NOVEL NEXT Chapter 9
[A/N: Longest chapter yet. Nearly hit 4k. I expected that this would be shorter than usual but in the end it became the longest chap till now lol.]
“So your parents want to talk to my mother?” I asked Lily. I had arrived at the park to meet Lily and also take her to Eileen.
But as it turned out, Lily had told her parents about me and they wanted to meet me and Eileen.
“Well..yes. They said they want to ask her about magic...so will you ask her?”
“Sure...besides mother also wanted to meet you. Since we aren’t in a hurry, we could go meet up with my mother and then we can all leave for your house? How does that sound?”
Lily nodded and with that we began walking towards my house. She walked curiously looking around. She was new to the town so she didn’t know most of the places.
Before long, we arrived in front of my house. The muggle repelling charm was still in place and no people wandered around the house. Of course, Lily was a witch so she had no troubles.
“Wow...this is your house?” Lily asked in wonder.
I could understand her reaction. Compared to the other houses in the neighbourhood, mine looked better.
Eileen had completely renovated it and used magic to make it look new and the garden was well maintained and trimmed too so it looked pleasing to the eye to say the least.
“You like it?” I asked her.
“Of course I like it, it looks so pretty.”
“Right...do you want to just keep standing there or do you want to come inside too?”
Lily blushed in embarrassment and came up to me. I lead her into the house and Eileen came to greet us.
“Ah..Severus you are back quite soon..” She began before her eyes fell on Lily.
“So you must be Lily.” She said looking at Lily.
“Y-yes...Mrs. Prince. Good morning.”
Eileen smiled, “You don’t have to be so formal dear. Just call me Eileen.”
Seeing her friendliness, Lily didn’t refuse.
“Lily, Severus told me that you can use magic? Is that true?” Eileen asked.
I went inside my room to get some books I had already finished reading more than once. I picked them up and came back to see Lily interacting with Eileen.
It seemed that Eileen had taken a liking to her. Well Lily did have high charisma stats, she had that well behaved temperament that parents loved and her cheery attitude also helped.
“Here are some books that might get you started on magic history.” I handed the books over to Lily who grabbed it quickly and started going through them.
“Thanks Severus, I can’t wait to read them. These books seem so cool and old.” She said.
“They are over 20 years old after all..” I answered.
After that Lily asked Eileen whether she could teach her magic but Eileen disagreed since she wouldn’t be home often and thus couldn’t supervise her.
I offered to teach too but she refused. It was understandable though as a nine year old teaching another nine year old was not something you could believe. Moreover it was magic that I was teaching which was dangerous if done wrong.
Even grown wizards ended up injured or dead because they uttered a wrong spell so Eileen wasn’t taking any chances.
Lily was a bit bummed but Eileen agreed to lend her more books which Lily didn’t refuse.
We talked for a while and Eileen questioned Lily about her magic. Lily narrated her experiences of her accidental magic.
After an hour or so of talking, we left for Lily’s house. I wondered how her parents were. I was not looking forward to meeting Petunia though. From what I heard from Lily, she was already on the way to become like her canon self.
I could see why she would be envious of Lily having powers but I felt the hate towards her was unwarranted. If I had been in her place, I would have been envious too if a sibling could do things I couldn’t ever do.
But I wouldn’t hate them for it. In fact, I would maintain a good relationship with them. I would stay on the muggle side but I could ask them to get me magic items and then use those to lead a comfortable life on the muggle side.
Petunia on the other hand hated Lily. I guess she blamed Lily for all insecurities. But I didn’t come to a conclusion yet as I hadn’t met her yet. I only had Lily’s one sided experience.
Even in canon, Lily had fought Snape, it hadn’t been only her fault. Severus too had been hanging out with death eaters to be and he had no hesitation joining the death eaters.
Besides I didn’t see any use for Petunia except for using her as development for Lily maybe…
……..
Harold Evans didn’t know what he was expecting when he thought of meeting an actual witch but this was not what he had been expecting.
The witch had introduced herself as Eileen Prince.
‘A pompous name’ he had thought inwardly, it was probably her maiden name as he found it hard to believe that a name like that existed in the ‘normal’ world.
He was pleasantly surprised by her demeanor.She looked young, he couldn’t believe at first that she had a son the same age as his Lily but the way she carried herself made him overlook her age.
Speaking of her son, he was worried when he learnt that Lily had befriended a boy like every father but seeing the boy eased some of his worries. The boy too had a mature vibe to him and he didn’t dress like the hooligans on the street.
He was dressed in clean ironed clothes and he had well kept hair reaching his nape. The boy Severus had introduced himself perfectly and seemed calm all the while.
Inwardly he was pleased with his demeanor and had relaxed around him.
Rose Evans was a fashionable woman and seeing Eileen come into their house wearing the dress she had seen in the tele, her eyes shone.
She just greeted her and brought her and her son to her husband who was waiting in the guest room.
When she had first seen Eileen, she had been surprised seeing how young she was. The way she carried herself too was noble and was pleasing to the eye.
Rose inwardly decided that she would try to befriend Eileen. They had moved to this town recently and she had not made any proper acquaintances.
Then came the boy her little Lily had befriended. He kept a calm face, almost stoic even. He had only shown a little smile when greeting her.
She liked the boy. He was polite and reserved. His dress sense was a bit old fashioned but he pulled it off well. Her husband seemed to like it at the very least.
She was glad Petunia was still asleep in her room. She didn’t know who she would react seeing Eileen so she let her sleep more.
“So...Ms. Prince, I would like to begin by first apologizing for asking you to come on such a short notice...I believe that I was a bit hasty in asking Lily to get you to come here. It's just that we want to know more about Lily’s powers or magic as you call it ..”
“Ah..no need to apologize Mr. Evans, I wanted to meet you as well. Muggleborns are so rare and to find one living in the same neighbourhood was unexpected. Besides I can understand how you feel...Magic is something you don’t understand and naturally you want to learn more about it.”
“Muggleborns?” Asked Harold, noticing the word.It felt odd as he said it.He wondered if it was a slang for something.
“Oh...Muggleborns are just what we call wizards or witches born in non-magical families. It is widely believed that they inherited magic from a distant magical ancestor or because of a squib marrying a muggle. A squib is a person who is born into a magical family but can’t use magic.” Eileen explained.
Harold listened with interest.
“Lets get your questions over with first.” Eileen suggested.
Harold didn’t have a problem with that. He proceeded to ask her about magic and what it exactly was.
Eileen hadn’t brushed up on magic theory in a long time so she just gave him a basic explanation and it seemed he was satisfied with it.
“So you are saying that one of us had a magical ancestor?” he asked, pointing at his wife.
Eileen nodded. “Most probably or you descended from a squib. Either is likely. Magic usually resurfaces in such families.”
“I see….what about Petunia, she is my other daughter. Is there a possibility of her being magical too?” he asked.
“I am afraid not. She would have shown signs of it otherwise. I have heard of people being late bloomers but they all usually show signs of it before 11...how old is she again?”
“She will be turning 13 soon…” he answered.
“I see then I think she is not a witch.” Eileen said.
Harold sighed. He had mixed feelings about this. He knew how much Petunia wanted to be like her sister but he also didn’t want her to leave him. He took a deep breath and asked a question that had been worrying him.
“ Lily mentioned a school for magic... Is it mandatory that she must attend?” Harold asked the most pressing question. As much as he wanted Lily to know more about her powers, he wasn’t fully committed to the idea that she stop her current studies to go to some magical school.
Eileen knew this was a tricky question, she took a deep breath and began, “Well you could have her not attend Hogwarts but I would advise not to do that….For starters, Lily won’t be able to get a wand, a tracker will be placed on her because she won’t know how to use her magic and she can accidentally cause problems.”
‘And they will erase your memories to uphold the statute of secrecy...’ she said inside her head. From the few sci-fi movies Severus had shown her in the tele, she knew muggles did not take anything messing with her head.
She felt a little guilty not telling the parents this but she didn’t want to make them paranoid. All she was doing now was giving them a brief explanation of the magical world.
She didn’t want to scare them away and even if she gave an explanation, they needed to see it to truly come to a decision. She just wanted to see if they were good people.
She was already satisfied with them. They both seemed to love and cherish their daughter so it seemed unlikely they would ostracize her because of her magic.
Harold was deep in thought after hearing Eileen’s reply. He weighed the pros and cons of sending Lily to the magic school. In the end, he finally decided.
“Very well...we will send Lily to the school..” he answered.
“A wise choice.”, Eileen said, showing a relieved smile. She felt happy that they were willing.
After learning that Lily could be in danger if she didn’t learn to control her powers, he just had to send her there.He was a bit disappointed as he had plans for her but he just had to deal with it. He still had his other daughter after all.
But he also couldn’t help but ask, “Can Lily continue her studies here?”
“Hmm...she can but only if it doesn’t conflict with her magic studies. I recommend her self studying and giving exams privately instead otherwise it will be too troublesome.”
“I...see.” he looked at Rose, his wife and they both decided to discuss Lily’s studies later.
“So...what can Lily do with magic once she learns it?”
“The question would be what can’t she do, Mr Evans.” Eileen answered. “Magic is a wonderful thing and you can do pretty much everything you want with it.”
“There are many fields in magic and I won’t be able to explain them all as it would take far too long to explain everything but I can give a brief introduction.”
“That would be acceptable,” Rose said as she brought some cookies she had finished baking.
“Here, Ms. Prince, I made some cookies and I wish you would try them.” Rose said.
Eileen had not eaten breakfast so she nodded. “Thank you and you can just call me Eileen.”
She picked one up and took a bite.
‘It's so good..’
The cookies were delicious and were very well baked.
‘Severus will like them...Maybe I should ask her how she made them later.’she thought. She had noticed that he liked eating food.
She knew her cooking skills were not great so she wanted to get better. Tasting Rose’s cookies made her consider asking her to teach her some cooking.
“These are wonderful Mrs Evans. You must teach me how you made these...” Eileen complimented. She blushed after realising what she had said.
‘Merlin’s beard….now they must think I am some gluttonous woman.’
Rose blushed seeing such a sincere compliment. “Oh...thank you Eileen and you can also just call me Rose.”
Inwardly Rose was pleased too. She sensed a place to start their friendship. She decided to ask her about her fashion later.
“Okay..”
“Here Dear, have some tea.” Rose then poured tea for her husband.
After eating the cookies, Eileen explained the various fields of magic to them.
She told them about charms , transfiguration , runes, potions and other fields. She kept it brief and didn’t tell them much about curses and other dark magic.
Muggles had always associated witches with it so she wanted to break that image in their eyes.
………
[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 came to the realization 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 her 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 up 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 for 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 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 were 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 recalled correctly, the queens would start soon.
Finally after an hour of grueling 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 at this news. Potions was something I was lagging behind in due to not being able to brew any. I was excited to finally apply months of memorizing into practice.
[A/N: Finally completed this chapter. Was dissatisfied with it a bit. I wanted to have Petunia meet Severus but decided it was too tedious. She won’t be a major character anyway.
So I just showed her thoughts and will now describe her appearances in future briefly.]