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Chapter 10 – Deals inspire magic!
Park near Spinner's End, Cokeworth, July 1978
A little smirk graced Severus' face. He couldn't believe that his tactics had worked. Petunia didn't see Lily only in a dark light anymore. She had overthought some of her prejudiced character observations and even promised to establish a sisterly bond with Lily again. All he had to do in return was to state that he won't give up hope to find true love in his life. Sometimes he really was a genius, because he could pretend to keep looking for true love without Petunia even noticing that he was lying and at the same time reunite Lily with her long-lost, hostile sister. Sure, this wouldn't be fair towards Petunia, because she had opened up to him, believed in his sincerity and future achievements and offered him a friendship based on trust, mutual understanding, and honesty. And Severus knew that trying to repair her sisterly relationship with Lily really must tax Petunia because she suffers under an inferiority complex and she is a prideful young woman, who doesn't easily acknowledge her mistakes and show her vulnerability to her little sister.
Hence, Severus would really betray Petunia's trust and add another hurt to her already shattered heart, if he would lie to her. Although Severus really didn't believe that true love was something for him, because, let's face it, nobody ever loved him for who he was and surely nobody would ever be in love with him, the greasy, unattractive, impoverished, sarcastic and cruel Potions genius. Severus really believed in soul mates and soul bounds, but he didn't believe that there was any soul mate out there for him. For, how split and miserable must this soul mate be, to complete him? Trapped in his unrequited love and obsession with Lily, Severus couldn't imagine to ever be more attracted to or in love with another woman. And if a miracle happened and he would fall in love with someone, this woman would most likely only laugh about his feelings, mock him for them and reject him as Lily did. Therefore, Severus couldn't quite well be optimistic about any existing love life in his future. He really didn't believe in his chances of ever finding love again and his love for Lily blinded him additionally.
So, on the one hand, he wanted to spurn Petunia's deal due to his hopelessness to ever find love. On the other hand, he wanted to cut her deal because he wanted her to be happier with her life and a repaired sisterly bond with Lily would truly achieve this. Hence, he decided to open his eyes to love again and keep looking for any woman who caught his interest. Sure, he would have to overcome his obsession with Lily to open up his heart to a new woman. A deed that would undoubtedly cost him a lot of time and sorrows. But he would risk processing his unrequited, obsessed love to Lily because it already made him miserable and dangerously close to throwing his life away. Most likely, his life couldn't get any darker or depressed than it was at the moment. So, he really hadn't anything to lose.
Well, except his positive memories of his friendship with Lily and some blissfully happy dreams and daydreams. Perhaps, Petunia could help him to be more optimistic and positive about his future because she did believe in him and had already achieved to gain a scholarship at the University of Warwick. Sure, Petunia wasn't the most outgoing or optimistic young woman herself, but she believed in him and his chances of finding love and going into Potions research. Touched by her support, Severus vowed to always believe in her too and encourage her to live her dreams and be her true self because he really liked this blunt, honest and vulnerable Petunia.
Thence, after a few minutes of contemplating her deal, Severus turned his focus on Petunia, looked her deeply into her sapphire blue eyes, hold his hand out to her and replied to her with a smug smile on his face, "We have a deal. I will not bury all my hopes of finding true love and keep my eyes open for any woman that might enchant me. In return, you will begin to repair your broken sisterly relationship with Lily. But I have a little adjustment to make: Petunia, you must also promise me, to not stop looking for love and leave your abusive, cruel bastard of a boyfriend because he destroys you and you deserve to be loved, desired and protected. Thence, call it quits with this dumb, controlling oaf and believe in your chance to find love because I can undoubtedly guarantee you that there is a Prince Charming out there for you. So, can you promise me, to kick Victor's ass?", Severus inquired in a fierce sounding voice.
Petunia, who couldn't fathom that Severus would work on giving up his obsession with Lily, smiled at him in amusement. She had promised herself before offering this deal to break it off with Vernon in the morning and start on working to establish a friendly relationship with Lily. Sure, these schemes would require lots of courage, honesty and character strength from her, but Petunia was finally ready to start living her life based on her wishes and no longer let old grudges or insecurities control her life. She felt revitalized, strong and liberated due to her heart-to-heart talk with Severus and would tackle any obstacle in her new way of life. Well, it really seemed like this day was her lucky day. Finally, Vernon's abuse and flirting with other buxom women brought her to her senses. She deserved better than this, although it was really insane that Severus Snape, her childhood nemesis turned friend, opened her eyes to this. It was also quite amusing, that he couldn't get Vernon's name right. Victor. Hey, it was still an improvement to Vernon in her opinion. Letting out a low chuckle, Petunia gave Severus a real smile – something, she hadn't managed in quite some time – and nudged him playfully with her elbow.
"Wow, Severus. I would never have picked you for someone who would curse so violently in front of a young lady", Petunia replied with a little, deep laugh, "But I guess that a creepy brute and leech like my ex-boyfriend doesn't deserve any better. By the way, his name is Vernon, not Victor and I must say that the moniker Victor is too beautiful for such a vile person anyway. I promise you to break it off with him in the morning. And if he tries something funny like coercing me to stay in this abusive hell of a relationship or mocking me for my decision, I will show him that I'm not the silent, submissive victim anymore. I'm a survivor and I will fight him by all means necessary. So, we have a deal," Petunia took Severus extended hand, gave it a firm shake and looked with happiness radiating icy blue eyes in his obsidian blacks.
Severus returned her handshake with equal enthusiasm, his eyes gleaming with amusement and his heart skipping a beat. For a long time once again, he felt useful, liberated and happy. He had helped another human to see reason, change her life for the better and positively look ahead. He felt proud of himself and meaningful. A new feeling for him, because until now he only ever caused pain, destruction, and despair in the life of other humans. Perhaps, he had still a chance to do some good things in his life and needn't join the Death Eaters to feel powerful and accepted. But he wouldn't think about his Slytherin acquaintances and their plans for his future now. Now was a time for feeling carefree and celebrating his deal as well as new found friendship with Petunia.
As he studied Petunia's beaming face, he noticed for the first time how beautiful she really was. Sure, she wasn't the kind of fashion model stunning, but with her sparkling sapphire blue eyes, her rosy cheeks and luscious pink lips, her long honey blond hair and her oval, graced with clean-cut features face she could only be described as a beautiful rough diamond. But her most stunning feature wasn't her eyes, but rather her beautiful, gleaming white teeth baring beaming smile and her natural, clear infectious laugh. Severus realized, that he know was openly staring at Petunia, blushed a little and hoped that she hadn't noticed anything. Merlin, how could he be so obvious and stupid? He shouldn't check her out like some leecher because she was his new friend and he couldn't really be that dumb to fall for another girl that treated him with kindness, understanding and believed in him.
How pathetic would he be, if he fell in love with Petunia – Lily's bigger Muggle sister, his childhood nemesis? Sure, Petunia was a beautiful, intelligent and empathetic young woman who could relate to him and believed in his goodness. Therefore, she would be an ideal girlfriend. But he couldn't be seriously considering her as his true love after one honest talk and some encouraging words. What was wrong with him, that he felt romantic vibes towards every girl that was kind to him? He didn't want to overanalyze everything but somewhere in his mind or heart had to be a huge defect. Most likely, his hormones were in overdrive like by any ordinary male teen and he only needed to control them, to stop his insane thoughts and the uneasy feeling inside his stomach. Therefore, he cooled his emotions off, focused his thoughts on being a good friend to Petunia and banished any strange thoughts out of his mind. Thank Merlin, that Petunia wasn't able to read his thoughts because they would undoubtedly scare her to death. Trying to distract Petunia from his long silence, Severus squeezed her hand lightly and answered her in his sincere sounding, deep baritone.
"Petunia, I'm glad that you finally woke up and are going to pull the plug on your abusive, toxic romance with that controlling walrus Vernon – what a fitting name for such a despicable loser. And you know me. I'm a simple, blunt kid from a working-class family and if I hadn't learned how to curse in this hellish home of mine, I wouldn't have survived anything. Abusive language and mortifications were the special power of Tobias. So, please, forgive me my bad language, but I can't think of any nice words regarding your disgusting ex-boyfriend. Therefore, I will use some creative swearwords to badmouth him. But, Petunia, don't let us waste any valuable time on this creature. Rather answer some of my questions: Why do you envy Lily so much for her magical powers? Only because you think that your parents would love you more if you had magical powers? Or are you truly fascinated by the Magical world? If you are intrigued by it, what fascinates you the most? And have you ever thought about the fact that you can go on magical adventures without being able to perform magic?"
Petunia was flabbergasted by Severus' new Q & A session. Her lack of magical powers was a sore spot in her life and she really didn't like to talk about it. But Severus honest questions intrigued her and she wanted to know, what he meant as he said she could experience adventures in the Magical world without having magic powers. Hence, Petunia decided to answer his questions honestly.
