Chapter Text
The summer air that had been stifling the midlands for the past week had yet to make it to London by the time the train arrived. Despite it having been a scorching twenty-eight degrees when she left home in the early morning, Kings Cross barely registered at twenty-two degrees. And so Petunia Evans sat beyond the barrier, in shorts and a halter top, wondering if this was some punishment of her sisters’ doing. It wouldn’t be far fetched- after all, her sister was a witch, and a gifted one at that.
The news had come on their shared eleventh birthday, when Lily (who had already dictated the theme of their party- fairy garden, much to Petunia’s chagrin) received an owl inviting her to the wizard school. Their parents had been thrilled, having a witch in the family- thought it had been known for some time then. The confirmation however, was with the letter, neatly printed, and addressed to one Miss Lily Evans.
Petunia, who at that age was still an optimist, had gritted her teeth, sure that her own owl would arrive. First, she had decided that it would come eleven days later- as she had been born eleven minutes before Lily, and it was clear that wizards were odd folks who worked in riddles and secrets. When that time had passed and nothing had come, she convinced herself that it would come within eleven weeks. When that date too passed and the school term drew nearer, she wrote to the headmaster. They shared blood, and had shared a womb, they had been born together, certainly there had been some mistake. If Lily was special, she was too- it just hadn’t shown yet.
But that was not how wizards worked. The headmaster- an old fool named Dumbledore- had written her back, explaining that Lily would be the only one attending the school, as she possessed magic and that Petunia did not, but he was appreciative of her writing to him. From that point on she did not care for the pomp of it all, nor anything to do with the silly little school. Clearly, if they could not recognize her talent, then those in attendance were frauds of the worst kind. And what would she get anyways? There was no use learning to pull a rabbit from a hat or transfigure a porcupine into a pincushion. It was frivolous, dangerous, and quite frankly embarrassing. What life was that, held on the outskirts, forced into secrecy? The more years that had passed, the less bitter she had become, and instead had convinced herself that she had dodged a particularly horrible bullet.
The students, many still in their robes and hats, had begun pouring through the barrier, appearing on the muggle side as though they had stepped through a door instead of a brick wall. Petunia sighed, tugging at the hem of her shorts,and then worrying at the tiny pills of fabric on her top. When neither would quite settle in the way that she liked, she took to her hair, fiddling the delicate blonde strands into a bun before letting it down again, unhappy with the way that it bumped and pulled, looking neither chic nor put together.
A group of boys dressed in scarlet robes brushed passed her, so close that she took a step back. There were four of them; a tall scarred boy who smiled gently at her in apology, a small round boy who was seemingly invisible to his friends, a handsome raven haired boy who looked not unlike some fairy tale knight, and a boy with messy black hair and round glasses whose voice filled the entirety of Kings Cross station.
“I’m telling you Padfoot!” He said, giving no notice to Petunia as he walked past. “She snogged me on our last rounds! Granted, she had drank quite a bit of Firewhiskey- you know well as I do the stuff Marls brews is deadly. But I think she might actually go out with me now, after, well, you know.”
“Are you really sure you didn’t dream it?” The raven haired boy teased in an upper crust accent. “Honestly Prongs, we wont judge. Well, Moony wont judge you.”
“I might judge you.” The scarred boy said, though he didn’t sound as if he meant it.
They continued on, moving down the station and out of earshot, though Petunia could still pick up the sound of the loud boy over the reuniting families. Most of the children and teenagers walked to parents who stood further back than she did. Some walked off on their own, presumably living in the Greater London Area, or perhaps meeting someone later on.
Then there was Lily, stepping through the barrier in her scarlet robes, surrounded in a sea of green. Her green eyes trailed around, clearly looking for their father and not Petunia.
Petunia crossed her arms, and cleared her voice, hoping her sister would hear over the bustle of the station. When she didn’t look, Petunia gave a short wave and called her name, short and sharp.
“Lily!”
Lily’s eyes snapped to her, as though she was some illusion at the train station, that if she looked at Petunia hard enough, she would simply turn out to be some slight of hand that her freaks of friends had pulled.
“Pet! I wasn’t expecting you, was dad held up in his shop? Oh never mind that- I’ve missed you!” She said after a long moment, stepping forward quickly to hug her sister. She was warm as always, bright auburn hair to Petunias dull straw, curves and gentle softness where Petunia had none. She was radiant, and beautiful, and in the worst way knew neither of this things. It made that pit in Petunia’s stomach grow more violent, that her perfect sister was oblivious to things any sane girl would not only want, but flaunt if she had.
“He’s sick again.” Petunia said, refusing the hug and pulling away from Lily instead- better to be straight to the point with it. Their father had been sick on and off for the last several years, so this wasn’t shocking news. Lily had brought home this and that over time, but nothing mad him better for long, by the time she was back at school, he was ill again.
“Oh.” Lily’s face fell. “I didn’t- I’m sorry. I haven’t heard anything from mum. Is she alright?”
Petunia shrugged. “Come on. I want to get out of London before traffic is too bad. I have things to do you know- and just because mum thinks you’re some delicate thing that needs to be coddled does not mean I share that judgement. I personally was for having you take the train, but alas, overruled.”
Lily however, looked behind them, to the group of boys wearing emerald. “Uhm, sorry Severus, I thought-“ she looked to her sister, as though Petunia could read her mind and would know how to end the conversation. But only one of them was magical. She hadn’t given much thought to the idea if these freaks could read minds, and the mere prospect of it wore on her temper even more. Then there was the other issue at present.
Of course Severus was there. He had been their neighbor for as long as Petunia could remember and unlike Lily was magical by lineage. He had spent his childhood days terrorizing Petunia, and being head over heels obsessed with Lily. Even before Lily had known she was magic, he had stared at her, not unlike the way a fox might stare at a chicken coop, knowing he couldn’t breach it, but wanting nothing more. There had been some falling out between them at some point- it came in the form of a fifteen page letter, that laid Lily’s heart out in blue tinted ink. He had called her something nasty, and in turn, she no longer was friends with him. Petunia had told her mother she didn’t care to know the details, but their mother had insisted that just once, she write to her sister at school. The letter had been short and simple.
“I told you so.”
She hadn’t bothered to sign it, if Lily bothered to read it, she would know whom it was from, and that it had been forced by their mother’s hand. It served her right in some ways, perfect lovely Lily not being so perfect after all.
“You’re bringing us to Cokeworth.” Severus said haughtily, filling the silence. He looked to the other boys, a conspiratorial look passing between them.
“Excuse you?” Petunia asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I kind of promised.” Lily blurted out, her cheeks reddening to almost match her robes. “Sev- Severus helped me with a potion. For dad, you know the one I brought home at Christmas?”
“Yeah, lot of good that did.” Petunia chided, glaring a Severus. “And unsurprisingly he’s still sick, still in hospital.”
“Yes.” Severus said dryly. “And if I hadn’t intervened he’d be dead in an early grave, funny isn’t that Petunia? Is that what you want, mother grieving, sister unable to say goodbye, pay her respects?” His right hand went for his wand, which was carried on his left hip, not concealed in the folds of his belted robes how Lily normally did.
“Severus.” Lily warned, crossing her arms.
But Petunia wasn’t scared of him, not anymore. “Oh please you wouldn’t risk it. No magic outside of school, I know your silly rules- probably to not embarrass yourself, right?”
She nearly laughed, but there was some pleading opinion Lily’s face that made her stop short.
“And yet, I’m seventeen, the exact age they no longer care. Me, your sister, even Evan here. Of course Barty and Regulus-“ he nodded his head towards two of the boys- one of them baring an uncanny resemblance to the boy she had seen earlier with his ravens hair and piercing looks. “can only watch, but wouldn’t that be fun? Don’t you want a little excitement, Petunia? I could make that sharp mouth say anything I want, I could have you groveling at our feet.”
“But you won’t.” Lily cut in, her hand going to her wand. “Not in front of muggles.”
“And what will she do at home?” He leaned in, his voice dropping to an exaggerated whisper. “You know she doesn’t count to the ministry, not really.”
“That’s quite enough.” Petunia said, drawing herself up to her full height. She was tall, not as tall as Severus, but tall enough that he could not glare down at her quite the way he could at her sister. “You people, disgusting and lowly as you are, still have rules. You won’t frighten me Severus. You nor any of your little friends. Lily come on, we are leaving.”
She took her sister roughly by her arm, spinning her around and marching off towards the car. Although the hairs on her arm stood, screaming about the danger she had just turned her back to, she did not look over her shoulder. Severus has to be bluffing, and even if he wasn’t she knew there were ways that his kind were dealt with. Horrible ghastly ways that made the worst British prison look like a sanctuary. But it didn’t matter, he wasn’t going to attack her, she reminded herself, and all looking back would do would be give him the satisfaction that he had gotten under her skin.
“Petunia maybe we should-“ Lily however did look back over her shoulder, not with fear, but as though she expected Severus and his group to follow them.
“Lily, I am not driving them, they’re adults, or so they clearly think, they can figure it out themselves. I thought you weren’t friends with him anyways?”
“I’m not, but he’s the best chance dad’s got.” She crossed her arms defensively. “I can’t- Petunia I don’t know half the things he knows about potions- he’s the best in our year by a long shot.”
“What him and his little gang? Please they looked ridiculous.”
Lily climbed into the passenger seat. “I don’t know them well- they, they don’t like people like me.” She admitted, the words almost spilling forward as if in a confessional. “They’re all in our year- besides Barty, I think he’s a year younger. Regulus has a brother who’s in my house, they’re the same year, even though they’re not twins, something about the cutoff for enrollment made it possible. Evan is the brother of one of my friends, Pandora-“
“I don’t care.” Petuina’s voice was ice. “They’re freaks, you’re a freak,and I don’t want to talk about them, or your school or anything to do with it.”
“But-“
“I. Do. Not. Care.” Petunia said bitterly, throwing the car into gear and driving aggressively out of the lot.
“Thank you for coming to get me.” Lily said finally, after several long minutes of silence. “I know it’s hard for you.”
Petunia scoffed. “Can you do magic outside of school now? Was he telling the truth?”
Lily seemingly pulled in on herself, drawing her knees up to her chest so that she was perched on the edge of the seat like a bird ready to take flight. “Yes, kind of? There’s traces on us until we’re seventeen, as soon as our birthday passes, so does that trace. But I won’t- I promise, it’s just-”
But Petunia just waved her hand. “I’ve heard enough.” She said flippantly. “You’ve chosen your path.”
“Petunia…” Lily’s voice trailed off, her eyes darting to the road. There was something in her sister’s posture that made Petunia glance over at her. They were outside the city, though Petunia swore it should taken them longer. perhaps, she told herself, she had just driven too fast. But there was Lily’s face, and then her hand, going straight for her robes, her feet planting firmly on the car floor.
And then Petunia saw, though it was far too late to properly react. The boys in the green robes materializing in the road in front of her, this time with two others, dressed in ornate black robes. She wondered if her sister had felt it, like some sick shift in the universe, the perversion of nature that her kind were.
“SWERVE!” Lily yelled, reaching over herself and jerking the wheel. The car went airborne for a moment, and then it was falling, tumbling down an embankment towards a small field that looked to be growing oats or wheat or something of the sort. Though it should have rattled them, the car seemingly transformed mid-air, its interior grabbing both of them with a soft foam as the rolling car came to a halt.
Lily, whose wand was drawn fully, gave it another swish, muttering something under her breath so that the car seemingly clambered back onto its wheels., not in its side where it come to lay.
“You said no magic!” Petunia hissed as the interior came back to normal, “honestly Lily it’s not that I didn’t expect it from you, but-“
“Are you seriously going to ignore that I just saved your life?” Lily looked at her bewildered, undoing her own seatbelt with shaking hands.
“Please, I’m sure I wouldn’t have killed them, and if I did, it was their fault, they were in the middle of the road!”
“I don’t care about that!” Lily reached over, undoing Petunia’s seatbelt, and pulling her sister across the bench with such force that she had no option but to go with her. The door was open in an instant, and they tumbled out, Lily letting go on Petunia and scanning the embankment they had just come down. She looked nothing like the sister Petunia had remembered. She looked competent, ready to fight- the softness extinguished. “You need to run, okay? I can hold them off, well I can try, but please, please you have to run.”
“You have got to be joking.” Petunia hissed. “Lily what on earth is going on?”
Lily shook her head, her eyes pleading. “Pet, run, please, run.”
And just like that, the ground opened up. Lily screamed something, a bright blue doe erupting from her wand as she did, it galloped feverishly towards the blast, bowing its head low.
“JAMES!” Lily screamed. “FIND JAMES!”
The doe turned back towards her, bowing low before shooting off. Petunia, who realized only then she had rooted to the spot with the blast, turned on her heels, and began to run. She fell forward, as her trainer snagged on something, only to have a jet of red light stream over her as her hands collided with the ground, ripping her palms in several places. She got back to her feet as Lily’s kind cracked into existence around her, jets of light streaming though the afternoon air and lighting up the sky around them. There were five distinct cracks that she heard, though seemingly more people than that.
Her eyes trailed wildly, looking for some cover. There was a small patch of trees, maybe a hundred yards off, and she darted like a rabbit from the underbrush, hoping that no one saw her. She could hear her sister’s voice still, screaming her curses or hexes or whatever nonsense she was doing, though she dared not look back.
To look was not only to know, but to confront the ugly truth of it all. The trees were right there after all, and they were not magic. They were perfectly normal trees, welcoming her in to their safety. If she could just reach them, this would once again be an entire world away.
Twenty paces.
Fifteen paces.
Ten paces.
She pushed harder, lengthening her stride, and meeting the trees headlong, crashing into them and not caring that they scraped at her face or her arms. She retreated as far as she dared, only stopping to turn once she was concealed in the heart of the thick. It did its job to conceal most of the flashes, but she could still hear the voices, shrill and taunting- though there were more of them now. She thought she heard the boy from the platform with the grating loud voice, but she couldn’t be sure.
Part of her hoped they were there to help her sister, but there was a growing cynicism in her that made that seem unlikely.
“Hello.” A voice from above her called.
She startled, covering her mouth as a small scream erupted.
The boy with the raven colored hair in the emerald robes leapt down from a tree branch, with such grace that it was hard to believe it was anything other than magic. He was tall, with nearly two heads on her, skin that looked as though it didn’t know what the sun was, and grey eyes the color of wolf’s fur.
“I don’t want to hurt you.” He said, his voice gentle and deeply English, accented only in the way that came from years of the best upbringings. Perhaps she could have believed him if he wasn’t circling her not unlike she was his prey. Perhaps she would have thought he was handsome, if she didn’t know what he was.
“Then let me go.” She said. “I know your rules- my sister is one of your kind.”
He laughed, soft and low. “Yes. Yes we do have rules, though your sister is nothing like me, nor my kind as you so put it. May I?” He reached for her hand. “You seem injured. I can help you, you know.”
“Who- who are you?” She hated the way her voice left her, betraying her heart with shakiness.
“Seems I’ve forgotten my manners. I’m Regulus, Regulus Black. And I’ve gathered that you are the little mudblood’s sister. What did she call you again? Pet? Are you like a rabbit or something?” A smile formed across his face, not friendly, but foreboding.
She took a step back from him, holding her hand close to her, but he barged forward, taking two long steps to close the distance between them. “Funny thing, about our rules, there is all sorts of loopholes, and when you know the right people, have the right standing, it’s like they don’t exist at all.” He snatched her hand, pulling it out as if to examine the extent of the damage. “Take me, for example. You hear the noise, right?”
Petunia nodded.
“Funny thing, the trace, as Severus said I have it still. The law states that I shouldn’t be able to do any magic, not here. But that noise? That fighting? They wouldn’t be able to tell I cast a single thing, only that I was there, near the casting. Are you following me?” He squeezed her hand tightly, causing blood to well to the surface where the scrapes were.
She wanted to scream and pull back in pain, but she would not allow herself. She looked him in the eye, drawing all her courage, and nodded again.
“It really is only for those like your sister, to protect you from her. But ironically, our laws don’t protect you from us. I can do anything I wish with you. Anything at all, so long as my friends out there put on a good show.”
Petunia took a deep breath, letting it out in a huff, as though this was not impressive. “Little error in your plan.” She stepped forward, invading into his space as though he was a man half his size. “Lily knows who you are. I know who you are. What ever you do, whenever you’re done, I will go to the authorities and identify you. Have you not thought about that?”
“And why would our authorities believe a muggle?”
“They’d believe Lily.”
“Not-“ he paused, leaning down to leer over her. “If she doesn’t remember.”
He spoke something- and then there was darkness. And she was falling, falling, falling, as though the ground had never existed and never would again.