Trade

by VictoryNike

What would you trade?

You played that game all the time when you were younger, you and Lily, raising the stakes higher and higher until, in a childish way, you could ascertain the value of an object.

What would you trade for this braided bracelet? What would you trade to have a pearl-backed hairbrush like Mum's? What would you trade for an ice cream?

You'd trade your silver hair ribbons for the braided bracelet, but not your pink nailpolish.

Lily said she'd trade her entire seashell collection for a pearl-backed hairbrush.

You giggled. "Don't be ridiculous, Lily. Seashells are so much nicer than mum's hairbrush!"

"What would you trade, Tuney?"

"I'd trade my pocket money for a whole month."

"A whole month?"

"A whole month."

Then Lily's eyes got really big, her eyebrows furrowing a little bit. "Tuney, what would you trade me for?"

"You?"

"Yes, me."

You were a little taken aback by that question, but the answer sprung to your lips doubtlessly.

"Nothing."

"Nothing ever?"

"Nothing ever." you promised. And you meant it too. Because you never thought a day would come when either of you would have to trade each other for something else.

After all, why would it ever? There was nothing, you thought, in the whole world as wonderful as your little sister Lily. Why would you give her up for anything at all?

"I wouldn't trade you for anything ever either, Tuney." she said, solemnly.

Then you saw the sudden mischievous glint in Lily's green eyes.

"Tuney…" she began, and her teasing tone immediately puts you on your guard. "What would you trade for that Dursley boy who lives on the next block?"

You feel the color rushing into your cheeks. "Who, Vernon? Nothing. I don't want him."

Even though you are only eight and you know nothing about love, you think he's the most proper boy you've ever met, and maybe, just maybe you'd marry him someday.

"You looooooove him" sang Lily.

"I do not." You insisted, employing the only way you know to shut Lily up.

You tickled her, and the two of you dissolved into giggles on that warm summer day on the untrimmed lawn outside your house in Cokeworth surrounded by the summer wildflowers.

But then she met that Snape boy, with his greasy hair and sallow skin, and you were the only one left to play that game.

What would you trade, for Lily to play with you again, instead of spending all her time with that weird boy?

Your new dress. Even the gold filigree necklace your grandmother had left to you in her will when she died last year.

Later, the letter came. The two of them received matching letters, with the red seal and everything that it meant. A beautiful new life, with magic.

What would you trade to be magical like Lily?

Anything…

...Anything except your little sister. You swore, you promised, never ever to trade her for anything in the whole world. And you wouldn't, not even for magic, the most wonderful thing in the whole world.

Then why, you wonder, as you watch the scarlet steam engine pull away, taking your little sister with it, why did Lily trade you?

Author's Note: I think too often, in my own writings and in the books, Petunia is always portrayed as the bad person, the one who "abandoned" and shunned her sister. Then it occurred to me that Lily had abandoned Petunia first. So this was born.

Let me know what you think.

Yours,

VictoryNike

2/21/2014