Petunia wakes from a slight doze in the rocking chair of the boys' room feeling a soft, wavering pulse of magic brush against her being.
A faint ache that isn't hers.
Fear like a distant echo.
Exhaustion so deep it settles behind her ribs.
[Stage 1 stabilization.]
Her system said that like it was clinical, simple.
It doesn't feel simple.
She walks over to the crib where the two barely even toddlers slept. Her hand reached out and brushed Dudley's blonde curls before touching Harry's dark waves. They were real, she hadn't dreamed of them.
Harry lets out a tiny whimper.
The bond tugs at her mind — comfort him— and she finds herself gently picking him and rocking instinctively, murmuring soft nonsense into his hair.
The fear eases.
The exhaustion doesn't.
She presses a light kiss to the top of his head, her lips brushing the still red scar. She frowns at it, and promises herself she won't let Harry suffer as he did in canon...no matter what it takes, no matter what she'll have to do.
"I've got you," she whispers, letting the words warm both of them. "You're safe. I swear it."
A soft chime flickers across her vision.
[Anchor Bond Strength Increase: +7%]
[Emotion Bleed: Mild – Distress detected]
She frowns.
Emotion bleed.
A connection so open that Harry's feelings bleed into her own.
No wonder she feels raw.
---
The nursery's door slams open.
"Petunia!"
She stiffens instinctively — old reflex, old marriage — but her arms tighten around Harry instead of loosening. She glances toward Dudley only to hear a light snore come from him, at least he didn't wake from that.
Vernon stands red-faced in the doorway, mustache bristling like an angry badger.
"What is that—that thing doing in our house at this hour? I told you to we would have nothing to do with your sister and her freakishness—"
Petunia stiffens.
"She's dead, her and James were murdered tonight. Harry was left on our doorstep."
"Well go back and leave him out there, maybe by morning the problem will have gone away."
Petunia's teeth grinded, she knew what he didn't say but meant.
"No."
The word leaves her before she thinks.
Vernon blinks.
Petunia rarely contradicts him. She rarely breathes without measuring whether he'll approve.
But now?
Petunia feels Harry stir on her shoulder, sensing tension. Fear flickers down their bond like static.
Petunia positions Harry against her shoulder — away from Vernon, shielded.
"I said no," she repeats, voice trembling but solid. "He stays."
Vernon's face turns a dangerous shade of plum.
"Petunia, this is—this is madness! That boy is—he's unnatural! He's—"
Harry's magic shivers.
A warning.
A spark of gold curls off his blanket like a firefly.
Petunia steps back not wanting the man before her anywhere near Harry, something fierce settling into her bones.
"Stop yelling," she snaps quietly. "You're frightening him."
"I am not—"
Harry's magic flares.
Not violently, not yet — but enough to ruffle Vernon's hair and send a cold draft rippling through the room.
Vernon yelps, stumbling backward until he hits the doorframe.
"Petunia! Make it stop!"
She doesn't look at Vernon.
She focuses entirely on the trembling little weight in her arms.
"Shh… Harry, sweetheart. I've got you. You're safe. I'm here."
Her voice softens, dropping low and melodic.
The flare subsides.
The bond tightens, settles.
[Stabilizing magical core…]
[Accidental surges decreasing.]
[Harry James Potter: Emotional state > Calming.]
As the golden sparks fade, Vernon wheezes.
"What—what did you do to it?"
Petunia finally turns to him.
This time, she's not the brittle, resentful woman he married.
She is older.
Sharper.
Less willing to be stepped on.
"I protected him."
Vernon's eyes bulge.
"You protected—Petunia, you do realize what you're saying—"
"I do."
And she does.
She realizes it down to her bones.
Her reincarnated soul aches at how familiar this fight is — the pushback, the disbelief, the way a man tries to make her feel foolish for caring.
But this is not the life she lived before.
And she is not the woman she was before.
"You need to calm down," she tells him. "Or leave the room."
Vernon sputters, opens his mouth to shout—
But Harry stirs again and Petunia moves instantly, instinctively shielding his head with her hand.
Her protective stance isn't aggressive.
But it's absolute.
And Vernon sees it.
He takes a step back.
Then another.
Suspicion floods his eyes — suspicion and something much uglier: fear.
Fear of Harry.
Fear of magic.
Fear of the wife who is suddenly not as malleable as she was yesterday.
Petunia meets his stare with a quiet resolve.
"We'll talk in the morning," she says gently but firmly. "Not now."
Vernon hesitates, then storms away, muttering curses under his breath.
The door slams shut.
Harry shivers.
Petunia presses her cheek to his soft hair.
"It's alright."
Her voice cracks.
"You're alright. He won't touch you. Not ever."
The bond floods warm.
A soft chime follows.
[Bond Strength Increase: Minor]
[Caretaker Ability Tier Unlocked]
[Recommended Purchase: Basic Healing (Ascendance of a Bookworm)]
[Cost: 50,000 SC]
She blinks.
Healing.
For a moment, she sees flashes — rubbing Harry's back to ease magic-sickness someday, soothing Dudley's scrapes, stabilizing an overstimulated magical toddler.
"…Worth it."
Her post-divorce assets — her system-coins inheritance — glow faintly.
[System Coins: 2,000,000 SC > 1,950,000 SC]
[Purchase Complete.]
[Ability Integrated.]
A soft warmth fills her hands, a tingling warmth like starlight settling under her skin.
She exhales shakily.
Harry sleeps on, peaceful now.
The bond holds him like a cocoon.
Petunia settles back in the rocking chair and curls protectively around him.
In her old life, she grieved a child she never held.
In this one?
She holds a child who needs her more than anyone ever has.
"Sleep, love," she whispers into the quiet room. "I'll handle the rest."
The bond pulses once — a soft, grateful thrum.
And for the first time in this new life, Petunia relaxes too.