16 - Surprise

Petunia hates the crowded shops of London, and she wishes she were home already. She's tired from a whole day of waiting and calming Harry down during various examinations at the hospital, Dudley is whiny, and Harry resorted to constant, quiet sobbing several hours ago.

On top of it all, Harry is suddenly gone from her hand and bumping into a stranger some feet away. She sighs, intending to approach and apologise, but Harry’s voice makes her freeze where she stands.

“Remus! Remus!”

The stranger stares at the boy clinging to him, looking just as shocked as Petunia feels.

“Harry?”

.-.-.-.

17 - Visit

Petunia and Remus Lupin are having tea and chatting politely, Harry having climbed on the visitor’s lap almost as soon as he sat down. Petunia hates that he is a wizard. She doesn’t want anything to do with their world, and he doesn’t belong here – in her kitchen, her life.

“Remus,” Harry says again, smiling brightly, and Petunia suppresses a sigh. How could she refuse to see the man who makes Harry smile like this, the man who makes him speak?

When Lupin has to leave Harry starts crying, and it's only then that Petunia asks him to visit again.

.-.-.-.

18 - Impressions

Remus’s first impression is that James and Lily would turn in their graves if they could see their son: an eight-year-old boy in nappies, who sometimes drools and doesn’t speak a word beside Remus’s name.

But he visits again, and each time, he sees other things, too, and his impression changes. He sees the boys play together, sees Harry smile and laugh with Dudley. He sees Mrs. Dursley hold and kiss her nephew, treating him as if he were her own.

He was wrong, he realises. James and Lily would be pleased - pleased to know that Harry is loved.

.-.-.-.

19 - Mum

Dudley is with his father, Petunia and Harry having dinner at home. Suddenly, Harry stops eating, looking at Petunia intently.

“Mum,” he says as though it were the most natural thing on earth, as though he’d said it a thousand times already.

Petunia feels dizzy and close to tears, but she doesn’t know if she could stop were she to cry, and she doesn’t want to frighten him. All she manages is a smile, and that seems enough for Harry.

“Mum,” he says again, then goes on eating, and for this precious evening, all her fears and regrets are forgotten.

.-.-.-.

20 - Gratitude

It’s been only a few weeks since he called Petunia “Mum,” but now Harry is talking daily, naming people and objects like any normal toddler would.

His speech therapist and doctors are amazed. They didn’t think any more that he’d ever learn to speak. He must have had the potential all along, they suspect, but something blocked him from using it.

Petunia is sure that she knows what rendered Harry silent, and she also knows whom she has to thank for his voice. She starts thinking that it’s not Mr. Lupin’s fault, after all, that he was born a wizard.
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