The Marauders: Year One | #Wattys2016

A Magical Christmas Surprise

Lily stood up and walked away from where Petunia lay in the warm snow, fuming. She stood by the window and stared out across the front lawn at the Christmas lights twinkling in Mrs. Nextdoor's yard as the sun was beginning to come up. Soon, their parents would be expecting them to get up and go downstairs and see the presents from Father Christmas and they'd all have a great breakfast together and a feast. The thought of these Christmas luxuries had been haunting her for some time now, ever since she'd met and started getting to know Severus Snape.

Petunia was right. Spinner's End was where the poor people lived and the Snapes were among the very poorest of the poor there. It was because Tobias Snape, his father, had married his mother for money. A lazy muggle man, Tobias had been fired from every job he had ever tried to hold in all of his life and he'd been searching desperately for his lucky break when he met Eileen Prince. Eileen had seemed to have an unending amount of riches and Tobias Snape had envisioned a life of luxurious living, servants to wait upon him hand and foot, and a beautiful wife to boot - and so, more for thirst for money than for love, Tobias courted her. The problem, of course, came when Eileen's pureblood wizarding family had discovered that she was marrying a common muggle man and disowned her, cutting her off entirely from the family's wealth. She'd told Tobias only after they were married. Tobias felt he had been tricked into marrying her, suddenly seeing her as somehow damaged or deformed because she was a witch, and Eileen's heart was broken because of all she'd sacrificed for him, only to learn that he did not love her. So, dependant on Tobias's paychecks, which he rarely managed to earn, the family had fallen into a state of disrepair.

Severus had told her the story once as they sat under an oak tree by the pond. "They fight all the time," he said, staring down at a long blade of grass he had plucked from a nearby clump. He was folding it carefully. "They're always yelling so loudly that the neighbors can hear and the kids always make fun of me. They think they're better than I am. They think I'm rubbish."

Lily had put a hand on his shoulder, "I don't think you're rubbish, Sev."

He had felt a lump rise up in his throat at these words and continued staring down at the grass blade he'd been playing with, then he turned to her and wrapped his hand closed around it and breathed into his palms, opening up his hands and releasing a brilliant green bird that fluttered over and landed on Lily's knee before -poof!- turning back into a carefully folded blade of grass.

Severus Snape might come from the poor side of town but he was kinder and gentler than any of the nasty boys that lived around the Evans neighborhood here in the 'nice part' of town. Lily didn't understand why Petunia couldn't see that. Money didn't make a bit of difference about who a person was. Good people could have money or be poor and still be good people, and likewise one was not necessarily a bad person for lacking money.

Lily turned around to face Petunia, who had gotten back onto the bed. "I was only able to make you the snow for Christmas because Severus helped me," she said.

Petunia lay back into her pillows, staring up at the cloth ceiling of her four-poster, acting as though she could not hear Lily.

"I made your biggest Christmas wish come true, Tuney, because you're my sister and I love you," Lily said. She crawled onto her own bed so that she was kneeling, staring at Petunia across the three foot gap between their bedsides. "You know what I wish for more than anything in the whole world?" she asked. Petunia didn't respond, so Lily pressed on, "I wish that you wouldn't be so hateful to Severus. Just give him a chance, Tuney."

But Petunia rolled over, putting her back to Lily.

Lily felt hot tears in her eyes.

"Fine," she hissed, "Fine, be that way."

Lily got up. "Incendio," she said as she waved her hands at the snow, melting it all away, just as Severus had taught her to do, leaving only the snowman, looking sad and droopy now that he was the only snow in the room and she said, "There I've left you a new sister to replace me, since you don't give a damn about me anymore." She stormed out of the room.

Petunia rolled over and sat up as the bedroom door closed and she stared at the snowman from the foot of her bed. She hesitated, afraid Lily would come back, or that she was just outside the door, listening. But Petunia didn't see her shadows beneath the door, so she climbed down from the bed and walked over to the snowman. They'd drawn a curved line in his face for a mouth and he smiled at her with it now. Petunia hesitated, then carefully raised her hands as Lily had done and whispered, "Incendio."

Nothing happened.

"Incendio," she whispered again.

Still nothing happened.

Petunia felt hot tears burning her eyes. "We're supposed to be twins," she hissed, angry, "We're supposed to be just alike." She reached forward and shoved the snowman down, watching as his head fell off and broke apart, the button eyes rolling away across the room.