As the car pulled in the driveway and stopped Lily was jolted awake. It was already dark outside. She watched, confused, as Petunia got out and went to open the boot, until the recent events surfaced in her mind. She shivered as if from the cold and went to join her sister. She helped Tuney lift her trunk and was about to head to the house when Tuney suddenly froze. Lily turned her head looking in the same direction as her sister. It was their living room window, brightly lit as always.
And then Lily felt her heart beat faster. Maybe Tuney played a cruel joke on her? Or maybe she really went mad, or some dark wizard confounded her? She abandoned her trunk and sprinted to the front door as fast as her legs could carry her, ignoring Petunia's shouts.
She threw open the door and ran to the living room, now hopeful as she heard voices of a man and a woman talking. And stopped in her tracks completely aghast at seeing an unfamiliar couple in place of her parents.
Petunia caught up to her and gripped her shoulders from behind, panting heavily.
"What do you think you are doing, you little-" but her sister wasn't able to finish as she too stared at the intruders.
"Mr Campton, Mrs Campton," Petunia greeted coolly, "to what do we owe the pleasure?"
The woman put down the teacup she was holding (her mother's best china!) and turned to face them, her lips spreading into a wide smile. She was wearing a green dress and annoyingly bright purple shawl, and too much powder on her face framed by wild brown curls.
"Oh, my dear, why don't you just call us Aunt and Uncle? It is only fitting as we are your closest family now, you poor girls," the woman moved closer and Petunia took a step back pulling Lily to stand next to her. Little twit was still gaping like a fish, but at least she wasn't doing or saying anything, yet.
"You are our mother's third cousin once removed, Mrs Campton," said Petunia, "it hardly makes us family."
The woman's husband got up too. He was a stocky man with big moustache wearing a tweed suit and vest, his jacket was draped over her father's favourite chair. He moved to the woman's side crossing his arms and frowning.
"Now see here, young lady! You better show proper respect to your aunt. We will not tolerate such behaviour in our house!"
The woman's face showed the same irritation her husband was evidently feeling, but after a moment she smiled again and raised her hand as if to pat Lily on the shoulder. Now both girls involuntary stepped back.
Camptons were their mother's relatives, true, but Petunia never even heard of them before, and they weren't mentioned in their parents Will at all. They only appeared at the funeral and invited themselves to the reception afterwards. Petunia was too depressed at the time and didn't want to cause a scene, but she sure felt no respect for the couple, who hadn't offered her any help with the arrangements unlike most of her father's colleagues and her mother's friends.
Petunia was so angry, she was struggling to form coherent words, and she could feel Lily shaking slightly. She forced herself to take a deep breath and turned to face her sister.
"Lily, go to your room!"
"Why?" asked Lily, "I want to stay here! Who are these people? What are they doing here?"
Why was her sister always so stubborn? Couldn't Lily see, she was trying to protect her!
Petunia took her sister by the shoulders and dragged her from the room, shutting the door behind them not listening to indignant sputtering of the woman and her husband.
"Listen to me, you stupid girl!" she hissed in Lily's shocked face "I will deal with these people myself! I've met them at the funeral, I know what they want, and I don't want you anywhere near them, do you understand?!" Petunia didn't like the glint in her little sister's eyes, but Lily finally nodded sullenly and went to get her trunk from the driveway.
Petunia went back to the living room, forcing her face into a neutral expression. The woman and her husband were sitting on the couch again, drinking her mother's tea from her mother's cups. At seeing Petunia, the woman's fake smile was back again.
"My dear, why don't you sit with us?" she asked gesturing to the middle of the couch between herself and her husband. Petunia moved to sit in her father's chair instead.
"Don't worry, we are not angry at you and Lily," the woman continued and her husband nodded not even trying to fake a pleasant expression, "we understand that you are upset and confused right now."
"Yes, of course," answered Petunia, her smile as wide as the woman's now, "I am in fact confused, very confused. How is it that you are here? I do remember locking the door on my way out."
The woman's smile slipped again for a second, but she recovered quickly.
"Oh, is this what's bothering you?" She waved her hand in the air as if breaking and entering their house was nothing important, "Dear Emily gave me the key a long time ago, just in case."
No she didn't, you lying hag! Petunia wanted to shout, but forced herself to keep calm. She would change the locks later, once she got rid of these people. Now she just needed to figure out how to do it. Calling police wasn't the best choice, because the woman really was her mother's relative. Who would they rather believe: a respectable older couple or two teenage girls, one of whom doesn't even know what's going on? She took a deep breath and smiled even brighter.
"I see, Mrs Campton. What can I do for you then? What did you want to talk about?"
"Oh, Petunia, your living arrangements of course! Now I want you to understand, we would be very happy to have you and Lily with us, but our house is too small. But don't worry, George's sister and her husband have a very nice farm in Wales. Lily can live there, and you too, until you marry or find a proper job of course." The woman's husband smiled at that, but Petunia trusted his smile even less than his wife's.
"And why do you feel the need to concern yourself with our living arrangements?" asked Petunia barely keeping her tone civil. "We have our own house."
"My dear!" exclaimed the woman acting surprised. "You are not old enough to be taking care of a house by yourself, much less of your sister. We all just saw how difficult she is! It will be better for everyone if you let us take this burden from you."
Worry and irritation Petunia felt were replaced by hot anger. A month ago she would feel bitter satisfaction at someone badmouthing her perfect little sister, but now everything was different. How dare she? How dare they come to our house and threaten to take everything from me?
"You- !" started Petunia, but wasn't able to finish as the door to the living room opened again and Lily let herself in carrying a tray with a steaming teapot on it. Everyone in the room stared at her in surprise as Lily smiled brightly and put the tray on a coffee table.
Lily moved a chair from the wall to sit beside Petunia, who was able to calm herself a little thanks to her sister's timely interruption. Close up, she could see Lily has been crying, but washed her face before coming here. She tried to figure out what was her sister up to.
"I'm sorry for my behaviour, Mr and Mrs Campton," said Lily in a sweet voice she always used to get out of trouble, "of course me and Petunia are very grateful for the help you are offering. Your tea is probably cold, so I made you another pot."
"You shouldn't be listening in on people's conversations," said the woman sternly, but then softened and poured more tea for her husband. "but don't worry about earlier, my dear. We understand that you need more time. That's why the change of scenery will be the best choice for you. I'm sure you will be happy at the farm, and Petunia can come and visit you."
"Oh," said Lily, "but didn't you say Petunia could live there too?" For some reason she looked at the woman's husband.
"Only for a few weeks until we are able to sell your house then we can kick her out," answered the man gruffly not noticing his wife's alarm.
"And what happens to me then?" asked Lily, again looking directly at Mr Campton, who was still holding his teacup.
"You'll work for my sister, she needs a hand around the farm and doesn't want to waste money on help," he answered while the woman shook his shoulder furiously not understanding the cause of his sudden straightforwardness.
Petunia gripped the arms of her chair, barely keeping herself from pouncing on the man and scratching his eyes out. It didn't take her long to figure out that her sister had done something to the tea forcing the drinker to answer her questions truthfully. But Lily did not understand that getting their wretched relatives to confess their true intentions did nothing to help the girls. Unless Lily already called for help or was going to use her magic- Petunia found herself hoping for her sister to be able to wave her stick and do every freaky thing she knows to these vultures. But she remembered the stern warning sent to Lily after her second year at Hogwarts, and she didn't think Lily would risk expulsion.
Her sister was still asking questions. "What about the boarding school I go to?"
"We won't pay for your school, you are old enough to work anyway!" The man's face was turning red as he struggled to stop talking.
"And how did you get into our house?" asked Lily loudly, abandoning all pretence of politeness.
"Carol took the spare key during the funeral reception," said the man, ignoring his wife's attempts to cover his mouth.
Petunia got up, now ready to call the police, but the man suddenly stood up too. He caught her glancing at the phone which was almost directly behind him on the other side of the room. Petunia felt Lily's hand slipping into hers and tugging her in the direction of the door. Petunia was inclined to agree: the best thing to do was get in the car and drive away, to the home of Mrs Thompson, their mother's friend, or even to the hotel for the time being.
They ran for the door and were almost out of the house, when Petunia felt a strong grip on her shoulder which made her turn awkwardly and let go of Lily's hand. She could hear Lily's steps as her sister ran away from the house.
Surprisingly, Petunia felt only relief. Most of their neighbours were decent people who would let Lily in and at least hear her out. As for Petunia's current predicament, well. Despite being a sorry excuse for a human being, Mr Campton surely wouldn't try to hurt her, would he? Just as she turned her head to look at the man, his fist connected with her nose throwing her backwards. The last thing she remembered was her head striking something hard, and then everything went dark.
Petunia woke up to pounding headache and tried to sit up and shake away the fog. She heard a sob nearby and felt someone put another pillow under her head. She opened her eyes to see her sister's tear stricken face surrounded by a tangled mess of red hair.
Lily held a cup full of something to her lips. Petunia made a sip, the liquid tasted awful. But Lily insisted and Petunia was too exhausted to protest. The fog in her head suddenly cleared and the headache became almost bearable. She looked around in confusion. She was lying in their parents bedroom in their bed and Lily was sitting next to her. They were alone in the room.
"What happened?" asked Petunia trying to make sense of things.
"The fat git punched you," answered Lily, wiping her eyes and her nose with her sleeve.
"I know he did," said Petunia, getting annoyed, "but where is he? Both of them?"
"Don't worry," said Lily, giving her a fleeting smile, "they left and won't come back any time soon."
"What?" asked Petunia, "Did you call police?"
"No, it was not police," Lily shook her head, "I said don't worry about it. You better go to sleep."
"But I don't want to sleep!" said Petunia indignantly, suddenly feeling her eyelids getting heavy, and letting out a huge yawn. "What did you give me?" she whispered.
"It's just a healing potion, Tuney," was Lily's answer. Petunia felt her sister's arms encircling her as Lily settled on the bed. "You just sleep, everything will be better soon."
And so she fell asleep, almost believing that everything will be fine when she wakes up.
AN: Wow! I don't know where this came from.