Mary MacDonald had been at Spinner's End for a full week when disaster struck.

"So James Potter is inviting me to the Quidditch World Cup!" Lily said, "So I'm totally going. England totally has a chance and that's his favorite team so it should be really fun."

"Oh. Yeah." Mary tried to sound enthusiastic.

"Oh, you can totally come, Mary," Lily said, trying to sound reassuring, "I'm not gonna, like, abandon you! It's fine, I already talked to him."

Mary slowly nodded, stalling while her brain came up with a reasonable excuse. "I mean, Lils, I don't really like Quidditch, you know."

Lily shook her head, "Yes you do, silly! You always used to come to the games."

That was before, but Mary could not say that. "I don't know, Lils, I don't wanna get in the way of you and James."

Lily blushed. "O-oh, come on now, Mary," she spluttered, "It's totally not like that. He's-he's just being nice."

Mary sighed inwardly. "He seriously likes you."

Lily's face quickly matched her hair. "What-whatever!" She took a deep breath. "See, I need you there Mary!"

Mary groaned to herself. "I just don't think I'd be much fun."

"Aww," Lily said, putting a hand on Mary's shoulder, "Yeah you are! We've had so much fun this week!"

Mary was quickly running out of things to say. "But that's just us, it's not with other people."

Lily gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "You'll be fine! Just come!"

Mary gave an involuntary shake of her head.

Lily looked at her searchingly. "But why?"

It was then that salvation came in the form of Petunia walking by, reading some book or other. "She said she didn't want to go, Lils. Let it go."

Lily opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She looked at Petunia, then back at Mary, who nodded, and finally said, "Well, fine!" She went up the stairs, stomping as loudly as she could to demonstrate her displeasure.

Mary turned to Petunia. "Thanks. She's just so hard to say 'no' to."

Petunia shrugged. "You just have to be firm with her."

Mary looked up the stairs forlornly, wondering if she had damaged their friendship at all.

"Oh don't worry," Petunia said, a bit frustrated, "She'll be fine. She have herself a good cry then come back down as pleased as punch that she'll be spending a whole fortnight with James Bloody Potter."

Mary chuckled, "You call him that too?"

Petunia smirked. "Of course. She talks about him all the time."

Mary grinned. "Seriously." She gestured to Petunia's book. "What are you reading?"

Petunia shrugged. "Just my philosophy textbook. It ends right at the Enlightenment, which sucks."

Mary tilted her head. "Why? What's that?"

Petunia gaped for a second. "What? It's the Enlightenment!" She squinted and looked quite predatory for a moment. "How do you not know what that is?"

Mary searched for an answer. Apparently, she had failed some sort of test. "Um, I don't know. They only teach us Magical History at Hogwarts. Goblin Wars and the Magical Invasion of India and things like that."

Petunia frowned in disbelief. "Really? That's strange. Can't really call it an education if they don't tell you everything."

Mary smirked. "I could say the same thing about your school. I mean, come on, who hasn't heard of the 1845 Goblin Rebellion?"

Petunia arched a solitary eyebrow. "And who hasn't heard of the Industrial Revolution?"

Mary paused, taken a bit aback. "Wait. What?"

Petunia had a strange sort of look on her face. "Oh yeah, it was terrible. Back in the late eighteen hundreds, all of these coal machines we had been creating rose up as one and attacked their creators."

Mary's eyes went wide, "No way. How did you all survive?"

"A brave man named Henry Ford discovered a weakness." Petunia's lips were twitching. "See, if the machines moved in a straight line, one person could dismember one part of it." She nodded sagely. "The assembly line method was the only real way the Industrial Revolution could end."

Mary nodded. "That's insane. They should definitely tell us that sort of history at Hogwarts." She rolled her eyes. "Goblin rebellions are so boring."

Petunia tilted her head. "I'm not sure how they could possibly be boring."

Mary looked at her incredulously. "Do you want to hear the story of the Goblin Rebellion of 1845?

Petunia nodded. "Yeah, I actually really do." She jerked her head towards the living room. "Let's go!"

Time Shift

The day had finally come. Lily was leaving. Mary would have to go home, back to the house she stayed at during the summer months. Her brief reprieve from her oblivious mother was coming to an end. She honestly didn't know why it was weighing on her so much. It was her home, it should be where she found comfort. She figured it probably had something to do with her town, and how small it was.

Lily had spent the past week agonizing over what she should take and what she shouldn't take. Endless conversations about whether this or that shirt would be more appealing. Brutal analysis of colors far into the night. By Saturday, Lily's wardrobe was perfectly optimized. By Sunday, it was even better. And by Monday, Mary was almost glad to be going home.

The girls were standing in the foyer of the two-story house, Mary and Lily by the door and Petunia slouched against a wall, reading.

"Well, Mary, I'll see you after!" Lily was bubbling with excitement, literally vibrating with the nerves of seeing James Bloody Potter for a whole fortnight. Though her emphasis was a bit different than Petunia's or Mary's.

"Yeah!" Mary was doing her best to be happy for her friend, but it was difficult. "You'll be great!" she added, grinning.

"Thanks!" chirped Lily. She pulled Mary into a hug. "I'll see you on the train, all right?"

Still in the hug, Mary replied, "Yep! Have the best time."

Lily let go and called to Petunia, "Hey, I'm leaving now! Try not to cry too much!"

"Bye. Don't die or whatever," said Petunia, hardly looking up from her book.

Lily looked a bit put out at the dismissal, but managed a wide smile at the whole room. She picked up her duffel bag and left, somehow looking graceful and elegant despite carrying a bag half her weight.

"Well then," said Mary, "I guess I'll go and pack then." She sighed. "I didn't get much done in between Lily's fashion summit."

Petunia looked up from her book. "Oh, why are you packing?"

Mary sighed. "Since Lily's not here, it's time for me to go home."

Petunia tilted her head. "Why? Didn't you want to stay until September?"

Mary frowned, "Well, yeah, but that was before Lily left." She took a breath. "Surely you don't want me around."

Petunia laughed, "Why wouldn't I?"

"I mean, I'm a witch," said Mary, "I didn't think you liked witches..." She trailed off, not wanting to hope.

Petunia shrugged. "I mean, I like you. Doesn't matter what you are."

Mary paused, her mouth agape.

"What?" Petunia asked, "Did I say something wrong?"

Mary regained control of her mouth, "N-no." She took a deep breath. "I..." What was she trying to say? "I don't know." She shook her head. "I...don't hear that very often."

Petunia tilted her head. "What? What do you mean?"

Here it was. The question. How could Mary explain what she was feeling? How could she utter, out loud, that hole inside of her that sucked away the happy things in her life? That hole made her strange, made her weird, made her...incomplete. How could she expect anyone, much less someone as smart and wonderful as Petunia, to accept her when they knew?

She couldn't tell anyone. She knew that. But looking into Petunia's eyes made her really want to.

Time Shift

The two girl spent the days either sitting, reading, or talking about their reading. Mary was being introduced to non-magical history, and Petunia was engrossing herself in magical theory and general magical knowledge. The two were up late into the nights, talking, laughing, and theorizing. They had even, a few times, fallen asleep together. Petunia had the cutest sleeping face. Mary drooled.

One night, however, Petunia had the bright idea to try and cook dinner. "I'll be honest, Mary, I'm terrible at cooking," Petunia said, the slightest bit of red creeping into her cheeks, "Could you take this one?"

Mary glanced up, "Can't we just get that pizza stuff again?"

Petunia sighed. "We have all this food in the fridge that we haven't used. My parents will get suspicious."

Mary tilted her head. "What's a fridge?"

Petunia rolled her eyes. "The 'cold box thing' in the kitchen." She got up and gestured to Mary. "Come on, let's go."

They walked into the kitchen and Petunia opened the door. A ghastly smell emanated from the cold box and the two girls shrank from it in horror. They could almost see the fumes coming from the open door. What wasn't green was a strange grayish color that reminded Mary of moldy glue. She didn't even remember having seen moldy glue before.

"Well then." Mary's eyes were watering a little.

"Yeah." Petunia's voice caught.

They took it in turns to throw the food away and take the trash bag out. It took a while, but after around half an hour, they had it all clean. Petunia was content to simply wash her hands, but Mary decided that she needed a shower. She made her way to the too luxurious Evans' bathroom and took a quick shower. She decided to just change into her pajamas and walked back to the living room.

"Nice look," said Petunia, "Pajamas at 6? I like it." She got up and left.

Mary shrugged and sat. She thought about picking her book on 18th century economics, but put it back down. She was hungry.

Petunia walked back in wearing a light green nightgown. "What?"

Mary realized she had been caught staring. "O-oh, nothing. It's just..." She felt her face burn. "You look really nice."

Petunia grinned. "Thanks! You do too." She sat opposite Mary in the living room. "So, what's for dinner? Have I given you Chinese yet?"

Mary shook her head.

Petunia grinned. "You'll like it better than Indian. It's sweeter." She reached over for the phone.

While she ordered, Mary look closely at her. She watched the way Petunia's face moved while she talked. How she formed the words that she said. How her eyes lit up. How she smiled in the smallest of situations.

"Petunia?" Mary asked when the food was ordered and the phone hung up.

"Yeah?" Petunia grinned.

"Are we friends?" Mary's voice was small.

Petunia's eyes focused. "Of course we are." She smirked. "I wouldn't show just anyone my gross fridge."

Mary gave a weak smile in return. Could she talk? Petunia seemed open. She was smart and she obviously cared. "Listen. There's something I need to tell you."

Petunia shifted to the edge of her seat. She seemed able to get the gravity of the situation. "I would be honored if you did. But know that you don't need to. I'm here for you either way."

Mary nodded, though she sort wished Petunia hadn't given her the out. "There was this thing that happened at school."

For the next half hour, Mary told Petunia about her encounter with Mulciber. Mary spared no detail. Petunia only interrupted to gently stop Mary from talking about the boy too much. Petunia kept the talking about Mary and how she had felt during and after. Mary began crying. Petunia wordlessly moved to sit next to her. Mary was grateful for the older girl's comforting shoulder.

"So-" Mary was interrupted by a sniffle. "Th-that's the story."

Petunia was silent. Were it not for her arm around Mary's shoulders, Mary would have been sure that Petunia was angry at her.

"That's," Petunia seemed to struggle with herself, "Unacceptable."

"Well, he got expelled, so it's not that bad," said Mary, "He-"

"No." Petunia was looking right into Mary's eyes. "Don't make this about him. It's unacceptable that you felt silent. That you felt unable to speak out. That no one took care of you." She pulled Mary into a tight hug.

Mary froze, but soon relaxed. Petunia's arms were warm around Mary. Petunia's hands were rubbing comforting circles into Mary's back. And Mary felt something she had not felt in a long time.

She felt safe.

There, in Petunia's arms. Not in her home, not in her bed, not at Hogwarts. There. Mary began crying all over again.

The doorbell rang and Mary was loathe to part from Petunia's embrace.

"Just a moment," Petunia said, smiling warmly.

Not five minutes later, the two were opening up boxes of food. It was delicious.

AN: Whew! That was by far the toughest story I've ever written. I'm sort of tempted to continue the story and have Petunia and Mary gallivanting across Magical Britain having adventures and stuff, but also that would be hard.If you'd like that, review or PM me.