Secrets She Kept » Harry Potter

Part 36

Petunia had really tried to hold on, she had fought so hard to beat the illness. Yet fate had other ideas and sadly Petunia's breaths became shallow, slowing by the minutes as they ticked by on the large wooden clock that sat beside the front door. Petunia had accepted that her time was nearing completion on this plane of existence.

Although Petunia had used the living room as her temporary oasis for the short time she had enjoyed being home in her childhood home, her children had brought her up to her old bedroom. In truth, she had avoided being in the room where she had experienced both pain and pleasure. Ultimately it had been the room where she had made the decision to allow her children to be protected from the dark wizards that wished them harm, especially at the risk that the twins would be pulled into a terrible fate. They were the product of an affair with a Death  Eater. 

The Muggle woman was in such a state that she appeared frail and tiny on the massive bed that lay in the large room. Each of her children surrounded her, including both Harry and Ginny. Sorrow surround the mother figure, yet Petunia's thoughts were trying to remain positive. She had given them a good life, full of different opportunities to succeed in whatever they desired in either the Muggle or wizarding world. 

She thought how different this day may have been if she had remained married to Vernon Dursley. Petunia assumed he would send her to a hospice to die alone, not caring to visit as she would've been a cost to him. Vernon would've made it clear how bitter he was having to surround himself with sick and dying persons. Then her thoughts travelled to how much different Dudley would be than the man he had transformed himself into. She was so proud of what he had achieved from being his father's spoilt young son. Petunia wasn't sure if she would've had much of a relationship with Harry after he had turned eighteen. He would've moved far and not cared that his aunt was dying as she would've caused more pain towards him than what she already had from her old selfish state.

The youngest children wouldn't exist in this world if it hadn't been finally getting the courage to leave the abusive Muggle man. She thought she would've been gone from this earth much quicker than time had allowed her, from different circumstances.

In the evenings, Millie had taken to engulfing the information in the book that had presented itself from her late aunt's belongings. Using the help of a flashlight she looked at the different healing spells and potions, she knew that she didn't have the time or ingredients to go with brewing such a potion. So out of desperation with her current predicament, she had found her old wooden wand that had sat abandoned since her childhood lessons. It felt so odd to hold such a foreign object, yet she shrugged off the odd feelings as she followed the instructions in the textbook.

The faint glow under the door of the guest bedroom that Millie had taken over in the short stay, had captured the attention of the older brother George. He had been wandering the hallways trying to tire himself from the negative thoughts he had been having, he was going to miss his mother. The dim blue flashing lights from the slightly ajar door adjusted his emotions to curiosity. 

Pushing the door open he is shocked to see his teenage sister whispering an enchantment with an open book in front of her as she sits on the wooden floor, cross-legged as she held her wand up towards the ceiling. It was a sight he never imagined seeing. 

The sound of the door creaking made Millie stop immediately, panic washing over her as she turned to see George standing there amused. "I see you've remembered how to perform basic wandwork." Making light of the situation. "'But you know performing any spell here in the UK is illegal." That rule was valid to any wizard that hadn't graduated from Hogwarts or another school and risks breaking the laws of secrecy and performing underage spells.

Millie's wand hits the floor, still in her hand. "What are they gonna do?"' She quizzed her brother sarcastically. "Break my wand because I was trying to find a cure for our mother to live?"

That subject hit his brother, making his smirk fall from his pale face. It became expressionless. "Mills, you know what the doctors said-"

George was cut off by his sister. "Miracles happen every day George!" She reminded him, raising her voice. "I thought this stupid book would work." Millie was annoyed she had been interrupted, but perhaps her brother was right and nothing could save her mother, the cancer had spread too much and Petunia's body was failing her.

"We've tried everything we could," George admits. He and George had spent countless hours exploring different spells that could prolong Petunia's life, nothing had been successful. They tried to remain hopeful there was something that worked. "I've even tried some of the complex spells only wizarding doctors are allowed to use, that are highlighted in that very book."

It finally dawned on Millie, she thought this was a rare old book. She had been mistaken, being the stupid little girl once more. "Of course." The girl muttered throwing the book against the wall annoyed. She didn't care if she had woken her twin brother in the next room as she threw her wand with more force, sadly it didn't break as she had hoped. "We're just going to be the orphan half-breeds." That had been a term she had overheard in her brief time at her time at Hogwarts, she was considered a half-blood with the knowledge that her biological father had been of magical origin. 

"We will still have each other." George reminds his sister. "No matter how much crap we have to deal with, we will still protect and support each other. Family won't abandon you, ever."

Tears formed on Millie's face. "But mum is..."

George rushed over and offered his sister a hug, being a much stronger frame than her he held her higher than expected. "She will never leave you, mum will always be there in spirit, cheering you on." He reminds his sister.