Chapter Fourteen:

"Harry," Petunia said, the same awkwardly polite voice he had heard for the past two months. Harry still felt like she wasn't entirely comfortable around him yet. He didn't expect her to be; he was hardly entirely comfortable himself. However, he wanted to feel that comfort. He wanted it to feel like coming home instead of returning to jail.

"You have to finish the story, Aunt Petunia," he said, sitting down on her sofa. "Don't worry about tea or asking me about the family. Just...tell me the rest."

"You've talked to Darren, haven't you?" Harry just nodded.

"Then, you'll have to know about that night." Harry didn't remember Darren talking about a certain night but let Petunia talk.

"Severus!" fourteen year old Petunia cried out. It had been another day in their lives; just the same as it had been since second year. Severus would come to their house, lay about with Lily around the house, get smothered with love from their mother and leave well before dinner. Tonight, however, Petunia Evans was going to make a head-on collision with life. She ran out behind Severus, Lily tucked away in the attic with her school trunk. He stopped and looked at her like she was a stranger.

"Tunie?"

"Severus, I-" she looked to the ground. "Are you very much in love with Lily?" He stalked off into the woods that led to his house and Petunia followed him. "Well, are you?"

"Why are you asking such inane questions, Tunie?"

"I need to know." She reached out and grabbed his arm gently in her small hand. "Are you very much in love with Lily?" Severus was fifteen years old but he felt five. He looked up at the girl he had known his whole life. If he couldn't trust her, who could he trust? He opened his mouth to answer but only found it covered with Petunia's lips. He pulled back and pushed her away from him.

"What the hell was that, Petunia?" he hissed as he wiped his mouth on his sleeve.

"I told you," she said, tears in her eyes, "I had to know." He stared her, knowing whatever he said next would hurt her feelings.

"Tunie, I-" she started crying. Severus felt the little piece of him that loved her hurt and so he held out a hand. She took it, again just kidding herself into believing she could be loved. "You're my friend, Tunie. My friend. So I have to tell you the truth. I do love Lily. Very much. More than I can say right now. She's been my greatest support." Petunia ripped her hand out and his and slap him hard.

"She doesn't even KNOW!" Petunia cried, alluding to the life Severus hides at home.

"I don't need her to."

"Well, maybe she'd love you too if you did, instead of James Potter!" Petunia started to stomp away but Severus caught her arm.

"Tunie, wait! What do you know?" he growled, holding her arm just a little too roughly.

"Nothing," she said meekly, "I only said that to hurt your feelings." Severus let go of the girl and walked off towards his house, leaving her to cry her broken heart out on the grass.

"Aunt Petunia-"

"No time for sympathy. You said, you had to hear the rest of the story," she stopped to wipe her nose on a handkerchief. "Nothing else was said between Severus and I for the rest of that summer. In August, they went back to Hogwarts for their Fifth Year and I went off to boarding school. Then, towards the end of the school year, I got the letter. The worse letter I have ever read. It was smudged and wrinkled and written hastily with evident emotion. I opened it and threw myself down on my bed to read it-

Tunie,

Worse possible day of my life. I will never forgive Severus Snape as long as I live. He's a horrible person, Tunie. How did we ever like him? I can't stand this....this not knowing. I won't just wait around for him anymore. He said something bad about me today, Tunie, and he can never apologize for it. He promised. He promised and he broke that promise. He made some horrible friends with those evil Slytherins and they've put bad ideas in his head, Tunie. My roommates are telling me he's practically breaking down the common room door, asking for me. Nothing James has ever done to me has ever made me feel as bad as this. Tunie, Snape is no longer our friend. He can't come to our home. I won't stand to be treated like this and won't stand to see you treated like this. I don't care that he's rich and a pureblood and everything we're not. I hate him. I hate Severus Snape. I don't want to talk about this again. I'm so glad I still have you, Tunie.

Love, Lils.

"It was like he was rejecting me all over again but I still loved him. I loved him for all he represented. He represented the magical world, he represented intelligence and strength and everything that was a boy to me. So, when Lily told me she hated him, I just thought 'how stupid.' Do you see now, Harry, why your mother was the good one of us? Even in declaring she hated Severus, she was the good one because I hated her for it. And in my petty mind, I thought, 'this is my chance. Maybe Severus will love me.' What a fool!"

"Aunt Petunia, did you ever discover what the fight was about?"

"No, Lily never spoke of it and I could never get it out of Severus."

"My dad publicly humiliated Snape that year. He called him names and turned him upside down, showing everyone his underwears. When Mum came to help him, he called her a mudblood, said he didn't need her help. She turned on him. She told called him the same name that my dad did and left. Snape told me she never spoke to him again after that."

"Over something so stupid!" Petunia cried. "Lily wanted a Prince Charming. She thought she had one. Sev had never hurt her feelings before. He broke the dream. I just suppose she didn't love him like he loved her. Sev would have forgiven her. He would have continued to ignore Potter and his friends for her. God, so stupid, Lily! If you loved him, you would have forgiven him!"

And suddenly, it all sank into to Harry. His mother and father, Aunt Petunia, Snape, Voldemort- would any of it happened if his mother had forgiven Snape that day? Harry stood quickly.

"I have to go."

"But I thought you wanted to hear the rest of the story."

"I need to talk to Darren. I need to know something you can't tell me before we go on." He walked over and placed a quick kiss on her cheek.

"I'm sorry. I have to go. Goodbye, Aunt Petunia." She murmured a small goodbye as Harry walked towards the door. "Oh, one last thing," he said with a knowing grin, "Ginny's pregnant." And Harry got to see the rapturous joy on his Aunt's face before he Disapparated away.