Written for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments)
Assignment #3: Folklore (Snow White & Rose Red)
Task #1: Write about two canonical sisters.
Further prompts are at the end.
Word Count: 693
The doorbell rings, halfway through July, three months after her eleventh birthday. When Petunia opens the door, it is to a stern-looking woman with dark hair tied in a tight bun and apple green eyes. She introduces herself as 'Professor McGonagall'.
She is there for Petunia.
As the family sits in the living room, Professor McGonagall explains about magic, about how Petunia is a witch, and something called a Muggle-born. She tells them about the place at her school, Hogwarts, that's reserved for Petunia.
Because Peunua is special.
Professor McGonagall transforms her teacup into a parakeet as proof, as her parents and Lily marvel and clap. She smiles at Petunia as she promises that, one day, Petunia, too, will be able to do that. And so much more.
And, after Professor McGonagall leaves, Lily hugs Petunia and tells her that all of it is so cool and that she thinks her older sister is amazing and that she wants to be just like Petunia when she grows up. And, after Lily goes to bed, her parents take her aside and tell her that they're extremely proud of her, and that they know she'll do great things.
They go to London, to Diagon Alley, for shopping, for books and cauldrons and telescopes and robes, and for once her parents aren't telling her that she can't get that because she won't need it, or that she'll have to share that with Lily. Because Professor McGonagall says that there's no guarantee that Lily, too, will be a witch, and that they'll have to wait until Lily turns eleven, to see.
And, finally, they go to the dusty old store called 'Ollivanders', for Petunia's wand, and she is enveloped in a sort of golden light as a wand that's ten and a quarter inches, swishy, and made of willow and dragon heartstring chooses her.
On September 1st, they drive to King's Cross Station, and run through the barrier between platforms nine and ten, to see the scarlet-and-black train, the Hogwarts Express. And Petunia boards the train, already dressed in her black school robes, and waves goodbye as the train pulls out of the station.
And then she is at Hogwarts.
She learns to change teacups to parakeets, to make things float, to make sleeping potions, to heal illness and injury. To turn her hair different colors, to make teapots sing, to defy gravity and fly. She meets all sorts of magical creatures, like unicorns and mermaids and fairies. She makes friends with the other students, some whose parents are magical, and others like her, with non-magical family, who like her for being her, not because of who her parents are or what her grades are or anything else.
The summer after Lily's eleventh birthday, they wait. But the doorbell never rings. No letter comes.
And while part of Petunia feels bad for her baby sister, the other part of her smirks, because here is proof that she is special and that Lily isn't. Here is one place where Lily will never outshine her.
She returns to Hogwarts for her third year.
When puberty strikes, Petunia learns spells that get rid of her acne; spells that soften the edges of her horse-like face and straighten her kinky hair. She laughs with her friends as boys flirt and fight for her attention, choosing the cutest, most popular of them as her boyfriend. The teachers love her, praise her, because she is the best at magic in her year, a prodigy at everything she does. She graduates with top marks, and marries the man of her dreams.
And everything, her entire life, is perfect. There are no strange friendships with the boy down Spinner's End, no broken tree branches from freakishness, no kindly letters denying her requests, no...
Petunia wakes up. She sits up, glancing around, slightly confused as to why she is in her childhood bedroom, before she sees the empty bed on the other side of the room and remembers.
It is September 2nd, 1971. Lily is gone, because she is the one who is special. And Petunia is the one left behind.
Because Petunia is only normal.
Summer Seasonal Challenges
Days of the Year & Religious Events: 2nd August - Sisters Day: Write about sisters who don't get along.
National Indoor Plant Month: Jade Plant: (action) sleeping
Colours: Apple Green
Locations: Ollivanders Wand Shop
Crystals & Gemstones: Alexandrite: (scenario) A birthday
Gryffindor Characters: Lily Evans Potter
Writing Club: August
Character Appreciation: Emotion: Envy
Record Collection: Back to Black - Tears Dry On Their Own: Write about leaving someone
Bingo: It came to me in a dream- Write about a dream
Film Festival: (word) dream
TV Spree: Plot Point: Starting a new school
EnTitled: The One Where Eddie Won't Go - Write about struggling to get someone to accept or understand something
August Auction: Petunia Evans was a witch, not Lily Evans.
Back-to-School Shopping: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander - Era: Pre-Golden Trio
Herbology Club: Plot 4: Write about a character who seeks acceptance