"When were you planning on telling me?" Harry asked the dark haired girl sitting on his windowsill.

"I wasn't." Ella Potter near growled at him "I took my mother's name to avoid you. Well, not you exactly, the fame surrounding Harry Potter. I didn't want to be constantly reminded of the night I almost died."

"Voldemort tried to kill you too?"

"Nope. The house blew up when he tried to kill you." Ella cocked her head listening "Your aunt and uncle are coming, do you want me to leave?"

"Yeah. I don't think they'd be very happy about you being here."

"Petunia met my parents once. I don't think she liked them." The woman was now holding herself by her fingertips from the windowsill "See you later." She dropped just before Harry's Uncle Vernon came in demanding to know why wouldn't that owl shut up.

While I didn't enjoy life at the orphanage, watching Harry's family I feel very privileged. They're awful. I think I'd prefer living with Rebecca for a year than living with this lot. Once again they're arguing about Hedwig. Until Harry asks Dudley to say the magic word, apparently they have never heard "please" referred to as a magic word, then the argument turns into an opportunity to shout at Harry loudly.

Then there's an interesting announcement, "Now, as we all know today is a very important day." Does that mean this idiot actually has some idea of when Harry's birthday is? His next sentence proves me wrong. "This could well be the day I make the biggest deal of my career." Now, I have nothing against drills. They are what make the holes to hold up my shelves in the apartment Cassy and I share. I do however think that this man takes it a bit far.

"I think we should go through the schedule again." What for? I know the schedule. I sit up in Harry's room for the entire evening. "We should all be in position at eight o'clock. Petunia you will be…" Somewhere. Possibly in the house.

"In the lounge waiting to welcome them."

"Dudley?" In the kitchen eating all the food?

"Waiting to open the door."

"And you?" he turns on Harry.

"In my room pretending I don't exist." I hope he won't be. That wouldn't be very interesting conversation.

"Then at eight o'clock I will lead them into the lounge, introduce you, Petunia, and pour drinks. At eight fifteen…" and at eight I will be stealing from the kitchen.

"I'll announce dinner."

"And I'll take them into the dining room." Dudley said proudly. I don't see anything to be proud of though, leading someone into the room with food isn't that hard. You just point and say "Food"

Petunia gushed over this statement as she does everything her darling boy says. Vernon asked Harry again what he'll be doing and Harry repeated his answer in monotone.

"Good, now we should try and compliment them a few times. Any ideas?"

"Vernon tells me you're a wonderful golfer Mr Mason…Do tell me where you bought that dress Mrs Mason." the awful woman suggested.

"We had to write an essay about our hero at school, Mr Mason, and I wrote about you." At this Petunia burst into tears and hugged the thing while Harry and I collapsed with laughter. He had to duck beneath the table, I was slightly better prepared, invisible and inaudible, which meant I could laugh in peace.

"And you boy?"

"In my room, making no noise and pretending I don't exist."

"Yes you will be. They don't know about you and it's going to stay that way. When dinner's over I'll bring the subject onto drills while you talk to Mrs Mason, Petunia. The whole thing will be done and dusted before ten. Now I'm off to pick up dinner jackets for Dudley and me. You stay out of your aunt's way while she's cleaning." He addressed Harry.

I had it way better than this.

While Harry was sitting outside he heard someone sitting down next to him.

"I know you miss them." Ella told him "And I wish I could find out why they aren't talking to you. But…"

"You've got to stay here." Harry finished "I understand."

"All of my life I've been free," she murmured "Even in the orphanage I could go out and play if I wanted, most of the time I didn't but now, when I want to go out, I can't. They're horrible your family, you're the only person I know who lives like this, even Rebecca had it better."

"Thanks for the encouragement." he commented drily.

"Just saying. This is awful. Hey, you aren't actually going to pretend you don't exist this evening, are you? I still haven't got that book from Cassy."

"I'll talk to you don't worry." he reassured her, still gazing at the hedge. To see two green eyes gazing back at him.

"I know what day it is." Dudley announced.

"Do you indeed?" Ella muttered. Harry knew she was doing something whereby only he could hear her.

"Really?" he asked, looking back at the hedge. The eyes were gone.

"Today's your birthday, isn't it? How come you haven't got any cards from your friends at that freak place?"

"Your mum won't like it if she hears you talking about my school." He decided not to mention that he had got a card from Ella. It had "Happy 12th birthday" in big letters and a picture of some green creature. Yoda, she told him, was amazing and had taught Luke Skywalker and had he never heard of Star Wars? He was therefore going to be forced to sit down and watch it when they got back to school.

"Why are you staring at the hedge?"

"Because it's more interesting than your face?" Ella suggested.

"I'm deciding how to set it on fire. Which spell to use."

"Try "incendio""

"You can't. Dad said you can't do magic. He'll chuck you out and you won't have anywhere to go."

"You could come stay at my house."

"I have got somewhere where I can go."

"Really? Where?"

"I do have friends, one of whom owns a house. Now…Jiggery pokery hocus pocus squiggly…"

Dudley promptly ran off screaming.

"Enjoy that did you?" Ella asked.

"Would you really let me stay with you if I got kicked out?"

"I'm being paid to protect you, my agreement doesn't specify where. So if I decided that the only way to protect you was to lock you up in the Malfoy dungeons, I would be quite within my rights to do so."

"Provided the Malfoys let you."

"Provided one of them lets me and while Rebecca and I aren't on the best of terms we do agree about money and living. If someone was after her I'd let her stay in my house and wouldn't split on her, and vice versa. I think your aunt wants you." She noted. Harry sighed and went to see what he had to do as punishment for scaring Dudley.

After he had finished his chores and dinner, Harry went up to his room. To find Ella talking to a strange creature. "Hello Harry." The woman greeted him "This is Dobby, Dobby, Harry. He knows why I haven't received any post recently."

"Why?" Harry was still wondering what this thing on his bed was.

"He can't tell the difference between letters addressed to Ella Riddle and Harry Potter." Ella explained cheerfully.

"So he's been stopping my letters as well."

"Oh yes, I was just telling him that you know you've got friends even if they don't write. And you still want to go back to Hogwarts right?"

"Of course."

"Too dangerous." Dobby shook his head "Too dangerous. If he goes back he will be in mortal danger!"

"You already said that it will be dangerous this year, why?" Ella asked. Dobby made a funny noise and made to bang his head on the wall. "You can't say, fine. Is it Voldemort?"

"Don't speak his name!" Dobby implored.

"What else I'm supposed to call him I really don't know. Anyway, who's more dangerous than him?"

"It is not He who must not be named." Dobby insisted, apparently trying to get something across.

"Well the only person possibly as dangerous would be my Uncle Tom. Is it him?"

Dobby looked at the wall again. "Harry Potter must not go back to Hogwarts."

"I'm going!" Harry told him angrily.

"Then you leave me no choice." The creature said sadly. Suddenly he got up, went to the door and bounded downstairs. Ella ran after him and when Harry got to them Dobby was crouched in a corner and Ella was crouched over him. Both of them were looking at Aunt Petunia's pudding which was floating near the ceiling. Ella had her wand pointed at it and was apparently trying to get it to come back down, Dobby however appeared to be trying to keep it there.

"Put it back." Ella hissed at him.

"Only if Harry Potter will promise not to go back to Hogwarts."

Ella looked at Harry who violently shook his head. Dobby vanished. The pudding, by some miracle, stayed up near the ceiling. Ella guided it back down slowly, only to drop it when Dudley yelled at seeing her. When Petunia and Vernon came in they saw only Harry, Dudley and a pudding coated room.

After the Masons had been convinced that it had only been a disturbed nephew mucking around everyone settled back down. Only to be interrupted by an owl swooping in and dropping a letter on Mrs Mason's head.

After I dropped the pudding I immediately Disapperated to Harry's room, turned myself invisible and Apperated back downstairs to see what had happened.

Nothing good was my observation as a few minutes after the incident, a barn owl deposited a letter in the room which told Harry that if he did any more magic he would be expelled.

The next day, while the largest of the idiots was fixing bars over Harry's window thus preventing any escape through there, I was at the Ministry explaining to Mafalda Hopkirk that the unauthorised magic hadn't been Harry it had been a rogue house elf.

"We have evidence that magic was performed at 4 Privet Drive at twelve minutes past nine yesterday evening." the woman protested.

"And I have evidence that Harry has performed no magic since he left school."

"What you believe is no matter Miss…what is your name?"

"Riddle. And I know he didn't. There was a house elf and it was hovering something, at the same time I was trying to prevent it as a floating cake might have suggested to the Muggles that something was wrong. Harry was a bystander, not doing anything."

"But do you actually have any proof?"

"My eyes."

"We cannot drop the charges unless we have proper proof, it's not that big a problem anyway Miss Riddle."

"Yes it is. I've been living with this boy for nearly a year. I know that at some point he will use magic unlawfully, when that happens I would like him to have a clear record."

"We still cannot clear it."

This was going nowhere.

Harry sat in his room watching the man insert the bars across his window. Cassandra Carrow was standing just out of sight from anybody looking out of the window. She looked much the same as she had when Harry had seen her at Christmas.

"You don't mind looking after me do you?" Harry checked.

Cassy rolled her eyes "Ella's busy, Jasa's at a lecture and Rebecca would never come. Whether I like it or not I'm the only person she could ask. Anyway, I don't mind. What happened? Your uncle's locking you in your room, taking the words "you're grounded" to extremes and Ella's off at the Ministry talking to someone."

"There was a creature in my room," Harry began "I don't know what it was, Ella never said, and it wanted me to not go back to Hogwarts and then it used magic downstairs and got me into trouble with the Ministry and my uncle."

"Don't worry about the bars." Cassy told him "If you need to get out then Ella can Apparate you out or remove the bars. You're not trapped."

Just then Ella appeared in the room, cursing loudly.

"Shh." Cassy quietened her "Someone might hear. I take it it didn't go well?"

"No it did not." Ella complained grumpily, sitting down, still cursing under her breath.

"Any good news?"

"Yeees." She turned to Harry "They've altered the record. If anything like this happens again they won't expel you, it'll be the time after that, but it will still be in their records that you might have used magic unlawfully."

"Have you sorted out that problem with your mail?" Cassy asked.

"Yeah. That house elf isn't going to be doing that any more. I can't stop him doing anything else though. He was disobeying orders to even come here. You can go home if you want." She told her friend.

"Nah, I'll stay here and talk to you. How's uni going for you?"

"Allright. There was a bit of a problem when I told the lecturer that it was unavoidable that I had to go somewhere for a while, a few years, and will miss being at the rest of his lectures in person. He's been sending the notes to me regularly."

"So you still manage to do the work?"

"Oh yes. And I'm doing the Hogwarts work again. I'll usually listen for the first time they cover something new, to remind me because you know by now I would have forgotten most of the spells I learnt in first year, but after that I do my work at the back of the classroom. It doesn't take that long so this year I'm going to ask some of the teachers if they would like some help occasionally."

"Good on you. Ella Riddle an upstanding member of the community."

"Nope, just an upstanding member of the second year Gryffindor community." Ella smiled. "You?"

"Oh, not too badly. The lecturers are really nice and it's really interesting."

Cassy and Ella talked for a while more, then Cassy left for the house she and Ella shared.