Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all related characters belong to J.K. Rowling. I am merely borrowing them.

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MUGGLE

Chapter Eleven: A Muggle and a Freak

A coward turns away, but a brave man's choice is danger.

Euripides

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As the crowd filed out of the church, Petunia felt a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Lily," she said, turning.

Her sister's face was chalk-pale, her green eyes red-rimmed and wet with tears. She looked odd in Muggle clothing, though it was the same black as her Hogwarts uniform, speckled with rain from the gray day.

"What happened to the flat in London, Petunia? What am I supposed to do during holidays?" demanded Lily, her voice rising higher with every word. "You're my only relative left! How can you just leave me alone?"

Petunia did not look at her; she started toward the parking lot, where she knew a Ministry of Magic witch was waiting to take Lily to a wizarding home for the summer. "I can't take care of you," she said dully. "I don't know how to deal with your… weirdness. You'll be happier with your own kind."

"You're my kind!" shouted Lily. People turned and stared, but Petunia knew that would not stop her sister. She burned with embarrassment enough for the both of them. "You can't just abandon me!"

With a firm hand Petunia grabbed her sister's arm and dragged her behind a clump of trees planted at the entrance to the cemetery. Lily dug in her heels, but Petunia knew this trick and suddenly let go, so her little sister fell backwards. Lily landed splat in a puddle and instead of leaping up in anger simply sat there, tears running down her cheeks.

"How can you do this, Petunia? You're all I have left!" cried Lily. "I don't want to go to some foster home! I want to stay with you!"

"Listen to me," Petunia said, staring down at her. "The only way they'll let you stay with me is if you give it all up and drop out of your school. I'm a Muggle, Lily. I'm not like you. I don't do parlour tricks and call them magic or waste my years in school learning rubbish to make things float and teacups bite!"

"It's not a waste," Lily said, but Petunia went on.

"I'm not a witch, I'm normal! I'm happy being normal! And with the way things are going I think you'd be a lot better off being normal too!"

"What do you mean, the way things are going?" said Lily heatedly. "You mean the war? Even You-Know-Who wouldn't dare attack a school, especially when Dumbledore's the Headmaster. Everyone says he's the only person You-Know-Who's ever been afraid of!"

"And what happens when you're out of school?" asked Petunia. Dumbledore's spell—Petunia had come to think of it as Dumbledore's curse—prevented her telling any specifics. She knew Voldemort wouldn't hesitate to kill every single student in that school if the opportunity presented itself.

"Lily," Petunia continued, "what happens when you grow up and the same people who killed Mum and Dad come after you?"

Lily faltered, her bottom lip trembling. But she raised her eyes from the ground and met Petunia's gaze. "I won't just run away, Petunia."

Lily knew nothing of what Petunia had been through, and still her words rankled; an accusation, biting deep.

Not deep enough, though.

"Freak," said Petunia angrily, striding out of the trees. "You never wanted to listen to me." She turned on her heel and spat at Lily, "I hope when you face him, you'll remember that I warned you. And then you'll wish you'd listened."

She spun around again, heading toward the parking lot, calling over her shoulder, "Until then, keep your freaky magic and your freaky friends and your whole freaky WORLD away from me!" Heads turned, and for once in her life Petunia didn't care.

Lily, still sitting in the puddle, watched her drive away. Once Petunia was out of sight of the church she pulled the car to the side of the road, leaned her head against the steering wheel, and wept until the drizzle turned to rain and the cloudy day melted into dark night.

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