I can honestly say that I miss my magical school, Hogwarts. Sitting here in this small room that I share with my brother in the Dursley residence makes me realize how boring life is without magic. Life is boring when you have only one thing to look forward to and that one thing is so far away. If waiting for school isn't boring enough, it is even more boring when for some strange reason none of your friends are contacting you. This is what I am dealing with and from glancing to my left, I can only assume that my big brother is also feeling like this. The Dursleys have gone back to their old ways of being mean to my brother and me, but now they mostly ignore us. I can't decide if this is better or worse than before. Uncle Vernon took all our magical stuff and locked it in the cupboard underneath the stairs when we arrived home from school. He even went so far as putting a lock on Hedwig's cage. So, even if our friends did send us letters we wouldn't be able to reply to them, anyway.
"Big brother? Why haven't we gotten any letters from our friends?" I ask him through the mind link and my mind's voice sounds sad to the point that I want to cry. Did they forget about us? Were we even friends? Draco told me that he would write to me during the summer, but I haven't received anything throughout this whole break. Was he lying to me? Nobody has even sent anything for our birthday. Harry's arms wrapping around me makes me realize that I'm crying. This whole situation with my friends never really bothered me until today.
"I don't know why they haven't sent us any letters, but maybe they are just really busy. For now, let's not think about that, and let's think about how we're going to Hogwarts soon," he says while trying to get me to smile. Just the thought of going back to that magical school makes me smile, and I try to wipe away the tears that are still escaping my eyes. Wanting the tears and sadness to stop, I grab the photo album that Hagrid gave us and start to flip through it while leaning against Harry's shoulder. I stop at the first picture in the album which is the picture of our mom, dad, toddler me, and toddler Harry. Sometimes I wish that we could go back to that time because we looked so happy.
I must have been looking at that one picture for too long because Harry gently turns to the next page. Nostalgia washes over my sadness when I realize that the next picture is of Harry with his two friends: Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley, also known as the Weasel. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice a small smile on my brother's lips and a small smile appears on my lips as well. It always makes me happy when my brother is even the slightest bit happy.
This time, I turn to the next page and a huge smile breaks through all my emotions. Like the other one, this picture is of me with my two friends: Hermione and Draco Malfoy. Oh, Godric! I miss my friends so much, but I am going to believe what Harry said and think that they must be super busy. Draco and Hermione are smiling towards the camera while my picture self is on repeat with putting my arms around their shoulders with a smile on my face. I can't wait to have those kinds of memories again.
Before we can move onto the next page, a screeching sound startles us into looking up from the book. The snowy barn owl, Hedwig, is fluttering her wings inside the cage which makes the cage rattle from the movement. A frown appears on my lips at the thought that she can't spread her wings and fly.
"I'm sorry but we can't let you out, Hedwig," Harry says and the owl screeches back at his words, "We're not allowed to use magic outside of school," this only seems to upset her more because she starts to bite the lock with her beak.
As my brother starts to say something, we hear our uncle yell our names from downstairs. Gulping slightly, I look over to my left and notice that my brother doesn't look happy either. He sighs as he grabs the book from my lap and places it back on our desk. Harry moves back over to me and holds out his hand. Defeated, I grab his hand and head towards the white bedroom door because Uncle Vernon does not like to be kept waiting.
We shuffle down the carpeted stairs and I quietly open the kitchen door. The first thing that I notice is that Aunt Petunia is putting cherries on her fruity cake. They must be having a guest over because she is dressed up in her nice tan dress with pearls around her neck. Realizing that I'm blocking the doorway, I quickly shuffle through the door to allow Harry into the kitchen as well. Just as my big brother is closing the kitchen door, Aunt Petunia looks up from her cake and gives us a quick glance before nodding her head towards the living room.
"He's in there. Vernon?" she says while going back to her cake. We walk into the living room that is furnished nicely with brown patterned furniture and pink wallpaper. The brown carpet is neatly vacuumed by Harry, earlier today, and I dusted all the shelves and tables. There is one problem that I instantly recognized every time I enter any part of the house. Every single picture that is hanging in this house has either Dudley by himself, or all three of them in it, but not even one has me or my brother in it. Every guest that comes through this house would never believe that there are two more people living here.
Snapping out of my daydream, I notice that both Vernon and Dudley are dressed up in black suits that look like that have been ironed. Okay, a guest is definitely coming to this house shortly. Uncle Vernon is helping Dudley with his tie when he looks over at us.
"I'm warning you two, if you can't control that bird, it'll have to go," he says while he continues working on the tie. Inwardly, I roll my eyes at his words because what does he expect a bird to do when they are never allowed out of the cage. It's pretty obvious that the bird is going to throw a tantrum for not being able to fly.
"But she's bored," Harry tells our uncle, "If I could only let her out for an hour or two."
"So, you can send messages to your freaky little friends? No, sir," Vernon tells us and my hands curl into fists as he calls our friends' freaks. It's times like this where I wish I could use magic. As if sensing the negative thoughts that I'm thinking of, Harry puts a hand on my arm and gives it a gentle squeeze. Taking a deep breath, I look up and I notice that Dudley is looking at us with a look that says, "you guys are freaks." I glare at him briefly before focusing on Uncle Vernon again.
"We haven't gotten any messages from any of our friends. Not one...all summer," his voice drifts off by the end of his sentence. Now, it's my turn to put a hand on his shoulder and give him some support. No one says anything for a few seconds until Dudley decides to speak up after his father finishes his tie.
"Who would want to be friends with you?" he says as he walks by us and bumps our shoulders. Now, I am royally angry! I start to walk after him with my hands in fists, but my brother grabs me before I can get too far away.
"Oh! Come on, brother! Let me punch him in the face at least once in my life," I complain through the link, but my brother continues to hold onto me. I guess that is a no then. Sighing, I stop struggling and turn my back on our cousin.
"I should think you two would be a little more grateful after everything we have done for you. We've raised you two since you were babies, given you two the food off our table, and even given you two Dudley's second bedroom purely out of the goodness of our hearts," Vernon tells us and this time I can't hide my eye roll. After being kind to them since I was a child and have done the housework without complaints, he is saying that I should be more grateful! Out of the goodness of their hearts?!? It is more like we can't fit underneath the stairs anymore, so they had to give us a bigger room. They had us believe that our parents died in a car crash, and they never told us about our magic. These people can't take even a few seconds to sympathize with us! I have had enough of this! I'm not going to waste my kindness and energy on these people any longer. Yanking myself free from my brother's touch, I stomp over to the kitchen door and up the stairs before slamming the bedroom door behind me. Honestly, I don't care if they scold me or anything because they have already taken everything that I love already.
I face plant on my bed as I silently scream into my pillow. Why can't time go faster?!? As I pout some more, I hear a snap before a thump appears inside the room. Fear creeps it's way into my heart as I slowly push myself up from the bed and look towards the center of the room. A scared yelp escapes my lips when I notice that there is a short wrinkly being in the middle of my room. The thing is dirty and wearing only a dirty worn-out pillowcase. Another thing that captures my attention about the being is that it has large pointy ears like a cartoon bat or something. What in the name of Salazar is that?!? It must have sensed my staring because it turns around and gasps while backing away from me. I tilt my head to the side and move to the edge of the bed when I realize that this creature isn't harmful.
"Anastasia Potter, it is an honor," he says as he cautiously moves toward me. I give him a kind smile while I hold out my hand for him to shake. I'm assuming that the creature is a he because it has a masculine voice instead of feminine. The creature looks down at my hand with a questioning look and I slowly move my other hand towards his. At first, he seems really scared but I keep all my movements slow and gentle. Grabbing his hand, I place it in my outstretched hand before giving it a handshake. He visibly relaxes when I finally release his hand and he takes a few steps away from me. As he becomes calm again, I look at his face and his eyes are as big as half of his head. Not wanting to be rude but having to know, I slowly grab my notepad and pen and quickly write down the question, 'What are you?' before flipping it over for him to read.
"Dobby is a house-elf, ma'am," he says, and I nod my head while taking a mental note to read about his kind later. Before I can write down my next question, I hear someone walking up the stairs and towards the room.
Instantly straightening up, I walk over to the door and open it just enough for my head to poke out. Peaking around the doorframe, I give a sigh of relief that its just my brother and I grab his arm, pulling him into the bedroom. During this whole exchange, Dobby decides to jump on my bed and makes happy sounds. Shutting the door behind me, I watch as my brother stands right in front of me and presumably staring at the creature that just appeared in our room. The house-elf jumps a few more times before jump around and noticing my brother staring at him.
"Harry Potter, such an honor it is," he says while holding his arms together as if his confidence levels are draining the longer that we are here. At least while it was just me, Dobby seemed pretty comfortable, he was still nervous but still pretty comfortable. Now that my brother is here, he isn't at all comfortable and seems kind of fearful.
"Who are you?" my brother asks with curiousness laced through his voice. He leans against the wardrobe slightly while I stand next to him. Wanting him to feel safe again, I give the house-elf a warm smile while giving him an encouraging nod. It did not work, but he still answers my brother's question.
"Dobby, sir. Dobby the house elf," he replies and gives my brother a small smile. I wonder if all house-elves are this formal or if it is just Dobby. Giving him another smile, I walk over to my brother's bed and sit on it while watching my brother's interaction with the house-elf.
"Not to be rude or anything, but this isn't the best time to have a house-elf in our room," Harry says while holding in his slight irritation. Frowning slightly, I start to think that maybe we need to get to Hogwarts sooner than planned because we are getting irritated with this family. If someone can annoy me as much as this family than that is saying something about how bad these people are. Even though we are slightly annoyed that doesn't mean that he should take it out on someone that does not deserve it.
"Yes, sir. Dobby understands," he says while holding up his hands in a peaceful manner. Instead of leaving, he clasps his hands together while looking at us with a nervous glance, "It's just that Dobby has come to tell you...it is difficult, sir, ma'am. Dobby wonders where to begin."
"Why don't you sit down and start from the beginning?" I write down on my notepad before showing it to the little guy. His big green eyes briefly scroll over the page before looking back at us with a hint of hurt on his face.
"Sit down?" he repeats that a few times and each time his nasal voice gets quieter. A strangled cry escapes him as he shakes his head while he jumps off the bed. He turns away from us as he continues to cry, and I instantly feel guilty that I made him cry. His cries are getting louder, so I quickly look at my brother for him to intervene.
"Dobby, we're sorry. Anastasia didn't mean to offend you or anything," he quickly explains while I nod my head wildly as I become even sadder when I notice that there are tears streaming down the house-elf's gray wrinkly skin.
"Offend, Dobby?" he asks us as he turns back to look at us. I nod my head while looking down at my lap and toss the notepad onto Harry's pillow. "Dobby has heard of your greatness, sir, ma'am, but never has he been asked to sit down by a witch or wizard, like an equal."
"You must not have met that many decent people then," my brother tries to lighten the mood and I finally look up from my lap. Feeling slightly better that I didn't offend the nice house-elf, I contemplate what Dobby just said. Are there that many mean people in the magical community? Yes, but I don't want to think about that. I want to stay in my happy little bubble.
"No, I haven't," he says, and I just want to hug him, but I hold back that sudden urge. I don't think he would like it if I hugged him because if Dobby acted the way that he did when I asked him to sit, I don't want to know what will happen if I hug him. Before I can think further, I hear Dobby's voice talking again, "That was an awful thing to say."
After Dobby says that sentence, he walks over to our dresser and puts his hands on either side of it. As I start to question what he is doing, he starts to hit his head against the drawers, hard while saying, 'Bad Dobby'. My golden eyes widen while my brother tries to hastily stop him because he is hitting himself so hard that the noise is definitely being heard from downstairs.
"Dobby! Please, stop!" Harry is whispering as he rushes toward the house-elf. Finally, after hitting his head a few more times he stops and walks toward the desk chair, but I keep my hands out just in case if he falls.
"Is he alright, big brother?" I ask my brother through the link, and he repeats the question to the little creature.
"Dobby had to punish himself, sir, ma'am," he says while climbing onto the chair, "Dobby almost spoke ill of his family, sir, ma'am."
I start to drift off into my mind as I think about everything that is happening at the moment. First, I don't receive any letters from any of my friends. Second, my uncle tells me that I should be more grateful for them lying to me for my entire life. Finally, to top off all of that, there is a house-elf that just appeared inside my room and seems to be off his rocker slightly.
"Sister, you might want to hear this bit," Harry calls out to me, and I shake my head before focusing on him. Once he realizes that I am paying attention again, he looks back at Dobby, "Can you repeat what you just said?"
"Dobby had to come. Dobby must protect Harry and Anastasia Potter. To warn them," he repeats, and my eyes widen from his words. What does he have to warn us about? I mean after facing Professor Quirrell/Voldemort last year, how can something else be more dangerous than that?
"What is it, Dobby?" I write down on my notepad and show it to him.
"Harry and Anastasia Potter must not go back to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year," he says, and my eyes widen at the thought of not going back. "There is a plot, a plot to make most terrible things happen." I look over to the other bed, and I notice that my brother has a disbelieving look on his face. He looks lost as he tries to find his words.
"What terrible things? Who's plotting them?" his voice is serious, and all trace of irritation is long gone. Right after Harry says that Dobby gets a frustrated look on his face while clenching his teeth. The house-elf barely gets the words 'Can't say.' out of his mouth before he clenches his head with his hands. Oh, no! Big brother set him off again!
As my brother is apologizing to Dobby, the little creature climbs on top of our desk and grabs the lamp. Once he starts to bang his head on the base of the lamp, I grab the lamp and try to pull it out of his grasp. The key word is trying because surprisingly he is strong and keeps it in his hands. Big brother notices that I'm having trouble and grabs the lamp as well. Together we finally yank the light source out of the house-elf's hands, but I know for a fact that we caused too much noise and Uncle Vernon is definitely going to check on us now. As if he heard my thoughts, my brother and I quickly throw Dobby into the wardrobe while he warns the little creature to stay quiet.
Right as we close the wardrobe, Uncle Vernon starts to open the bedroom door and I quickly sit down on my bed. The overweight man that I have to call uncle comes into the room and glares at us while looking around the room. He is not happy at all.
"What the devil are you two doing up here?" He shouts while maintaining a whispering voice level. I shrug my shoulders as I turn to look out the window. I'm not going to lie to this man nor even write anything to him. For all I care, he doesn't exist at the moment, not after what he said to me downstairs.
"We were just-," big brother starts to say while pushing the wardrobe door close. Dobby! For the love of magic, please stay in there! I keep praying that inside my head as I continue to watch the interaction between Uncle Vernon and my brother through the reflection in the window.
"You two just ruined the punch line of my Japanese golfer joke," he says while glaring at Harry because he is the nearest one. I roll my eyes at the fact that is the reason behind him being angry. The wardrobe opens slightly, and Harry closes it again while saying sorry to our uncle.
"One more sound and you two will wish that you were never born," he tells us, and I nod my head after I finally turn to look at him. The wardrobe opens again slightly, and my Uncle looks at it one last time before he starts to walk out of the room, "Fix that door!"
Once the door shuts behind him, Harry pulls open the wardrobe door and lets the house-elf out of the piece of furniture. A sigh of relief escapes me, and I fall back onto the bed. That was a close call.
"Do you see why we need to go back to Hogwarts? We don't belong here! We belong in your world! It's the only place we have friends in," he says as Dobby pulls a sock off his head. Ew, Harry's dirty sock! Dobby doesn't seem bothered by what my brother is saying. Instead, the little creature decides to smell my brother's dirty sock while letting him finish his sentence.
"Friends who don't write to Harry and Anastasia Potter?" he says, and I instantly stand up from the bed. How does he know about the lack of letters from our friends? We have never met this creature in our entire lives, and yet he knows about something that is relatively personal.
"Hang on. How do you know our friends haven't been writing to us?" he says as I quickly nod my head in agreement. Maybe, I shouldn't have trusted this creature so quickly. As if realizing his mistake, the little gray creature suddenly becomes extremely nervous while slightly backing away from us. His already big eyes widen even more before returning to their normal size.
"Anastasia and Harry Potter mustn't be angry with Dobby," he says while reaching to the back of his pillowcase outfit. "Dobby hoped if Harry and Anastasia Potter thought that their friends had forgotten them then Harry and Anastasia Potter might not want to go back to school, sir, ma'am."
Now, my eyes are the ones to grow big when I realize that he has a large stack of unopened letters, my letters. I start to grow angry when I realize that this little creature is the reason behind me not receiving any letters. How dare he steal our letters and think that this was for the best?!? I have cried a countless number of tears over this whole situation when I actually didn't need to. This whole time I thought my friends have forgotten about me or worse didn't care about me, when in fact they haven't forgotten about me. Considering the number of letters for the both of us, I can safely assume that they are worried that we never sent any owls back.
"Give those to us. Now," I can hear the anger underneath his stern words and I honestly can't feel bad for the house-elf. He did this to us and we deserve to be angry at him. Dobby quickly shouts, 'No!' and puts the letters back in his outfit. Realizing that he is going to bolt, I quickly try to grab him, but he dodges my attempt as well as my brother's and opens the bedroom door. My anger is quickly changed with worry and I start to chase after him as quietly as possible.
"We cannot allow him to reach the muggles downstairs, big brother!" I shout through his mind as we quietly, but quickly run down the stairs and towards the kitchen. Unfortunately, he runs into the kitchen and we have to stay out in the hallway so that way nobody sees us. Dobby stops running and spots the cake on the kitchen counter. A happy smile appears on his wrinkly face as he turns to look at us.
"Dobby, get back here," Harry shouts while whispering as I continue to watch his movements. The house-elf shakes his head no and looks back at the cake. With a snap of his fingers, the cake is lifted into the air and just casually hangs there. My eyes widen while my heart starts to beat rapidly.
"Dobby, please, no," my big brother says with worry as he continues to look onwards at the cake with fear on his face. Please, Dobby, don't do this to us! I whisper throughout my mind as I watch the cake like a hawk. Life will be even harder to live if this goes in the direction that we all know it will go.
"Anastasia and Harry Potter must say that they are not going back to school," he says with a determined look on his face. I quickly shake my head no while my brother verbally says it.
"We can't. Hogwarts is the closest thing to a home that we have," he says while trying to plead to the house-elf. Dobby actually looks sad after he hears what my big brother had to say.
"Then Dobby must do it, sir, ma'am, for their own good," he whispers and snaps his fingers again. The fruitcake starts to float through the kitchen and towards everyone in the living room. We quickly push past Dobby and watch the cake float over to the guests. We have to stop that cake somehow!
"Big brother? Do you have any ideas?!" I ask him through his mind and he just shakes his head no. He starts to cautiously walk behind the cake while holding his hands out towards the cake. This isn't going to end well! I turn back to the house-elf with hatred and sadness clearly written on my face as he watches the scene that is about to unfold. Maybe if I distract him then the cake will stop moving? At this point, I will try anything and besides it worked when Hermione distracted Snape and Quirrell last year. Nodding my head, I do the one thing that I can think of and that is to push the elf to the floor. With enough strength to push him to the floor, I push him back toward the kitchen so that way nobody will see him. He falls to the ground with an 'oof' and I turn back around just in time to watch the cake fall onto the woman's head. Uh, oh!!
All I remember after that entire scene is my uncle apologizing to them saying that my brother is disturbed while we quickly rush back to our room. Tonight isn't going to be a good night, I just know it.
"I'm sorry, big brother," I tell him as I sit down on my bed. He sits down next to me while asking why I am apologizing. "I thought that if I distracted that horrible creature then the cake would stop moving. I didn't stop to think that the cake would actually fall on her head."
"It's fine," my brother sighs as pulls me into a side hug, "You thought that you were doing the right thing and I can't fault you for that. It was a better idea then what I was doing." I continue to cry on his shoulder until I fall asleep from all the stress, and emotions that I have experienced today. Ever since I returned to the Dursley household, I have been trying to not overexert myself like what Professor Snape told me and I was doing a pretty good job that is until tonight. This is the first time that I have passed out from overexerting myself since saving the Sorcerer's Stone.
The following days have been absolute misery since that incident. Uncle Vernon has put bars on our windows and kept us locked inside our room. Of course, they gave us food and bathroom breaks but for the most part, we have been locked inside our bedroom, which is now our prison. I can say with absolute certainty that I hate that stupid little house-elf. If I see that little creature it will be too soon. Uncle Vernon has made it his mission to never allow us back to school and to see our friends again. There has been a lot of crying, mostly from me, and comforting, mainly from my brother.
The peaceful black oblivion called sleep is quickly receding into the back of my mind as I feel something shaking me awake. It has been ten days since the dinner party, and it has been ten days since we have been able to leave the room for anything other than the bathroom. Harry and I are starting to have terrible nightmares of being in cages and thankfully tonight I wasn't having any nightmares. Of course, with the luck that we have now, this would be the night that someone wakes me up. With annoyance clearly evident on my face, I open my eyes to find my brother standing over me in his pajamas.
"What is it, big brother?" I ask him as I look around the room. Gesturing for me to look out the window, I realize that there is a bright star heading straight towards us. As we continue to watch the light, the star or whatever it is splitting itself into two lights and a car engine is starting to reach my ears. What in the world is going on? Once the light source is close enough I realize that there is a blue Ford Anglia behind it. The most magical part about this is that the car is flying through the air straight for us. Once the car pulls up to our window, our faces break into huge smiles when we realize that we are being saved and not just by anybody. I start waving frantically at them as I silently jump up and down with excitement.
"Hiya, Harry, Anastasia," Ron says, and I continue to wave at them. Frantically looking around, I search for my notepad while my brother starts to talk to them.
"Ron. Fred. George. What are you all doing here?" my brother asks in disbelief as I finally find my notepad which, for some strange reason, is underneath my bed. I don't remember putting that underneath there. Shrugging, I look back at the three gingers as I blindly flip through the notepad to the very last page because I know that there is no writing in the back.
"Rescuing you two, of course. Now, come on, get your trunks," Ronald the Weasel says to us. I frown as I remember that Uncle Vernon has put our trunks underneath the stairs. I quickly write down our dilemma and the twins smirk with an 'I have a plan' look on their faces. They tell us to get dressed in everyday clothes as they deal with the bars on our windows. Nodding our heads in agreement, I quickly close the curtains and start to put on a random pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Harry is following my example and just throws on any of his clothes that work.
Right as Harry pushes the curtains open again, there is a loud crash sound as the bars are taken off our windows. Honestly, at the moment I don't care how they did that and instead focus on making sure there are no footsteps heading toward us. I hold my breath as I keep my ear pressed against the door while Harry opens the window. I don't know how but there is no one coming to check on us which means everybody is asleep. A sigh of relief escapes me as the prankster twins climb out of the car and into our room. Unfortunately, I can't remember which twin is which, but one of the twins starts to pick the lock on our door. Do I really want to know how they know that? Probably not.
Once the bedroom door is open, the twins and my brother leave to go grab the trunks and I continue to place the things in the car that we will need. The first thing that I put in there is Hedwig and then I just place our toothbrushes and hairbrushes in there. Right as I'm about to grab clothes, I remember that we have clothes in our trunks which just need to be washed. Looking around the room one more time, I smile in satisfaction and crawl through the window into the flying car. Sitting behind the Weasel as he holds onto the stirring wheel, I hug him from behind while thanking him inside my head. Even though he doesn't hear me, I think he got the message because he whispers a 'you're welcome' while hiding his blush as best as he can. Laughing silently, I sit in the car and wait for the others to return.
Five minutes later, the twins and Harry return to the room with both of our trunks. To the best of his ability, Ron pulls the car around until the car's trunk is facing them. I swear, we are all ninjas because nobody has gotten to check on us yet. Sadly, right after I think that I hear Vernon rush toward our bedroom. Why did he wake up? Did he hear us? Can we go any faster? Those questions are racing through my mind as the car is pulled to its side so everybody can get in. As Ron slides back into the passenger seat, both twins bolt into the car, one in the driver seat and one in the back next to me, which only leaves my brother. He starts to crawl on the desk when the bedroom door is thrown open by Uncle Vernon.
"Petunia, they're escaping!" he shouts and rushes toward my brother. I scream inside my head as he grabs onto Harry's ankle. Fred and Ron hold onto my brother as I hold onto George's shoulder.
"Let go of me!" my brother shouts as he tries to yank his leg into the car.
"No! You two and that bloody pigeon aren't going anywhere!" he replies as he tugs on Harry's ankle. I slap George's shoulder will pointing away from the house and he nods his head while slamming on the gas. With the force of both my brother and the car, big brother's foot is finally released but it also knocks our uncle out the bedroom window and towards the ground below. A gasp escapes me as I quickly turn around as we fly away, and thankfully I notice that he is getting back up. I may hate this family, but it doesn't mean that I want them to die or anything.
After being safely reassured that we didn't just commit murder, I turn around and look through the windows. With all the commotion at an end, I can finally relax and enjoy the idea that we are in a flying car right now. A smile appears on my face at the idea that we are finally free from that family, and I lean against Fred's shoulder as I slowly start to get drowsy. Okay, this whole getting tired from overexertion and powerful magic is starting to become really annoying. Unfortunately, I can't do anything about it, and I start to drift off to sleep with the pleasant idea that I'm no longer a caged bird.