reynardo | Apparently people liked this one.

The current

dyno_drabbles challenge is "canon couples" - you can only write a pairing that was actually written about by JK Rowling herself, or mentioned as part of an interview she gave.

And I do enjoy trying out the "non-common" ones.

So I wrote about the most unlovely couple I could choose.

TITLE: Reliable
RATING: PG (I'm afraid there's alcohol and polyester)
WARNING:
WORD COUNT: 360
A/N: London, Summer, 1978.

"Of course, I'm very big in drills!"

"Are you really, Mr Dursley?" Miss Petunia Evans smiled sweetly, and clutched her glass . She'd already extracted herself with great aplomb from the bore who had cornered her to evangelise about Ian Botham (she'd asked in a loud voice whether Gooch was a better bowler and then stepped out when three other men joined in to argue), but she looked apprehensively at the large man in the safari suit who smiled while he offered a bottle of Canadian Club. His wide polyester tie, while shiny, was not too psychedelic, and the suit was a very respectable powder blue.

"Care for some ?"

"No, I'm drinking Gin-and-two". She giggled girlishly, and sipped a little. "What is it you do with drills, though?"

"Oh, I sell them. There's a big future in drills, what with the different types - crank, eggbeater, hammer..."

Some time later, she was wondering what she'd got herself into, with terms like "rack and pinion" rattling around her brain, when suddenly something the man said made her jump.

"What was that?"

"I beg your pardon?" he huffed a little at being interrupted.

"What you said. About the manufacturing."

Vernon (he'd asked her, in a rather daring move, to call him Vernon) drew himself up and looked her straight in the eye. "I said that it's not magic, it's just business sense."

She took a deep breath in, and really looked at him for the first time in half an hour. "Not ... magic."

"Oh, don't be afraid, you delicate thing!" He reached across and chucked her under the chin. "You don't need to worry your pretty little head about that."

But she did.

She needed to know things that were concrete, and solid, and logical, and safe, and most of all...

... were not magic.

Petunia laid her hand gently on Vernon's arm, and looked coquettishly into his eyes. "I do beg your pardon, but I am rather hungry. You don't suppose..."

"Dinner! Yes, an excellent idea."

And thus started a nice, safe, sensible relationship. Exactly what suited both of them. Boring, predictable, pedestrian...

With no magic.