| A branch over Petunia's head had fallenThe branch caught Petunia on the shoulder, and she staggered backward and burst into tears
"Tuney!"
But Petunia was running awayLily rounded on Snape
"Did you make that happen?"
"No He looked both defiant and scared
"You did!" She was backing away from him"You \idid\i! You hurt her!"
"No - no, I didn't!"
But the lie did not convince LilyAfter one last burning look, she ran from the little thicket, off after her sister, and Snape looked miserable and confused\a133
And the scene re-formedHe was on platform nine and three quarters, and Snape stood beside him, slightly hunched, next to a thin, sallow-faced, sour-looking woman who greatly resembled himSnape was staring at a family of four a short distance awayThe two girls stood a little apart from their parentsLily seemed to be pleading with her sisterHarry moved closer to listen
"\a133I'm sorry, Tuney, I'm sorry! Listen - " She caught her sister's hand and held cartier pasha crono tight to it, even though Petunia tried to pull it away"Maybe once I'm there - no, listen, Tuney! Maybe once I'm there, I'll be able to go to Professor Dumbledore and persuade him to change his mind!"
"I don't - want - to - go!" said Petunia, and she dragged her hand back out of her sister's grasp"You think I want to go to some stupid castle and learn to be a - a\a133"
Her pale eyes roved over the platform, over the cats mewling in their owners' arms, over the owls, fluttering and hooting at each other in cages, over the students, some already in their long black robes, loading trunks onto the scarlet steam engine or else greeting one another with glad cries after a summer apart
" - you think I want to be a - a freak?"
Lily's eyes filled with tears as Petunia succeeded in tugging her hand away
"I'm not a freak," said Lily"That's a horrible thing to say
"That's where you're going," said Petunia with relish"A special school for freaksYou and that Snape cartier replica watch ladies santos steel boy\a133weirdos, that's what you two areIt's good you're being separated from normal people
Lily glanced toward her parents, who were looking around the platform with an air of wholehearted enjoyment, drinking in the sceneThen she looked back at her sister, and her voice was low and fierce
"You didn't think it was such a freak's school when you wrote to the headmaster and begged him to take you
Petunia turned scarlet
"Beg? I didn't beg!"
"I saw his reply
"You shouldn't have read - " whispered Petunia, "that was my private - how could you - ?"
Lily gave herself away by half-glancing toward where Snape stood nearby
"That boy found it! You and that boy have been sneaking in my room!"
"No - not sneaking - " Now Lily was on the defensive"Severus saw the envelope, and he couldn't believe a Muggle could have contacted Hogwarts, that's all! He says there must be wizards working undercover in the postal service who take care of - "
"Apparently wizards gucci handbag new collection poke their noses in everywhere!" said Petunia, now as pale as she had been flushed"\iFreak!\i" she spat at her sister, and she flounced off to where her parents stood\a133
The scene dissolved againSnape was hurrying along the corridor of the Hogwarts Express as it clattered through the countrysideHe had already changed into his school robes, had perhaps taken the first opportunity to take off his dreadful Muggle clothesAt last he stopped, outside a compartment in which a group of rowdy boys were
talkingHunched in a corner seat beside the window was Lily, her face pressed against the windowpane
Snape slid open the compartment door and sat down opposite LilyShe glanced at him and then looked back out of the window
"I don't want to talk to you," she said in a constricted voice
"Why not?"
"Tuney h-hates meBecause we saw that letter from Dumbledore
"So what?"
She threw him a look of deep dislike
"So she's my sister!"
"She's only a - " He caught himself omega usa quickly; Lily, too busy trying to wipe her eyes without being noticed, did not hear him
"But we're going!" he said, unable to suppress the exhilaration in his voice"This is it! We're off to Hogwarts!"
She nodded, mopping her eyes, but in spite of herself, she half smiled
"You'd better be in Slytherin," said Snape, encouraged that she had brightened a little
"Slytherin?"
One of the boys sharing the compartment, who had shown no interest at all in Lily or Snape until that point, looked around at the word, and Harry, whose attention had been focused entirely on the two beside the window, saw his father: slight, black-haired like Snape, but with that indefinable air of having been well-cared-for, even adored, that Snape so conspicuously lacked
"Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" James asked the boy lounging on the seats opposite him, and with a jolt, Harry realized that it was Sirius
"My whole family have been in Slytherin," he chanel sheepskin bag |