Chapter Text
1)
“You okay there, luv?”
Petunia Evans looked up slowly from where she’d been crying in some random ditch she’d found- Cokeworth had a lot of those, and after having her parents praise Lily for her magic again , she’d ran off and gotten herself all sorts of lost.
She shook her head and tried to ignore the person sitting next to her now, wiping her tears and sniffling harshly until a pale hand with midnight black nails intruded on her field of view with a wad of tissues.
“Y’look like you need a friendly face,” the person continued, gently pressing the tissues into Petunia’s hands and smiling. “I’m Sachiel. What’s your name?”
Petunia blinked slowly, barely noticing how the clouds seemed to clear away in that moment as she took in the other girl’s short hair, leather vest, and overall torn up clothes. She was… beautiful, Petunia thought, in a rebellious, improper sort of way.
"...Petunia," she said finally, after wiping her eyes and pretending that they hadn't been that wet after all. "You got a last name?"
The girl had to actually think about that, and that was an answer in and of itself, even before she furrowed her brow and told her, "I dunno, luv. Maybe?"
For a moment, Petunia thought of that horrid Snape kid down at Spinner's End, before she rolled her eyes and said in a sort of haughty manner, "Mine's Evans. My name is Petunia Evans and I'm perfectly normal, thank you very much."
The girl - Sachiel, and that sounded like a very obscure name, giggled at her statement, and Petunia nodded in satisfaction. "Your parents were hippies, weren't they?" she asked pointedly. "The kinds of people with all sorts of weird ideas about parenting and naming their children? I read about it in a book once."
Sachiel looked like she was about to burst out laughing, but she just shrugged. "Sure," she offered, "that works."
Petunia nodded once again, and stood up. "I'm taking you to my place," she declared. "You will meet my parents, and my oh so perfect little sister, and you will be proof that I'm perfectly capable of bringing home lost puppies myself. Got it?"
Sachiel snorted. "Ain't we doin' this backwards?" she inquired. "I thought I was s'posed to be the one who found a crying lass and brought her home?"
"Maybe," Petunia allowed. "...You have any siblings?"
"Too many," Sachiel agreed. "Why?"
Petunia looked at her like she'd lost her mind. "Then you have to get why I must prove to Lily that I am once again as good as if not better than her in something?"
Sachiel grinned. "Well why didn't you say so in the first place, luv? Let's go rub in our superiority!"
“Right, let’s get on then!” Petunia grinned and stood up, strutting back towards home before pausing and looking about in confusion. “... Bollocks, I think I’ve forgotten which way my home is.”
"Any familiar landmarks you know?" Sachiel inquired, looking around herself and noting nothing particularly interesting.
Petunia hummed. "Well, if we can find the river, then I can probably look for Spinner's End and navigate from there... Goodness knows I've been spying on Lily enough around there."
“What’s up with Spinner’s End that’s so worth it that your perfect older sister would go there so much?” Sachiel asked idly, clomping alongside Petunia in her heavy combat boots that Petunia definitely wasn’t jealous of, no way no how. She much preferred her nice, normal, simple flats and there was no way she’d ever want to swagger anywhere near as much as Sachiel was at that moment.
“Eugh, she has a friend there, but apparently they’re on the outs right now and perfect Lily’s been inconsolable about it,” Petunia rolled her eyes, snorting and huffing as she set her face into a heavy frown. "...Also, I'm the older sister."
"Of course," Sachiel agreed.
Petunia nodded imperiously and walked next to Sachiel, in a companionable silence. Then a curiosity occurred to her. "...Exactly how many siblings is too many, anyway?"
Sachiel paused, counting. Counting! Petunia was already sympathetic.
"Thirteen," the other girl finally said and holy shit was that a number. "Fourteen if you count the twins as two people. Fifteen if you count Tabris, but we don't count Tabris."
Petunia put a hand on Sachiel's shoulder. "You have my absolute condolences," she said solemnly.
“Your concern is appreciated,” Sachiel nodded along, clasping her hand over Petunia’s and bowing her head in a moment of silence before breaking the atmosphere with a snicker. “Heh, it’s alright though. Most of us have long since moved out of each other’s hair by now. We’re all a long ways from each other, so there’s not a lot of chances that they’ll show up to bother us.”
Petunia smirked. "Small mercies, then," she quipped. She looked around. "Oh look," she noted, "found the river. Town center is... upstream, Spinner's end is at the edge of town downstream..."
Petunia eyed the river. "We're not in town, but I can see the smokestacks... We go upstream."
“Upstream it is!” Sachiel grinned, letting Petunia lead the way as she whistled a jaunty tune and danced to a beat that only she could hear, boots thudding along noisily while chains rattled around on her pants and vest.
Petunia very carefully admitted to herself that being so carefree and unconcerned with propriety and being a normal girl seemed quite nice. But certainly not for her.
But… maybe in small doses?
Yes, she decided. Small doses. Being in the other girl's company by itself didn't count. It was just company. Perfectly normal to have a friend.
Yes. Perfectly normal.
“Y’know, it actually does get a little nicer as we go upriver,” Sachiel observed idly, looking around the area as she took in the slowly increasing quality of housing that they passed- still obviously poor, but as they neared Petunia’s house the quality abruptly increased to the point that most of the houses actually had properly cared for lawns.
Petunia was quite proud of her own home’s lawn, of course. She’d spent a lot of time gardening in her spare time and her flower garden was blooming quite nicely this year.
"Another few centuries of care and pruning, and maybe it'll end up looking like a proper lawn after all," Petunia quoted with a slight smile on her face. She'd found the line in an older comic book, and had been quietly amused enough to pick it up for herself.
"It's an expression," she then snapped at the slightly perplexed look on Sachiel's face - the girl had looked as if she was perfectly willing to believe she'd live for centuries. What had her parents been teaching her?
“Ohhh… right, yeah got it,” Sachiel nodded, re-affixing her slightly vapid smile as they approached Petunia’s home, whereupon Petunia immediately grimaced. Sachiel paused before they went up the steps, holding Petunia’s hand and halting her steps. “Hey, y’know if you don’t want to talk to your parents, y’don’t have to. Trust me, if something makes you pull a face like that, it’s better to leave well enough alone until tempers have cooled.”
Petunia considered that. "We've come this far," she pointed out. "Running away now is like... Is like..."
“Hey,” Sachiel interrupted, gently squeezing Petunia’s hand and smiling. “I won’t say that you should force yourself to do something you don’t want to. But… if you think this is the right way to go, I’ll support you. Okay? So, if you wanna run away at any point, just let me know and we’ll go.”
Petunia stared at the hand holding hers, as if she'd forgotten it was there. "Sure," she said faintly. "...Let's go in."
She opened the door.
Inside, Lily was regaling their parents with stories of Hogwarts like she always did when she came home, smiling brightly even though Petunia could still tell she’d been crying- after all, she’d been silent the entire way back from the train station until their parents had given her enough chocolate to cure her mood.
Petunia hated that, honestly. She never got anything when she finished school, only a bland, halfhearted congratulations if her grades were good that semester, and there Lily was, always the perfect little witch .
Sachiel’s presence at her back was a cold comfort as she grit her teeth and walked inside, barely keeping a lid on her mood as she tried to avoid attention as long as possible.
Naturally, it was not to be.
Lily had just finished another no doubt brilliant story about how some marauders (yes, she got it, fancy word for pirates, so clever) had done something again, when she looked up.
And locked eyes with Petunia.
And smiled brightly.
"Hey, Tuney! You left so suddenly - what happened?"
Petunia closed her eyes and growled. She always did that! Pretend like nothing was wrong when clearly, many things were wrong!
"Holy shit, girl," Sachiel murmured behind her, "Read the fucking room."
Honestly, Petunia agreed with the statement.
Lily’s jaw dropped as she tried to process the profanity this strange girl had just uttered- who was she anyway, that she came home with her older sister with no warning?
“I- um… excuse me, who are you?” she asked, just barely managing to keep a polite smile on her face as she looked between Petunia and Sachiel. “.... And why are you with my sister?”
Mr. and Mrs. Evans frowned, clearly disapproving of Sachiel’s attire and general bearing, especially with how close she was with Petunia.
“Petunia, dear, why don’t you go wash up. Dinner will be ready soon,” her mother asked, phrasing it not as a question but a command, clearly expecting Petunia to go upstairs so they could interrogate her… friend.
Instead, Petunia crossed her arms. “You know, when Lily brought home that Snape boy, you two were all over him. Now, suddenly, when I bring a friend over, you get to act judgemental? Hypocrites, the lot of you. And yes,” she raised her voice, “I’m including you in that, Lily. ”
“What did I do?” her perfect little sister asked, as if she didn’t know. Or maybe she actually didn’t know, which was honestly worse.
Petunia eyed her coldly. “...Are you playing dumb or actually dumb?”
“Petunia!” her mother gasped out, an affronted look on her face as her father started forward to try and grab her shoulders. “Apologize to Lily right now or you’re grounded!”
Petunia grit her teeth and growled, turning around and stomping out the door. “You know what, forget about this! I’m leaving right now, and I’m not coming back until you lot figure out how to pull your heads from your arses! Sachiel, let’s go.”
Sachiel shrugged and slowly led Petunia out the door, rubbing her shoulders comfortingly even as she sent a poisonous, hateful glare back at the stunned trio of faces they left behind them.
"I shouldn't have brought you here," Petunia finally said as soon as they were outside. "I shouldn't have come myself, either. I... don't know what I expected."
“... Family can be complicated,” Sachiel murmured quietly, still stroking circles on Petunia’s back as she led them away towards a quieter, less obviously affluent neighborhood. “I’m… really sorry I didn’t help more. I… I suppose I don’t really have the experience with family like that to really know how to help. But we’re not going back for a little while, not until they can appreciate you for who you are.”
"Right," Petunia snarked, "because that'll happen." She sighed. "Let's just go. Where did you live, again?"
Sachiel coughed awkwardly into her hand, clearing her throat and looking off to the side with something resembling shame. “I um… May have forgotten to mention that I’m… a bit homeless right now? Let’s just say that I made the bad decision to come here too quick-like and… well. Ain’t no one around what wants to lease out an apartment to a teenage punk with nary a penny to her name.”
Petunia turned her head, slowly , looking Sachiel straight in the eye. "And you were doing so well," she sighed. "Right. Let me think for a moment..."
She thought for a moment.
"Who do I know we can crash with..." she muttered. "The Robertses are on vacation... Tom Harrison is... weird around more than one girl... Mr. Langford trusts Mom a bit too much... Wait, no, I got it."
Petunia looked up. "We'll go and see if old Mrs. Clarke can lend us a couch - she's usually fairly reliable about crashing in her home. Come on, she lives just around the corner."