Redemption (Dudley Dursley)

XVI. Moving On.

It was a good thing, seeing his mum so happy but at times he does feel like it is forced. Then again though, he had only ever known her as a slightly less control freak than that of his dad. Dudley had never gotten the opportunity to see her nice side and it made him swell with pride that she was doing fine. Not long after her declaration of standing by her son instead of standing by her husband she had kind of retreated in on herself. That is probably normal though for couples who have been married for a very long time going through a divorce.

Speaking of the divorce, all the papers had been signed and filed. Dudley had expected Petunia to keep her surname of Dursley so he was very shocked when he was told that she was changing it back to her maiden name of Evans. Petunia Evans. It didn't quite sit right but he had only ever known her as a Dursley and not any other name. He felt bad for her though because he got the opportunity that she didn't get to have.

He had the chance to properly apologise to Harry and he had done so. Petunia never got the chance to apologise to Lily for everything she put her through because her life was taken far too soon. Now not a single day goes by when Petunia doesn't think about what could have happened, what might have been had she saw the error in her ways before the first war officially started or Lily wasn't killed.

However, she did have some kind of opportunity to show her true colours and that was through the only thing she had left of her sister- Harry. She won't lie by saying that she was fond of him because she never was but he was still family and to her family will always come first no matter what. Harry completely turned her life upside down in a way that she didn't want because then she would be faced with the constant reality over what happened between herself and her sister. That is what she thought though. That is what she wanted- but it wasn't what she needed.

Petunia needed the closure which was why she was spending today cleaning out the room that Harry occupied when he still stayed there. She had only been in there a miniscule three times before he left to fight in a war centred mostly around him. Luckily Dudley and Felicity both agreed to tidy the place up a few weeks ago and there was no longer a thick layer of dust covering absolutely everything. The room wasn't huge, but it was still pretty large. Eventually she ended up throwing most things away but two things she did keep. A single note she had found which was written from Dumbledore and meant for her. She didn't even know that Harry still had it.

The second thing she had decided to keep was the photo album. She wanted to take some of them out and frame them but she didn't want to freak out any guests in her new home with the moving images. She had been exposed to things like this since she was young and it brought back fond memories of when she didn't fight with Lily on a constant basis. Those moments were extremely rare and she treasured them in her mind. Petunia still hadn't forgiven herself, but she was ready to move on and close a chapter of her life and open a brand new one.

Dudley had been spending a lot of time with his mum the past week or so and he was slowly getting used to seeing her so happy all the time. She used to be absolutely miserable and that caused him to stop in realisation that it wasn't just him that Vernon was controlling over. Now neither of the pair had those restraints holding them back and could run around and not need to worry about his reaction. Eventually he is going to have to face Vernon again but right now he is very content in simply staying out of the situation and aiding Petunia in doing such a difficult task.

It's always difficult to leave a place that you spent over half of your life in but she seemed perfectly fine. Her new house was drastically smaller and only had two bedrooms but it was all she needed. The leftover money she got from her old house along with the sizeable amount she agreed to with a pre-nuptial contract with her estranged husband gave her a decent amount so she wouldn't ever have to work yet not really need to worry about debts either.