Miss Leanna O' Brian was a young woman, having only moved out of the orphanage she grew up in some years previous, but she was good friends with Mrs. Dursley, from Number Four across the street. So, good friend that she was, when she saw a tiny bundle of baby in a black blanket on Petunia's front porch, she abandoned her milk bottles and marched right over, picked up the baby, and knocked on the front door.
Petunia opened the door, and Leanna could hear Dudley screaming in the background. She had told her friend so many times to ignore the crying, but she never did. She put aside her thoughts, however, when Petunia asked somewhat sleepily, "Yes Leanna?" in a tone that said quite clearly that if it was not terribly important, that Leanna could go away.
Leanna rolled her eyes. "Hullo, Pet. I found a baby on your front porch, but if you're still tired, I can go jump off a cliff."
That snapped Petunia out of her sl;eepy stupor. "What?" she asked in a dark tone.
Leanna raised an eyebrow. This was the tone she kept on telling the silly woman to take with Vernon when he was being an arse, but no, Pet wouldn't listen then... "I. Found. A. Baby. On. Your. Front Step. Peh. Tune. Ee. Yah," she said as if talking to a very small child.
Petunia's eyes widened. "It's not- It can't be- Is it-"
"Lily's kid?" Leanna was right in between Petunia and Lily's ages, and had gone to Primary school with them after coming to the orphanage when she was seven.
Petunia nodded. "I dunno, knocked on your door soon as I saw the kid. Should we read the letter together, or you want me to leave?"
Petunia started to nod, but stopped herself mid-way. "No. No, I think you should read it with me, Anna."
The blonde led the dark-haired brunnette into the kitchen, and after setting the bundle onto the table, opened the letter, with Leanna reading over her shoulder.
'Petunia-
I beg of you, take in this child. This is Harry James Potter, Lily's son. Her home was attacked last night, and she and her husband died. As Lily died protecting her son, he is protected by very old magic, which will keep him safe so long as he is with his mother's blood. I ask that you treat him as your own son, in Lily's memory. I know that you and your family are opposed to magic, and should you take the boy in, I will assure you that no child of yours will ever be a witch or wizard, if that is your wish.
My Deepest Regrets,
Albus Dumbledore.'
Petunia was shaking by the end of the short letter, and Leanna wasn't sure if it was fron sadness or anger. She touched her friends' shoulder gently. "Pet. Pet, it's alright. It'll be okay. Do you-"
"I don't want to talk about it, Leanna." Petunia's voice sounded rough, hollow.
"That's fine, then. Are you going to keep the child?"-
Petunia sighed, and her shoulders sagged. "I suppose I'll- Wait one moment, Leanna Augusta O' Brian. You're taking that magic bit in the letter quite well. You already knew about magic, didn't you?"
Leanna froze. She knew how much her friend hated her old world. "Well... I did. I do. I was born into it, but I'm not magic, so I was dumped at St. Catherine's. Please don't be angry."
Petunia huffed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Fine. Fine. Fine. I'll get angry later. Do you know anything about this, then?"
Leanna grimaced, trying to smile. She pulled a day-old newspaper from her handbag. "I... They're calling him the Boy-Who-Lived. It's terrible. Disgusting, really."
Petunia scanned over the article, dutifully ignoring the moving pictures of the destroyed house at Godric's Hollow. She sat back. They heard Vernon turn on the shower. "I can't keep him Leanna. But I can't let him stay here. Where will we keep him - the cupboard? I don't want to keep him, Vernon won't want to keep him, and Dudley is already throwing eggs at the child. That... that world looks at him like the second coming of Christ. If he grows up here, he'll either hate magic... or he'll hate us. I may not have liked my sister, but I'm not prepared to have her son hate me, or her. But I have to keep him." Her tone made it abundantly clear how much she did not like it.
"Well... I admit, I know very little about Lily's lot, but when I was little, before my family found out that I wasn't a you know what, I spent a lot of time in my family's library. I loved reading about ancient magic... He doesn't have to stay with you, Pet. Just your family, anyone related for the past... nine or so generations, I'd say. Didn't you have a family tree made up some time back? It went back to the sixteen hundreds, didn't it?"
Petunia nodded. "I had one for both sides of my family and did the same for Vernon's. All four of them go back to the fifteen hundreds."
Leanna nodded. "So we look at them, tell Vernon that you just have to keep the kid until you contact some cousin or other, and then we find one to take him. Well?"
Petunia smiled a little. "Fine. Help me with Dudley, will you?"