Update 2017: Hello readers! I don't know if anyone will stumble upon this story again, but as you can see, I came back to it, yay! The reason is simple: my writing was appalling when I started posting on this website, but I still am in love with my stories, so I've decided to edit them for the better! So enjoy! :D

A/N: Please be indulgent, this is the first time ever that someone else than my mother is going to read one of my stories.. R&R of course!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry potter, what a shame, my favourite characters would never have died if I did... I do own my OC and the plot, though.

Summary: Arleen's the only one aside from Dumbledore to know his secret. Does it make her special? Yes it does. Does it put her in danger? Yes it does. And the fact that she's growing too close to someone he hates, will it change their friendship? You'll see!

Chapter one: One step closer

"Mum? Muuuum? Where are you hiding?" Arleen looked around and turned to her sister. "Steph, have you seen Mummy? I need her to pack!"

"I haven't seen her since John got home. Probably hiding somewhere he can't find her..."

Arleen took a deep breath and headed back to her own room, looking angrily at the big trunk now open wide on her bed.

Three weeks before, she had received a letter from a Professor MacGonagall, teaching in Hogwarts, to tell her that she had been accepted as a pupil in the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was almost ready to go now, but one step closer to freedom, she felt horribly sick, as if she was leaving her mother unprotected.

Arleen was a Half-Blood, her father, dead before she could remember his face, had been a wizard. Her mother, a Muggle, had since remarried and had had Stephanie, Arleen's little sister, with a gentle doctor whom she had loved as if he had been her own dad. Then, Dan disappeared and John took his place. John, with his horrible pervert face and his fists which were too often meeting her mother's cheeks. The man she wished she could kill.

Going to Hogwarts was going to be a breath of fresh air. No need to look behind your back when you're heading to the bathroom, no need to put earplugs on to get some sleep when John decided to invite his gambling friends. But most of all, Arleen wished for nothing else than for the right to hurt him. To hurt him so bad that he would leave and never come back.

Still staring at her suitcase, Arleen heard heavy footsteps in the stairs. She wished the door closed, which it did. Those abnormal things that were happening around her weren't surprising her anymore, since she knew she did it unconsciously.

She decided to pack her things without the help of her mother. After all, she was 11, it was time now to learn to do things alone like a big girl. She checked the list of things Professor McGonagall sent, containing all the things she must bring with her to her new school. She hadn't forgotten a single thing. She could now pack those objects she loved the most and wanted to keep with her.

Grabbing a photograph of herself hugging her baby sister, she wrapped it carefully in a school robe and put her favourite teddy bear on it for protection. She added her diary (no way would she leave it where John could find it and read it) and a couple of old books she liked to read when she was sad.

"Honey? Arleen, my darling, are you ready? We have to go now or John will be late for work!"

Yeah, of course he was going to be late. Let's just say that he just didn't want his stepdaughter to ruin his new football playing day. As if all the house didn't already know that he has lost his job months ago.

"Comin'!" Closing her trunk and taking with her a backpack with black school robes ready for the train, Arleen stepped out of her room without a second thought. She headed downstairs, finding her mother and sister already waiting in the car, with John impatiently tapping his foor at the bottom of the stairs.

"Com'on little twit! Don't want me late, d'you?" Wishing he never had entered their lives, she hoisted her luggage into the car boot and sat beside Steph who was looking as if she had just cried. And Arleen knew why.

"I'm sorry, Steph. I wished you'd come with me, but they said that since you have no magical powers-"

"I don't want to go in your freak's school, Lin. I just wished I'd leave this house as well. You know that."

"Yeah, right, I do. But I'll write and I promise you I'll find a way to...," she eyed the back of their stepfather's seat, "get rid of the pests..."

"Ok, right, and while you try to find a way, let me just get hurt or worse, will you?" And Steph looked away from her sister.

A new wave of shame passed through Arleen. Leaving her family like a coward, that's what she was doing. And when she'd get back, if she was getting back one day, her mother and sister could be in a bad state, or even worse... The car stopped. They had arrived at King's Cross Station. Arleen leaned to open the door, but John stopped her with the most horrible grin.

"Say goodbye to Lin, ladies. Tell her how you'll miss her 'til Christmas."

Her mother let go a tiny cry, looked at her with her eyes full of tears, then took her hands and kissed it. Steph just said 'Bye' before Arleen left the car with her heavy trunk. The door slammed behind hr and the car went away at once, only for her to catch a last glimpse at her family.

A/N2: Yeah, I know, you don't learn anything in this first chapter, do you? Then wait for the second one! :)