and looked up
and then she
smiled

ϟ

Boy and girl wonder had never wanted a summer to end so much in their lives. Summer used to be their only time of freedom, tranquility, and productivity, and they cherished it then. Now, summer was a burden that cursed them to live with the family know as the Dursley's.

This summer did not live up to either Perry nor Harry's expectations. They had planned to unleash hell upon the Dursley family. Instead, they were treated like bombs, and all their belongings were locked away in the cupboard under the stairs. Perry had only kept her drawing supplies (lying that none of it was magic, mind you) because she promised that it would keep her busy and out of their way.

Perry and Harry had matured more this summer, Perry more than Harry. After certain circumstances occurred, Perry had to have the most uncomfortable conversation about what it means to be a woman with Mrs. Petunia. That resulted in a spontaneous "girls trip" to London.

Harry sat on the small bed they took turns sleeping in each night. Hedwig was dying to fly around, something she hadn't been able to do all summer long. Harry stroked her feathers to try and calm her as Perry moved over to sit on the bed. She crawled over to the headboard and sat so her back leaned up against it. She stretched her legs out on top of Harry's with a playful smile.

"Really?" he whispered.

"Yep," she said with a smile.

The quill moved back and forth in her hand as delicately as flapping butterfly wings. Harry watched the girl as she made her own type of magic. It wasn't that either of them had imagined having a different birthday. Every birthday they were ignored and forgotten, but never were they condemned to their room and forced to stay silent. If it weren't for Dudley, Vernon and Petunia wouldn't have even realized that the day was special to them. Mr. Vernon had some sort of important deal going on currently, and so their birthday was left as ignored as they were.

A loud POP caused Harry to jump off the bed and Perry to draw a line across the parchment. A small creature popped down on top of the bed between where Harry was once sitting and where Perry was sitting.

Perry stood up on the bed and backed away. She chaotically jumped over the creature and ran to Harry. Perry put her head into Harry's chest to keep herself from screaming. Slowly she turned her head to see the creature with large bat-like ears and round green eyes.

The creature bounced off of the bed and bent over into a bow. It's long nose almost touched the carpet and the filthy bag it wore tossed at its sides.

"Persephone and Harry Potter!" the creature squeaked, "So long has Dobby wanted to meet you... such an honor it is..."

ϟ

"Im locking you up!" Mr. Vernon belted. "You're never going back to that wretched school! You're never going to do magic again!

"That's not fair!" Perry shouted. "You're not listening to us! We didn't do it!"

"You won't leave this room for days!" Mr. Vernon screamed, not listening. "You won't eat for days!"

"So not much has changed!" Perry screamed back at him.

"Oh, you— girl," he growled, red in the face. "The second I can get rid of you I will!"

"I don't know why you took me in in the first place!" Perry shouted back with tears in her eye.

"Neither do I!" He screamed and then slammed the door.

Perry let silent, hot tears stream down her face. Harry attempted to pull her into a hug but she refused.

"Pare-bear," he said quietly, "You need to calm down or your going to blow a fuse."

"I hate them," she cried through gritted teeth. "Hogwarts is all we have besides each other."

"I know," he said pulling her into a hug, "And we're going to find our way back to Hogwarts somehow."

"I hope so," Perry muttered into his sweater.

"Hope's what got us to Hogwarts in the first place," Harry whispered. "Maybe it's all we need."

Perry nodded, not having enough energy to speak.

Vernon Dursley stayed true to his promise. The girl and boy sat in their room for three days eating only the leftover stale food from Hogwarts they had forgotten about. Bars were put on their window, locks were put on their door, and rules were installed so they couldn't speak.

On the third day Harry thrashed back and forth on the bed as Perry slept on three pillows they tied into a makeshift bed. She slowly raised her head to look at Harry who was noticeably in a nightmare.

She got up and shielded her eyes from the unusual brightness of the moon. Perry sat on the bed and shook Harry awake.

"Ehh— they were watching me," Harry blurted out as soon as Perry woke him.

"Harry," Perry whispered, "It was a nightmare."

Harry sat up and nodded. Then he took one of his hands and covered his eyes from the blinding light.

"What is that?" Harry grumbled. "It can't be the moon."

Perry got up and walked over to the window. She shut the blinds just a little so that she could see what was past the blinding light. Through the blinds she saw a pair of eyes staring back at her. Then two. Then three.

Perry pushed the window up and whisper shouted, "Ron!"

She squinted and saw the faces of Fred and George Weasley, Ron's twin older brothers, in the front seat

"Fred! George! How did you— what the—"

Perry stood amazed at the sight of Ron, Fred, and George driving a car in midair.

"All right, Seph? Harry?" George asked.

"What's been going on?" asked Ron. "Why haven't you been answering my letters? I've asked you to stay about twelve times, and then Dad came home and said you'd got an official warning for using magic in front of Muggles—"

"It wasn't us—" Perry interjected, "And how did he know?"

"He works for the Ministry," Ron said. "You know we're not supposed to do spells outside school—"

"You should talk," said Harry eyeing the car up and down.

"Oh, this doesn't count," Ron said. "We're only borrowing this. It's dad's we didn't enchant it. But doing magic in front of those muggles you live with—"

"I told you we didn't—"

Harry went on to explain some extravagant plan to Ron about telling Hogwarts they were trapped.

Perry looked over at Fred and George and whispered, "You are breaking us out, right?"

"Oh, totally," Fred whispered back.

Perry smiled at them before a frown found her face.

"Why so glum?" George asked concerned.

"All of our Hogwarts stuff is locked up under the cupboard under the stairs," Perry whispered. "Our books, our wands; everything's down there."

"Ah, don't worry about that, ickle Perry," Fred said before opening the car door.

He placed something on the bars and sparks flew off of them. The entire faction of bars fell delicately into Mrs. Petunias bushes.

"We won't speak about that trick," Fred said.

"But we've got a special muggle trick for your other situation," George said as he hopped from the car door to the window.

"George; Fred," Perry said grabbing both twins. "The Dursley's can't hear you or else Harry and I will never leave. Keep your voices quiet and don't step on the last floorboard because it squeaks."

"Got it, ickle Perry," George said reaching to mess with her hair.

"Don't touch my hair," Perry said.

"Alright, alright," George said in mock surrender before the two of them went on their own little mission.

Perry dashed around the room collecting her things and shoving them into a spare bag. Soon Harry was running circles around her to do the same thing. Ron sat in the back seat grabbing the stuff they threw at him.

Once they had gathered everything from their room they raced down the hallway to help Fred and George heave their trunks up the stairs. Once they made it to the platform they crept into Perry and Harry's room. Fred climbed through the window back into the car to help pull the trunks with Ron, and George, Perry and Harry slid the trunks out to them and into the trunk.

Perry thought she had heard the cough of Uncle Vernon earlier, and now she was sure she had heard it again. Now she knew he was awake, and that put her on edge.

"We have to go," Perry whispered, "Mr. Vernon is awake. I heard him."

"Alrighty," George said. He climbed through the window like he was a professional free-runner, yet Perry doubted he even knew what that profession was.

"Come here, Perry," George said reaching his hands out to her.

Perry stepped onto the windowsill and bent down to move out towards the ledge. The wind blew threw her long blonde hair. She hadn't been outside in so long. She wished she could take in the moment, but matters were quite tense.

She lunged forward, one foot on the window ledge of 4 Privet Drive and the other on the edge of the Weasley's blue Ford Angelia. Perry looked down and her eyes widened. She didn't get a chance to react because George quickly grabbed her arms and pulled her into the car.

She laid across George's thighs with her legs sticking out of the car while Fred grabbed her and pulled her over to him.

"Freddie!" she squealed and threw her arms around his body.

He chuckled and replied, "Hello, ickle Perry."

"I missed you so," she muffled into his chest.

"I missed you too," he said while patting her hair.

She snapped away and pointed a finger at him, "I warned you already, don't touch my hair."

"Honest mistake," he said in a tone that made Perry believe it wasn't quite an 'honest mistake'.

"Mhm," she said nodding her head. At that moment a loud Squawk came from the room.

"Harry," Perry whisper shouted to the boy who was standing on the window ledge, "We forgot Hedwig!"

"THAT RUDDY OWL!" boomed Mr. Vernon. All five children could hear him thunder down the hallway towards Harry and Perry's room.

Harry climbed back into the room and dashed over to the dresser where Hedwig and her cage sat. He grabbed her and he ran back over to the window just as the locks on the door clicked. He passed George Hedwig's cage and crawled through the window.

Mr. Vernon burst through the door and stood in the doorframe for a simple moment. Perry could have sworn she saw the color red radiating off of him.

Harry hurried through the window and his uncle started after him. Just as Harry lunged from the window, his uncle grabbed hold of his ankle. George and Perry pulled on Harry's arms as Mr. Dursley pulled on Harry's ankle. Ron was moving over while Fred was climbing into the front seat. Harry felt like he was the rope in a very aggressive game of tug-of-war.

"Hold on, Harry!" Perry exclaimed as she felt his hands slipping from hers.

Fred was settled into the drivers seat and started to lean the car to the right. Harry's uncle couldn't hold onto his ankle any longer and lost his grip on the boy. Right then Mrs. Petunia and Dudley rushed into the room. Perry and George pulled a dangling Harry into the car as Fred stepped on the gas.

Perry crawled across Harry to the door and slammed it shut. She put down the window and looked out of it back at the gathered Dursley's.

"See you next summer!" she screamed while waving goodbye.

The three Weasleys and one Potter laughed uncontrollably as she did so. Perry waited to come back through the window. She couldn't help but stare at the world around her. She really felt free. The wind blew through her long blonde hair as she stared at the glowing lights beneath her get smaller and smaller. No wonder Harry loved flying so much.

She exhaled and sat back inside the car. In the moments of her staring outside Ron had switched with George from the front to the back.

"Hello, Ronald," Perry teased giving him a big hug.

"Hello, Persephone," he teased back.

"Where'd Hedwig go?" Perry said, concerned for her and Harry's owl. Her cage was under Harry's feet, empty.

"Look behind you," Harry said nodding to the back window.

Perry turned around to see a happy owl flying around in the air. Perry smiled seeing how happy she was, considering she had seemed quite depressed the entire summer.

"So what's the story?" Ron asked impatiently. "What's been happening?"

"It's a rather long story," Perry said.

"It's a rather long drive," George replied.

Perry smiled and turned to Harry. They told them as much as they could remember. They told them about how horrible their summer has been. About Dobby, his warning of danger at Hogwarts, and that he used magic, not them.

"So he told you about the danger, but wouldn't tell you about who was plotting it?" asked Fred from the drivers seat.

"I don't think he could," said Perry. "We told you, every time he got close to letting something slip, he started banging his head against the wall—"

"Or the bed post—" interrupted Harry.

"Or the dresser—"

Fred and George looked at each other with strange expressions.

"What's that look for?" Perry inquired. "What, you think he was lying to us?"

"Well," said Fred, "Put it this way— house-elves have got powers magic of their own, but they can't usually use it without their master's permission. I reckon old Dobby was sent to stop you coming back to Hogwarts. Someone's idea of a joke. Can you think of anyone at school with a grudge against you?"

"Yes," Harry and Ron said as Perry shook her head no.

"Who?" asked Perry.

"Draco Malfoy," Harry said like it was obvious. "He hates us."

"He doesn't hate me," Perry's objected. "He's my friend— well, actually, friend may not be the correct term— but we're— well, he's— it's complicated, but I don't think he hates me."

"Draco Malfoy?" George asked. "Not Lucius Malfoy's son?"

"Must be," Harry said, "It's not a very common name, is it? Why?"

"I've heard dad talking about him," said George. "He was a big supporter of You-Know-Who."

"And when You-Know-Who disappeared," said Fred, "Lucius Malfoy came back saying he'd never meant any of it. Load of dung— Dad reckons he was right in You-Know-Who's inner circle."

Perry wasn't completely surprised but it did stun her just a little. She had never thought about the fact some of the students at school could have parents that actually supported Voldemort. She always felt strange when she thought about how much her and Harry's existence have changed the lives of billions.

She shook away her thoughts. There was no reason to think things that would cause her paranoia. She was finally free of the Dursley's and all the horrible things that came with them.

Perry sighed and rested her head against the window. Her stomach growled and all she could think about was food.

"Hungry, are you, Perry?" George asked.

"No," Perry sassed, "The monster in my stomach tends to growl when he's happy."

Fred snickered and replied, "Don't worry, Mum will make a feast for you when we get home."

"Can't wait," Perry said with a smile as she looked out the window at the sunrise.