Chapter Text
Petunia remembers being four years old.
Life was simple back then. She was happy, learning to read, playing with her little baby sister. She also remembers the magical outbursts- accidental magic, they call it. It got worse and worse as she got older, things appearing on a whim, broken toys fixing themselves, things falling when she got angry, and on one notable occasion, managing to break her dad’s car when she was particularly upset.
Of course, the one time she did anything very publicly, someone saw. A young new Auror was on break, traversing muggle London when he saw a little girl float a teddy bear down to herself, hugging the new friend. However, the young auror new the downsides of showing accidental magic to muggles, being a muggleborn himself, and made an important decision.
“Hello, young one. What’s your name?”
“Petunia, like the flowa.” Petunia said, trying to pronounce the words correctly.
“Alright, Petunia, do you know what you just did there?”
“I wanted the teddy, and I made it come to me.”
“Well, little miss, that’s called magic, but it’s not safe to show to others. I’m gonna cast a spell to bind your magic until you get your letter for school.”
“Lettew? Bind?”
“Ligaveris magicae!” Sadly, the auror was young. He didn’t know much about the magic he had and didn’t realize that by binding Petunia’s magic, he sealed her fate. Binding magic meant that the magic fueling Hogwarts letters would read her as a Squib; thus, she would never get a letter after all.
She remembered being able to do magic. She remembered the man’s wand. She remembered the yellow light that hurt so much, binding her magic. She remembered the empty feeling afterwards.
She remembered, but no one believed her, even when Lily’s magic surfaced. All of her little magical outbursts were blamed on Lily even when she began to manage little tricks again. She could again make things appear on their own, fix broken things, and make things happen when she was sad or angry.
When Lily was 11 and Petunia 12, Lily received her Hogwarts letter and Petunia tried to write a letter also, but received no answer. Petunia’s magic was still bound, while Lily’s was not.
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“Diagon Alley? Are you sure that’s what the professor said, Lily flower?”
“Yes, mama. She said that we ask Mr. Tom in the Leaky Cauldron on Charing Cross Road to let us into Diagon Alley.”
“Oh, this is so exciting.”
“Now, Evelyn, we’d best not get ahead of ourselves. Lily, did you invite Severus over for dinner tomorrow?”
“Yes, daddy.”
“Petunia, did you invite that Vernon kid over?”
“God, no, daddy. He’s mean. I was wondering if I could invite Laura from school instead.”
“You may, darling.”
“Oh, here we are. The Leaky Cauldron. Bit of an odd name for something trying to pass as normal. Wait out here, won’t you? I’ll only be a moment.”
...........
“-of course, of course. Follow me, please. Now, whoever’s the witch here, watch this pattern carefully.” Mr. Tom tapped the wall in five places in sequence and the bricks moved aside, prompting him to return to the bar and making Petunia and Lily’s parents look up in astonishment while Lily beamed and Petunia smiled.
“Alright, your school supplies say—is that a bank? Oh, we should see what the currency exchange is first. Come along."
“Mama, there’s ice cream! Can we get some please?!”
“Sure, Lily flower. Petunia—?”
“Can I stay with Dad? I want to see everything.”
“Um, alright, sweetums. Follow me, Lily.”
............
“Did you see them dad?! Goblins! That’s so cool!”
“Mhmm.”
“Can I look at the books while you get Lily her wand? Even if I can’t do anything, it’d be really fantastic to read everything. Do you think they have magical fairytales? Oh my goodness, do you think Merlin was real?!”
“Calm down, Petunia. Yes, you may look at the books, but if anything happens, scream as loudly as you can, alright?”
“Yes, daddy!” Petunia scampered off to the bookstore—Flourish and Blott, it was called—and began to collect Lily’s books before looking at what she could get for herself. There were books on everything she could imagine.
“Hello. First year?” Petunia flushed.
“Oh, no, I’m picking up books for my sister while she gets her wand. Is there anything—is there anything that would be interesting for a mug-muggle?”
“Ah. Well, we have the Tales of Beedle the Bard—the wizarding children’s story, you have to understand. We also have a lot of books on magical theory if you want to see them. There are multiple works of fiction in the right-hand corner over there. I can show you, if you’d like.”
“Yes, please!”
“Petunia? Petunia—oh, there you are. That’s... a lot of books.”
“Well, I got all of Lily’s already picked up. They’re on the bottom of the pile. The store manager showed me all these books of fiction and fairytales. It’s so very interesting, daddy. Please, please, please!”
“Oh, alright. But if they’re too expensive, it’s coming out of your allowance.”
“Yes!”
—transfiguration is an art of will and magic. One without the other produces no effect. For example, one of the simplest examples of transfiguration is similarly sized and shaped objects being transfigured into one another. Turning a match into a needle is considered the most basic form of transfiguration and is thus taught in every magical school in Britain. To do so, one must focus the spell, Imitari Acus, on the match, willing it with power of mind to become a needle. Visualization is perhaps the most important step. To turn the match into a needle and not just a pointy silvery match, one must imagine the transformation into a needle. To—
“Petunia! I know you took my book! There you are!” Lily walked up to Petunia and grabbed the book from her hands. “That’s my book!”
“You weren’t using it! Besides, you’ll have all year to look over it, I only have a few more days.”
“Why does it matter? You can’t do it anyway. Why torture yourself like that?” Petunia bit her tongue.
“Whatever. Don’t take my books again or I’m telling mum.” Petunia went downstairs and took three matches from the kitchen. She walked back upstairs and shut the door, locking it behind her.
Im-imitari acus, that was it. So what if...? She pointed her hand at the match, palm outward.
“Imitari acus!” She whispered.
Nothing. She pouted. Maybe it was because she didn’t have a wand. Or—oh, right, visualization! Confidence gathered once more, she again thrust her palm at the match.
“Imitari acus!” With all her might, she imagined the match turning silver and pointy, even adding the small hole for thread and then looked down.
And there it was. She wasn’t crazy! It worked! She was magic.
And yet...
For whatever reason—maybe to please her parents by not leaving, though god knows Lily was the favorite child anyway—she hesitated to tell anyone. Maybe she wanted her magic to be her own little secret. Maybe she didn’t want to be looked at differently. But whatever held her back, it kept her from telling her parents or Lily.
Finally, she had a secret life like in the books. She wanted to be special.
She was looking through her book on magical theory when it happened.
—Magical bindings are used only for children or criminals whose magic is deemed unsafe in wild form. Because of the rare usage of this binding on children and the forceful removal of magic, it is used sparingly thus very little is known about the long-lasting effects of the binding. As a general rule, it is used only on the magically powerful and unstable.—
Is that not what the man had said he was doing? Of course, now the letter part made sense, but she’d never gotten a letter because that moron bound her magic. So how can she unbind it? And why could she still do tricks? Had it unbound itself?
-The goblins are the simplest means by which to remove a binding at low cost, just as they can determine lineage and magical creature inheritances. In the fifteenth century—
She’d have to ask the Goblins at Gringott’s bank, but to do that, she had to get to Diagon Alley, and have to be sneaky.