A Muggle in Hogsmeade II

'Eileen,' Petunia called out as she knocked on the door of their room. 'Eileen, are you in there?'

'Yeah,' a weak voice called back. 'Come on in Petunia, it's alright.'

Petunia pushed open the door, and found Eileen sitting on the bed. She was holding a book in her hand, and with a quick glance, she could tell it was the book by Owle Bullock she had found earlier. 'What you got there?' she asked innocently.

'Severus stole this from me,' Eileen answered with a growl, and tossed the book aside. 'There's a chapter in here about Obscurials, so I'm not surprised that he has it. But still, this never should have found its way into his hands at all.'

'Is it that bad?' she said as she sat down next to Eileen. 'Do you mind if I take a look?'

With a well-placed gasp, she leafed through the pages of the horrid book. 'Why would you own such a thing?' she asked.

'I've accumulated a lot of terrible things like these over the years,' said Eileen with a hint of shame. 'Many of which started long before I met my husband, and some came after. I dabbled in the Dark Arts – finding it fascinating. It's almost inevitable when you're in the House of Slytherin, and so I'm not surprised that Severus found his way with it too. But to learn that he is an Obscurial...it breaks me heart Petunia. I have failed him as a mother – I have failed him deeply.'

'It's not your fault, Eileen,' said Petunia, and handed her a handkerchief. 'I don't know why you insist on staying with Tobias, but I promise you I will not question it.'

'There was a time Tobias didn't fear magic at all,' said Eileen as she wiped her nose. 'But it's funny you should mention him. A couple weeks ago he went to Wiltshire and broke into Malfoy Manor in the hopes of finding more information. He didn't learn much other than the fact that Grindelwald was gone because a House-elf was sent down to Nurmengard – his prison. I still don't know why he knew about Grindelwald, but he won't tell me.'

Petunia had landed on a page about Horcruxes, and nearly gagged at the sight of it. 'I don't know why I keep reading this,' she said as she closed the book. 'Eileen, when you left, I learnt something that I think you should know too.'

'And what's that?' she asked.

'Narcissa said that she was looking for something that belongs to the Dark Lord,' Petunia recalled. 'They lost it, apparently, and it's only a matter of time before he finds out that they lost it. It's just – everything seems to come together. The thing she's looking for is some kind of diary. The diary of T.M. Riddle. Tom Riddle, like the one you mentioned was one of the Knights of Walpurgis.'

A shadow fell over Eileen's eyes. She had been convinced that Tom Riddle was nothing more than an enigmatic young man from her past. And now, she knew, his diary was residing in her very home because her husband had stolen it. 'Since we're on the path of confessions,' she said as she drew several deep breaths. 'I have something to share with you, too.'

...o0o…

Petunia and Eileen had looked through all the information they had gathered. Tom Riddle was the Dark Lord. Or Lord Voldemort, as he called himself, and his diary, for reasons unknown, had ended up in Spinner's End because Tobias had stolen it. Whatever power the diary possessed, it was best kept secret, and Eileen could only hope that Tobias had stowed it away safely.

Then there was Bathilda Bagshot's research on the Prince line and the Founders of Hogwarts, and the fact that even she believed that the founders may not have been Witches and Wizards at all. The flowers, the crown – it left more questions than answers, and for now they didn't want to dwell on it too much. Wishful thinking, after all, wasn't going to bring their loved ones back.

To learn that Severus had been an Obscurial was a heavy weight on Eileen's shoulders. Petunia had read through Bullock's book again in an attempt to learn more about it. She was thoroughly shocked by it, and she felt terrible for him. She wondered if her sister knew.

To deal with all the heaviness of the day, Eileen offered Petunia to teach her how to play Gobstones in the pub. Eileen shared a lot of stories about her time as the president of the Hogwarts Gobstone club, as well as being the captain of Hogwarts Gobstones Team, which competed on a national level. Aside from the foul-smelling liquid, Petunia had quite enjoyed it, even if it was just to get their minds off things. 'You see those two boys?' she said while nodding towards two young man behind her. 'That's James Potter and Sirius Black. The other two Marauders. You want to go and have a chat with them?'

'I remember their faces from when they came to Cokeworth,' said Eileen. 'Sirius is even a cousin of mine, but I never met him before. I don't know if I want to talk to my son's own bullies.'

'Potter, the one with the messy hair,' said Petunia as she gestured at him. 'He kept asking Lily out on dates. He's been going at it for several years now, so I think I'm starting to see a pattern here. I do think we should talk to them, Eileen.'

Eileen took a good look at James Potter, and saw him expressing some boastful story about some Quidditch match. 'He's related to the Pure-blood family lines,' she said, 'though not listed on the Sacred Twenty-Eight. The name of Potter is well known in the Wizarding world.'

'I remember professor Slughorn mentioning Fleamont Potter,' said Petunia. 'He's a potioneer, right?'

'Indeed,' Eileen confirmed. 'He already came from money, but he multiplied the family's fortunes with the invention of the Sleekeazy's Hair Potion. Before Severus went to school, he used to say that he really wanted to meet mister Potter, but after he came back from his first year he never mentioned it again. I think I finally know why.'

'Because his son's a spoiled prat,' said Petunia as she sipped her tea. 'I still think we should go up and talk to them, though. See – now they're waving at us.'

James and Sirius were indeed waving at them, and gestured at the empty seats in front of them. 'Alright then,' said Eileen. 'Might as well try to figure out why they hated my son so much.'

'I was hoping I'd get to talk to you,' said James as the women sat down at their table with their drinks. 'How are you doing, Petunia? Mrs Snape?'

'We've been better,' Eileen answered.

'I can imagine,' said James, and nudged Sirius in the ribs. 'From my understanding, the two of you are related.'

'Depends on how you look at it,' Sirius answered with a growl.

'You were shunned out of the family too, it seems,' said Eileen. 'I can tell.'

Sirius shot Eileen a questionable look. 'How?' he muttered.

Eileen pointed at the Gryffindor badge on his chest. 'Wrong House,' she said. 'It truly doesn't take much for the House of Black to discard any anomaly within the family.'

'At least my little brother still managed to get into Slytherin,' said Sirius. 'I live with James now – so life's been pretty good.'

'Well I'm glad to hear that,' said Eileen. 'Boys, there's no easy way to ask this, so I will just be straightforward about it. When did this hostility between my son and the four of you start? I would very much like to know.'

'Oh, well – uhm,' James stammered, which caused Petunia to roll her eyes at him. 'It's al long story, really.'

'Well, then you both better start from the beginning,' Eileen demanded. 'I know that my son is far from perfect, mister Potter. A Slytherin who'se meddling with the Dark Arts and all – I get it. The hostility between Gryffindor and Slytherin House is one for the ages. But bullying exceeds House rivalry as far as I'm concerned, and so I'd like to know why.'

'It already started on the first train ride to Hogwarts,' said Sirius. 'We were sharing a compartment with Lily when Sniv – Severus came in. None of us knew each other, then, and he told Lily that he hoped she'd be sorted into Slytherin with him.'

'The rivalry already started before we were sorted proper,' James added. 'I'll admit I was behaving quite cocky though. I was desperate to be sorted into Gryffindor like my father was, and looking back on it I think I was just nervous. Severus snapped some mean thing about it to me, and I snapped something mean right back at him. Lily took him to a separate compartment after that, and from that moment it was clear we'd never be friends with him.'

'Go on,' said Eileen.

'Look,' said Sirius, 'it started off innocent enough. We'd prank him from time to time, and he'd prank us back. It's just something that gradually turned for the worst. Severus wound up using dark magic – he even invented his own spells, and we would use his own spells against him. He would stick his nose into something again, and we'd hex him right back for meddling in our business. It was Lily who was caught in the middle of it all.'

'She'd been begging me to stop as often as she begged him,' said James. 'I wish I'd listened to her, when we learnt what he was.'

'You knew Severus was an Obscurial?' Eileen asked. 'How come?'

'Look, I'd rather not get into this,' said James. 'And I am sorry, truly. We made a promise to Dumbledore, and I intend to stick to that. Truth of the matter is, is that I just didn't like your son. I didn't like his Know-It-All attitude in class. I didn't like how he was obsessed with the Dark Arts, and I certainly didn't like the way he treated Lily.'

'Treated her how, exactly?' It was Petunia who spoke.

'They were always arguing,' said James, and ran his hand through his messy hair. 'Bickering about every single thing. From nagging at each other on what potion ingredients to use, to complete shouting matches about Merlin knows what on the staircases. He raised his voice at her all the time.'

Petunia had tried her best to keep it in, but the bubble had burst once James mentioned their shouting matches, and she nearly choked on a fit of giggles. 'Oh, James,' she said as the memories came flooding back to her. 'You've never seen them during the summers, have you? Severus was only ever loud with her. They'd shout the strangest things at each other all the time.'

'I remember her yelling to him by his bedroom window,' said Eileen, 'and him yelling back too. You're right, Petunia, they did do that all the time.'

'Point is, James,' said Petunia, 'all this shouting at each other – they didn't do that with anyone else. They knew each other so well they pretty much spoke in a language they'd invented themselves – shouting stupid things at each other included.'

'Oh, I know most of it was innocent fun,' said James, and lowered his voice. 'Until the day came that it stopped being that way. All their friendly bickering took a turn as soon as Severus called her, you know – that word.'

Petunia shot him a questionable look. 'What word?' she asked.

'Well, you know,' he said, now bringing his voice down to a whisper. 'He called her a Mudblood.' A look of disgust etched onto his face, as if he couldn't quite believe it that he had said the word out loud.

'Oh that!' said Petunia nonchalantly before Eileen had a chance to respond. 'Yeah, I knew about that. She'd been trying to reconcile with him all through the summer – but to no avail. We learnt they were getting back together though, at the start of this school year. Looks like they finally buried that hatchet.'

'I'd prefer not to get into this too much,' said James begrudgingly.

'Agreed,' said Eileen stiffly. 'Petunia, I hope you don't mind, but I'm ready to go and lie down for a while. Goodnight everyone.'

Everyone mumbled their good-nights back as Eileen headed her way up to their room. 'Could we talk about something a bit more fun?' Sirius asked. 'So far it all feels like a bit of a downer.'

'Of course,' said Petunia. 'Say James, your father's a famous potioneer, right?'

James puffed out his chest a bit. 'Yes,' he said proudly. 'Though I don't think I'll be taking over the business any day soon.'

'My sister told me your potion skills were abysmal at best,' Petunia answered with a snort. 'She told me a lot about you, and your ostentatious attempts to woe her.'

A sly grin formed on Sirius' face. 'Ohh, she got you there mate,' he said as he elbowed him back. 'Has she ever told you about that time - I think it was our fourth year – when he arranged for a whole firework display inside the Great Hall to spell out "Will you go on a date with me, Lily Evans?"

'My detention lasted so long she never even got the chance to say yes,' said James, and laughed a bit despite the shame he felt about the whole ordeal. 'She was the one who eventually said it wasn't big enough of a gesture though. That for my next attempt I should try something even more outrageous.'

'Sounds like you needed a bit more luck,' said Petunia, and sipped her tea.

James couldn't help but laugh at her remark. 'Yeah, more luck alright,' he said. 'If only I had it sooner. It's too late for that now, unfortunately.'

From her pocket Petunia pulled out the label, and shoved it towards him. 'If you still have that bottle of Felix Felicis, I suggest you hand it back to me,' she said. 'It belongs to my sister.'

Whatever light-hearted feeling there was, it had now swiftly left the table. 'Petunia,' James sputtered. 'How did you –'

'—Oh so it was you!' said Petunia as she slammed her teacup down. 'This must be the easiest little investigation I've done to date. You see, that's the fun bit about you magical people. Even if you don't hate us, you still continue to deeply underestimate Muggles.'

'Petunia,' said Sirius as calmly as he could. 'I understand that you got him there – but there's something here that you really need to understand before you get mad.'

'Suppose you used that Invisibility Cloak of yours,' said Petunia with an air of confidence, ignoring Sirius' words. 'Yes, I know about that too, James. Sisters tend to talk, you know? Especially when it concerns boys.'

'Petunia, please,' James begged, 'please do not utter another word about this. It's important, alright?'

'I'm intrigued,' she said. 'Go on.'

James looked around to make sure no one could hear them. 'I'm on to something,' he said. 'Something that concerns You-know-Who, and I could really use all the luck I can get for that.'

'Alright,' she said. 'Let's make a deal, shall we? You find out whatever it is that you're on, and you tell me all about it once you've discovered it. Deal? Oh, and one other thing.' From her pocket she pulled out a phial. 'I obtained this earlier today. Stole it out of someone else's pocket. Since you grew up around potions, I'd like you to tell me what it is.'

'If you were a Witch, they'd have you sorted into Slytherin,' James answered with a growl. 'You are too cunning for your own good.' He uncorked the phial, sniffed it, and swirled the thick liquid around. 'This is Polyjuice,' he said. 'If you add someone's hair to it, you could transform into said person for a limited amount of time. This is some high quality stuff, so it should definitely last for a while.'

'Well that's disturbing,' said Petunia, and an idea started brewing in her mind. 'Suppose it won't temporarily turn me into a Witch if I drank it?'

'I'm afraid not,' said James. 'It's just your appearance that changes – not your essence. And okay, we have a deal. Professor Slughorn is hosting another one of his parties this Christmas. I'll know more by the end of that.'

'Perfect,' she said as they shook hands on it. 'Then I will now share with you my idea on it. You two up for a game of Gobstones?'

...o0o…

Petunia's idea had been outrageous, to say the least. Eileen had been meaning to get inside the castle to talk to Helena's ghost, and with the Polyjuice she could now enter as a student. Petunia had brought them together again the next day, explaining the situation. The agreement came that Eileen would take on the likes of Sirius, and would briefly attend the party before disappearing into the castle with some made-up excuse.

'Do you think it was the real Narcissa we spoke to?' Petunia asked as she held up the phial of Polyjuice.

'I believe so,' said Eileen. 'She probably had the same idea, turning into a student so it would become easier to look for the diary she lost. I'm more surprised you took it out of her pocket.'

'I've often nicked Lily's wand out of her pocket,' Petunia admitted. 'She couldn't use it outside of Hogwarts, of course – but she never went anywhere without it. I took a little too much pleasure seeing her freaking out, thinking that she must have lost it. I feel really bad about it now.'

'We've all done stupid things,' said Eileen as she waved it off. 'There's no point feeling bad about the things we cannot change. Is there anything you'd like to do before Christmas?'

'Wish I could go shopping,' said Petunia. 'But all I got is one whole galleon, and Lily gave that to me so I don't really want to spend it either.'

'Don't worry about the money,' said Eileen. 'I've got more galleons than I know what to do with.'

Petunia shot her a questionable look. 'Is that from Ravenclaw's investments into Gringotts?' she asked.

'It is indeed,' said Eileen. 'It's old money – not unlike what the Potters have. I don't really want want to touch it, though. It's more like a curse on the family, breaking apart over quarrels on unequally divided wealth. I had meant for it to go to Severus after I'm gone – but now he's gone before me, and I still have to figure out what to do with it. Going shopping seems like a good place to start.'

'Well, if you insist,' said Petunia, pleased with the arrangement. 'My parents are probably raging mad at me, and I better bring something back to make up for it. I'll go write to Alice and Mary. See if they want to join.'

A/N I decided to divide the chapters up into several parts because it was getting too long, and therefore a bit unclear on what was happening.

A/N I've received this question quite often, so I will answer it here;
"How come you don't do character bashing? [The Marauders suck. James is an arse. Etc. Make them suffer!]"

- I will start off by saying that I am, truly, a huge Snily fan. It's been my OTP ever since I discovered fanfiction more than a decade ago, and it's a path I'll never stray from. In my stories, I'd rather not give James a chance at all, which is why I started this story at the beginning of their 7th year to begin with. Now there's just no need for Lily to have any doubt or reason whatsoever and there's no need for me to write about it either. I don't want Lily to be reduced to a character that two boys can play Tug-O-War with, so I just prevent it from happening at all.
I know that not every reader, especially hardcore Snape-fans, will appreciate the fact that I incorporate the Marauders (with emphasis on James) without painting them in a bad light. Easy answer to that is that the Marauders, as a group unrelated to the bullying, are just a fun group to write about. They are a very central part of the 70s era this is set in, and it's just not as much fun without them.
Secondly, because human beings are more complicated than when we meet them at face-level. We see this with Peter who struggled with his own insecurities, which resulted in his turning to the Dark Lord. We see this with Remus who had to deal with his lycanthropy during all of his school years, and yet he also acted as a voice of reason to his friends. We see this with Sirius who was shunned by his own family for simply being sorted into Gryffindor. Even James, the golden boy who could do no wrong, mostly likely carried the weight of expectations that come with being from a respected and well-known family. They each have their own cross to bear, and as a writer it is a lot more fun to work with that and find some more human aspects to them than to limited them to "just big meanies who deserve severe punishment for their teenage crimes."
Story characters are never well-rounded. (See my rant about Lily's character in chapter 15). It simply doesn't exist because they're not real people. Any special aspects about them only exist in the void until their original creator has something to say about it, and until then we can just take them where-ever we want. Do I like James? No, not at all. Had I met him in real life I probably would have found him a pompous arse too. But he's also fiercely loyal to his friends (trusting Peter all the way up to the end). For Sirius to move in with him, and becoming an Animagus to help Remus, at least shows that his love for them is genuine, and despite being a Pure-blood he never gave a damn of someone else was not. These positive things about him are things I'd rather work with, than just hyperfocus on the bullying aspect of his personality all the time. It's makes for better storytelling. (And still give him a slight kick when I can).