The Tale of the Three Sisters (A Lily and Petunia fanfic) (Book 2)

Chapter 5: Sirius' Second Forest Chat

While Petunia went to sulk in the Forest, both Lilys Potter and Snape felt absolutely heartbroken. James and Severus were right. It wasn't a good idea to try and reconcile with Petunia. It only led to more sadness. And in Heaven too. No potion was going to cure this. The Doppelgastus Potion alone made Petunia seem to hate her sister even more, as it had made her into two people.

Albus was standing by the doors of the castle. He had seen everything.

He walked down to where the two beautiful twins stood, gazing after Petunia who had by now been hidden by the trees of the Forest. Seeing Albus rushing down to their wives, as they pulled away from their stares, cuddling each other, while shaking with tears, James and Severus followed to help console them. Sirius pursued.

Albus, James and Severus arrived and found the pair in pure despair. James and Severus took their respective wife and embraced them kindly and comfortingly.

"What are we going to do?" sobbed Lily Potter.

"We can't lose her again." moaned Lily Snape.

Sirius passed them all by and headed in Petunia's direction.

"Where are you going, Padfoot?" asked James.

"To find Petunia." replied Sirius briefly and disregarding the two Lilys' questions of what he was going to do or say to their sister, he disappeared into the Forest.

Albus turned back to the sobbing sisters and said gently, "What did you three say to each other?"

Lily Snape explained while Lily Potter added anything her double may have omitted by mistake. Albus listened carefully, as though he was searching for a specific part of the conversation.

When they had finished, he asked his question.

"Did there come a time in this conversation when Petunia called you a name?"

"Yes." said the two Lilys in unison.

"Well," added Lily Potter, "she came close to it. But she didn't. She said 'fre' then stopped herself from finishing it."

"She was going to call you that name again?" said Severus angrily.

"To be fair, you called us a name too." said Lily Potter teasingly.

Severus however, took it seriously. "Once. And once was enough to make me regret it for life. Your sister seems to relish in calling you that word. Plus she's your sister. She's your family."

Lily Snape stroked his shoulder lovingly as she said, "As are you. But she has been like this all her life. We should have realised it would be hard for her to let go of that habit." Her head and heart sank as she thought of her sister hating her, even in death, as did her duplicate, whom was hugged consolingly by James. Severus copied his movement on his wife.

"But she hesitated?" asked Albus with anticipation.

"Yes. For some reason, she didn't finish saying it." said Lily Potter.

Albus smiled. "Then there's hope." he said assuredly.

James, Severus and the two Lilys eyed him suspiciously and curiously.

Meanwhile, Sirius was pursuing Petunia in the peaceful Forest, free of any dangerous animals and the most lethal thing in the trees were singing birds.

He used his dog instincts to track her down. "Silly woman is likely lost, doesn't know her way." he thought.

As he searched, he saw his old den from where he lived during the year he had escaped Azkaban to get revenge on Peter. He saw footprints near there and continued.