My Sister's Eyes

My Sister's Eyes

Petunia watched the little green-eyed baby from the doorway as he sat amusing himself in his little basket. Her husband was in bed now, and her own little son was snoring happily in his crib in the room upstairs.

Harry was content for the moment, despite the fact no one was around -- perhaps because no one was around. Had he understood the conversation that had happened a few feet away from him?

"He can't stay here Petunia. What if the neighbors find out? And what about our son? What would he do to little Dudley? He's not...normal Petunia."

"He doesn't know that yet," Petunia had pointed out. "We can snuff that weirdness out of him."

"Do you think that's possible?"

She'd lied to him and told him it was possible. She didn't believe it, especially since she knew exactly what she accepted when she accepted him. Dumbledore had made it very clear in that letter -- a letter she had hidden away from her husband. Why did she accept Harry into her perfectly normal life? She didn't want this burden. Harry would be just as odd as her sister, just as odd as that father of his. She didn't think there was a man she hated more than James Potter. He had changed everything.

"Petunia, I think I'm in love," Lily had written in that letter. "You remember that James Potter I told you about? Well, he's something different than what I first thought him to be. I mean, I always saw him walking around acting as if he ruled the school, but there's so much more to him. And his friend Sirius is a sweetheart deep down. Then there's Remus..."

Meeting James had changed everything. Before then Lily knew how to be normal. Petunia always though that once Lily finished her training at that wretched school, things could be the way they use to be between them. It was Potter who'd changed Lily's view on things.

"Petunia, I am a witch. There's no denying it, no pretending," Lily said the night she'd told her about her engagement.

"Lily, I never asked you to pretend. Their lot did," Petunia responded. "And I find some of your practices with Muggles perfectly horrid. Who gave any of you the right to alter anyone's mind?"

"We do it to protect Muggles, not harm them," Lily replied defensively.

"You do it to protect yourselves."

"I know you're angry, Petunia, but I belong in their world. Now more than ever, their world needs people like James and I to fight."

"Your world, my world, what is all that? We don't live in separate worlds."

"We do, Petunia. And it's not because I want it that way. Muggles and Wizards have so many cultural differences. And being at Hogwarts gets you accustomed to Wizard ways. It's always odd those few months that you're separated from magic. If only you could understand the feeling it gives you..."

"Right, the magic within the magic. I'm sure it's quite wonderful, but I'll never experience it. So why don't you modify my memory so that I forget I have a sister."

"Petunia, don't be like that. You know we only use that when we have to. And we hide what we are because Muggles wouldn't understand, or they'd try to use us for..."

"Is that what I am to you, just some Muggle who doesn't understand and would try to use your magic for my own gain?"

"Petunia, I didn't say that."

"No, go on Lily. Marry your James Potter, this...Muggle...will go on and live a perfectly normal life without your oddness. You don't have to worry about me wanting to use you for my benefit."

Muggle. What a stupid and insulting word. She'd always hated the taste of the word in her mouth. They were the abnormal ones, with their odd and unnatural ways. What right did they have to label perfectly normal people with an abnormal word?

There were times she tried to forget she knew anything at all about the magic world, but there was no forgetting -- only burying it for a short time. Voldemort... he didn't care that the Muggle and Wizard worlds weren't suppose to cross paths...he had...

She stopped these thoughts. She couldn't think of Lily... dead. Even though it was her own fault. Magic was abnormal; witches and wizards were abnormal. Everything that had gone wrong in her world was because of them.

The boy was staring at her more intently now. He wasn't a normal baby like her little Duddy. She couldn't treat him like a normal baby. As her husband said, they had to be strong if they were going to do this.

Harry looked at her and smiled. The smile shook her so badly that she nearly dropped her drink. Those were her sister's eyes staring back at her. That was her sister's smile. There was no doubt he was his mother's son.

"This won't change us Petunia," Lily had said looking at her first Hogwarts letter.

Petunia and Lily were sitting side by side on her bed at the time. The old witch who'd explained how to find Diagon Alley and get to Platform 9 3/4 had just left.

"I wish I could go with you," Petunia said.

"I wish you could, too," Lily replied, hugging her sister. "I'll bring you loads and loads of stories. It'll be just like you were there with me."

They had been ignorant then. Lily was only eleven, and they were silly little girls thinking that magic was just a game and that it wouldn't change anything. But it had changed everything. Not that Lily had never done a thing odd before getting her letter, but she would have learned to be a perfectly normal child if only the magic world had allowed it to be so. If only the magic world hadn't snatched her away from her family. And she wouldn't have been blown up by...

Petunia stopped as a tear threatened to fall down her cheek. She forced herself not to cry over Lily. Lily had chosen her own fate, but Petunia would keep Harry safe from them and their odd ways. She would squash the magic out of him. It could be done.

She grabbed the little baby boy and carried him to the cupboard under the stairs. She put him in and locked the door. She turned to go upstairs and then heard a faint cry.

"Mama," the little baby voice cried.

She was tempted to go back, to hold him, to hug him, but she fought the urge and tried to banish the image of Lily from her mind. It was hard to do when she remembered Harry's eyes were Lily's eyes come back to haunt her. But she couldn't give in.

"Your mother is dead. She got herself blown..." Petunia stopped, quickly changing her wording. "She died in a car crash. Go to sleep Harry."

-END-