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They had stayed late at the office that night, catching up on paperwork that they had missed out on over the previous days. Mary finally forced them to call it a night when the clock hit seven, saying that they could finish anything else they had left to do tomorrow. Petunia reluctantly agreed, not really wanting to go to her empty home quite yet. Her friends weren’t going out tonight, some of them choosing to go on dates with their latest boyfriends instead, so she was all alone. Mary, sensing her energy, suggested, “Maybe we should grab a bite to eat at McDonalds first before we go home? They recently released chicken nuggets, so we could try them out.”
Petunia eyed her friend up, before nodding at her. “Sounds like a plan,” she said firmly, pulling her jacket on.
Mary led them to the closest McDonalds, her braids blowing in the light wind. Inside the McDonalds was warm, and they each ordered a McNugget meal. They sat inside, eating their meals over gossip about people they worked with. Sure, this food probably wasn’t great for you, and she would have definitely sneered at it five years ago, but it was kind of nice trying something new with a friend. It also beat being at home alone with only her pet owl, Grace, to keep her company.
It didn’t take them long to finish their food, and Mary made them leave soon after, saying that she had to run errands early the next morning. They lived in the same direction, so they walked together, talking over weekend plans. Not that Petunia had many: she was going to do a shift at her other job, and maybe schedule in a quick cry over her failed marriage. That second part she had not fully explained to her friend yet, so she refrained from mentioning it.
Turning into an alleyway, they were just discussing the newest movie in the cinemas when two hooded men jumped out in front of them. Petunia made the mistake of looking down at their hands, and spotted a small knife tucked away inside their fists. She let out a little gasp, her heart thumping from the shock, as she reached out one of her own hands to Mary. The other woman took her hand, her fingers squeezing tightly. “Well, well, well,” one of the men said, his face twisting into a dark sneer. “What little treat do we have here?”
Biting her lip to stop a scared whimper from falling out, Petunia held her head up high, trying to act as if she was not terrified out of her mind. “Leave us alone,” Mary commanded, her fingers stroking Petunia’s hand soothingly. “We’re not worth it.”
“Oh, we got ourselves a fighter,” the second one grinned, stepping closer to them. “I will enjoy breaking this one down.”
In one quick motion, he snaked forward, grabbing Mary and tearing her away from Petunia. She would have screamed, but she was just so shocked by the events unfurling in front of them that any noise was stuck in her throat. One of her closest friends was trapped in a stranger's embrace, his knife pressing against her neck as she struggled against him.
Petunia wasn’t sure, but she thought that the final act that made Mary explode was when the other man made his move towards her, a hungry look in his eyes. Mary let out one piercing shriek, before a surge of magic burst out of her and struck their attackers, knocking them out cold. Her friend fell to the floor in a crumpled heap, and Petunia rushed over to her out of concern; and a little bit out of confusion. She had had no idea that her friend was a witch, but that wasn’t her main concern right now: Mary wasn’t waking up, no matter how hard she shook her. “Come on, Mary, please,” she begged, to no avail.
She weighed up her options: waiting here until someone found her surrounded by three unconscious people and she was arrested for whatever crime they thought she had committed, or dragging Mary back to her flat. It was only a few roads away, and Petunia had been working out more in the past few years, but she still wasn’t sure that she was strong enough to drag someone a similar weight to her back to her place. It was her best option, she decided, flinging her friend’s limp arm over her shoulder and hoisting her up. “I’m sorry, Mary,” she whispered, as her feet dragged uselessly on the floor behind them.
She made her way out of the alleyway quickly, not hearing the telltale cracks of Apparition as she was determined to complete her mission. It was hard work, but she managed to get Mary inside her building and up the lift in only five minutes. She would have been concerned about the fact that no one that passed them showed any suspicion towards the activities, if she wasn’t too grateful for the fact that no one stopped her. Hopefully they just assumed she was carrying home a drunk friend, rather than willingly letting her drag an unconscious woman around.
She opened her door and dragged Mary’s body over to her sofa, lying her friend down on it as gently as she could manage. Resting her fingers on Mary’s neck, she waited until she could feel a pulse before she finally relaxed, letting out a heavy breath. “Okay, Mary, just lie there,” she whispered, as if her friend was able to do anything else right now. “I’m going to get you help, okay?”
Hesitating slightly before leaving her, Petunia hovered in the doorway of her living room, her eyes fixed on her friends still form. She looked so peaceful, her eyes shut and her braids sprawled out against her sofa cushions. Pulling herself away from that image, she made her way into her bedroom, stroking her owl’s feathers slightly before grabbing a piece of paper and a pen. There was only one person she knew could help, it was just going to hurt so much. Mary mattered more than any old bottled up feelings, though, so she quickly wrote out a letter before she could change her mind. Tucking it into an envelope, she handed it over to Grace, who held it in her claws. “Take this to Severus Snape,” she whispered softly to her owl, before opening her bedroom window to allow her to fly out.
Petunia watched her wings flap for a few moments before going back where Mary was lying, still unconscious. She watched her chest rise slowly, up and down, whilst waiting for him to arrive. Hopefully he could actually help, otherwise she was in more of a pickle. No one ever wanted to contact their ex-husband for no reason.
It was an anxious hour that she waited, with no signs of movement from Mary at all other than her steady breathing. It was almost a relief when she heard a knock at her door, as it gave her a reason to move away. Slowly, she opened the door, revealing Severus with his wand held in her hand. She ushered him in, saying, “Were you expecting an ambush, or something? You’re in a Muggle neighbour, Severus.”
He huffed at that, slipping his wand away. “It never hurts to be prepared,” he retorted, his eyes taking her in. “What’s the emergency, then?”
She gestured helplessly at her sofa, and the sight of the woman on her sofa caused his eyes to widen. “She fell into this coma after doing some accidental magic or something, I’m not sure what exactly, I didn’t even know she was a witch.”
“Mary Macdonald?” he phrased it as a question, but the tone in his voice made it clear he knew the answer.
“Yeah,” Petunia replied, feeling like her day was getting even weirder by the minute. “You know her, then?”
Severus walked over to her sofa as if he owned the place, Petunia trailing after him sort of like a lost puppy. Being in his presence made all of her old feelings pop back up. It made her feel sick. “We were in the same year,” he finally said, pulling his wand back out to run some scans. “She was one of Lily’s closest friends, as she is another Muggle-born and they were in the same dorm. Did you not see her at the wedding?”
Trying to think back to that time, Petunia just decided to reply with, “That day was all a blur to me, honestly. I was nervous about being near so many magical people at that time, I was still trying to reform my entire personality.”
Shaking his head at her, he leant forward to pry open one of Mary’s eyelids. “She’s out cold,” he said as an explanation. “I can see into her mind to see what the issue is, but I need to make eye contact for it to work.”
Nodding in reply, she crossed her arms across her front, watching as he cast a spell on her friend. It was a silent ten minutes before he seemed to fall back into his own body, falling to the floor with his back against the sofa. “She doesn’t know that she’s a witch,” he explained, dumbstruck. “After the war, she cast a powerful obliviate on herself and returned to the Muggle world.” He eyed her up for a moment, before adding, “That’s why she passed out when she Stunned those two men, she didn’t mean to do it but her magic reacted to seeing her close friend being threatened. Her own charm put her into a coma, to change her memories to something that won’t show her using magic, to keep up the pretense of her Muggle life. Although why she went to all this effort to be a Muggle, I don’t know.”
Petunia rolled her eyes at that, saying, “I really hate you sometimes, you know? I am a Muggle, Severus. It’s not that bad. Certainly safer than the Wizarding world.”
Raising an eyebrow at that, Severus shot back with, “Even tonight? Or what about—”
“Please, don’t,” she begged softly. “Don’t throw that back in my face.”
His dark eyes took in the look on her face, and they softened into an apologetic expression. “I’m sorry, Petunia. It’s been a long year. I shouldn’t take it out on you. I just miss you.”
“I miss you, too,” she admitted quietly, looking down at her friend to force herself to stop looking into Severus’s eyes. “How long until she’s conscious, then?”
“I’m not sure: it could be another couple of hours, maybe a day. Her magic is sustaining her at the moment, making sure her vitals don’t drop too low. She should be fine, though, and will probably just think she drank too much.”
Accepting that response, Petunia busied herself by grabbing a blanket off of her armchair, draping it over Mary’s body. Severus had pulled himself back up, yet he hadn’t left. It was beginning to feel like deja vu. “How do you know Mary, anyway?” he asked, brushing down his trousers.
“We work at the same firm,” Petunia explained, stroking the side of her friend’s face. It felt cool, but otherwise normal. “So we became friends, as two of the younger women there.”
He pondered over that for a moment, his eyes watching her every movement. “You got a job as an accountant, then?”
“Yeah, it’s going pretty well, I think. I’m enjoying it, at least.” She glanced up, catching his gaze before dropping it again. “You still work at Hogwarts?”
Sighing, he replied with, “Yes, I do. My debt is not paid yet. I would much rather be experimenting with Potions instead, and be happy.”
She chose not to hear his last comment for her own sanity. After all, the main reason she asked for a divorce was due to how lonely she got when he was off at Hogwarts, a place she could never join him. “How did you get an owl?” He changed the topic instead, which made it easier for her to move past it.
“I went to Diagon,” she said simply, to his incredulous look. “I pretended to be a Squib, don’t worry. I had one of your old robes and Lily’s galleons. The people on the Tube just thought I was in my Gothic era.”
“How did you get past the charms on the Leaky Cauldron?”
She grinned at that. “Turns out if a witch helps you through them before, you can find the place pretty easily again after that. We all went for Lily’s first year, so. Do you want a cup of tea? Are you waiting until she wakes up, just to be sure, because I think that would be for the best personally. I mean, just in case something goes wrong in the meantime. She was only protecting herself, I don’t want her to have caused more permanent damage, and—”
“Petunia.” Her name in his firm voice stopped her rambling. “Breathe. Mary will be fine, but I will stay to keep an eye on her if you’d prefer. I would love a cup of tea.”
She nodded, asking, “Do you still have it with two sugars?”
He did, so she escaped to the kitchen, busying herself with making tea. She felt like this night was going to end up in another heartbreak, yet she was unwilling to prevent it from happening. Despite it all, she still loved him, and it ached in her chest. She deserved one more night.
The tea made, she walked back into the front room, spotting Severus wandering around the room and taking in the sights. “It’s a bit bare,” Severus said as he took the offered mug, raising an eyebrow in question.
“I just didn’t really want to decorate. I’m saving up for my own house, it seems pointless to improve this one. I have some pictures out in my bedroom, and obviously Grace’s cage and perch, but otherwise I don’t see the need for more decoration.”
Shrugging slightly at that reply, he took a sip of his tea. She watched his adams apple bob, and had to look away before she said something stupid. “Anyone special in your life?” he asked, as if he was making idle conversation, but she saw his fingers tighten on the handle of his mug.
Pursing her lips, she told him, “I tried dating, but no one ever compared.”
Slowly, he put his mug down on the sideboard, before taking hers out of her hands and doing the same thing with it. He caught her lips into a passionate kiss, and she reciprocated eagerly, her hands wrapping around his shoulders. Two thoughts were waging a war in her mind: the first was finally, this was what I wanted all along, and the second was no, no, this is bad, you’re just going to get hurt again. The first one won, and she led him to her bedroom, deciding one last time was the closure they surely needed.
Mary woke up early that next morning, as Petunia sat on the armchair next to her and Severus was hidden in the corner in case something went wrong. “God, my head is pounding,” the darker woman got out, her voice gravelly. “I never should have let you convince me to go out drinking.” Her eyes took in Petunia’s glowing form, and they narrowed. “You hooked up! I get so drunk I can’t remember a thing, but you have a fun night! What a joke.”
Petunia laughed at that, ignoring the heaviness in her heart. “Maybe you should learn how to handle your spirits better,” she said to her friend, helping her up from the sofa. “I’ll give you a change of clothes so you can shower while I make you breakfast. My treat as I forced you to go out with me last night.”
Mary agreed with that, making her way over to Petunia’s bathroom easily. Petunia locked eyes with Severus, him nodding to indicate that Mary was fine. Once the bathroom door was shut, Petunia’s eyes flittered to her front door, and Severus got her message easily enough. He brushed her hand with his as he walked past, but didn’t say anything else before he left. Holding back a sob, she went to get her friend some clean clothes, drowning in her anguish. Maybe she would never stop loving him after all.