Behind It All

Behind It All

Petunia tossed and turned in her bed, she couldn’t sleep. She raised her head and checked her alarm clock on the bedside table beside her*. It was 3 AM. Careful not to wake her husband she rose from the bed and headed down the hall. She stopped at a doorway just before her grand staircase. Very quietly she turned the door knob and entered. Inside were powder blue walls, a dark black carpet and a single baby crib in the center of the room. Very quietly she tip-toed over to the crib and gently picked up the little boy. Her nephew Harry conformed to Petunia’s arms.

She stroked the baby’s hair gently, as not to wake him. Last morning she had awoken to find Harry on her steps. She took him inside and sat him down while she read the letter that had come with him. It explained about her sister’s death and what it has to do with her keeping Harry to save his life as well. She sat down in a padded rocking chair beside the crib, the thought of her sister made her knees weak. Harry stirred but did not start to cry.

"Mama?" asked a half asleep Harry in an innocent baby voice.

"No Harry, Mama’s gone away. I’m your Auntie Petunia," she replied softly; fighting back the tears that stung in her eyes.

Harry, not even listening, had wriggled a little and fell back asleep. Petunia looked down at the little baby, a tinge of hate dwelled inside her. He looked just like his father. The one that took Lily away and had her killed. Petunia would always remember the day her little sister got in the car and drove off to King’s Cross station. Not just her little sister, her best friend. Every summer she came home happier than the last. The ‘freaks’ had taken her and she was never coming back. Now they had a son, her nephew, and he would go off and join them too; she would lose him like she lost her sister. Lily had sacrificed herself for the same boy that stood in her arms right now. She could never forget that. He is still here but Lily is not. Lily wasn’t even reflected in her child. He was just like his father, down to the hair on his head. It was if he looked that way just to torture her.

Slowly tears stared to fall down Petunias face as she sat staring at the boy. She had loved her sister but now she was gone. Dead. Never coming back. Her tears flowed silently down her face like waterfalls. A tear had hit Harry on his forehead and he awoke. He stared up at his aunt who was watching him back. She knew instantly she was wrong, a part of Lily had lived on. Lily’s magnificent green eyes stared up at her as they did when they were young. Lily and Petunia; had shared everything, Petunia never could say no to those green eyes. Now they looked up at her from a different body.

Harry was a living memory of her sister and the man that took her away. He could never find love from her while the ghost of Lily stood in those eyes. Maybe one day she would see him like she did Lily, maybe she could love him one day. Maybe.

She had put Harry back in his crib, turned off the light and headed back to bed. Harry stood up, awake in his crib. One word past through his lips before he fell back into his deep slumber,

"Auntie?"