Chapter 8. Trapped in his lies.

A tabby cat came in through the window.

"Is it yours?" asked Harry on seeing it.

"Definitely not." Snape replied.

The cat jumped down from the window sill, but before it hit the ground it was transforming into Professor McGonnagall.

"Oh come on!" exclaimed Harry. "This is better than what Cinderella's fairy was doing."

"Thank you." replied Minerva somewhat dryly. Then she turned to Snape.

"Mr. Dursley has gone out with the car. He said he was going to meet with an estate agent, so I think he'll be out for a while."

"That depends on how patient the estate agent is, but I suppose I'll have plenty of time in any case. I'm going to talk to her, can you stay with Harry? I've left lunch for you in the kitchen."

"Of course, I'll stay. Thanks for the food." she said.

"You don't need to stay with me, Professor McGonnagall. I've been left alone many times. I promise to behave myself."

"No, Harry, I'd rather stay, and I'll tell you stories about your parents when they were at school."

"Thank you very much." Harry said.

Snape left them in the living room and headed for the Evans' house, again adopting the look he usually presented when he knew he would be seen by neighbors.

He knocked on the door and Petunia opened it for him.

"You," she said in a sharp voice.

"It's good to see you too, Petunia." he said in a stony voice.

"Go away, I don't want to talk to people like you."

"I won't leave until I tell you what I have to say. I can do it here, in full view of everyone, or we can go inside and do it more discreetly."

"All right." she said, and turned away with her back to him.

Snape followed her ignoring her lack of courtesy. They sat down in the living room.

"I'll get to the point." Snape said. "I have seen the state Harry Potter is in. It is absolutely unacceptable, and we are going to take action."

Petunia blanched. "Who are you going to take action? And why now, after all this time?"

"Until now we hadn't known about the treatment Mr. Potter was receiving. We are going to rectify the situation."

"Then you're going to take him away."

"I think it's more complicated than that. There's a reason Mr. Potter needs to be with his family."

"What reason?"

"I can't give you that information." Snape said without letting on that he didn't really know it himself either. "I don't understand you treating an innocent child like this. I didn't think you so petty."

"How dare you judge me?"

"I'm not the one who will judge you if this matter goes to the child protection authorities."

That shut her up.

"II know you have been hiding the income this house provides from your husband. I want to know why." Snape continued.

"You've been spying on me." she accused him. He did not deign to answer. "All right. If you're so interested in my sad story I'll tell it to you. Years ago I realized that Vernon wouldn't let me raise Dudley the way I wanted. Every time the boy cried he would tell me to shut him up, to give him what he asked for. I confronted him and he grabbed me by the collar, smashed me against a wall and told me that in his house what he said would be done. Then I realized that my whole world revolved around him. I hardly saw my parents anymore, I was estranged from my only sister, and I had lost all my friends when I moved out. He insisted that I not work, but he didn't give me access to money, controlling every penny we spent. I was trapped."

The look on Snape's face was unsettling to her, she felt so frustrated that for the first time in many years she was emboldened.

"Then my parents died, and at the funeral I ran into Lily. She looked so happy, with her husband, and her son. She came up to me, asked if we could see each other again. She told me that she wanted our children to meet, that she promised not to do any magic in our presence. I burst into tears. Everyone thought it was because of my parents' death, but it was much more. Lily noticed and walked me to the bathroom, where she did something she told me was so no one could hear us."

Petunia held back tears as she continued talking.

"I told her everything, and she said she could help me leave Vernon. She told me I couldn't stay here to live, because he would find me, but if we rented this house I could keep that money and have a steady income. She would help me find another place to live with Dudley, away from my husband. She even offered to give me some start-up money so I could leave immediately."

Snape did the only thing he knew how to do in such cases: with a slight wave of his wand he drew a box of tissues that was on a side table and set it down within reach of Petunia, who took one.

"I told her I wanted to wait to settle my affairs, and then there would be money accumulated in the account. I told her that half of the money was hers, but she replied that she didn't need it, and that if necessary, she would give up her share of the house in my favor. She offered to talk to some people she knew about helping me with Dudley's guardianship."

Petunia looked up at Snape.

"Then she died in your stupid war, and I found myself with two children in my care and no way to contact the people Lily told me could help me." she wiped her nose and continued. "Vernon hated Lily, partly because she scared him, and partly because because he hated my family as a whole. The way he looked at Harry scared me, and I told him that if he hurt him, people like Lily would come to see what was going on. That stopped him for a while, but as he kept mistreating Harry and seeing that there were no consequences he became more emboldened. The one time I asked him to stop he told me to stay out of it when he disciplined the boy and wouldn't give me any money for a week, not even to buy food. He would eat at work and go to the pub for dinner, bringing dinner for Dudley as well, but Harry and I survived as best we could. Luckily he never got around to hitting Harry, he didn't want to risk it being noticed and someone coming to investigate."

Petunia sighed. "I was going to wait until the children finished primary school and went to boarding schools to try to find a job. With the money from the house account I would have found myself a place to live and paid for a divorce lawyer, but now Vernon knows, and one way or another he'll get control of the money."

Snape had remained silent throughout the narrative. "So you let him treat Harry worse than an animal."

"I did what I could to protect my family." her gaze hardened. "What would you know what I went through. Before we were married Vernon was charming. He took me to fancy places, gave me nice gifts, even told me I was better than my sister. He promised me we'd have a house with a garden and go on great trips, but then he started taking me away from everyone and telling me what to do and how to dress. By the time I realized it was too late. You don't know what it's like to have someone convince you with nice words only to find out later that they were false promises and that he controls your whole life."

Maybe I do have an idea of what it's like, Snape thought, though he remained impassive. At the sight of her he felt something he hadn't felt in a long time - compassion? he added to himself. Maybe I'm getting soft.

"I need to talk to some people." he said at last. "I need Harry to come to my house tomorrow too."

"What do you mean, too? He's in the garden."

"He's been at my house all day. You didn't even notice he wasn't there?"

Petunia looked horrified. "Vernon told me he'd be at work all day, and not to worry about his food. I thought he'd grounded him again."

"He's at my house, with a friend who will be telling him stories. He'll be back after dinner, but I'll tell your husband I need him tomorrow too. When I come back tomorrow to bring him I'll tell you what we're going to do."

She nodded, knowing she had no control over what was going to happen.

"And what will happen to me?"

"We'll see." said Snape. "Before I go I'm going up to the attic to get some things."

"As if I can stop you from doing what you want." said Petunia bitterly.