"Sev, you frightened me. Promise me you won't do it again!" The red-haired girl drew her hands to her chest and let out a frustrated sigh. She turned her back on the newcomer, a skinny, lumpy boy with greasy dark hair, dressed in odd, shabby, oversized clothes. She was sitting on a log, reading her favourite book, shielded from the icy January wind by a handful of young oak trees forming a small thicket and didn't expect him to turn up so suddenly in front of her.
"I'm sorry, Lily, I truly am," mumbled the boy barely audibly. "Look, I have got a present for you." He kneeled down besides her and handed over the sheet of parchment he was holding. "Happy birthday, Lily!"
Lily turned to him, her sudden anger and frustration completely gone. Instead, a huge grin formed on her freckled face. She carefully examined the parchment, where, drawn with the unsure hands of an eleven-year old boy in charcoal, she was surprised to find her own, strikingly resembling portrait.
"Thanks Sev, it's wonderful! You haven't forgotten my birthday. Seems like everybody else has. You are a real friend…my only friend," she sighed and gave a small peck on the boy's left cheek. Severus went purple and stared at her, then slowly, gently touched his cheek as if it had been burnt. Lily giggled, then jumped on her feet and helped the boy up. Still holding his hand, she pointed towards the river. "Let's go see if the river is frozen, I want to skate," she nudged him. Sev grudgingly followed her, both unaware of the prying eyes following them.
Petunia shook her head. "Again that awful Snape boy," she thought while she carefully, so that the others couldn't hear her, moved nearer. She absolutely loathed the boy living further down the river at Spinner's End. He was known to have come from a troubled family; he and his mother constantly being terrorised by his abusive, always drunken father. Yes, she loathed the boy, but she loathed – and equally feared – his regular, strong outbursts of primitive, uncontrolled magic Lily was so fascinated with. Unlike her two years younger sister, Petunia Evans wasn't a girl one could call "cute" or "nice". On the contrary; her face and figure were rather dull and uninteresting, she was a barely mediocre pupil, and there were only a handful of children who could stand her nosy, pesky character. She didn't have any real friends. Lily, on the other hand, had very nice features, was the best pupil in her class, and she was very popular with her classmates. Still, she spent all her spare time with Sev instead; the two were practically inseparable.
-
Petunia envied her sister of everything, even her "magic", which was – frankly speaking – frightening her all the time. The Evans', living in a predominantly wizarding community, were proud that at least one of their children were showing signs of magic and Petunia slowly got tired of it, developing pure hatred towards everything her sister represented.
"Lily! Lily!" Her mother's voice distracted Petunia from her thoughts. "Tuney!"
"Coming, Mum," she answered reluctantly and made her way back towards the house, carefully treading on the crispy snow.
"Tuney, dear, have you seen Lily around?" her mother enquired fondly handing her a freshly baked chocolate muffin. Petunia's nose drew in the delicious smell the muffin was emanating and closed her eyes in delight.
"She's over there, by the river, with that freaky Snape boy again," she spat, each word dripping with venom, then took a healthy bite from the treat.
"Would you mind calling her in, Tuney? Please tell her she has a visitor."
"Why me, Mum? They're talking about that 'magic' of theirs again. You know I can't stand it," she took a position clearly stating she'd had absolutely no intention whatsoever to talk to them.
"Tuney, please. I can't leave the birthday cake. Just go, will you?" he mother repeated in a calm voice. Petunia rolled her eyes and nodded. "OK, Mum, I will tell her. Thanks for the muffin."
She made her way back to the river. When she caught sight of the two, she stopped, as if frozen. Lily and Severus were sitting on the ground facing each other. A stone the size of a fist was levitating between them; from Lily to Severus, then back again.
"Khm, khm…" she cleared her throat. The two broke their concentration and the stone fell on the ground with a thump. She looked straight into Lily's eyes, pointedly ignoring the boy. "Mum wants you back. You have a visitor." Not waiting for an answer, she proudly turned around and marched back to the house.
-
Three people were sitting around the old, oval chestnut table. Her dad on the sofa, Lily in an armchair, and the strange visitor had just made himself comfortable in the other one. Mrs. Evans was serving tea and a delicious batch of her chocolate muffins was already placed on the table on a silver plate.
"Help yourself to some cake, Mr. Dubledore," she said, pouring steaming hot tea into her own cup at last and taking her place besides her husband, and with an elegant gesture pointed at the tray. The strange old man acknowledged her with a nod and a friendly smile; then made a gesture with his right hand and all of a sudden a chocolate muffin landed on each of the four dessert plates. Lily clapped her hands and emitted an excited cry while her parents watched in awe. Petunia rolled her eyes. "I could have known. Another freak showing off with his 'magic'", she muttered. She spat the last word with so much hatred that she was surprised even at herself. She took a better position by the window trying to catch everything happening at the table.
The visitor - as far as she could judge – was a tall, thin, very old man dressed into something similar to a cloak. It was made of a velvety emerald green material; a strange bird was richly embroidered in the fabric in a heavy golden thread. He wore a mischievous glance as he delightedly sipped from his tea; then he replaced his cup on the table. "You know, an old man as I am can most surely appreciate a nice cup of tea on such a cold day. It warms you through and through," he admitted. His face became more serious now and he turned to Lily.
"So, Lily, I want to wish you happy birthday first. Of course you understand it's not the only reason I'm here; for someone of our kind the eleventh birthday is of utmost importance," he went on and examined the excited girl with a curious glance through his half-moon spectacles. Lily's small hands were clutched in fists as she was trying to control her excitement.
"Our kind…your kind…freaky kind," rhymed Petunia smirking ironically, but her thoughts were distracted again, this time by the cracking sound of breaking china. She watched in disbelief as the cup of her younger sister shattered into thousands of tiny particles, right there on the table.
"Don't worry dear, you will learn to control your magic," smiled the old man with twinkles in his unusually clean, bright blue eyes and muttered something under his crooky nose causing the china splinters to reunite into a cup again as if nothing had happened.
"So, I have come to offer you a place in a rather special school where I have the privilege to teach boys and girls from the age 11 until 18. The school is called 'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry'…"
"I know, Mister. Severus told me all about your school," Lily cut in before he could continue.
"It is the Snape boy you are referring to, I assume, isn't it, Lily?" inquired Dumbledore fondly, silently amusing himself at the girl's excitement.
"Yes, Mister," answered the girl proudly. "He got his letter three weeks ago. It was brought by an OWL!"
"Yes, my dear, this is the usual way wizards and witches exchange letters," laughed the visitor and finished his tea, then reached into his robe and produced a letter from a pocket, seemingly hidden inside. "Well, I might not be an owl; nevertheless I have the honour to give you the same letter young Severus had earlier been delivered." With these words he handed over a rather large, square, yellowish envelope to her.
Petunia turned away from the window and sat on the ground breathing heavily. "So the Snape boy will attend that stupid school of his and now Lily's got her invitation as well. Proud parents as they are, Mum and Dad will most certainly let her go. It's just not fair. Why can't I go as well? Why can't I learn all this stuff?" Afraid as she was of their magic - "'God, how I hate this word,' she thought" – she could not help but wish she'd had it in herself as well and felt empty, unnecessary at the thought her younger sister had surpassed her, yet again.
"OK, here's the plan. I have to convince this Dubbledore to take me into his school as well," she concluded. She silently sneaked into the house so that no one would hear the door as she closed it after herself and tiptoed upstairs into her own room to carry out her plan.
-
"Tuney! Tuney!" Mrs. Evans' call echoed around the house. Petunia distractedly raised her head from the book she was reading. "What is it, Mum? What do you want?" she demanded in a rather irascible tone.
Mrs. Evans' face was overshadowed with badly disguised anger for a second. She didn't like being addressed this way at all; she put much effort into raising her two daughters into good-mannered young ladies. With Lily she had no problems. And Petunia…well, she's only Petunia, she thought to herself, but left her rude question without a comment this time. She did make a mental note to herself to find out why her older daughter had been behaving even more irritably than usual these days.
"You've got a letter, dear. Coming down for it or shall I bring it up to your room?" she inquired in a sugar-coated voice. That did the trick; no sooner had she spoke the last word of her question than she could hear the sound of Petunia's steps knocking on the wooden stairs as she rushed downstairs. With badly masked anticipation on her face Petunia snatched the rather huge, square envelope from her mother's hand, cast a victorious glance at her younger sister who silently observed the scene, and without a word returned to her room, taking two steps at once on the screechy stairs.
-
"I can't believe it! It's just not fair!" The shriek, followed by the sound of breaking glass, stirred up the silent conversation of the Evans' in the living-room. Lily rushed up the stairs to find out what had happened to Petunia. Her door was open, she stood at the window, trembling with fury. At her feet lay the envelope she'd received with the daily post merely minutes ago. Lily recognized it at once. It was the same envelope Professor Dumbledore gave her on her birthday. She went pale and went up to her older sister.
"Did you…did you get a letter from Hogwarts as well?" she inquired in a small voice, looking into Tuney's eyes.
"Yes, I did. That old freak wrote he was sorry that I couldn't be admitted to that school of his because I didn't have any magic in me," Tuney filtered the words between her teeth.
"You wrote a letter to Professor Dumbledore?" Lily was dumbfounded. How on Earth was Petunia able to contact the Professor? "But Tuney, you really can't go to Hogwarts."
That word did the trick. Petunia turned around and with all her strength slapped Lily on her face. "Get out from my room, you FREAK! I don't want to see you here again! I hate you!" she cried with a red face, then pushed her sister out of her room and slammed the door shut after her.
-
A ten years older Petunia Dursley is holding a piece of parchment and reading it for what seems the hundredth time. "…We are sorry to inform you that your sister, Lily Potter and her husband, James Potter were killed yesterday in their house at Godric's Hollow…" the parchment says. She wipes away a teardrop and whispers, "I'm so sorry, Lils…I'm so sorry…" She's woken up from her thoughts by a loud cry from the dining room.
"Petunia, what the hell are you doing? Where's my breakfast?"
"Coming, Vernon, just give me a second!" She recomposes herself with a sniff, wipes her eyes clean, and carries the tray into the dining room, where the two men in her life – her only living relatives as of yesterday – wait for their breakfast, to start yet another day in their lives.
Completely unaware of prophecies, faiths and tragedies around themselves.