Petunia and the Threstal
As Petunia Dursley was whisked away from the house she had called home for almost 17 years, she looked up into the sky. She saw the stars and the clouds floating by, and smelled the hot, sticky odor, one connotes with summer. And, in the sky Petunia Dursley (nee Evans) saw death itself, or at least that is what she called it as she searched for the proper name she had heard all those years ago. A new peculiar odor assaulted her senses—one with no likeness to human experience that it is difficult for me to account in such detail that you would understand. It is the smell of a rotting corpse, combined with the smell of beautiful flowers, the odor of the dirt you walk on, the sins you commit and the pure innocence of a human being—in short Petunia had smelled a combination of fear and hope.
You see Petunia Dursley had actually seen a threstal, black skeletal body and all, and, no, Petunia was not a squib (she was perfectly normal, as she will have you know). Many things must be known about threstals and Petunia for this story to make any sense.
First and foremost, mundane humans (e.g., muggles and squibs) can see threstals if they have seen death, same as wizards. For that matter, mundane humans can see a plethora of magical creatures. But the human mind is an amazing thing. It will come up with reasons for the unexplained. And, while the eye may see many magical happenings, if the mind cannot handle this, it completely disregards it. This is found true in the studies of self-concept—any idea that disagrees with a person's self-concept is disregarded. Perhaps this is why Harry was treated so poorly (but that is another story).
On to Petunia. You see, many years ago, Petunia Dursley went to see her parents. But, as she walked into the quaint house she found her sister and brother-in-law fighting five masked men with their little sticks (wands). She also saw her parents cowering behind her sister's protective form as her wand did odd (and extremely dangerous) little twirls. From her hiding place she saw green light flash under Lily's arm exuding a smell of pure evil, and then her eyes widened in horror as the light crept toward her mother. Her mother's face held a look of shock then and would forever more. The man, her brain supplied her brother-in-law a few seconds later, went into a rage. Jumping in front of his wife, her sister, he brought his wand down in a series of sharp movements and two of the men fell to the ground dead as the very pungent smell of burning flesh filled the room. A third man shot off the green light at Petunia's father just before he hit the ground, dead as well with an accompanying crack. And the metallic smell of blood filled the air. The next two disappeared with a swish of cloaks and a soft pop, leaving only a slight residue of cheap cologne to signify there previous occupation of the spot.
Petunia was distraught for days. Then, one day, while she was wandering the woods at Potter Manor, she came across a black skeletal beast—it was truly ugly yet something majestic and awe evoking about it held her attention. Her sister was there petting it, feeding it red crisp apples the smell of which floated by on a soft, caressing summer breeze. She turned and met Petunia's eyes with her emerald ones, and explained threstals and their abilities and oddities to her sister. So Petunia learned of threstals, a rather dark subject, on a warm afternoon, in comfortable clothes from a rather eccentric witch, who had watched her mother die.
Petunia thought of this memory, the threstal that had sparked it now disappearing in the night towards her house. She wondered for a moment if her nephew could see threstals as well. Unbeknownst to her, he had learned of threstals on a warm afternoon, in comfortable clothes from a rather eccentric witch, who had watched her mother die.