A/N: As an admirer of the HP universe, I do not stand with Rowling's transphobic tweets. I shouldn't be surprised but I am. To anyone who has ever felt invalidated or betrayed, I see you and I promise this will always be an inclusive space.

TW: Character Death

Chapter 22: Pyre

The day could not get any worse. Then it did. Eileen died that afternoon, just after the long morning meeting had ended. Petunia stood in the corner of the room and watched healers try for a whole hour to bring her back. They could not, Petunia didn't cry at work. That was the rule her father had taught her.

Eileen died and plunged her world into black. Then the white shroud wrapped itself around her and they took her body to the mortuary. Petunia held Eileen's hand and felt her body get cold. She walked to the potion dungeon only to find that they had given her the rest of the day off.

Charles had told her to go mourn and he had taken it upon himself to inform everyone. Petunia sat in the bath and the blistering water-cooled onto her skin until it felt like ice. She found herself getting changed and then not knowing at all what to do. She found herself breaking the rules she set up for the flat.

She lifted the pewter cauldron from her room and set the gas stove on. The stone got warm and Petunia brewed. She brewed sad things, poisons and foul-tasting concoctions. Without realizing it she moved to medical-grade stoppers to Death. Her time at St Mungo's better at potions, more efficient, less wasteful and incredibly focused on the idea of stability. She could tell from the smells each one was perfect and she sent it away to Lord Guant's office specifically, he would know what they meant.

Petunia cleaned every inch of the flat and Darren still was not back at home. This kind of energy was destructive. She didn't call home and the frantic knocks to her flat door after what seemed like hours forced her to think. Petunia ignored it, so Lily let herself in and had dragged Severus in with her.

Lily had grown up during the time away and Severus looked just as lost. He looked like he did when he was younger and Petunia snapped out of her grief enough to want to hug him.

"You need to get dressed into clean dress robes, we are going to Mrs Snape's funeral," Lily said firmly.

"And Mr Snape?" Petunia asked.

"He's going to get here in an hour and then we portkey to the Prince Property. We show a united front the way Mrs Snape would have wanted."

It seemed as if Lily grew up as Petunia blinked. Fuck, she was glad to have Lily here in person smelling like jasmine and as cold as the weather outside.

"I have robes in my closet. Two pairs of black ones, they should fit the two of you. You can't go to the funeral in your school robes. I'll make tea, then we leave."

Tobias came half an hour later. He was wearing his nicest Sunday suit and he looked lost. His eyes held anger and grief. He hugged each child though and quietly thanked Petunia for covering all the medical bills over the last few months.

Petunia wrote a note to Darren and locked the door. She wore heeled boots and let her hair loose as was customary. Lily had done the same after scrounging an appropriate outfit from Petunia's clothes.

The house was were Eileen grew up was nicer than the nicest part of Cokesworth. They had all been aware that Eileen had been rich, but this level of wealth felt uncomfortable to them. The current Lord Prince stood at the gates as they entered the estate.

"The apprentice, the son and the husband. I assume we can now begin building the pyre, " Lord Prince said.

Although during her time at St Mungo's Petunia had been surrounded by death she wasn't too familiar with the customs surrounding wizard funerals. The Prince's were an old family so their rituals could greatly differ from the average wizard.

Lord Prince lead them to the clearing where the attendants had already started coming it. Petunia took one look at the body as it lay under a gazebo and she bit her lip to stop the crying. She could sense that Lily wanted to hold her hand or cry on her chest. It was already a cold day, but Lily's magic crackled its familiar crackle and snow began to fall.

"She would have liked it, " Lily said firmly. "Lord Prince let's begin to build the pyre, shall we."

Severus looked at the Evans' girls. If he didn't know any better he would have assumed that they were a pair of pureblood girls at the age where marriage contracts would start to flood in. They could have been having they both been born under better circumstances. He watched and mechanically followed Petunia as she began to build the pyre with Lord Prince and his father. Tobias had not said a word to him apart from giving the girls a brief hug.

Tobias cannot bring himself to build the "thing" that will engulf his wife with flames. It is there that Lily is most helpful. She hasn't gone to church unless she is forced to but years of magical education cannot erode the muggle hymns that Eileen had taught her at Sunday School when she did go. Lily hums them quietly and keeps her eyes on the weather. Petunia would reprimand her when they got home. Playing around with weather magic was frowned upon in many places where polite society existed.

Her sister often forgot that Cokesworth and the street they grew up on was the antithesis of polite society. Lily was not obligated to act like Narcissa or even Alice, because she came from the rough side of the tracks where their level of poverty had required them to work for every little luxury they possessed. Tobias deserved comfort and today, Lily would take the place of a daughter he never had to provide that comfort to him.

Petunia, on the other hand, as the finished building the pyre, stepped back to that Lord Prince could seal it. The spell flashed grey and Petunia took out her ceremonial knife from the pocket of her robes and a gallon.

"Her passage into the arms of Death and her fee paid for by her apprentice, " Petunia said. The words activated the first part of the ritual and she began carving the runes as Severus put the body down onto the pyre. Severus was stiff and she wouldn't embarrass him by holding him, not here.

Lord Prince pried open his sister's fingers and inserted the gallon into her hand. The ritual itself was dark, it came off a dark origin. Somehow it all seemed fitting and as Severus lit the pyre, Petunia grabbed Lily's other hand. The moment of weakness was ok, it would be fine, they would go back home and there she would cry because at that point no one needed her to be strong.

Lily quit faking strong as the flames grew higher. She turned around and hugged tightly into Petunia without letting go of Tobias' hand. Lily trembled and took deep, jagged breathes. She was beautiful when she cried, Petunia could help but notice. The snow came down harder and they welcomed the cold and the wind. The weather got worse and many of the pure-bloods who had come to watch the funeral quietly paid their respects around the family.

There comes a time when Magic couldn't heal things, where science had no answers and religion taught that they had to believe in something bigger than themselves. The simple answer to that for Petunia had been that Eileen and the parents had been her reason to keep holding on to try harder and be better at what she was doing. She had been promoted all the way to a division brewer and it was her with her dirty blood that had done that.

Without Eileen, Petunia didn't really know who she was doing this 'life' thing for. The knife weight heavily in her pocket and she kind of knew what she was supposed to be doing. The best-laid plans usually came crashing down at the face of adversary. Death couldn't be simplified to just "adversary" though. They left as the embers died down and all that was left was fine ash. Lord Prince collected and deposited the ashes into an urn. A small vail of it was given to Severus. Severus was her son after all. Petunia would fetch Eileen's jewellery from the hospital after forty-eight hours and the autopsy report. They deserved to know. What happened and how it happened. The last little bit of light faded away as Tobias decided to leave. He gave them all a sharp look, Petunia and Lily followed without question.

They were in the outside world. Severus wouldn't accept her hugs now, but he would tomorrow. When Petunia had plied Lily with enough tea to stop the blistering snow and they left Tobias to fester in his own emotions.

Still Petunia could not shake the never-ending stream of sadness that seemed to envelop them. The death while not sudden was still something that had to be mourned. The church service, memorial and an endless stream of people in and out of Spinner's End over the next few days were taxing. Severus hadn't shed a single tear and the weather was terrible on account for Lily's mood.

"Reign it in, Evans," Petunia said quietly as they prepared tea in the kitchen together. They had hidden the potions and anything magical related and shoved it into one of Petunia's old suitcases.

"Sure thing, could you put another log into the fire, I have a feeling that the weather is about to get worse." Lily was not being cheeky or defiant, if Lily said it would get worse then it surely would.

Severus had decided to go back to school after the funeral at the church. He said that he was done. Mrs Evans had been the one to put her foot down. He would stay in Petunia's room if he needed a bedroom but there was no way that he was going to go back without at least attempting to be there for his father. So that's what he did, attempted to be there while dreaming of something else entirely.

Darren had come by, he held Jean's hand and there was a ring on it. Petunia, the Petunia of before, would have been jealous. This was a win though, this ring on her hand and her two best friends who had nothing in common apart from her were together. She bathed in happiness. They could all afford a small win even in the face of misery.