Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter world. The great author J. K. Rowling does. So please don't sue.

Summary: AU. Petunia and Vernon Dursley have a daughter. The prophecy is worded as 'he or she', and so Lily and James Potter have a daughterm named Emily Rose, as well. When they die, the girl is sent to live with her aunt and uncle. Vernon does not want a witch in the family, but Petunia remembers the love she once had for her sister when she sees her niece and so convinces him to let Emily stay. After that, things go much differently from the books.

Petunia Dursley looked down at her newborn daughter, whom she and Vernon had decided to name Diana Violet. It was custom in her family for girls to have either a first or middle name after a flower. Vernon would have liked to have a boy, but he didn't mind having a daughter at all, especially one that looked as charming and pretty as Diana. She had lovely blue-green eyes and what little hair she had was golden and promised to turn out curly later. Her parents had fallen in love with her the moment they had set eyes on her, and Vernon had said good-naturedly that they could always try and have a son a few years later.

Mr. and Mrs. Evans, the maternal grandparents, looked down at their first grandchild and grinned. "Diana's a lovely baby," said Mrs. Evans. "I hope Lily and James have as wonderful a baby when it's their time."

An annoyed expression briefly crossed Petunia's face at the mention of her sister and brother-in-law, but she didn't say anything.

Over a month later, in St. Mungo's, Lily and James Potter were gazing at the new addition in their family, a daughter they had named Emily Rose. With them were Sirius Black, who had been named godfather, Remus Lupin, who had half-jokingly been named 'god-wolf', and Frank and Alice Longbottom, with their son Neville Frank, who had born the day, or technically four hours, before Emily.

"It's weird how our children were born so close together," remarked Lily to Alice. They had been good friends at Hogwarts.

Alice grinned. "It is. I'm pretty sure it'll mean that Neville and Emily will be good friends eventually."

Hours later, Lily wrote two letters, informing her parents and Petunia of Emily's birth. Though she hadn't gotten along with her sister after getting the Hogwarts letter and hadn't spoken to each other for a couple years, beyond the occasional Christmas card and obligatory gift, she felt Petunia deserved to hear about the birth, and through their parents.

Petunia made a face when the owl flew in the kitchen and left a letter. Her first thought was to throw it away when she saw that it was from Lily, but then she realized that it was probably about the birth of Lily's child. It would be better to read the letter than hear about the news from her parents. With a sigh, Petunia reluctantly opened the envelope and read the letter. As she expected, it was about the birth of her niece, named Emily Rose.

Several months later, there was an awkward hour when Petunia and Vernon brought Diana to visit her grandparents and found Lily and James were there with Emily. The Dursleys were civil to the Potters for the Evanses' sake, but it was not a pleasant visit. Emily and Diana appeared to get along well, which Vernon strongly didn't like. Petunia didn't much like it, either, but a tiny part of her said that they were only babies and it was only one meeting. They could just make sure the cousins didn't have anything to do with each other after this.

On November 2nd, 1981, Petunia got the shock of her life when she opened the door to set out the milk bottles and saw a bundled baby on her doorstep. After recovering from her shock, she picked up baby and the letter that was resting on top of the blankets and went inside. After reading the letter, a dark look came to her face and she regarded her niece, who woke up. The green eyes, looking exactly like Lily's, stared up at her. Petunia suddenly remembered Lily as a baby. Emily looked exactly her, except for the ears and nose, which seemed to be from the Potter side of the family.

"Oh no," muttered Petunia. "I can't just cast Lily's own flesh and blood away. I did love Lily. And I had promised once that I would look after her. Yes, I resent that she went off to that school and became a freak, but she was my sister. And Emily looks so sweet and helpless. Vernon won't like this though."

With a sigh, she stuck a pacifer in Emily's mouth and then went to get Vernon. As expected, he threw a fit over their niece having to live with them. "I will not have a freak living under our roof and corrupting Diana!" he shouted. "That brat goes! We can dump her at an orphanage or something!"

"And what if one of them is keeping an eye on our house and sees that we got rid of Emily?" asked Petunia. "Then we'll have those freaks on our doorstep, making a big scene. What will the neighbors say then? It's better that we just keep her to avoid trouble. And people will think we're so wonderful and kind to be so willing to take in our orphaned niece."

"Fine, the freak can stay," said Vernon grudgingly. "She can have Diana's old things."

During the day, while Vernon was at work, Petunia showed her love toward Emily. When he came home, she focused her love completely on Diana, and pretended to have a dislike for Emily. It pained her to do it, but she had to keep the peace in the house.

Di and Em, as they had taken to calling to each other, got along quite well, despite being toddlers. Though Vernon constantly put down Emily when he was home, Petunia said otherwise when he was gone and made it clear to Diana that she was to be nice to her cousin.

One day, when Diana was three, something odd happened. "Girls, it's naptime," said Petunia.

"'Kay, Aunt Tunia," said Emily. She walked over to the blanket and pillow spread on the ground and lay down. Diana, however, was not so willing.

"Not done with blocks!" she wailed.

"Sorry, Di, but it's naptime," said Petunia gently. "See how Em listened and is taking her nap? You can play with your blocks after naptime." She picked Diana up and placed her on the blanket spread out for her.

"Want blocks!" Diana reached out her hands and suddenly several of the blocks floated up in the air and slowly glided toward her.

Petunia screamed, breaking Diana's concentration. The blocks fell to the ground and Emily sat up to see what the noise was all about.

"Mummy! You made blocks fall!" protested Diana.

After a moment to compose herself, Petunia said firmly, "It's naptime and you are going to take a nap, Diana. Em, lie back down. The two of you can play later. And Diana, don't tell Daddy about what you did with the blocks. He will be mad at you, like he is with Em."

"'Kay, Mummy," answered Diana, nodding. She lay down and shut her eyes. Emily did the same and then Petunia quietly left the room and sat down in the kitchen.

It appeared her daughter was a witch, after what had just happened with the blocks. Vernon is not going to be happy when he finds out, Petunia thought. He'll accuse Emily of corrupting Diana or something similar and insist on her going to an orphanage. So I just don't tell him about this just yet. I'm not going to let Emily leave us.

Things didn't go so well after that. Emily accidentally did magic, in front of Vernon no less, who threw a fit. After shouting for several minutes, he turned Emily over and began spanking her. Petunia, horrified, managed to get him to stop by reminding him that if the 'freaks' found out about it, there'd be trouble.

That evening, Diana had a nightmare and woke everyone up with her wails. Petunia was able to soothe her and get her back in bed. She left the room to find Vernon hitting Emily.

"Vernon! What are you doing?" she asked, horrified.

"The freak must have done something to upset Diana with a bad dream," snapped Vernon.

"Well, stop it," she replied. "The girl can sleep in the cupboard under the stairs henceforth as punishment." She really didn't want to make her niece sleep there, but it was the one place too small for Vernon to enter and therefore would keep Emily safe at night. She walked over, picked up a sobbing Emily, and headed down the stairs.

Petunia made up a bed in the cupboard and gently tucked Emily in. "Sorry about this, Em dear. Uncle Vernon doesn't like you, so you'll be safer here."

Emily nodded. "'Kay, Aunt Tunia. Why doesn't Uncle Vernon like me?"

"Because you can do something special that he doesn't like," Petunia replied. "Now go back to sleep. I'll try to make sure Uncle Vernon won't hurt you again, Em."

Things came to head when Em and Di were four. Vernon had a bad day at work and so came home in a foul temper. Seeing Emily, he decided to take out his anger on her. "Stop Daddy!" shouted Diana as Petunia came out the kitchen to see what was the matter. "Leave Em alone!"

"What do you think you're doing, Vernon?" demanded Petunia icily. "Don't you dare lay a hand on Emily."

"She's corrupted you both!" yelled Vernon, eyes wide. "We should have dumped her at an orphanage the day she got dumped on our doorstep." He kicked Emily, who let out a shriek of pain.

"No!" shouted Diana. She raised her hands and a block flew into them, which she proceeded to throw at her father.

"Now look!" roared Vernon. "Diana's a freak too! It's contagious! I have to beat it out of her!"

Petunia ran back into the kitchen, grabbed a large frying pan, and ran out again to see Vernon hitting Diana. Without hesitation, she swung the frying pan at his head, knocking him out. "Stop crying, Di. I'm going to make sure Daddy never hurts you or Em again." She took a small suitcase from the hall closet and told the two girls to pack up their favorite toys. She then went upstairs and packed two suitcases of clothes and toiletry items. When she was done, she put the suitcases in the boot of her car and returned to the play room.

"Come on, girls. We're going to go somewhere safe." Petunia picked up the suitcase of toys and children's books and led the two girls out to the car. She made sure that they were safely buckled up in the back seat and drove away. She planned to divorce Vernon and have nothing more to do with him again. Her parents had left her their house and some money when they'd died a month after Emily's first birthday. (The rest of the money had been left to Lily, which belonged to Emily now.) The house had been sold, so she had plenty of money to take care of things until she could get a job and the divorce was final.

After a couple of hours, Petunia booked a room at a cheap hotel in London and bought dinner for the girls. Diana, who normally fussed a bit, was quiet and well-behaved, most likely because of what had happened with her father. An hour after that, Em and Di went to sleep and Petunia began planning what she was going to do.