Title: Motherly
Character: Petunia Dursley
Word Count: 214

I just wanted to do a bit of character study with Petunia. She's one of those characters that just gets labled as a one-dimensional "bad guy" and then ignored.
I really don't think she ever hated Harry. More that she hated the thought of Harry, and what he symbolized for her, mainly being:
1) the fact that magic existed (which I think she really feared because she didn't understand it)
2) the fact that Lily had "been stolen away by this magic world" and started a life without Petunia
3) the fact that Lily was dead

but, hey that's just me. Anyway, like always, please review...even if it's just five words or so.

Disclaimer: No, Harry Potter does not belong to me. I just like stealing the characters because they are fantastic.

Petunia Dursley was not necessarily a nice woman.

Her favorite past time was spying on her neighbors in hopes of finding something worthy to gossip about. She could cook up awful stories about those she did not like. She cursed more often than a proper lady should. She could hold grudges for years and years and possibly even lifetimes.

This was not to say, however, that she was completely without a heart.

She loved her son unconditionally - and perhaps, spoiled him far too greatly because of this - and loved her husband almost as much.

She thought dearly of her parents - lord, bless their souls - and would never consider speaking bad of them, even after their deaths.

And when she found an abandoned child on her doorstep, the first thing she did was hold the poor thing close and quiet it's screams.

And a part of her always loved that child - in the way that only mothers can - starting from the very first moment she held him in her arms.

So it should be come to understand, that while there were many reasons - though none justifying - for which she locked that growing boy away in the cupboard under the stairs, pure hatred was not one of them.