A magical love affair - Severus Snape x Petunia Evans

Chapter 15 - Blooming flowers of attraction

Severus' Home, Spinner's End, Cokeworth, July 1978

On the way to his house, Severus clutched Petunia's hand tidily. He was deeply touched by her insistence to help him fix his house up and not hold anything of the chaos and horror she would most likely witness against him. Her warm, soft and delicate hand felt incredible in his calloused hand. And for a fleeting moment, Severus caught himself caressing her pale, rosy skin and basking in the warmth of their body contact. Petunia didn't flinch away from his gentle touch but rather blushed an adorable shade of pink, her sapphire eyes sparkling sheepishly and her heart beating wildly, as she boldly returned his caress and squeezed his hand in support. Severus tried to suppress his heated emotions. But his body betrayed him, so that he held on to Petunia's hand on the whole path to his front door, while a tiny voice in his head kept gushing about her beauty and kindness. To distract his mind and impress Petunia, Severus decided to apply a non-verbal and wandless Anti-Overgrown-Plants Charm at first that would free his front garden from the rampant weeds and let the long-lost beauty of the lavender patches come to life again.

His mum had planted the lavender before Tobias had been aware of her identity as a witch, cleared the patches of weeds and gardened them to their bloom until Tobias forbade her to tend to them in a blind outburst of rage. Hence, the beauty of the lavender had withered like the happiness and light inside the obsidian eyes of his mum. Sure, Severus had tried to pull out some weed in his summer vacation. But Tobias had punished him always with a new round of brutal beatings and verbal curses so that he had ceased to tend to their overgrown garden. It seemed like Tobias wanted the whole neighborhood to talk about their life in decay and chaos. Although most neighbors didn't waste their time with juicy gossip about the miserable lives of the Snape family because they had their own demons to battler. Drug addiction, alcoholism, psychological issues, poverty, violence, and unemployment Thence, the run-down state of the Snape house didn't cause any raised eyebrows and their neighbors only called the police, when they really feared for Severus' or Eileen's lives.

Slammed doors, anguished cries and bruises on Eileen's face didn't alarm anyone so that it had been a miracle that one neighbor had alarmed the police while Tobias had beaten Eileen to death. Severus was grateful that the bastard had been caught red-handed. Oherwise, he would most likely have buried Eileen's body in a nearby forest, reported her as missing and played the grieving husband without remorse, guilt and the looming fear of a prison term for life. Severus dismissed his dark thoughts, looked at Petunia's excited face and decided to use his gardening spell in a minute. His task at the moment was to educate Petunia in the magical culture/history, Potion brewing and how to clean and fix up your run-down house in record time with the help of magic, so that he would fulfill her a long-lost dream. To feel like a member of the Wizarding world. He also wanted to cheer her up and bond with her. Besides that, Severus wanted to impress Petunia and prove to himself that he was an open-minded, ready for a new love and a successful future, powerful wizard.

Therefore, Severus focused his mind on removing the weeds from the overgrown lavender patches, enchanting the dried out lavender bushes into their former bloom and vanishing any trash on his front yard. He retained an image of a well-kept, blooming with lavender bushes front yard in his imagination during his spellcasting and uttered soundless the incantations Remove zizania, Floresce lavandula, and Abolesce purgamentum in his head. Without a flick of his wand, his front yard transformed into his intended image. Severus noticed, how Petunia gasped in astonishment, looked in awe around herself and pointed with her left hand on the beautiful lavender bushes. She exclaimed in an excited voice, "Wow, Severus. How did you transform your run-down front yard in this beautiful lavender garden without even uttering a word or using your wand? I wasn't even aware that you could cast spells without a word and/or wand because Lily always uses her wand for any charm or spell she does. But it seems like you can change your environment with your mind alone. This truly is amazing and a vast improvement in comparison to your overgrown front yard. If you can fix your house up this fast, we will be finished in mere minutes. But I'm quite curious: How did you manage this amazing change without your wand and voice?"