The Marauders: Year Four

Petunia's Fit

Petunia's Fit

Lily was sitting in the Evans' dining room looking over James's letter, eating her breakfast across from a sullen-looking Petunia. Mrs. Evans was carrying about a pitcher full of juice and Mr. Evans was reading at the head of the table. It was the third time Lily had read through James's letter since she'd gotten it. She'd already replied, of course, but there was something about the messy scrawl of his writing across the parchment paper and rambled on and on and on that made her keep re-reading it. She didn't know why. She could nearly see the cheeky grin he'd probably had on his stupid face when he'd signed it Potter, too. She imagined the way his lip would hang up on his tooth whenever he smiled at her and she rolled her eyes and folded the parchment up, slipping it into the pocket of her holiday jumper.

"Mum," Lily announced, turning to Mrs. Evans as she waved about a fork with a bit of fruit cocktail speared on the end, "There's a Doctor Who special tonight on the telly, do you reckon we could all watch it together?"

"That sounds lovely, dear," said Mrs. Evans, smiling as she poured a glass of orange juice.

"It's supposed to be brilliant - new Doctor regeneration and all..."

Petunia made a face into her porridge and blueberries. "I don't like Doctor Who," she said sourly.

Lily rounded on her, "Of course you don't - you're boring. Why would you like anything that's the least bit fantastical?"

"Now girls," intoned Mr. Evans, looking up from his daily paper. "Let's not fight."

Petunia had been particularly nasty to Lily since she'd come home - antagonizing her constantly and acting as though she knew so much more about everything than Lily did. Just because Lily didn't know a whole lot about muggle current events or the newest pop culture didn't mean she was stupid anymore than Petunia not knowing about wizarding current events or pop culture didn't particularly make her stupid, either. But Petunia continuously went out of her way to make Lily feel as though that was exactly what it meant. She also had made a point to try and keep Mr. and Mrs. Evans from paying Lily quite as much attention as usual - going so far as to feign illness the first night Lily was back, pretending to be dizzy and faint so that Mrs. Evans was terribly concerned and missed half the dinner she'd prepared while taking care of her supposedly ill daughter.

Petunia sneered now, too, "I'm not fighting. And I'm not boring. I just don't understand why everything has to be about magic in this house! Aren't regular people good enough for you anymore?"

Lily rolled her eyes violently, "First of all, Tuney, Doctor Who isn't magic - he's a space alien, a Time Lord from another planet who travels through space and time in his TARDIS and --"

"Time travel doesn't exist," said Petunia.

"It does, actually, but you wouldn't know that, being a mug--"

"SHUT UP!" Petunia shrieked, interrupting Lily. She threw her spoon down with a clatter into her bowl.

"You shut up!" Lily cried back, "You used to love Doctor Who! We watched it all the time together before --"

"Well I wish the Daleks would exterminate you, you little Freak!!!" Petunia shouted, and she stormed from the room.

Mr. and Mrs. Evans looked at one another, unsure how to react to this latest blow up - just another in a long parade of them that had been happening more and more every year ever since Lily had received her letter from Hogwarts.

"What was the meaning of that little fit?" murmured Mr. Evans.

"I don't know. What should we do?" asked Mrs. Evans uneasily.