Harry Potter had received his fair share of bone-crushing hugs in his life, from his various adopted family members, his wife, and his five-year-old daughter. He never would have expected such a warm embrace from his Aunt Petunia who, for the majority of his life, treated him worse than dirt, or even worse than dust but more of a non-entity that didn't even deserve a scowl, let alone the embrace befitting that of a long-lost child.
Harry was taken aback when his Aunt stepped over the threshold he had been dragged over time and again and pulled him to her with tears falling down her cheeks. The past six years had taught him what love was and though he couldn't honestly say that he loved his Aunt, he could see that she'd come a long way towards righting the wrongs she'd committed against him. With uncertainty covering his features, he returned her hug tenuously, wondering if he'd stepped into some kind of twilight zone.
"I was hoping you'd stop by, Harry." She said quietly, pulling away and smiling genuinely at him.
"I heard that Uncle Vernon had died." Harry said sympathetically. "I thought it was time I came to visit."
Aunt Petunia scanned the faces of the beautiful young woman and confused little girl that accompanied her nephew. Lily hid behind Hermione shyly and peeked from around her legs. Hermione, however, had a cool look on her face, she wasn't ready to dismiss the years of abuse her husband had endured at the hands of his relatives.
"Oh, Aunt Petunia, this is my wife, Hermione. I think you remember her when I went to Ho ... err ... to school." Harry stood aside and hoped that Hermione wouldn't pull out her wand and hex the elderly woman on the spot. "And this," He pulled Lily from the ground and settled her on his hip. He had a proud smile on his face as he looked at his daughter. "This is Lily. Lily, this is my Aunt Petunia, can you say hello to her?"
Lily hid her face in his shoulder and a muffled "Hello" came from the nervous little girl. Petunia glanced cautiously at Hermione then smiled at Harry and his daughter.
"Lily?" She asked quietly.
Harry nodded. "We named her after Mum." Harry said softly. Petunia began to cry again but remembered her manners.
"Oh, come in, come in. I was just putting a kettle on." She ushered her nephew's family into the house and quietly closed the door behind them.
Hermione felt a gentle hand settle on her shoulder and she turned a little too abruptly to Harry's Aunt. The older woman flinched and smiled apologetically.
"H-Hermione, I just wanted to say I'm sorry ..." She said quietly. "It's hard losing someone you love ..."
Hermione looked at her incredulously but held her tongue. She nodded and made her way to where Harry was standing.
"Daddy, you grew up here?" Lily asked with wide eyes.
Harry smiled. "That's right, sweetie. It seemed a bit bigger then, but I did."
"Where was your room, Daddy?"
Harry laughed. "I was in the last bedroom upstairs." He looked to his aunt. "Do you mind if I show my girls around?"
Petunia smiled. "Sure, Harry, I'll just go get the tea ready. Would you like some juice, Lily?"
Lily nodded shyly and hid her face against Harry's chest again. He smiled warmly and went to the stairs. "Coming, honey?"
Hermione snapped to and smiled at her husband. "Coming ..." She glanced at Petunia again but was soon following Harry up the stairs.
"There's where Dudley used to stay." Harry was saying quietly as he remembered what it was like living here so long ago. "And over here was my room."
He opened the door and was greeted with a spare bedroom. The Dursleys had painted it after he'd left and he was not surprised to find a bit more finery than he was afforded. The small closet had been replaced by a tall chest of drawers and a small writing desk was sitting under the window. The sky blue paint on the walls matched the linens and complemented the wood grain of the furniture wonderfully.
"Daddy, why is there a picture of Joshua on the desk?" Lily asked quietly.
Harry sighed. "Well, sweets, that's because my Aunt Petunia is Joshua's grandmother."
Her eyes went wide. "Dudley is Joshua's daddy?"
Harry nodded. "That's right, Lily."
Lily scrunched up her face. "I knew I didn't like him." She said with a huff.
Harry smiled slightly. "He has picked up a lot of his Daddy's bad habits, Lily, but we should try our best to look for the good in people. It's hard sometimes, but it's what makes us different than bullies like Joshua and Dudley."
Lily nodded quietly as she listened to her father. She looked down towards his chest and had a look of shame on her face.
"You don't have to be ashamed about how you feel, sweets." Harry said as he tipped her face up to his with a gentle touch. "We won't stop loving you because you don't like someone. Just remember that even people like my cousin have something good in them."
Hermione was watching the exchange with tears in her eyes. How could this man who went through so much anguish at the hands of these cretins find it in his heart to look beyond that? How could he see anything good in the people who treated him like he was a figment of their imagination? She felt his strong arm pull her into a tender hug and he kissed her gently.
"You are the one who taught me that lesson, Love."
"How on earth did I do that?" She asked after he'd wiped her tears from her cheeks.
"I remember a certain, bossy, know-it-all that irritated me to no end." He said cheekily. "I looked past that to find the best friend and woman I love."
She smiled at him as more tears streaked down her cheeks and she hugged him tightly. "I love you, Harry."
"And I love you." He said with a smile. "Now, there's someone downstairs who we haven't seen in a long time. She's changed, Honey, she really has. Could we try to put what's happened behind us?"
Hermione nodded mutely against his chest and let out a long sigh. "I'll try." She said at last. "But it isn't going to be easy."
The three of them made their way down to the sitting room and smiled genuinely at the beaming woman in front of him.
"Daddy?"
"Yes, Sweets?"
"Didn't you say that you lived in a cupboard?"
Petunia's smile faded and she looked to the tray of tea cups and fidgeted nervously.
Harry smiled. "I did say that, didn't I?"
Lily nodded. "If you lived in a cupboard, where did they keep the pots and pans?"
Harry laughed at the simple question and hugged his daughter. "It wasn't that kind of cupboard, Lily. It was a crawl space under the stairs over there ..." He pointed to the hallway and looked in confusion.
"W-when we got home I had Vernon board it up." Petunia said nervously. "I wanted to erase what we'd done ..."
Harry smiled and looked to Hermione. She was still non-plussed with his aunt, but the cold look in her eyes had lessened a bit. She looked at him and he knew immediately that she was considering his previous words.
Aunt Petunia motioned for them to have a seat and served up the tea and crackers that were sitting idly on the coffee table.
"I ran into Dudley at parent's night." Harry said after a sip from his cup. "Lisa told me what happened."
Petunia looked at the table with a fond smile on her face. "Lisa is a wonderful girl, isn't she?" She glanced at Hermione then looked to Harry. "Since Dudley met her, he's turned around. A complete one eighty from what he used to be."
"He's still not fond of ... of what I can do." Harry said habitually. "He's still like ..."
His aunt nodded. "Vernon put that particular hatred in him." She said quietly. "It will take a lot for him to even acknowledge that magic is a part of our world."
Harry looked up in shock. "Did I just hear you say magic?"
Petunia laughed softly. "That was your uncle's particular rule, Harry." Her eyes took on a particularly dreamy look and she took a sip from her cup.
"I'm sorry to hear about his passing." Harry said quietly. "I would have been here sooner had I known."
"It's alright, Harry. Towards the end it was more a relief ..." She looked at him sadly. "I didn't really know he was an abusive man until you left." She looked to her lap and smiled softly. "Dudley got the brunt of it all, I guess Vernon thought he could ..." She looked at Lily and smiled quietly.
Harry caught the hint and put a hand on his wife's thigh. "Hey, Lily hasn't seen the garden yet." He said with a smile. "Why don't you take her out back to look at the flowers?"
Lily's eyes lit up at the prospect. She'd always loved flowers, any kind and any type. Her parents had started pressing them in journals as a sort of collection for their daughter's future enjoyment. Hermione smiled knowingly and kissed Harry on the cheek.
"Take your time." She said softly and took their little girl's hand as they made their way to the back door.
"Did Uncle Vernon hit you?" Harry asked firmly. There was a fire building in his eyes and Petunia put a hand on his knee to calm him down.
"He's gone, Harry." She said softly. Tears were building in her eyes and she pulled out a tissue to dab at the moistness that was building up around them. "He did but Dudley stood between us on more than one occasion." She admitted. "I couldn't believe that was the man I'd fallen in love with, but life is full of surprises. I was even getting the paperwork together to file for divorce but he saved me the trouble ..."
"Why didn't you owl me? I would have found a place for you to get away from him ..." Harry said quietly. "Nobody deserves to be treated that way ..."
Petunia choked back a sob and pulled him into another hug. "Why, Harry? How can you be the way you are after everything he ... I put you through?"
Harry returned his aunt's embrace unquestioningly and rubbed her back reassuringly. "I caught the concerned looks you'd send my way from time to time." He whispered to her. "I might not have had a wonderful life, but knowing that there was some concern for me helped. When you distracted Voldemort, I knew that I hadn't imagined it all."
"I should have done something." She said through her tears.
"It's ok, Aunt Petunia, I forgave you long ago, there's no need to live in the past." He said tenderly. "There's still time to make up for everything since Mum and Dad died ..."
"I wish I could have woken up earlier, Harry. I really miss Lily and James ..." She said with a shuddering sigh. "I know I was upset with Lily ... She'd left me for the wizarding world, I was jealous and resentful that my best friend up and left me alone ..."
"I always wondered why you hated Mum so much." He said after a moment. "I'd always wanted to ask but questions weren't allowed."
Petunia sniffed and pulled out of their hug. "I didn't hate her. I loved her to death and couldn't see past my own nose ..." She said softly. "Vernon's rules ... I can't believe that I let him get away with those." She said a bit harshly. "He was afraid of the magical community and didn't want you to fall in with them."
"So why haven't you tried to contact me since he passed away?" Harry asked quietly. "I know that it's a two-way-street but I didn't want to cause any friction ..."
"I couldn't send anything because your house is unplottable and Hedwig ... Well, you know how she felt about us." She said simply. Harry's eyes widened again and she laughed at his reaction. "Oh, come now, Harry, did you think that Lily was the only one in our family?" To accentuate her point she pulled a sleek, shaft of holly with an ebony handle from her apron. She laughed outright when Harry's jaw dropped and stared at her in disbelief.
"You're a WITCH?!" Harry asked incredulously. "All this time and you've never told me?"
She smiled at him tenuously. "I was in hiding." She said quietly. "When You-Know-Who started running around, I decided it was best to disappear into the muggle world."
"That's how Albus knew you! When did you graduate from Hogwarts? What house were you in?"
Petunia laughed genuinely and Harry couldn't believe his ears. Gone was the high-pitched shriek that he'd heard before. She had a wonderful laugh that somehow reminded him of his mother.
"I graduated two years before your Mum and I was a Ravenclaw." She said with a smile and a glitter in her eyes as she remembered her years at the school of witchcraft and wizardry. "Is Professor Flitwick still the Charms teacher?" She asked with a wry grin.
Harry nodded dumbly. Aunt Petunia's a witch? "I-I never even suspected ..."
"I'm surprised." She said with a smile. "My favorite charm is scourgify."
Harry's hand went to his forehead. "I can see it now ... No wonder this place was always cleaner than an operating room ..." He let out a laugh. "I'm assuming that Dudley is unaware of this little tidbit of news?"
Petunia looked at him sternly. "You better believe it." She shook her head. "If he knew that Lisa and I were witches, he'd have a conniption fit on the spot."
"So you know about Lisa then?" He asked quietly.
Petunia nodded. "If you haven't already noticed, it's rather difficult to not spot another wizard if you know how to look."
Harry blushed and nodded quietly. "It took me a minute before I figured it out." He said quietly. "Actually, Hermione was the one who pointed me in the right direction."
"You always were a bit of a dolt at times." Petunia said with a smile. "It's good that you married such a wonderful woman."
Harry's eyes took on a dreamy quality and he smiled at his private thoughts. "Yes, I'm the luckiest man alive ..." He said in a dead on impression of Luna Lovegood.
"You better believe it." Hermione said from the kitchen hall.
Harry and Petunia jumped and looked at the beaming woman who was standing there. She had a tulip tucked behind her ear and was holding the hand of their daughter. Lily was smiling happily as she adjusted her dandelion and violet crown that was perched on the top of her head.
"How do we look, Daddy?" She asked with a blush. She fidgeted nervously as she waited for his answer.
Without a word, Harry got to his knee and smiled brightly. "I always knew that I had a princess in my family!" Lily smiled happily and ran into the waiting arms of her father. "You and Mummy look brilliantly beautiful." He said with a laugh.
Hermione walked into the room and smiled at the sight then to everyone's amazement she walked over to Petunia and sighed. "I'm willing to ..." She took a deep breath. "If Harry can push the past behind him, then I guess I can try as well." She finished quietly.
Petunia smiled at her and nodded. "I know it's hard to put what he went through behind you ..." She looked to the floor and fidgeted with the tissue that was still in her hands. "I remember how you used to look at us when you were younger and I don't blame you for hating us for what we did."
Hermione put a hand on the woman's shoulder and nodded quietly. "I can't say that I'll be ok with everything overnight, it will take time, but I'm willing to try."
Harry was surprised at this small exchange but was shocked when Hermione pulled his aunt into a hug. It was a quick, awkward moment, but a good start. Hermione pulled back and smiled slightly.
"I was wondering when you were going to tell the clueless wonder about your secret." She said with a laugh.
"Hey there!" Harry bellowed acting affronted. "I resemble that remark!"
The women burst into laughter and Lily giggled happily in her father's arms. The four of them spent the afternoon catching up and Harry was relieved that he could actually talk about school without the threat of a beating. The hours slipped by and Harry regretted having looked at his watch.
"Well, we've got to go to Mum's house." Harry said quietly. He stood and cradled his daughter in his arms gently. She'd fallen asleep in his lap an hour prior and he couldn't bear waking her up.
"Just let her sleep, Harry." Hermione said with a soft smile. She kissed his shoulder and helped Petunia clean up. Harry was still taken aback when his aunt whipped out her wand and levitated the tray to the kitchen while she straightened the magazines with her free hand.
"This is going to take some getting used to." Harry said with a lopsided grin. Lily shifted in his arms and he looked at her quickly. The tired little girl yawned sleepily and buried her head into his chest.
"She's an adorable little girl, Harry." Petunia said proudly. "You've become such a wonderful father despite everything that's happened ..."
Harry's eyes were twinkling when he looked up and with a glance towards Hermione he cleared his throat. "Well, she's going to make a wonderful big sister ..."
Petunia's eyes lit up as if Christmas had suddenly arrived six months early and held back her excitement. She looked at Hermione and beamed happily. "You're expecting?"
Hermione nodded. "I'm a week along, but yes, we're having another baby."
Aunt Petunia pulled Hermione into a tight hug and released her before it could become uncomfortable for the young woman then she hugged Harry just as hard. "Congratulations!" She said in happy excitement.
The proud parents smiled happily and started towards the door. "You'll be able to owl us anytime you want." Harry said with a grin. "You might know the house we've been living in ... You were there when Voldemort was defeated."
"You're kidding me! Lily and James' old cottage?" She asked in disbelief. "No wonder I couldn't get word to you, the wards on the place are pretty powerful."
"The fidelius charm was broken that night, but the rest of the protections are still in place." Harry said with a soft voice.
"I can't believe that Peter was the one who gave them away ..." Petunia growled angrily. "I couldn't believe the news when they said Sirius did it ..."
Harry smiled. "You really did keep up with the wizarding world, didn't you?"
"How could I not?" She said with a smile. "I was trying to keep my family safe from You-Know-Who ..."
Harry nodded. "I know how you feel." He said with a smile then looked lovingly at Hermione. "I tried to do the same thing, but those I was trying to protect are as stubborn as I am."
"I wasn't about to let you deal with him alone, Harry James Potter!" She said firmly. "You're just lucky that I've forgiven you for locking Ron and me in that broom closet before you tried to leave."
"I keep forgetting that you'd mastered alohomora during first year." He said with a laugh. "I guess I didn't want to do it alone."
Hermione gave him a gentle hug. "I'm glad you didn't."
Petunia laughed and hugged the young couple. "Wait a minute, Harry." She hurried off to another part of the house and returned with a large book. She handed it to Hermione with a smile. "I promised myself that I'd pass this on to you when you found out."
Hermione opened the front cover and a tear traced its way down her cheek. Harry looked over her shoulder and couldn't keep his eyes from misting over. Sitting in the middle of the first page was a picture of his mother waving happily at them from platform nine and three quarters. Aunt Petunia was behind her grinning like there was no tomorrow. The date under the picture put his mother at eleven and he could easily see the excitement on her face.
"It's time you had the entire collection of photos, not just the ones I gave Hagrid of their wedding." She said quietly. She stroked Lily's hair softly and smiled. "Thank you for keeping her alive, Harry ..."
Harry sniffed and with a free arm pulled his aunt into a tight hug. "No, I have to thank you, Aunt Petunia. If it weren't for you, Hermione, Ron and I wouldn't be here ..."
Hermione pulled the two into a tight hug and wiped the tears from her husband's and her faces before tucking the book under her arm. She looked at the woman in front of her and smiled genuinely at her for the first time since she'd met her that first summer. "There's no reason to not keep in touch ..." She said with a smile and Petunia smiled gratefully at the words.
"I won't make that mistake again." She said with a smile. "Let's hope that Hedwig can get past her stubborn streak now ..."
Harry laughed. "It took her nearly three years to get over the fact that I married Hermione!"
"That bird is set in her ways, let me tell you." Hermione said with a giggle. "But let's hope that she can ..."
With a final set of hugs and promises to keep in touch, Harry and his family found themselves driving further from the big city and enjoying the quiet time in the car together. They were soon pulling onto the roads of a very familiar small town in the south of England and pulled to a stop several meters from a precariously built house.
Harry eased his sleeping daughter from her booster seat but the familiar smell of the Weasley garden and the quiet giggles of the garden gnomes brought her out of her slumber.
"We're at Gramma Molly's!" She squealed to the chagrin of her parents.
"Who is that I hear squealing in my garden?!" Molly Weasley called with a laugh from the door. Lily ran full out towards the house and almost leaped into the waiting arms of her grandmother. The two of them giggled like they were old school friends playing some ridiculous game and hugged each other tightly.
"Sorry we're late, Mum!" Harry said with a wave as he worked his way to the boot for their luggage. Hermione had already crossed the distance and pulled her mother-in-law into a warm embrace.
Hermione smiled as he joined the three girls in his life and pulled his adopted mother into a crushing hug.
"Welcome home." Molly Weasley said through her tears of happiness.
A/N: Sorry it's taken so long to get this updated ... as you can see, I've been somewhat busy the past month ... I hope you've enjoyed my rendition of Muddgutts' challenge: Potter Family Holiday ... Next will be some flashbacks that people have been eagerly awaiting! :) Thanks for all the wonderful reviews and I hope you're all still sticking with the story ... I've decided that this one will never, truly, end ...