Petunia's atonement
"And let me introduce two heroes to you," sneered Voldemort, as he stood triumphantly in Diagon Alley, having taken over the ministry. "Petunia and Vernon Dursley, who gave me the gift of the Wizarding World, by starving and beating their nephew to death. Yes, folks, they killed the Boy-Who-Lived and made him the Boy-Who's-Magical-Core-Died, killing him as it tried to save him. They put me where I am today. Well cheer!"
The crowd cheered in a half-hearted way.
Voldemort smiled. It was not a pleasant smile.
"But they also killed a wizard, and being a squib and a muggle, that means death," he said. "Crucio!"
Petunia had never known such pain. Vernon was screaming beside her, and she knew she was tearing her own throat out screaming, as loudly ever as Harry had screamed when Vernon beat him.
She never meant for the boy to die, just to be too weak to do magic so it wouldn't upset Dudley to see it, the way Lily had upset her. But Dudley was dead ...
"Avada Kedavra!" the flash of green light hit her, and Petunia felt the world go black.
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Petunia woke up in a white, sterile place, and immediately flinched back as her face was slapped.
By Lily.
"How could you do that to my son? If you had died I would have cared for your Dudley," said her sister, furiously.
"I didn't want him to scare Dudley the way you scared me!" sobbed Petunia.
"Is that all it was?"
"No! I was jealous! I wrote to Dumbledore to ask if I could go to school with you and he said I wasn't eligible! He called me a squib the same as that Volleyball did."
"Volleyball?" Lily was puzzled. "Oh! Voldemort." She sniggered. "Nice term of abuse for him, to become a muggle game. Squibs can learn potions, runic magic and arithmancy, Petunia. I've been told I can offer you the chance to go back and put things right, but you'd have to work hard."
"I ... Oh Lily, I do love you really!"
"I always hoped you did; and I knew when I was allowed to come to tell you. Only people you love can come to Limbo."
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Petunia came to in a rather pink and frilly bedroom. She blinked. Had she really been this silly when she was thirteen? The calendar on the wall showed days ticked off before a date marked 'Lily comes home'. It was Lily's first year, and Petunia had hidden the calendar and pretended not to care about what happened at That School.
And it had gone downhill from there.
She needed to ask that Snape boy some things. That would go against the grain, and he would gloat, but it could not be helped. At least he wasn't violent like his father.
Petunia paled.
Severus Snape had always born a marked resemblance to Harry, in the last few years of his life, in the way he hunched in on himself and ducked if anyone raised a hand. Tobias Snape must beat the boy horribly. No wonder Lily was always wanting to bring him into a safe environment! And his mother ... like the way Petunia had let Vernon beat Harry, Eileen Snape let her husband beat their son.
She got up and went downstairs. It was such a pang to see her mother alive and well and yet wonderful. Perhaps this time she could help avert the killing of her parents by Death Eaters, something else she had been blaming on Lily and Harry.
"Looking forward to your sister coming home?" said her mother.
"Yeah," said Petunia. "Mum, when we go to get her school books, can we see if there's a second hand shop to get some so I can read about what she does?"
"I don't see why not," said Mrs. Evans.
"And mum, did you ought to rat up Tobias Snape to the fuzz, if Severus looks as bad after he's been home a few days as he always used to?" said Petunia. "We could offer to foster him, I guess; Lily and I can share a room in the holidays." It hurt to have to say it, but Petunia knew that if she was to atone, she must go all the way.
Her mother hugged her.
"My dear firstborn; I knew you would be the brave girl I know you to be and get over the disappointment of not being able to go with Lily. You don't know how much it has wrung my heart to see you suffering." Petunia leaned into the hug.
"What can't be cured must be endured," said Petunia. "No, I don't even mean that. I need to know what Lily does. And ... and abusers are despicable," she added, realising she meant herself as well.
"Yes they are, but if Severus will not complain there is very little we can do," said Mrs. Evans. "We live the other side of the park and we have never seen Tobias hitting him. All we have is suspicion, and the police are slow to react to that. Social Services are nervous about taking children away from their parents."
"Well, if he knows he can always come here, he's got somewhere to go," shrugged Petunia.
"My good, generous little girl," her mother praised. "I am so proud of you."
Petunia gulped.
"Like you are of Lily?"
"Darling, we are both proud of both of you for your various talents. You for your music, Lily for her magic. I know you are disappointed not to be able to be with her, but it's very nice for me to have my firstborn, and to hear you playing. Lily, after all, can't hold a tune in a sack."
Petunia giggled.
"That's true enough. Severus looks quite pained when she sings; he's musical, I think."
"Perhaps he'd like you to teach him how to play the piano."
"I can ask. Maybe he'll accept it as payment for telling me more about wizards."
Her mother sighed.
"Yes, he is a funny little boy about making fair exchanges."
"And can we get an owl in the holidays, so we can write to Lily without waiting for her to use a school owl?" asked Petunia, suppressing the shudder of horror at anything so abnormal.
Her mother laughed.
"I have no idea what the neighbours would say! But I did notice other birds in that pet shop, a raven to carry messages would not be noticed as much. But we will see."
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Petunia embraced her sister on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters.
"Tuney! It was great!" said Lily. "I wish you could have come."
"Well, I've decided that if I can't come with you, I will get books and study the theory of your lessons," said Petunia. "Severus! Can we come to an arrangement? If you teach me stuff about your world, I'll teach you the piano – I've seen you looking at it."
Severus regarded her with hooded black eyes.
"I'll think about it," he said. "Why the sudden interest?"
"It's not sudden," said Petunia. "I've had all year to miss my sister. I was upset because Dumbledore said he could not give a place to someone of insufficient talent barely more than a squib, and I acted up. Satisfied? You have a temper too."
He stiffened as she spoke.
"I saw the letter from Dumbledore but the words have only just sunk in," he said. "Insufficient talent and barely more than a squib. That means some talent and not quite a squib, Tuney, and that means a wand would work, and you could certainly make potions." He hesitated and looked at Mrs. Evans. "If you would pay my mother to be her tutor, then they can't obliviate her of knowledge and bind her magic, because she will have a magical tutor. You would have to register this with the ministry, and Tuney could take Owls. Things like Arithmancy and Runes and Potions would be best."
"We could certainly manage that," said Mrs. Evans. "Though you may have to choose between piano and magic, Tuney."
"I'm on grade 9 anyway," said Petunia. "I'm not going to get a lot more out of formal lessons, I'm at the stage where only I can teach myself more by self-discovery."
"Well, in that case, there's no problem," said Mrs. Evans, relieved that her sometimes awkward older daughter was making no difficulty.
"Oh Tuney, I am glad!" said Lily, wrapping her arms round her sister. "It'll be much more fun if we can both learn."
"I cannot think it was fair of Dumbledore not to let us know sooner that you might have had a tutor," said Mrs. Evans.
"Dumbledore is fair to those he likes," said Severus.
"Yes, poor Severus has been set on all year by a group of four boys in my House," said Lily. "I hate them! They gang up on him, and if he retaliates, they say it proves he is evil. Evil! He's twelve, for goodness sake! And they get away with it."
"They sound most unpleasant," said Mrs. Evans. "And the headmaster is not fair about it?"
"No, because he was a Gryffindor once," said Lily. "And he twinkles like some insane Father Christmas and says boys will be boys. And I don't count boys will be boys in the category of landing someone repeatedly in hospital."
"Oh Severus!" Mrs. Evans embraced him. "If only your father were not such an unpleasant fellow, I'd suggest withdrawing Lily and asking your mother to homeschool all of you."
"Even with the Marauders, I'm glad to be away," muttered Severus.
"Well, you know you always have a place to stay with us," said Mrs. Evans. "Lily, Petunia suggested that you two might share her room so we could have your room for Severus whenever he needed it. You could always use it as a study when Tuney is practising with her guitar when you want quiet, for if Severus was staying, I'm sure he wouldn't mind that."
"Oh Tuney!" Lily squealed with delight and kissed her sister.
"I ... couldn't intrude ..." Severus had not managed to disentangle himself from Mrs. Evans, and had not been trying very hard.
"Nonsense. And there's always a sofabed for your mother too if she wants it," said Mrs. Evans.
A group of boys came along the platform.
"Oy, Snivellus! Is that your slimy snaky snivelly mummy? Bet she was a loser too!" called a tall boy with dark hair.
"What a rude little boy you are," said Mrs. Evans. "What sort of gutter were you dragged out of?"
"Watch it, Madam Snape, I am a member of the Noble and Ancient house of Black," said the boy.
"Is that supposed to mean anything to me?" said Mrs. Evans, looking amused. "I look and I see a nasty-tongued rude little boy. And what a revolting nickname for Severus! You, young man, are in need of a good spanking."
Sirius Black whipped out his wand.
"Please curse me," said Mrs. Evans, coldly. "I believe that muggle baiting would be considered an expulsion offence, and then offal like you would not be annoying Severus any more."
Black gaped.
"Snivelly has a muggle mother?" he gasped.
"I told you not to call him that," said Mrs. Evans. "I am quite capable of taking you into the public lavatories and washing your mouth out with soap."
"How very plebeian," sneered Black. "Here, Evans, you want to stop hanging around with losers like Snivellus and his mother, and whatever other spawn she has," he glanced at Petunia.
Petunia hit him.
He went down in surprise, clutching at his nose, and got up with an ugly look on his face, reaching again for his wand.
"Touch my sister or my mother or my friend and you'll have worse than a bloody nose," said Lily. "See, mummy? This is what Severus has all the time, and none of the teachers stop it. Because Black and Potter are rich and the dumb bells they carry around with them don't want to lose their position as top predators to do anything about it. And I bet Potter and Black despise them for it as much as the rest of us do."
"Lupin isn't too bad, Mrs. Evans," said Severus. "I don't know why he hangs out with those toerags."
Sirius Black was now the recipient of furious glares from James Potter, who had put together the fact that this was the mother of the object of his crush, a muggle, and who seemed to hold Snape in affection. Lupin was blushing with mortification but as usual doing nothing; and Peter was enjoying the discomfort of everyone with equal malicious pleasure.
"I am sorry that you are in a house with such low-minded and nasty little boys," said Mrs. Evans. "Is there any chance to change houses?"
"Unfortunately not," said Lily. "If it wasn't for needing to stand by Severus I'd ask to be pulled out and home schooled with a tutor with Tuney, but I'm not having marshmallows like Potter and Black gang up on him without supporting him. His house fellows are not very nice either."
Severus flushed.
"I have to be civil to them," he muttered.
"Dear me! It sounds to me as though it is not the best school in Europe, whatever Madam McGonagall said," said Mrs. Evans.
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"My dear, I did not like the attitude of those boys, especially the vocal one," said Mrs. Evans to her obedient spouse. "I am very much inclined to ask Mrs. Snape whether she can recommend a secondary tutor to cover those subjects she is less able with, and pull Lily from the school. If we have a second tutor, Severus could always stay with us, and not have to see his father, or have the man know that he is not away at Hogwarts."
Mr. Evans carefully knocked the dottle from his pipe and filled it, thoughtfully.
"I like the idea of them socialising with other children who can enter into their interests," he said. "However, as you tell me Petunia could be learning magic but is barred from this school to do so, it is unfair on Petunia to keep her from social interaction when Lily has it. If Petunia is to learn magic skills, and we withdraw her from the grammar school, she will be more isolated."
"The three of them will have each other," said Mrs. Evans.
"Yes, but three is a very small crowd," said Mr. Evans. "I was going to suggest asking whether there were other children who could not afford Hogwarts. It would be very difficult for us to put two children through; I assume Severus' mother already put aside money for him, as that bastard Tobias drinks anything she makes. If we are withdrawing Lily, with the legacy from my father, we could buy the house next door, which is for sale, and use that purely for schooling, and perhaps to sleep one or two other children who were too far away to travel."
"If we house a tutor there as his or her official residence it could be connected to their fireplace transport," said Mrs. Evans. "Are little pitchers listening?"
Three children tumbled into the room.
"It would be grand to have a proper school," said Severus. "Would my mother be able to use a potions lab to brew commercially as well? Since Da lost his job, if he finds her brewing, or finds things which have to stand, he'll knock them over, costing a heap in wasted ingredients, 'cos he doesn't understand that cooking smelly herbs means money."
"Of course she could," said Mrs. Evans. "I need to have a talk with her when your father is not at home."
Severus snorted.
"So between opening hours and chucking-out time," he said.
"Yes," said Mrs. Evans.
"We will both go," said Mr. Evans. "Indeed, I am going to advise her to leave your father."
"She won't," said Severus. "She has this strange Hufflepuff loyalty. Something about having made her choice and having to abide by it. I asked her if we couldn't contact my grandparents, who disowned her for marrying him, but she wouldn't hear of it. Didn't want them to know her shame." He scowled.
"It's a far cry from running home to your parents in fear they will gloat over being right, and making yourself independent," said Mrs. Evans. "Personally I feel that any decent parent will welcome home a lost child in gladness that they can help them, but then if the upbringing of that boy who was so rude is anything to go by, Wizarding parents are not especially to be considered good parents."
"My Ma does her best," said Severus.
"Her best would be better without a drunken oaf, and that I suspect is a problem in both worlds," said Mr. Evans.
"He was a good Da until I did accidental magic," said Severus. "He's afraid of it. Ma never told him she was a witch until after they were married."
"I might have been like him, too," said Petunia, knowing that she could easily equate Tobias Snape to Vernon Dursley.
"Well you grew a pair and wised up," said Severus.
"Inappropriate for a girl," said Petunia.
"You know what I mean though," said Severus.
"I am just so glad my two favourite people are friends," said Lily.
"Don't be sickly and Victorian and all 'Memories of Little Noni' at us," said Petunia, waspishly. "It's mawkish."
Lily pulled a face which proved she was not mawkish in the least.
"If we have a school of our own we can continue with Maths and English," she said. "And maybe Chemistry to compare it to potions, and history, and ..."
"You can study what you want in your own time, sweetheart, but affording a tutor for all that as well would be overwhelming," said her mother, firmly. "Maths, yes, because I've heard mention of Arithmancy; English, yes, because it will help you write essays and be more rounded in your reading. For the rest, well, you can all pursue your individual interests."
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Eileen Snape was overwhelmed.
The Evans couple visited her while Tobias was out, and put a proposal to her which took her breath away.
"It wouldn't be a large salary," said Richard Evans. "I'm a manager at the factory, not a wealthy man. But it would be a free roof over your head, Rose would shop and cook for all of us, and a small salary on top of that. And more if we can find other wizarding children who aren't eligible for Hogwarts."
"Squibs," said Eileen. "They can learn basic brewing, and things that don't require wands. And if you are teaching some muggle subjects, they can learn to live in the muggle world. A lot of families find their squibs embarrassing and would pay well for them to be taken away and cared for."
"Disgusting," said Rose Evans. "Certainly we can take squibs, and with the second house we can home them over the holidays too if their families want to be rid of them."
Eileen considered.
"I ... I loved Tobias once, you know," she said. "I wasn't going to crawl to my family about him. But if I am independent, I can write to my father and ask if he knows anyone who wants to send children to a small school not Hogwarts. I'd suggest asking him if there is anyone he wishes to give patronage to as a teacher, but I think you would do better to advertise for a muggleborn who can continue their muggle lessons as well."
"Grand," said Rose.
"If it goes pear-shaped we'll be on our uppers," said Richard. "But for our girls I'm ready to take the risk."
"If we're home schooling Severus I can pay his fees from his trust vault," said Eileen.
"Nay, lass, it's part of your wages and perquisites," said Richard. "I think teachers' kids go free in most private schools. But if it takes off, we might ask if you can use some of it to invest."
Eileen nodded.
"And become a partner rather than salaried? I'll talk to Severus about it. To be successful right away, he might just agree in any case."
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With the house on Weaver's Hill registered with the ministry as a school it might be hooked up to the floo network and enlarged considerably on the inside. The houses were a bit bigger than the two up, two down terrace houses of Spinner's End, being semi-detached, meaning that the school and the Evans property was all housed under one roof even if not joined. Like most properties of their kind, built for the more affluent workers in an industrial town in the Victorian era, there were three downstairs rooms which had had the outside toilet and coal house knocked into the kitchen to make a bathroom downstairs. Upstairs there were three rooms, a big front room, the middle room and the small back bedroom. Some people converted this into an upstairs bathroom, but the Evans family and their erstwhile neighbour had never bothered. Council planning for an extension went ahead with a good confundment in the right place, and a magic-enhanced second story went over the bathroom, and an extension at the back housed two more classrooms. There was a half-cellar which would do for a potions classroom, the steps down to it under the stairs via a door in the kitchen. The two larger bedrooms, to be enlarged more, would be a girls' dormitory and a boys' dormitory, each with magically added showers and toilets, the waste being dealt with by plumbing spells rather than actual plumbing.
"With a small number of people, using an evanesco toilet is feasible," said Eileen. "These are the sort of spells we use with wizarding tents, and having someone in to do it properly is a saving in the long term. I'm no expert."
"Arrange what you see fit," said Richard. "You know the budget." Severus had eagerly agreed to use his school vault for his mother to become a partner. It helped a lot.
It also helped that Eileen suggested that the Evans family should take Lily into Gringotts' and see if she had any wizarding blood. Most muggle borns had to come from somewhere, and the goblins liked money in circulation and were happy to re-establish vaults.
It turned out that Lily was the last scion of a couple of minor families, which did not yield much money, but enough to make a difference in starting up the school, and more importantly, a treasury of books, and a wizarding property in Nottingham. This was visited, as a potential extension, but as there was no land there to fly any more than in Cokeworth, and the rooms were poky and inconvenient, it was decided to sell the property after stripping it of any books and other useful equipment.
This enabled the purchase of a house elf, and Eileen had to talk very fast to explain that the relationship was not entirely as master and slave.
"It's not symbiotic, it's commensuralist," said Petunia, who was quite good at biology.
Nippy was very pleased to be reassigned to look after young people; she had been sold by her family to an elderly witch who had died, and her family could not afford to have her back, having been financially shafted by Abraxus Malfoy.
Rose sent them invitations for their children to receive cheaper education at the Cokeworth School of Magic.
It would mean two more pupils, anyway.
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Petunia loved learning about magic. In some ways she felt guilty about how much she was enjoying herself, when she was supposed to be atoning. But it was making Lily happy too, and that surely had to be good. There were the three of them and five other pupils. The two whose elf Nippy had been were Leona and Egidius Weasley, cousins of the main branch of the family. The main branch sent their son Arthur to Hogwarts and chose to do that rather than buy Nippy to keep her in the family. Severus considered this low in the extreme.
"It's not right, elves are part of the family," he said. "The Septimus Weasleys show that their lineage is from the Black family in treating underlings with such disdain."
"Well perhaps you can educate Leona and Egidius," said Petunia. Severus had better clothes now, and was relieved. He had half feared Egidius Weasley might taunt him that he had no house elf either. The boy was plainly furious that the elf he thought of as his was a school elf, and Petunia had come across Nippy ironing her ears. The little creature had explained that she was punishing herself for not favouring Master Egidius.
"And he is not your master," said Petunia, crisply. "Your mistress is Madam Prince-Snape, who is the headmistress, and to some extent, my parents, who own most of the school. You are not here for the pupils other than to keep things clean for us, and to look after us if we are ill."
"Yes, little mistress," said Nippy.
Petunia was feeling guilty that in her old life she might have liked the idea of Harry punishing himself like an elf.
Two of the other three pupils were Annora and Marcus Black, the squib grandchildren of a squib of the Black family, Marius. Severus knew that he was the great uncle of Sirius Black. They were eager to learn and stood together when Egidius tried to sneer.
"We were invited, like you," said Marcus. "And so we are here with as much right as you."
"You should be thankful to squibs, like Petunia, or you wouldn't have had the chance of an education," sneered Severus. "If Mr. and Mrs. Evans had not wanted equal rights for their older daughter, you two would have grown up as ignorant as you already are, and would have been left cleaning splinched parts out of drains as your only job options."
"Well you can't talk, you're in a potty little school like us too," said Egidius, his ears going red.
Severus sneered again.
"Actually I left Hogwarts to come here," he said. "I am sure the Evanses would love to know that you consider their new school potty, why are you here if you don't think much of it?"
"You left Hogwarts? I bet you were expelled, who'd leave Hogwarts?"
"Enough!" said Petunia. "Severus is and always has been a friend of the family and he asked his mother if he could come to school with us to swell the numbers. And I suggest you shut your insulting mouth before I give you knuckle sandwich to put in it."
Eileen had reverted to her maiden name of Prince to teach; Severus had asked her to do so to avoid anyone calling him teacher's pet.
He was going to be teacher's pet for being talented in any case, but he was glad he had asked it of his mother. The irritating Weasley boy, defensive for his poverty, even as Severus was at Hogwarts, was going to be a nuisance and would have made much of it.
The final pupil was a girl named Seraphina Goyle, who was also a squib, or very close to being one, like Petunia. She was older than Lily and Severus, and was glad to be sent to school by her mother, before her father decided that she could 'entertain' his friends, whom Seraphina suspected of being Death Eaters.
Seraphina and Annora were the same age as Petunia, a year younger than Egidius. Egidius felt his position as being the oldest very keenly, especially since he knew less than Lily and Severus. His sister, Leona, was a year younger than Lily and Severus, and Marcus was between them and Petunia, Seraphina and Annora.
Headmistress Prince decreed that Lily and Severus would form the senior class, and the rest would be in an accelerator class over the holidays, as it would be inconvenient for Leona to be left behind in a class on her own. If Egidius wished, he could study in his own time to pull further ahead. Petunia caught Severus' eye when Madam Prince said this; and they both smirked. Neither could see Egidius having the industry.
Petunia had every intention of catching up to her sister.
The school after all had two teachers besides Madam Prince, who would teach Potions, Herbology and Astronomy. Martin Lowther, a young muggle-born who had discovered the inequalities in the wizarding world would teach the class muggle subjects whilst he caught up for himself. Mr. Lowther was hoping to earn enough to go to muggle university when he had caught up his own studies; his parents were eligible for a grant, but by the time he caught up, he would be in the realms of being a 'mature student' and would need to be sent on a discretionary grant, and he had no good reason for being so behind, not that the local council would consider valid. He knew about the unfairness at Hogwarts, even if he had not encountered the Marauders, having left before they started. He was also teaching transfiguration and arithmancy. Madam Flitwick was the sister of the Charms professor at Hogwarts, and was, like him, a half goblin. She had been recommended to the family through Gringott's bank, and would teach Charms, goblin studies, history and runes. Mr. Evans had expressed an interest in learning Gobbledegook and having it taught as a voluntary subject. Unlike Hogwarts, runes and arithmancy would be taught from the first, and everyone was in the same boat, as they were with Goblin studies. Mr. Evans considered that a vital study and more use than looking after some of the creatures Lily had described. Care of Magical Beasts was not on the curriculum. Dissecting some of them would be on the Potions curriculum.
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School had been running for more than a month when Rose Evans answered a ring at the door, to find Madam McGonagall.
"And what can I do for you, Madam McGonagall?" asked Rose.
"May I come in? I need to speak to you," said McGonagall.
"Only if you leave your wand in the porch," said Rose. "I don't want to find myself suddenly assaulted."
"I assure you ..."
"I assure you that nobody in the muggle world would permit someone they scarcely know to bring a gun into their house. A wand is an offensive weapon like a gun. More so, in fact as you can only kill someone with a gun, not steal part of their lives with this obliviation I have heard about."
"I have no intention of obliviating you, Madam Evans, but someone will if you do not let me explain things to you."
"Are you threatening me?"
"No, but I need to talk to you."
"Fine. The wand can go in the boot rack in the porch. Otherwise I'll bid you good day."
McGonagall was torn. She would feel naked without her wand. Rose knew this and mentally sneered slightly; wizards were as daft as those Americans who could not cope without guns, poor sad pathetic little creatures that they were to need the crutch of deadly force for the want of a personality instead.
The witch finally made up her mind and carefully drew her wand and laid it on top of the boot rack with a shudder, to follow Rose in.
Rose made a mental note to have the children in the school taught martial arts, so they would not be dependent on wands.
And to practise wandless magic.
Rose sat the Scots teacher down with a cup of tea.
"Now, Madam McGonagall, you wanted to talk to me," she said.
"Yes, indeed. Forebye ye have withdrawn Lily from school," said McGonagall. "And it's a cryin' shame, for she's the brightest child in the year, and tae have someone bind her core and obleeviate ye a' would be a sin."
"She's the second brightest child in the year actually," said Rose. "Sev Snape is the brightest. But that's by the by. Why should you think her magic would be bound?"
McGonagall actually wrung her hands.
"Did I no' explain it a' tae you and your husband?" she said. "A muggleborn child must aye have their magic bound if they dinnae complete magical education to OWL."
"You are making a lot of assumptions, Madam McGonagall," said Rose.
"No, I am no' makin' assumptions! I assure ye that this is the law!"
"I don't doubt that, but you are still making assumptions," said Rose. "We have withdrawn Lily from Hogwarts, which does not mean we have withdrawn her from magical education. Everything is properly registered with the Ministry of Magic, so Lily will not be in trouble. She is going to a small and exclusive school."
McGonagall stared.
"But why?" she asked.
"Tell me, Madam McGonagall, are you head of House Gryffindor?"
"Ye ken fine that I am," said McGonagall.
"Then why are you asking me a question which any teacher in loco parentis to the children in her house should be perfectly well aware of?"
McGonagall was doing a good impression of her kitty eyes being caught in headlights.
"I do not understand," she said.
"No?" Rose's voice had dropped to a chill which could only be reliably measured by the use of units Kelvin.
"No!" said McGonagall.
"So you are unaware that my daughter has been continually harassed by a little bully named James Potter and his repellent friends, one of whom considered hexing me at the station, a boy named Sirius Black?" said Rose. "You are unaware that they pick on Lily's best friend Severus, four on one, and put him regularly in hospital?"
"Weel, he's none of my responsibility ye ken, being in Slytherin House ..." she actually jumped when Rose slammed her fist down onto the coffee table, spilling the old tabby's tea.
"None of your responsibility? Is he not a child in the school where you teach? Are not those who bully him members of your House? I can tell you that you are failing signally in your role as a parental figure because if either of my girls was found to be ganging up on a disadvantaged and abused child, she would be over my knee for half a dozen good swats with my slipper!" said Rose. "And Lily tells me she has reported them time and again and nothing is done! She is disgusted with the lack of discipline in your stupid school, and so she and Sev are going to a school where my near-squib older daughter is also welcome! You and your lack of policy on bullying does nothing but increase divisiveness between the houses, and I wouldn't be surprised if you made a muggleborn – what was it Black said? Mudblood? – like Lily satisfy the sexual desires of a pureblood like the Potter brat just because of his wealth and birth. You already LIE to the children about muggleborns having as great a chance in the wizarding world as anyone. And now that Lily is officially a half-blood of the houses of Scarpin and Wenlock you can whistle for her as a placatory bedwarmer for your purebred prince!"
"It's no like that at a'!" cried McGonagall.
"Indeed? It sounds like it. I've had Lily weeping over me over Potter's insistence that she will be his some day; arrogant little twat must have some reason for believing it.."
"Aye, weel, he is an arrogant lad and he doubtless believes she will fa' for him one day," said McGonagall.
"Not good enough! I have heard nothing from her of her House Head telling him to back off and stop his creepy sexual advances! And you have never addressed the bullying! And you lied about opportunities! So that makes me wonder what else you have lied about."
McGonagall shut her eyes with a pained expression.
"I keep hoping the brightest will find their way to the top," she whispered. "It's not a lie. It's a desire ... Lily is brilliant. I swear she could be an Unspeakable, they don't care for blood status."
"But if she is raped by a pure blood, who is going to be the one who pays?"
McGonagall slumped.
"We try not to let it happen," she whispered.
"Well, I don't think you try hard enough," said Rose. "I have even less respect for Severus' head of house than I have for you, however, as he seems to have no support. Lily tells me that Slughorn collects people who can do him favours, and an abused child however brilliant presumably doesn't fit the hole of favoured child. Phaugh, the lot of you make me sick. Lily is not coming back to your elitist pile of shit and I do not want to see you again. Is that clear?"
McGonagall sighed.
"Verra clear," she said. "Please tell Lily that I regret her decision, if it was hers?"
"It was hers," said Rose, grimly. "Especially when she found out that her sister was deemed not to have enough talent despite only being a near squib. I am told that there are pure bloods in Lily's year who are near squibs, but of course, they get in. And some of them are stupid as stumps like a kid called Crabbe. My Petunia is as sharp as a whip, but that's the point, isn't it? She's also a Scarpin and a Wenlock, but to you people she's a mudblood."
"That's no' a verra nice word."
"It's not a very nice attitude in your world. Now go away before I lose my temper with you."
McGonagall went.
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Term had started properly when an owl swooped into the school and went first to Lily and then to Severus. Lily paled.
"They can't drag us back, can they?" she gasped.
Severus was opening his letter, with a scowl, and then sat back, stunned.
"I've had an apology from Potter," he said. "He writes that McGonagall told him it was his fault that we left, and made him view all our encounters in a penseive."
"What's a penseive?" asked Petunia.
"It's a special bowl which you can use to siphon off memories and watch them as though you were an outsider, because your brain records all the details even if you don't consciously recall them," said Severus. "There was one in the Scarpin vault, which Lily lets the Headmistress use."
"Oh, that! I'd forgotten, sorry," said Petunia. "It was such a scurry getting things started."
"And you were head down in a potions notebook," said Severus.
"You're only snarking because I got to it before you," said Petunia.
"Listen, will you?" said Lily. "Mine is from James Potter too, also apologising for causing me grief and making me think he would expect me to bend to his will because of being pureblood. He says he only meant that he thought I would see more in him if I would get to know him, well that's a relief, I was terrified he was going to make me his sex slave when we were older. And I didn't tell you, Sev, because I knew how you'd react," she added as Severus leaped to his feet. "But he was horrified when McGonagall told him my thoughts. He says that Black isn't seeing it yet because he is too fixated on his family being Slytherin and having what he calls vicious tendencies."
"Well he knows more dark curses than I do," said Severus. "And I bet that's because they've been used on him. Some pureblood families use curses for discipline rather than a whipping because they don't leave marks."
"That's as maybe, but if Black escaped his family enough to go into Gryffindor, he could work a bit harder and escape behaving like them too," said Lily, "And so I shall write back to Potter. We should have time after breakfast; are you accepting his apology, Sev? Is it sincere?"
"I ... I think it is," said Severus. "And I can be more objective, since I am happy and feel safe for the first time in my life."
His mother, presiding over breakfast, fought with tears over that. She had had second thoughts about leaving Tobias Snape, but her son's artless words firmed her spirit, and she knew she had made the right choice.
"So who's this James Potter? And are we related to the Black fellow?" asked Marcus.
"James Potter and Sirius Black and their friends, or cronies, are a gang of four boys who call themselves the Marauders," said Severus. "The two leaders are purebloods and they made up their mind to hate me on the train because I wanted to make my mother proud of me by going into Slytherin House where she had been pretty happy. However, the rise of Voldemort has filled Slytherin House with his nasty little followers, and you have to appease them or you wind up drowning in the lake or having supposedly committed suicide by jumping off the astronomy tower. I heard they threw off a muggleborn who went into Slytherin just a few years ago, and claimed it was because he felt he just didn't fit in. And Dumbledore just doesn't see it, the same as he doesn't see other houses picking on Slytherin," he added bitterly. "And I'm a half-blood so I had to be careful because of being considered inferior. I didn't want to be jumping off the astronomy tower."
"Why didn't you tell me that was why you hung out with Avery and Mulciber?" asked Lily.
"Because what happens in Slytherin House stays in Slytherin House," said Severus. "You don't tell. You don't talk. You don't ever let the others know you have divisions, because someone will find out you snitched and then you will be punished. They stand you on a table and wand-burn your legs and other things, and I just wanted to keep my head down and get a good education."
"Sev, that's awful!" said Lily. "And Slughorn condones this?"
Severus snorted.
"Catch Sluggy coming into the common room!" he said. "And certainly not the dormitories! If I was head of house, I'd have wards on all the dormitories, and a female prefect I trusted to send into the female ones, to catch people at bullying. But Sluggy is too damned lazy. And probably only competent in the one field, which is Potions. It's like I learned not to tell teachers the real reasons for my bruises in primary school, because they sent the fuzz round, dad would either intimidate them or if he was sober, charm them, the way he charmed mam unto marrying him, and when they'd gone, I learned the lesson that staying quiet was in my best interests." He glared at Marcus, Annora and Seraphina. "And don't you go saying a word to that Weasley boy when they arrive for lessons," he said.
"No, he is not a pleasant boy," said Marcus. "Thank you for telling us. We will not let you down."
Severus had almost forgotten the three outsiders in his anger. A year ago he would not have spoken out in front of Petunia even.
"Maybe this school can take in others who drop out," said Petunia. "Between the bullies in Slytherin and the Marauders in Gryffindor, it sounds as though most ordinary kids are in for a miserable time."
"Yes, and I reckon Lupin joined the Marauders to be part of a gang in order to avoid being ganged up on, for he's not well off and he's sickly," said Severus. "He's in the hospital every few weeks."
"Well, if James Potter understands the consequences of his actions, I think he should be encouraged," said Lily. "Coming, Sev? Let's go and write to him."
Severus nodded.
"I agree," he said.
Petunia caught his hand, and whispered,
"Did you want to be part of their gang too when you first met them on the train, like I wanted to be with Lily?"
He froze, and then gave her a curt, affirmative nod before going to write to James Potter that he accepted the apology and wished him well.
"Black is not the only one abused in his home life" he wrote. "But now my mother has left my father I can afford to talk about it. But Black is with people who can protect him at school, which I was not, and I do apologise for lashing out with harsher curses than I should have used. It's not easy having to be afraid of your own housemates as well as the bullies that prowl the hallways. Black does not have that excuse. He was right about Slytherin House, in many ways, though. I could wish that he had not antagonised me to the point that I was determined to be in my mother's house, before I realised that it had grown worse with the rise of Voldemort. Perhaps under different circumstances we might all have been friends. You are a man of honour."
James Potter was to smile a little over the rather stiff, old-fashioned manner of Severus' writing, but to be left with more to think about.
Lily managed to both praise him for his apology and tell him off for not reining Black in more.
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Author's Note; a quick rant about people who say 'reigning in' which is so totally wrong, it's nothing to do with a monarchic order, it's from the riding term 'reining in', picking up greater control of your horse. I hate horses [the Good Lord saw fit to invent Gottlieb Daimler after all] and I know the origins. Why can't anyone get it right? End of rant.
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"Lily is corresponding regularly with James Potter," Severus told Petunia.
"Push them together," said Petunia. "Either she'll get tired of him, or she wasn't right for you anyway."
"But I love her; he's only fascinated with her beauty and brilliance," cried Severus.
"Oh Sev," said Petunia. "I hate to break this to you, but Lily said to me how nice it was to have you as an almost-brother living together."
Severus looked stricken, and fled the room.
Petunia sighed. There would be no good letting him spoil his friendship with Lily by making an ass of himself by being romantic at her when she did not see him that way. She gave Severus an hour then went to the potions cellar, where she knew he would be, brewing to calm himself. She chopped, diced, ground and handed him things.
"I never thought you'd become a good friend, Tuney," said Severus.
"I had a reality check," said Petunia. She would never have imagined being friendly with Severus, but somehow she found the prickly little boy easier to understand than perhaps even Lily did. Lily was sunny-natured, generous and open; Petunia understood prickly and resentful very well indeed.
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When they were in the third year, James let Lily know when the Hogsmeade weekends would be, and the whole school, sans the Weasleys, who went home at the weekends, flooed to the Three Broomsticks to meet up. Sirius was monosyllabic but at least not as confrontational. He glowered a lot, but Severus, Lily and Petunia ignored him. Marcus took great delight in calling him 'Cousin Sirius'.
"I don't know why you go to a school with squibs, it's a waste, Evans," said Sirius.
"No it isn't," said Lily. "Squibs can brew a lot of potions, and do magic using runes, and use arithmancy to help design spells. I want to be at school with my sister, who is a bit more than a squib, but not enough for the sainted headmaster Dumbledore to take her, not when he can offer the place to a near squib who is as stupid as a stump but pureblood like Crabbe."
"And what does Snape think?" Black was almost jeering.
"I can think, which is more than you can," said Severus. "Really, do you think I would lose a chance to shine in academic pursuits just to avoid losers like bullies? I am supporting Lily and Petunia, but I'm keeping up with fourth year work at the moment. I'll be taking my OWLs a year early. I haven't any problems with my classmates who are capable of scoring as highly as anyone in the subjects they choose to study. But then I'm not the sort of person who would pick on Mr. Filch just because he's a squib; it's below any wizard to do so as much as it is to pick on a muggle. Only our classmates are a lot more capable than poor Mr. Filch because they've not been treated as though they were educationally subnormal. And they may not be able to hex you into next week with a wand, but I warn you that whatever runes Marcus dissolved into your pumpkin juice will work just as well."
Sirius grew asses' ears, brayed a couple of times, and looked at Marcus with respect.
"Nice prank," he said, holding out a hand.
Marcus shook it.
It was a more comfortable truce and Severus was included in it. Truth to tell, Sirius admired his loyalty to his friends and his standing up for them.
It took Sirius another full year to apologise, however. James had meanwhile been meeting with Lily, Petunia and Severus regularly in the holidays, and Severus regretfully acknowledged that he was an okay guy.
"I suppose she'll marry him," he said, gloomily to Petunia.
"Probably," said Petunia. "You aren't in love with her, you're in love with the idea of being in love with here. And you'd hate being married to her, anyway because though she sympathises, she still doesn't understand your black moods, and teases you for being grumpy and hiding yourself away."
"And you come and help me brew," said Severus.
"And I come and help you brew, and you come and help me design a ward," said Petunia.
"I didn't see that coming," said Severus. "Do you want to give it a go?"
"Why not?" said Petunia. It was a lukewarm request to be his girlfriend, and an equally lukewarm response, but it suited them to be offhand about feelings.
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Severus, Lily and Petunia aced their OWLs, all in the same year, a year early for Severus and Lily, a year late in some respects for Petunia, but she had been able to take her 'O' levels the year before. 7 'O' levels was a pretty poor score by the standard of anyone at the grammar school, but most of the locals went to the secondary modern, and thought themselves doing well if they had as many CSEs at grade 2, which was a D at 'O' level and a P in the Wizarding world. Petunia had achieved A-grade in maths and advanced maths, English and English literature, and B in Chemistry, Biology, Latin and Art. It was an eclectic selection but it suited her choices as a witch.
Nobody was surprised that Severus and Lily got O grade in all their OWLs; but Petunia was proud to have got O grade in Arithmancy, Runes, Potions and Herbology. She was especially pleased to have achieved an E in Charms and Gobbledigook, if only A in Transfiguration, History and Astronomy.
Petunia used a copying spell on her official notification, and wrote to Dumbledore.
"Dear Professor Dumbledore,
I am so glad you did not have room for me at your loser school. If I had attended I doubt I would have achieved the results I have done, please see enclosed. Nine OWLs is not to be sneezed at, I think. I will only be pursuing five of them to NEWT however. Oh, but wait, few of your students manage more than three. How did Mr. Crabbe do? Did his pure blood give him the advantages you expected him to have over me?
Ti-ra-ra-la-i-tu I gloat. Oh how I gloat.
Petunia Evans."
Petunia, being familiar with Kipling, knew how to gloat properly in the Stalky fashion; it may be said that Dumbledore, who was not familiar with Kipling, was confused.
This letter saw Dumbeldore checking with the exam board and came close to being hexed by Madam Marchbanks for even the suggestion that there were irregularities about the exam result.
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"Listen to what that barmy old coot has written," Said Petunia.
"My dear Miss Evans,
My congratulations on your excellent OWL results. As you seem to be a late developer, I am, of course, more than happy to invite you to study for your NEWTs at Hogwarts, along with your sister of course, having seen what excellent results she obtained. I feel that you would find the facilities superior to any small school. Shall we look forward to seeing you both in September?
Yours, APBW Dumbledore."
"He didn't ask about Sev," said Lily. "Sev, did you get an invitation back for your excellent work?"
"Nope," said Severus.
"Old hypocrite," said James, who was visiting.
"Well, let us write back to him," said Petunia.
"Not until I've removed any tracking charms he's put on owl or letter," said Severus. "We don't want him turning up."
"He might turn up at our parents' house," said Petunia, anxiously.
Severus chuckled.
"Not if we put wizard-repelling charms on it," he said. "The Weasleys come by floo so they won't be deterred, and only when Mum lets the wards down."
This they did, and then Petunia wrote,
"My dear Professor,
I am sorry to disappoint you, but I cannot feel that I can take a place in a school which ignores pupils of higher talent than myself, as Lily is not the only independent student to manage ten O grade subjects.
Hogwarts is still substandard.
Petunia Evans."
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The supreme mugwump of the Wizengamot tried to force through a law declaring that the only legal place of education was to be Hogwarts.
He failed.
Not only were the purebloods who homeschooled or sent their children to Durmstrang utterly horrified, but there were those people who brought up the issue of the children who could not afford to send their children to Hogwarts.
How Dumbledore wished that he had given in and permitted Petunia to come to school with her sister.
And now it was too late to control her.
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Dumbledore was to be even more disturbed when James, Sirius and Remus all left school too, to do their OWLs with their friends. Peter could not raise the courage to try anything new, and consequently never became a rat animagus. A discussion about Remus' condition led to fortifying and silencing the Evans' basement, and Eileen, Lily and Severus worked together on a cure. They came up with something akin to the Wolfsbane potion as a stopgap measure, and subsequently, Severus was to do his Mastery in potions on a complete cure. They all aced their NEWTs and by this time, the school was becoming quite well known for providing squibs with enough education to help their more talented family members out, which led to a better life for many squibs. James married Lily and went in for Auror training whilst she became an Unspeakable. The research she undertook enabled the Ministry to sentence Death Eaters to be made into squibs. Aurors were issued with rounds based on muggle tranq darts to fire into Death Eaters, and when James and Sirius cornered Voldemort himself, his excess of soul splitting could not survive being squibbed and he died miserably as did his horcruxes, of which he had four at that moment in time. Indeed he died and revived before dying again four times as each horcrux was leached of its magic.
Peter Pettigrew had expected to bask in the reflected glory of the other Marauders and be top of the heap when they had left to no longer overshadow him, but he was in for a sad surprise as everyone merely laughed at him. Even the death eaters would not have him; he had nothing to offer.
Severus married Petunia and they did not name any of their children 'Dudley'. Their children were Richard, Evan and Eileen, to go with the Potter cousins Henry, or Harry, Rose, Lavender, Marguerite and Mignonette the twins, and Clover. Severus and Petunia ran an apothecary shop.
Remus married Annora Black and Sirius declared him a relative, and they decided to irritate the Black family by calling their children Sirius, Alphard and Berenice with the surname Black-Lupin.
Marcus married Seraphina, and adopted his brother-in-law's policy of irritating the Blacks with Orion, Cassiopeia and Draco, all of whom were magically talented. When the Black family essentially died out apart from Sirius, he reinstated his cousin Andromeda and her family and all the squib descendants. The Black fortune put them through the Cokeworth school, which was expanding and doing financially very well.
Egidius Weasley left school with fewer OWLs than any of the squibs, but got a job as groundsman for the Wimborne Wasps. Leona did well, and went on to teach in the school after a time working in the Ministry. She eventually married Sirius, who gave up being an Auror to teach DADA at the Cokeworth School in addition to his eventual duties as Lord Black. Their children were Denebola, Regulus and Rasalas, twins, and Adhafera, picking stars from the constellation of Leo to celebrate Leona's name too. Sirius had always meant to call a son of his Regulus when he found out that Regulus had died defying Voldemort. Regulus had managed to tell Kreacher to go to Sirius for help destroying the horcrux, when he found it, though of course it had already been neutralised by Voldemort's death. There was enough residue to it however for the Cokeworth group to perform a ritual which, with plenty of runes and protective circles, drew out every dark mark, leaving former death eaters who had not been caught with paralysed left arms and heart murmurs. The backwash of energy caused enough of a light display that half the appliances of the Greater Manchester fire service turned out.
Lucius Malfoy engineered a potions accident necessitating amputation of a badly burned arm to hide what had happened to him. Not that anyone believed him. The Black family refused permission for him to marry Narcissa as it would interfere with their own political aspirations.
With the horcrux in the locket dead, and proven so,Kreacher was less unhinged, and joined Nippy at the school, making asides about the shame on pure bred wizards doing less for the wizarding world than muggles.
Nippy soon had him under control and they produced elflings Polly, Molly and Dolly who subsequently firmly went to school like other staff children.
Albus Dumbledore could not understand why Voldemort had died properly when he was sure that the Dark Lord had made horcruxes. He formed a vigilante group and ended up being shot by a squib dart when leading a vigilante raid on the home of Sirius Black, on the grounds that he must have gone dark, and spent the rest of his shortened life in the St Mungo's Janus Thickey ward, having been considered to have completely lost it.
The Cokeworth school never rivalled Hogwarts in size, but the Evanses won a petition in the Wizengamot, backed by Sirius and James, to permit muggleborn to have their houses connected to the floo network so they might commute to school if they wanted a dayschool education, or weekly, so that their muggle parents were not so isolated from magical life, as they would be permitted to visit too, and see magic performed in sanctioned places.
Tobias Snape died playing a drunken game of chicken with a freight train. He lost.
Vernon Dursley lived a boring life with a boring wife and unremarkable children. He was put in jail when it was found that he was abusing the youngest, who was born brain damaged through his mother having been punched in the stomach during her pregnancy. The infant thought his name was freak.
The end .