Chapter 2
A week had passed since Lily had been to the hospital last.
In that time, James had been the one to take care of any legal issues that had come up in their quest to adopt her nephew. Lily was grateful for this, because she had barely made it out of bed these last few days.
She knew she had to, but every time she’d made an attempt to get her day started, fresh tears would start to fall, and hinder her from any type of productivity.
She’d taken the week off of work, luckily the potions master she worked with had been understanding.
All in all, everything outside of Lily’s mental state was fine.
Sirius, Remus and Peter had all accompanied James to a nearby furniture store, to buy another bedroom set for Dudley, and Regulus and Pandora had opted to stay with her, and help with Harry.
Despite both of them being closer to James than to her. It warmed her heart, how ready their friends were to help, yet still, her heart broke over and over again over the fact that she’d never see Petunia, not even one more time.
When another fresh set of tears had to be let out while she was holding Harry, both Pandora and Regulus had rushed to her and calmed her down.
Regulus had taken Harry into his arms and had continued cleaning their kitchen with the child on his hip, while Pandora had taken Lily to the sofa in the living room, where she had taken Lily into her arms. Lily had sobbed into them until she had fallen asleep, and when she woke up, two hours later, Pandora had still been there.
The others had also returned home with a mountain of furniture boxes that needed to be assembled, but only after the guest room was cleared out. Which Peter and Sirius had immediately volunteered to do whilst Remus, James and Lily talked about when Dudley would come home.
James had arranged it so that they didn’t have to go to court, since they were one of the only viable options for Dudley. Luckily, it seemed that the lawyers James had talked to didn’t seem to see an issue with a non magical child in a magical household.
They had all cited the same theory that he could end up being magical, and because it was too early to tell there was nothing in their way of adopting him.
The hospital had also determined that Dudley was ready to be discharged.
He would be coming home with them tomorrow.
And when tomorrow came around, Lily made her way to the hospital, James and Sirius in tow. The others had opted to stay with Harry until Lily and James came back with Dudley.
The hospital was just as cold and unwelcoming as it had been the first time around. James and Sirius seemed quite taken by the muggle technology and machines that crowded the hallways, always pointing and gawking at the various ways in which they could see the machines being used through open doors.
When they’d finally made it to Dudley, the nurse that had led them there began talking to Lily about care instructions. Dudley had some leftover cuts and bruises and a fortunately light concussion.
Lily picked Dudley up and along with James and Sirius made her way to the front desk in order to sign some more papers regarding their official guardianship, something that made her nervous beyond comparison.
They’d only ever raised Harry with magic.
His food was chopped up by a sentient knife in the kitchen, his toys had the ability to move on their own if imbued with a certain type of magic. They didn’t know how Dudley would interact with all the magic that surrounded their home.
What if it was dangerous for him, or worse, what if he grew up around magic and didn’t end up being magical himself.
Lily knew what that had done to Petunia, she didn’t want Dudley to have that same hatred for Harry, but it was likely to go the exact same way. She couldn’t help worrying over a series of fights that would likely occur in a few years.
She knew that no matter how much she prepared herself for this, no matter how much experience she had because of her sister, she would never truly be ready to face the disappointment that Dudley would likely feel when Harry got his letter and Dudley didn’t.
Lily could only hope that Dudley would be lucky enough to receive the gift of magic too.
As the four of them departed from the front desk, and walked to the floo network, Lily only held onto Dudley tighter, as if going through the floo with him would make him disappear, no matter how many times the nurse at St. Mungos had refuted that argument.
Sirius and James were quiet, walking behind her slowly and keeping a close eye on her every move. Lily felt grateful, once again, for their friends, though she hoped to get a hold of Alice and Frank at some point to introduce Dudley to Neville.
Arriving at home was also a muted affair. Pandora, who was about six months pregnant, was dancing to Bowie around the living room, with Harry on her hip. All the while Remus and Regulus sat on opposite ends of the sofa, each reading a book, completely cut off from the rest of the world.
Peter was sat on the floor, using his wand to levitate building blocks on top of each other, in an attempt to create a wonky tower.
Harry was giggling brightly from his place on Pandora's hip. The sight brought a slight smile to Lily’s face until Dudley, who had been sleeping soundly in her arms made a quiet gurgling sound, alerting her of his waking up.
Lily’s smile dropped as it all came crashing back down on her, Dudley was here, and he was here to stay.
He’d have never been allowed to visit them under normal circumstances, Petunia had been repulsed by all things magic from the very start. She'd likely rather have been dead than let Dudley be exposed to all that.
And that was exactly why he was here, in their home.
Handing Dudley off to Sirius, Lily made her way to the kitchen, to pour herself a cup of tea, James following closely behind her. Like always, he was going to make sure that she would be okay, she knew she could trust her husband to keep her afloat.
“Are you alright, my love?” he asked her, when they were alone in the kitchen. Instantly, she could feel tears build up behind her eyes. She had been barely holding on all day as it was, but like always, being asked if she was alright was the thing that did her in.
Pushing herself off of the counter, Lily let herself fall into James’ arms, he held her tightly as she began to let her grief take over once again. She tried to reel it in as best as she could, already feeling like a burden for needing support at every turn.
She berated herself, not for the first time, for not being able to handle Petunia's death with a little more maturity and poise. It was her parents' deaths all over again.
Day after day of feeling nothing but sorrow and self pity. Hours on end spent in bed, doing nothing but stare at the wall. Eating nothing, making her friends and husband worry like crazy. Nothing in Lily’s being wanted to have a repeat of that scenario, but her sister's death had hit her hard.
Possibly harder than her parents’ deaths.
Because Petunia wasn’t her sister. Petunia was the sister she could’ve had. Lily cursed her magic for its very existence. If only she’d been a muggle, she could have had a sister, not just a mean roommate that she happened to be related to.
Right there in James’ arms, Lily mourned what could have been, if only she’d never gotten the thing that made her the happiest.
Absent-mindedly, she observed the way the house had become quiet. Only her sniffling was audible, and nothing else.
It stayed quiet, until she heard Peter laugh suddenly. Loud and full of excitement. “He likes me!” she heard him exclaim happily.
Sirius had started grumbling about how unfair it was that both his godson and his godson's new brother had favorites that weren’t him. As it was, Harry’s favorite, outside of his mother, was Remus.
Harry was a surprisingly quiet baby, and Remus and Regulus tended to be the ones whose company he enjoyed the most, due to their preference for silence. Regulus however, was not Harry’s biggest fan.
He loved the boy like crazy, and Lily knew he would love Dudley just the same. But he showed great disdain toward baby’s in general. Their general need for their parents had always made him uncomfortable.
Seeing a child openly trust it’s parents so openly and easily, had given him pause on more than one occasion, and he therefore chose to keep all babies and toddlers at an arm's length.
Lily collected herself slowly and took James hand, she walked them towards the living room, where Peter was watching Dudley crawl towards him as fast as he could, only to be picked up by Sirius every time he made it obvious where he was headed. It was clearly in an attempt to get the boy to crawl towards Sirius himself, and it was proving to be very disappointing for Sirius.
Lily laughed softly, and watched as Sirius tried once more to get Dudley to crawl towards him, only for him to speedily crawl into Peter's arms again.
As she looked to the sofa, she could see Remus watching the whole ordeal with an unimpressed and unamused look on his face, while Regulus giggled with Pandora at the absurdity of the situation.
Watching the scene unfold had made Lily’s heart feel a little lighter, and suddenly it didn’t feel so hard to take care of her dead sister's son anymore.
Lily knew he would be loved, she just hoped that Petunia knew it too.