A/N: Here's to making it to Year 3.

Elizabeth Gillies is the face-claim for Hailey Potter.

It was nearly midnight but Hailey Potter was still up doing homework. She was seated at Dudley's desk, with the lamp on. She had placed a jumper on it, to dim most of the light.

She had placed a jumper in front of the door so the Dursleys didn't notice the light to let them know that she was still up if they got up to have midnight trips to the bathroom. She was currently reading A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot for her essay, 'Witch Burning in the Fourteenth Century Was Completely Pointless—discuss.'

She looked over, pressed her finger on the leather-bound book, and started to read what was written there.

Non-magic people (more commonly known as Muggles) were particularly afraid of magic in medieval times, but not very good at recognizing it. On the rare occasion that they did catch a real witch or wizard, burning had no effect whatsoever. The witch or wizard would perform a basic Flame Freezing Charm and then pretend to shriek with pain while enjoying a gentle, tickling sensation. Indeed, Wendelin the Weird enjoyed being burned so much that she allowed herself to be caught no less than forty-seven times in various disguises.

She grabbed a roll of parchment and a bottle of ink. She unscrewed the ink and dipped her eagle-feather quill in it. She got the eagle-feather quill as a Christmas gift from her friend, Hermione. She began to write, pausing every now and then to listen for any sign of the Dursleys getting up to go to the bathroom. If Dudley heard the sound of the quill on parchment, he would rat her out to her aunt and uncle, as they would love the opportunity to shove her in the cupboard under the stairs, which had formally been her bedroom for ten years.

Dudley would love to have a new reason to tease her about her, in his words, slightly creepy looking 'boyfriend', Michael. He would probably tell his parents that she was writing letters to him. He completely ignored Hailey when she kept telling him that she and, fellow Ravenclaw, Michael Corner, were just friends. Somehow, Dudley wormed Michael's name out of Hailey and then Dudley proceeded to tell his gang about Michael, when they showed up at Number 4. Every time Hailey entered the room they happened to be in, they started singing, "Hailey and Michael, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g…" complete with exaggerated kissing sounds in her direction. They laughed every time Hailey started blushing furiously and they laughed harder when she said that they were just friends. It got to the point that she gave up telling them that they were friends.

At the start of summer, when she got home from Hogwarts, her aunt and uncle had taken away her cauldron, broomstick, spellbooks, and wand, locking it in the cupboard under the stairs.

The problem was that she had a lot of holiday work to do. Hailey figured that it was probably to make up for the basilisk attacks that happened last term, and to make up for the incompetence of the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Gilderoy Lockhart. Lockhart turned out to be a phony who was stealing credit from other people and wrote as if he did all their heroic deeds. He had been on the receiving end of a backfired memory charm, due to Ron Weasley's malfunctioning wand.

Her least favourite teacher, Professor Snape, who taught potions, would love to have a reason to give her detention. If he found out that she didn't her holiday work, she'll probably be serving detention for a month or two.

When Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and Dudley had gone outside to loudly brag about Vernon's new car, so the entire neighbourhood could hear it, Hailey seized her chance to go downstairs, pick the lock to the cupboard, grab some spellbooks, parchment, and ink then make her way upstairs, to hide them in her room. They wouldn't know she was studying magic by night, as long as if she didn't leave any ink behind.

Hailey wanted to avoid trouble with the Dursleys especially since her aunt and uncle had received a telephone call from Ron, a week into the summer holidays.

Unfortunately, Uncle Vernon had answered the call, "Vernon Dursley speaking."

Hailey, who happened to be in the room, froze when she heard Ron's voice, bellowing, "Hello? Hello? Can you hear me? I—want—to—talk—to—Hailey—Potter!" Ron was yelling so loudly, Vernon jumped and held the receiver a foot away from his ear.

Vernon was looking at it with mixed fury and alarm. "Who is this?" he roared into the mouthpiece. "Who are you?"

"Ron—Weasley!" Ron bellowed back, as though he and Vernon were on opposite ends of a football field! "I'm—a—friend—of—Hailey's—from—school—"

Uncle Vernon had suddenly turned his small eyes around to Hailey, who felt rooted to her spot. "There is no Hailey Potter here!" He roared, holding the receiver at arm's length, as if frightened that it might explode or something. "I don't know what school you're talking about! Never contact me again! Don't you come near my family!" He threw the receiver back onto the telephone as if dropping a poisonous spider. He turned onto Hailey. "How dare you give this number to people like—people like you!" He sprayed Hailey with spit, "Especially to—to boys!"

She couldn't say anything to that, although she wished that Hermione Granger and Michael, who lived in the Muggle world most of their lives, would've called, since they knew how to use the telephone and probably had the sense not to yell or mention Hogwarts. Or at least Mandy Brocklehurst, who was introduced to the Muggle word at birth, despite living in the wizard world. Dudley had been giving her a rather nasty smile and asked, "Was that your slightly creepy looking boyfriend calling you?"

Michael, Ron, Mandy, and Hermione hadn't been in contact. Hailey expected Michael Corner to not keep in much contact, because he was probably grounded from their bought of rule-breaking and life-risking last term. Ron probably told Hermione, Michael, and Mandy not to call, since he figured that she had gotten in trouble over the disastrous phone call, which probably explained was why they hadn't attempted to call her.

For five weeks, Hailey hadn't got anything from them and she was beginning to think Dobby, the house-elf, was intercepting her letters again for some reason.

There was an upside, compared to last year. After promising not to use Hedwig to send messages to her friends, Uncle Vernon agreed to not lock Hedwig in her cage, after the disaster last summer where Hedwig made a racket.

Hailey finished writing about Wendelin the Weird, (who she strongly suspected was a Ravenclaw, due to nature of getting caught and being burnt at the stake repeatedly, because she loved it. That sounded like something a Ravenclaw would do.) She rolled up the parchment and paused to listen for any sounds of movement. The only thing she could hear was the grunting snores coming from Dudley.

It must be very late, Hailey realized as her eyes itched with tiredness. She stood up and stretched, her joints popping from sitting down for a long while. She walked over to her bed and crouched down. She grabbed and old pillowcase and went back to the desk. She gathered her supplies before going to a loose floorboard to lift it up, which she was sure, was created by Dudley in one of his tantrum-throwing fits.

She glanced at the alarm clock and jolted, seeing that it was one in the morning. She had been thirteen years old for an hour and she hadn't realized it.

She sighed, not looking forward to her birthday because she hadn't received any birthday cards or a cake, except for her eleventh birthday when Hagrid showed up to give her, her Hogwarts acceptance letter, however Dudley did go face-first in her cake. The Dursleys liked to pretend that she didn't have a birthday or even give her gifts. She did receive a pen from Uncle Vernon's drill company and some old holey socks that had once belonged to Dudley and Uncle Vernon, but those weren't given to her on her birthday or even Christmas. For the last two years, the Dursleys had ignored her birthday, so she expected that this year wouldn't be any different to them.

She was sure she got birthday cards for her twelfth birthday, but Dobby hadn't handed her those letters, even after she freed him. She walked to the window, past Hedwig's empty cage because Hedwig was gone for two days which wasn't unusual. She leaned on the window sill; the cool night air was pleasant to feel from working for three hours.

She was still skinny and petite for her age. She had grown at least an inch over the summer, so she was now five-five. Her tangled, auburn hair had also got a little longer, and her eyes were a hazel colour. On her forehead, just barely visible from her bangs was a thin, shaped lightning bolt scar that, despite what her aunt and uncle had her believing for a decade, didn't come from a car accident that orphaned her.

The scar actually came from a mass murdering Dark Wizard that went by the name Lord Voldemort, who killed Hailey's parents and tried to kill her. However, when Voldemort tried to kill Hailey, the spell rebounded and hit Voldemort instead. Barely alive, Voldemort fled…but for the past two years, she came across him again in Hogwarts. The first time was when he was living on the back of Professor Quirrell's head, her first Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. The second time was last term, when he was nothing but a mere memory living in a diary that Lucius Malfoy, father of her arch enemy, Draco Malfoy, had given Ginny Weasley, sister of Ron. The memory had leeched off of Ginny and gave Tom Riddle the life he wanted to return to power, but she and Michael had managed to fend off Tom and the basilisk that lived in the Chamber of Secrets that was under Hogwarts.

She supposed she was surprised to have made it to her thirteenth birthday. She looked at the starry night sky, looking for any sign of Hedwig, but she couldn't find the owl. She gazed over the rooftops and noticed, among the golden moon, there was a funny sort of silhouette. It looked large and seemed oddly lopsided. It looked like it was coming for her.

What is that? Hailey wondered and considered closing her bedroom window to keep the…whatever it was…out.

The bizarre creature soared over a street lamp and Hailey jumped to the side after seeing what it was. Three owls swooped in, two of which, was holding up a third owl. The owls landed on her bed and the large, grey owl in the middle, holding a large package, keeled over immediately.

Hailey went over to check on the grey owl to make sure that it wasn't dead. The grey owl's name was Errol and he belonged to the Weasley family. After she noticed that Errol was still breathing, she hurriedly removed the cords that was around Errol's legs. She picked up Errol and stuck him in Hedwig's cage. Errol opened up one beady eye, hooted to show his thanks, and gulped down some water.

Hailey turned to the owls on her bed. The large and snowy white owl was Hedwig, who was holding a few parcels and looking proud of herself. There was a large tawny owl that Hailey didn't recognize, but she recognized the Hogwarts letter that it was holding.

Hailey removed the burden from Hedwig, who nipped her affectionately and flew off to the cage to join Errol. Hailey took the Hogwarts letter and the owl ruffled its feathers importantly, before flying off into the night. She sat down and picked up Errol's parcel. She ripped off the brown paper to discover something wrapped in gold and her first ever birthday card. Her heart was beating rapidly and her fingers shook as she opened the envelope. Two pieces of paper fell out, which was a letter and a newspaper clipping. She picked up the newspaper clipping, smoothed it out, and looked it over.

MINSTRY OF MAGIC EMPLOYEE
SCOOPS GRAND PRIZE

Arthur Weasley, Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office at the Ministry of Magic, has won the annual Daily Prophet Grand Prize Galleon Draw.

A delighted Mr Weasley told the Daily Prophet, "We will be spending the gold on a summer holiday in Egypt, where our eldest son, Bill, works as a Curse-Breaker for Gringotts Wizarding Bank."

The Weasley family will be spending a month in Egypt, retuning for the start of the new school year at Hogwarts, which five of the Weasley children currently attend.

Hailey looked at the photograph, grinning widely, as all nine members of the Weasley family stood in front of a pyramid, waving at her. She got to finally see what Bill and Charlie looked like, after spending two years wondering what they looked like. She wasn't entirely sure which one was which, but either way, they were handsome. Tall, gangly looking Ron was in the center, with his pet rat, Scabbers sitting on his shoulder.

She was glad that Ron's family won money, because they deserved it, since they were extremely nice and also extremely poor. She picked up Ron's letter and read it.

Dear Hailey,

Happy birthday!

Look, I'm really sorry about that telephone call. I hope the Muggles didn't give you a hard time. I asked Dad, and he reckons I shouldn't have shouted.

It's amazing here in Egypt. Bill's us around all tombs and you wouldn't believe the curses those old Egyptian wizards put on them. Mum wouldn't let Ginny come in the last one. There were all these mutant skeletons in there, of Muggles who'd broken in and grown extra heads and stuff.

I couldn't believe it when Dad won the Daily Prophet Draw. Seven hundred galleons! Most of it's gone on this trip, but they're going to buy me a new wand for next year.

Hailey remembered all too well when Ron's wand nearly snapped in half. It had been when they flew the Weasleys car to Hogwarts and smashed into the Whomping Willow. All year, Ron had to use a wand that backfired, because he thought that his mother would tell him it was his fault for flying a car to Hogwarts.

We'll be back about a week before term starts and we'll be going up to London to get my wand and our new books. Any chance of meeting you there?

Don't let the Muggles get you down!

Try and come to London,

Ron

P.S. Percy's Head Boy. He got the letter last week.

Hailey looked at the photograph and sure enough, she could see Percy looking particularly smug. He had a Head Boy badge pinned to his fez. Hailey set the letter aside and looked at the gold wrapped package and unwrapped it. Inside was a miniature glass top and there was another note from Ron. She looked at the glass top and picked up the note.

Hailey—this is a Pocket Sneakoscope. If there's someone untrustworthy around, it's supposed to light up and spin. Bill says its rubbish sold for wizard tourists and isn't reliable, because it kept lighting up at dinner last night. But he didn't realize Fred and George had beetles in his soup.

Bye—

Ron

Hailey couldn't help but be disgusted at the thought of Fred and George putting beetles in Bill's soup. That was just disgusting. She hoped that someone pointed the beetles out to Bill before he started eating it. She set the Sneakoscope on the desk in front of her alarm clock which stayed still. The glowing numbers were reflected in the glass and she picked up a parcel. She opened it to see a letter, postcard, and a wrapped present from Hermione. She opened the letter.

Dear Hailey,

Ron wrote to me and told me about his phone call to your Uncle Vernon. I do hope you're all right.

I'm on holiday in France at the moment and I didn't know I was going to see this to you—what if they'd opened it at customs?—but then Hedwig turned up! I think she wanted to make sure you got something for your birthday for a change. I bought your present owl-order; there was an advertisement in the Daily Prophet (I've been getting it delivered; it's so good to keep up with what's going on in the wizarding world.) Did you see that picture of his Ron and his family a week ago? I bet he's leaning loads. I'm really jealous—the ancient Egyptian wizards were fasticinating.

There's some interesting local history of witchcraft here, too. I've rewritten my whole History of Magic essay to include some of the things I've found out. I hope it's not to long—its two rolls of parchment more than Professor Binns asked for.

Ron, Michael, and Mandy says that they're going to be in London in the last week of the holidays. Can you make it? Will your aunt and uncle let you come? I really hope you can. If not, I'll see you on the Hogwarts Express on September first!

Hermione

P.S. Ron says Percy's Head Boy. I'll bet Percy's really pleased.

Ron doesn't seem too happy about it.

Hailey laughed and set the letter aside. She picked up Hermione's present, which was very heavy. She was positive that Hermione sent a large book with difficult spells in it, which she really wouldn't mind having. She ripped off the wrapping paper to see a sleek black letter case. In silver lettering the case read, Broomstick Servicing Kit.

"Wow, Hermione," Hailey whispered, unzipping the case to look inside.

There was a large jar of Fleetwood's High-Finish Handle Polish, a pair of gleaming silver Tail-Twig Clippers, a tiny brass compass to clip on a broom for long journeys, and a Handbook of Do-It-Yourself Broomcare.

Apart from her friends, the Ravenclaw common room, the food, the entire castle, and the work, the other thing she missed most was Quidditch, the most popular sport in the magical world—highly dangerous, very exciting, and played on broomsticks. She happened to be the youngest person in a century to be picked for one of the Hogwarts Hose teams. One of her most prized possessions was the Nimbus Two Thousand racing broom. Hailey set the leather case aside and picked up one of the parcels, which was from Mandy Brocklehurst, her friend and fellow Ravenclaw. She took off the wrapping paper to see a box. She removed the flaps and picked up a brush, which looked new and unused. There was also a tube of red lip gloss, eyeliner, and black nail polish. Hailey wondered why Mandy sent her makeup, but she set the makeup aside. She picked up Mandy's birthday card.

Hailey,

I hope your aunt and uncle are treating you like the human being that you are. I hope that they sign the permission form so you can visit Hogsmeade with us.

I also wish you a very happy birthday.

Wishing you very good luck,

Mandy

Hailey opened the box from Michael and she took out five black beaded bracelets and saw a note. She looked at it and managed to read Michael's chicken-scratch handwriting. She saw that Michael's cousin, Eva, had made the bracelets for her. There was a simple silver chain necklace with a small circular pendant set with a silver letter H on a dark blue background. She put the necklace on and picked up the card from Michael. It was a simple store-bought birthday card with the words 'Happy Birthday' on it and Michael's signature under it.

She picked up the last parcel, which was from Hagrid, the Hogwarts gamekeeper. She tore off the top layer of paper and saw something green and leathery. Before she can remove the rest of the wrapping paper, it gave a strange quiver and it snapped loudly, as if it had jaws.

Hailey held the thing at arms-length in surprise. She knew and hoped that Hagrid wouldn't have sent her something dangerous on purpose. She knew that Hagrid had a bit of a skewed perspective on what's dangerous and not dangerous. Hagrid had befriended giant spiders, bought a Cerberus from a man in a pub, and won an illegal dragon egg and hatched said egg in his wooden hut on school grounds.

Hailey poked the parcel nervously and it snapped loudly again. She ripped the rest of the wrapping paper off and out fell a book. Hailey looked at handsome green cover, emblazoned with a golden title: The Monster Book of Monsters. It flipped onto its edge and scuttled sideways along the bed like some weird crab.

"What the…?" Hailey said as the book toppled off the bed with a loud clunk and shuffled rapidly across the room. She followed after it trying to be stealthy. The book was hiding in the dark space under her desk and she hoped that the Dursleys were still asleep; she got down on her hands and knees. She reached towards the book, which snapped shut on her hand.

"Ouch!" She whispered shaking her hand as the book flapped past her, scuttling on it's covers. She scrambled around and threw herself forward. She managed to flatten it and she heard her uncle give a loud sleepy grunt in the room next door.

Hailey managed to clamp the struggling book tightly in her arms, noticing that Hedwig and Errol were watching her. She hurried to a chest of drawers and pulled out a belt and tightened it around the book. The Monster Book shuddered angrily, but it could no longer flap and snap. She threw the book down on her bed and grabbed Hagrid's card. She looked at it.

Dear Hailey,

Happy birthday!

Think you might find this useful for next year.

Won't say no more here. Tell you when I see you.

Hope the Muggles are treating you right.

All the best,

Hagrid

Hailey wondered why Hagrid thought that a biting book would be handy, but she put Hagrid's card next to Ron's, Hermione's, Mandy's, and Michael's cards, grinning widely. Now there was only one more letter left, which was the letter from Hogwarts. She felt dread in her stomach, knowing that it would be the permission slip to allow her to go to Hogsmeade. She had heard about Honeydukes a lot from Ron, who heard about it from Fred and George, and she knew that it was a wizarding village. She was sure she read somewhere that it was the only known wizarding village that didn't have Muggle settlers.

However, she knew that Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia wouldn't sign the permission form. She went to the bed and picked up the letter. She opened the parchment and took out the first piece of parchment and looked at the letter.

Dear Miss Potter,

Please note that the new school year will begin on September the first. The Hogwarts Express will leave from King's Cross station, platform nine and three-quarters, at eleven o'clock.

Third years are permitted to visit the village of Hogsmeade on certain weekends. Please give the enclosed permission form to your parents of guardian to sign.

A list of books for next year is enclosed.

Yours sincerely,

Professor M. McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

Hailey took out the permission form, no longer smiling. She wasn't sure how she was even going to persuade her aunt or uncle to sign it. She looked over at the alarm clock to see that it was two in the morning. She decided to worry about the Hogsmeade form when she gets up. She gathered her presents and moved them to the desk. She also crossed off the chart that she made that counted down the days to Hogwarts and got into bed. She looked at the five birthday cards that she received and for the first time, she was actually glad that it was her birthday.