Chapter Fourteen/Epilogue: After All

Disclaimer: For the last and final time, I do not own Harry Potter.

Author: Thank you for the comments, please enjoy the last part…We are getting a new computer, and after everything settles in I will begin a new story…^_^ Expect A Remus Romance sometime next week!

            Petunia sighed and put the little silver ring on her finger. After all these three years, it still fit her thin hand perfectly. The silver glinted in the dim light, little flowers swirling along the edge, seeming to move almost.

            Why had he brought it up? Why had Vernon, despite her reminders to him that she didn't want anything to do with her sister, ask about their nephew? Harry. Son of her sister and that awful boy…Of course she knew him, not that she had ever seen him. He would grow up and be just like his father, he would remind Petunia of all the horrible things in her life that were caused by her sister.

            Now her parents were dead too, as of last week. Tonight was Halloween and Dudley was eating the last of the cookies she made for him downstairs with Vernon. But she was up here, thinking about her sister. And the ring…

            Lily had given it to her, wrapped in a napkin, for her birthday three years ago. It seemed so long ago, that horrible ordeal. She had been so embarrassed she could hardly stand it. She hadn't opened the gift for at least a month, and when she did she shoved it to the back of her jewelry box and never wore it, lest Lily see and think she was being sisterly.

            Now though, with her parents gone, Lily was the only family she had left. Like it or not.

            Petunia sat down on the edge of the bed. It was Lily's fault, all her fault. If she hadn't gotten involved, then everything would be different. If only her parents had forbidden her to go off to that school…

            Just then, the doorbell rang, interrupting her thoughts. Petunia listened closely, heard Vernon open the door, then he yelled loudly. Petunia went over to the window and peered down at the doorstep, where there was a basket, bundled. Vernon called to her loudly to come see, and she turned and hurried down the stairs.

            "Petunia!" Vernon's face was red like it always was when he was distressed. He waved an envelope at her face, but didn't let her see it. "It's him! It's him!" He didn't look happy about this however.

            "It's who?" Petunia bent down by the basket, still on the doorstep, and looked inside. A baby boy, about the same age as Dudley stared up at her with green eyes, black hair sticking up. He whimpered.

            "Oh my god." Petunia said, standing up and clutching her chest. It couldn't be. Lily knew that Petunia didn't want to have their kids, cousins that they were even, consorting or becoming friends.

            "Vernon, let me see the letter." The man handed the piece of paper to his wife, whose face was pinched and anxious.

            "She's dead…" Petunia's heart fell and her eyes filled with tears. "Both of them…oh my god Vernon…"

            Vernon watched nervously. He didn't like to see Petunia cry, but the best he could do was pat her on the back.

            "Now now, you weren't all that fond of them anyway—"

            "She was my sister Vernon!" Petunia wailed. "my sister. And I was horrible to her, and now she's dead!"

            "Well…err…" Vernon didn't know what to say. He glanced at the letter crumpled in her hand.  "We can't keep another child…the funds…we have Dudders to think of…"

            Petunia shook her head and looked down at the child on their doorstep.

            "Of course not Vernon." She said, and he sighed in relief. But then she looked down at the letter again.

            I am sure that you will take care of this child, your blood relative. After all, what would any sister do?

            The green curvy writing was smeared from Petunia's sweaty hand and hard to read through all the crinkles.

            What would Lily do it Dudley was left on their doorstep? Vernon went to close the door and leave the baby outside.

            "We'll take him to a shelter in the morning, can't very well have him crawling around the house…"

            "No!" Petunia stuck her hand out, almost causing it to get smashed by the closing of the heavy door. "We-we can't leave him outside, it's chilly…"

            Vernon looked apprehensive, but nodded and let Petunia pull the basket in and carry the baby to the living room. His face was dirty and his hair desperately needed combing. A thin lightning bolt-shaped cut flawed his smooth delicate skin.

            "Vernon, we have to keep him…" Petunia said finally.

            "What!? Petunia, what about Dudley?" Vernon exclaimed.

            "Dudley will be fine."

            "But what about…in the letter…magic…?" he whispered the last part, as if Dudley, who was screaming in the other room, might hear and get funny ideas.

            "He won't learn it. We'll keep him until he's 18, then after that, he's gone. I owe it to my sister…" Her blond hair hid her eyes from view, but Vernon had the feeling she was crying.

            "Petunia-" he sputtered. Then, finally, "Alright. Whatever you want." His wife had lost her mother, father, and sister all in one week. She was probably feeling a bit like an orphan right now too. A bit like Harry.

            Petunia was ashamed of herself. How could she even think about not taking care of her sister's own child? A helpless baby with no family but her…She shivered and thought of Dudley, parentless and crying on Lily's front doorstep.

            But no magic. They would be sure that he didn't get involved in any of that dangerous stuff that his parents were into, the stuff that got them killed. It was for his protection as much as her own family's. After all, Mr. and Mrs. Evans weren't hardly involved and they were murdered. Petunia remembered the looks on her mother and father's faces at the funerals. Her mother would have been embarrassed to see her daughters not helping each other out. She told them both so on many occasions.

            With one last thought, Petunia realized that she wasn't helping Lily at all, she was doing it for her mother.

            But the ring on her finger…and memories of that one time, when she had pretended to be a witch as a disguise at the Potter's wedding…that was really why she did it. Why she convinced Vernon to keep the baby. Why it was important.

            After all, what would any sister do?

THE END

Author: Thank you, thank you, thank you! Please leave a review to tell me your overall reaction to the story. (love, hate, needs improvement, etc.)  Thanks. ^_^