Chapter Text
It’s a cold day of winter, snowflakes are slowly falling in a little town called Cokeworth. It was a beautiful shitty little town in the middle of England. The houses where littles and most of them was dilapidated, the grass was too tall and in the front there were abandoned placard where in a faded red was written to sell. Most had left without being able to sell their houses. Nobody wanted to live in Cokeworth, not since the factory had closed. During the summer, children would spend their time in the little park with the swings, where the grass was tall, the flowers beautiful and the trees could touch the sky. In the winter, sometimes adventures kids would go under the bridge to ski. Others would spend their days, playing in the snow or staying inside. During both winter and summer, most adults were getting drunk in the bar instead of crying about their money problems and their work that had closed a long time ago.
There used to be a house in Spinner's End, where lived a little boy, a mom and a violent dad. Now it was abandoned, the mom was dead, the dad was in prison and the little boy was in a happy house in the other side of the river. Severus, that was the name of the little boy, had found a new family, a good family in the Evans-Ferdowsi, he had found caring parents and two big sisters that were nice. Petunia, that was the name of the oldest, would be outside right now if she could, but she had felt sick last time she had gone outside. She was already sick, but the cold had made her sicker. It had made her go to the hospital for the during two entire days. Now, she was forced to stay inside, to stay hidden from The Ripper that had it out for her, ever since she was born. Sometimes Petunia would fantasize about how would be her life if she had been normal, if she hadn't been sick. Right now, maybe she could be skiing under the bridge like her little siblings. Maybe, she could go to school every day instead that only when she was perfectly fine. But it wasn't reality, in real life she was sick and forced to stay inside with her parents. She was listing to them quietly talk to each other, flirty like only old married couple could. They had been together since forever, most kids found it weird when their parents would flirt in front of them, or even kiss but Petunia loved it, it made her fell loved. Her parents loved each other, so they loved the kids too, it was simple, it was right.
Petunia Evans-Ferdowsi was happy, she had always been happy and she would always be happy. It didn't matter, that she had been sick since she was a child, it didn't matter that she forced inside when her siblings three years younger than her could do spend the day outside alone. All of this didn't matter because at least she was alive. Right now, she had the chance of being alone with her parents, having them all for herself. A movie was playing in the TV in her parents room. She was sipping a hot chocolate while she watched, taking all the place in the bed. Soon, she would be joined by her little brother that would sit at her side with a book. Sometimes, he would read to her, tonight he wouldn't. He would let her see her movie, the wind rise from the studio Ghibli. It was her favourite movie, it made her fell seen, Naoko was sick just like her. She had seen it a hundred of times, yet every time she would cry when Naoko would die, it wasn't fair that Naoko had to die. It wasn't fair that Petunia had to die, her parents hated this movie, hated how much scared it would make her, how much it would make her cry. Sometimes, when she was alone in her hospital bed, she hoped that she could find the Jiro Horikoshi to her Naoko Satomi. Other she hoped that she didn't, she didn't want to break his heart when she would die.
The parents had been together since they were young. She had been a beautiful girl that had grown up with strict parents yet that loved her very much. Her name was Nisrine, it meant wild rose in the tongue of her parents. She had two littles sisters that she loved with all her heart, and a little brother. She would do anything and everything for them. It was the same way that she would fell when she would look at her children years later. It would be the same way, she would fell when she would learn her baby girl was sick, that she would stay sick for the rest of her life. Nirsrine was not religious, but that night she had prayed for her child. Nirsine had fallen in love with the father of her children when she was fifteen. His name was John, he was a white boy (that used to love his parents with everything in his heart until they betrayed him), he was one year older. And Nirsine, when they had first meet during a party where they both had been invited, had promised herself that she was going to marry him and she was had.
They had married five years after meeting. It had been done in his church, he had hoped his parents would then come. But they hadn't instead his friends had come and his new family, her parents, her siblings and theirs friends. Anna, the girl that had played matchmaker forcing Nirsine to make a move when they first had meet had officiate them, they were young, dumb and in love. John would always say that the best thing that he could have done in his life was listing to Anna, a sweet girl that he consider like his sister, to go on a party even if he was tired that day after having spend all the day in an exam. Soon after the weeding Nirsine and John left their childhood town and moved to Cokeworth. They wanted to live in a city where they could be themself, where how their parents where didn't matter. Some place that the fact that his parents used to be the mayor didn't matter, some place that her being a first generation kid didn't matter. Some place where people didn't frown in front of their name. And they received that, in the first fews years when they lived there, Cokeworth was triving, then everything felt apart when the factory closed. But they decided to stay, for they had been happy together in this little town where they could be themself and not the son-off and the daughter-off.
During the next five years, Nisrine worked in a library while John painted. They didn't have a lot of money but they were happy. And then, when she reached twenty-five years old, Nisrine felt pregnant for the first time. She gave birth to a little girl, who was called Petunia. But Petunia, like most flowers she was quite fragile, for she had been sick since she was a baby. Soon, she was followed by one other child, and then a third. The children were as close at it could get, it had taken a little while for the two younger that didn't like to share. But after a little while, they had come as close as possible. The younger girl, a fiery ginger little girl called Lily and the boy, a little boy called Severus, with black hair and pretty black jade eyes, were the same age, as much as most people that first meet them were convinced they were twins.
Their room was pretty, the walls had been painted in baby blue and baby pink when their fist baby had been born. John had spend hours doing littles animals in pastel colours in them. Even when the children would be old, they wouldn't have the heart to change the design of the room. Instead, it would filled itself with curiosity over the years. In Lily’s side, books about cakes and pastry, experiments and posters from Chef Dumbledore, and her little secret stash of romances books. For Lily was a romantic girl, when she first was kissed, by one student in her class, she had run back home to tell it to her sister and brother. Later when he had made fun of Petunia, Lily had broken his nose while Severus helped. When the director of their little school had asked why Severus that used to be a good student had done that, he had simply said that the boy (his name didn't matter) had been mean to his sister and that he couldn't do anything about it, it wouldn't be fair to Petunia. When, they had been suspended later that day, they had run around in joy. Lily had spend the next fews days cooking with Tuney’s help, while Severus stayed in their shared room reading. He never had cared as much as his sisters about food, at their big chagrin, a consequence from his life before them. He had never taken pleasure eating, not after having spend so much time with Tobias.
When Severus had first entered in their life, Petunia spend her days in the hospital. That was where, theirs parents had found Severus bruised after he had finally been taken away from his biological father. At first, like he was forced to spend a fews days in the hospital and they spend most of their time there anyway, Nirsine and John had proposed to take care of him until they found a stable house for him. However, by the third day it was decided that Severus wouldn’t go anywhere. They adopted him a fews weeks later. In the space of a fews months he had lost a mother (his mother, a woman called Eileen, had died a fews weeks before he had left home forever), and gained in exchange a loving family with a mother, a father and two sisters.
Petunia had always wanted a brother, so when she discover that Severus was staying in their life, she had insisted that he slept in her bed, while she was at the hospital. She was happy to be able to dote a sibling, because Lily had never let her. Severus and Lily had both refused at first, the first thing they had agreed on since they were introduced, it would take a while for them to become friends and later siblings. (Lily didn’t want an other sibling, she already had Tuney and a part of her was terrified that if she accepted Severus in her life and in her heart, Petunia would die. Severus didn’t want siblings, he didn’t want kindness or charity even if everything told him that it wasn’t, that they were just being normal. Severus didn’t think it was normal, nobody had been nice to him other than his mom before, and now she was dead.) Severus didn't want to take the bed of someone that he hardly knew, he felt it was a trap. And Lily didn't want someone else to take her sister place, it was her life, her bed, why was she offering it to a stranger ?? Even if their parents said that this boy now was their brother.
But Petunia had forbidden their parents to buy an other bed and John that would do anything for his little girl had accepted. A part of him also wanted to show Severus that he was welcomed in their house and in their life, so the children were forced to conform. Lily and Severus would sleep side by side, from now on. The first nights neither could sleep well. Lily hadn't slept in the same room that someone else in a fews weeks and it was the first time that it wasn't her sister. Severus didn't know how to sleep in a house where nobody shouted or where there were no drunks adults. They would the both stay awake for hours looking at the same ceiling yet without talking terrified of something happening while they were asleep. For Lily, it was that her sister would die, for Severus it would be that his father would come back. The first time that they had a moment where they almost felt like siblings, they both had woken up crying silently after a nightmare. Lily because she didn't want to worry her parents, that were exhausted after spending all day in hospital and Severus because he didn't now yet that he had the right to make noice without being punished.
Lily had dreamed about Petunia dying and being left alone. Severus had dreamed about his father and silent cries of his mother, while she was being beaten. He also dreamed about his first time being beaten when he was three. They looked at each other, neither had confessed about why they were crying nor that they had been crying. But Lily had gotten up, after a while after having spend all her tears, had crawled in Severus bed. She had hold him, and whisper to the space between their body that they would be fine. They would fall asleep like this, in the morning when Nirsine and John went in the room, they would find the children like this. Neither adult would mention anything, but while drinking their morning coffee, they would exchange secrets similes, thinking that maybe this could work out. Maybe the five of them could be happy together. (Neither of them, ever imagine having to come back to only two child…)
When Petunia had come home from the hospital, her bed had been replaced by a bunk bed. The bottom bunk would be her’s and the top one would be Severus’. Petunia couldn't climb the stairs safely when she was sick (even if she had argued about it because she didn't like to be seen like weak.) While Severus felt more comfortable in the air, somewhere someone couldn't reach him with facility. Over the years, they would fill their side of the room with a number of medical books. When she was a teenager and that she spend long days at home, too sick and tired to go to school, Petunia would make the time passing by dreaming of becoming a doctor. Sometimes, she also thought about being a lawyer for she wanted to help people. She hadn’t quite decided, but it didn't matter for she never was able to have the opportunity to go to college, she had died before that. During this time, Severus forced to go to school, even if he did everything that he could so he was able to stay with Petunia at home, would pass the time dreaming about being pharmacist. He wanted to help people, he wanted cure them. He wasn't able to cure his sister.
One night while neither were able to sleep while they were waiting Lily to come back from prom (she had called earlier so that Petunia and Sev could dance to their song with her... dancing queen was playing over there). Severus hadn't gone after being forbidden because he had insulted a teacher saying that the answer that they had given was wrong (he was right). Severus had confessed that he believed Petunia was the strongest person that he knew, she had been sick every since they had meet and she had never complained instead she would smile and make fun of the doctors when they were wrong with their previsions. Petunia in the same breath, almost as softly, confessed she thought he was the strongest person she knew, he had survived his dad and had made it into their home. Neither never agreed, who was the strongest nor they get anyone else involved, instead time to time they would argue, first while whispering between themself when Lily was sleeping (in Petunia's bed when she was tired and in Severus when she wanted to be just a little bit rebel.) And later in the little flat that they shared, while Petunia dreamed of medicine and Severus studied to be a pharmacist.
But right, it was the winter, the day was finishing everyone had gone home and they were seven and ten years old. In a fews years, the world would change for them, and tragedy would happen, but for now they were small and they were happy. It was a shame it couldn't last.