Petunia came out of her meditation as the egg timer went off. Over the last month and a half she'd replaced all of the delicate electronic stuff in the upstairs of the house with clockwork equivalents. She moved her meditation upstairs after the new TV and combi Video DVD player that Vernon insisted on stopped working. Fortunately, he'd got them replaced under warranty but it was still a bad 5 weeks between the electricity going to getting the second working TV's. But now he had bragging rights in the office he'd let off her for a couple of weeks. But now she was worried for another reason. She'd found her magic a week ago, and stuff was starting to do itself around her. She'd go into the kitchen to find the kettle pouring into the tea pot with just the perfect amount of tea, or the washing up would be done. Fortunately, it had all happened while he was out at work, but she wasn't sure how long she could hide it from him.
Dan and Emma had been a godsend, as she'd been able to go round ever other evening or so and just chat, or read the books they all bought and kept at the Grangers about the history and mythology of the magical world. It was much better than the tea circle in the flower estate, their gossiping had got on her last nerve, as they were worrying about the fact that so and so down the road got home 5 minutes late last Thursday, or that thingies husband had been talking to the girl in the flower shop a bit much. Oh how she'd enjoyed shoving the fact that her nephew was heir to an old family estate, and was encouraged to take up falconry at his exclusive boarding school in Scotland.
Now that she'd finished coming out of the meditation and trusted herself to stand up without getting lightheaded, she put her hand down behind her and went to stand up, only to be pulled down by her waist length hair. Not understanding what was happening she tried a couple more times before she reached behind her and pulled her hair over her shoulder. She hadn't had hair this long since she'd had Dudley and Vernon had forced her to have it cut into a bob. Panicking she rushed down to the kitchen and grabbed the kitchen scissors that came out of the drawer and roughly cut her hair off at the shoulder into the bin. Nixie jumped off her neck and rushed into hiding as she almost got her tail.
Breathing heavily, she concentrated on her meditation exercises and managed to calm down enough to go into the front room and drink a cup of tea, that made itself while she was walking out. Slowly she brought herself under control, and the smell of magic smoke came from the TV and Video recorder. She idlily thought herself lucky that all of Dudley's replacement things were still packed up in their boxes. She also wondered if she'd blown next doors fuses again. No, she could hear the fridge in the kitchen, so next door should be ok. Resolving to do something useful she went to the library and chatted to Karen before spending a little time reading about Celtic mythology. Karen had been a godsend for helping the three of them with their research, as she was able to order in books from other libraries in the county and she had an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of what books were available. Dan had jokingly started watching a boxed set of Bewitched, the 60's sitcom, for research, she and Emma privately agreed that he'd just got fed up with reading all the time after work, and left him to relax.
Arriving at the library, she chatted to Karen for a few minutes before sitting down to read the book she wanted to catch up on. It was only the sound of Karen collapsing against the filing cabinet that made her look up.
"You, you, book, hand, you, read, how?"
Petunia looked down and realised that the book she was reading was actually suspended the perfect distance in front of her, and that she didn't actually go and get it. Her hair growing must have rattled her far more than she thought. She stood up and walked around the table to Karen, the chair and barrier moving out the way without her thinking about it.
"Shh, shh, I'm still me, I've not changed who I am. I'm still the Petunia that came in with Harry, the one that you gave the leaflets about shelters to."
"B… B… How did you do that?"
"To be honest, I don't know. Harry had an accident in wales the week after we met you, and well he was born magical so his accident affected me too."
"Are you going to hurt me?"
"No! why would I do that? You're a wonderful person and you've helped me far more than you know just by being willing to talk to me. I would never hurt you."
"What are you going to do to me?"
"Nothing, why would you think that? Listen, my friends have some books from the magical community at their house. If you want you can come round and look at a couple."
"How can I trust you?"
Petunia thought for a moment. Would you trust the telephone directory?
"I guess?"
"My friends own a dental practice in Crawley, Dr & Dr Granger. I could go and buy a cup of tea from the café while you call them, would you like anything from there while I'm going?"
"Coffee and chocolate cake if they've got it."
Karen watched as Petunia left before scrambling for the phone and dialling 100 for the operator. "Hello, is there a Granger Dentists in Crawley? Yes… One… Great, do you know how long they've been there? 15 years? That's great. Yes, could you put me through please… Hi, are either of the Dr Grangers there please? It's urgent. Can you tell them it's a friend of Petunia Dursley? Yes I can wait. Oh thank god you're real. I saw Petunia do stuff. Yes. Yes. That sort of stuff, she said that you have some books? No, not really I'm freaking out here. She's just gone to the café. OK, I'll tell her."
She pulled out a pad of paper and drew a line down the middle. "Ok Karen, think logically, Occam's razor, you learnt this in University. Left hand side, this is real, right hand side this is fake."
She then spent a few minutes going over the last 15 minutes in a few different ways.
"Fuck, it's real. God must have a really twisted sense of humour to grant me that particular wish."
A few tries later and the paper was put through the shredder in the back. Thank you god for council bureaucracy.
A short while later Petunia came back in with a couple of Styrofoam cups and a brown bag.
"Sorry it took so long, I took a few minutes in the park to try and get some more control before I bought the drinks."
"Thanks." She could almost pretend that it was like normal, except apart from her hair Petunia looked like an airbrushed model.
"So?"
"I believe you, Emma said, and I quote 'Bring her around any time after we get home'"
"Ok, I can do that. Could I use your phone?"
"Go ahead, dial 9 for an outside line."
"Hi, could I speak with Vernon please? Yes, it's his wife. Hi Vernon I'm just popping down to Crawley, I'll be back around 8. Could you grab some fish and chips on your way home? Great, thanks. Love you too.
"Ok, they'll get home around 6, so if you're ok with leaving at 5:30 we've got plenty of time. Be warned, we're going to be taking a bus, a very strange bus, so try not to look too shocked until we're sitting down."
"…"
Being that there wasn't much else she could really say at this point, and she was sure that if she phoned the police she'd be treated like a crackpot, Karen went back to her job. Time passed and the occasional customer came and went, the children's library filled when the school let out, and then it was time to close up. Karen realised that she was dragging things out, but she did absolutely everything she needed to do on her close up routine, Matt would be in to open up as normal, so she left a note to say that she'd gone to the Grangers in Crawley just in case something happened and she didn't make it in tomorrow. Finally, she turned the key and locked the door.
Breathing deeply, she turned to Petunia. "I guess this is it then, down the rabbit hole."
"Yep, as this is a populated area you need to take my hand otherwise you won't be able to see the bus."
Karen took her hand as Petunia walked to the kurb and raised her hand. An ear-splitting bang echoed around the Highstreet, but none of the pedestrians even paused. She forced her self not to goggle as a bright purple 3 decker bus appeared out of nowhere.
"Hi Stan, 2 to Whitehall Dr, Ilfield West, Crawley please. Keep the change." Karen watched her hand over a couple of gold coins.
Petunia then lead them over to a couple of armchairs. "You might want to sit down quickly and hold on tight, this is going to be a little rough."
Karen staggered off the bus. As it disappeared with a bang she turned to Petunia. "A little rough? Try fucking terrifying, I've been on tamer roller-coasters."
Petunia shrugs, "You get used to it. Anyway we're here."
"I thought you said they were Dentist!"
"They are I guess, in the same way that a brain surgeon is a doctor. They gave me a free check-up a couple of weeks ago, and it seemed like a normal dentist. I know they've got a surgery on the bottom floor, and they do some sort of dental surgery there."
As they walked up Karen watched as the front door unlocked and opened itself as Petunia seemed to be distracted talking to her, so she cleared her throat and nodded her head towards the door.
"Oh blast, sorry."
"Petunia, is that you?" a woman's voice comes from inside.
"Yes, I seem to be having control problems."
Emma comes into the front hallway and stops dead. "You look good, is that a new hair cut?" she squeaks.
"Yeah, I had to cut it off as it suddenly grew to my waist, I hope Vernon doesn't notice it."
"I don't think he's going to even look at your hair. Maybe you should stay here tonight."
"You know I can't."
"I know, I don't have to like it, but I know." Emma looks defeated at the last bit.
"Oh, but I'm been rude, this is Karen she's the local Librarian, and I kinda screwed up when I went out to clear my head and she saw stuff happen around me."
"Come in, come in, I'm Emma, Dan's just upstairs grabbing the trunk we're using for book storage." She led Petunia and Karen into a well-appointed study cum library.
"Please, take a seat"
The next hour and a half was a whirlwind of amazing, terrifying, and engrossing information being dumped on Karen. She felt that her head was spinning, and she'd even been allowed to hold an 800-year-old scroll that they said was a certified copy of the charter for the school their children went to. Finally, Petunia had to leave, and Karen opted to stay, as this was like a dream come true. As it was getting late, they got onto the subject of fey and iron and the frustrations they were having finding out what cold iron even was.
To which Karen replied, "what you mean like cold-pressed bog-iron or star iron?"
Dan got up and kissed her on the forehead. "How did you even know about that?"
"There were a couple of books in the archaeology section where I used to work, and it was in the blurb."
Dan and Emma made sure that Karen got home ok on the knight bus.
Petunia got home and when she opened the front door she knew something was wrong, the smell of whiskey in the air told her that tonight was going to be a bad night. Closing the door softly she prayed that Vernon would already be passed out in the armchair.
"Ya know, you're a freak, but you're a beautiful freak, and I'm going to enjoy showing you what happens to freaks in this hause." Vernon's slurred voice behind her made her freeze, as he staggered up behind her. She screamed as he grabbed her hair and dragged her upstairs, and she screamed and sobbed and begged as he broke her again and again. He eventually passed out, his hand still tangled in her hair as his heavy bulk pinned her face down on the bed.
Sobbing, Petunia was denied the sweet release of oblivion even as his fetid breath passed over her face. The tick of the mechanical clock taunting her as it marked the inexorable march of time while she was helpless, she had no idea what time it was as she was sure she'd blacked out a couple of times, and now she couldn't black out as her pelvis hurt too much where he was lying on it.
She had magic, she could have thrown him across the room and he'd have been helpless, but she froze, and now she didn't have the energy to do anything but stay alive.
A red light started to suffuse the room as the world moved into The Dream, all she could think about was if Nixie was ok, and who was going to look after her. A lizard ran over her hand and stopped a couple of feet in front of her, it's tongue flickered out tasting the air. A forest starts to come into focus, the rain is pouring down in thick heavy drops.
One lands in Vernon's ear and he twitches tearing an agonised scream from her throat. She's going to die, and there's not even going to be a body for anyone to find. More rain and Vernon grunts, the cold water starting to break through his drunken stupor. She doesn't know if she wants him to wake up and end it quickly or stay asleep so that she can dissolve later.
The world moves to an icy tundra, and the sudden cold makes him roll over, consciousness returning quickly as he opens his eyes. Desperately she pulls herself away from him trying to get away while he's still not aware of his surroundings, she looks back and she's a couple of arm lengths away as he turns his piggy eyes towards her, pure hate and death staring out of the pitiless depths, all signs of drunkenness washed away by the cold.
She can see the wisps of the next world and she desperately pulls herself forward trying to stay far enough ahead of him that he can't catch her before the dream does, as the uncertain death of the dream is far better than the promise in his eyes, his lumbering footsteps echo loudly in her ears as she chances another look back and sees his groggy form staggering towards her.
The trees are now visible through him but he's catching up fast! She turns away again and tries to drag herself faster. Something lands on her shoulder and she screams in shock and panic and then a striped cat steps off and pokes her face. It opens it's mouth and yowls at her. She doesn't move, she's too exhausted, so it turns around and lays it's 3 tails on her face before dropping its head on its paws. It looks up in surprise as world changes again, but Petunia doesn't notice, as she's finally away, she finally safe, and her pelvis doesn't hurt so much. As her consciousness fades the cat gets up and sniffs and then turns around and sniffs her face before jumping 6 feet in the air and disappearing in a random direction when Petunias body coalesces and disappears.