Like Magic

Chapter Four

Summer, 1972

The sun was shining brightly through the pale yellow curtains when Petunia opened her eyes. A wide grin split across her face.

"I'm getting my letter this summer," she whispered to herself.

She rolled over onto her back and silently did a small horizontal dance of joy. Three years, three very long and extra patient years of waiting were finally over. Summer had begun, Lily had come home from her third year at Hogwarts, and this summer -- this summer -- Petunia would get her letter telling her that she would be starting at the prestigious wizardry school in the fall.

I wonder if I'll be in Gryffindor like Lily, pondered Petunia. But I'm not very brave. Maybe I'll be Ravenclaw -- but I'm not smart. Or Slytherin, except I don't really want to be great, just good. I'll bet I'm in Hufflepuff. Lily says not all sisters and brothers are in the same house. Yes. Hufflepuff. Except -- then I won't be in Peter's house.

Petunia frowned. Peter wasn't home yet. He had gone to Scotland for a week with the rest of his school chums. His last letter had told her of their plans.

There's a lake, so we're going to fish -- Sirius is going to teach us how. And James thinks he knows how to breathe underwater, so we're going to try that too. Even though it's not Loch Ness, Sirius says there's a monster in the lake so we are going to find it. I don't know exactly what we plan to do if we actually do find it. I'll only be there a week, though, because Remus can't stay longer than that. Besides, I want to see you again.

It would be nice to be in Peter's house. To sit with him by the fire in the Common Room, to sit beneath the Enchanted Ceiling, to walk by the lake and visit the Owlery .... Lily had told Petunia so much about Hogwarts, she felt as though she'd already been there.

But Hufflepuff wouldn't be so bad. Maybe she wouldn't be compared to Lily all the time, if she was in a different House --

"Petunia!" Violet Evans's voice broke into Petunia's train of thought. "Get up! Now! Breakfast!"

Petunia sat up and stretched, wriggling her fingers and toes. A breeze drifted through the open window and rustled the papers pinned to the wall, setting off the wind chimes hanging off a shelf. Petunia smiled to herself and went downstairs for breakfast.

"Morning, Mum!" said Petunia gaily. "Yum, sausages and tomatoes! We haven't had those for breakfast in ages!"

"Yes, your sister is home today," said Violet. "I think she's still sleeping."

"I can go wake her --"

"No! Let her sleep. And don't touch those sausages! They're for Lily."

Petunia did some mental calculations. "Mum, there's about a dozen sausages and tomatoes here. Lily can't eat them all, she'll get sick."

Violet peered at the tray. "Well, then, have these, they're rather small. Lily won't miss them." She transferred three small ones to a plate and handed it to her younger daughter.

Petunia sat at the table, chewing. Yes, she thought, I'll miss not seeing Lily every day, but there are definite advantages to being in Hufflepuff.

* * * * *

Petunia was sitting very patiently in the backyard of the Evans' home when Peter found her. "Pets!" he shouted, leaping over the fence between their yards. "Pets, I'm back -- what are you doing?"

"I'm waiting," said Petunia pertly. "My letter is coming this summer."

Peter laughed. "Petunia, it's the beginning of July! They won't send letters for three more weeks. Come on, my mum's made biscuits."

"Your mum's always maing biscuits," said Petunia automatically. She hadn't moved. "I have to be here when my letter comes, Peter!"

Peter looked closely at Petunia, who was holding her hands so tightly that her knuckled showed white. "Aw, come on, Pets," he said softly, "have I ever lied to you? Your letter will come in three weeks. Promise!"

Petunia looked up at him and smiled. "Well -- "

And she was off the bench and leaping over the fence. "All the more biscuits for me, slowpoke!" Peter, laughing, ran to catch up and pass her.

They reached the biscuits at the same time. Mrs Pettigrew was taking a tray laden with biscuits out of the oven. She looked up when the door banged shut and smiled.

"Hello, Petunia dear," she said cheerily. "Lily not with you today?"

"She's at art class with my mother," said Petunia, resting her chin on the counter. "Can we have some biscuits, please?"

"Three each," said Mrs Pettigrew. "Your mother wouldn't like it if I spoiled your supper. And eat them outside."

Petunia grabbed her three (although Peter snuck four) and they headed into the backyard.

"Come on, I'll levitate you into the tree."

Petunia's eyes shone. "I thought you weren't supposed to do magic over the summer?"

"Oh, quit being good like Lily," complained Peter, "Once I'm home, they can't tell if it's me or Mum doing magic. Wingardium Leviosa!" And Petunia once again felt the queer sensation of being lifted and deposited on the tree stump.

"You've been practising!" she said. "That didn't hurt a bit."

Peter finished climbing the tree. "It'll be a good thing when you get your own wand," he said, "that way you can levitate me and I won't have to climb anymore."

"I hope mine has unicorn hair in it. I like unicorns."

"You've never seen one!" laughed Peter.

"Have you?"

"Yes, this year, in Care of Magical Creatures. They're all over the Forbidden Forest."

"What else is in the forest?"

"Oh, centaurs, and snakes, and I think a troll lives there too. And last year, when we were learning about knarls -- they kind of look like hedgehogs, but they're meaner and they attack -- well, Sirius tried to set his on Snape and it got away, and it lives in the forest too now, no one can manage to catch it."

Petunia sighed. "Three weeks. You promised!"

Peter looked a little nervous. "Well, give or take a day, Pets. There's a lot of letters to deliver, and only so many owls." Petunia bit her lip, worried. "But you'll get it before the month is out, Pets! I promise!"

* * * * *

The first week that Peter was back was just like every other summer. The three of them couldn't be separated. They went swimming at the community pool. (Lily, still complying to school rules, refused to magic their towels, so Peter magicked them so they were never yucky and damp.) They snuck into the movie house. (Peter did some tricky little spell that made them look older so that they could sneak into an adult horror movie, but halfway through Petunia began to scream so they had to leave again.) They sat out late at night on the Evans' roof and Peter pointed out star constellations to Petunia, and Lily pretended to read their horoscopes with what she'd learned in Divination.

"Ah, Pets," she murmured in what Peter said was a perfect imitation of the Divinations teacher, Trelawney, "the moon of Saturn is crossing with the moons of Jupiter. An auspicious sign, meaning the queen is going to buy a leopard skin hat!"

"Would you mind if the Sorting Hat didn't put me in Gryffindor, Lily?" asked Petunia, who had spent the last week convinced she would be in Hufflepuff.

Lily frowned. "Don't you want to be in Gryffindor?"

"Yes! I mean, I want to be with you, but I don't feel very brave."

"Even if you aren't in Gryffindor," said Peter lazily, "we'll still see you every day. And besides, we'll be three forms ahead of you. You'll have your own friends and your own room and your own lessons. It'll be fine. Just don't be in Slytherin!"

They all laughed, knowing perfectly well there was very little chance of that.

* * * * *

The second week that Peter was home began all right. Violet and Geoffrey Evans were still waxing poetic about Lily, making her favourite foods and listening to every story she told. Petunia didn't mind in the least. She loved hearing more and more about Hogwarts, taking in every scrap of information and memorising every detail.

"-- and then Professor McGonagall said 'That will be all, gentlemen,' and Sirius took the spell off the toad except when he did that, the toad could jump again and it did, and it jumped right up onto McGonagall's -- I mean, Professor McGonagall's head, and it sat there, and she just looked up as if she could see it, but of course she couldn't, and then she turned back around and sat at her desk and she stayed there and so did the toad until the bell rang and lesson was over. And Sirius had to go up there and ask for his toad back, and that was the funny part because McGon--Professor McGonagall said, 'I rather think your toad would like to stay where it is, Mister Black,' and then Sirius ran for it!"

Petunia hadn't met Sirius Black, but she thought he must be an awful lot of fun if he was teaching Peter to fish in a lake with a monster, and bewitched a toad to sing Greensleeves in class.

But as the second week drew to a close, Petunia began to loose interest in the stories, preferring instead to gaze out the window. She once again took up her post on the bench in the backyard. It took a great deal of convincing for Peter and Lily to get her to accompany them anywhere.

By the third week, Petunia had refused to budge for anything, even lunch. Her mother scolded her, refusing for her supper to be brought to her. "She can very well come inside if she wants to eat!"

"Mum, she doesn't want to miss her letter."

"Well, that letter will come with or without her staring at the sky, won't it?"

Lily tried to slip Petunia an apple when she could, but Petunia often forgot to eat it anyway.

And then, on the very last day of July, the unthinkable happened.

"Lily!!! Mum! The owl is here!"

Petunia's shout nearly woke the neighbourhood from the hot afternoon. Violet and Lily came storming out of the house. Mrs Pettigrew, who had been working in her garden, popped her head over the fence. Peter's head popped up next to hers. Peter couldn't have been more excited; he kept bouncing against the fence. Mrs Pettigrew was slightly more subdued.

"It's your letter, Pets, I knew it would come!" said Lily excitedly.

"Read it, go on!" shouted Peter.

Petunia held the parchment, tightly rolled in her hand. Her eyes were bright. The moment had come! It's here! My letter, it's here! She thought she might leap over the house in her excitement, as she slowly unrolled the parchment.

"Read it for us, Pets!"

Petunia began to read the letter.

Hogwarts School

of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Headmaster Albus Dumbledore

Dear Miss Evans,

Welcome to your fourth year at Hogwarts ...

Petunia lowered the parchment. Her face was stricken. She handed the roll to Lily.

"It's for you."

* * * * *

Peter peered through a crack in the fence. Yes, still there. Sitting very still, looking very intently dead ahead of her, in the precise spot where the owl had landed with Lily's first letter three years previously. Her knuckles were white again, her hands clenched so hard.

Peter sighed. He turned away and slid down the fence. His middle felt as though it had rocks in it. Or butterflies. He didn't like the feeling. He liked even less that it was now the second week of August, and Petunia's letter hadn't arrived. Worse, that Lily's had arrived, and it had been two weeks, well past the time for late owls or missed notices. And Peter had begun to realise the very horrible truth.

Petunia wasn't going to get a letter.

That day had ended so badly. Petunia hadn't cried or screamed or even run up to her room. She'd simply handed the letter to Lily and stood there and Mrs Evans read through Lily's school list aloud, and ticking off the things that would need to be purchased. Eventually Mrs Evans had gone inside, oblivious to Petunia's distress.

"Pets?" Lily whispered. "Pets -- maybe yours is right behind. It might have been side-tracked a little." Petunia didn't even so much as blink.

"Lily!" Mrs Evans' voice had seemed unnaturally cheerful. "We should check your school robes to make sure they aren't too short!"

Lily looked between her mother and her sister, biting her lip. She reached out to squeeze Petunia's hand before slowly going inside.

Peter dropped from the fence. His mother had already returned to the pumpkins, up to her elbows in mulch. "Mum," he demanded, "where's Petunia's letter?"

Beatrice Pettigrew didn't answer. She used her forearm to wipe her hair from her eyes and fell back to look at her son. "Oh, Pete, I just don't know. Hand me that spade, won't you? I need to turn the soil here."

Peter handed her the tool. "Petunia is getting a letter, right, Mum? Mum?"

Mrs Pettigrew didn't answer right away, working at the dirt with the spade. She bit her lip. "Pete -- I don't think now is a good time -- "

Peter's face was angry. "You never thought she was going to get a letter, did you?"

Mrs Pettigrew stopped working, but still didn't look up. "When you and Lily went away to school, all the magic next door stopped. Just -- stopped. It was as though the bulb had burnt out and hadn't been replaced. You don't realise how obvious it is to adults when there's a child with magical ability, sometimes. You can feel it in your bones."

Peter moved so quickly, Mrs Pettigrew barely had time to jump before the pumpkin exploded in front of her. She looked up at her son, startled and slightly frightened. Peter stood near the pumpkin, covered in bits of meat and seeds. She stared at him, disbelieving -- so upset, Peter had not settled on magic but instead had kicked the pumpkin. Peter glared at her.

"It's not fair," had been all he said, and he sat next to the fence, peeking through to watch Petunia.

In the two weeks since, Peter had barely left the backyard. He had watched Petunia sit there, just about every afternoon, watching the skies intently without responding to anyone or anything. Lily, her parents, and even Peter himself had tried to rouse her from her coma-like state. Nothing worked.

Peter heard the backdoor open in the yard next door. He leaned his head back against the wooden slats in order to hear a bit better, wondering what the ploy was this time. Mrs Evans voice rang out.

"Petunia, it's time to go. We have to get your school uniform now."

"I can't leave; what if my letter comes and no one is here to untie it from the owl?"

"Petunia, that's enough of this nonsense. You don't want to be made fun of the first day?"

"It's not even a real uniform, Mum. Not like Lily's. It's just white shirts and blue skirts."

There was a crash. Peter turn around quick to peer through the fence and his eyes grew wide -- Mrs Evans had kicked the bench and Petunia had been jostled out of her seat. She sat on the stone ground, rubbing her bum.

"Well, I'm sorry, Lady Petunia, that we can't afford to send you to the public school! Lily's expenses are just too high, and we can't get any more help than we already are receiving! You'll just have to make do!"

Petunia stared glassy-eyed at her mother, and picked herself up. She righted the bench and sat on it again. "There isn't any point in buying me those clothes anyway, Mum. I'm going to get my letter from Hogwarts any day now --"

"You're not getting any bloody letter from Hogwarts!" shrieked Mrs Evans. "There is no owl coming for you! You are not magical, there isn't a magic bone in your body! And the sooner you realise it, the better!"

Petunia blinked rapidly. She sat very still, her knuckles growing whiter every moment. Her mouth moved softly, and Peter couldn't hear her, but he was sure she had said "No."

Mrs Evans stared at her for a moment more, and then turned around and stormed towards the house. "Well, I'll buy your clothes myself -- and you'll just be lucky if they fit right!" She slammed the door behind her.

Petunia blinked. Peter could have sworn that she was trying desperately not to cry.

* * * * *

Petunia didn't go back inside that night, and so neither did Peter.

Out on the street, he could hear fathers coming home from work, mothers calling their children to supper.

Eventually the stars began to appear.

Lily, watching from her bedroom window, fell asleep sometime around midnight, and her father had to come in to turn out the light. Geoffrey Evans watched his daughter's small form on the bench for some time before he too retired to bed.

Mrs Pettigrew didn't sleep very much, either. She lay next to her snoring husband, staring blankly out the window.

A cool mist rose, what would soon become morning dew.

When the sun began peeking over the horizon, Peter realised that Petunia had fallen asleep on the bench in her backyard.

He jumped the fence, careful to be quiet. He softly tiptoed over to her.

At some point during the night, Petunia had curled up on the bench, resting her head on her thin arms. The tendrils of her hair had begun to curl around her face, and one little bit had come out of her braid. It flicked gently against her cheek with every breath she took. Peter knelt beside her, scrutinising the sleeping girl, trying very hard to ignore the voice in the back of his head, the one that sounded a lot like Mrs Evans.

She didn't get her letter. She's not a witch. She's just a Muggle.

But she stayed out all night, waiting, said the second voice, the one that sounded like his own. She wants it so badly. It's all she can talk about, Hogwarts this and when I go to Hogwarts and what will my wand be made of ....

Doesn't matter. She's never been magical. She could never do the things Lily or you could do. She's a Muggle. She's never going to Hogwarts. Ever!

It's not fair.

Peter gently brushed the loose hair away from Petunia's face. "I wish I could give you what you want," he whispered.

The back door opened. Peter jumped up and began to back away, before he realised it was Lily.

"She stayed out all night?" said Lily, disbelieving her eyes.

"Yeah," said Peter.

"Alone!" Lily's voice cracked.

"Not really. I was on the other side of the fence all night. Nothing would have happened to her." Peter looked down at the sleeping girl. "There won't be a letter for her, will there?"

Lily stood on the other side of her sister. She looked as if she might cry. "What's going to happen, Peter? It's not fair, she wanted this so badly."

"I don't know."

"Why didn't she get a letter, too?" Peter didn't answer, he just brushed another stray hair back from Petunia's face. Lily's face crumpled, and she put her head in her hands. I think my heart is breaking, she thought to herself. "I wish I knew what to do."

Peter knew. He leaned over and scooped the girl up. It wasn't difficult, even though he wasn't as strong as Remus or James. Pets was so thin! "Open the door. We're going to put her to bed."

* * * * *

Petunia didn't leave her bedroom until the night before Lily left for King's Cross Station. Lily had pleaded with her, her father had tried to bribe her, and her mother had sent unnumbered scathing comments in her direction.

"Just the kind of ungrateful child she's turning out to be, won't even sit for her sister's farewell dinner! And to think I bought her the good linen blouses and nice wool skirts to make up for her uniform. I know she was upset about that letter, but really, this is too much!"

"Mum, please," begged Lily, "Let Pets be. She's really upset, I'm sure she'll be better once I'm gone and school has started, and she's made new friends. I'm probably just upsetting her, being here."

"It's an insult towards you, my dear," said Violet. "And it doesn't matter how upset she is, she should know better than to disregard her sister's feelings."

After dinner, Lily crept into her sister's bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed. "Pets, Pets! Talk to me, please! I'm really sorry you didn't get a letter from Hogwarts. I know you wanted to, I know it was what you wanted more than anything." Lily's voice caught, and she waited for a response. The lump on Petunia's bed didn't move. Neither did the lump in Lily's throat.

"Pets, I don't know what to say. I wish there was a spell or a charm or something I could do to make you magical too. I know Peter wishes you could come too. Oh, Pets, won't you at least turn over and hug me?" Lily began to cry.

Petunia rolled over and held onto her sister. "I'm sorry, Lily, I should have come downstairs."

"It's okay, Pets, I understand," said Lily. "I love you, Pets, you know that, don't you?"

There was a pause. "Yes," said Petunia. "I know."

* * * * *

Morning. When Petunia woke, she was alone. The door was ajar, and Petunia could see straight across the hall into Lily's room. And in Lily's room, her trunk.

Open.

There were footsteps on the stair, and voices coming up them.

Petunia didn't stop to think. She leapt up and ran across the hall. She grabbed a armful of robes from the trunk and threw them beneath Lily's bed, save one. She jumped into the trunk, pulling the robe above her. She waited, gasping, her heart pounding. She was sure they could hear it as Mr Evans and Lily entered the room.

"All packed, pumpkin?"

"Yes, Dad."

"I'll just take this down then -- "

The lid slammed shut, the lock caught, and Petunia felt the trunk swing through the air.

"Oof, heavy this year. Lots of books?"

"I guess, all of last year's, plus this year's too."

Their voices sounded far away. Soon, she felt the car leap to a start as they drove away. Petunia closed her eyes.

I wonder if she stopped to say goodbye, she thought to herself before being rocked to sleep.