#look petunia's behavior in the books is awful but tell me she would take start treating Harry a little better so she could hear gossip

[goggles-mcgee]

potter family opera crumbs?

Harry after his second year, mindlessly cooking dinner by his Aunt Petunia's side.

Harry: .......*sigh*

Petunia:.....😑

Harry:.......*sigh* .......😞

Petunia, eye twitching: .......

Harry: .....*SIG-

Petunia: "What!?"

Harry: "Why did you never tell me my dad dated Professor Snape?"

Petunia exe has stopped working: "Excuse me?"

Harry no paying attention to her, just stirring the stew: "I mean, I guessed you didn't like talking about my parents but Snape would kind of count as a psuedo-parent right? I mean he's my dad's ex but the Wizarding world is weird so their laws are probably weird so maybe I should have gone to him?"

Petunia, still horribly confused: "I'm sorry?"

Harry: "We don't have to pretend anymore, Petunia. You don't like me. You never have. I don't like you. That's a given. So like....why didn't I go with Snape? Was his and my dad's breakup really that bad?"

Petunia having a crisis: "He was your mother's boyfriend."

Harry: *gasp* "Snape is my double almost parent!"

Petunia: "I don't....what?"

Harry: "I have to tell the club about this...."

Petunia losing her shit: "Club?"

Que Harry telling her everything about the Potter Family Opera so far and though she won't admit it....Petunia is more than a little hooked and feeds Harry so much dirt and false info on Snape when Vernon isn't home.

[fuckallthegood0nesweretaken]

Runs in the Family CH. One

Book: Chamber

Title: I’m a What?

Words: 2310

Warnings: None

A/N: This is the first chapter of my newest series. It is an eventual pairing of George x Reader with some unknown feelings and pining from both of them. Reader is Dudley’s little sister and a witch. Some things will stay the same while others will be changed. Enjoy!

Next Chapter

RitF Masterlist

Harry Potter Masterlist 

Masterlist

~~~~~~~

You were not excited for the night. Your dad was having guests over so you had to spend the evening in a stuffy, itchy dress, be on your best behavior, and you couldn’t even talk to Harry. Sighing, you smoothed the skirt and walked downstairs.

 “Mummy, do I have to wear this? It’s so itchy,” you said.

 “Yes, darling. Only the best for our guests. Now come and help me with our dessert.”

 “Alright.”

 You helped her finish up with the cake while your dad helped Dudley put on his tie. Upstairs, Hedwig was making noise and your dad called out to Harry angrily.

 “If you can’t control that bloody bird, it’ll have to go,” Vernon said.

 “She’s just bored, daddy,” you said from the kitchen.

 “[Y/n]’s right. If I could let her out for an hour or two, she’ll be fine.”

 “Not a chance. I don’t need you sending any messages to your freaky friends.”

 “I haven’t had any messages,” Harry said sadly. You frowned and was about to say something when your brother pushed past Harry.

 “Who would want to be friends with you?” Dudley said.

 “That’s not nice, Dudley.” You were a little angry at your brother for treating Harry this way. Dudley just ignored you and you rolled your eyes at the way he tried to eat the cake before the guests came.

 “Now, when the Masons arrive, where will you be, Petunia?” Vernon said.

 “In the lounge, waiting to welcome them into our home.”

 “[Y/n], where will you be?”

 “I’ll be with mummy in the lounge,” you said.

 “Good. Dudley?”

 “I’ll be waiting to open the door,” Dudley said with a flourish of his arm. That’s when the three of them turned to Harry.

 “And you?” Vernon said, voice full of hate.

 “I’ll be in my bedroom, making no noise, and pretending that I don’t exist,” Harry said.

 “That’s right. This could be the day I make the biggest deal of my career and you will not mess it up.”

 Right then, the doorbell rang and Dudley rushed to the door.

 “I mean it, boy. Quiet!” Vernon then walked to join Dudley and you mouthed ‘sorry’ to Harry as he walked upstairs.

 The night went by slowly. Your dad kept making awful jokes and the Masons were eating it up. Sipping on your sparkling juice, you looked worriedly up at the ceiling when strange noises were coming out of Harry’s room. Vernon went up there once to shut him up but when you saw him chasing after the cake, your eyes widened.

 It took every bit of you not to laugh when the cake landed on Mrs. Mason. Everyone’s attention was on her but you saw Harry looking at something. You glanced down and saw a creature disappear before your eyes. The Masons left shortly after and your parents were furious at Harry for dropping the cake on Mrs. Masons head.

 ---

 The next day, Vernon installed a bunch of locks on the outside of Harry’s door and bars on the windows. You tried to stop him, even though you knew that nothing would. Watching, you shook your head before walking inside.

 That very night, you were woken up by a crash. You leapt out of bed and opened your door right as Vernon got to Harry’s door. It took him a minute to open all the locks and when he burst into Harry’s room, he grabbed Harry by the ankle.

 “Daddy, let go of him!” You said. You went to run into the room but Petunia stopped you.

 One of the boys taking Harry away yelled at the other to drive and that caused Vernon to fall out of the house. You and Dudley both yelled as he fell, worried that he was hurt. When you saw he wasn’t, you looked at Harry.

 You waved discreetly as they flew away. After they disappeared and it was confirmed that Vernon was alright, everyone went back to bed.

 ---

 A few days later, as you were eating breakfast, you heard three sharp knocks on the front door. Confused as to who was visiting, Vernon went to open the door.

 “Is this the residence of [y/n] Dursley?” A voice said.

 “Who’s asking?” Vernon said.

 “My name is Minerva McGonagall. I’m one of the professors at Hogwarts and I’m here to speak to Miss Dursley.”

 “What for?” Petunia asked. You could hear the shakiness in her voice and it worried you.

 “Mummy? Daddy? What’s going on?” You got up from the table and walked over to the door.

 “[Y/n], darling, go back to your food,” Petunia said.

 “Miss Dursley. I’m here to announce that you are a witch.” You looked at the woman with wide eyes and an open mouth.

 “No way. You’re kidding.”

 “I’m not. Your books and supplies are already bought and packed and in your trunk in your room. If you could come with me, I’ll take you to Ollivanders where we’ll get you your wand.”

 “No. Not a chance. You’re not taking my daughter anywhere!” Vernon said.

 “She has to go to Ollivanders and to Hogwarts. It’s imperative that she does,” McGonagall said.

 “Why?”

 “If Miss Dursley doesn’t get proper training on how to use her magic, bad things can happen. They won’t happen if she gets proper training.”

 You saw your dad start to argue, but you cut him off.

 “Daddy, I want to go. It’s my choice and you can’t stop me,” you said.

 “Alright,” Petunia said after a moment. Vernon opened his mouth but after a look from Petunia, he closed it. “I don’t like it either, but there’s nothing we can do. Take her.”

  “I’ll be outside,” McGonagall said. She tilted her head to your parents before walking away.

 You went to say something to your mom, but she avoided your gaze and said nothing. Your dad was fuming about the whole ordeal and Dudley just went back to shoveling food into his mouth. With a frown, you walked outside.

 ---

 After you had gotten your wand, you went back to your house. You were wanting to try out some spells from your textbooks, but you knew that if you did anything inside the house, your parents would have a cow. So you refrained from casting spells, but you did read through the entirety of most of your books.

 A few weeks later, Professor McGonagall came back.

 “It’s time for me to bring you to the school,” she said.

 “We arrive by train, right?” You asked her.

 “Yes. Are you all packed?” You nodded and ran upstairs to grab your trunk

 “I’ll visit when I can, okay? I love you,” you said, turning to your family. When Vernon said nothing, you felt tears start to form.

 “I love you, dear,” Petunia said as she gave you a hug. “We’ll see you for Christmas?”

 “Of course, mummy. Bye.” You waved to your family and took McGonagall’s outstretched hand and everything went black.

 ---

 When you came to, your head was pounding and you found yourself in the middle of King’s Cross.

 “Run between those two platforms and you’ll go to platform 9 ¾. The train leaves at precisely eleven. I’ll see you at the Sorting, Miss Dursley.”

 She disappeared with a sharp crack and you took a shaky breath before running through the wall. When you realized you had done it, you let out a laugh and walked to the train.

 Lugging your trunk onto the train, you found an empty compartment and sat down. You figured you had some time to kill seeing as it was only half past ten so you took out your textbooks and started to read. It was only when the train was about to pull away did someone else come into the compartment with you.

 “Mind if we sit here? Everywhere else is full,” someone said.

 “Of course.” You looked up and were face to face with two of the boys that helped Harry escape.

 “It’s you!” You said. “You were in the flying car that took Harry a couple nights ago.”

 “You’re his cousin, aren’t you?” One of them said.

 “I am. My name’s [y/n] Dursley.”

 “Fred Weasley.”

 “George Weasley.”

 “It’s nice to meet you,” you said, a smile on your face.

 ---

 “Harry didn’t tell us that you were a witch,” Fred said.

 “I didn’t even know until a couple weeks ago, actually. It came as a surprise and my parents didn’t like it.”

 “What all do you know about Hogwarts?” Fred asked.

 “I know that you’re separated into Houses. Harry is in Gryffindor, I believe. You also have a lot of classes and a game called Quidditch.”

 “You know about Quidditch?” Both the twins said.

 “I do. It seems fascinating and I’d love to play it. I’ve always wanted to be able to fly.”

 “What House do you think you’ll be? Freddie and I are in Gryffindor.”

 “I couldn’t tell you. To be honest, I haven’t given it much thought. There are five, right?”

 “Four. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff.”

 “Ravenclaw and Slytherin.”

 “You don’t want to be in Slytherin,” Fred said.

 “Why not?”

 “That’s the House that has made the most dark wizards,” George said.

 “You-Know-Who himself was a Slytherin along with all of his followers.”

 “Loads of bad people.”

 You stared at them for a minute before shivering.

 “Let’s hope I don’t get into Slytherin,” you said with a laugh.

 The rest of the ride was spent laughing and eating sweets. Lee Jordan, one of the twins’ friends, came into the compartment halfway through the ride. Once he found out that you hadn’t had any magical sweets before, he bought nearly the entire trolley for you to try. You didn’t want the train to stop but it did an hour later.

 Looking at the castle, awe in your eyes, you turned to the twins.

 “You’ll be fine,” George said.

 “Ginny, our sister, is starting Hogwarts this year too.”

 George called Ginny over and introduced you to her before he left with Fred and Lee.

 “Hello. It’s nice to meet you,” you said.

 “Likewise.”

 The two of you made small talk the entire way across the lake and up into the castle until you saw Professor McGonagall. She was standing at the top of the stairs, holding a giant scroll of paper.

 “In just a few minutes, we will walk into the Great Hall. When I call your name, you will walk forward and place the Sorting Hat on your head. It will tell you what House you belong in and you will go sit with that House.” The doors opened behind McGonagall. “Come on. Follow me.”

 You followed her, gripping your robes tightly. McGonagall was a few names in when she called yours. Swallowing harshly, you walked up as sat on the stool. The Sorting Hat was placed on your head and you took a shaky breath.

 “Where to put you,” the hat said. “You have a lot of ambition, but even more kindness. Patience too. I think I’ll put you in Hufflepuff!”

 The last word was shouted and you let out a laugh before getting off of the stool and walking over to the Hufflepuff table. The sorting was over soon and then the feast began. Your eyes widened as the food appeared right in front of you and on your plate.

 “It’s amazing, isn’t it?”

 “It is.” You looked to your left and saw a hand being held out to you.

 “I’m Cedric Diggory,” he said.

 “[Y/n] Dursley. Nice to meet you.” You shook his hand and he gave you a smile.

 “Nice to meet you too.”

 ---

 The next morning, you were led down to the Great Hall by your new friend Cedric. You saw Harry and after asking Cedric if it was allowed to sit at another Houses table, you ran over to him.

 “Harry!”

 “[Y/n]? What are you doing here?” Harry asked as he gave you a hug.

 “Well, a couple days after you left, Professor McGonagall came by the house and said that I was a witch. Mummy convinced dad to let me go and here I am! You weren’t on the train or at dinner. Where were you?”

 “I couldn’t get onto the platform. Ron couldn’t either. And before that, it wasn’t me who threw the cake onto Mrs. Masons head. It was a house-elf.”

 “A house-elf? I knew I saw something!”

 “Yeah. So Ron had the idea to take the car and fly to Hogwarts. We flew into a tree, it fought back, and now the car is somewhere in the forest. We were almost expelled but we just got detention and a letter back home,” Harry said.

 “Well I’m glad that you’re not expelled.” You were going to say more when the twins walked up to you and put their arms around your shoulders.

 “[Y/n].”

 “You made it in Hufflepuff, I see,” Fred said.

 “Shame it wasn’t Gryffindor,” George teased.

 “I’m just glad it wasn’t Slytherin,” you said with a laugh.

 “You know the twins already?” Harry asked.

 “I do. They sat with me on the train.”

 “Come on, let’s eat.”

 The twins led you to the table and you sat between them. Ron and Hermione came up a minute later. You began to eat while Ron was taping his wand together. That’s when Ron got an owl.

 “Look, everyone. Weasley’s got himself a Howler.”

 “Howler?” You asked.

 “Just wait,” George said.

 “It’s gonna get loud.”

 And loud it was. The letter started screaming at Ron, saying that he was in so much trouble. After it was done, it blew a raspberry at him and tore itself up.

 “Well, you weren’t lying about it being loud,” you said after a few seconds.

 “At least we won’t have to worry about getting one of those from home,” Harry said. You laughed and shook your head.

[lionoutoftheden]

I thought the premise of liking Snape as a character was being able to look at these characters as both good and bad, you know, nuance. Do I think Snape was backed into a blood purist hate group bc he monetarily had no way out? absolutely.

do I think it was necessary to be viscous to children under his care, but spare his own house? no, it's terrible

is it key to point out that he never placed children in harm's way until he was headmaster at Hogwarts when Voldmart? yes, because in the books it seems there is at least some effort of guiding the torturers efforts away, and absolutely, it's super shitty, but can we also point out that the characters I used to idolize, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, put children in harm's way. Starting with Snape at the Shrieking Shack. Moody not taking his potions till the last minute, and also not telling Dumbledore about the ways that Sirius Black could get in the castle, or that he is an animagus, or Sirius's recklessness after Azkaban (is it explainable? sure. does it justify what happened? no.)

jesus, even the last thing Sirius says to Harry is in thinking that he's James. Sure that delighted Harry for all of two seconds before he died, but an adult Harry, who is able to look back at the trauma of the war, and is able to realize the possibility that his godfather, this person who represents closeness with his parents, saw him as nothing more than his dad, and how devastating that possibility would be.

Anyway... Snape. I don't understand why some people who are Snape fans seem to be under the assumption that Lily being awful to Snape is the only

I've seen the argument made that Lily is "using" Severus because he's magical. Right. So not a common interest? No, and definitely not that Lily's a little girl discovering things about herself deemed scary by the person she's closest to (Petunia) and here comes this kid to say, "hey, me too." But you're right that's a terrible way to start of a friendship of 11 year olds.

And then she snaps at Petunia, is cruel to her. After her sister uses her jealousy as a weapon to her, Lily snaps back, and promptly blames Severus for it. The thing is, when people look at this, apparently they don't notice that Petunia holds no weight in Severus's eyes. What exactly is she going to do to him? Lily on the other hand, is bullied when she has to go home to her and is rejected by a sister she still loves.

It's funny, in the rush to defame Lily I feel like we forget that she hates James. Like, really, really hates (even Sirius and Remus later talk about that), and in no small part because of the bullying him and Sirius inflict upon Snape.

The quote people use, where Lily is at the ends of her wits with her best friend, and she feels betrayed by someone she's close to (but??? he doesnt have a choice??? Lily is classist!!! Dude, she's a teenager. If we are encouraged to ignore Draco Malfoy's classist behavior and despise Lily's... yeah, dude, double standard.) who is joining a group where the perogituve is "my blood is purer than yours, therefore I get to live and you don't." But yeah, Lily is the blind one for not understanding how traumatic bullying is the same is saying "I want you and all your friends dead."

Ok

And yes, Lily is not the best listener in this situation. Did she not believe that something terrible happened to Severus at the Willow? Yes. They were under oath not to tell her?? Or at least made a promise to Dumbledore?? So Lily is supposed to question Dumbledore now??

And then like Severus is being horribly bullied, Lily is just standing there screaming at James, goes over to help Snape, he calls her That Slur™️ and she retorts with something she knows will hurt, classism, which is not justifiable. (Is a slur justifiable either? haha, no)

So yeah, in 2 areas Lily is cruel to people she loves.

And then she cuts things off with Snape. And yeah, he pulls the romantic comedy stunts of sleeping outside the Common Room, but she's given him a lot of time to explain why he's so involved with Death Eaters (do I blame him for this? no. Again, teenagers.)

And now she's done.

Sometimes, when you give people chances to change, and they don't explain to you why they're not changing, you get to (surprise surprise) leave the friendship.

If Lily had lived, would we see her continue assholery that is so often prevalent in her generation? No idea. The point of the entire series is that she does young. Do we ever get to see her as a fully fleshed out character? Uh, no, because we only get glimpses from people who loved her. And like, Petunia, once, which was weird.

tldr; pointing at minor yet pivotal characters and "hot taking them" so that they are only bad and kind of abusive, takes away from everyone's story.

[halothenthehorns]

All in the Family

Chapter 123: Snape's Worst Memory

It finally happened, as it was bound to do. One of them took these continuous bad falls just a bit to hard.

Lily yelped in surprise to find herself on a branch, couldn't latch onto the trunk let alone another one for stability, and went crashing down so fast she couldn't guess at what was below. Her face was dunked into water, while her arm crashed into something much more solid, sending a white-hot shot of pain in all directions from her elbow.

She came up spluttering and gasping in pain, her hair plastered to her eyes leaving her blind, her wand arm throbbing so bad she couldn't have done anything even if her mind wasn't frozen in shock.

Only when she began whimpering at the movement but forced herself to use her other arm to push her hair aside did she suddenly realize she'd also lost her wand during the fall and she'd have no way to fix herself up, but then her eyes adjusted to see Potter was already leaning over her.

Even if she would have had the presence of mind to tell him to piss off she wouldn't have, her arm just hurt too bad and she'd be grateful for anyone to fix it. His wand tapped her arm so fast and lightly she didn't even feel it, and just like that the pain was reduced to a dull throb in seconds, and then a cool tingling replaced that, before she was flexing her fingers and rolling her shoulder like nothing had happened.

"I'm sure Madam Pomfrey would have you in the hospital wing overnight just to make sure it went perfectly," he told her with pure sincerity, "but it's not at that crooked angle anymore, so I think you'll live."

He just smiled at her. Not a grin, not a smirk, just a friendly smile as he offered both hands to help her up in a gentlemanly fashion.

She took a deep breath, and he was already lowering his hands in surrender, before she surprised them both by grabbing hold and hauling herself to her feet. Since he'd already started to pull back she barely had a good grip on his fingers as she did so, but she got back upright and released him all the same. His hands hovered for only a moment around her shoulders to make sure she was going to stay upright before he dropped them and took a step back, now with that familiar smug look firmly set in place.

For some reason it wasn't as grating as she remembered it should be.

She looked just as quickly away, and felt a swarm of feelings for recognizing every inch of this place. The little pond she'd landed in was ringed with four smooth stone pebbles that had broken her elbow, each had a different-sized handprint on them in a different color, the koi were all at the other end still. The rainbow awning gave shade to half the backyard, the sandbox on the opposite side of the tree nobody had looked at in years, and the kites left out, though long weather-damaged, gave a friendly enough sense of life. She was all too familiar with the tree she'd just fallen out of, because Petunia had once done the very same thing when she was seven and her collarbone had broken in three places. Lily had run over to help, placing her hands on her sobbing sister and easing her crying for only a moment, and her older sister had actually smiled at her in thanks, one of the very few times she'd seemed in awe of her magic rather than hating it.

She'd spotted that cat weather-vane from the roof of Snape's home. They were at her house. That tree had a direct view right up to her window, and while the branches didn't extend far enough for him to crawl over, he'd scaled it countless times with pebbles in hand to get her attention, and she'd ease open the window and bounce dangerously on the awning before bunching up the material and sliding the rest of the way down, landing just so over the table and the two ran free of the yard.

It seemed Potter may have done something of the same affect. Her window wasn't open, but the table was overturned like someone had landed on it, the glass surface had a crack down the middle.

A thrill of horror shot through her, the number of times they had shown up at someone's house was not a good omen for what was to come, and that was before she heard the chapter title, 'Snape's Worst Memory.'

Potter snorted and looked back towards the house where Frank's voice was coming from in surprise.

He spoke without thinking, "what would that be, his first bath?" Then he winced as he realized who he'd said it in front of, reminding himself too late she still wouldn't find that funny, and turning back to see her infuriated face meant he was still a pretty good judge of her character. He was unsurprised when she stormed into the house and slammed the backdoor behind her, and he sighed and gave her a few moments before following.

Walking in found a large, spacious living room. The ceiling was dark paneled wood and made it seem larger than he was sure it should be, and the floor was smooth marble tile in a wavy black and white pattern. There was an unlit fireplace with a brick hearth, with four different sofas along each wall. To his immediate right was an oblong table visible leading into the kitchen, across was the opposite front door, and to the far left was a hallway which probably led to stairs.

Longbottom was still reading, yet another ridiculous ministry decree, it was a miracle those weren't in the hundreds by now, and knowing he only had a fifty-fifty shot of avoiding whichever way she went and still trying to give her space, headed for the kitchen where he could hear his friends' voices coming from, she'd have more than likely avoided the same.

The kitchen was much more narrow, almost a hallway, with double doors at the end ajar. Longbottom was in there, leaning casually in a seat that squeaked in front of one of those machines that had electrocuted him last time. Alice wasn't anywhere to be seen, and it surprised him the guy was just apparently casually sitting around wherever he'd found the book to read, so close to Remus rummaging just feet away in one of those things that kept the food cold.

Sirius was unabashedly shoving cookies into his mouth and alternately flipping a noisy sounding device in the sink on and off for his own amusement, Remus holding his wrist protectively and James wasn't sure he wanted to know how close Padfoot had come to sticking his hand in that odd sounding machine before Moony stopped him. What would a Muggle even have blades down a sink for? Peter was at his back, presumably turning off whatever that thing was that made this whole place hot as an oven. It had four visible circles up top, each with little knobs above it, and though the door was closed, it seemed to be glowing on the inside.

Regulus was sitting on the counter beside Peter, looking around uneasily and chewing on his cheek as he eyed all of the available cupboards. If James had to guess, he'd almost say he was repressing the urge to open them all and have a look through, but something of this clearly Muggle house was still holding him back.

James had a very good idea whose home they were in, judging by Evans's face outside, and he was torn between encouraging this behavior to help loosen the kid up and giving her some privacy.

Lily went stamping up the carpeted stairs with so much frustration she expected dad to call after her any second to cool her temper. She was being ridiculous anyways, Potter's continued idiocies shouldn't surprise her any more than another fight with Petunia.

She reached the landing to see Alice holding a picture she'd very clearly knocked off the wall. It was the four of them on their first trip to the zoo.

She'd been sitting on her dad's shoulders, not even looking at the kind stranger as her eyes stayed trained on the multiple birds in the aviary. Mum had her arms wrapped around Petunia, who was giving a very posh smile that hid well how bored she'd been by that point and had been begging to go home.

"I bet your patronus would be that one," she told Lily as she glanced up, pointing at a red parrot, the blue and yellow plumage on its wings spread wide.

"I like to think it would be a bird," she agreed, "I've always loved them."

Alice immediately set the photo back on the wall, and looked to her in concern for the tone. She'd tried to sound happy about the easy topic, but it had clearly failed her.

"Want to talk about it?" She asked quietly, no judgement in her tone for whatever her answer.

Lily's automatic response wanted to be no, but that hadn't been doing her a lot of good recently, just bottling all this up. She still wanted to talk to Sev more than anyone, being back home only reinforced that. She hadn't come back during Christmas break this year, the two of them had stayed at Hogwarts to look after their newest pet project potion, claiming it as studying for the coming Potions OWLs, though they really needed no such thing. They could brew whatever happened next week by their fourth year, the two of them spent so much time looking, studying, and perfecting Eileen Snape's book.

They hadn't been interrupted once by any of those other horrible friends of his, it was the last good memory she had of him before the semester had kicked back in. It was always just the two of them during the summers here.

The chapter title still bothered her greatly though, even as that tosh about the Inquisitorial Squad was dumped on them, and Umbridge dragged Harry up to her office to interrogate him. The two stayed quiet and Lily began leading the way to her room as this went on, her hand tense on the handle until a massive BOOM interrupted all of her questions about where Sirius Black was.

Finally releasing a breath she'd deny she was holding, she pushed the door open and answered her just as quietly. "That chapter title, I'm wondering if his worst memory is meeting me."

"Oh Lily," she immediately stepped forward and wrapped her in a hug. Her clothes were still slightly damp, and she didn't even seem to be taking in the room. The walls were zebra-striped green and pink, there were posters hung all around of places she'd like to visit in the world and an old stuffed owl sat on her lions, and tigers, and bears bed sheets.

"He hates me so much in this future," she sobbed, sure Alice couldn't understand a word, her voice shook so much. "I think I pushed him too far, made him choose, and-" was that what his worst memory would be? Was Harry going to use Protego on him again and she'd finally hear of what she did to make him be such an intolerable person to everyone?

The fascinating description of Weasley's Wizard Wiz-Bangs did not distract her as she finally cried herself out, Alice just holding tight and rubbing her back until finally she had no more tears to spare and just fell onto her bed in exhaustion. Her face felt itchy and hot still from the dried tears, but as she kept swallowing and finally breathing normally again, she convinced herself she had to stop this. She wouldn't cry over him anymore. Maybe she'd find out and maybe she never would, but surely it didn't happen until far into the future. Maybe her finally agreeing to date Potter for whatever reason had done it and she'd fix this by that never happening, there was still time, right?

Alice still remained affable at her side, just sitting there like Potter had, it amazed her both of them had just instinctively given her exactly what she hadn't even wanted to ask for. She was inquisitively eyeing the room now, and when finally she caught Lily's eye again and she smiled, Alice was quick to grin back and say, "it still amazes me how opposite you two are in literally every way. I poked my head into Petunia's room, I didn't even know there were different shades of white. Felt emptier than the closed ward."

Lily wrung out her borrowed shirt, watching a few last droplets patter on the brown carpet, but forced herself to meet Alice's eyes when she answered. "It looked a little more fun when she was younger, but I think she started doing it on purpose recently, throwing out everything in preparation to move out as soon as she could. We've always been total opposites growing up, a lot like Sirius and Regulus." She frowned and realized she'd never retrieved her wand and got up to do that immediately, lest it get lost before this chapter was over, Harry was having another dream of that room You-Know-Who wanted in so badly. In fact, it was more elaborate than ever, even more rooms were being described as You-Know-Who got closer to his prize. She swallowed a very dry throat and kept addressing Alice instead of dwelling on what that could be.

"At least I've noticed they have some things in common," she continued to Alice as she opened the window. "I don't know though, after hearing all this, I don't think I can ever make up with her."

"I really can't blame you," Alice nodded, following her to the window, and leaning out in concern as Lily went over the side. She watched as Lily easily slid down the cloth, caught the end with expert skills, and swung to the ground, rummaging for a bit under the shade of a tree before finding her wand. Then, as if she did it every day, she propped a glass table back upright, tapped it to fix a visible crack, and jumped slightly to catch the edge, clinging easily to the material as she scaled back up, and happily took Alice's outstretched hand as she crawled back in her window.

She used a quick charm to dry her clothes, and tensed in unease as Harry went down for another Occlumency lesson. It was going to happen, she could feel it, and happily looking to stall she offered, "want to tell the boys to cool it and use the showers here while we can?"

Alice was distracted from answering by Cho stopping Harry on the way to said lesson, and the two having a pretty bad fight over Marietta.

Lily had forgotten her own question by the end anyways, she could see both sides to that. Merlin knew she spent more than enough time defending Severus's bad decisions, but Harry had nearly been expelled for that shite, she couldn't blame her son for not being as forgiving.

Then Harry arrived in a foul temper to find Sev putting memories into a Pensieve again, and she took an uneasy breath but prepared herself as much as she could. She had a feeling it would do no more good than preparing herself every time they were thrown around these insane timelines.

Then Malfoy barged in with some concern about a fellow Slytherin turning up in a toilet.

The roaring laughter from downstairs almost hid Lily's huff of frustration. She just wanted to get it done with now!

"I suppose you don't want to go down there and join them," Alice guessed, misinterpreting that annoyed expression, she'd had to bite her lip to stop herself laughing at the image herself.

Lily didn't really want to, but she also knew she couldn't just keep hiding away. They were all going to hear regardless, may as well suck it up and be there for them to gawk at when it happened, they all thought her a shrew anyways except Alice, Frank, and Potter, though Merlin knew why with him.

"Yes, alright," she agreed, the two going back for the stairs, but Lily scowled and sprinted down the rest so that she could stomp into the kitchen and blame Potter at what Harry did in Sev's absence.

"That's all your fault you know, nosey twat, you've no privacy."

"Don't be ridiculous Evans," Potter seemed delighted to be the rotten apple of her eye once more. "Yours is just as curious a nature as mine, smart as you are, like you could resist doing such a thing!"

"Have you ever heard the words private property?" She demanded back.

The two just kept going like that and Frank looked from the book to Alice, wondering if he was supposed to keep going while she was at least mildly distracted. She hadn't even seemed to notice James had been sitting at the table, not encouraging, but not joining the others either as the two Blacks went snooping through all sorts of Muggle kitchen things. Sirius had at some point put a strainer on Regulus's head, but froze that way to watch the show.

Alice finally waved Frank on, hoping the blow would hurt slightly less if Lily was already venting when it happened, but sadly all attention was diverted anyways as Harry jumped into the memory, and it started how nobody would have predicted.

James busted out laughing in surprise to hear, "his worst memory's the DADA OWL? What, does he find out later he only gets an E?"

He watched in concern though as Evans turned pale in shock and took an uneasy step away from him, she'd been so close during the fight her skirt had been covering his shoes, their knees almost touching. He bit his lip and decided there wasn't even a point in getting her to laugh for this next bit, as Harry easily spotted first Snape, then him in that hall.

What were the odds he wasn't going to be featured in whatever happened next to upset Lily? Admittedly he was still drawing a blank as to what that was, surely him and Snape having yet another fight after this test couldn't be his worst memory, considering this had been a weekly occurrence for years now. His son should get the enjoyment fixating on him now, before Snape departed for whatever reason.

At least Harry was excited as he got a real chance to compare the two, and he swelled with pride at his boy being all but the spitting image of him except with the best part. She wouldn't meet his eyes, but he'd memorized the beautiful green color long ago.

Sirius, then Remus, and finally Peter were all spotted in quick succession, and James sighed uneasily as he imagined this time next week. They hadn't been given their schedules for their OWLs yet, they wouldn't get them until that Monday morning, but he knew the next full moon would have been that Sunday night. Harry wasn't the best descriptor, but even noticing how pale Remus was made it a pretty good guess this had to be only a day or so later.

He didn't seem to spot Evans at all, but James felt an extra pang in his soul he didn't even recognize his mother's initials he scribbled on his paper, and he flashed said woman an innocent smile as she scrutinized him for that.

"Better than LP, I suppose," she finally huffed.

He just beamed at her flippant dismissal to hide the rest of his unease. Would Sirius still be avoiding them then, and Harry would wonder what they were fighting about?

The opposite in fact happened, as the four casually met up to begin discussing the exam! His heart soared as he wondered what had happened to change it then, had they won the cup and Remus and Sirius finally made up!

He met their eyes though, and knew that whatever the answer, this way was arguably better, and worse. He didn't know if the four of them would ever be able to do something so casually as just walk out to the lake again when they got back and really hang out, that was still really in the air, but at least the other four let out surprised snorts of laughter at Moony's self-deprecating joke.

He easily met Evans's eyes again and put up a mock-hurt face as he cried, "you think he's funnier than me! I can make plenty of werewolf jokes!"

"Shut up you idiot," she just rolled her eyes again, but not hard enough to suppress her still present smile.

"At least you now know to study for that question beforehand this time, I feel like I should be taking notes," Regulus offered sympathetically to Peter for that test fatigue.

Peter grinned at him, before giving Prongs an aggrieved look for the book's insult on him. "I'm sure I was too busy helping you study for Arithmancy you ponce, excuse me if I don't fawn over every detail of Moony's arse like Padfoot does!"

James grinned in surprise for the shot back like he hadn't in the book and finally decided maybe Regulus was a good influence if Peter wasn't going to take it all in stride anymore. He opened his mouth to retaliate, but stopped quickly when Evans snorted in disgust about him having the Snitch on him.

"You took a whole ruddy test with that in your pocket?" Longbottom asked him in disbelief. "I'd have gone mad, that thing messing around, distracting me."

"Guess we all can't be natural multi-taskers," he jeered, but then stopped laughing in surprise when Longbottom kept going, and Harry wondered why he didn't tell Wormtail to knock off the attention. He'd never told anyone to stop that, why would he? It was fun!

Peter didn't go as pink at Sirius's next jib at him, but he still looked mildly embarrassed at how obviously he was envying them. It really was no wonder to him they thought him an idiot, he didn't exactly hide it.

The Marauders actually left this group's center of attention though, when they got the crowd's notice of catching sight of Snape, again. The following back-and-forth of curses was familiar to even first-years by that point, Potter's crude sneer, and Sirius Black's twitching hands made it very obvious they wished they could have been doing this the whole time for as pent up and frustrated as they'd been for so very long now.

Lily cringed as she finally did make an appearance, though she'd apparently been there the whole time, just watching. She wondered what Harry thought of her defending him. He was not like his father, he didn't go around cursing Malfoy for his own pleasure, but she wouldn't be surprised if her worries came true now and he'd be upset at his own mother stopping his father's form of fun.

Potter interrupted his own crass comment of why exactly he was cursing Snape, she'd heard that too many times anyways and was almost grateful when he asked her, "I noticed that took two curses longer than usual actually. You two must be really fighting an awful lot to take so long to step in by next week."

She met his eyes with a blazing scowl, she did not need him analyzing her decisions!

He raised his hands in surrender and turned back to the book with open curiosity like McGonagall had just snapped at him to pay attention, then he flinched in surprise and covered his cheek when Snape finally got a curse back, and a dark one at that. Blood apparently went splattering around!

Sirius snarled in disgust and crumbled the last cookie up in his fist in disgust at that display, but at least Prongs got retaliation by stringing Snivellus up by his pants, and Evans even laughed at that!

They all looked wildly at her for that display, but she was already trying to quickly smooth her face out and pretend no such thing would make her laugh, that she hadn't wanted to do the very same to him the amount of times he'd been ignoring her since before Easter break.

James leapt wildly to his feet now, beaming at her and raising his fist to start shouting in glee he'd actually gotten her to laugh- when Frank had kept going, and Snape said it.

The rushing noise in her ear sounded as loud as thunder, but she knew that was all in her head for how deadly silent her house had gotten. She wanted to accuse Frank of lying, but there was no mistaking that ghastly look on his face for even uttering the word, let alone who'd just really spat it at her. She wanted to run up to her room, curl up in a ball and cry until he came over to her window and apologized, but that just wasn't going to be good enough this time.

It only left one available emotion to pour down on her, to drown her in tidal waves, and she acted on it purely from impulse, if she stopped to consider it, she'd explode. She turned on her heel and walked calmly to the front door, and while it opened, she couldn't even take the one lone step off her stoop. She was trapped in here still, encased in this bubble, and she couldn't go burn down their spot.

Then she snapped, and she screamed. She shouted every spell she knew at this thing, and when they all vanished with no visible trace, she dropped her wand and beat her fists against it until she was sure they'd come away bloody and raw. She just wanted out!

Alice knew there weren't enough kind words in the world to soften this blow, and a part of her mind branched off to wonder just what Lily had gone off to destroy next week. She'd mentioned her and Snape often brewed secret potions together, and she wondered if that would have been thrown through a wall somewhere in school. Then she went forward to stop her suicidal boyfriend in concern as he finally couldn't take seeing her like that any more than she could, and he came forward to grab her.

She reared back with a vengeance, headbutting his nose so that he was bleeding again, but he barely flinched as he half picked her up, half dragged her back inside and sat down on the nearest couch with her still trembling in his arms.

Alice darted forward and grabbed her wand, quickly pocketing it while Frank promised her, "just breathe Lily, you're going to hurt yourself. I'll hold him down while you kill him when we get back, but you can't keep that up forever."

She seemed to disagree, still pushing feebly at his arms and shaking her head over and over, still uttering through a now hoarse throat she wanted out of here. Alice's heart broke as she imagined Lily, all alone in the dungeons like this, and wanted to kill Snape herself.

Somewhere in the background, Remus had picked up the book and kept reading, though neither of them really thought the next location would make this feel any better. Then Alice's eyes brightened as she remembered something, but she bit her lip before she could act on it when the adult Snape finally appeared to drag Harry away.

This had been called Snape's Worst Memory, but what about it was the worst part? She wanted to believe it's what he'd called his best friend, but had it simply been Potter's arrogance once more in front of everyone like that? It's certainly what was implied when he actually shook Harry, and threw him from the room.

She wasn't sure if Lily was going to hit her for it, but Alice went over and hugged her as well, noting with relief her shaking was finally slowing and she was watching the wall separating her from the book. Alice didn't quite get a chance to register that expression as Harry's last line shocked them all, and they were torn away.

HPHPHPHPHP

To Sanne (Guest):

"Lily, whose furious expression had twitched for an instant as though she was going to smile, said, "Let him down!"

A quote from the book none ever seem to acknowledge that always fascinated me, Lily does get some sort of petty relish out of Snape's torment in this scene but doesn't ever let anyone see. Her reaction in this chapter is admittedly a fanon answer to this moment, but one I stand by, she did find it justifiably funny he never listened to her to stop fighting and this was his comeuppance.

No, I don't think James was a bully, as that statement involves malicious intent of someone else's pain on a repeated basis on a vulnerable other.  I never for once believed Snape was vulnerable, let alone never retaliated with just as many horrible things back. As Remus himself said, Snape never left an opportunity to curse him. I imagine all manor of unsavory retaliation, but individually to them if Snape found them alone. Did Snape laugh while he did that to them? I personally think so.

Fighting from both parties is not mutual bullying, it's a recurring battle that one side had to stop to make it right. James stopped first. Snape joined the Death Eater's.

This lone memory is Snape's worst because of what he said to Lily.  What James was doing was Harry's focus, but not even Snape's, as confirmed in Prince's Tale when the memory replays in conjunction with his other times with Lily, not all of what happened between him and James.

Considering Snape is a bully to the entire student population the past years already as a teacher I don't believe for a second he wasn't the same in his youth, and don't tell me it was to keep his cover as a Death Eater. That is a bull excuse for his behavior when he could have just been a passive nobody and kept his nose down to be in Dumbledore's good graces, hell it would make more sense for him to try to be the best teacher ever if his 'plan' was to infiltrate Dumbledore's school on Voldemort's orders. James' entire character should not be based around this sole instance as so many people do. Snape had years to change his behavior both before and after what he did to Lily; instead of hating a child for his parentage and making Hermione, Neville, and likely countless others feel tormented.

As always if you disagree I encourage you to tell me, I have no problems discussing differences of opinion and I hope you enjoy the rest of the fic.

[slytherin-team]

On Petunia Evans Dursley, or how I imagine & re-imagine her character

So, I re-read HP and Snape’s memories of Lily and Petunia really stood out to me. 

Since re-reading the whole series, I’ve become a bit obsessed with Snape and Petunia.

I want to talk about Petunia’s character.

Now, I like starving-her- nephew- and -locking- him -in- a- cupboard Aunt Petunia as much as the next person (which is to say, not at all)

However, Petunia’s character has to be one of the things that bothers me most about HP or one of the things that I see as the biggest missed opportunity on JKR’s part.

Now, I don’t entirely blame JKR for making Petunia a one-dimensional villain. HP started out as a children’s book and the Dursleys are very much like Matilda’s family. They’re just there to be entirely awful and also to contrast muggle “ordinariness” with wizard “specialness.” Additionally, everyone is familiar with the fairytale evil stepmother and Petunia fills that cliched trope as well.

But as the series becomes darker and less for children and as we learn more about the complicated history between muggles and wizards, the presence of only one-dimensional (Dursleys, at least the parents) or barely present (the Grangers) muggles becomes rather irksome, considering how the war is all about prejudice towards muggles and muggle-borns.

These things didn’t bother me or even occur to me so much as a kid reading the series and that’s why I can’t entirely blame JKR on this one thing. She knew her target audience (kids) would identify with the witches and wizards, see the muggles as boring and dull like the adults around them, and not care so much about the broader picture. 

I don’t know if my new way of looking at the series comes from simply re-reading it, or more specifically, from being an adult re-reading it, but I find myself super interested in examining what it means to be a muggle who is aware of the magical world and this what draws me to Aunt Petunia.

If I could make any change to the series, I would make Petunia a more gray, nuanced and fleshed out character, much like Snape (who I actually think she is very similar to and I’ll get into that). She would still give preferential treatment to her own son, but she would not outright abuse Harry by starving him or locking him up. She would ensure he’s well-fed and healthy but she would not be affectionate with him, but rather cold and distant, so similar to how she already acts but minus the serious abuse. 

 I would pepper in moments where Petunia stares at Harry with empty eyes or glances at him while he’s not looking. I would have Harry notice these small moments from time to time and wonder why his Aunt takes care of him yet is so cold towards him. He would unravel this mystery of her behavior, just as he unraveled Snape’s and Petunia would get a redemption arc, like Snape. I haven’t thought of all the details but I like the idea of her getting more involved later in the series and being a useful muggle character. Eventually, she would open up about Lily as well and reveal her regrets. She would also have a heart to heart with Harry and wish him luck before going into hiding.

Vernon would still be a jerk but not outright abusive because Petunia wouldn’t allow for that. Dudley would still get away with his bullying, particularly when Petunia is out of sight, but maintain the growth he did show in the series, perhaps taking it a bit further.

As much as I prefer my version of Petunia, the actual Petunia we get, while not a good or redeemable person by any means, is still really great as a character and as a villain, she has a good origin story.

Hate adult Petunia all you want, but child Petunia, in my opinion, is nothing but sympathetic and probably one of the most relatable characters in the series, and I will go through this.

We all wish the HP world was real, but of course, if it was, we’d all want to be witches and wizards. We all want to go to Hogwarts. 

Severus tells Lily, “It’s real for us, not for her.”

He’s right and he’s wrong. It’s real for Petunia, she just can’t be a part of it.

Now, personally, I think being a squib would feel a lot more unfair than being a muggle with muggle parents whose sibling just happens to be a witch and even if Petunia’s parents did favor Lily for being a witch, they can’t be prejudice towards Petunia for her lack of magic when they lack magic themselves. 

But squibs might actually be looked down upon by their magical parents and they seem to have no choice but to enter the muggle world even though they grew up in the magical world, and if they do stay in the magical world, they’re seen as lesser and I can’t imagine there’s much for them to do. Maybe they could work in Muggle relations but that’s not given much prestige (even though it should be an important thing) Petunia feels barred from the magical world but at least she doesn’t have to leave her own world. 

Still, Petunia is just a kid and she doesn’t know about all the intricacies of the magical world or about squibs. She just sees that her sister has abilities that she doesn’t and access to a really exciting world that she doesn’t. So, her jealousy and feelings of inferiority are totally understandable. 

Of course, in her jealousy of Lily, lack of knowledge about the intricacies of the magical world, and overall myopic view because of her youth, I think there’s something that Petunia doesn’t realize.

Lily is also in a difficult position, perhaps in some ways more difficult than Petunia. At least Petunia has a clear line. She’s a muggle and can fit into the muggle world.

Lily is a witch, so despite being born into the muggle world, she’s different, but that doesn’t mean she can fully integrate into the magical world. In some ways, the prejudice against muggle-borns and the specific slur for them makes them seem more hated and distrusted by certain segments of the wizarding world than even muggles themselves. 

And Lily graduated Hogwarts at the time of Voldemort’s rise and we’re told that the first wizarding war was much more intense than the second. Marlene Mckinnon and her entire family were killed. Voldemort had a bunch of creatures on his side. Petunia could be blissfully ignorant of all this and cocoon herself in her safe “ordinary” world at least. Safety didn’t seem like a choice for Lily, although she certainly had agency and chose to fight for the Order. But it seems that muggleborns would be hunted regardless.

Perhaps if Petunia had realized this, she would have had more sympathy for her sister and also realize that she herself  is lucky in some regards. Maybe she could have cultivated her own talents and focused on them instead of putting all of her energy into being jealous and petty.

I also have this other idea I like, of Petunia developing healthy coping mechanisms to deal with her jealousy and then finally embracing the magical world - instead of turning away from it entirely to be as “ordinary” as possible- and then becoming the muggle version of Arthur Weasley- that is, a muggle who is a bit of a “magicphile” 

Getting back on track, Petunia’s ordinariness could be her strength, at least as a character, it makes her relatable. Young Petunia, like young Severus, is the underdog, and that sort of makes you want to cheer for her or at least see her get a slice of the cake at least once in her life.

While I’ve grown to like Lily as a character more because of my re-analysis of her situation - which makes her an underdog too- I used to really hate her, for the same reason Petunia hated her. Like really? This girl has powerful magic, is beautiful, gregarious, kind, brave, strong, loved and desired by everyone...yadda yadda yadda...gimme a break! 

And so many fans who love Lily don’t realize that they’re probably Petunias, not Lilies.

Even looking at the flowers themselves- petunias are actually really beautiful and come in such a wide variety (the night sky petunia is my favorite) - and yet they’re often overlooked because they’re so common.

James is an awful bully but at least that counteracts his perfectness in every other area (looks, school, sports, etc) What are Lily’s flaws? What does she struggle with other than being muggleborn? It seems that maybe both she and James were too naive and trusting (not to victim-blame her for her own death or anything) but what else? We’re not told and so she just seems perfect, not very interesting for a character.

A lot of the things Petunia says as a child that fans interpret as mean or revealing of her hatred of magic from a young age, are actually things she seems to regurgitate from the adults around her. 

For example, when Lily is flying from a swing, Petunia chides her by saying, “mom, told you not to do that!” Although we know Petunia’s parents favored Lily, I get the sense that their favoritism and even awareness of Lily’s magic didn’t come until after the Hogwarts letter, which is when a representative would have come to the family to explain things. Before then...I’m not sure but maybe her parents didn’t realize what was going on and just didn’t want her jumping out of swings? Anyway, I think Petunia is just trying to be the responsible older sister and is repeating her mother.

I’m pretty sure when Lily makes the flower grow, Petunia gets a bit freaked out and maybe also says something about how she shouldn’t be doing that but she’s also described as asking Lily how she does it, with “longing” in her voice. So she’s juggling trying to be the responsible older sister with being totally weirded out because how the heck is her sister making flowers grow in her hand, to being curious, and this is when her burgeoning envy (totally understandable) starts to emerge as well.

Then little Snape enters the picture to unintentionally erode the sisters’ relationship even further. It’s also here that Petunia makes another comment that fans point to as proof of her snobbery and cruelty from a young age, but actually, it’s just proof that she took what adults told her to heart, and since she was older than Lily, she probably heard more gossip and knew more about their town in general.

After Snape pops out to tell Lily she’s a witch and that he’s a wizard, Petunia is the first of the sisters to speak.

Here’s the direct quote from Petunia: “Wizard! I know who you are. You’re that Snape boy! They live down Spinner’s End by the river,” 

This little statement is endlessly fascinating to me, it raises so many questions.

Why does Petunia know who Snape is? Why does she recognize him? How does she know his name and what he looks like? We know adult Petunia is nosy and loves watching all the neighbors. Was child Petunia snooping around, if so then how close did Snape live to the sisters? How close is the sisters’ house to Spinner’s End and the river? 

If she was snooping around, then it’s kind of ironic that she was spying on Snape while he was spying on her and Lily ( he says he’s been watching Lily but Lily is always with Petunia outside so even if it’s not intentional, he’s watching Petunia too) Even if she was snooping around, why would Petunia wander to Spinner’s End? Does she share Harry’s deathly curiosity and adventurous streak? She says “they” so does she know what Snape’s parents look like? How much does she know about the family and his home life?

My first thought actually wasn’t that she was snooping around but rather, that she was regurgitating the nasty things that adults had said. But this raises another question, which adults? We’re told later that Snape and Lily sneak into Petunia’s room to read her letter to Dumbledore, which means that Snape was in the Evan’s family’s home, and we also know that the Evans parents are impressed by witches and wizards, so it would seem that they approved of Snape. 

So then, who would have told Petunia about the Snape family? Did she just hear rumors and gossip about them from older townsfolk? I always imagine Lily as either 9 or 10 and Petunia as either 11 or 12 in this scene, only a two year difference between them but at that age, it’s enough for Petunia to be more involved in what adults are saying and for Lily to be oblivious.

From here, Petunia asks Severus why he’s been spying, and again, she seems like the protective sister. I really like her in this scene. I don’t interpret her as snobby or classist. She’s too young. I see her as a kid influenced by the adults around her and as sort of a gryffindor/slytherin hybrid, bravely stepping between her sister and the strange boy calling her a witch, while also being judgemental of outsiders.I think she possesses a lot of the qualities of both Lily and Severus.

This scene is also when Sev spitefully calls Petunia a muggle, a word she had never heard before but immediately recognizes as inferior. 

“Haven’t been spying. Wouldn’t spy on you any. You’re a muggle.”

It’s shown later that all three of these kids love to spy and snoop around (not unlike the golden trio - except they’re not spying with each other but on each other) but Sev and Petunia definitely share a heightened nosiness, a certain degree of haughtiness, a superiority complex coupled with an inferiority complex, and a strong sense of self-preservation and pride that is very slytherin. Opposites may attract but I think it’s the couples with common ground that last, and enemies-friends-lovers will never go out of style, so the potential set-up for Snetunia is just too good to pass over and plays a big role in why I love shipping them together.

Okay, and after this, Petunia then spies on Lily and Sev. The “she’s jealous. You're special. She’s ordinary” line is in the movie not the book but I love it because it encapsulates Petunia’s insecurities perfectly and also shows how Sev puts Lily on a pedestal, and the magical world as a whole on a pedestal. It’s sad that he gets abused at Hogwarts after being abused at home but it also just goes to show that wizards, witches and muggles are all just people and not necessarily inferior or superior to one another.

Petunia overhears Sev telling Lily about the dementors and that’s when she loses her footing and gets caught spying. Sev then shouts, “Who’s spying now! What d’you want?” I find it interesting how Sev and Petunia mirror each other so much.

This is when Petunia insults Sev by saying “What are you wearing anyway? Your mother’s blouse?” She obviously has nothing to say in regards to the spying accusation because she was so obviously spying, so she tried to deflect it with an insult. She’s just as defensive as Sev. After she says, the infamous tree branch incident happens, in which Sev gets revenge by making a tree branch fall over her head. This is what prompted Petunia, years later, to refer to Sev as “that awful boy” when she reveals to Harry that she knows what the dementors are because she “overheard that awful boy talking about them.”

Okay, onto the Hogwarts letter, which raises many questions as well.

“You shouldn’t have read – ”  Petunia had whispered, “that was my private – how could you – ?”.

Lily gave herself away by half-glancing toward where Severus stood nearby. 

Petunia gasped. “That boy found it! You and that boy have been sneaking in my room!” 

“No – not sneaking – ” Now Lily was on the defensive. “Severus saw the envelope, and he couldn’t believe a Muggle could have contacted Hogwarts, that’s all! He says there must be wizards working undercover in the postal service who take care of – ”

Okay, so this is soooo interesting. 

Adult Petunia is presented as a woman with a long neck who always has her nose in other people’s business and she’s not much different as a child. But despite this trait being used to amplify her villain role, it seems the “good guys” and the “grey guys” love meddling in this way as well. 

I really feel for Petunia in this scene. I think that Hogwarts letter and Dumbledore’s reply rejecting her (even if it was kind) was one of the biggest moments of failure, disappointment and embarrassment in her life and remember, she’s probably about 2 years older than Lily so she would be 13 here and that’s just not a nice age either and I think that makes losing her sister and being rejected hurt even more. Privacy is such a big deal when you’re 13 too, that’s like peak private diary age, so to have your little sister and her gross friend sneaking into your room at that time, what an invasion that must feel like.

But….what the heck was going through Sev’s mind?!?

I doubt Lily suggested that she and Sev sneak into Petunia’s room. Why would Sev want to go into Petunia’s room? She’s just a muggle after all. He sees the letter, but how? After going into her room?

He couldn’t believe a muggle contacted Hogwarts? Was he secretly impressed by her? He thinks there must be wizards undercover in the muggle postal service...well we’re never told how Petunia sends the letter but it’s often said that there’s more to her than meets the eye. I like to think she was cunning, determined, smart and slytherin enough to find out how to send the letter on her own and that’s probably what made Dumbldore even reply. I think she’s someone who always had a lot of potential but was crippled by feelings of inferiority and self-doubt, much like Severus.

Petunia and Severus both obsess over Lily to the point that it destroys them. Petunia, in her jealousy, deep down worries that Lily is better than her and compensates for this by calling her a freak. Sev never takes Lily off the pedestal even as they begin to grow apart and just as Petunia sinks deeper into her “ultra ordinary” prejudiced persona, Sev sinks deeper into his half-blood prince persona. He hates muggles because of his father, while Petunia hates magic (or pretends to) because of her sister. Sev and Petunia are two sides of the same coin then. They both also never go on to reconcile with Lily and they go on to resent her son while also protecting him.

I said it at the beginning of all this rambling, but I’ll say it again - I wish Petunia had been as layered and grey as Sev, instead of just the bland evil stepmother figure.

So, just to be clear, the adult Petunia we get in the actual books is deplorable but I still love her character because I love how many more satisfying ways there are to re-imagine her and what she could have been. Snape’s memories - the only time we see Petunia’s past - are so rich and revealing and just have me endlessly fascinated about Petunia’s potential.

This was super long but I’ve been dying to word vomit about this character - and I’ll probably do some more word vomit meta about Snape & Petunia later on ~

Oh and regarding what it means to be a muggle in the magical world or adjacent to the magical world - don’t even get me started on the statute of secrecy! Maybe one of the reasons Petunia did turn out so awful was because she had to bear the burden of knowing about magic but not being part of it all by herself, like she couldn’t just tell her friends her sister is a witch and vent. So, maybe she had to bottle everything up.

She also mentions in the book, her sister bringing home frogs and turning them into tea cups - to an outsider maybe that looks like animal abuse or raises ethical questions.

Obliviating muggles certainly seems unethical to me and the ministry does it with great abandon.

I wish this was explored more in the series.

Petunia has a right to be skeptical it would seem, and naturally fearful as well.

[oliveheart-worldbuilding]

Aster, Bee Balm, Daffodil, Dahlia, Laurel, Petunia, Rose, and Violet? I'd also add Gardenia but it's impossible to escape murder cats.

Hi there! Thank you so much for the ask! Once again, I’m sorry for taking so long to answer!

Adding a read more because this one is pretty long.

Aster- Who’s your least favorite character? Why?

This one is a bit difficult for me, I read many of the books a long time ago and I’m sure if I were to read them again my opinion on a lot of characters would be very different. Going only by memory I would say that Bluestar is one of my least favorite characters but then I would have to add many female characters that I now feel were completely mistreated by the authors and whose entire arcs where thrown under the bus in the name of forbidden love or man pain. I never liked Silverstream, but nowadays I know that whom I actually hate is Graystripe. I used to not like Leafpool or Squirrelflight at all, now I don’t. What I’m trying to say is that my opinion changes constantly and a lot. I read the books a long time ago and did so with a completely different mindset (I was 16 when I read Omen of the Stars and oh man was I edgy and stupid back then), most of my opinions nowadays are based on the potential the characters have rather than the actual character. So bearing that in mind:

-Bluestar: I know, I know, a lot of you love her a lot but even after reading people’s opinions on her I just… eh I don’t like her at all. She feels incredibly detached in the first books. To me she always treated Firepaw rather coldly. I know a lot of people talk about Bluestar as if she had become Firepaw’s adoptive mother but I just don’t see it. Reading about her losing her faith was very interesting, so was her crumping mind health but, I just gotta draw the line on how terrible she was to Brightpaw. In this house we love and respect Brightpaw and Bluestar was just very nasty to her. I really didn’t like her novella at all either. Based on her relationship with Whitestorm in The Prophecies Begin I always thought that she might have played an important role in his life after Snowfur died but, it doesn’t seem that way at all? The only moment we see them interact is when she tells Whitekit, in a very distressing way may I add, that her mother is dead and never coming back. To me, she also comes in as selfish and power-hungry, she spends a huge part of the book complaining about Thistleclaw (bear in mind, back then he was only overly ambitious, not a pedophile) and his relationship with her sister, even though she herself is spending time with Oakheart, a tom from another clan. When Goosefeather tells her about the prophecy he never specifies that she must be the one becoming leader, only that Thistleclaw is not meant to become one and yet she goes out of her way to become the leader so much so that she’s willing to risk her kittens’ safety (killing one in the process) just so she can be available for the position. She could have just uuuuhmmmm told Sunstar about the prophecy? Also I’m pretty sure Sunstar assures her that Thistleclaw would not have made a good leader multiple times so… he could have chosen literally anyone else? Rosetail? Thrustpelt? Don’t get me started on the whole Tigerkit dilemma! She chooses to believe Goosefeather prophecies when they strengthen her own personal bias but when she’s told about Tigerkit’s she just goes “aw man Goosefeather sure is crazy hahaha anyway back on me becoming leader”. I don’t know, there’s more to it but this is getting pretty long. Personally she’s just not my favorite.

-Graystripe: He’s a terrible friend, he treats Fireheart like absolute garbage, he chooses a molly he has known for exactly 2 days over his best friend and his entire clan, he leaves Thunderclan to spend more time with his kittens just to abandon them 5 seconds later, and yet the son of a bitch was somehow always meant to become deputy to Firestar??? Just because they are friends??? Dude went against the warrior code, endangered his clan by refusing to fight Riverclan, was incredible close to causing an all-out war with Riverclan, abandoned his clan, refused to see what was wrong about his behavior just because he was in love… How in the f is he a good warrior??? Erins I want answers; this man is garbage. When he gets captured by the humans and comes back to the lake he gets so SO mad at Firestar for not “waiting for him”, my dude you were gone for seasons, you were deputy, you really expect the entire clan to stop working so that you can keep your friendship bracelet position? Everybody thought you were dead Graystripe!! Was everyone supposed to keep vigil forever?? He’s also a terrible father to both his litters, his reaction to being told that Feathertail’s dead is “aw man… she was so beautiful… like her mom…” that’s terribleeee. At some point in Omen of the Stars, after Briarlight broke her spine, Millie complains about Graystripe not helping her at all and then they start fighting about it, Graystripe’s only answer is something along the lines of “yeah whatever dude”. I hate him so much. I stopped reading after The Last Hope, so I can’t talk about the rest but, I’ve seen some parts of Graystripe’s Vows and let me tell I want this man gone for good. He’s lived for too long.

-Lionblaze: He’s the most flavorless character in the history of flavorless characters. What’s his arc? That’s right. He doesn’t have one. I literally have nothing to say about him. How is this character alive and in his way to become leader when Hollyleaf could have been in his place? Disgusting. Also, dreaming about killing your girlfriend and bathing in her blood? Bad. Not showing not even a bit of remorse about after waking up? Terrible. Badly hurting her mentor when you were trying harm her? Just straight up fucked up. He’s badly written, boring and kind of very misogynist at times.

I have many other opinions because I’m a very judgmental person but I’m gonna leave it at that because this is getting very long.

Bee Balm- What’s your favorite novella or super edition?

I’ve only read three! So Crockedstar’s promise I guess.

Daffodil- When did you first start reading the books?

In the summer of 6th grade, that’s when I was… 11-12 years old? I think? So in 2012-2013, I started reading them in Spanish but I read through them super-fast and the translations were super slow to come out so I just started reading the books in English. It actually helped my English level quite a bit! My first English book was The Forest of Secrets I think.

Dahlia- Has any death scene actually made you cry? What was it?

Snowfur’s (Reading about Whitekit screaming at her mother to wake up was super messed up), Yellowfang’s (I loved that old woman. I wish they hadn’t written about her in Starclan, she’s so out of character in later books) and Hollyleaf’s death (yes, first and second time, young me loved her to pieces. I still can’t believe they let her die a second time when Lionblaze’s flavorless ass was right there…).

Laurel- If you could write the books, what changes would you make?

I would contemplate the idea of just, moving forward in time? The warriors’ series feels very stagnant. Young characters die while having no personality at all and older characters from the first series are still alive and very much immortal at this point. We need new fresh blood.

I would just set up a completely new series: maybe the stories of Firestar and his family have been immortalized, maybe they are now revered as gods or something, I would create an actual religion system, one based in nature, the death and rebirth of all things and the need to remember those who have fallen. I would change their entire culture so that elders are more important; medicine cats are not regarded as useless (I’m looking at every character that forced in this position instead of choosing it themselves) and the warrior code actually makes sense.

The setting of this new series would be the lake territories but a long time has passed since the time of Firestar and things have changed a lot. A kittypet joins the clans and through their perspective we see how they work and act, what makes every single one of them different, their culture and laws, etc. It would be a nod to the first series while being completely new. It would also allow to add new characters from the start so they all have personalities and relationships with each other.

I would also contemplate creating one last series set up in the time of the original clans where everything just goes to hell. You guys remember rabies? I want that + Starclan going crazy. A full out massacre of old characters that ends in only a few surviving ones. I want blood, and I want it to be scary. If children can read about Tigerclaw’s horrible death, then they can read what in my opinion would be a zombie/ghost apocalypse. And then I would start anew with this completely new series set up in the future.

I mean, I would rewrite a looooooot of things, but that’s a talk for another day.

Petunia- Which arc is your favorite? Which is your last favorite?

My favorite is The Prophecies Begin when it comes to the plot and the Power of Three when it comes to characters. My least favorite is the New Prophecy.

Rose- Do you prefer traditional naming or creative naming?

Traditional all the way! I like when things have meaning and each name having its own really helps the feeling of there being a pre-established culture! Creative naming just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me in this context but that’s just my personal taste.

Violet- What do you think is the worst trope in the series?

Already answered!

Gardenia- Do you think you’ll ever leave the fandom?

Probs not, I’m in too deep, warriors is always at the back of my mind...