DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter. I only own Hayley
I woke to the abrupt and harsh rapping of knuckles against the cupboard door. "Hayley! Harry! You better be out here in 5 minutes and cooking breakfast!" There was no threat attached to it but it was implied. Get out or you would have hell to pay once you did get out.
I woke up before Harry did. I grabbed and shirt and a skirt both oversized. I rolled the sleeves on the shirt and tucked it into the skirt which luckily had an elastic waistband. They were new hand-me-downs from Aunt Petunia.
I shook Harry. "Wake up Harry. You have 2 minutes to get up." He rolled over mumbling something. I sighed and shook him a little more until his eyes blearily opened.
"What's wrong?" He mumbled as I handed him his glasses.
"You have like a minute and a half now to get ready." I threw a shirt and a pair of pants at him. "Let's go!"
Still half asleep he half caught half let the clothing fall at him, and got dressed.
I followed Harry out of the cupboard quickly walking to the kitchen while pulling my hair up into a ponytail.
"-but last year I had 37 presents!" Dudley whined at his father faking a wobbling lip. His mother rushed over to calm her 'wittle Dudders' and thrusted a pair of tongs and a spoon at Harry and I.
"Watch the bacon and eggs. Don't let anything burn or overcook." She hissed at us before she rushed over to Dudley promising new presents for her little boy's birthday.
Harry took the tongs and I took the spoon as we both went to the stove. I had to stand on a stool so I could see the whole pan. I stirred with my right hand. My left arm was still sore from yesterday. Uncle Vernon had grabbed my arm and had thrown me to the ground when I had suggested that his keys had vanished. Anything that wasn't normal talk was forbidden. I tended to slip up a little more than Harry.
Harry noticed me not using my normal hand and gave me a curious look. "How bad is it?"
I shrugged nonchalantly trying not to give any clue for him to worry. "Just a bruise. I've had worse."
"Hayley." Harry warned lightly knowing I wasn't telling the full truth.
"Well its true. I've had worse. Watch the bacon you are going to make it burn." I returned to stirring the eggs.
"-BUT I DON'T WANT THEM TO COME!" A now fake crying Dudley screamed from the other room "THEY ARE RUINING MY BIRTHDAY!"
"What did you do now?" I asked Harry with a small smirk scooping the eggs onto 3 plates for my Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin.
Harry motioned for me to be quiet and listen to what they were saying.
"-let them stay here?"
"And come home with the house blown up? Is that really a good idea Vernon?"
"They wouldn't do anything stupid. I would make sure of that."
Harry and I looked at each other. My face excited, his worried. I whispered to him as he divided the bacon onto the plates and drained the bacon fat and oil into a different bowl. I grabbed a plate as he grabbed the two others and we were starting into the other room to give them their breakfast when Vernon shouted from the other room "POTTERS!"
I hurried up Harry behind me as we darted into the room. I held out my plate. "Breakfast?"
Harry appeared behind me and Dudley grabbed the plate from my hands Aunt Petunia taking the other two plates and setting them down.
Uncle Vernon spoke very pointedly as if we couldn't understand all the words he was saying to us"While we are at the zoo you two will stay here. I expect the kitchen should be clean when we get back not to mention if one thing is out of place you will regret ever coming to this house. Understand?" He made eye contact with Harry and waited till Harry nodded before being satisfied. He didn't bother with me. Apparently I wasn't a threat to the house being blow up. "We will be back in 3 hours or so." The doorbell rang as Dudley's gang of friends strolled into the house only to be shuffled out again to the cars.
Harry and I stayed quiet and went into the kitchen to clean staying silent and quiet until we were sure the cars were gone and weren't coming back for quite some time.
5 minutes passed and I dropped the dish I was absentmindedly stirring soapy water around in back into the sink and laughed. "Harry! We have the entire house to ourselves for 3 hours! We can watch television. Whatever shows we want! And we can go on the computer maybe! And we can be loud and do things and no one will even know! It will be the best day ever!"
Harry laughed. "We have to clean first and then we'll see what we can do. We just have to be careful doing it."
I rolled my eyes at him. He always had to be a party pooper. "Whatever. Careful or not this is the best thing ever! And no amount of sneaking, or dishes, will ruin this for me."
"What about soap?" Harry asked pausing from rinsing him plate.
"Soap?" I questioned
And with a grin Harry dropped a large amount of soapy bubbles on my head. I froze for a second as the water and bubbles slowly started to run down my hair. "This is war." And with that I flung a handful of bubbles back at him
He returned the favor and within minutes of our madness we were soaking wet, covered in bubbles, and water was covering the floor.
"TRUCE!" I called out as Harry threatened to throw a pot filled with water on me. He set down his pot and still laughing over our soap war we finished the dishes.
I motioned to the ground after we were done. "We have to mop now too."
Harry shrugged not really caring. "I'll grab the mop you get the floor cleaner all ready."
But as we split to do our chores the doorbell rang. "You get it!" I shouted at Harry assuming it was just the postman with a package for Dudley.
I heard Harry open the door and listened while the bucket filled with water.
"Harry Potter? Are your Aunt and Uncle home?" A voice asked. A voice I didn't recognise and I knew almost everyone who generally came to the door.
"No, they are at the zoo for my cousin's birthday party. Can I take a message?" I heard Harry say.
"Oh no. I'm actually pleased with that. I really didn't want to talk to your Aunt and Uncle. They never liked me much. My name is Remus Lupin. I'm here to talk to you about your acceptance to Hogwarts." The voice continued and mopping was forgotten. I quickly crept up behind my brother and tugged on his sleeve giving him a questioning look when he looked down at me.
"You must be Hayley Potter." The man said to me. I shrinked back behind Harry a little. I wasn't the best with new people. And he had this look that said he knew more about us than we knew about him. Not to mention his strange attire. "You have your Lilly's face. But James's eyes and hair I see. And Harry, you look so much like James. But you have your mother's eyes. Spitting images of them you two are. But I'm getting off topic. May I come in?"
Harry nodded and moved to the side gesturing for him to come in. "You knew our parents?"
The man smiled. "James and Lily were some of my closest friends. I knew them when they were only 11 and all but hated each other. But we will have plenty of time to talk about your parents. I need to talk to you Harry about Hogwarts."
Harry turned to me. "How about you go get into something dry while I talk to ?"
I nodded and let them go into the living room while I darted into the cupboard and quickly changed into a dry shirt and jeans and then snuck over to the doorway to the living area hiding and listening.
"You mean I can do magic? That can't be right." Harry was protesting.
Magic? I thought confused They were talking about magic? He was crazy. This man was crazy. Magic didn't exist.
"Have weird things ever happened to you when you get really upset or scared?"
Hair growing back too quickly, Uncle Vernon being blown back without being touched, class shattering, My mental list growing in my head, it was all magic? But if he had magic then I did too.
"So our parents had magic too? They went to this school?" a pause "Then why didn't they stop the car from crashing with magic?"
"Car crash? Harry, your parents were killed by You-Know-Who. The same person who gave you that scar" Lupin said sounding slightly confused
The Dursleys lied? Our parents didn't die in a car crash? They were murdered. And he gave Harry a scar.I held back a gasp. This conversation was getting crazier by the minute.
"I don't know what you are talking about."
"Your parents were killed by a Dark Wizard named Voldemort. He then tried to kill you but the curse rebounded off of you giving you your scar and destroying Voldemort in the process." Another pause "You are famous amongst the Wizarding world as "The Boy Who Lived."
So this man walks into our house, tells Harry he is a wizard, magic is real, our parents were murdered, and as a baby he destroyed a Dark Wizard. And Harry was believing every word he said? I wanted to believe it. I wanted to believe every word this man was telling us but it seemed ridiculous.
"How do I get to this school?"
"A train"
"How would I get back here every night? Is there a bus? Some kind of transportation device?"
I shifted so I could see them sitting on the couch cups of tea in their hands.
"You wouldn't come back every night. You would live at Hogwarts. You will have a dorm with your housemates. You can come home during holidays and are welcome to write to your family as much as you want. But for all purposes you will be living at Hogwarts."
That would mean I would be here alone. With just the Dursleys. It was like a nightmare come true. I could feel my heart speed up at the thought. That would be really bad.
Harry's face fell his eyes now suddenly finding the carpet extremely interesting. "I don't know if I can go right now." Harry quickly added on "I-I just think I'm needed here."
He couldn't give this up for me. No that was wrong. He couldn't do this. This is what he wants. He can't just not go. I felt guilty for even thinking he shouldn't go for me.
Remus smile drooped a little. "I'm sure Hayley can handle whatever you usually do and your cousin can help as well. From what I've seen Hayley at least seems like a very capable young lady. You belong at Hogwarts Harry. These people are like you. You don't need to be nervous. And if it helps I'll stop by every once and awhile and watch out for her."
Oh no. He was getting suspicious. Shut up Harry if he says anything to the Dursleys we are both as good as dead. I resisted the urge to run out and cover Harry's mouth. Shut up shut up shut up.
"Hayley just isn't the most comfortable around them. And I just think it would be best if I was here with her so nothing would happen." Harry's eyes were back at the carpet again his hands fiddling with his tea spoon twirling the small piece of metal in between his thumb and his index finger. He wasn't making eye contact with Lupin at all.
If he wasn't suspicious earlier he certainly was now. "Harry what could happen?" He tried to keep his tone light. But when Harry answered his question with silence Lupin dropped his light tone and leaned forward towards the boy. "Harry what would happen?"
"Hayley has nightmares a lot and Aunt Petunia is really bad at calming her down." Harry said a little too quickly. But maybe he would believe it.
Lupin sighed. Obviously Harry wasn't going to talk. But he knew something was up. "How about this Harry. We will go and get your supplies while we still can. We will have to be up early tomorrow so tonight you can spend the night at my house. Hayley can come too if she would like. Then if you decide that Hogwarts isn't right for you then we will return what we can and give any leftover supplies to Dumbledore to use as spares in the classes. How does that sound?"
Harry nodded "Sounds great."
Lupin smiled "Perfect. I'll double check with your Aunt and Uncle and then we'll be off!"
I stood up and walked into the room. "Excuse me. But Harry and I really need to finish our chores. So if you wouldn't mind." I tugged Harry's arm.
"Oh there's no need for that." Lupin followed us into the kitchen, he pulled out a long stick of sorts and waved it. The mop started mopping the towels started drying and the dishes started to put themselves into their proper places and no one was touching them.
"So what is this about us having magic?" I squeaked out while watching the dishes and the mop did our work for us.
