Sorores

Exhausted, but happy, Petunia lays her two-week-old son down in his cot. Straightening back out, she lingers to smile fondly at her son. He's perfect, she thinks. From his wispy blond hair, to his chubby cheeks, to his little hands, and his rosy pink toes. Petunia couldn't have ever asked for more out of a child.

She'll never be like her mother. Dudley will not have to fear making messes, being too loud walking up the stairs or for giving looks he doesn't know he is making. If Petunia has any say, her son will never, ever think for a moment he's inadequate or unloved.

The chime of the doorbell reaches Petunia's ears. Gaze snapping to Dudley's face, Petunia breaths a sigh of relief when she sees it is as untroubled as it was just a moment before. Backing away slowly from the cot, she makes her way to the door and grabs the second baby monitor sitting on the dresser before closing her son's bedroom door behind her.

Walking down stairs, she goes and opens the front door next.

She blinks at who's waiting on the other side. "…Lily," she greets.

Nervously, her younger sister's gaze darts around the area before coming back to Petunia's face. "Can I come in?" she asks.

Pursing her lips, Petunia nods. "Vernon will be home for lunch in half an hour, I want you to know, though," she tells her sister as the heavily pregnant woman hurries in.

"Oh, that's alright!" And Lily laughs a bit too loudly.

Raising an eyebrow in response, Petunia makes the decision to ignore the strangeness of it and puts to use her homemaker skills instead. Gesturing to the sitting room, Petunia tells her little sister, "Take a seat."

Relieved, Lily does so. "I get so tired easy…" She sighs as she rubs her stomach. "This rascal's not even born and he's tiring me out!"

Petunia snorts. "Just wait until you're waking up every other hour to feed him. I've been grabbing kips whenever I can since Dudley's been born."

"Yes, how is–Dudley–doing?"

Taking a seat across from her sister, Petunia smooths out her skirt. "Oh, you know, good. He's quite normal by all accounts, so we're very happy."

"That's nice." Lily smiles.

Frowning, Petunia questions, "Lily, why are you here? I thought you were in hiding."

Her sister flinches. "I am? Well, James thinks I'm just taking a nap in our room right now. I left, though." Nervously, Lily begins to twirl her hair as she gave Petunia a small smile. "'Tuney, do you remember how when we were growing up you used to say we could run away together?" she asks.

Petunia's frown deepens into a glower. "Yes, I also distinctly recall you never agreeing to," she replies.

Lily's shoulders slump. "Look, I was being a dunderhead, alright? I understand now. I get why you always wanted to and… and I was wondering if you would like to now? We could all go someplace else! I hear it's nice in Australia during this time of year."

"No," Petunia answers firmly. "I have a life here, one I like. I'm not going to throw it all away just because you've finally gotten scared enough to accept the offer. That's all you are, you know that, don't you? You don't really want to run, Lily. I know you. You're brave. You're strong. You're just having a lapse in… character."

Looking pointedly at her sister's very large and swollen stomach, Petunia murmurs not unkindly, "Which, should be expected. The hormones are still wreaking havoc on me, someone who's living normally. I can only imagine what they would do to someone in a situation like yours."

Lily begins to sniffle. "You're too kind, 'Tuney. I'm only brave because you showed me how to be, you know? When we were little and hiding from Mum, I used to think you were some kind of personal heroine just for me. Remember how you took the blame for breaking that porcelain figurine? You knew I'd done it, even if I wasn't saying anything when Mum lined us up in the kitchen. But you didn't tell her that, you told her you'd done it. She smacked you good for that, but when I cried about it later, apologizing for being so scared, you told me, 'That's what big sister's do, so stop being a crybaby.' Do you remember any of that 'Tuney?"

Petunia does remember, she remembers it so well she can feel the phantom sting of her mother's wooden spoon on her thighs. Rubbing a hand up and down her leg, she tells Lily, "Then, you should also remember that it was you who had the gall to call Mother a meanie to her face. Lily, it wasn't me who taught you anything. We were always in it together. We grew strong together; each of us picking up the other when they got tired or frightened by it all. Neither of us was stronger, we were partners in a never-ending battle."

Meeting the green-eyed gaze of her sister, Petunia says, "Do not turn me into something mythical. I am a regular person, a wife and mother, nothing special and nothing new. I won't have you try and fluff my feathers by making me feel like I'm something amazing when I'm not."

"But, Petunia–"

Standing up, Petunia shakes her head. "No, Lily. I won't have it. Go home to your husband. Go home to where you'll be safe and your child will be safe when he's born. I won't have you risk my nephew's life and yours just because you've gotten a little frightened of something you chose to be a part of."

Lily stares up at her. Face pale and uncertain. Sighing, Petunia goes and helps her sister up from the chair. "Go home. Please," she whispers. "Vernon will be home at any moment, and I… I told him we were done with all your magic nonsense. If he sees you here, he'll get upset and start fretting about nothing. I love him, Lily, but he can get very protective in the face of what looks like danger to him."

Wiping away her tears, Lily agrees, "He's probably right to think I'm dangerous. I took every precaution getting here, but, sometimes, you just never know. Don't worry, I'll make sure to tell someone to come do a sweep of the area after I go home, but, 'Tuney? Thanks for not turning me away at the door."

Grunting her acknowledgement and irritation at her Lily's possible carelessness, Petunia leans in and kisses her sister's cheek at the door. "Be safe," she orders Lily. "I hope you'll send those police men of yours sooner rather than later. And Lily, am I to assume I'll see you once the war is over?"

Lily grins. "Yeah, I'll send them a letter right away. Yes also to the part about after the war, I'll come by then–with Harry too. It'd be nice if he could know his cousin a bit."

"That it will," Petunia agrees with a faint twitch of her lips as she closes the door behind her sister.

Later, when Vernon comes home, he asks why her eyes are red. She tells him it's due to some silly special she'd caught a bit of on the telly about war orphans, he believes her and pats her hand in guileless sympathy.

"Those specials are especially awful to think about, aren't they? Sometimes, I wonder what we would do if we lived in a place like that with our Dudley," he says. "Or where our Dudley would go if anything ever happened to us, here or there."

Petunia nods. "Yes, it is scary to imagine."

She thinks of Lily's son, a child about to be born in a war-torn land and what will happen to him if Lily and her husband don't make it out alive for the rest of the day. Petunia will take Lily's son, she knows, but she doesn't think she'll be capable of giving him the love he'll deserve. She knows why her sister's in hiding, after all, it's because of the baby and if Lily ends up dead, it will be due to him and his role as evil's downfall.

Petunia thinks she might already hate Lily's son.

And that's that!

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EDITED: 2/20/16