Abigail smiled brightly as she walked casually into the kitchen of her Aunt and Uncle's Surrey house. Pausing to use the tiles as a mirror, she tied her hair into a knot on top her head. It was blood red, and was growing less curly as she got older. It was just longer than her shoulders at the moment, since she had insisted that her aunt take her to a hairdressers. Her bright hazel eyes shone out mischievously from under her fringe.
She looked down at the clothes she was wearing. She wouldn't exactly call them 'top-of-the-market', but they were defiantly an improvement from her cousin's, who was in fact a boy, baggy old clothes. She knew exactly what buttons to push and, after deciding that trying to guilt trip her Aunt wasn't going to work, she resorted to threatening her with getting two very nasty, ginger, twin wizards on her doorstep. Petunia was cowering in fear at the end of Abbey's description of them, which weren't exactly lies, since the twins could certainly become very nasty, ginger, twin wizards when you wound them up the wrong way. In the end, Petunia agreed to given her a hundred pounds to buy clothes, and say it was not because of fear but because she was "re-paying her for all the birthday presents she had not received." Abbey, of course, knew different.
Yawning, she continued onto the kettle. She poured herself a cup of tea, and added far too many sugars for it to be healthy for her teeth.
"Good morning," she said politely as she sat down at the dining table.
Uncle Vernon looked as though he had many things he wanted to say, none of them polite, but changed his mind and settled on saying, "those your new clothes?"
"Yes, they are," she said, smirking behind her cup, knowing how much he would have loved to let her dress in a bin bag.
For that last two years, her extended family had not bothered her with anything she didn't want. At the end of her last year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, she had conveniently forgotten to inform of the rule that she couldn't do magic outside of school. She sincerely hoped that at the end of Harry's first year at Hogwarts, he would follow her lead and lead a life of bliss, leaving the Dursleys thinking that if they annoyed them, they would turn them into a bag of turnips.
Then, Petunia came into the room carrying a blazer, suit trousers and a big bottle called 'Suit Superbness: Limited Edition Grey'.
"Oh, I didn't know you were dying your hair back to it's real colour," Abbey smiled over-sweetly.
Petunia opened her mouth, then thought better of it and made her way into the kitchen. A moment later, a smell like Dudley's farts came floating into the room.
"What's that?" Abbey said, pulling her shirt up over her nose. "Oh, dear aunty, how many times have we told you not to murder puppies?" Petunia ignored this snide remark.
As Abbey started eating her toast, Harry went into the kitchen, then sat down at the table. The siblings muttered a quick "morning" to each other. Dudley came in, nose wrinkled at the smell of the dye. Abbey thought this made him even more like a pig, but Abbey couldn't be bothered to voice her opinion. Vernon was reading a newspaper, and Dudley was using his new Smelting's stick as a nun-chuck. Then, there was the click of the letterbox.
"Get the post, Dudley," Vernon said without removing his eyes from the newspaper.
"Make Abbey get it," Dudley whined.
"Really, Uncle Dearest?" She smirked as she looked at him.
"Get the post, Harry."
"Make Dudley get it," Harry said, obviously trying his luck.
"Poke him with your Smelting's stick, Dudley."
Harry sighed, dodged Dudley's stick and went to get the post. When he came back in, he passed to letters to Vernon, one to Abbey and kept one for himself.
Miss A. Potter
The Old-Guest Bedroom
4 Privet Drive
Little Whinging
Surrey
She ripped it open.
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,
Supreme Mugwamp, International Confed. Of Wizards)
Dear Miss Potter,
Just to remind you that term begins on 1st September. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Yours Sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
She folded the letter up and put it in her pocket, then turned to the second letter.
Third year students will require:
The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 3) by Miranda Goshawk
Intermediate Transfiguration by Emeric Switch
Meeting the Muggles by Leslie Frensh
She then folded that up, and put it with the other letter in her pocket, and continued to eat her breakfast.
"Dad!" Dudley shouted. "Dad, Harry's got something!"
Harry had the yellow parchment in which Abbey was very familiar with in his hands when Vernon tugged it out of his hands.
"That's mine!" Harry cried, trying to snatch it back.
Vernon opened it and read it, his face turning from beetroot red to the colour of the grass on the lawn.
"P-P-Petunia!" he gasped. Abbey thought the urge to roll her eyes. These Muggles really did not like magic.
The two older Dursleys fought over the letter with their son, finally listing it out out of his reach.
"Vernon! Oh my goodness – Vernon!" Petunia choked.
"I want to read that letter!" Dudley said loudly.
"I want to read it," said Harry furiously, "as it's mine."
"In my opinion," Abbey started, but was cut short by Vernon. You are a bunch of mushrooms, she finished in her head.
"Get out, both of you," the stocky man croaked, hiding the letter in it's envelope.
They did not move. "I WANT MY LETTER!" Harry roared. Dudley also demanded to see it.
"OUT!" Vernon grabbed both of them by the scruffs of their necks.
"Vernon," Petunia whispered, "look at the address- how could they possibly know where he sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house?"
"Watching – spying – might be following us," muttered Vernon.
"You're being stupid," Abbey said stubbornly. "I went there, and I haven't turned you into turds yet." Although I would like to, she added mentally.
"You were already to old you squish it out of you," Vernon said quietly. "They had already turned you into something – something wide!" Abbey rolled her eyes. "And we didn't get the chance to grab the letter first!"
"Only because Harry's too naïve to realise that you have eyes like speed cameras!" she shouted back. "Harry will go to Hogwarts if it's the last thing I do!"
"Get out!" Petunia suddenly shrieked. "Get out! I don't want you contaminated my house any more!"
"Fine!" Abbey spluttered angrily. She stormed out of the living room and threw her body at the door, knocking Harry and Dudley backwards. She stormed up to her bedroom, emptying everything she owned into her Hogwarts trunk. She reached underneath her wardrobe and pulled out a purse, in which she had been keeping money that she had found lying around the house. She would have to get the bus.
She then froze. How would she get her trunk on the bus and up to London without looking queer? Who brought a trunk on the bus. Thinking, she sat back down on the bed. She watched a bird fly past her window.
She could use magic. She had never done it out of school before, and she knew she'd only get a warning letter?
Sighing, she thought that really was the only way. She made sure she had packed everything first before she muttered the word "Reducio." The trunk shrunk so she could fit it into her coat pocket.
She waited for a moment. Soon, an owl zoomed through her window, dropping a letter in her hand. She looked at it hesitantly, then shoved it into her pocket with her Hogwarts letters.
Looking once more around the room, she hoped she wouldn't have to return here. Shrugging and shaking her head to herself, she walked down the stairs and slipped out the house. She knew exactly where she wanted to go.