Petunia watched the boys huddling over the book with a sad smile. She and Lily had done the same for a time with that very book. Soon after they had met Severus he had lugged ‘Hogwarts, a History' to the playground, and proudly presented Lily with the book. It was inscribed to an Eileen Prince. Severus had said it had belonged to his mother.

He had always seemed very proud of his mother, and yet angry with her at the same time. That had made no sense to her and Lily at the time. Looking back, Severus had likely been angry that Eileen was still married to her abusive husband, and was unable to defend her - or himself - from the abuse.

Petunia had been tearing apart the book case, trying to find a map if the Lancashire area - she had known the area quite well, of course. She had tried to forget the little town of Hale, outside of Liverpool on the Mersey River where she had grown up with Lily. She had never actually visited Severus' house. He had not even wanted Lily to visit, but Lily was stubborn and had managed to go there once. Lily had never spoken of the visit, and had not gone back again.

Petunia slipped into Vernon's home office nervously. Although she knew he would not come home for several hours, the office was Vernon's territory, and he wouldn't like her being in there. She rang the phone directory - no Severus Snape anywhere in the UK, it seemed. Well, she knew wizards had other means of communication, but she had hoped he had kept a phone.

She tried the Hale post office. Yes, there was a S. Snape the lived on Spinner's End Street. They didn't know what the initial stood for. Petunia was relieved, that was likely him. She had been afraid that Severus would move, once his father had died and he had left Hogwarts.

Petunia moved on to the next project. There was a computer, and she knew a lot of Vernon's financial information was on it - but she did not know how to access it, and Vernon would likely realize she had been in it. A quick search of the file cabinet unearthed the bank records. There was a recent one from that very month. She choked a bit at the amount.

Vernon's investments were certainly paying off well, she thought with a sneer. Vernon's pay was going straight into the account, untouched. Likely this was because Harry was paying all the bills, she thought with a touch of shame. The households monthly bills were all paid with cash - likely from Albus' 1000 pound a month stipend.

She opened a moneybag that was in the bottom drawer. There was a fat wad of large bills in it. Leftover cash from Albus' monthly payments, she was sure. Petunia smiled - Perfect!! Readily available money when needed.

Petunia had acquired a list made by a women's shelter- ‘What to take with you when you leave'. She grimaced at the memory. After the first time Vernon had hit her, she had gone to a charity that ran one of them 'to make a donation' and she had picked up some literature. She had carefully hidden it away. She looked at it each time Vernon hit her, or beat Harry. She once again mentally thanked Dudley for having pushed her to a decision. She quickly found the birth certificates and her guardianship papers for Harry. They were in the bottom of a lockbox. Vernon wouldn't realize they were gone unless he dug to the bottom, and he would likely have no reason to do that.

Petunia had found a zippered clutch; she stuffed it full of all her jewelry that had any value. She sat on the bed and thought carefully. She knew she was clinging to a faint hope that Vernon would change, but she knew that was a very slim hope. If it was only Harry, she could probably hold him off until he started Hogwarts. But Dudley wanted his magic back and to also attend the magic school and Vernon would never allow that to happen. They would eventually have to leave she just hope they could all leave alive.

They might manage to get Severus to undo the binding, and keep that hidden, but when the time came for the Hogwarts letters to arrive... Petunia shuddered at the thought of the scene that would occur. She wasn't sure how deep his violent streak might really go. Certainly his ‘disciplining' of Harry had been getting worse, and it was only in the past year that he had started hitting her when drunk. She suspected he would become very violent when faced with losing his son to the 'freaks'.

The bottom line was that she would need to decide whether to leave, or to make him leave. She wasn't sure she would be able to make him leave. Worse, she wasn't sure that he would let her leave - especially leave with Dudley, and the thought of Vernon hunting her was terrifying. Vernon's sister was formidable, and the two of them had so many friends. Once she thought about them, she realized that they were Marge and Vernon's friends, not hers. She just happened to be married to Vernon, so they had tolerated her.

She would likely have to run, and find somewhere to hide the three of them until the boys left for Hogwarts. Once in the wizarding world, she knew that there were those who would help the boys stay there, no matter what Marge and Vernon said. She rubbed her head tiredly, of course they may or may not help keep Albus away from Harry.

She sighed; some small part of her hoped that she could escape with the boys. The rest of her said that while they could disappear into the magical world, she was likely stuck here. The idea made her feel deserted - like she had when Lily had slowly slipped into her wizarding world, leaving behind a lonely sister.

Petunia straightened and told herself sternly to stop moping. Dudley and Harry could be made safe, and she would have to see to herself as best she could. She was no coward, and she was definitely smarter than Vernon or Marge.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Harry and Dudley stopped reading the book long enough to fetch a pad of paper and pen to write down questions and ‘topics for further research'. The History of Hogwarts was quite interesting, as well as the stories of the original founders and the four houses that took their names from them.

The top of their list was, of course to learn more about the houses, so they could pick the best one. They were greatly disappointed to read about the sorting hat.

"It picks for us?!" Dudley griped. "What if it puts us in different places?"

"It sounds like we would still see a lot of each other - maybe we can ask it to put us together?" Harry frowned and added that question to the list.

They were barely half-way through the first chapter when Petunia came out of Vernon's study with a stack of papers and a duffle bag.

"There are both of your birth certificates and my guardianship papers for you Harry." She explained while putting the papers in a section of the duffle, and zipping it up. "There are also papers giving guardianship of each of you to Severus. He can protect you the best, I think, and I think he's one of the few that can outwit Albus Dumbledore." The boys nodded solemnly.

Petunia pulled out the zippered clutch. "This has all my valuable jewelry in it. There is a list of all of them, and what we paid for them, so you'll have an idea of what they are worth." Petunia stashed the purse in the duffel bag. "There is also a moneybag in the back of the bottom drawer of the file cabinet in Vernon's study. It has a large amount of money in it. If you must leave quickly, and I can't go with you, take this duffel bag and the money with you."

Petunia put the pad of paper with Severus' address on it in the duffel.

"You'll have to take a bus to Birmingham, and then another to Liverpool, from there take a taxi to Hale. You may need to ask directions to Spinners End when you get there." Petunia sighed unhappily. She didn't like to imagine two ten year olds needing to take this journey alone. "You'll need to try to disguise yourself a bit, and pay for the tickets with cash, so they can't trace you with the ATM card."

"What's the point of the card if we can't use it?" Dudley grumbled.

"For really bad emergencies, when we don't care if they trace us." Harry guessed. "We'd just have to change locations, again after we're safe, right?"

"Yes, and use it before you leave London, don't use it after you leave London unless you are in danger. Vernon doesn't have any limits on daily withdrawal. So make several withdrawals at different machines. Take about 500 pounds each time, that shouldn't set off any alarms. Do it until it won't allow it anymore. Hopefully that will give you enough money to keep you very comfortably until Hogwarts." Petunia looked at them seriously. "I don't know how well off Severus is, he may need a bit of help feeding and clothing two growing boys."

The boys looked more resolute and determined, now.

"We'll each get a duffel like this one, and I want you to have some changes of clothing and whatever you will need if we have to leave here quickly. Keep the bags in a safe place, where you can grab it easily."

Petunia forced a smile onto her face, she was uncomfortably aware that the boys very well might be making this trip alone.

"Hopefully we'll be able to keep things going smoothly here for a time. The longer the better, of course. Once Vernon knows we intend to get your magic back, or even if we get it back and hide it - when the Hogwarts letter arrives for you as well as Harry the jig will be up. So, at best we have a year. But, most likely we have much less - I actually doubt this will last the summer." Petunia looked at the boys - they were nodding in agreement.

"I'll bet dad contacts Aunt Marge right away, and she'll arrive to help bash us back into place." Dudley said this quite matter-of-factly.

Petunia and Harry both winced. Yes, a visit from Marge was likely to occur, just as soon as Vernon thought of it.