Chapter 29: Petunia

"Mum, we're here!"

From the kitchen Mum and I hear the front door swing open.

"Hi honey! Just a minute, I'm finishing up this pie!" She looks at me pleadingly. She's in the middle of latticing the top of the mince pie and has flour up to her elbows and a swath of it across her forehead. "Go greet your sister at the door, will you?"

"Love to," I say. I think I manage to keep the sarcasm out of my voice.

The entry way is more hallway than room, with the staircase to the upper floor opposite the front door. Petunia looks up when she hears my footsteps on the wood floor.

"Oh," Petunia says, stopping in the middle of removing her gloves. "You're home."

"Hey, Tuney," I say. I look past her to where Vernon is shedding his coat and revealing a jumper that stretches just a little too snuggly across his middle. "Hey Vernon."

"Thought you said she'd be visiting her girlfriend today," Vernon says to Petunia, ignoring me completely.

"Yes, well plans change," I say, resting an elbow on the stair banister. "Thought I'd give the happy couple my best wishes myself."

Petunia slowly hands her gloves to Vernon who, to his credit, stashes them appropriately in the pocket of Petunia's coat, which hangs neatly on one of the hooks by the door. "So this is about the wedding?" she says.

"Uninviting me, Tuney? Through Mum?" I say. "That's low, even for you."

Petunia glances down the hallway. I laugh hollowly. "Don't worry about upsetting Mum," I say. "I haven't told her."

"Why?" Petunia says evenly.

"Because I don't want drama," I say.

"Then what do you want?" she snaps.

"Isn't it obvious?" I say. "I want to go to the wedding."

Petunia blanches.

"Now listen here," Vernon says, speaking to me for the first time. "We will not have you ruining our wedding."

"I don't want to ruin your wedding!" I whisper-shout.

"You'll find a way to, I'm sure of it," Petunia says nastily.

"Fine! You don't want me there? I'll be sure to let Mum know just why I'm not there!"

Petunia glares furiously at me, Vernon at her shoulder.

"Tuney, is that you? Hi sweetheart!"

Mum sweeps down the hall, pulling Petunia into a tight (flour-free) hug. Petunia meets my eyes over Mum's shoulder. "This isn't over," I say quietly. Fiercely.

"What's that, dear?" Mum says, looking around at me.

"Nothing," I say.

/

"Isn't it lovely Lily is going to make the wedding after all?" Mum asks after dinner over the pie.

Petunia has raised her fork to take a bite but pauses at Mum's words to shoot me a glare when Mum isn't looking. I raise my eyebrows right back, daring her to contradict Mum and make a scene.

"I'm so glad it all worked out," Mum continues, oblivious to our silent battle. She turns to smile at Dad, who smiles back.

"Yes. It's nice to have both my girls back for the holiday," he agrees.

"But what about your friend, Lily?" Petunia asks. I'll give her credit – her voice isn't the least bit strained or hostile as she carefully sets her fork back down on her plate, still loaded with a bite of pie. "Alicia, wasn't it? Won't she be hurt you're skipping your trip to visit?"

"Actually, Alice is already rather mad at me right now, so Mum's right, everything did work out," I say with false cheerfulness.

"Oh, Lily, what happened?" Mum asks, frowning at me. "It's not like you and Alice to fight!"

"She didn't like my date to Slughorn's Christmas party on Friday night," I say.

"Who'd you go with?" Dad asks. "And I thought you promised to stay away from dates this year, give your poor dad a break."

I give him a good-natured eye roll. "It was one party, Dad."

"But who was the date?" Mum presses.

I look down at my plate, push some of the crumbly filling around with my fork. "Severus," I mutter.

A shocked silence follows. The only one unaffected is Vernon, who has yet to look up from the large slice on his plate.

"Well, no wonder she was upset at you," Petunia says finally. It's my turn to glower at her.

"I thought the two of you weren't talking anymore," Dad says.

"We weren't," I say. "But now we are. We're... mending things. Sort of." But I think about how upset Severus was at the end of the party. Who knows where we stand now?

"Hmm," Mum says, pressing her lips together.

"Let's hear it, Mum," I say wearily. Mum has never been Sev's biggest fan. She tolerated him well enough when we were young, recognizing he was my main connection to the Wizarding world, but the further we got in school, the more Mum's face soured whenever I mentioned him. She was upset when he called me "Mudblood" fifth year and we had our big falling out, but I don't think she was surprised, and she was certainly glad to finally have something concrete to dislike Severus for.

"It's just... well... I don't understand why you'd go to the party with Severus when you have James," she says.

"What? No, Mum, remember, don't read into this. Have you not been listening to anything I've been telling you about him?"

"Dear, I don't need to listen, I have eyes, that boy is clearly in-"

"Who are we talking about?" Vernon asks, finally setting down his fork on his clean plate and wiping his mouth with his napkin.

Mum turns to him. "James Potter. He's Lily's date for the wedding."

"Mum," I say, but my 'he's not a date!' protests get cut off by Petunia.

"Lily's date?" Now she can't keep her voice calm. She sounds sharp as the knife Mum cut the pie with.

"Of course," Mum says, frowning at her.

"Mum, we don't have space for Lily to bring a date," Petunia says. "I wasn't even planning on Lily coming. The food order, the seating charts, everything! It'll all be messed up. We don't have time to change it!"

"Lily is your sister, Petunia. Of course she gets a date. I can help you fix everything to accommodate Lily and James. We still have nearly two weeks, it'll be fine."

Before Petunia can protest more, Vernon butts in again. "Is this James... one of... one of your lot?" he says, nodding at me.

I gape at him. I look at Petunia, wondering if I'm really understanding his question. "Did you... did you tell him?"

Petunia flushes pink but meets my eyes. "Of course I did. I'm marrying him. I don't have anything to hide."

Well, if that were true, she wouldn't have tried to kick me out of the wedding, but never mind.

"Well," I say, turning back to Vernon. "In that case, yes, James comes from the Wizarding world." He winces on the word 'Wizarding'. So does Petunia. I figured as much.

"And we are happy to have him!" Mum says, clearly trying to smooth everything out. "Right, Ian?" she says, turning to Dad. Back me up, her eyes say.

"Right," Dad says. "Fine young man."

Then we all turn to look at Petunia. Her eyebrows lower and she looks to Vernon instead. He closes his eyes briefly and gives her a small shrug. Finally, Petunia says, "Fine. Lily, you can bring this James guy. But you can't be one of my bridesmaids."

"Petunia!" Mum says, shocked.

"It wouldn't make sense at this point, Mum," Petunia says. "We've already had the bridal shower, and we don't have time to order Lily a dress."

"You can't just not have your sister involved in your wedding," Mum says, sounding pained. She looks at me with sad eyes, and I feel guilty. Here I am, being the complication again.

"It's fine, Mum," I say quickly. "Tuney's right, it wouldn't make sense for me to be a bridesmaid this late. I can hand out programs or something."

"Perfect," Petunia says. She stands. "Seconds on pie, Vernon?"