Disclaimer: I own nothing. Harry Potter belongs to J.K Rowling.
A/N: Reviews are Good. This has been a subtle hint from the author - Please return to your regularly scheduled reading.

chapter 1: this shared wondrous daydream

She thinks about Lily a lot as the months go by and her stomach grows. The round lump protruding proudly from her previously always almost too skinny frame.

Lily is to have a child as well she knows from her last letter. She wishes in these moments that her sister and her weren't so very estranged…that Lil's weren't with those…people. She wishes for someone to share this with.

Because Petunia has never been so happy. Her house in Little Whinging, a husband with a steady job, and a baby on the way. She has a life, a family.

Lils she thinks pausing in washing the dishes that night to gaze out the window at the star filled sky, why couldn't you be normal or why couldn't I be a… but she cuts that thought off quickly (She always has since that letter told her it was never to be, that she couldn't join her sister at Hogwarts – and Petunia has always been practical, even as a child and would never let herself pine for things out of her grasp) scrubbing harder at the frying pan and blames the old want even resurfacing on her hormones. She steadfastly ignores the stray tears.

Vernon and her whisper in bed at night about names – he wants a boy, and to be perfectly honest she would be happy with either, but pretends to be set on a girl just so they have something to argue about. They talk about all of the different things they will do with their child - the toys they'll buy them, the silly little games they'll play, the school they'll send them to, the trips they'll all go on as a family.

A family.

They weren't quite in love when they married (there was a definite fondness there but not quite love) – it was more out of convenience and the understanding that they both wanted the same thing to be honest. But Petunia thinks they fall in love over this shared wondrous daydream of family.