The Once Happy Family of Evans
Aldora Evans. nee Frost was born in riches and privilege acquired by the family through the generation of estate ownership and management and shrewd investments done by her great grandfather to several of the booming hotel business and shipping industry in a rapidly industrializing England. Despite the wealth, her family believed in hard work, honesty and integrity, and from a very early age Aldora was taught the same by her father who also instilled in his only daughter the value of respecting other people irrespective of their country, language, and race, and that respect is earned not owed. Little Aldora loved traveling. She loved to explore the small wood behind her family home. She loved going to London with her father on his business trips or long vacations outside of the country with her parents. The prospect of meeting new people, learning a new culture or new history would excite the little girl to no end. This love for traveling and history brought Aldora Frost to the love of her life, Edgar Evans. When she got an opportunity to write a paper for her history class on the stately homes across England, she grabbed the opportunity and travelled across the beautiful countryside of North Yorkshire to Lafen Hall the unapologetically grand Victorian Manor that was set on an immaculate 642-acre estate and a vast lake.
The role of a Land Gentry was thrust upon young Edgar due to the sudden demise of his father. Leaving the hustle and bustle of life in London, where he was finishing his studies, Edgar visit his ancestral home, every month, to check and ensure the smooth running of the estate business with the help of his estate manager. It was during one of these visits that he came upon the young college girl visiting his house and writing a paper on it. Stunned by the red-haired and green-eyed beauty, it didn't take long for him to approach Aldora. Over their mutual love for history and traveling the two bonded and fell for each other. Aldora fell in love with young, adventurous, hardworking, and intelligent Edgar and he fell for the beautiful, strong, independent, and vivacious lass with beautiful eyes and smile. Before long the 2 married and settled down in the family home. They were blessed with the first child- a daughter named Petunia, and 2 years later Lily. Both little girls became Aldora and Edgar's centre of the universe. Their family was complete, they were happy. Life was peaceful. But this peace was not to last long.
It was Aldora who first noticed that there was something different about her youngest. Something she could not quite put her finger on. The first time she noticed it was after her father's funeral when a heartbroken Lily would not stop sobbing. Lily was the apple of her grandfather's eye and it was very difficult for Aldora to explain to her 4-year-old daughter that her grandfather would no longer play with her or hold her close or tell her and Petunia stories. After the service was over and the guest started leaving, she gathered the children and took take them to their room for rest. Lily adamantly refused to sleep in her bed and insisted to sleep in "papa's room". Before she could stop her daughter, the little girl ran towards her papa's room and even before she touched the heavy double door of the master bedroom it flew open with a burst while her daughter was a good 2 feet away from the door. While she stopped in shock her daughter continued her journey inside her grandfather's room. After a long pause, she decided that exhaustion from the past few days had finally caught up to her and she climbed with her daughter in her parent's bed and fell asleep. Very soon she forgot the whole incident. But then she never forgot how Lily in her anger over a fight with Petunia shattered the window glasses in her bedroom without touching and remaining unscathed, or how things she wants seemingly move to her daughter. When she voiced her concerns to her husband, to her surprise she realized she wasn't the only one to notice things and kept quiet. Fear of losing their daughter to scientific tests and experiments was real. They don't know where to look for the answer and were quite frankly scared to find it. After all, no one ever got hurt.
The answer to their unasked question came from the most unexpected place.
During the summer of 1988, Mrs. Evans decided that their home need a series of restoration, as they have decided to make part of the mansion and its ground to be opened for the public on weekends and let its history and historical artifacts be studied and known throughout England. To ensure that the family enjoys its quiet and private life away from the whole process they decided to move to the family cottage in the quaint Cotswold village. It was here in this village; one fine afternoon Petunia came running from the park and complained to her mother.
"Mummy! Lily is a freak and she met another freak boy." Aghast at the language of her daughter Mrs. Evans admonished her daughter with a stern voice, "Petunia, how could you say such unkind things about people let alone your sister? This language is not acceptable" "But mummy Lily was making a flower stand on her hand and she made it open and close on its own will and then this guy came from behind the bushes and said to Lily that she is a witch. And when I told him off for saying nonsense, he made a tree fall on me" protested Petunia.
Before Aldora could say anything Lily entered home running chasing after her sister.
"Tuney, you should not have run away. Why did you leave me there alone?"
"That freak tried to hurt me," said Petunia hotly.
"PETUNIA" exclaimed Aldora catching up to her thought.
"Well, you were mean to him too Tuney, you should not have called him names, I scolded him though."
Hmph scoffed Petunia, but said nothing. Her mother's one look silenced her.
"Both of you go and wash and come down and have your lunch. And we will discuss all these with your father in the evening. Do you understand? No more discussion on this" she spoke softly.
Both girls nodded their heads and rushed off upstairs to their room leaving their mother with her thoughts. At dinner, the family then was regaled by the tale of Severus Snape (the horrible boy as Petunia called him) the boy that lives on the other side of the village (the nasty, poor and filthy side piqued Petunia again) and comes to play in the nearby park. "He said I am a witch," said Lily with wide eyes to her equally shocked and wide-eyed parents. Lily went on to describe how Snape told her she was a witch and that he is a wizard too. The Evans couple were facing a range of emotions, on one hand, they have an explanation of all the unexplainable things that happen around their youngest on the other it came from an unlikely source- a child who probably made up the stories to make new friends. Reluctantly they allowed Lily to continue the correspondence which turned into a blossoming friendship. The Evans got to meet Snape when they invited him to lunch. Though extremely polite and well-mannered they could not help but notice the carefully hidden sullenness in the little boy and dare they say an outright hostility towards their eldest which she returns in equal. But it was Snape's friendship with Lily that got them confirmation that there might be some truth in the boy's stories, even though they hardly ever get to meet the boy. Nevertheless, they never discouraged Lily's friendship with the boy. Though they always tried to learn more about him and his family the boy kept everyone at arms distance except Lily.
As Lily and Snape's friendship grew so did Petunia's with the other children of her age. Enrolled in a private secondary school Petunia made friends with other children. Children of well-respected family who have made the quaint village their home. Petunia revelled in the company of other girls her age with similar interests in dance, music, and what not. The Evans decided to not move back to the family home even after the completion of the restoration of the house, so as not to destabilize the already perfect routine. They decided that once Lily is of secondary school age and gets enrolled in the same school, they can move back. However, fate has something different planned for them.
The arrival of a letter with an owl nonetheless on Lily's 11th Birthday turned the Evans family's life upside down. It seems their daughter was expecting that letter. With it came the confirmation that magic exists. In the real world and not only in the imagination of overactive children. The explanation from the school professor that followed shortly was a relief to both of the parents. Shortly after few months came the visit to the magical alley where the whole family was thrust into a new world of which their daughter was a part of. A world they were in awe of and which was out of their grasp. On that night while Lily was bursting with happiness Petunia's scowl and anger couldn't be hidden from Aldora. She tried to shower Petunia with extra attention, tried explaining to her that this was not something that someone can choose to be. Her heart broke when the letter from the headmaster of the school returned to Petunia politely and very calmly explaining why he could not allow her to attend the same school as her sister. Lily slept that night with dreams of a new adventure in a new world while Petunia filled with anger and jealousy stayed awake hating the world for the unfairness of it all.
To Aldora and Edgar sending Lily to Hogwarts was difficult. This was a world unknown to them. A world where they had no influence, no way to know what danger and difficulty their daughter would come across and how they would save her. But more difficult and heart-wrenching than that was to watch their children growing apart from each other. As each year Lily returned home from Hogwarts with new stories of her world her friends, Petunia too returned with increasing condescension and derision for her sister. As they grew up the distance between the hearts of the two sisters grew too and embittered over her sister's magical prowess, or as she puts it freakishness, Petunia did what she could to get vengeance over her sister. By being as different & normal from the freak of her sister as she could be. Where Lily honed her magical skills, Petunia excelled in her goal to achieve a perfect and idyllic life of a well-respected lady as per society norms. And over the years developed a very unpleasant personality which they cannot ignore for long.
The sibling's relationship soured when in her seventh year Lily came home with a very handsome and lively James Potter for Christmas to surprise her family, only to find out that her elder sister was dumped just before the holidays. The row that followed was nasty. But it was her parents stern scolding to Petunia that she has crossed all of their patience limits by being extremely hateful to her sister that made Petunia storm out of the home and move to London to live on her own.
In a true sense Petunia was lost to her parents that day. She maintained a very distant relationship with her parents and none at all with her sister. Aldora Evans regretted the decision of not cutting off Petunia's access to her trust fund. She could not let her baby suffer no matter how hateful she is to her family. But a year later when Petunia unexpectedly turned up to the family home with Vernon Dursley- who turned out to be an equally hateful, bigoted, and short-minded person, if not more, they were furious. The greed in the man's eye was palpable. They didn't approve of the relationship resulting in Petunia eloping with Vernon and staying with his sister at his parent's home.
Still blinded by the love parents have for their children Edgar secured a job for Vernon in a firm of his friends and gifted the house of No-4 Privet Drive to them as a wedding gift. A house where they now sat with a letter in hand telling them that their other daughter is lost too. But lost to the violence of a mad man.
Tears rolled down Mrs. Evans's eyes while she hugged the now sleeping Harry close to her bosom. while her husband is still staring unseeingly at the letter in his hands.
Unable to bear the silence and sound of grief for her late sister Petunia asked her parents, "Why does the letter mention us as his only surviving relatives? Why was he sent here not to your home? And what is this blood ward the letter talks about?"
"Lily put them to keep your family safe." Mr. Evans replied hoarsely. "As for why Harry is left to you and not to us, it's because their plan worked."
"What plan?" Whose plan? snapped Petunia irritated.
Edgard looked at his daughter with tired but determined eyes and replied softly, "Plan to ensure Harry's safety, to ensure he grows up having a safe and beautiful childhood, and plans to ensure he grows up to his full potential. The plan that Lily and James came up with and I and your mother agreed and will see to its fulfilment."