Safe and Sound, Chapter One
By: blueflutterfly23
Edited by: Snivellus
A loud clap of thunder woke Gracelynn from her sleep. The thunderous boom shook the house lightly, but she could feel it. Even from the small cupboard underneath the stairs that her parents kept her in. Gracelynn didn't know why her parents refused to look at her. She was too young to understand why they treated her like she was a piece of trash. All she knew was that her parents hated her.
Another crash came from the sky and Gracelynn dove under the covers of her bed. She sobbed slightly out of fear. She always hated storms. They made her feel scared and fearful. Gracelynn let out another small sob as lightning lit up the night sky.
She heard shuffling coming from across the small room she shared with her cousin, Harry. Gracelynn was grateful as she always felt safer when she was with Harry. He was the only one who saw eye to eye with her. Not literally, of course. She was a good foot shorter than he was considering that she was only three.
Gracelynn felt the bed sink to the left of her. She folded the blanket over her head slightly and looked up to find Harry looking at her with what she didn't know was sympathy.
Gracelynn crawled into Harry's arms and he whispered calming things into her ear in an attempt to lull her back to sleep. "Gracie, it's okay. It's just a storm, that's all. You're safe. You're safe." Harry whispered soothingly.
Harry repeated the simple words over and over until Gracelynn's breathing became heavier with sleep. Harry carefully laid Gracie back down on her bed.
Harry quietly walked over to his own bed on his knees. There wasn't much room in the cupboard. Consisting of only a few shelves for clothes and two cots pushed together, one for Harry and a somewhat smaller one for Gracie. Harry tried to ignore the thunder and flashes of lightning as he closed his eyes and slowly drifted asleep.
Gracie slowly lifted her eyelids as the sound of someone banging on the cupboard door awoke her. "Come on, get up! Now!" Her mum shouted from the other side. She threw the covers off and crawled over to Harry, who had just put his round glasses on. "Hawwy! You haf to wake up now!" She whispered.
Harry turned the light on in the small room. Gracie covered her ears when Dudley, her overly pampered brother, came thumping down the stairs, much louder than necessary. Gracie heard him go up a step or two and jump on the stairs directly above the cupboard just to get arise out of Harry. "Wake up, cousin! We're going to the zoo!" Dudley shouted obnoxiously.
Harry opened the small door and crawled out of the cupboard. He turned around and offered Gracie his hand. Harry knew quite well that Gracie was too clumsy to get out on her own. Just week she had fallen and bruised her knee.
When Gracie and Harry arrived in the kitchen she overheard her parents going on and on about Dudley's birthday, which just happened to be today.
Gracie looked up at her brother. He was a lot heavier than Harry, with blonde hair that matched Gracie's and her mums. But his lack of neck was trait given by his father. She gave him a big smile, "Happy Birfday!" She said a bit loud.
Gracie's father, Vernon, scolded her for being so loud. "Gracelynn, be quiet. We don't want the neighbours to hear your racket!" Gracie closed her mouth. She looked at her father quizzically. Vernon was an overweight man with very little neck, a lot like his prized son Dudley. He had dark brown hair and brown eyes with a cliche mustache above his thin lips.
Harry started making breakfast for his family, as usual. Gracie's mother, Petunia, put her hands over Dudley's eyes. She led him to the common room. Gracie followed. Her eyes widened in surprise. She looked around the room, it was filled with presents!
Gracie knew better than to touch them. She's made the mistake of opening one of Dudley's Christmas presents last year. Gracie definitely didn't want a repeat of what followed.
Dudley look at his father with a stern face. "How many are there?" He demanded. Vernon confidently answered, "Thirty-six. Counted them myself."
"THIRTY SIX! BUT LAST YEAR! LAST YEAR I HAD THIRTY SEVEN!" Dudley shouted, startling Gracie. She watched as the smiles melted of her parents faces. "Well, yes but some of them are bigger than last years-" Vernon was interrupted by Dudley.
"I DON'T CARE HOW BIG THEY ARE!" He said. Petunia tried to calm Dudley down.
"Now, now, now. Here's what we're going to do. When we go out, we're going to buy you two new presents. How's that, pumpkin?" The room was silent. Dudley hesitantly agreed.
After breakfast, Gracie got dressed quickly. She put on one of her nicer dresses. It was a dark purple colour, with one lighter flower towards the bottom. Harry helped Gracie put on her shoes and comb her sandy, blonde hair.
As the Dursleys and Harry started to fill the car, Vernon closed the door before Harry and Gracie could get in. He looked at them sternly. "Best behaviours, understand?" Was all he said. Harry and Gracie nodded meekly before climbing into the car.
When they arrived at the zoo, Gracie couldn't help but be mesmerised by all the different animals. Harry grabbed her hand. When Gracie looked up at him confused, he smiled. "So you don't get lost." He said. Gracie smiled.
Her eyes lit up when she saw a snake. It was green and scale-y. She ran towards it, dragging Harry behind her. She put her face close to the glass. "Hawwy! Look!" She said, turning to Harry, pointing her tiny finger at the snake. Harry smiled. He often found it hard to not smile whenever Gracie did. Gracie had a certain way of lighting up a room just by walking in it. Her smiles and laughs were contagious.
Dudley, Petunia, and Vernon walked over to the snake's display. "Come on, move!" Dudley said rather loudly. Dudley hammered on the glass. Vernon started banging on it when Dudley had stopped. "Move!" Vernon said. Dudley banged on the glass again. "He's asleep." Harry said. Petunia pulled Dudley back and directed him towards some other animal. "Stupid snake." He muttered before he left.
"Sorry about him." Harry said to the snake. Gracie looked at her cousin. "He doesn't understand what it's like to be kept in a cage. Lying around for days, having people press their faces up against the glass."
The snake looked up at Gracelynn and Harry and blinked. Harry's eyes widened. "Can you," Harry paused for a moment. He was going crazy and he didn't want Gracie to follow in his footsteps. "Can you hear me?" Harry finished his question towards the snake.
The snake nodded it's head. Gracie was confused. Who was Harry talking to? She thought. She zoned out a bit as Harry continued to talk to the unknown person. "Hawwy, who are you talkin' to?" Gracie asked Harry.
He didn't respond.
At that moment, Dudley came bounding over the now awake snake. He pushed Harry and Gracie to the floor. Harry got up quickly and helped Gracie up. "Mummy! Daddy! Come here! You won't believe what the snake is doing!" Dudley shouted.
Dudley pressed his hands on the glass of the snake's habitat. Harry glared daggers at him. Just then, the most peculiar thing happened. The glass vanished. Dudley fell into the snake's habitat, yelling and flailing his chubby arms.
Harry laughed at Dudley's embarrassment. His eyes widened and he suddenly grabbed Gracie's hand. He backed away from the snake's cage as it slithered out. It looked at Harry and muttered a quick thanks.
The adults and children began screaming and running. Harry and Gracie directed their attention to Dudley again. He had stood up from the puddle he was in. He pressed his hands upon the newly appeared glass barrier and screamed. Petunia ran to her son and began screaming, asking how he had gotten himself in there.
Harry and Gracie began laughing slightly. Vernon looked over at the two with a stern face. The cousins stopped laughing immediately.
The ride back to Number Four, Privet Drive was almost unbearable for Harry. He knew that as soon he and Gracie stepped into the house, Vernon would blow his top and they would be locked in the cupboard.
When Petunia opened the door, she helped a terrified Dudley inside. Gracie hobbled inside as fast as her tiny legs could take her. She tried to unlock the cupboard and crawl inside, but she was still too short to reach the lock.
Harry was dragged inside by Vernon. The grouchy old man held him by the hair in a tight grip. "What happened?" Vernon seethed in a stern voice. Harry winced as Gracie crawled behind his legs, afraid of her own father. "I don't know! One minute the glass was there and then it wasn't! It was like magic!" Harry shouted.
Growing angrier by the minute, Vernon opened the cupboard door and Gracie tried to crawl inside. She was too slow. Vernon shoved Harry inside and he landed on top of Gracie's right leg. Harry quickly stumbled off. Gracie's lip quivered and she had tears in her eyes from the pain in her leg.
Outside of the cupboard, Vernon crouched down so he was at the little vent on the door. "There's no such thing as magic." He said angrily.
Gracie started to cry and Harry pulled her into a hug, trying his best to calm her down.
The next morning, when Harry got the mail, he sifted through it. A postcard on top, a bill next, then a magazine. The final piece of mail was a rather peculiar one.
It was addressed to:
Mr. H. Potter
The Cupboard Under the Stairs
4 Privet Drive
Little Whinging,
Surrey
Harry's eyes widened in surprise. He never got mail. Harry recalled how strange it was. Not once in his life had he ever gotten mail. Not for birthdays, holidays, nothing. Harry walked into the kitchen and gave the bill and the postcard to Vernon and the magazine to Petunia. "Hi Haww-" Gracie tried to say as he entered the kitchen, but was cut off by Dudley. "MUM! DAD! HARRY'S GOT A LETTER!" He said and ripped the paper envelope out of Harry's hands. Gracie and Harry began yelling at the rotten child to give the letter back. Vernon ripped up the letter and he, Petunia, and Dudley went upon their day as if nothing had happened. Over the course of the week, the letters for Harry would arrive in the same neat handwriting, and Vernon would find a way to get rid of them. He even went as far as nailing the letter box shut.
It was a quiet Sunday morning, Harry was serving the Dursley's some snicker doodle cookies. "Ah, Sunday. The best day of the week." Vernon said, more towards Harry than anyone else. Harry glared at Vernon and moved on to secretly give Gracie a cookie. She had been staring at them for quite some time, and the Dursleys wouldn't allow her to have one. Gracie took the cookie gladly, muttering a small thank you.
"Do you know why Sunday is so great, Dudley?" Vernon asked his son. Dudley shrugged his large shoulders and went back to talking to Petunia. Harry rolled his eyes. "Because there's no post on Sundays." He said in a monotone. Vernon gave a small, devious looking smile. "Right you are, Harry." He said, taking a snicker doodle for himself.
"What's post?" Gracie asked. Her question went unanswered and she ate her snack in silence. She was used to being left to wonder about the things she asked about. Usually Harry would answer the questions she had. If he wasn't around to hear them she was left in question. Vernon and Petunia would never answer them, they wouldn't even look her in the eye. Gracie never asked Dudley anything. She would always hear Harry muttering about how he would be "too stupid to answer them".
"No post on Sundays. No post. Ha. Not one single blasted letter. Not one." Vernon said, snapping Gracie from her thoughts. She looked around at her "family". Vernon was going on about how there was no post today (even though Gracie still didn't know what post was), Dudley and Petunia were having a small conversation, and Harry was by the window looking at something. Gracie hopped off of the chair that she was on and walked over to her cousin.
"Hawwy, what you loo-" she started to say, but was cut off by a loud noise. Gracie put her hands over her ears to block it out. The noise sounded like thunder and she hated storms. Letters started coming in from the chimney. Gracie released her hands from her ears and looked around her house in amazement. She looked at Harry.
"Hawwy! Look!" She said. Gracie couldn't hear Harry's answer. She giggled at Dudley who had jumped into Petunia's thin arms. Harry stood atop of a table and caught a letter in his hands. Vernon got up and tried to catch Harry.
"Give me that letter!" Vernon shouted. Vernon pulled Harry back before he could get into the cupboard.
"That's it. We're going away!" He said. Gracie hid behind the door frame. "Far away! Where they can't find us!"
Gracie snuggled into Harry's side a bit more. It was cold on the floor of the cottage that she, Harry, and the rest of the Dursleys were staying in. Harry and Gracie were lying stomach-down on the floor next to the sofa, which Dudley was sleeping on. Harry was drawing a birthday cake in the dust. "Happy Birfday, Hawwy." Gracie said. Harry smiled at Gracie. Her eyelids looked like they could drop at any second. Harry had tried to convince her to go to sleep four hours ago, but she insisted on staying up with him on his birthday. Harry didn't think that it was the whole reason as it was storming out.
A loud bang came from outside the cottage. Vernon and Petunia crept down the staircase. Another loud bang came from outside, then another, then another. Harry stood up and hid in spot behind a wall with Gracie. The cottage door came crashing down.
"Sorry about that." Gracie heard a man say. She peered out from the crook in the wall. The man was tall and had a curly, bushy beard and similar hair. He was putting the door back in it's place. Gracie ran out from her spot to greet the man. "Gracie, no!" Harry called, running out to his cousin.
"I demand that you leave here at once!" Vernon shouted at the tall man. The tall man walked over to Vernon, and twisted his gun upwards. "Dry up, Dursley, you great prune." The man said. Vernon fired a gunshot, but it went upwards, knocking some floorboards of the upstairs floor off.
"Hi!" Gracie shouted at the man. The man peered down at Gracie. "Well, 'ello there. Who're you?" The man asked. Gracie giggled at his voice. It was incredibly deep and raspy. "I'm Gracie." She said.
"Well, Gracie, do you know where Harry is?" The man asked. Gracie smiled and nodded. She pointed to her cousin who was walking behind her. "Hi, Harry! I haven't seen you since 'yeh were a baby." The tall man said. "Oh! I've got somethin' for yeh'. Afraid I might 'ave sat on it at some point. Don't worry though. I'm sure it tastes just fine." The man pulled a white box tied with blue ribbon. "Baked in myself. Iced and all." He said.
Harry opened the box. Inside was a cake with pink coloured frosting and words that read, "Hapee Birthdae, Harry" in green icing.
"Thank you." Harry said, setting the cake down on a nearby table. "You're very big." Gracie said. The man let out a rumbling laugh. He sat down on the sofa. "It's not everyday you turn eleven." The man said. He held out a ratted pink umbrella and pointed it at the fire. Two bursts of flames appeared out of the tip of the umbrella. Gracie's eyes widened in surprise. The fire grew inside the fireplace.
"Who are you?" Gracie asked, sitting next to the man. "Rubeus Hagrid. Mos' people just call me Hagrid, though. Keeper of Keys and Games at Hogwarts, course you already know all about Hogwarts." Hagrid explained.
"Sorry, no" Harry answered. Hagrid looked shocked.
"Blimey, Harry. Didn't you ever wonder where you're parents learned it all?" Hagrid asked.
"Learned what?" Harry asked.
Hagrid leaned in close to Harry. "You're a wizard, Harry."
Harry walked off the train at platform 9 ¾ . He reminisced in everything that happened over the year that he was at Hogwarts. Meeting his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, the search on who Nicholas Flammel was, his first quidditch game, and coming face to face with Voldemort himself. He couldn't believe all that he had done in his first year alone. Harry loved Hogwarts, but he was glad to be going back to the Dursley's. He'd missed Gracie all year and he couldn't wait to see her.
When Harry walked up to the cupboard under the stairs, he expected Gracie to be inside, but she wasn't. He heard the sound of tiny feet thumping down the stairs. He assumed Gracie had just gotten out of a bath because her hair was wet and she was wearing worn out purple footie pyjamas with tiny blue hearts adorning them. "Hawwy!" She shouted. "Hawwy! Hawwy! Hawwy! Hawwy!" She said, running up to him.
Harry quickly dropped his luggage. Gracie jumped into his arms and gave him a hug, wrapping her tiny arms around him. Yeah, Harry was definitely glad to be home.