Title: The Guide to Pranking (By Lily and Petunia Evans)
By: Nesma
Disclaimer: Not my own world.
A/N: Turns out... this is the last chapter. Thank you to EVERYONE who followed the story and gave it so many lovely reviews! :)

And so the truce between the sisters stuck. Petunia sent some photos back and for a while the girls were kind to one another. That is, until the Winter break of that year in which the two sisters found something new to fight about. Though, the fight was still innocent.

It was years later, when Petunia realized what Lily was sacrificing if she married James that the fighting became far more serious. Petunia had angrily stormed to the flat where Lily lived and the two yelled and screamed until their throats were raw. Petunia believed that her baby sister should come to the muggle world and assimilate with the rest of them. Lily thought her sister was trying to control her agency. It all ended with a nasty slam of the door.

They were polite but cold to one another. They still sent gifts to one another during the holidays, though it became almost a competition of which sister could send the uglier gift (Petunia usually had a knack of discovering delightfully dreadful vases).

Though the rift between them widen with every year the wizarding war went on, they each vowed that they would speak to one another once the war was over. Petunia knew she would find it easier to forgive Lily for staying in the world once she survived. And Lily thought it would be easier to maintain a relationship when she wasn't constantly in hiding and fearing for her life, her husband's life, and her child's life (not to mention if Voldemort found out about Petunia). They both knew that time healed all wounds and believed that they had all the time in the world to spare.

Neither of them thought the last they would have seen each other was in that dingy flat in the middle of London.

November 1st, 1981

Petunia feared that the magic in her family's genes had passed onto Dudley. For while Vernon merely chuckled at his son's screams and shouts, to her, it sounded as if there was a banshee sitting in the middle of her kitchen table. And Vernon just toddled away while Petunia was left staying in the middle of the kitchen with her fish's bowl in her arm.

The fish, Lily, was in need of a clean home. Petunia realized two nights ago that the fish was swimming in filth. And rather let the poor animal die (as Vernon had mentioned one too many times), Petunia stubbornly held onto the fish.

At first, she named it Lily since it seemed fitting. Then, later on in life, Petunia liked having something as small and insignificant be named Lily so that could yell and shout at this small 'Lily'. She found it rather brilliant. Yet, despite hating real life Lily, Petunia's feelings were rather tame towards the smaller one. Which was why it was so important that she actually keeps up with the fish's environment.

"Alright, it's okay honey." She cooed, desperately trying to prevent her ear drums from popping as she gingerly placed the bowl on the table and started to pull Dudley from out of his chair. Yet, he was still screaming and once he was freed from his chair, kicking madly in every direction.

It was only one kick to send the bowl from tumbling over the edge and breaking in a million different little pieces. Petunia merely shut her eyes as the banshee in her arms howled in rage at the newest soundtrack. Petunia knew that the fish would be okay so she went ahead and took the boy upstairs.

He screamed, howled, kicked, and punched the entire way up. It felt like a battle to change his diaper and a full blown war to get him into bed for his nap. And by the time she was finally able to close the door of his nursery, she almost gave into temptation to go to bed. Instead, she slugged down the stairs and back into the kitchen and picked up the petal in the middle of the broken glasses.

Usually, when Petunia handled Lily the fish as a petal, she could still feel the magic. She could feel it pulsing in her hand as she would put it to the side to clean the bowl. But this time, there was no pulsing. It felt soggy and wet and there was nothing special. The petal had aged quite a bit.

Petunia immediately went to the cupboards, her heart beating fast as she grabbed the first big cup she could see and filled it with water. Once it was nearly full, she put it to the side of the sink and let the petal drop in. It floated before descending down to the bottom. But instead of blooming into a fish, it merely sat at the bottom.

Petunia picked up the glass and inspected it at all angles. In the years after truce, she had never not seen this fish come to life. The petal never wavered, never aged, never acted as if it were ordinary.

Perhaps she died. A thought fluttered through her mind before she immediately shut her thoughts down.

There was no way her sister was dead. Things get old and they stop working. Besides, she could have sworn that she saw a fish floating about prior to the spill (though there was seed of doubt). Yes, of course, her baby sister was alive. It was just her fish that was dead.

Petunia drained the water from the glass and plucked the petal. She patted it dry carefully before wondering over to the bookcase in the living room. She pulled out a Jane Austen book and placed the petal among the first pages. She made a mental note to ask Lily about magic disintegrating.

For the rest of the day, Petunia tried very hard to be focused on things other than her sister. She focused on cleaning the kitchen obsessively, from the cabinets to the counters to the fridge itself.

Then, during her afternoon walk with Dudley, she tried not to think about why there were so many owls flying about. She was trying very hard not to muse why so many owls were flying around delivering letters. Though, she let herself hope that maybe an owl would come to her proclaiming the war was over from Lily. Yes, she did hold onto that thought as she walked straight ahead with Dudley.

She tried to avoid the gazes of those in robes. She was thankful for when Dudley started his banshee cries as it covered up the conversation of the obvious witches and wizards nearby. Something had clearly happened about the war.

She tried hard not to ponder about it. She tried not to remind herself that her sister was actively fighting. Or about the letter was tucked in a novel by her bedside stating that her baby sister had to go into hiding. The same one that charmed make up products was fighting wizards like Snape.

Luckily, once Dudley arrived home, he decided to throw a tantrum and Petunia spent the rest of her day feeding, bathing, cooking, and putting Dudley to sleep. It was only when Vernon asked about her sister, out of all the days why this one, did she remembered.

There was no owl at her door. There were no visitors. And her husband brought up her sister. Petunia tried hard to hold onto her last grip of hope but found it loosening.

As she crawled into bed later that night, she resolved to send Lily a letter. Damn the war and hiding. If she was permitted to send a Christmas gift while her sister was hiding she was allowed to send a letter. Besides, she had to write about her fish's death.

Lily would want to know. But would never find out for the next morning, when Petunia found Harry she screamed, and dropped her hope (and milk jugs) and screamed until Vernon found her. He always thought it was because there was a baby on his doorstep.

He never realized that it was the moment Petunia found out about the death. The letter tucked into Harry's blanket was unnecessary.

There were some secrets that Petunia held on that Vernon, nor the world, never knew, and one of them was the infinite love she had for her sister.

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