Disclaimer: I don't own any Harry Potter material. Everything except the characters Sarah Nelson and Angus Black as well as the plot are owned by J.K. Rowling.
Chapter 36 Petunia's Secret
Harry looked at his aunt, hardly blinking. She couldn't be serious. She couldn't. Friends with Severus Snape? You might as well say both his parents had been Death Eaters. But as Harry looked down Aunt Petunia, he didn't see any sign of deception. Only conviction.
"Yes, Harry," said Petunia. "I was friends with your potions master once. The Slytherin who hated your father so much."
Harry had no idea who to say. He turned to Dumbledore who nodded his head.
"It's true, Harry," he said. He smiled passed Harry at Petunia. "But I'll let Petunia tell the story."
Harry looked again at Petunia. She closed her eyes and sighed. Then she opened them again and began.
"It began when your mother Lily got her letter to Hogwarts. She was eleven, and I was thirteen at the time. And as you know, our parents were so glad to have a witch for a daughter." She looked again at Harry. Harry didn't move a muscle, only intent on listening to his aunt tell her story. She continued on.
"Then a strange greasy haired boy from some other neighbourhood made a habit to walk down our own neighbourhood, occasionally looking in at Lily. He had his sources he did. He knew when there a child of a muggle community about to join the wizarding world."
"Severus Snape," whispered Harry.
"Exactly," said Petunia. "Now he tried to befriend Lily, but she didn't want anything to do with him. She certainly didn't want to be caught, walking around with a boy with such shallow skin with hair that looked like it hadn't been combed for a month. She was already popular enough at her muggle school where she unintentionally performed magic without realizing it.
"Unintentionally performed magic?" said Harry. That was like how he had let the snake out at the zoo or would end up on the roof at his old muggle school. Only it didn't result in popularity for him, while Lily's "incidents" did.
"That's right," said Aunt Petunia. "The teachers didn't approve of her, but she was a hoot as far as the other students were concerned." Then she frowned and her whole body tightened up. "I wasn't as popular, however. I envied her and envied her even more when her Hogwarts letter came." She looked at Dumbledore and then at Harry and her voice went down to a whisper. "I wanted to go to Hogwarts, Harry. I wanted to use magic like Lily. Unfortunately, however, there wasn't a bit of any magical talent in me. But I still loved magic and that was when I decided to speak to Severus Snape."
Harry leaned in close. Aunt Petunia loving magic. This was too much. But he wanted to hear the rest of his aunt's story.
Aunt Petunia took a deep breath. "We both wanted Lily to stop. Snape was only going into first year at Hogwarts like Lily, but he knew a lot of curses. So he tried one on Lily, a curse that made any sign that she had magical ability stop. I lured her out of the house to the nearest park where Snape could use it on her." She smiled. "But don't worry, Snape's curse was only temporary so Lily's magical abilities started coming back again within a few days. But within those few days, I still see the shock on her face when she realised that magic wasn't working for her."
Harry took a step away. "So in other words, you and Snape were friends just because you hated my mother."
Petunia smiled. "Yes, but there's more to this story than just this." She sighed and lay back. Uncle Vernon and Dudley hadn't spoken for the entire length. They both sure didn't look happy, but they looked in a state of surrender.
"What else?" asked Harry.
"I think," said Dumbledore, taking a step forward, "that that will be enough for now. I will see about brining you back again later, Harry. For now, let's just let your relatives rest."
Harry felt like arguing. After hearing about his aunt and Snape, he felt he deserved the whole story. But he knew he couldn't argue with Dumbledore. He shrugged his shoulders, sighed, and left with Dumbledore.