Chapter 1: James
Petunia walked up to the stool with the old hat on it. She had never been this nervous before in her life. As she looked out into the sea of faces staring up at her, Petunia recognized her sister, Lily. Lily was gazing at her younger sister with mild interest. Petunia knew she didn't want people to realize they were related. Of course she didn't.
Lily and Petunia had never gotten along, as Petunia thought Lily had always been their parents’ favorite. She was beautiful, she was clever, and she was extremely talented at everything she did. Petunia was none of those things. She was just, had always been, Petunia. A tall, long-necked, horsey-teethed, plain girl with lanky, brown hair. It had seemed, also, that Lily was a witch and Petunia was just a "Muggle" for almost a year. Petunia smiled a little; at least the world hadn't been quite that unjust to her.
As Petunia sat on the stool, Lily began chatting quietly with the girl next to her. This girl was June, and she was to Lily the sister she had never had. Well, more accurately, June was the sister Lily wished she had. In reality, Lily did have a sister, after all.
Petunia knew June, as she had visited the Evans' home a lot, during the last summer break: Lily's first one back from Hogwarts. June had blond hair, and the perfect tan; a vision of pre-adolescent beauty, only contested by Lily, with her flowing red hair and almond-shaped, bright green eyes.
"Well, well. I saw your sister just a year ago," whispered a voice in Petunia's ear, "Never seen siblings so different. Hmmm... A difficult choice. Potential, yes. You could be great at whatever you set your mind to. Very stubborn. Honesty. But do I detect… a jealous nature? Oh, this is a challenge... loyalty, yes.... let's make it..." anxious beads of sweat were building on Petunia's forehead.
"Hufflepuff!" yelled the hat. Petunia jumped up, placed the hat carefully on the stool and hurried towards the table decorated with black and yellow banners, where the students began clapping loudly.
Petunia looked momentarily over towards Lily, sitting at the Gryffindor table, but her sister's gaze was already focused on Frank, Luisa, who had just placed the sorting hat atop her black curls.
Sitting down, Petunia received many a pat on the back. She did not feel very proud or happy, though. These people did not like her for her, they were just happy that there were new Hufflepuffs to help them win the evasive house cup she had heard Lily and June talking about. Petunia knew that she could just as easily fall out of favor with all those now congratulating her. They were like her parents' friends, polite, but without real liking or compassion for Petunia. How could they have it, after all? She had never even spoken to any of them. It was all fake.
But at least she was here, at Hogwarts. For a long time, Petunia had worried that she wouldn't be accepted at all. Lily and that horrible boy from down Spinner's End had received letters, and she hadn't. She had written to the Headmaster, Dumbledore, sure there had been a mistake. At first it didn't seem like it, and Petunia had made up her mind that Hogwarts must be a school for freaks. Lily wouldn't stop bragging about going there, and Petunia spent most of a year wishing she could've been as fortunate as Lily was.
And then, finally, there it was. Petunia was a year younger than Lily, so it made sense that the letter should arrive a year later, and there it was. Lily's tantrum when she realized Petunia would be attending Hogwarts also was enough to make Petunia happy enough to apologize for calling her a freak the year before. Her apology hadn't been accepted, and yet, here she sat, beneath an enchanted ceiling, sure that she had entered an enchanted world.
Then she saw him. Sitting at the Gryffindor table, casually looking over at her from between a handsome boy with long black hair, and a chubby, blond boy with small, watery eyes. He was a hazel-eyed boy whom she instantly recognized. She had heard Lily and June complaining about him last summer. This had to be James Potter. He was, like her sister, a second year Gryffindor. Although he was not nearly as handsome as the boy sitting next to him, who, she presumed had to be Sirius Black, whom June "secretly" fancied, James had a sort of rugged sex-appeal (not that Petunia formulated it like that yet). His messed up hair had something cool about it, and Petunia decided, whatever her sister might think, there was something nice about this boy. He turned his head in her direction, and, catching her staring, he grinned and winked. At least she fancied he did, maybe he just had something in his eye. Petunia felt an unfamiliar churning in her stomach. No! This couldn't be happening. But, yes. It was. It was at this point that Petunia decided, subconsciously, that she would befriend James Potter, and that she, in her nosy way, would discover everything there was to know about this boy.
At the end of the meal, and their headmaster's speech, which Petunia had not listened closely to, as she had been too busy watching James, the first years were shown to their common room and dormitories. As Petunia lay in her warm feather bed that night, she thought of James.
He certainly was a character. All through dinner, he and Sirius had been acting like complete loonies, and doing clever tricks. They were very popular, the foursome of James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew (the blond boy Petunia had seen next to James at the meal) and Remus Lupin, especially for second years. Soon, Petunia fell asleep, full of the good food from the feast, and happily dreaming of James.
Two weeks later, Petunia had decided she loved Hogwarts. Hogwarts was the home she felt she had never had, and, although she had not made any friends, she felt great all the time. Still, there had been one incident, which had disquieted her a bit.
As Petunia had sat in the library, one evening, reading an, admittedly rather boring, book, someone spoke to her. He was a tall boy, his lank black hair looked very greasy and his skin was a waxy color. It was Severus Snape, a boy she recognized from her home. He was poor and dirty and cruel. The first she could forgive, but the other two attributes were two Petunia couldn't stand.
"Hey, Evans. You made it in after all, did you?"
Petunia nodded, timidly. She had always been rather afraid of the scary boy from Spinner's End.
"You read the letter didn't you. He never actually said I couldn't come, he just said 'not this year', remember?" she said testily nonetheless.
Snape and Lily had read the response she had gotten from Dumbledore the summer before Lily started at Hogwarts, and Petunia hadn't forgiven this intrusion of her privacy. There were some things she hated, and one was nosiness in other people.
"Oh, very clever. You're still nowhere near as worthy of being here as your sister, Mudblood."
Petunia had no idea what a Mudblood was. But, something told her it was nothing nice. And here he was, comparing her to Lily, Lily who had laughed at her for not being a witch. Lily who could always pretend when their parents were around but who had bragged and laughed when the were gone. Yet, Snape looked menacing, holding his wand at his hand, and Petunia didn't say anything.
Then, suddenly, Snape's wand flew out of his hand, in a blast of red light. James Potter walked towards them.
"Leave her be. Now." James commanded. The boy slunk off, picking his wand up on the way.
James turned to Petunia. "Did he hurt you?" he asked.
"N-no," was all Petunia could manage to stutter.
Truthfully, Petunia hadn’t been that scared. Yes, she had been shaken a bit, because he knew that she was related to Lily, but it was only another student after all. Being this close to James Potter himself, however, the boy who had also just saved her was making Petunia very nervous.
"Well, he knows your sister. Just, keep away from him, don't go off alone, especially at night, and, if Snape..." assuming she didn't know him he continued, "that boy you just, err, met, ever bothers you, let me know."
He turned and walked away serenely.
Petunia smiled at his back, really loving Hogwarts. Here, no one ever compared her to Lily, no one besides Snape, and she could ignore him if James said she could. Most people did not even realize the two were related. Here, at Hogwarts, Petunia was her own person. And for once, she liked herself. And maybe, just maybe, James would too, some day.