A/N - Written for the semi-final round of the QLFC.
Lily held tightly to Petunia's hand and followed her sister from the park, even as she glanced over her shoulder once more. The boy stood dejectedly where they'd left him, head hanging low, curtain of hair obscuring his face. She looked at Petunia from the corner of her eye and could tell by the set of her jaw that Petunia was fuming. Still, Lily couldn't help herself.
"You don't think it's true do you? What he said?" Petunia snorted in derision.
"Of course not. There's no such thing." Lily worried her lip between her teeth.
"But why can I do those things then?" she asked quietly. Petunia glanced at her, looking a bit uncertain before her resolve returned.
"I don't know, but witches and wizards are just in fairy tales," she said decisively. "If his mother was one, don't you think she'd magic him better clothes? Did you see what he was wearing?" Petunia shook her head. "Not to mention where they live. If you could do magic why would you live in Spinner's End of all places?"
Lily nodded her head as Petunia continued on, but she looked over her shoulder again and wondered.
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Lily tore after Petunia. Her older sister had a head start, but she was hurt and Lily easily caught up with her. She put a hand on Petunia's arm.
"Tuney, are you all right?"
"Leave me alone," Petunia shrilled, shrugging Lily's hand off her arm. She had stopped running now and was simply walking quickly towards their house, her hand on her injured shoulder. There were still tears running down her face.
"You could have come with me you know," Lily said. "You didn't have to sneak."
"I wasn't sneaking!" They walked on for a few moments, the silence only interrupted by Petunia's sniffling. "Why do you always talk to him anyway?"
"Because I don't know anything about magic or Hogwarts. Severus' mum went there and he's told me loads of things." Petunia said nothing and Lily glanced at her again. She knew that her sister was unhappy about being proven wrong about magic. Professor McGonagall had visited three weeks ago to give Lily her Hogwarts letter and explain everything to their parents. But Lily had also seen the faint look of longing on Petunia's face when the professor had passed over Lily's envelope.
"Next time I talk to him, I'll bring you with me. You should hear all the things that we thought were just in story books that are real." Petunia ignored her and picked up the pace of her walking a bit. "Tuney-" but Petunia rounded on Lily.
"I don't care! I don't want to hear about your stupid magic school!" With that, Petunia began to run again, leaving a shocked Lily staring after her.
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Lily managed to make it onto the train and find an empty compartment before bursting into tears. Petunia's words had cut her deeply, no matter how she had tried to cover for it. Petunia was her sister, her always playmate, her always confidant until Lily had met Severus. As excited as she was to go to Hogwarts, Lily was still upset that Petunia wasn't coming with her. Severus had told her that if Petunia was a witch she would have shown signs of it by now, but Lily couldn't help wondering if maybe her sister was just a late bloomer. After all, if Lily had somehow gotten magic from her two unmagical parents, then shouldn't Petunia have as well? She would try to talk to Professor Dumbledore about it like she'd promised, regardless of what Petunia had said.
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Lily sighed as she finished the latest letter from her parents. There was nothing from Petunia again. Her mother had spoken of Lily's older sister in her letter, of course, but Petunia hadn't written Lily once since she'd started school more than two months ago. Lily had written her sister faithfully every week, but she had heard nothing in return.
"What's the matter?" Severus asked as they walked to Potions together.
"Petunia still hasn't written to me."
"I still don't know why that bothers you so much. I heard what she said to you on the platform."
"She's my sister, Sev. She was just upset, that's all."
"If she was such a great sister, wouldn't she have gotten over it and written to you by now?" Lily glared at him, but inwardly, she knew he was right. But Petunia was her sister. Lily wasn't going to give up on her.
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"Where's Tuney?" Lily asked as she hugged her father again once they'd left the platform. Her father glanced at her mother.
"She wasn't up to coming dear," her mother explained as the three of them walked toward the car.
"Is she sick?" Lily questioned in concern.
"No," her mother said. She tried to hide it, but Lily saw her eyes dart to Lily's father. "She was just…a bit tired."
"Oh," Lily said quietly. Her mother didn't have to say anything else.
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"Where's your shadow?" Petunia asked as she leaned against the door frame to Lily's room. "I haven't seen him all summer." Lily glanced up from the book she was reading.
"I don't know, but I'm sure he's at home." She looked back down at her book so Petunia couldn't see the pain on her face at the mention of Severus. Not that her sister would have noticed anyway. Petunia hadn't taken any notice of Lily in the last five years except to call her a freak.
"Did you two have a fight or something?" Lily sighed.
"Why do you care Petunia?"
"Well, excuse me for asking." Lily looked up again and thought she saw a flash of something in Petunia's eyes, but it was gone a second later. Lily was sure she had imagined it, but it almost looked like hurt.
"I'm sorry; it's just that you haven't seemed very interested in me or my life for quite some time." Petunia sniffed derisively.
"Who says I'm interested now?" She pushed away from the doorframe and stalked off down the hall. Lily stared after her for a moment before rolling onto her side on her bed and letting the tears fall.
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"Do we have to?" James whined.
"Please James; this is the first time Petunia has made any kind of gesture toward me in years. I'm not naïve enough to think that we'll be close, but it would be nice if we were on speaking terms at least." James sighed and wrapped his arms around her. She rested her head against his chest.
"After everything she's said to you Lils, why do you even bother?"
"She's my sister." James hugged her tighter. She knew he really didn't understand, just as Severus never really had.
"All right, I'll go." Lily looked up at him, a bit of warning on her face. "And I'll try to be civil. But if she starts in with any of that 'freak' nonsense…" Lily smiled.
"Just don't do anything Azkaban worthy."
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"Shh, Lily, don't cry." James pulled her to him. "I'm sorry I egged him on, it was just, well, he's a tosser." She gave a strangled half-laugh. James looked down at her with a smile. She sat up and wiped her face.
"I just thought that maybe since she had actually told him about me, that she'd accepted it, you know?" James nodded. "And I thought that getting engaged might have made her happy enough that the whole magic thing wouldn't matter."
"Not surprising that it hasn't, considering what she's marrying."
"James," Lily admonished as she lightly smacked his chest, but there was a smile playing at the corner of her lips. James grinned.
"Honestly, Lils, what does she see in that bloke? He's, he's," James shook his head, obviously unable to come up with an adequate adjective to describe Vernon Dursley. Lily couldn't help it; she began to giggle. Soon the two of them were doubled over with laughter and Lily was crying for an entirely different reason.
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"Can we leave yet?" James whispered in her ear.
"James," she scolded.
"Her husband certainly doesn't want us here and I don't think your sister does either. I mean she didn't even have you in the wedding." Lily looked at him sadly and he immediately hugged her tightly. "I'm sorry, that was a stupid thing to say."
"Still true though." They stood watching Vernon dance very properly with Petunia for their first dance. There was none of the fun or playfulness that James and Lily shared and Lily wondered once again just what her sister saw in the man she had married. When the song ended, he didn't even kiss her, just patted her hand and led her off the floor. Lily shook her head.
"I don't want to upset my mum any more than she has been. We need to stay a bit longer." James nodded and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, resting his chin on her shoulder. The band began to play again.
"Fancy a turn around the dance floor?" he asked. Lily turned her head and smiled up at him. He took her hand and led her out onto the floor. Lily failed to notice they were the only couple dancing. She laughed as James twirled and spun her. When the song ended he kissed her soundly and then tugged her back toward their table.
"I'll get us some drinks," James said before he walked away. Lily turned and caught Petunia's eye. Her sister nearly had steam coming out of her ears. Petunia marched towards her.
"How dare you?" she hissed. Lily looked at her in confusion. "You couldn't stand it could you?"
"I don't know what you're talking about Petunia."
"You couldn't stand not being the center of attention for once. You just had to make sure everyone was looking at you didn't you?" Lily's anger grew.
"We were just dancing, Petunia. As far as I know, that's what you're supposed to do at a wedding."
"Just dancing," Petunia scoffed. "Isn't it convenient that you were 'just dancing' directly after Vernon and I shared our first dance? That you were 'just dancing' before anyone else had a chance to join in?" Lily sighed.
"I wasn't trying to take anyone's attention away from you. James asked me to dance and I agreed. That's all there is to it." Petunia glared at her for a few more moments.
"I'm sorry that I have to call you my sister." And then she spun on her heel and stalked off.
Lily stared after her sister in complete shock. It wasn't until James touched her arm that the tears began to flow.
"Lils, what's wrong?" Lily shook her head, unable to explain. She had known that Petunia resented her, was envious of her, possibly even disliked her. But Lily hadn't ever expected that Petunia was sorry that Lily was her sister. She buried her face in James' chest and he pulled her away into a quiet corner. She managed to choke out the exchange with Petunia.
"Let me hex her. Please." Lily looked up and saw the anger in his eyes.
"No," she said with a shake of her head. "It would just make things worse and besides, I don't need you arrested." He hugged her again and kissed the top of her head.
"I'm sorry, Lily." Lily shrugged. She wasn't going to deny that it hurt, but there was a small part of her that knew that her relationship with Petunia had been damaged beyond repair the day Severus had told Lily she was a witch. She had hoped, always, that things would be different. But at least she knew the truth now.