Chapter 1
The olive branch was offered on a dull grey Saturday in December. Petunia Evans sat in her childhood bedroom, looking out the window into the backyard. A sad smile graced her lips for a moment before she noticed her sister standing in the doorway.
“Petunia?” Lily said quietly. “I wanted to apologize… for how James acted last night.”
Petunia turned to look at her sister, feeling some coiling up in her chest. Lily had always been the prettier of the two, her hair was a coppery red color, and fell well past her shoulders, today it was tied back in a simple ponytail – giving her the illusion of being the young girl Petunia used to love. Her green eyes were already filling with unshed tears as she looked down at her bear feat, wiggling her toes against the hardwood floor.
“Don’t be daft,” Petunia said quietly. “Vernon was being a jerk.” And wasn’t that the whole reason she’d started dating him in the first place? A normal, boring man, who didn’t like anything out of the ordinary – he was exactly the sort of man that Petunia thought she wanted in her life – anything to cement her place in this boring, non-magical world.
Lily looked at her, surprise written across her youthful face. “Petunia?” she cocked her head to the side, “James didn’t give you anything to eat or drink did he?”
Petunia blinked at her sister, “is he likely to do that?” she wondered aloud.
Lily covered her mouth to hide her smile. “James likes his jokes.” She stepped further into the room, hesitated, before finally moving to sit beside her sister on the bed, folding her legs up underneath her. “He means well, but…” she shrugged her shoulders.
Petunia sighed quietly before she turned fully to face Lily, pulling her feet up onto the bed as well. She couldn’t remember the last time they had done this, sat together in Petunia’s room just talking. “I’m surprised,” she admitted. “When Mum said you’d be bringing a boy home, I thought it would be the other one.”
Lily’s smile slipped before she shook her head. “No, I’m afraid he and I aren’t friends anymore.”
“Why’s that?” Petunia asked, surprised. “I’ve never known you to break off a friendship with anyone unless they’ve done something horrible.”
“I think that’s the problem.” Lily admitted, “He hasn’t done anything horrible yet, beyond call me a rude name. The problem is… I think he will do horrible things later.” She looked at her sister, obviously wondering how much she should share with her.
Petunia cocked her head. “Well, go on then. I’d be a terrible sister… well, a worse one than I’ve already been, if I didn’t listen to you vent at least once.”
Lily giggled, “You aren’t a terrible sister, Petunia. I think if I’d been the one in your shoes… I wouldn’t like me very much either.” She swallowed hard. “I am sorry, you know that, right?”
“For what?”
“Rubbing it in your face like the little brat that I am.” Lily awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck, a sheepish expression on her face. “You know, mum threatened me with a wooden spoon once when an owl came in saying that I’d done magic outside of school again. She hated getting those letters – I’m lucky to have just gotten a warning that summer.”
Petunia knew which summer she was talking about. Lily had been twelve, and she had turned their grandmother’s tea set into dormice. “I’d nearly forgotten that,” she lied.
Lily gave her a look. “You stopped talking to me that summer,” she said quietly. “I wrote to you nearly every day when I went back to school, but you never wrote back. I knew you were furious with me.”
“I rather liked the tea set,” Petunia said mildly. “The mice ran out the door before you could set them right.” She smiled faintly when Lily turned a very interesting shade of red.
“Right, when you and Vernon get married, I’ll get you an even nicer tea set.” Lily promised.
Petunia shook her head. “I don’t think we will… get married that is.” She admitted. “He’s… boring. I thought that’s what I wanted. Someone so ordinary that I’ll never think of magic again… but he just gives me a headache – drills, drills, and more drills. He’s going places, he tells me, and he takes me to the same places his coworkers take their girlfriends, because that’s what respectable people do.” She snorted quietly.
Lily reached out touched her sister’s hand, a gentle smile on her face. “Don’t settle for ordinary, Petunia. Settle for something truly amazing – someone truly amazing.”
-
Petunia felt a bit out of place as she wanted Lily and James dance at their wedding. All around her were people wearing fancy clothes and performing obvious magic. She had thought, very briefly, about asking Vernon if he’d like to come to the wedding with her – but she was sure he had his eyes on the girl in finance, and Petunia didn’t particularly want to ask him to come.
He would make snide comments about the people there, and Lily would get that sad look in her eyes – the look she always got when she found out that Petunia hadn’t quite kicked Vernon Dursley to the curb yet.
She kept meaning to, but sometimes it was nice to have someone hold her hand and call her pretty – she didn’t feel at all pretty when Lily was around – but that was to be expected, Lily’s personality was such that she simply made the world a happier place because she was in it.
“Pardon me, but is anyone sitting here?”
Petunia started when she turned and saw the man standing there, his hand resting on the seat beside her. “No… no one is sitting there.” She said quickly, trying to hide her surprise at his clothing. He wore a plumb colored wizarding robe, with what looked like splotches of yellow paint splashed across the front of it.
“Xenophilius Lovegood,” He offered her his hand, and Petunia took notice of the rather lovely gold band gracing his left ring finger.
“Petunia Evans.” She answered politely.
“Evans… you’d be the bride’s sister, yes?” He smiled at her, a bright airy smile that was strangely calming in it’s simply happiness.
Petunia nodded.
“My wife and I went to school with your sister and James.” He explained. “Married a few months ago in fact.” He gestured towards a rather lovely if wispy looking woman. “Love of my life she is.”
Petunia found herself smiling at him, because it was completely obvious that he was over the moon for the woman. “I’ve very happy for the two of you.” She said.
“Are you?” He cocked his head to the side. “You seem rather lonely, did you know that?”
Petunia blinked at him, “Pardon?”
“Your aura, it’s rather blue.” He reached into the pocket of his robes and pulled out what looked to be a spun glass flower. “Here. Have this.” He pressed it into her hand when she was unwilling to take it.
At once, the flower seemed to come to life, a galaxy of stars seemed to have been spun into the glass itself and Petunia was instantly captivated by it. “It’s lovely.” She breathed. “But can I really have this?” she asked.
“Oh of course you can. It’s just a tiny bit of magic, there’s no harm in that, is there?” he grinned at her as he gently pushed the chair back. “Everyone needs a little bit of magic to make them smile.”
And it did make her smile, almost as much as watching the way the woman swatted at him as he wrapped her in his arms. Petunia closed her eyes and wondered if maybe it wouldn’t be so bad… interacting with this world. She might never be a part of it – but there were pieces that truly were beautiful.
-
Petunia was worried. She paced around her tiny flat, looking at the phone, wondering. Lily had promised to phone her – promised to phone her every night until they figured out what to do about the dark wizard that was hunting them.
This was the first night that the phone hadn’t rung, and Petunia could feel her pulse racing. She did what any sensible woman would do and made herself a cup of tea before sitting down on her thrift store sofa, near enough to pick up the phone should it ring.
It never rang, and eventually Petunia drifted off to sleep, lukewarm tea sitting on the coffee table in front of her, hand folded beneath her check.
She didn’t know that she would never see Lily’s smile again, that outside the door of her flat, her nephew slept – his eyes the same eyes that Petunia would long to see in another’s face. Her life would change in just a few short hours – she just didn’t know it yet.