She had convinced Vernon to meet James and Lily at a restaraunt.
"She is my sister" she had insisted. "She's abnormal, but she's still my sister. There has to be something good about her. Maybe we're missing something. Just try." When Lily had reached out to her and said she wanted to fix the relationship between them, Petunia had been overjoyed. She loved her fiance-she could say it now, she loved him. It wasn't as fiery or as passionate as the way she had loved Alex Nokstrole. It was calm, steady, and certainly not as overwhelming. It wasn't really that important, but it was there. She was in love with Vernon Dursley. He had his faults, but she loved him through it. When Lily had suggested they have a double date with James and Vernon, though, her heart had plummeted. Because having to witness that love in action yet again would only devastate her when she compared it to the way she loved Vernon, the way he loved her. It would maybe, just maybe make her wish she was the golden sister again. But-no. She had long pushed those thoughts out of her mind. Lily was not the golden sister. James was not someone to be jealous of. They were just a couple of freaks.
She had told Vernon that she was just trying to see if there was something in there that was good in Lily and her boyfriend. In truth she was starved-starved for the company of her fiery, vivacious sister. Whether this went downhill or not, it would be entertainment, something she hadn't had in weeks, between wedding planning and keeping her fiance happy, which required an embarrassingly large amount of cooking and listening to him drone on about drills. Lily, she thought longingly, probably didn't have to cook for James to keep him happy. Of course she didn't! If James were, like Vernon, the kind of man who judged a woman on her ability to be a productive housewife, he would have left Lily long ago. She couldn't cook to save her life, and her room was constantly a mess. That, Petunia thought smugly, was the one thing at which she was better than Lily. Then again, Lily probably didn't want to spend her days cooped up inside, cleaning and waiting on her husband. Neither did Petunia, if she really admitted it. It sounded an awful life. But that was what normal families did, and so that was what she would do.
She and Lily embraced each other, a little white lie they were both telling each other that there was nothing wrong between them,nothing unhealthy about their relationship. James shook her hand and then Vernon's. She watched her fiance adoringly as he told them about his drill business-he was bragging a bit, not that she minded. Lily needed to know that Vernon was good and important and better than James. She looked up, expecting to see intimidation, or at least respect in Lily and James' eyes. Lily looked slightly irked, whereas her boyfriend just looked amused.
"Yes, well I'm sure these drills are very important" James said. Lily elbowed him. He leaned over and said something in her ear, and she snickered under her breath.
"Is something funny?" Vernon asked sharply.
"No, of course not" Lily said, still fighting the urge to smile. It made Petunia angry to see Vernon made a fool of without even really realizing it. Who did they think they were? Who do you think you are? An old voice asked, resurfacing, bringing her back to her childhood. They're enchanting and brilliant and beautiful and irresistible. They're golden! And what are you? She'd known this was a bad idea. She just had to focus in on Vernon, on their wonderful, normal life together. That was how she'd get through this.
"So what d'you do for a living?" Vernon asked James pompously.
"Well, nothing yet, as we've only just graduated. I hope to someday become an Auror. It's a dark wizard catcher, like a national security force"
"But you're not yet?"
"No"
"Hm" There was an awkward silence, for a bit. "What car do you drive?" He asked. It was obviously meant to intimidate him. She wondered if it was working.
"Well-ah-wizards don't have cars"
"So you don't drive one, then?" Vernon looked smug.
"I-well, I do have a racing broom"
"I'm sorry did you just say broom? As in, a broomstick?"
"Yes. It's the Nimbus 1500. Fastest broom on the market, cost me a small fortune, it did, though"
"Well, I hate to break it to you Potter, my mum's got about four of those" He said, eyes gleeful.
"No, well, we have brooms for cleaning too, and they're nowhere near the same thing."
"Alright then" but there was tension between the two of them, in the air like electricity for several minutes until Vernon made the decision to restart the conversation.
"So if you're unemployed, I suppose you're on benefit. All of your lot must be, no one's exactly going to pay you if you go around telling them that you catch dark wizards" He said with a laugh.
"Well, actually, my family has plenty of money in the bank"
"The bank? You keep money in the bank?"
"Well, Gringotts. The wizard bank. It's run by goblins, and some of the bigger vaults have a dragon guarding them" Vernon went a shade of red.
"Are you toying with me?" Goblins? Dragons? Did they take her fiance for a fool? Vernon scoffed. "And how much money do you have in this-Grintotts?"
"I've no idea" James said, looking a bit puzzled. "It's very hard to count, you see, as it's all in coins" Vernon turned magenta.
"Do you think I'm stupid? Coins! And I suppose it's all in solid gold, too"
"Well, actually, it is. Most of it, at least. There's some silver and bronze, too"
"James" Lily said quietly, and Petunia was pleased to know that she looked a bit ashamed. "Don't" Was that all that awful boy got? After making fun of Vernon, just a don't?
"Why?" He asked, looking perplexed. So he was a simpleton. Enchanting and brilliant and beautiful and irresistible? Ha. This one'd have trouble pouring water out of a boot with the instructions on the heel. Lily made imploring eyes at him. And then a little smirk played across his face, and he turned back to Vernon.
"Just stacks of gold. And you give the goblin your key, and you go in a mine cart on pretty much one of those-what do Muggles call 'em-rollercoasters and then you get into your vault. It can be a bit irritating though, as it's very heavy to carry around." She couldn't believe that she had ever thought that this smirking Potter boy was perfect! He who thought he was so much better than Vernon, so incredible, so enchanting, so beautiful, so brilliant, so irresistible, so-golden. She took a sharp breath, tuning out the conversation and noticing vaguely, out of the corner of her eye, Lily putting her head in her hands. She turned things over in her mind. She thought she was past this! She thought she was in love with the idea of living a normal life, of spending her days in a perfect suburban neighbourhood with a perfect suburban family. She had been curious to see how she and Lily's relationship could work as adults, free of childhood grudges and silly schoolgirl rivalries. But apparently it wasn't just a sisterly bitterness towards the other's strengths. Apparently Lily really was just better than her. Apparently she really was the silver sister. And she would never be satisfied with a life of normalities if she kept having to interact with the extraordinary. Vernon stood up abruptly, alerting her. He grabbed his coat.
"Come on, Petunia. We're leaving. I refuse to entertain some crackpot egomaniac of a man who insists on insulting me when I am the one who has so generously agreed to tolerate him!" She stood, her chair screeching back, and Vernon threw some money on the table. He was not a man without honor. She left on his arm, angry as he was, but not angry at James Potter. Instead she was angry with the universe, angry with God, if he existed, angry with her parents, angry with anyone and everyone that got into this situation. Angry with her sister, for being born blessed, and with herself for being born ordinary.
Lily, she decided, would not be a bridesmaid. She was done with being the silver sister. She would not be overshadowed by Lily ever again, especially on her own wedding day. Lily would not even be in attendance. Petunia would be iridescent and...enchanting and beautiful and brilliant and irresistible, for just one day. Lily lived it every day of her life, and Petunia was determined to taste just one day in the life of a golden person. Which meant no Lily. She would not be eclipsed on her wedding day.
She told Vernon that she was angry for the way he had been treated, and she was, partially. She shuddered to think what he would do if he knew about all the hours she had spent in the past seven years dreaming of attending Hogwarts. Her parents begged her to reconsider, begged her to invite Lily ('she's your sister, Petunia! She's your only sister!'), but she was steadfast in her decision, and she would not be swayed. Until, a month after her meeting with Lily and her boyfriend, she stormed out of their house in a rage. They called out after her to rethink it, that she needed Lily at her wedding. She slammed the door behind her.
A week later, they died in a freak accident, their last request to her having been that she invite Lily to her wedding. So she did, and Vernon understood, because normal people cared about their parents. She sent out the invitation to Lily, nearly scratching off the plus one and then thinking the better of it. If she didn't have James with her, she would need to talk to Petunia, because she knew nearly no one else. They had no cousins.
So Lily and James showed up to what Petunia had planned to be her perfect day. A large diamond glittered on Lily's finger. It was beautiful, and it almost had Petunia looking mournfully down at hers and picturing it on her finger, Lily wearing the mediocre one. Almost. She shook the thoughts from her head. As she walked down the aisle, she passed the two of them, and did not glance towards them. She walked past them and she pictured herself walking far away from the freakishness of the past and towards a new, brighter future. One where she would be safe from words she didn't understand like 'quidditch' and 'transfiguration', and exploding teapots and pincushions that were really hedgehogs.
They didn't speak at the reception, nor did she and Vernon acknowledge their existence. Her new husband, though, whenever he was in earshot of the soon-to-be-Potters would loudly insult James to whoever he was speaking to, sure that his future brother-in-law would hear it. To his credit, if he heard Vernon describing him as 'some kind of amature magician' or a 'brainless bimbo' or anything else, he did not cause a scene.