Lily

Chapter Thirty Eight:

Dudley was not so happy to see the Potter twins return. He couldn't get away with bothering Harry or Lily when he was bored now that Petunia was constantly checking in on them. Vernon still didn't care about the twins, but kept silent when Petunia talked about anything related to them, which wasn't very often.

Lily wasn't necessarily mad at Petunia, but Petunia still felt awkward being around her deceased sister's daughter that looked so much like her. So, the majority of the time after checking to see if Lily was okay, Petunia avoided seeing her. It wasn't the right way to deal with the situation and Petunia knew that, but the right way was hard, and sometimes hard things just felt too out of reach.

When Lily and Harry returned to Privet Drive, at first things were just as they had been the summer before. Then, Lily had her first nightmare away from Hogwarts and the dreamless sleeping draught Madam Pomfrey had provided.

Harry was the one to wake her up when she started mumbling and shaking in her sleep. The next morning, she avoided talking about what the dream had been about, but when Vernon accidentally dropped a box off a shelf resulting in a loud banging noise, she got a panic attack. It had been a while since Lily had one, but this one seemed to last forever in her eyes.

"Harry!" Petunia cried, trying to get the boy to do something since she herself had no idea what was happening.

Lily was curled up in a ball on the floor, shaking and sobbing loudly.

"Lil?" Harry knelt down next to his sister, "Lil? Lily?"

She didn't hear him, and even if she had, she wouldn't have been able to respond.

"What's going on?" Vernon asked cluelessly.

Petunia reached down and before Harry could warn her not to, she touched Lily's shoulder gently. Lily shrieked and flinched away. Petunia burst into tears and ran out of the room. Vernon glanced at Harry and Lily on the floor before choosing to follow after his wife.

"Lil, it's gonna be okay." Harry tried to soothe her, "You're gonna be okay. You are safe, I'm safe, we're all safe-"

"What's wrong with her?" Dudley asked loudly, coming into the room.

"Get out." Harry demanded quietly with venom in his voice, looking at his cousin.

Not accustomed to Harry acting like that, Dudley remained frozen in place.

"What?" He asked.

"I said, get out!" Harry repeated, in a hushed whisper, trying not to upset Lily further.

"Why? What's with her? Is this m-magic?" Dudley asked.

Harry ignored him and began to take deep breathes in hopes Lily would follow suit.

"Take a deep breath with me, Lil." He said softly, "In... and out... in... and out."

She managed to start taking deeper breaths, and the crying slowly faded. Eventually Lily was just sitting on the floor, eyes red and holding her knees close to her chest.

"You're okay, Lil." Harry said soothingly.

"Harry." Vernon said, entering the room, "Go talk to your aunt."

"But-" Harry began to protest.

"Go talk to her! She's upset, she wants to know what happened." Vernon said.

"Lily needs me." Harry shook his head.

"She stopped crying, she's fine. Dudley will watch her, now go!" Vernon commanded.

"I'll be right back." Harry reassured his sister before following Vernon out of the room.

Dudley stared down at his cousin on the floor. He shifted around awkwardly.