The Accident

Petunia stretched as she stared blearily down at her Potions essay. Three more inches and then she could go to bed... an excellent idea as the clock on the mantle informed her that it was a quarter to two in the morning. She heard someone talking quietly to the raven that guarded the common room and looked up in surprise as Professor Flitwick came in.

"Oh, good, you're still up, Miss Evans," Professor Flitwick said quietly as he stepped closer to where she was seated near the dying fire. "I'm afraid something has happened, you'll need to come down to Professor Dumbledore's office straight away."

Petunia sprang up from the sofa she had been sitting on, all traces of exhaustion disappearing. "What's wrong? Is Lily alright?"

"Your sister is fine... just please come with me, Miss Evans."

Shaking, Petunia cast a spell on her essay to dry the ink and hastily rolled it up, stuffing it in her bag along with her books, quills, and ink. She stood and quickly followed Professor Flitwick out the door.

After what felt like ages, they finally reached the Headmasters office. Professor Flitwick gave the password, Strawberry Ice Cream, and she practically ran up the stairs, only to find a very serious looking Headmaster, a terrified sister, and a pale Professor McGonagall.

"Thank you for seeing me at this late hour," Professor Dumbledore said gravely as Petunia sank into a chair, noticing that Lily was in her night clothes, a dressing gown hastily thrown on.

"What's wrong, Professor?" Petunia asked desperately.

"There's no easy way to say this," he said, sighing heavily. "Unfortunately, we were just informed by the authorities that your parents perished in a car crash this evening."

Petunia sat numbly in the chair. Her parents, dead? It wasn't possible, they were so looking forward to her graduation next month...

Lily let out a strangled sob and flung herself into Petunia's lap. Petunia automatically held her and began stroking her hair.

"What happened?" Petunia asked quietly, amazed that her eyes were still dry.

"They were driving home from dinner earlier this evening and were hit by a drunk driver. He was driving much too quickly and in the wrong lane and hit your parents head on, killing them instantly. I'm very sorry, Petunia."

Petunia finally felt her eyes begin to water. "What's going to happen to us?" she asked stiffly, trying to maintain her composure.

"You are eighteen years old, an adult in both the wizarding and Muggle worlds. Since you have no remaining relatives, it is most likely that you will be given guardianship of Lily until she comes of age."

Petunia's mind began reeling. Her parents were dead and now she was expected to take care of Lily, all while studying for her N.E.W.T.s and finding a job of her own? It was too much.

"I understand how hard this is for you girls," Dumbledore said softly, and Petunia vaguely noticed that at some point Professor McGonagall had placed a hand on her shoulder and was offering her a handkerchief. Shaking her head slightly, she continued to listen to Dumbledore's soothing voice and words. "My own mother died when I was seventeen, leaving me to care for my two younger siblings. I am always here to help you with anything you need, be it studying for N.E.W.T.s, straightening out affairs in the Muggle world, or a shoulder to cry on."

"Thank you, sir," Petunia choked out, Lily still shaking with sobs.

"Additionally, I am giving you this week off to make arrangements for the funeral. Your professors will be notified of your situation. Would you like to stay here or return home? If you stay here, we will provide you with private quarters for the following week, I assume you'll want a space to be together and away from prying questions. If you wish to return home, I will make arrangements."

"Can - can we stay here for tonight, at least?" Petunia asked. "We'll figure everything out in the morning."

"Very well, Filius, could you ask the house elves to move their things to the visitors chambers?"

Soon they were being led down a corridor on the second floor that Petunia had never seen before. There were many stuffy looking portraits lining the walls and there were a number of ornate doors placed every so often.

"This is typically where any representatives of the board of governors stays, if they need to remain at the castle overnight," Dumbledore informed them softly. That would explain the stuffy portraits on the walls. "I'm leaving you in the room assigned to Edward Fawley, I'm sure he won't mind your presence here, as some might. The password is Faithful. Please come and see me if you need anything, anything at all." With that, he turned and left, leaving the two girls alone.

"Faithful," Petunia told the door, turning the handle. The door opened, revealing a sitting room with a fire crackling on the hearth, so they walked through the only other door in the room, coming into a bedroom with a large, comfortable looking bed with red hangings. True to his word, two worn looking trunks were already at the foot of the bed. Lily savagely yanked off her dressing gown and threw herself on the bed, while Petunia opened her trunk and began getting dressed for bed mechanically.

"Why'd they have to die, Tuney?" Lily cried, her voice muffled by a pillow.

"I don't know," Petunia said numbly as she climbed into bed next to her sister. She desperately wanted to break down the way Lily was, but she had so much she had to accomplish in the next few days and crying wouldn't get any of it done. She took a deep breath, choking on a sob, tried to take another deep breath, and finally broke down in tears.


Planning a funeral was much more work than Petunia had ever imagined. She had to meet with the undertaker and the priest, discuss how she wanted her parents made up for the wake, then had to dig through their clothes to find suitable attire to bury them in. Meeting with the priest was slightly more comforting, he had some suggested readings and songs that she could pick and choose from. Her parents had attended St. James church their entire life, so she trusted the kind, elderly priest to do them justice in his eulogy.

Once the funeral was said and her parents were buried, Petunia turned to other more mundane matters. There weren't any other wizards in the area since the death of Eileen Snape and even though most of Wizarding Britain was simply a Floo away, she wanted to live in an area with more wizards around, somewhere where she didn't have to worry about nosy neighbors peeking through her curtains and seeing her casting spells, brewing potions, or wondering about the strange plants growing in her garden. Therefore, they would have to sell the house and they could find some other small place. She buried her head in her hands. While they undoubtedly had the nicest house in the neighborhood, being one of the larger, end rowhouses with spectacular flower beds, it still wasn't going to fetch a lot of money. She wanted to get the house on the market straight away so that it could be shown off while the gardens were in full bloom.

A stressed Petunia Evans was a very busy Petunia Evans. She cheated a bit, spreading dragon dung on the flower beds and preparing a special herbicide that would kill all the weeds, but not the flowers, for the following year. Lily would often come down to the kitchen in the middle of the night to find her sister frantically brewing potions for everything under the sun, be it a potion to clean the bricks or brighten the shutters, or a simple Pepper-up since she knew that they'd eventually get sick with the stress they were under.

"Here, Tuney," Lily said the last morning they were planning on spending in Cokeworth before heading back to Hogwarts. Petunia was frantically shrinking and packing all their belongings into a cavernous trunk she had purchased in Diagon Alley the previous day.

"What is it, Lily?" she snapped at her sister. She was currently having difficulties shrinking the sofa and it was not improving her already sour mood.

Lily looked at her harried sister carefully. "I think I may have found us some places to live," she said carefully. "The estate agent said we should expect twelve to fourteen thousand pounds, right?"

"Yes," Petunia sighed, feeling lucky.

"Well," Lily said, straightening out several copies of the Daily Prophet, "I've found a cottage for two-thousand galleons in Hogsmeade and a flat in Diagon Alley for eighteen-hundred galleons."

Petunia's heart soared. Those prices were quite reasonable, so long as the buildings were in good condition. They had to go to Diagon Alley today, anyways, and they'd be in Hogsmeade the next day when they returned to school.

"Well, might as well go into Diagon Alley now, then," Petunia said, racking her brain for the potion ingredients she needed to pick up at the apothecary, before finally summoning parchment, ink, and a quill.

Around an hour later, Petunia and Lily found themselves in a relatively quiet Diagon Alley gathering up potion ingredients. After some grumbling about the increased price in newt eyes, they returned to the sunshine filled street.

"Alright," Petunia said steadily. "The flat is supposed to be at 108 Diagon Alley, Madam Malkin's is at 92, so it should be just a bit past there…"

Soon enough, they encountered a building proclaiming Miller's Everyday Hats with a small Flat for Sale sign in the front window. Taking a deep breath, Petunia pushed open the door and a small bell tinkled at their arrival.

"Good morning, ladies!" an elderly woman came out to greet them. "What are you doing out of school?" she asked in surprise.

At this Lily's eyes watered and the woman's eyes narrowed even more. "I am of age," Petunia informed the woman stiffly. "Our parents recently died and we were looking to move. I've come to enquire about the advertised flat."

"Why don't you just live in your old house?" the woman asked, perplexed. "Surely you want to keep the happy memories of your parents."

Lily looked amazed at how nosy this woman was being and Petunia straightened her posture more than she thought was possible. "We'd like to live in the Wizarding world, ma'am," she answered stiffly.

The woman's kindly face contorted into an ugly scowl. "Mudblood filth," she hissed at them, drawing her wand. "Out, I say, out!"

Petunia paused, gawking that such a kind looking woman could suddenly turn so… so nasty all because she wasn't born to magical parents. Lily dragged her out of the shop and onto the street, where tears were pouring down her face. "What do we do now?" she choked out.

Dazed, Petunia flung out her right arm, causing a large, triple decker, purple bus to appear. An elderly wizard hobbled off the bus. "Good morning, ma'am –"

"Two for Hogwarts," Petunia informed him dully, pushing her way onto the bus.

The man gaped at her. "Do – do you want hot chocolate? Or a toothbrush?"

"No thank you. How much do I owe you?"

"Er – five sickles," the man said after a moment, clearly caught off guard from not being able to deliver his speech.

Petunia reached into her purse, counted out five silver coins, and handed them to the man before following Lily to the second floor where they collapsed into matching armchairs.

"We're going to see Professor Dumbledore as soon as we get back," Petunia informed Lily, staring at the wood grain on the table in front of them.

After a completely nauseating ride, Petunia and Lily disembarked from the bus in Hogsmeade and began up the winding path from the village to the castle. Petunia felt more peaceful than she had in weeks once she opened the enormous oak doors to admit them into the castle itself.

"I wasn't expecting you girls quite yet," the headmaster said as he stepped out into the entrance hall. "I've no doubt that your friends will be quite pleased to see you this evening."

"Thank you, Professor," Petunia choked out.

"Now, you're still excused for classes for the day, so would you mind coming up to my office so we can straighten out your affairs?"

That sounded an awfully lot like they were the ones dying, Petunia thought, but nonetheless she nodded and followed the headmaster up to his office, Lily's hand clutched tightly in her own. They got there in record time, ducking behind several tapestries and walking straight through what appeared to be perfectly solid stone walls. Once they were seated in his office, Dumbledore offered them both lemon drops, which Petunia gladly took, hoping the sweet would settle her stomach.

"Thank you for helping us with this," Petunia said, feeling a strong rush of gratitude as the headmaster pulled out a stack of papers she had owled him two days previously.

"I am always here to help," he told her kindly. "Although there is no ideal age for losing a parent, eighteen and fifteen are quite unfair. Now I see that you wish to sell the house?"

"Yes, sir," Petunia said more clearly this time. "I feel that we would be better suited to a Wizarding environment, one where we don't have to worry about pulling the curtains and jumping when the doorbell rings."

"Quite understandable," Dumbledore responded affably. "There are a great number of Wizarding communities present in Britain, have you decided on a location?"

"We… we just came from looking at a flat in Diagon Alley," Petunia said, feeling the color drain from her face. "The woman selling the flat… she seemed quite bothered that we were Muggleborn."

"She called us Mudbloods," Lily piped in helpfully.

Dumbledore looked quite sad and forlorn at this statement. "Unfortunately, resentment against Muggleborns is growing. I'm afraid that soon you might have to decide if you're going to fight or go into hiding."

Petunia's mouth went completely and utterly dry. Dry as the Sahara desert. Defense Against the Dark Arts was one of her worst subjects – she had barely scraped an A on her O.W.L., taken in her sixth year because she got a D in her fifth year, and she was admittedly fairly useless in most subjects that required a wand. She was passable in Charms and only took it because she thought it might be useful down the lines, but she was grateful that Professor Flitwick was essentially allowing her an independent study where she researched various charms and she wouldn't be sitting for her N.E.W.T.

"Hiding?" she croaked out at the same time Lily blurted out, "I want to fight!"

"Yes," Dumbledore said sorrowfully while Petunia turned to Lily, exclaiming, "You're not going to fight!"

Lily turned to her older sister. "I will too fight!" she hissed, green eyes flashing.

"Lily, you're only fifteen," Petunia said sternly. "You are not going to go fight against wizards who are bigger and stronger than you and use nasty curses!"

Lily opened her mouth to continue the argument but Dumbledore interrupted her.

"Lily, there is not a chance that I would allow an underage witch to run off getting into duels with dark wizards while under my watch." Petunia smirked at her sister who looked crestfallen. "However, if you feel the same way after you've graduated, you may come and speak to me."

"But Professor!" Petunia protested.

"Anyways," the headmaster continued loudly, clearly ending that particular discussion. "If it is necessary for you to go into hiding you'll probably want to own an entire building and preferably a small patch of land…"

That's how, a month later, just after graduation, Petunia and Lily found themselves staring at a very small cottage on the outskirts of Hogsmeade. Petunia had reasoned that if the protection charms broke then she could quickly flee to the protection of Hogwarts and it was in an all-magical community as she had hoped.

The cottage itself was decidedly not what she had hoped for. It was more than "worn about the edges" as the advert had described. It was quite small, quite literally a one room cottage, even if it happened to be a somewhat large room. They were clearly not going to be able to fit all of the furniture they had brought from Cokeworth.

"Hmm… I don't think Mum and Dad's bed is going to fit in here," Lily said as she drew her wand to poke at the miniature furniture in the trunk.

"No… Lily, put your wand away!" Petunia screeched, hurrying over to the trunk as she tried to visualize how to arrange the cottage.

"But…"

"No 'buts', young lady! You know the rules!"

Lily huffed, sticking her wand back into her holster rather viciously. "Wait… there's no bathroom here."

Petunia sighed, wiping sweat from her forehead. "I know. I spoke to a magical plumbing business and they said it'd cost one hundred galleons to attach a bathroom."

"What will we do in the meantime?" Lily asked, aghast.

Petunia shrugged. "There's an outhouse in the back, it's charmed not to smell, although the charm's getting a bit patchy. I bought a tub we can enlarge to take baths in until I get the galleons."

The look on Lily's face softened. "How's the job?"

Petunia had just had her first day working at an apothecary brewing potions. "Boring," she huffed. "I brewed six size 5 cauldrons worth of Pepper-up Potion!" She dragged a slightly battered notebook out of her school trunk. "Now, what do we want for dinner?"


Petunia dragged herself wearily away from her cauldron at the apothecary in Diagon Alley. She had been quite fortunate to find herself a job there, in the back, brewing potions all day long, despite the growing anti-Muggle and anti-Muggleborn sentiment. Potions had always been one of her strong points – she was a precise and methodical person by nature and flourished when a cauldron was placed in front of her. Lily and her disgusting little friend, the Snape boy who lived down Spinner's End, had blossomed under her tutelage and rumor had it that Horace Slughorn ("Call me Horace, m'dear!" he had informed her merrily at her graduation. "Such a fine potions mistress who is no longer my student has no need to continue to refer to me as 'professor'! Makes me feel downright old…") was planning on steering one of the three of them into his position when he retired in a few years.

A loud pop! startled her as she was pulling on her light jacket. "Excuse me," she informed the intruder stiffly as she pulled out her wand and pointed it towards him with a shaking hand. "The shop front is that way. Customers aren't allowed back here."

The man broke out into a broad grin. "Good thing I'm not a customer then," he informed her, his eyes twinkling merrily. "I'm Edwin Prewett, my parents own this apothecary."

Petunia was taken aback and blushed horribly. "I'm terribly sorry," she stuttered. "I didn't realize…"

"It's no problem," Edwin assured her. "I'm quite glad that you take the shop's security so seriously." Petunia continued stammering out apologies and finally he interrupted her. "Say, have you had dinner yet?"

"No," Petunia replied, caught quite off guard. Surely he wasn't asking timid little Petunia Evans out to dinner?

"Me either," Edwin responded. "Let me just stop into the shop to let my father know that I won't be home for dinner and then we can go grab something to eat."

Utterly astonished, Petunia allowed herself to be pulled along as this strange man led her off on the first official date of her young life.


Author's Note:

Alright, I had been planning on including more of Petunia's school life, but it just wasn't working out. Maybe one day I'll go back and flesh out her Hogwarts experiences, but as of right now, what I'm writing is boring me to tears and I won't subject you to that. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!