Author's Note: Written for...
Hogwarts Auction 2021 - Prompt: Magical!AU
Back to School - Prompt: Role Reversal!AU
holdin' on to nothin'
322 words
Going off to Hogwarts for the first time was easily the scariest thing Petunia Evans ever did. Despite the assurances of the nice lady who had delivered her letter, she wasn't entirely sure she belonged at a strange boarding school, learning how to brew potions and cast hexes. But by the end of the school year, she had to admit that Hogwarts was much better than she'd anticipated.
The only downside, of course, had been that Lily couldn't have come with her. But Petunia was excited for the next year, when Lily would be starting school, and she could show her sweet little sister all the wondrous things she'd been writing home about.
Over the summer, the sisters sat on the lawn and waited for the post to be delivered, hoping each time that Lily's letter would be mixed in somehow. Petunia always kept an eye out for any owls out in the day, of course.
By mid-July, Petunia had her letter with her list of supplies for second-year, but still Lily's was absent. The twelve-year-old begged and pleaded with her parents to hold off on taking her shopping in Diagon Alley until Lily's letter came and they could go together, but her mother took her alone nonetheless.
"There's still hope, Lily," Petunia told the young redhead as she had each night. But it was late August, and Petunia was starting to realize her mistake in promising Lily that she'd get to go to Hogwarts too.
"Tuney, tell me, am I broken?" Lily whispered back, her teary face illuminated by the streetlight through their window.
"No, of course not." She slid out of bed and climbed into Lily's instead, holding her sister tight. "There's nothing wrong with you. You're wonderful and kind and special. I'm the strange one."
Lily sniffled. "Will you still write to me?"
"Every day, Lil, I promise. We're not going to let magic stop us from being sisters."