Just a quick little one-shot that wouldn't leave me alone. The title is a twisty reference to Bleach.
IT STARTS LIKE THIS
The Evans girls were always a little bit strange. Oh, their parents were perfectly normal, but the girls? There was always a feeling of other around them.
With every step the eldest child took it as if the vegetation in Cokeworth came to life. Greener, wilder.
With the younger one? It was like a warmth followed her everywhere. And most people put it down to her warm personality until they made her angry. Then it was as if the fires of hell were coming to get them.
("They talk to nothing sometimes," a factory worker gossips, "and act like the air answers them."
"An imaginary friend, perhaps?" Mister Clay asks.
"I don't think I've ever heard of two people having the same imaginary friend.")
The girls always knew more than they let on. As if they knew everybody's secrets, as if they knew who would die next. They never ate widow Taylor's cookies again after her husband died.
It was like their eyes saw too much. Such pretty blue and green.
Too bright, too otherworldly.
("Witches eyes," Missus Keyes whispers fearfully to anyone who would listen.)
The town of Cokeworth fears them, everyone but their parents and that strange Snape woman and her son.
And that fear turns to hate.
IT CHANGES LIKE THIS
The youngest child gets a letter to a prestigious boarding school in Scotland and the eldest is left all alone. The eldest, jealous and hurt and miserable, bears the burden of that fear-fueled hatred.
And she's not strong like Lily; who has never cared what others think, but Petunia does.
So, she does what she can to be normal. Suppressing any hint of abnormality, her flowers barely bloom now.
Her relationship with her sister suffers for it and by the time she graduates they're barely speaking.
Petunia marries a man she tolerates but has a good job. Has her wonderful baby boy and everything is perfect. Normal as normal can be. So what if her sister is a witch? She's not and that's all that counts.
Until one day she goes to get the milk and her nephew is on her porch with a letter telling her that her baby sister is gonegonegone.
Petunia wants to scream; her sister is dead and the nephew she doesn't want must stay with her. It is a nightmare, made worse when the one person (being) she never wanted to see again is sitting at her kitchen table.
Death has returned.
THE SISTERS HAD A SECRET
Petunia's first memory of Death is of a fuzzy, black blob sitting next to her watching as she colors. She can see them clearer as she ages, but never as clear as Lily.
Lily's first memory is of a person in a black hooded robe standing over Petunia as she shows her a book.
Petunia, then Lily quickly learn not to mention Death to their parents for fear of worrying them.
The being talks to the girls, tells them stories, warns them away from the people that could hurt them. They're protective of them, for all that they'll take them when it is their time.
Death stays with them, even after Lily goes to Hogwarts and Petunia suppresses her ability to See.
It was an unspoken agreement between the sisters to never tell.
A secret Lily took to the grave.
THE FUTURE IS CHANGED LIKE THIS
The Evans sisters could see Death.
Death has followed the Evans bloodline for millennia, from Evans to Gaunt to Slytherin to Peverell. Their Master would be born of this bloodline they knew, just not when. They check in on each branch of what's left of the Peverell family, before eventually choosing to stay with the sisters because they're the first ones that See them and treat them normally.
Petunia meets Death again, cynical and bitter and grieving.
She has no time to react to their appearance as Vernon lumbers down the stairs with Dudley. She soothes Vernon's temper as he rages at the audacity of the "freaks" for leaving her nephew with them, soothes Dudley's fussing. Ignoring Death as they follow her. It is only that night after Vernon and the babies are asleep that she can finally react.
"Why?" Petunia asks quietly, her voice wrecked.
"It was her time."
She clasps her shaking hands together, "why can I see you again?"
They don't answer.
Petunia doesn't ask again.
She does her best to raise her son and nephew. She treats them equally, Harry's eyes are just like his mother's and she can't resent him for it. Vernon resents it, and she finally divorces him almost two years later when she catches him hitting Harry. She's never been more enraged than at that moment. The plants start crawling along the wall towards Vernon as she rages and it surprises her so much that they stop.
Which is the only reason he leaves in handcuffs instead of a body bag.
They move.
Death follows.
Petunia retakes her maiden name and changes the boy's last names. She experiments with her re-found powers, her boys dub Death, "Uncle Death". Both of her boys have powers, Dudley's tantrums make the earth shake and Harry's anger causes miniature tornados to spawn.
When Harry is eleven, he receives his Hogwarts' letter; Dudley doesn't.
And that's okay.
IT ENDS LIKE THIS
There is a war in the Wizarding World and the Evans family do what it takes to survive. Petunia and Dudley save muggleborns and their families. Harry hunts Horcruxes.
Death is busy, but always has time for their favorites.
Harry still gathers the Hallows and still sacrifices himself to destroy the Horcrux in his scar.
And still chooses to come back.
THE FUTURE
Petunia Evans dies, surrounded by her sons, grandchildren, and even a few great-grandchildren.
Death takes her by the hand and takes her on.
The first person to greet her is Lily, who hugs her tight. Petunia hugs back just as fiercely. Both are crying and smiling.
The Evans sisters are together again.
I hope you enjoyed it! You can find me on tumblr at ekrizdis (personal) or rowles (editing / writing).
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