Chapter 3: Snape's Revenge
On the day after the incident between James and Snape, Petunia sat in the library once again, doing homework. She had just finished her essay on "How To Perform A Correct Summoning Charm And When It Can Be Useful In Everyday Life", when she heard footsteps behind her.
A slight nervousness overcame Petunia, and she felt, for some reason as if she were experiencing a déjà vu. When she turned to face the person approaching her, her heart stopped for a second.
Petunia now realized why she had thought she was experiencing a déjà vu. Behind her stood a boy who had, almost four years previously, sneaked up on her as she sat on this very spot in the library.
As Snape grew nearer, and Petunia's apprehension grew, she found herself cursing her love of privacy.
'Why? Why the back of the library? Why the bloody back?' she was thinking, as the curtain of greasy hair and that large, protruding nose drew nearer to Petunia's face, and she attempted to ignore the tall boy.
"Hey, Evans," he said coolly, looking into Petunia's eyes, "Did you happen to see your sister yesterday?”
Really, Petunia shouldn’t have been that scared of Snape, but for some reason he had always made her more nervous even than the others in his little gang. Perhaps it was the fact that even they didn't seem to respect him much, but he was still allowed to hang around with them. Or maybe it was just because she had known him for so long, and she was sure he was the one person always comparing her to Lily, even here, at Hogwarts.
"I don't know...I mean.... why are you telling me that you saw Lily yesterday?" Petunia stuttered, genuinely surprised and quite apprehensive.
"I think you did see that... err... scene yesterday, did you?"
Thinking of those old Muggle movies her dad loved so much; Petunia decided her best bet would be to just "deny everything".
"I wasn't even near the lake yesterday," she replied, calmly. A second after the words escaped her mouth, Petunia could have kicked herself.
"Then how, one might ask, do you know anything happened by the lake yesterday? I think you saw your Gryffindor savior and Lily out there.” His mouth had twisted into an odd, sardonic smirk.
That was odd. How could he even know that she fancied James? Her Gryffindor savior? This, Petunia surmised, was why so many people disliked Snape. There were definitely more pressing matters at hand, though.
"Well, Snivellus, she sure has every right to think she's better than a slime-ball like you!" came a male voice from the doorway, "Evans, get out of here. You shouldn’t see this!”
Petunia stumbled towards the door, tripping over her own feet, with eyes only for James. James wanted to save her. James was her hero.
"Hello? Are you okay?" Sirius was waving a hand in front of Petunia's face. She was torn from her thoughts of James, as he asked her again.
"Are you alright, Evans?”
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Thanks. Thanks! You guys saved me!" she said quickly, feeling pretty giddy at being with the Marauders and, most of all, James.
"James's idea. He thought it was a really cowardly thing to for Snape to beat up on someone younger than him. I say Snivellus was too cowardly to face Lily herself. Should have been grateful, the bastard." Sirius gave that sexy little grin that June so loved, but the flip in Petunia’s stomach had nothing to do with that, and everything to do with the fact that James was exiting the classroom she had just left.
"Th-thanks. Thank you so much. I don't know what would've happened if you hadn't saved me. I could've died! Thank you!" Petunia gushed, which was not normal for someone usually as down-to-earth and skeptical as she prided herself in being.
In fact, Petunia had to admit that that she was overdoing it. Snape would not have killed, her she was sure. Blushing bright red, she hung her head in shame. What would James think of her now?
His next statement seemed to match her thoughts.
"Ah, that's okay, don't get excited now."
"Why did you help me? We're not even friends. Do you really like my sister?"
Petunia clapped her hand over her mouth just in time. Her inquisitive (her mum always called it downright nosy) side had gotten the best of her. She had been about to ask every single question she had been wondering about for years in one breath, perhaps thereby admitting her secret feelings.
"Never mind," she said.
Sirius, Remus and Peter, who were all walking alongside of James grinned knowingly, as James blushed slightly at the mention of Lily.
"We can change that, you know? The bit about us not being friends.”
Petunia knew James was probably just trying to change the subject. Still it was hard for her not to show her excitement at these words. Her, Petunia Evans, friends with James Potter? Her secret crush for the past four years? This couldn't be true, it was much too wonderful.
"You really mean that? I mean you actually would want to hang out with me? With me?"
James turned, a bit questioningly (probably at her excitement), to Sirius, who turned his head to stifle a chuckle. Remus frowned slightly and looked back at Petunia.
He saw the tall, gangly girl with a long neck, the outcast, and smiled.
"Yeah, I think that's what he was suggesting. Or are we so low-down that you wouldn't want to be seen with us?" he joked, then added in a stage whisper: "Wouldn't surprise me, you know, with these two around.”
He and Peter chuckled, as James and Sirius playfully punched each of Remus' arms.
Petunia watched the four boys in front of her, as they joked, and suddenly she giggled, another very un-Petunia-ish thing.
"Yeah. Yeah. You lot seem okay." She blushed madly.
And so, the four Marauders and their newfound friend walked towards the grounds.
"So, Ev...ah, I mean Petunia, (that's your name, right? Good) tell us about yourself," Sirius said.
Petunia still couldn't believe her unimaginable luck. Next to her stood the boy she had loved for four years, the boy she had thought fancied her sister. The boy that now wanted to be her friend.
'Well, I don't know whether he really does like Lily.' she thought hopefully.
'Of course he does' said another little voice in her head 'you saw him yesterday by the lake!'
'Oh, shut up,' she told herself, 'for once forget who you are, and just have fun and accept the good things in life. It may sound cliché, but James is by your side, just let go.'
And so, just for that day, for that afternoon, for that moment, she did.
"Well, I grew up in a small suburb of London..." she started, amidst much laughter.