Petunia was always the worse sister - not as pretty, not as kind and especially not as magical as Lily. Jealousy and bitterness rule her life, until one fateful encounter changes her destiny ...
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Petunia was always the lesser out of the two Evaness...
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Summer break rolled around and with it, the return of Lily.
She bustled back into Petunia's life with an abundance of annoying stories and high-pitched exclamations of awe when she spotted their father's attempts at building her fireplace. "Dad! This looks amazing! It's so tall!"
It looks very small from Aspen's back, Petunia thought uncharitably while surveying the unfinished chimney running up the outside of her house. The bricks were layered a bit uneven and she could spot where her father had used too much plaster, but all in all it turned out a lot better than could be expected. At least it was mostly straight.
"I'll try to finish it before winter," her father said, patting Lily's hair affectionately. "Then you can invite all your Hogwarts friends to visit you."
Lily was almost bouncing in place with excitement. "I can't wait! I recently made friends with two other girls. We never talked that much until those boys in my House tried to pull a childish prank on the girl's stairway. All of us got stuck together and so we talked almost all night before ..."
Petunia tuned Lily's gushing out, her mind automatically wandering back to the thought she hadn't wanted to contemplate any longer.
Two months.
Two whole months before she would hear from him again, before another letter would arrive.
It's not like there was ever a set time, Petunia tried to remind herself. Sometimes more than a week had passed before she got a letter from Eugene and she had never felt this ... unsettled. Unreconciled.
But somehow simply knowing how long she had to wait changed it. Like an impatient itch in her mind that she couldn't scratch and that distracted her constantly.
The reason she hadn't accompanied her mother to pick up Lily in London for the summer vacation was Eugene. Or more to the point, his absence.
He was already in Romania. Petunia had to look up on a map how far away that was from England, before admitting to herself that there was no way Krampus would be able to fly the distance just to bring a few letters.
He was far away in Romania. Together with his father and a colleague with a strange name (something like Hidgebit or Ridgebridge), he would be spending his vacation in a Dragon Sanctuary.
If it hadn't meant she wouldn't hear from him, Petunia would surely have marvelled more at the implication. Dragons! She had read about them in her 'Fantastic Beasts' book but knowing that Eugene was actually going to see them somehow made it more real.
Petunia wondered if she would ever get a chance to see them as well.
Being a muggle, probably not.
Lily's laugh directed Petunia's attention back to her sister and father who were grinning at each other. Her father, who had never once assumed that maybe Petunia had someone who could visit her through the fireplace as well. Because Petunia wasn't magical, wasn't special, so she had no need for a wizard fireplace.
