Three
Magic Will Happen
Rain or no rain, Petunia was determined to have a great day.
"It's raining, it's poring," Lily sang running into Petunia's room and bounding onto the bed.
"No one can snore or stay asleep with you around," Petunia grumbled, " Now get off! You're squishing me." She whacked Lily with a pillow and Lily jumped on her again.
"Happy Birthday, Tuni!" Lily sang out. She rolled off onto the floor, taking the bedclothes with her.
"Lily!"
"Mum's up already and she making your favorite breakfast." Lily giggled," Our old man still is still snoring."
"I am not," Father said sternly from the doorway to Petunia's bedroom. "Happy Birthday, Petunia!"
Petunia got up and gave her father a hug. He kissed the top of her head then turned and gave Lily a playful spank. "Lily, get a move on. I had better not get one more note saying you've been late for class."
"Moving, Father, moving," Lily said untangling herself from pillows and laughing as she made her way to her own room to get ready for school.
"I don't know why they even bother. School's almost out. We're not doing much anyway."
"Petunia," Father said warningly. She knew he was just teasing. Nothing would spoil this extra special day!
"Just joking Father," she laughed and he knew she didn't mean it.
"All right, Miss. That's enough of your cheek. Then again maybe not." He kissed her on her cheek.
"Happy Birthday dear. And don't be late for school." He left the room just in time to miss the pillow that Petunia, laughing, tossed at him.
Tossed at him.
She stared at the pillow a full two minutes thinking. It dawned on her quite slowly as it always did. Petunia hadn't thrown the pillow. She had been thinking about throwing the pillow but hadn't actually picked it up, much less thrown it. So funny how it seemed that action seemed to belong to her hand when it had only been in her head.
It had been two years since their parents had first discovered that Petunia and Lily could do some pretty extraordinary things. Petunia had thought that she and Lily could just 'stop' things and that was all. As it turned out, every couple of months or so they would discover something new that they could do but couldn't really explain.
At first they could both stop pretty much anything moving. Then it was making things come when they wanted. Sometimes they would just think about an object and next thing it would be floating across the room into their hands. It was always small things and sometimes whatever they wanted only got halfway across before dropping to the ground.
They could both jump straight up into the tree house Father had built for them, and jump back down again. They seemed to bounce a bit when they landed. Mother had been appalled at first, but soon grew used to it and was just thankful that their backyard was small enough to be completely screened from view by the canopy of leaves from their large oak tree.
Then came the day that Lily ran down stairs with a new blue jumper on.
"When did Mum get you that?" Petunia had asked.
"It's my old pink one, but I'm tired of pink," Lily had replied and walked into the kitchen for breakfast.
Petunia tried for weeks to change a blouse, which was a shade of green she hated, into a color she liked. They had always assumed that she and Lily would be able to do the same things. This seemed to be a power that belonged to Lily alone. Petunia never told anyone that she couldn't do this and she wouldn't ask Lily to do it for her. The green blouse she hid at the bottom of the toy cupboard.
Petunia was musing over this when Lily returned, asking, "Petunia, can I borrow your red bracelet to match my jumper?" She was crossing the room and picking it up from Petunia's dressing table, even as she asked, knowing Petunia would say yes.
"You don't have a..." red jumper, Petunia started to say before she realized that Lily had changed her old one again. Lily was still chattering as usual," I know it's your birthday and all, and if you want anything of mine that isn't already smashed to pieces go right on ahead, but..." she stopped. "Tuni, what's the matter?"
"Please stop calling me 'Tuni'", Petunia groaned. "Anyway this is more important. Shut the door."
"Wow!" Lily shut the door and looked at her sister, "It must be a big secret. What is it?"
"It happened again."
Lily just looked at her. No need to ask what "it" was. No need to even say "you're joking" or anything of that kind. She knew Petunia wouldn't joke about this. She scrambled around for something to say and came up with . . .
"When?"
"Just now, when Father left. We were playing around and I thought wouldn't it be cool to nail him with the pillow, and I almost did." She sat down on the bed and began twisting the sheet without looking at it. "I didn't throw the pillow though, Lil. I just thought about it but I didn't actually do it."
"So what's the big deal about that?"
"Usually I have to move my hands or close my eyes or something. 'It's' never happened before just from me thinking."
Lily waved that away and went to the door. "It does with me lots of times. See look."
Lily dropped the bracelet to the floor and turned as if to walk out the door. Just before she touched the knob, she held up her hand, still facing the door. The bracelet jiggled a moment, floated up and across until it was in Lily's hand without her even turning around.
"You held up your hand, Lily, it's not the same."
Lily gave an exasperated sigh. "You're right but it's still fun."
"It's not fun, it's scary. We still don't know why it happens. Or how it happens."
"Well Mum keeps telling us it doesn't matter as long as we keep it to ourselves."
They both heard Father calling from downstairs, "You're both going to be late for school!"
"Beat you dressed, Tuni." Lily raced from the room.
"Fat chance," Petunia muttered, as she got dressed. She always pretended she didn't care if she beat Lily getting dressed, but she hurried just the same.
Petunia got downstairs a full twenty seconds before Lily.
"Darn."
"Watch your mouth, Lily," Mother warned.
"Bye Mum."
"Bye Mum"
They kissed their mum, one to each cheek. A short bustle while they slipped on jumpers and gathered their school things.
Petunia opened the door. Lily was tying her shoe. Petunia turned to give her mother a quick hug. That was when a large gray barn owl flew in and settled on the kitchen table. Mrs. Evans gave a great screech and a gasp. Mr. Evans heard the screech and came running to see what was the matter. Even though he opened the door quite loudly the owl didn't really move. It just turned to see who this new comer was. Father's first instinct was to shoo the owl, but it gave him such a stern look when approached that he stopped.
Everyone was motionless. The owl stood on the table waiting. It looked at each one of them in turn and when none of them moved, it dropped the letter it was holding in its beak onto the table. It looked at each of them again. Still no one moved. The owl gave a disgusted hoot and scooted, hopped, then flew once around the room and out the kitchen door.
They all stared at the letter the owl had left behind.
Finally Mr. Evans moved and picked up a corner of the letter as if it might explode at any moment.
"Why, it's addressed to . . . Petunia! He looked at his wife and daughters. All of them had quite forgotten that it was a school day.
No one moved until he asked," Petunia, would you like to open it or would you like your mother or me to open it for you?
Petunia could only nod but she held out her hand and Father handed her the letter. The front of the envelope read
Ms. Petunia Evans
12 Apple Orchard Lane
Second Bedroom
Little Whinging, Surrey
With shaking hands, she opened the envelope and pulled out a few sheets of thick paper, the same as the envelope, folded neatly together. She unfolded them and read
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confederation of Wizards)
Dear Miss Evans,
We are pleased to inform you that you have place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. A representative from the Department of Muggle-Wizard Cooperation of the Ministry of Magic will contact you soon regarding this opportunity.
Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term Begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
When Petunia finished reading she and Lily took one look at each other and burst out laughing. Petunia ran over to her parents and hugged them wildly. "Thanks Mum. Thanks Dad. This is so funny. I can't wait to show the kids at school." She handed the letter to Lily. Lily could barely hold it steady she was giggling so hard. "But how on earth did you get an owl to fly into the kitchen?"
She and Lily found this question so funny they started laughing all over again.
Father and Mother exchanged glances. "We didn't do this," Mother said quietly.
Petunia sobered a bit but was still smiling. "Come on Mum. Don't pull my leg. It's funny but we know it's not real." She turned to Lily who was still giggling over the letter. She kept reading, "Hogwarts," and bursting into fresh gales of laughter. "Mum, probably did this on her computer at work," Petunia said as if she was explaining it to Lily but it was herself she was talking to. "It's easy to do, we type stuff by ourselves sometimes, but you did this didn't you, Mum?" Petunia had stopped laughing, her voice becoming more frantic with each word. Lily stopped laughing when she heard the note of panic in Petunia's voice.
"I didn't do this," Father told her, " and your mother says she didn't either."
"You're just making a joke out of the funny things Lily and me can do. But it's not funny anymore. Please, which one of you did it?" But even as she begged, she was already beginning to realize the truth.
Ever since that day so long ago with the wasps her parents didn't lie to her and Lily when it came to their special gifts. But magic? Could it really be magic? And if they didn't write the letter, then who did?
Knock, knock!
Someone was knocking on the kitchen door. Not the back door that led outside, but the inside kitchen door that led to the living room.
Magic Will Happen
Rain or no rain, Petunia was determined to have a great day.
"It's raining, it's poring," Lily sang running into Petunia's room and bounding onto the bed.
"No one can snore or stay asleep with you around," Petunia grumbled, " Now get off! You're squishing me." She whacked Lily with a pillow and Lily jumped on her again.
"Happy Birthday, Tuni!" Lily sang out. She rolled off onto the floor, taking the bedclothes with her.
"Lily!"
"Mum's up already and she making your favorite breakfast." Lily giggled," Our old man still is still snoring."
"I am not," Father said sternly from the doorway to Petunia's bedroom. "Happy Birthday, Petunia!"
Petunia got up and gave her father a hug. He kissed the top of her head then turned and gave Lily a playful spank. "Lily, get a move on. I had better not get one more note saying you've been late for class."
"Moving, Father, moving," Lily said untangling herself from pillows and laughing as she made her way to her own room to get ready for school.
"I don't know why they even bother. School's almost out. We're not doing much anyway."
"Petunia," Father said warningly. She knew he was just teasing. Nothing would spoil this extra special day!
"Just joking Father," she laughed and he knew she didn't mean it.
"All right, Miss. That's enough of your cheek. Then again maybe not." He kissed her on her cheek.
"Happy Birthday dear. And don't be late for school." He left the room just in time to miss the pillow that Petunia, laughing, tossed at him.
Tossed at him.
She stared at the pillow a full two minutes thinking. It dawned on her quite slowly as it always did. Petunia hadn't thrown the pillow. She had been thinking about throwing the pillow but hadn't actually picked it up, much less thrown it. So funny how it seemed that action seemed to belong to her hand when it had only been in her head.
It had been two years since their parents had first discovered that Petunia and Lily could do some pretty extraordinary things. Petunia had thought that she and Lily could just 'stop' things and that was all. As it turned out, every couple of months or so they would discover something new that they could do but couldn't really explain.
At first they could both stop pretty much anything moving. Then it was making things come when they wanted. Sometimes they would just think about an object and next thing it would be floating across the room into their hands. It was always small things and sometimes whatever they wanted only got halfway across before dropping to the ground.
They could both jump straight up into the tree house Father had built for them, and jump back down again. They seemed to bounce a bit when they landed. Mother had been appalled at first, but soon grew used to it and was just thankful that their backyard was small enough to be completely screened from view by the canopy of leaves from their large oak tree.
Then came the day that Lily ran down stairs with a new blue jumper on.
"When did Mum get you that?" Petunia had asked.
"It's my old pink one, but I'm tired of pink," Lily had replied and walked into the kitchen for breakfast.
Petunia tried for weeks to change a blouse, which was a shade of green she hated, into a color she liked. They had always assumed that she and Lily would be able to do the same things. This seemed to be a power that belonged to Lily alone. Petunia never told anyone that she couldn't do this and she wouldn't ask Lily to do it for her. The green blouse she hid at the bottom of the toy cupboard.
Petunia was musing over this when Lily returned, asking, "Petunia, can I borrow your red bracelet to match my jumper?" She was crossing the room and picking it up from Petunia's dressing table, even as she asked, knowing Petunia would say yes.
"You don't have a..." red jumper, Petunia started to say before she realized that Lily had changed her old one again. Lily was still chattering as usual," I know it's your birthday and all, and if you want anything of mine that isn't already smashed to pieces go right on ahead, but..." she stopped. "Tuni, what's the matter?"
"Please stop calling me 'Tuni'", Petunia groaned. "Anyway this is more important. Shut the door."
"Wow!" Lily shut the door and looked at her sister, "It must be a big secret. What is it?"
"It happened again."
Lily just looked at her. No need to ask what "it" was. No need to even say "you're joking" or anything of that kind. She knew Petunia wouldn't joke about this. She scrambled around for something to say and came up with . . .
"When?"
"Just now, when Father left. We were playing around and I thought wouldn't it be cool to nail him with the pillow, and I almost did." She sat down on the bed and began twisting the sheet without looking at it. "I didn't throw the pillow though, Lil. I just thought about it but I didn't actually do it."
"So what's the big deal about that?"
"Usually I have to move my hands or close my eyes or something. 'It's' never happened before just from me thinking."
Lily waved that away and went to the door. "It does with me lots of times. See look."
Lily dropped the bracelet to the floor and turned as if to walk out the door. Just before she touched the knob, she held up her hand, still facing the door. The bracelet jiggled a moment, floated up and across until it was in Lily's hand without her even turning around.
"You held up your hand, Lily, it's not the same."
Lily gave an exasperated sigh. "You're right but it's still fun."
"It's not fun, it's scary. We still don't know why it happens. Or how it happens."
"Well Mum keeps telling us it doesn't matter as long as we keep it to ourselves."
They both heard Father calling from downstairs, "You're both going to be late for school!"
"Beat you dressed, Tuni." Lily raced from the room.
"Fat chance," Petunia muttered, as she got dressed. She always pretended she didn't care if she beat Lily getting dressed, but she hurried just the same.
Petunia got downstairs a full twenty seconds before Lily.
"Darn."
"Watch your mouth, Lily," Mother warned.
"Bye Mum."
"Bye Mum"
They kissed their mum, one to each cheek. A short bustle while they slipped on jumpers and gathered their school things.
Petunia opened the door. Lily was tying her shoe. Petunia turned to give her mother a quick hug. That was when a large gray barn owl flew in and settled on the kitchen table. Mrs. Evans gave a great screech and a gasp. Mr. Evans heard the screech and came running to see what was the matter. Even though he opened the door quite loudly the owl didn't really move. It just turned to see who this new comer was. Father's first instinct was to shoo the owl, but it gave him such a stern look when approached that he stopped.
Everyone was motionless. The owl stood on the table waiting. It looked at each one of them in turn and when none of them moved, it dropped the letter it was holding in its beak onto the table. It looked at each of them again. Still no one moved. The owl gave a disgusted hoot and scooted, hopped, then flew once around the room and out the kitchen door.
They all stared at the letter the owl had left behind.
Finally Mr. Evans moved and picked up a corner of the letter as if it might explode at any moment.
"Why, it's addressed to . . . Petunia! He looked at his wife and daughters. All of them had quite forgotten that it was a school day.
No one moved until he asked," Petunia, would you like to open it or would you like your mother or me to open it for you?
Petunia could only nod but she held out her hand and Father handed her the letter. The front of the envelope read
Ms. Petunia Evans
12 Apple Orchard Lane
Second Bedroom
Little Whinging, Surrey
With shaking hands, she opened the envelope and pulled out a few sheets of thick paper, the same as the envelope, folded neatly together. She unfolded them and read
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confederation of Wizards)
Dear Miss Evans,
We are pleased to inform you that you have place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. A representative from the Department of Muggle-Wizard Cooperation of the Ministry of Magic will contact you soon regarding this opportunity.
Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term Begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
When Petunia finished reading she and Lily took one look at each other and burst out laughing. Petunia ran over to her parents and hugged them wildly. "Thanks Mum. Thanks Dad. This is so funny. I can't wait to show the kids at school." She handed the letter to Lily. Lily could barely hold it steady she was giggling so hard. "But how on earth did you get an owl to fly into the kitchen?"
She and Lily found this question so funny they started laughing all over again.
Father and Mother exchanged glances. "We didn't do this," Mother said quietly.
Petunia sobered a bit but was still smiling. "Come on Mum. Don't pull my leg. It's funny but we know it's not real." She turned to Lily who was still giggling over the letter. She kept reading, "Hogwarts," and bursting into fresh gales of laughter. "Mum, probably did this on her computer at work," Petunia said as if she was explaining it to Lily but it was herself she was talking to. "It's easy to do, we type stuff by ourselves sometimes, but you did this didn't you, Mum?" Petunia had stopped laughing, her voice becoming more frantic with each word. Lily stopped laughing when she heard the note of panic in Petunia's voice.
"I didn't do this," Father told her, " and your mother says she didn't either."
"You're just making a joke out of the funny things Lily and me can do. But it's not funny anymore. Please, which one of you did it?" But even as she begged, she was already beginning to realize the truth.
Ever since that day so long ago with the wasps her parents didn't lie to her and Lily when it came to their special gifts. But magic? Could it really be magic? And if they didn't write the letter, then who did?
Knock, knock!
Someone was knocking on the kitchen door. Not the back door that led outside, but the inside kitchen door that led to the living room.