Story Title: Petunia, the Petulant
Chapter Title: Petunia's Patronus
Author's Note: The last of my original chapters from about five years ago.
Petunia's Patronus
She was lying on her back, in her room, on the bed.
She lay perfectly still, her heart pounding, listening to her quick, shallow breath as it slowed to normal waking rhythm. Her eyes darted around the room; she could see perfectly. The door was closed. Everything was just as if it had never been disturbed, as if she had fallen asleep in exactly that position and never moved...even though she never slept that way, still, on her back. She could feel her sweat chilling on her skin as she calmed...but her heart still beat quickly with excitement. Something had happened. Even if it had been a dream, that had been much more than just a dream. She knew, without knowing how or why, that something had changed inside her...
When she found Severus in the morning he was in his office, waiting for her after breakfast; she had skipped breakfast herself, awaking from a dead sleep an hour too late. But she was not thinking about food. He was standing over his desk, frowning thoughtfully at some papers in his hand. He started when he looked up and saw her, the surprise almost imperceptible...except that her observation was very keen now, and she knew his each and every idiosyncrasy quite well by now. 1
"Ah, good. I see you're ready. We've a long day ahead of us, and some rigorous training we must do to - "
"Excuse me, Headmaster Snape, but there's something you'll want to see."
"I..." Startled for the second time, her abrupt, assertive interruption seemed to render him incapable of speech. As she raised her wand and pushed back the sleeves of her robe she saw him searching her face. She did not know what he saw, but knew that he could see she had indeed changed. But this didn't matter; she was already gathering power, concentrating, waiting poised, to strike – and when she was ready, in a loud voice she proclaimed,
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!"
Severus sat down hard as the snake whooshed over his head, thick and large as a boa constrictor, yet with the head of a cobra. The definition was perfect, right to the piercing, bright eyes that were too searing to gaze into. It wound around him and flew upward into the ceiling, the draft pulling his hair up and letting it fall as he looked up and followed it, watching it slam into the ceiling and shower them with brilliant, sparkling emeralds of dust.
She could still feel the ringing of her own magical voice throughout her body, as he sat in silence, staring at her with open awe.
"How...did you..."
"I fell asleep last night and I-when I woke up this morning, I knew I could do it." She was not ready to tell him about the dream, or vision...whatever it had been. It felt too sacred, and speaking of it might make it unreal.
"We have much to do," he said quietly. "We must put your skills together and build a polished presentation...a masterpiece that will challenge everything the top wizarding minds have thought we've known about magic." His black eyes glittered. "We will astound them and obliterate all theories that have gone before. You, Mrs. Dursley, will bring the wizarding world to its knees."
Petunia smiled.
"Didn't I tell you, Headmaster, that I would?"
