the little figure curled up in the corner of it. It was shivering.
“What in the- “Magnolia muttered but stopped as the little figure sat up and looked her way.
A child.
Her eyes darted around the cupboard, seeing things more clearly now.
A small mattress and broken toys around the toddler.
Not thinking further, she reached inside and managed to pick up the child in her arms. A mop of black hair made it hard to see the face, but her heart stilled once more as she recognised those eyes. She had never met this child, but she had seen moving pictures of him when he was younger.
He looked like his father.
Like Lily’s husband.
“Harry,” Magnolia whispered, the boy’s green eyes were teary but also curious. His diaper smelled something awful, and she frowned at how thin he was. Lily had been a big and healthy toddler and the pictures had depicted her younger grandson as the same.
“What are you doing?!”
Magnolia turned to her daughter who was looking at them in shock.
“What is the meaning of this Petunia? Where is Lily?”
Her daughter sputtered. The shock turned to shame before it turned to rage.
“She went and got herself blown up with that husband of hers. They left that at our door in the middle of the night with a note saying that it was to live here. But we didn’t ask for the Freak to be left here. Lily should have known that!”
Magnolia closed her eyes and hugged her grandson closer.
“Lily’s dead? When?”
Petunia grimaced. “November.”
Her daughter had been dead almost a year.
“And why did you not tell me, what is the meaning of the cupboard?” Magnolia felt anger brim in her as she looked at the daughter who she had always loved despite her shortcomings.
“He’s your nephew, your sister´s child.”
“He’s nothing to me just as Lily is nothing,” Petunia screamed, Magnolia could see a bit of doubt in her daughter’s eyes but being too proudful she simply straightened her back. “You should be grateful that I didn’t leave him outside!”
Magnolia hugged the toddler who had started to whimper at his aunt’s loud voice.
“I love you Petunia, I truly do. But I will never forgive you for this. For your treatment of Harry, for not telling me that m-my baby is d-dead.”
Magnolia ignored her daughter who stared at her in silence, those beautiful blue eyes that had once been filled with innocence and glee. How had it come to this?
Leaving the house with the toddler was no small feat as Magnolia felt her legs on the brink of giving in. Steeling herself she put Harry in the backseat, ignoring the safety hazard of not having the right equipment to transport the child. They had to get away from here.
Magnolia drove the car for 30 minutes until she reached a supermarket, no tears had left her eyes. She could not cry right now, Harry needed her.
She took the toddler and walked inside, buying what she needed to take care of him. Harry stared at her in silence the whole time. Thinking of how the child kept quiet despite having a too full of a diaper spoke of something that made her heart clench. How could Petunia have neglected him so?
Arriving home at the house she had once shared with a loving family felt bittersweet.
It was when she had placed the boy on her own bed, clean and fed, that she finally gave into the grief bursting within her. She sank down onto the floor by the bed where Lily’s boy now laid.
Her baby girl was dead.
Green eyes and a brilliant smile stared back at her in her mind, her little girl who had made her so proud was no more.
How she would survive this pain she knew not but the quiet sounds of her grandson breathing in his sleep kept her heart beating for now.