บท 14: Chapter 12

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[Meanwhile]

Petunia Evans had woken up. She was surprised that her mother had not come to wake her up. Usually, she would be scolding her by this time.

Shrugging she got off her bed and completed her daily routine.

'How strange why is no one here to wake me up?'

She started climbing down the stairs when she heard voices from the hallway. She paused and peeked from the stairs.

She saw a woman dressed elegantly talking to her parents. She also saw a boy next to Lily.

'He looks handsome…'

But then she saw Lily talking to him. She gritted her teeth as she realized that the boy had come to visit Lily.

'Why does the freak always get everything she wants….'

She didn't know when she started hating her sister but it was probably around the time she was six. Lily and she were as close as sisters could be and were always together.

But things changed when Lily began doing things that seemed impossible. At first, it was small things like her hair growing long even after her mother cut it and soon Lily could make things happen.

Her parents were surprised to see all this happening but they reacted positively to it. From then, Petunia and Lily slowly grew distant. Gone was the little sister who once looked up to her.

Lily had transformed into a perfect girl who could perform miracles while she got scolded by her parents. Her parents never seemed to be mad at Lily and got her whatever she wanted.

Lily had also inherited the better genes so she looked better than her. A festering feeling began building up inside her and it finally exploded when she couldn't hold it in any longer.

All the envy she felt for Lily and her powers turned into hate and aversion towards it. Lily still wanted to keep a good relationship with her but everything she did seemed like she was looking down on her.

Petunia couldn't think of anything she was better at than Lily and began hating herself but after a while, she started blaming Lily and attributed it to her powers.

She made Lily's friends think Lily was a freak and made them leave Lily. It worked and they indeed left Lily. Lily was heartbroken and seeing this had finally made Petunia feel good.

Lily tried making new friends but Petunia had already spread rumours about her.

Pity all her efforts came to an end when they had to move again. Now they had arrived in Cokeworth. A town that Petunia felt was too depressing to live in.

She thought that Lily wouldn't make any new friends here but seeing her bring a friend in so soon irked Petunia

She felt her envy rise again when seeing Lily's luck. 'I will make him hate her too….that freak must not have any friends..'

Petunia strained to hear the conversation in the room and she could hear bits and pieces. After learning that the people there could use magic too, her heart started beating fast.

'Wait...if there are more people like the freak then does that mean I can have powers too…'

As much as she hated magic, it was all because she couldn't use it but after learning that there were more people capable of using it, she was excited about it.

But her hopes were crushed when she heard the woman say that she couldn't use magic.

Tears welled up in her eyes and her nails dug into her fingers as she clenched her fists.

'It's not fair..why does she get everything and I don't get …'

'It's all her fault, she took everything from me…'

She couldn't stand there any longer and headed back to her room. Little did she know that she had been spotted by Severus.

'How interesting…' he thought seeing Petunia's expression go from hopeful to one of despair.

He could tell by the look she left with that the chances of her reconciling with Lily was close to nil now. In canon, she had only learnt that she wouldn't be accepted into the wizarding world after Lily turned 11 but now that her hopes were crushed early, she felt worse.

…..

I watched Petunia leave with a look of hatred on her face. Lily and the others seemed to have not noticed her.

I didn't really want to interact with her. From what I had heard from Lily, she was already miserable and hated everything Lily did. It was not a good sign and I wondered why her parents hadn't done anything.

Maybe they were neglectful of her?

Anyway, I didn't care about her and Lily was just an acquaintance at best. I didn't know how my presence would change her. She did have her hopes crushed earlier this time.

Maybe she will realise that her hate was misguided and pointless or she becomes worse than her canon self. Either way, she didn't really matter to me.

That said I did pity her as she had to marry a man like Vernon. Hopefully, she is saved from that fate this time.

I didn't bother notifying others of what I saw and the conversations went on as intended. Eileen told them about the types of magic but I did notice how she didn't mention the dark arts and curses.

I could guess what she was thinking and I agreed with her. No parents would send their children to learn dark magic. Dark magic is not evil per se but it had a stigma against it and an inherent bias in people that it was something to be avoided.

That said I was beginning to get bored too. After talking for a bit more, Mr Evans left for his factory work but since Rose suggested that they stay for a while, I couldn't leave.

Mr Evans leaving seemed to have removed some sort of barrier because Eileen began talking more freely. Maybe she was nervous around men or felt uncomfortable in Mr Evans's presence?

They began talking about cooking and fashion. Eileen wanted to learn cooking from Rose who was happy to help. I felt a bit happy too seeing her wanting to learn cooking.

I had become accustomed to eating food again and my sense of taste had returned. Eileen's cooking was beginning to taste bland. Hopefully, she gets better after learning from Rose.

Lily and I continued the discussion on magic but it shifted to normal topics like our tastes and other things like music, tv shows etc.

I was a bit out of touch with this era so I found it hard maintaining the conversation but Severus' memories helped me out a bit.

I still sounded like an ignorant kid who knew nothing but at least it was not as bad as it could have been.

The only band I knew from the 60s was the Beatles and I was not familiar with anything else.

I did know some bands from this ear but they didn't exist yet or were not big yet. If I recall correctly, the queens would start soon.

Finally, after an hour of gruelling boredom, Eileen decided it was time to head back home.

I bid goodbye to Lily and her mother.

"So what did you think of them?" I asked Eileen once we were out.

"Well..they seem like nice people. Rose especially was very kind."

"A new friend then?" I asked.

"Oh...we just got acquainted. She agreed to teach me cooking, her cookies were pretty good weren't they?"

I recalled them and I had to agree. They were pretty decent. I nodded.

"Hmm..oh and I agreed to make her some cosmetic potions," Eileen said.

"Are you sure it works on muggles?" I asked. I didn't want Lily's mother to get some unintended side effects.

"Why wouldn't it work?" she asked puzzled.

"I mean...it is intended for wizards and witches, right? So wouldn't it have….I don't know...some side effects or something if used on muggles?"

"I don't think so...muggles are not really different from us. They are not immune to magic and magic still works on them, it's just that they can't perceive it and can't use it."

"Hmm…" I nodded.

"Well, hopefully, it works on Lily's mother."

"Don't worry it will, it's been a while since I made potions so I need to get some practice in. Also, we can finally begin your potions training. I have asked Rosie to lend me a cauldron."

I felt happy about this news. Potions were something I was lagging in due to not being able to brew any. I was excited to finally apply months of memorizing into practice.