Re: I knew I'd break the comment box she feels to me like someone who's shed a carapace
Yes, and because she's not a magical being who can live comfortably past a hundred, this means she's taking a risk in middle age, at a time when women are (still!) rendered sexually invisible, or past the proper age in which society -- her old bedroom-community, status-conscious society -- takes any interest in their potential at all. So it's very brave, yet from canon we know how utterly sterile and cramped her life would have been if she'd stayed with Vernon, so this last-ditch effort to free herself is a relief. What's wonderful is that I can believe this Petunia is consonant with that one, this rather bewildered and bereft person buried under all the aggressive refusal.
Anyway, I did get it right, it is you! I guessed correctly on three out of my four favorite Beholder fics, and frankly on the fourth I hadn't a clue (although I should have -- I was being dim). I'm not a stalker, I promise, but I do have a long memory for authors who delight me, especially those who love language, and you have a way with words that makes my own imagination vibrate like a tuning fork. Your pitch-perfect, sympathetic details.