Author's notes-
Grammar School for WWN2 – Complex sentences
WC 784
Beauxbatons 3rd year
Petunia's Apology
"Tuney, please apologise – before Mother and Father get too angry with you!" The red-headed girl looked at her sister pleadingly as she spoke. Petunia glared at her, then gave a toss of her blonde locks.
"No!" she snapped, after a momentary hesitation. "As if it wasn't bad enough that you made friends with that Snape boy, and were always going off with him whenever you felt like it. Now you expect me to like this – this – Potter boy, too, when he's even worse. Oh, I'll grant you that he's more our class than the Snape boy, but what does class matter when he's still one of them?"
She almost spat the last word and Lily flinched, then lifted her head proudly. "You seem to have forgotten that I'm one of 'them', too, whether you like it or not," she said quietly.
Petunia glared at her as she stood there.
"I haven't forgotten," she said bitterly, "because Mother and Father won't let me forget. It's 'Lily this' and 'Lily that', day in and day out, whenever they feel like it. Sometimes I think they're the ones who forget – they seem to forget that I even exist now, unless I do something wrong. And now they'll ignore me even more unless I apologise for what I said! Well, I won't, not even if – " she paused as she tried to think of something unlikely enough, " – not even if James himself begs me to."
Lily tried again, although she wasn't sure that she would convince her sister. "Please, Tuney, can't you do it because I'm asking you to? You don't even have to say you're sorry, if you really can't. Mother and Father will accept it if you just say you shouldn't have said it."
Petunia struggled with herself, while Lily watched her anxiously. Ever since they'd been children, and Lily's pretty smile and magical powers had entranced their parents, Petunia had felt overlooked and supplanted. Although she knew that Lily had tried to make up to her for it, her resentment often drove her to resist Lily's charm even when she secretly longed to cooperate.
"Do you think I shouldn't have said it, even after he put those engorged slugs in my bed?" she demanded.
Lily knew she must tread carefully if she were not to enrage her sister further. "I know you've been provoked, and that James can be terribly annoying, but it was still rather rude, don't you think, to tell him you thought I should go out with one of the slugs before I went out with him?"
Petunia grinned despite her anger as she remembered the look of outrage on James's face. He had been so pleased with himself for putting those slugs in her bed, after he had overheard her calling him one, for he knew how she hated their sliminess. It had been extremely satisfying to puncture his ego a little – if that were at all possible.
As Petunia's frown softened, Lily gave herself permission to giggle. She, too, had enjoyed the look on James's face when he had been unfavourably compared with a slug. In fact, until a few years ago she might very well have said exactly the same thing to him, but James had changed since those days. He had grown up a lot after losing his parents.
Lily's giggle reminded Petunia of the old days – before James, before the Snape boy, before Lily had shown what Petunia called her 'weird side'. Back then, they had been just two sisters playing together, although occasionally strange and unpleasant things had happened to Petunia when she tried to boss Lily around. As she thought about those carefree days, she found herself relenting.
"Oh, very well, then," she said, trying to sound as cross as she had felt to begin with.
Lily was not deceived, however, for she knew her sister's moods extremely well. She made haste to act before Petunia could think better of her capitulation.
"Come and say it now, then, Tuney, while you're feeling like it." She grabbed her sister by the hand and pulled her toward the kitchen, where James was talking to their mother.
"James, Tuney has something she wants to say, if you're willing to listen?"
After a start of surprise, James turned to Petunia with a grin on his face. He knew very well that Petunia never apologised to him unless Lily coaxed her into it, and he enjoyed seeing the distaste on her face as she did so.
"I'm sorry about before, when I said you were worse than a slug," said Petunia stiffly. Then James's condescending expression riled her anew and she added sotto voce, "but you thoroughly deserved it."