Summary: Petunia Evans never expected to find a baby on her doorstep one dank London day. Now she has to cope with raising a magical child on her own – because she never married Vernon Dursley those two years back…
Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine – the plot idea might be. I'm not sure if anyone else has had the idea before me. Anything you don't recognize (such as Sean, Zach and Christopher – although Christopher is related to a canon character) is likely to be mine, and I suspect any mistakes you notice in story canon are mine too. Everything you do recognise, such as HP, etc, are J.K. Rowling's. Just in case you didn't know already.
Warnings: Um. None that I can think of. Again, not that long a chapter.
Not the Best Start – Chapter Two
Someone was out to get her. Petunia was certain of this. Her day had not been going well; finding Harry, getting into work very, very late much to the displeasure of her boss and then finding out she had another article to write as soon as she handed in her previous one – and one on some rock star who'd overdosed. Gossip. She wrote the gossip articles and tabloids with wild speculations that mostly she just made up. She did not, at any cost, write bloody obituaries. People tended to get pissed if you slag someone off after their death.
She stared blankly at her desk, swiveling slightly on her chair to look away and around at anyone else. Jill wandered past, a stack of papers in her arms, and she paused at the edge of Petunia's desk, a slight smile on her rounded face.
"Tunia, how are you?" she asked, and Petunia could help but smile in return, leaning back on her chair and wincing as she heard her joints crack.
"I'm fine Jill. Got some bad news today, but," she grimaced, "you know how it is. Life goes on." It really was odd, now she thought about it, how well she was dealing with the whole new-baby-and-sister-dead idea. Well, she never had been particularly close to Lily she supposed.
"Oh Tunia, are you alright?" Jill exclaimed in sympathy, waiting for Petunia to elaborate. When she didn't, Jill overlooked it and continued speaking instead. "I have some news that might cheer you up though," she said, leaning in closer.
"Oh?" Petunia said, trying to look curious. Most of Jill's news involved people in the office and their various scandalous doings – somehow, they just failed to interest her anymore.
"A man came in for a job interview today," Jill said with a smile on her face. "Quite the dish. Blond hair, tall, blue eyes, the works."
"You're married Jill," Petunia said, amusement in her voice.
"So? Doesn't stop me from looking," Jill protested, trying to look offended. Petunia laughed, and the two of them looked around warily for their boss. "Have to be going now," Jill said hurriedly, shifting her bundle of papers. "You stay safe, hey?"
"As always," Petunia said and returned to her computer as Jill bustled away. The hour passed quickly and at one o'clock, Petunia got to her feet, rolling her shoulders as she suppressed a yawn.
She joined the crowd of people as they headed downstairs and to the work canteen – Petunia honestly couldn't be bothered to go out to town and get lunch from somewhere that served edible food. As she got in the queue with the faint flashback to high school days that always accompanied this, her boss entered the canteen, talking intently to another man. Petunia raised an eyebrow – that had to be the man Jill had been talking about.
She studied him discretely and was forced to agree with Jill's summary. He was good-looking and a certain way that he walked suggested he well knew it. He peeled off from Petunia's boss, the grey-haired man smiling at him in a sort of befuddled way before walking away to his office.
He joined the queue behind Petunia and Petunia very studiously didn't look anywhere near him. He didn't return the favour though, and looked at her intently as she resisted the temptation to blush. After a few seconds, she could feel the blood creeping under her pale skin as she couldn't help but flush under his scrutiny.
This seemed to satisfy the man for some reason, for he let out a low laugh before holding out a hand. "I'm Christopher Clearwater," he said, his voice a low tenor.
Petunia took his hand and shook it firmly, professionally. "Petunia Evans," she said, and he smiled and muttered a quiet 'thought so'. Petunia frowned at that, uncertain, but he covered it up with a pleasant smile and a cheerful look. He looked younger when he did that – he couldn't be much more than twenty-seven, twenty-eight.
"You came for a job interview?" she asked, and he looked surprised before he grinned.
"Guess the rumour mill works fast here," he said. "Yeah, I did." He winked at her. "I start after lunch."
Petunia looked vaguely impressed. "That was quick," she said and he laughed.
They came to the canteen at long last, Petunia buying what could possibly be classified as a salad but probably shouldn't with dank green leaves and squishy tomatoes, and Christopher just grabbing a sandwich.
"Mind if I sit with you?" he asked, moving an inch closer to her, and Petunia tried not to look suspicious. Moving a bit fast, wasn't he? Still, it was flattering to have some sort of male attention at long last, and especially from a man that quite a few of the other women were glancing at with impressed looks.
"Of course," she said. "I guess you don't know anyone here?"
He shook his head and they sat down together at a table – and from over his head, Petunia caught sight of Jill giving her a laughing thumbs up. She blushed bright red, and Christopher smiled at her.
Petunia walked back into her flat with a yawn, hearing the sounds of Siouxsie and the Banshees battering through the building. She paused as she stuck her key in the door, and made a face. She had to go and pick up Harry didn't she? She sighed, took the key back and turned to follow the music.
She paused outside of a battered door from where the music was emanating with such force that the floor underneath her was trembling. Petunia knocked twice, politely. There was no response (she doubted they'd even heard her through that racket) and she knocked again, hard enough to bruise her knuckles on the hard wood. She swore as she cradled her hand and after a few seconds the door swung open.
A black haired man opened the door, and for a second Petunia wondered if she was looking at James Potter. At second glance however, she noticed all the differences – a narrower face, flatter hair, dark blue eyes, darker skin colour, pierced eyebrow and ears and maybe a year or two younger than him. In fact, now she thought about it, there was hardly anything but hair colour to tie them together. Oh well.
"Who're you?" he asked insolently, slouching against the doorframe and Petunia scowled slightly.
"My name's Petunia," she said through pursed lips. "Is…" she struggled to remember the girl's name for a few moments, "Sean there?"
Recognition – or something of the sort – came into the man's eyes, and he stood up straighter. "Right – you Matty's mum?"
"Matty?" Petunia asked in confusion, and the man shrugged.
"Eh, we didn't know his name so we renamed him, y'know? I'm Zach." He turned away from the doorway and bellowed into the room. "Oi, Sean! Matty's mum's here."
"I am not his mother," Petunia ground out. "And his name is not Matty."
"What?" Zach said cheerfully. "Can't hear you love. You've got to speak up."
"I said I'm not his mother!" Petunia shouted. "And his name is Harry!"
Sean handed Harry back to Petunia and Petunia cradled him awkwardly, surprised to see him awake and happy, apparently gurgling up at her (although she couldn't hear the noise he was making, his mouth was moving). She hooked a tenner out of her purse and handed it over to Sean, and Sean directed a grin her way.
"You want me to watch 'im tomorrow?" she asked. "He's no problem or nothing. I'll do it a fiver a day."
Petunia nodded gratefully, and noticed Zach scrutinising Harry oddly. "What are you looking at?" she half-snapped, and he threw her a reckless grin.
"He looks more like a Matty to me," he said with a grin. "I reckon the kid's going to grow up with two names now."
Petunia couldn't help but roll her eyes as he threw her a roguish wink and closed the door. She and Harry looked at each other and his green eyes – Lily's eyes she thought faintly – crinkled in happiness as he held his hands up.
She cradled him closer, carefully, trying to balance her briefcase on her wrist as she made her way back to her flat and began the complex balancing process of holding Harry, her briefcase and a key as she tried to unlock the door. Somehow she succeeded and walked in, nearly treading on Wilde's tail as that damned cat came to greet her.
Harry yawned slightly, and Petunia made a face. She didn't have anywhere for him to sleep – or any clothes for him for that matter. Why hadn't she thought of that before? She walked into her bedroom and froze.
Pushed off to one side, not far from her bed was a cot, decorated in red and gold (Petunia loathed those colours). Beside it was a bag, and Petunia got the feeling if she looked inside of it there would be clothes – and there were.
With a wry look on her face, she fumbled Harry into some clothes to sleep in and put him awkwardly in the cot, shoving a toy griffin in with him. He snuggled up happily to it, calling it something like 'Giffy' and she assumed he meant Griffy. Original name.
As he dozed off, she stood back with a strange feeling akin to pride in her. Maybe this wouldn't be too hard – all in all it seemed as though she'd had a pretty good day.
She turned away to cook herself some food, Wilde coming to nuzzle against her leg – and behind her, Harry sneezed in his sleep.
Thanks to Althea, millie-mione, Thoughts and Pondering (yeah, I agree. Then again, most children are sweet once they've grown out of the wrinkled prune stage and when they're asleep), Meta Capricorn (She is magical and will be cropping up later in the story. However, she will not be a metamorphmagus, just in case anyone else was wondering the same thing), Kagayaku, Dernhelm-caoran (At the moment I'm sticking to music I've listened to from around that era – I might develop on the artists a bit later), GS and Animus Wyrmis. Hopefully, I shouldn't take as long updating again and the next chapter should be posted within two weeks or so. Thanks again to everyone who reviewed!