Disclaimer: I only own the plot.
0- 11. The End Of an Era.
The long summer holidays had begun. Petunia Evans was going to spend these holidays at her maternal grandparents' house. Her paternal grandparents had already passed away.
Her grandmother's house was in Ottery St. Catchpole. This year the holidays seemed very long. She could not even write a letter to Lucius. There Lily wrote letters to James, Marlene, Remus, Peter and Sirius. Although, before this she could send a letter to Sirius. Both Remus and James stopped her from writing a letter to Sirius. She did not understand this but she agreed. Selecting subjects for the third year was becoming very difficult. Lily and Remus were taking three subjects. Care of Magical Creatures, Arithmacy and Lily took the third subject Ancient Runes and Remus took Divination. James and Peter had taken Divination and Care of Magical Creatures. And Sirius took Care of Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies to spite his parents. Although he had just told them that he had taken Ancient Runes.
There was a reason behind this. James' father was a retired potion master, so James had a teacher to learn the art of making potions. Peter was already good at potions. Sirius was the only one left who was very bad at potions. And at home, Walburga, Sirius' mother was an expert potioneer. So he started pretending to be a pureblood extremist at home.
Walburga was clever. That's why she asked Regulus about Sirius in his letter. But she did not know that there was a truce between Sirius and Regulus. When Regulus was not ready to go against the family, Sirius said to him, "I agree that you don't want to separate, but at least let me out of this hell. So please, I request you to write only those things in mother's letters that make her happy." Sirius was brave, but when Remus said that why bear the torture when we could pretend for two months? We will see about the rest later.
One week has passed. Sirius had been pretending to become a perfect Black for the past one week. "Mother, I want to learn about potions and want to become an expert in that art too. But I could not concentrate in class because of my clumsy and stupid friends." Sirius continued his drama. "Let's go, it's late but it's safe. At last you have come to your senses. If you want, I am ready to help you." Walburga had now fallen into Sirius's trap.
Today was the day when James decided to steal the ingredients for the Animagus potion from the potions inventory of Potter manor. The task was easy. Potter's parents were going to the Ministry today for the Wizengamot. James stole the ingredients with the help of his house elf 'Tilly'. But where will he make the potion???
Petunia was learning the tricks of farming with her grandmother. She said that all this should be learned. Lily was very fond of all this, so she had already learned all this, but Petunia was not interested in it. But now something had to be done to entertain the heart. So this was fine. Her grandfather was mostly ill now. But this time there was a different kind of peace in spending the holidays with him. And this was a village, so the houses were far apart. Big fields, small mountains, greenery all around, there was also a small river nearby. It was a very beautiful and peaceful place.
Lily loved peace. And there was a lot of peace in this place. Helping grandmother in the fields outside, tending to the cows, planting flowers at the back, going to the forest secretly. Everything was great, she was only scared of horse riding but Petunia liked it. Yes, sometimes she missed Severus but she tried to be with Sev. I don't know what has happened to Sev. Now he is not like before. Maybe he is getting company. He writes very little about letters as well.
Petunia was now beginning to enjoy herself here. The thing was that she found out that there were two or three wizarding families living here. She didn't know their names, but she knew that much. So she used to go looking for these houses every day in her free time, stealthily. She looked at many houses, but couldn't find any wizarding house. One day she noticed a house, alone on a hill and very different from the others. Petunia figured out that it must be a wizard's house. There was a lake some distance from that hill, near which she found out about a house as well. But she couldn't find time to go. There was a lot of homework, Lily also kept an eye on it. If she had to go, she would have to take Lily along as well. So she thought that she would come during the next holidays. Yes, their grandparents were getting older now so they wanted to stay with the children and anyway, Ottery St Catchapole was a much better place than Cokeworth.
Petunia's maternal grandparents had grown old now, so Mr. Thomas and his wife also always lived in the farmhouse to look after the farm. Both of them were caretakers of this farmhouse. Anyway, their age was also not too young. And both of them also wanted to retire. Thea had promised her parents that if this happens, she will take his place and take care of the farm. Mr. Evans also used to do property dealing business, in which they had already earned and saved a lot and wanted to live a retirement life by staying at their in-laws' place.
Finally the Hogwarts letters arrived but this time Petunia's envelope was a little heavy and why not. Finally she was chosen as Prefect for Ravenclaw. Lily was very happy. Alice found out that she too had become Prefect, for Gryffindor, along with Frank Longbottom. There was something between Alice and Frank but perhaps they had not realized it yet. But Myra had bet with Tunny that they would be together before the end of this year.
This time the journey to Diagon Alley was not that fun. It was not exciting. Due to the terror of the Dark Lord, strict security arrangements were made here. Just collect your things and move on.
On the other hand Voldemort had called an important meeting. He asked Lucius why he was so lenient towards the Mudbloods. To which Lucius answered very cleverly, which he liked. "My lord, if we want to take over the ministry then I will have to behave in such a way that people do not doubt me. In this way the allegations against my father will be proved wrong and the ministry will soon be under our control. After this year I will take up a position in the ministry and will join you in your front lane, my lord." After this Voldemort handed over the ministry matter to Avery and Malfoy.
Finally, the day of September 1 arrived for which everyone was waiting. This time too, the same people and the same enthusiasm were present on platform nine and three-fourth. The new kids were daring, the old ones were excited to return and those who were about to see this palace for the last time were nostalgic.
Alice and Petunia said goodbye to Myra and left for the start of the term meeting in the Prefect Carriage. There everyone felt that it would be a little awkward as Lucius Malfoy had been elected Head Boy. However for Petunia and Lucius it wasn't awkward at all. Both were happy that they could meet each other before school. However they had to act as if their break up had happened on a very bad note.
The year had started. Lucius and Petunia would meet each other several times on the pretext of doing rounds. Regulus now started spending more time with Severus and his potential death eater friends. But even then Severus would drop by to meet Lily sometimes and Lily was always happy to meet him.
James, Peter and Sirius were still looking for a place to make the brew along with Remus. For this they were searching every corner of the school. They thought that if there was a secret path from the Whomping Willow then they must start looking for other secret paths as well. They started making a map of Hogwarts. By now they had found two more ways. Finally they chose the Honey Duke's passageway to make the Animagus potion.
The time for Quidditch trials had come. And finally Petunia got selected as the chaser for Ravenclaw. In the same middle James got selected as the chaser for Gryffindor and Sirius as a beater. Remus only liked to watch Quidditch and after Tyler Bell got selected last year there was a vacancy for commentary so Remus applied there. While Peter liked staying on the ground more.
Today the Animagus potion was ready. It was difficult to make but when four minds work together then the work becomes easy. "Sirius will drink it first" James said. And Sirius did the same. And then he went into trance for almost half an hour. If the others did not know then they might have got confused but since they knew that something like this could happen so the three calmly waited for Sirius to wake up. Becoming Animagus was very difficult. For this it was necessary to be expert in the art of transformation as this was the most advanced level of transformation. One had to know the basic art of making the potion. Generally a person can take only one Animagus form but in history there have been some magicians who could take more than one form. All this depended on the magical aura. It is said that the longer one remains in trance, the more are the chances of getting more forms. But sometimes it can also mean lack of magical aura.
Sirius's eyes opened on a different beautiful place where there was grassland nearby. But there was fog all around. After some time a big black dog came out of the fog. Whose eyes were exactly like Sirius's. Sirius understood that this was going to be his Animagus form so he studied the dog carefully. And took note of all its features. Now the fog was reducing and Sirius was able to talk to the dog as well. Then the dog disappeared and the fog started to cover again, Sirius saw the flash of some animal in the fog but before he could see anything, Sirius woke up.
Seeing Sirius's eyes open, everyone was alert. "Are you okay?" Remus asked. Sirius nodded his head in agreement. "You got up in just 15 minutes, did you find any form of not ?" James asked. Sirius laughed and said, "Yes, a black dog, like Grim." Remus rolled his eyes. "Not that, it seemed like there was another animal there, but I woke up before I could see it." Sirius said in a somewhat disappointing tone. "That means your magical aura is very strong, which is often the case with purebloods." Peter said. But James said in between, "It is not like that. Dumbledore is a half-blood but his aura is very strong." And Sirius said in support, "Blood never matters, many times old great wizards who are no longer alive make their blood relatives their blood heirs but they can choose anyone as their magical heir."
After some time, James drank the potion and went into a trance. When he opened his eyes, he found himself in a forest. He could see for some distance but then there was fog. Soon a stag came out of the fog. James watched it for some time and started studying it. Soon James started talking to it. Then it disappeared and another animal started coming. It was not visible clearly in the fog. It seemed like a bird but he woke up before he could observe it.
" I am a stag and I also saw a bird. Maybe it was a hawk but I can't say for sure. I couldn't observe it. " James said as soon as he got up. Remus became a little sad and said, " If you cannot observe it, then you will never be able to see that form. " James became disappointed. " Never mind Peter, now it's your turn. " When Peter went into a trance, he did not wake up for one and a half hours. And when he woke up, he found out that it was a rat animagus. Peter was disappointed but James encouraged him and said, " This is a good thing, you will cleverly show us the way and we both will keep Remus in check. " Peter gave a slight smile. Slowly he has started feeling different from you.
The three friends practiced becoming animagus whenever they got time but it was not easy, especially without someone's guidance. So even after Remus's repeated requests, they still stayed with him in the Shrieking Shack and supported Remus. In the meantime, they got the idea of finding the way out of Hogwarts and got busy in this work.
Christmas was near. It had started snowing. There was a blanket of snow all around Hogwarts. The children were playing in the snow. Everything was going well but in the meantime Lucius receives a letter.
"Voldemort has invited me this Christmas," Lucius said sadly. "I know Lucius, take care of yourself," Petunia said. The two were meeting in a classroom together. "For how long, Petunia, for how long will we be done like this. Now I don't want to do this any more. Why don't we reveal ourselves after this meeting?" Lucius said in frustration. Before Petunia could understand him, he said again, "Now I want to choose my own path openly and come out to the world." Petunia was scared. " Lucius but then dark lor--" But Lucius kissed her. They relaxed. " Everything will be fine," Petunia said. Lucius hugged her and bid her farewell.
This year Petunia and Lily were going to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas. James's parents had invited Remus, Sirius and Peter to Potter manor for Christmas. It was difficult but Sirius made some excuse and refused to come home and chose Potter Manor. Regulus and Severus were also staying at Hogwarts. People were taking leave for Christmas. Lily had come to say goodbye to Marlene and the other Marauders. Petunia to Myra and Alice. Myra's grandmother was now falling ill, her parents had died earlier when she was four years old, since then she was brought up by her grandmother, who was a Muggle. This was the reason why Myra was very interested in Muggles. Myra lived in Surrey. Alice was a Prewett. It had been two months now that she and Frank Longbottom came into a relationship, due to which Petunia had to give four sickles to Myra.
The Prewett family was an old pureblood family. They considered muggles and blood traitors capable of magic, but not of marriage. This was why Molly was separated from the family after she married into them. Her brothers didn't treat her like that, though. And neither did Alice's parents. Alice and Molly were distant cousins. They didn't get along very well either. Since Alice's mother was also a Muggleborn, her parents didn't get along with them. But now that they were dead, Fabian and Gideon became the heads of the family. But he still didn't get a chance to build a relationship with Alice's parents. Molly was anyway busy in her family and rarely met her brothers. Meanwhile, the Prewett Twins decided to join the Order of Phoenix.
Fleamont and Ephimia Potter had invited the Marauders to Potter manor for Christmas. They were both glad that James had such good friends. They both knew about Sirius's family, and that it had become difficult for Sirius to live there. They also found out that Remus was a werewolf but that did not matter to them. Peter had also lost his father earlier. That Christmas the three of them felt loved, like they were their own home. Sirius now looked at them as his parents; he found in them something he never found in his own parents. "So we should all have a nickname that only the four of us know." James said. And then came the nicknames - Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail and Prongs.
On the other hand, at Malfoy Manor, Lucius was preparing to meet Voldemort. He had been offered a job in the Ministry, which would please the Dark Lord. Now Lucius had to somehow save the Ministry from Avery's clutches, otherwise the Ministry would fall under Voldemort's control.
Lucius wanted to do something, he wanted to inform Dumbledore somehow but how ?Voldemort was sitting in front of him and after taking over the Ministry he was planning terrorism and he could not even send a message through his Patronus because only the people of Order of Phoenix were aware of this method so that this method of message does not fall into wrong hands. Now no one can stop the attack on Ottery St Catchapole. But was it necessary for Lucius, will only such Muggles die? What is the significance of their death? Do I care about their lives now?
Petunia was sitting with Lily in the great hall and all the teachers were also there but Dumbledore was not there.
Just then a sparkling blue phoenix appears, seeing which McGonagall stands up. Dumbledore's voice echoed, "The Dark Lord's army has attacked the Muggle part of Ottery St Catchapole. The Wizarding family is safe but many Muggles have lost their lives." Hearing this Lily and Petunia tremble with fear. The teachers were also in a state of panic but they had composed themselves.
Then McGonagall's eyes fall on both the sisters, "I am going, this is disturbing news, but you all take care of yourselves and return to your rooms."
"No Professor, my grandparents live there, I hope something doesn't happen to them..." But Lily could not say anything further.
That night the daughter died with great difficulty. The next day both Dumbledore gave bad news. What was feared happened again, their grandparents were no more. "It is with great sadness that I inform you that your Grandparents are no more. They both were near the river at that time, so there was no harm to the house or the animals. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas are fine. Only Mrs. Thomas is slightly injured. Today afternoon both of you will go to your homes in my office fireplace so that you can attend their funeral." Both the sisters spent time with them and started crying remembering their last moments. And in the afternoon both the sisters left the palace for the funeral. This year Evans will not celebrate Christmas.
When Lucius returned a day before the holidays ended, he learned of Evans' loss. This battle had been going on in his mind for many days, but now the time for decision had come. The decision was difficult but necessary. He could not sacrifice more lives. But still it took him a lot of time to take a decision. He held Petunia, supported her. On the other hand, Alice and Myra also consoled Petunia. Lily was also very sad. Severus supported her in her grief and consoled her by forgetting his enmity for some time and joining the Marauders.
Now a fortnight had passed since the incident. Petunia had composed herself. "Today I'm going to Dumbledore's." Lucius said firmly. "I'll come with you too." Petunia said. "But," Lucius tried to say something but Petunia calmed him down by placing her finger on his lips. Lucius understood that nothing could be done now. "I know what is going on in your mind!" Petunia said softly. "Really?" Lucius whispered manically. "Don't worry, you're doing the right thing." "But not with you." Lucius said it now. Petunia spoke wisely, "Now it is not between me and you Lucius. You must have understood this. That is right. To trade so many lives for both of us when we have the choice is not acceptable to me. If I have to choose between our relationship and so many innocent lives, I will choose the other. Just like you." Petunia spoke but her eyes were getting wet now. "You are making a sacrifice. I have a feeling you will not agree to this." Lucius spoke what was on his mind. "Not me, both of us, but this sacrifice is not as big as those other sacrifices would be." Petunia said with determination. "So now our drama will become our reality." Lucius said. "Hmmm." Petunia said. Both of them walked holding hands without caring whether anyone was watching them or not. Today the path to the headmaster's office seemed a bit longer.
"I'm scared, just take care of yourself. It will be dangerous. And I will be able to join next year as well." Petunia said, hugging Lucius tightly. Lucius hugged her back. And then one last time, they kissed. They expressed all their emotions through this. It was long, they didn't know how long, but then when they separated, it felt like it was too little. They couldn't spend much time with each other. "I love you" they both said together. "And will always love you." they said together again. And both entered Albus' office.
"Headmaster, I wish to join the Order of the Phoenix as a double agent spy." Lucius said seriously. "Now we cannot trade these lives." Petunia supported Lucius.
Dumbledore thought about it. To be honest, he wanted to be a spy too, but its price was an incomplete love story. He could see the pain but determination in his eyes. With a heavy heart, he agreed.
"Professor, I too wish to join the Order of the Phoenix." Petunia said. "I'm sorry, but you are not yet 17 years old." Dumbledore stopped her. "Now age does not matters sir, not for the Dark Lord. He will not hesitate before killing or hiring anyone." Petunia tried to argue. "But then what will be the difference between us and him?" Now Petunia could not say anything. "That's fine, but on September 4th you will not be able to stop me." And Dumbledore agreed.
"Lucius, I want to tell you that you are taking a huge risk and making a huge sacrifice too. Are you ready now?" Dumbledore asked. "I have trusted you headmaster, now you trust me. I am not worth that much." And now Lucius became a pawn in the game. It was a game of death, but he already knew its value.
After going out Petunia said, "Lucius I am going, you don't want to, but it is necessary." Petunia said. "No, I can't do that. Would you go further? If you were in my place?" Lucius argued. "We have talked, it is no longer about us. It is about this world. It is about good and evil." Petunia said boldly. "But!" Lucius stopped in the middle as Petunia spoke, "But no, Lucius. Marrying Narcissa will not bring you out of your secret. Don't worry about me. Anyway, we can never be together now. Maybe after a few years I will find someone like that and I too will settle down. But I can lose time because I can afford that but you cannot. Time is short so we will have to take a decision." and Lucius had to accept defeat.
"Promise me Petunia that when you find someone like that, you will move ahead forgetting me." Lucius said. "I promise if you also promise that you will move ahead with Narcissa. I may not forget you but I can move ahead." Petunia said. "I can also never forget you." Lucius said. But still both of us made this promise. Today both of them took a very mature decision.
Nothing changed for the world, but everything had changed for those two. Although now they did not meet each other, but whenever they went to Dumbledore they always remained together. Only two people knew that Lucius was a spy of the Order, Dumbledore and Petunia. Although Petunia was not a part of the Order, still she had become a part of it in a way and Dumbledore could not do anything. Lucius informed Dumbledore that Voldemort would take over the Ministry by next year, so it was very important to have their spies in the Ministry. Lucius also delivered the information about the Diagon Alley massacre that happened before Easter, in which many lives were saved and some were lost. It was scary to even think about how many people would have died if this information was not available. Voldemort's terror was now increasing, but because of Lucius, the Order was now able to work properly. Some people in the Order understood that Dumbledore was getting this information somehow, but they did not know how.
The Malfoy family was happy that Lucius had now agreed to marry Narcissa Black. But during Easter, Abraxas left. Due to which their wedding was postponed till the end of the school year. Now Lucius had officially become the head of the Malfoy family. And Mrs. Malfoy's health also started getting worse. She did not have much time left, so she wanted to get Lucius married as soon as possible.
Amidst all this, it was not known when the school year ended. A lot of things changed. Severus' friendship with Regulus deepened and his friendship with Lily weakened. Lily and Marlene came closer to the Marauders. Myra's grandmother also passed away. Frank Longbottom proposed to Alice although there was still time for marriage but it was Frank's last school year so he understood it to be important. A prototype of the Marauders map was made. However, there was not much success achieved in the Animagus transformation. Mr. and Mrs. Evans decided that after two years he will retire and shift to Ottery and till then Mr. and Mrs. Thomas will look after the farmhouse. The Black family came to know the truth about Sirius and the coming time was now difficult for Sirius. Peter was still feeling isolated. And with the marriage of Lucius and Narcissa, the era of Lucius and Petunia came to an end. Their era came to an end.