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88. the next morning
🕑 Added 2025-04-24 11:23:54 +0000 UTC"And more and more of the students are abandoning their house tables to sit at other house tables and they are more willing to make friends with other houses and that is in thanks to Harry and his friends for having the courage to start doing it."
"Slytherin has always gotten the children who need more help, hasn't it?"
"Many of the Death Eater's not immediately imprisoned after the war, fled the country, leaving their families behind in some cases. Many had children who witnessed one or both of their parents being dragged off by Aurors and were left to deal with the wreckage. Marcus Flint for instance. He is the eldest and had to deal with three younger siblings because his mother committed suicide after her husband's arrest."
Lily gasped. "How awful!"
"First year he was an angry, spiteful and vindictive child, but this year I made him a Prefect and I depend on him to let me know if any of the younger children are having problems."
"What happened to his younger siblings?"
"Fortunately they were all taken in by their mother's brother who had nothing to do with You-Know-Who, after Mrs. Flint's suicide. Mr. Flint had refused to allow him to visit the children so when he came to see them Marcus assumed he was from WCS and they would all be taken and separated."
"I guess nobody considered these families suffered too," Lily said.
"No, just as nobody in Muggle world realizes a murderer's family suffers just as much as the family of the person they murdered …maybe even worse."
After lunch, Severus returned to his quarters to grade essays and complete his final exams. He didn't know what Harry's reaction would be to going over to Petunia's tomorrow; he and Lily were going to speak to him about it tonight.
Once he finished correcting the majority of his essays, he left his quarters and went up to the fourth floor and knocked on the door to Lily's quarters. Harry opened the door and let him in. "Hey Dad, how was your day?"
Severus stepped inside and closed the door. Whatever Lily had prepared for dinner, it smelled wonderful. "Actually it went well; better than I thought it would, but your mother and I will explain during dinner."
Lily had prepared Beef bourguignon for dinner along with a salad, fresh rolls and Treacle Tart for dessert.
"Mum, this is delicious," Harry exclaimed. "I'm definitely having seconds!"
"It is very tasty," Severus added. "May I have your recipe? Filius will be swooning over this," he joked. "We have dinner once a month and we try out new recipes we have found. Occasionally Pomona and Minerva join us too."
"So what did you need to tell me?" Harry asked.
"Sev and I went to see Petunia this morning. I've wanted to confront her about the horrible way she treated you ever since I heard about it after my return" Lily explained.
"And what did she say? That I was just a miserable freak that didn't deserve any better treatment?"
Lily sighed and Severus took up the story. "Petunia was married after your mother and James and Black played a very cruel joke on your aunt at her reception."
"They charmed her wedding cake so at the first touch of the knife, it would explode which it did quite spectacularly all over her and Vernon," Lily said. "She said whenever she looked at you; all she could see was Potter's smirking at her as he had after the cake exploded."
"She also said Dumbledore never talked to them about taking you. He just dumped you on their doorstep and didn't even ring the bell. She found you the next morning when she went to set out the empty milk bottles. In addition he left them with no way to contact the wizarding world if they had a problem or question."
"You mean like when I ended up on the roof of the school and the time when I changed my teacher's hair blue. I still don't know how I did that," Harry said. "So maybe some of their treatment was due to not understanding what was going on."
"And frustration about not knowing how to logically explain the things that were happening," Severus added
"I guess it would have been hard for them to explain how my teacher's hair suddenly turned blue."
"Petunia invited us over to dinner tomorrow. She, Vernon, and Dudley want to apologize personally for their awful treatment of you," Lily explained.
"I'm willing to give them a chance. I guess they really weren't given a choice whether to take me and they just couldn't deal with the weird stuff that happened and with no help from any wizards or witches." Harry frowned. "I mean I know their treatment of me was horrible and something no child should be subjected to and while it will be hard to forget; I think I can forgive them. I mean why waste a lot of energy carrying around a grudge?"
"Yes, forgiveness does not mean you are condoning their treatment of you and you are correct; it does take a lot of emotional energy to constantly fuel a grudge," Severus pointed out. "Your mum did make Petunia feel ashamed and guilty about what she did and I do believe she is truly sorry."
"I told her if something had happened to her and Vernon; I would have treated Dudley like my own son and I told her mum and dad would have been horrified and ashamed of her about the way she treated you.""Well, if Dudley is sorry; maybe we can be friends and he'll teach me how to play some of those computer games he likes so well and he might have questions about magic I can answer," Harry replied with a smile. He had a great life now and he didn't want to go around being angry and bitter about his old one.
