Fish
My friends and sister were dangerously involved in this war. I was all for standing back and letting it take its course without including me, but they didn't agree. I was so scared for them, and they were so scared for me, a Muggle in the wizarding world…
Lily and James were constantly, or so it felt, coming up against Lord Voldemort himself, and Sirius' job was defying the evil… man Peter was busy spying on the Dark Lord himself, and Remus, my boyfriend now, was spying on the werewolves, trying to persuade them to join him in the fight against Voldemort.
And I thought I was safe, until the night the hooded, robed figures turned up in my flat.
I had been preparing dinner for Remus, who was coming to visit, when I heard several loud and violent cracks in my bedroom. Immediately, I felt a horrible fear. That was what Apparition sounded like, but who, apart from Remus, would be Apparating into my flat, my bedroom? And Remus always rang the bell…
But these Death Eaters I had been told about, who killed Muggles for no other reason than that they were Muggles…
I armed myself with a salt cellar and the fish I had been preparing, and tried to peer through the crack at the hinges on the door. I couldn't see anything, but I could hear some voices, which didn't put me at my ease at all.
"Remember, kill the Muggle and get out." This voice seemed to have a hissing quality, almost like a snake.
"Yes, master," whined another man.
I could almost hear him thinking: why did the boss have to come along anyway? This is going to be no fun. I wish he'd let me get on with my own work on my own…
Then the doorbell rang, and I suddenly remembered: Remus! He must have finished early, or something. And he rang the doorbell as usual, and the people that I assumed were Death Eaters heard it, and were coming to 'kill the Muggle'!
And Remus was too polite to barge in; he would wait until I opened the door, which wasn't going to happen, and I would be killed in here with my boyfriend standing outside, too polite to come in!
The bedroom door slammed open, and I screamed and instinctively threw the salt cellar at the man coming through the door, and then I was left with a raw fish, and I was going to die, and Remus wouldn't know, and-
"REMUS!" I screamed, desperately, as I saw the other man charging through the door at me, and then the front door hit the floor as Remus charged in, and dropped the flowers he was holding, and pulled out his wand, but he was too late, the man in black was raising his wand and had cast a spell in my direction, and he was going to kill me, I knew, and then Remus yelled "PROTEGO!" and it stopped the other spell, and the evil man was turning on Remus, and I threw the fish, and it hit the evil man in the face, and he spat out the fish and cast a spell at me, and then one at Remus, and Remus was too slow to stop this spell, and I had to dodge, and I hid behind the kitchen counter, and then I realised that Remus was going to die, and I wasn't doing anything, and I picked up the carving knife beside me and threw it, and it missed and hit a nice china vase, which broke, and then there were spells flying in every direction as Remus and the other man tried to find a break in the other's defences, and then a red light hit Remus and he went all pale and fell backwards, and the robed man laughed and turned on me, and his eyes were all red like the spell, and I flung the chopping board at him, and this time I thought it missed, but I heard him yelp and he vanished with another nasty crack. I hoped that I had given him a black eye or worse.
I turned and ran to Remus, who was lying on the floor all pale and still, but he was breathing, so I knew he wasn't dead. Then I pulled a mirror out of a drawer, and almost yelled Lily's name in it. Her face appeared.
"Petunia?"
"Lily! You've got to come right now! Two men were in my bedroom and they attacked Remus and I threw a knife at one and it missed and I've broken a really nice vase and Remus got hit with a red light and I threw a fish at him – not Remus, some other man – and you need to come now, Lily! Remus is just lying all pale and still and I don't know what to do and I'm scared another man'll turn up in those robes and stuff, and I need help!"
Lily looked confused, but she reacted quickly. "I'll be right over, Petunia. Just hold on."