Spinner's End, Cokeworth, July 1978
Out of breath, Severus and Petunia chased down the street of Spinner's End. Severus was really amazed by Petunia's carefree nature and her willingness to alter her appearance with the means of magic. Sure, he had been aware of her desire to experience some adventures in the Magical world. And altering your appearance with the help of glamours and creating a new identity was a huge adventure. But he couldn't understand Petunia's eagerness to put her life at risk in the Wizarding world at the moment. For her association with him and their trips to unique magical places would not only alienate her from her family, especially Lily who seemingly hated his guts and condemned him as some evil, dark wizard, but also endangerd her life. He knew that most of his Slytherin acquaintances would attack Petunia violently on the spot, if they noticed that she was a Muggle. Whereas the mostly pure-blooded Slytherin would only verbally abuse her as a filthy, unintelligent Muggle and brand him a blood-traitor for spending some time with her and having the audacity to show her the Magical world, the cruel, sadistic and power-hungry followers of Lord Voldemort would undoubtedly attack her with curses and jinxes that would most likely torture her or kill her on the spot and try to kill him for his defiance and Muggle loving ways.
On the one hand, Severus feared such a confrontation and believed in the success of his disguise plan. On the other hand, he somehow desired such a confrontation and deemed their plan to hide Petunia's Muggle status as a lost cause. He couldn't really explain his conflicted feelings. But somehow, he wanted to be seen with Petunia in the Wizarding world. Most likely, this desire stemmed from the most hidden part in his subconsciousness that wanted to be acknowledged as a loyal friend, kind soul and tolerant wizard. This part of his subconsciousness wanted to rub his tolerance of Muggles, his new friendship with Lily's elder sister and his ability to spark someone's interests in Magic in the faces of the Marauders, Prof. Dumbledore and his Slytherin bullies. He, the ugly, impoverished and obsessed with the Dark Arts Half-blood who everyone wrote off as a future Death Eater, looser and despicable human, resisted the callings of the Dark Arts and Death Eaters, made close friends with a beautiful, enthusiastic and kindhearted young Muggle woman and introduced her to the wonders of the Wizarding world.
His friendship with Petunia and offer to experience magical adventures with her wasn't first and foremost a ploy to own his enemies, but rather an opportunity to get to know true friendship, distract his glum thoughts with an exciting new task and transfer his love for magic to another human being. Besides that, for the first time in his life, Severus had the feeling that he could help another teen to discover herself, change her life, fulfill her dreams and be a better person. Furthermore, he realized that this friendship would also shape his life by opening up his formally embittered and glum worldview, future expectations and heart. Hell, it had already altered his life because he finally had decided to tell the Death Eaters to go to hell, start looking for love again and believe in his chances to become a famous potioner. He couldn't believe that his encounter with his childhood nemesis had altered his life so profoundly in one eye-opening afternoon.
From the corners of his eyes, he studied the happily smiling form of Petunia. Despite her running, she had a huge, infectious smile plastered on her rosy flushed face. Her sapphire blue eyes sparkled with mischief and excitement, her long honey-blond looks flew around her like a flowing mane and her floral dress hung to her lean figure and accentuated her curves. Although Severus was still enamored with Lily, he couldn't deny his new attraction to Petunia. He scolded himself for his inappropriate thoughts. He couldn't believe that a pretty face and nice female body could distract him like this. Besides that, he had promised to educate Petunia in magical matters, not to ogle her or make some sleazy attempt to be more than friends. Therefore, Severus tried to distract his mind by thinking about which areas he wanted to cover first with Petunia concerning her education. He realized that the time must be nearing 5.30 PM so that they should begin their brewing as soon as they arrived in his dark home.
With a fright, Severus' eyes started to dilate and he stopped in his tracks. He hadn't thought about the sorry state his parental home must be in. Undoubtedly, Tobias had smashed some furniture and decorative items in his drunken rage that resulted in him beating his mum to death. Severus gulped audibly, tears threating now to moisten his eyes. He trusted that the local authorities had at least cleaned the house of his mum's blood. He breathed deeply, thanking Merlin that his alcohol ingestion didn't result in him throwing up the remains of his Hogwarts breakfast and felt a pain in his heart. He couldn't afford to think about the death of his mum now. He had to push away his grief for another time. Although he had no doubt that Petunia would comfort him, understand his tears and talk to him in a reassuring voice, now was not the time to break down. He would reserve this for tomorrow when he would be alone in his dark, run-down house.
He had promised Petunia to brew a simple potion with her and loan her some magical books, and this was exactly what he intended to do. Before he would invite her in his house, he would nonetheless use some simple charms and spells to clean the rooms, repair some furniture and install some illumination source in his small living room and kitchen. Next, he would clean his hidden behind a magical barrier and created via magic make-shift potions laboratory in a small room in his basement, collect his potions books, ingredient box, cauldrons, scale, stir sticks, spoons, ladles, cutting board, knives as well as mortar and pestle and conjure a second stool as well as some flames. He had decided to brew a simple Laughing Potion because he had stored the ingredients – Alihotsy leaves, Springwater, Billywig wings, Knarl quills, Puffskein hair and Horseradish powder – in his trunk and it only lasted twenty minutes to brew it. Besides that, it would lighten their moods and its steps were easy to accomplish for any person. He had faith in Petunia's abilities to prepare the ingredients as described and add them in the correct order. He would undertake the stirring of the spoon and heating of the cauldron because it was a little difficult to get the tempo, intensity and rhythm of the stirs as well as the force of the flame right on the first try. Therefore, Petunia and he would share the tasks equally between them, albeit Petunia would most likely be responsible for the extra ingredient – laughter.
Chasing away his flying thoughts, Severus noticed with a start that they had reached his home. He couldn't look Petunia into her icy-blue eyes and see the pity and shock in them as he looked at his overgrown front garden, his run-down roof and broken front door. Hell, the state of his home was worse than he had expected. Sure, he knew that the drunken bastard Tobias had never repaired anything on his house. Had even forbidden his mum to tend to the garden for years in fear of gathering the attention of some noisy female neighbor who would bond with her due to her bruised face and urge her to seek help at the local information center. He had wasted his money on liquor, bets and whores, so that their home fell apart. Their fridge had always been empty and his mum hadn't got any money to buy enough stuff to clean their home. With an ashamed look in Petunia's direction, Severus broke the awkward silence with an apologetic sounding statement. He avoided eye contact because he couldn't face her scandalized look. Therefore, he mumbled some words more to himselfthan to her.
"Well, Petunia. As you know, I hadn't the chance to look after my house, for I only returned from Hogwarts a few hours ago and left this place in a hurry to drink myself into oblivion in the park. Therefore, I haven't checked its condition yet. I can only imagine with horrors how it must look from the inside because the bastard Tobias smashed furniture and decorative items in his rage, left his liquor bottles flying around the whole place and didn't provide for my mum with housekeeping money for cleanser and duster, so that she couldn't keep everything clean, tidy and intact. Hence, it will be necessary to clean the house and repair some things. Unlike my mum who suffered from Tobias' abuse and couldn't practice magic without her wand anymore, I can fix everything with a few Cleaning, Lightning and Repairing Spells. I would understand if you only wanted to step into my house after I have cleaned it up so that you could spend the remaining time near the river a few minutes from here. I would pick you up after I'm finished and we could start brewing our Laughing Potion. For the case, that you don't mind the sorry state of my house and want to see me perform some spells, we can step through the front doors now. But I must really warn you. It won't be a pretty sight."
Petunia smiled friendly, stepped in front of him, lifted his hanging head up by gently touching his chin and leveled his obsidian gaze with her sapphire blue. Next, she grabbed his right hand into her left one, squeezed it reassuringly and said in a clear, sympathetic voice, "Severus, you don't have to be ashamed of your impoverished upbringing. The fact that Tobias was a criminal, alcohol addicted, jobless and abusive good-for-nothing husband and dad isn't your fault and I don't hold it against you. I admire you for your strength to be a kindhearted, intelligent and compassionate young man despite your socialization. Hell, I don't know, if I could have survived your upbringing and excel in magic or fulfill some strange Muggle girl her dream of experiencing exciting magical adventures. I know, from my own experience that life isn't fair, but fate dealt you with a glum, painful and lonely life until now and you managed to open up your heart anyway. So, please, don't be afraid, to let me see your home and help you fix some things. Although I might not be a huge help if you can alter everything with a few waves of your wand. I would love to see you perform the spells because magic fascinates me and I know that you are a very powerful wizard who will undoubtedly blow my mind with your mesmerizing incantations and graceful wand movements. Therefore, I will not wrinkle my nose, look disdainfully around your place and flee to the nearby river. I will help to fix things up the best I can because it is only a fair, albeit not good enough repay for your tutoring. So, let's face your chaotic home and see what magic can change easily." Petunia looked at Severus expectantly and followed him, still clutching his hand, inside his home. She would be there for him and show him that not everyone disregarded him as a dark, evil and good-for-nothing looser.