A magical love affair - Severus Snape x Petunia Evans

Chapter 5 - Comfort drinks open up your mind

Park near Spinner's End, Cokeworth, July 1978

Petunia couldn't believe what was happening today in this park. Here she shared an embrace with her childhood nemesis, the impoverished git Severus Snape to give each other solace and not feel so miserable anymore. She was so surprised by his actions that she at first flinched slightly away from his opened arms. But as she felt his warm, slender and pale arms around her, engulfing her in a sweet, albeit hesitant loose embrace and his warm, whiskey smelling breath graze her cheeks in rhythmical puffs, she couldn't turn him down, escape out of his hug or hurt his feelings. Because she felt cared for, understood and likeable for the first time in months.

Sure, Petunia knew that these emotions were totally insane and produced by her devastated, chaotic and panicked mind so that they probably were only an illusion or spur of the moment dysfunction of her brain. But she nonetheless acted on them and reciprocated his hug tightly, basking in his warmth. She realized that they probably looked like an odd, mix-matched couple. He in his casual dark grey shirt and simple black jeans. She in her chic modest floral summer dress with dark red high-heeled sandals. But their facial expressions were the same. Tear-stained cheeks, tightly closed, puffy reddened eyes, sorrowful hanging labial angles and lips frozen into a miserable grimace. She realized that she actually should be really ashamed of her break down in public and her need for comfort in the arms of her odd, magically gifted childhood foe.

Her mother Violet had hammered the appropriate behavior of a young, modest lady into her head. Always keep smiling despite feeling awful. Always hide your real feelings behind a mask of cold indifference and never break down in the arms of some male in public. Don't show your vulnerability or pain to someone else. But Petunia couldn't be this robot-like, ice-cold lady today. And frankly speaking, she didn't care about these stupid societal rules of how to behave anymore. She only wanted to be herself for one day. Not the loved-starved, approval-seeking daughter who attended a cookery course in her free time to perfect her culinary skills in the hope to be praised by her mother or studied extra hard in Mathematics in the wish to be loved by her father. Neither the sneering, mean big sister who tried to hide her envy of Lily's magical skills and her pain over her preferential treatment from their parents by calling Lily a freak or ignoring her compelty. Nor the docile, ladylilke girlfriend who ignored her boyfriend's flirting with other women or tolerated his bullying by smiling midly and fulfilling his wishes.

She realized that it was crazy. She had the urge to be herself in the presence of Severus Snape who supposedly hated everything Muggle and loathed her since she was a little girl. But Petunia felt this strange connection and sense of belonging today on this broken, bleak playground. Therefore, she didn't hide her tears and wasn't afraid to show him her ugliest side nor confess her darkest secrets because she trusted him to not talk about it with someone else. And he already expected the worst of her due to her behavior towards Lily or their childhood fights. In some strange way, it really felt deliberating to pour out her heart and show her true self to someone who wouldn't judge her or expected anything brilliant from her. Besides that, she could trust him to stay silent about her confessions and talk honestly and freely with her because she would know his secrets after their talk too and he had never sugarcoated anything with her.

So, Petunia stayed in his embrace for some minutes, breathed in his unique scent and basked in his body warmth, until she freed herself from his tight embrace with a regretful smile. She sat herself down beside him with self-assured movements and addressed him with a grateful look out of her sapphire blue eyes.

"Severus, I really must thank you for this hug because I needed some human contact and comfort like a fish the water to swim. And I know, how awkward and difficult it must be for you to console your childhood nemesis because I know that you aren't the most social, empathetic or friendly person in the world. And our past isn't exactly an ideal ground to build trust, understanding and friendship upon," Petunia paused at his audible scoff and looked at him sheepishly, "but I somehow feel a strange connection to you thanks to our shared misery and really need to talk to someone who will listen and give me his honest opinion without sugarcoating anything. And I sense that you need this person too. So, in my books, this is a win-win situation. A possible way out of some really deep mess that I intend to use wholeheartedly. Will you also promise to be honest with me today and keep quiet about the stuff you will learn?".