Late one evening, after a particularly strange day, Mr. and Mrs. Dursley finally went to bed. They had hoped that things would be normal tomorrow. Today had been filled with all kinds of strange people, wearing robes celebrating for no reason. Owls were flying all over London and shooting stars could be seen all night. The Dursleys did not like strange events, it reminded them too much of their family secret. They always put forth the most effort to ignore any and all weird occurrences. Yes, they decided, tomorrow was going to be a good day, when they woke up; everything would be back to normal. Little did they know that not long after they went to sleep, something occurred that would change everything. A cat made its way up to the Dursley house and jumped up onto the low garden wall. The cat had been watching the house for most of the day, out of sight from the Dursleys. Now that it was night, the cat figured it was time to come closer to the house. The cat was looking down the street, waiting. Before long a lone figure suddenly appeared at the far end of the street. The figure was a strange sight to see, especially on this street. He was an older man with a long silver beard, half-moon spectacles, and was wearing a deep purple robe. The man dug in his robes and pulled out a strange device looking similar to a cigarette lighter. Holding the device out by his side he flicked it, the nearest street lamp went out and a small ball of light floated towards the device. He did this until each lamp on the street was extinguished, collecting each ball of light, and then he made his way toward the Dursley home. Once he reached the house, he stood by the wall, next to the cat.
"Well hello there Professor McGonagall," the man said to the cat with a smile.
At those words the cat on the wall jumped to the ground, once its feet hit the ground, it transformed into a strict looking woman. She was also wearing a robe and square glasses, her hair pulled back into a tight bun.
"Headmaster Dumbledore, a good evening to you," returned Professor McGonagall
"Professor, I must ask, what have you been doing here this evening, why were you not out celebrating?"
"I heard that you'd be stopping by here tonight, and I would rather like to know why. I will say, everyone else certainly has been celebrating; it's been all over the Muggle news. No one is being responsible, not even bothering to wear Muggle clothes when they are out on the street."
"Well we've had very little to celebrate the past 11 years. I'm not surprised everyone has gotten a little rambunctious."
"So do you really think it's true, that You-Know-Who is gone?" McGonagall asked tentatively.
"Yes, it really would appear that Voldemort has finally disappeared-"
Professor McGonagall flinched when she heard the name Voldemort.
"Now now Minerva, surely you can refer to him by name now, after all fear of name only increases the fear of the person."
"Well, everyone knows that you're the only person that You-Kno- oh okay, that Voldemort has ever been afraid of."
"Oh you flatter me Professor, He has powers greater than mine," Dumbledore replied.
"Well that's simply because you are too noble to use magic like his. But, is it true, what everyone is saying. How Voldemort with all his powers, came to his downfall?" McGonagall asked, tremor in her voice.
Dumbledore nodded his head, eyes downcast, "Yes, it is true, James and Lily Potter have been killed."
McGonagall gasped and brought a handkerchief to her eyes. She had heard many rumors but refused to believe it was true. But now that Dumbledore had confirmed it, she started to weep.
"Then is it also true, that what finished him was their little girl, Heather?"
"It would seem so, Heather is still alive, I've sent Hagrid to go and bring her here. For some reason that we can only guess at, when he tried to curse her, the curse backfired. Now there is no trace of Voldemort and young Heather is without parents," Dumbledore stated somberly.
"But why are you bringing Heather here, of all places?"
"The people here are her only relatives, she's coming to live with them."
"Oh Dumbledore, you can't possibly be serious. These people... they are so, unlike us in every way. Their son, he's a horribly spoiled little monster. Heather Potter, come and live here?"
"Well of course, these people are her blood, this is the best place for her."
"But she's going to be famous, a household name before she can even walk or talk. If she grows up here, she'll never know about her heritage," stated McGonagall adamantly.
"But I do think that is what is best, growing up away from the fame. Growing up in that environment can do horrible things to a child. I'm leaving her with a letter, so once she is older she can be introduced to her past, when she is ready," argued Dumbledore.
Just as Professor McGonagall was about to reply, there was a rumbling noise. As it grew louder, the pair of them looked around for any sign of oncoming headlights. Suddenly a large motorcycle dropped down from the sky, coming to a stop out front of the house. The motorcycle was huge, but then again it had to be in order to transport the mountainous man behind the handlebars. As he stood up to his full height, he was easily twice as tall as any Muggle and at least three times as wide. He had a wild mass of hair covering his face and head, full scruffy beard and shoulder length brown hair. He walked over to the pair, a very small bundle held carefully in his massive arms.
"Hi Professor Dumbledore sir, Professor McGonagall, I've got Heather here, safe an' sound asleep. Managed to get her out o' the rubble before any Muggles came around, set out to meet you here as soon as I could," the large man explained as he handed the bundle over to Dumbledore.
"Thank you Hagrid, you've done an excellent job. I knew I could count on you."
"May I- jus' say good bye to her, poor little thing-"Hagrid asked. He leaned down and gave Heather a whiskery kiss on the forehead. He then immediately started sobbing, unabashed tears streaming into his beard.
"It jus' isn't fair, Lily an' James, dead, Heather off to live with Muggles-"
"Now now, Hagrid, get a grip on yourself, you'll wake the whole neighborhood. It is tragic, but there is nothing to be done about it. This is what's best for her now," McGonagall admonished as she began patting Hagrid's arm. Dumbledore smoothed Heather's hair away from her face, and in the pale moonlight they could see a bright lightning shaped scar off to the left side of her forehead.
"Is that where-"McGonagall started
"Yes, that is where Voldemort tried to curse her. She'll have that for the rest of her life."
"But couldn't you do something about it?"
Dumbledore shook his head and replied, "No, curse scars can't be removed, and even if I could remove it, I wouldn't, scars are useful, in many different ways, as well as reminders," explained Dumbledore.
He walked to the doorstep and pulled a letter out of his robes and placed it in the blankets with the small black-haired girl. He gently placed her on the mat and tucked the blankets around her.
"Well that's that, I suggest we all make our way to the celebrations, for the Girl Who Lived, tonight marks a change for everyone," Dumbledore remarked as he turned back to the others. Hagrid wiped his tears on his jacket and climbed back on the motorcycle. It roared to life and took to the night skies, soon disappearing into the dark. Dumbledore began making his way down to the far end of the street again; once there he turned and pulled out his light device. With one flick, all twelve balls of light flew back and resumed their glowing. Just then, he could see McGonagall, once again a cat, turning the corner, disappearing with a flick of the tail. With that, Dumbledore turned and was gone with a pop. Heather kept on sleeping through the whole exchange, rolling over in her blankets, unaware that her life was going to be different in the morning.
Ten years had passed since that fateful night that Heather was left on her relative's doorstep. Ten very miserable years, and it looked like nothing was going to change. Every morning, she got up, had to make everyone breakfast, wearing her cousin, Dudley's old hand-me-down clothes and do every other chore in the house. Dudley of course was spoiled; he got anything he wanted, whenever he wanted it, ever since they were babies. Every year he got more and more presents while Heather was lucky to get an old pair of socks. She supposed it could be worse; she did at least have a bedroom, of sorts... it may have been the cramped cupboard under the stairs but, at least it was her own space. School also wasn't too bad, whenever she managed to stay out of trouble, although Dudley made sure that she had no friends by intimidating anyone who seemed too friendly. Some of the teachers felt sorry for her, coming to school in hand-me-down boy's clothes, looking underfed and miserable, but there was nothing they could do about it. Without a doubt, many of the teachers figured she was just another troublemaker who wasn't worth spending time on. A majority of her troubles started when all the weird accidents began happening. Like that time one of her teachers tried to make her answer an impossible question on the board but all of the chalk suddenly disappeared. Or the time one of the students was making fun of her broken glasses, and ended up with an eraser stuck up his nose. Of course she was sent to the principal's office but she never had an explanation for what happened. She was nowhere near the board when all the chalk disappeared, nor was she sitting by the boy who was making fun of her. But each time her aunt and uncle were phoned and she always got sent to her cupboard without dinner. It wasn't her fault all these weird things occurred when she was around, she didn't make any of it happen. But Heather knew that Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon would never listen to her.
Heather definitely didn't enjoy being in her Aunt and Uncle's home. They were mean to her, constantly bossed her around and allowed Dudley to be a big bully. Without fail, he was always finding new ways to make her life miserable. When they were younger, he had started with pulling her hair and pinching her arms to make her cry. Most recently their favorite game is to chase her down and force her to smell their farts. Heather was mostly able to outrun her cousin, especially when she knew all of his hideouts; she was really fast where he and his friends were not. Whenever she'd manage to get away from Dudley and his friends, they'd always threaten to tell his parents that she was doing weird things again. You see, her aunt and uncle knew that Heather was a bit strange, and they didn't like it one bit. She was always something that they tried to hide from everyone else. She knew she didn't belong here but she had nowhere else to go. They made it very clear to her when she was 5 that she was barely tolerated, a painful reminder of Aunt Petunia's estranged sister. Whenever she tried to ask where her parents were, they always told her that they ended up dead, overdosed on heroin one night. It was because of that addiction that Heather came out as strange as she was, so it was only proper that she knew to expect nothing from her life, addicts' babies never amounted to much.
Deep down Heather felt like they were lying to her but she didn't know why. If she really did have parents that were addicted to heroin, she wouldn't be as healthy as she was. In fact, Heather never got sick, not that she could remember. But this was her life now, living in the cabinet under the stairs, basically being her Aunt's slave. Since she was a girl she was expected to cook and clean, as well as look after Dudley. She hoped that she'd do well enough in school to get out of the house in a few years.
That morning, like every other morning, Aunt Petunia was up first, rapping on her door, yelling at her to wake up.
"Hurry up and start breakfast, and don't you burn anything! I want everything perfect for Dudley's big day," she called through the door.
Heather groaned softly, how could she have forgotten it was his birthday today? That meant it was going to be extra miserable. She quickly got dressed and walked down to the kitchen, as much as she didn't want to cook, she knew better than to make her aunt call her twice. She quickly put some eggs and bacon in a frying pan, cut up potatoes to put in another pan, and pulled out plates for everyone. When she glanced at the kitchen table, she saw that there was a mountain of presents with no space left to actually sit and eat. She shook her head and went back to making breakfast. Soon enough she heard Uncle Vernon moving around upstairs. When he appeared in the kitchen, morning paper in hand, he grunted at the pile of presents on the table. He moved some aside so he could have his usual place at the table.
Just as Heather was finishing with the breakfast, Dudley came thundering down the stairs and into the kitchen.
"Alright, Happy Birthday to me, let's see how many presents I got this year," Dudley proclaimed. He sat at the table and starting looking through the pile, trying to gauge what he had gotten this year.
"Hey Mom, I only counted 27 presents, I had 28 last year! Shouldn't I have a few more presents than this!" he yelled to Aunt Petunia in the living room.
"Oh but honey, don't forget you have one of your presents in the garage, that you can go look at after breakfast, so that will be 28 presents. And then we'll buy you a present when we go to the zoo. Don't you worry Dudley, Mommy and Daddy love you, you won't go without presents, right dear?"
"Yea, sure, another present," Vernon grumbled, then added under his breath, "Although I think he's already got more than enough."
Heather quickly divided up the breakfast, giving Uncle Vernon and Dudley larger portions than her own. Aunt Petunia usually ate dry cereal for breakfast. She quickly set the plates on the table and took her own seat. Heather tried to eat her food quickly, so that way she could disappear into her cupboard before Aunt Petunia wanted her to do anything else. Before she could make her escape, Dudley decided it was time to open his presents, which meant he wanted to make sure Heather was around, just so he could gloat.
So Heather got to sit at the table while he opened his pile of gifts, which included: a new computer (he broke his old one when he got mad), a new gaming system, some of the most popular video games that had just come out, a few new movies, the latest comic books, and a new sports bike out in the garage. And with each present Dudley unwrapped, he shoved it in Heather's face, unabashed glee on his face.
"Look what I got, Fart-Sniffer, new comic books, and you will never touch them. And with the new sports bike I got, you won't be able to run away from me this summer!"
Heather couldn't help but smirk, the thought of Dudley on a bike. She gave him half a day before he got tired of it and then it would lie in the garage.
Heather was about to make a nasty retort when the phone suddenly rang and Aunt Petunia sprung out of her chair. Heather decided to just sit quietly while Dudley opened the rest of his presents. Uncle Vernon usually encouraged rough housing, so any remarks on her part would be like announcing open season. She still couldn't believe that her Aunt said nothing to Dudley about his abuse and name calling, there was no way she could be that oblivious. Heather sat fuming in those thoughts until Aunt Petunia let out an angry huff and hung up the phone.
"Vernon, would you come in the other room please, there is something we have to discuss," Aunt Petunia said as she motioned to the living room.
Uncle Vernon grunted and followed her to the living room, closing the door to the kitchen behind him. Heather and Dudley looked at each other before scrambling towards the kitchen door, trying to beat each other to the door. Heather was closer to the door but Dudley reached out and grabbed a handful of her hair, stopping her in her tracks and pushing her behind him. Dudley stuck his face up against the door jamb while Heather lay on her stomach and listened at the bottom of the door.
"What are we going to do with her Vernon, Mrs. Figg can't take her, she's at her daughter's house, she needs help getting around since she broke her leg. We don't have anywhere else to send her."
"There has to be somewhere that we can drop her off, I won't have her staying her by herself, who knows what she'll get into."
"I can't think of anyone, we don't want her staying with the neighbors, who knows what lies she'd tell, I don't want her ruining Dudley's important day."
Hearing that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg made Heather sad, she was a nice old lady, but if it meant she didn't have to go to her house, then today wouldn't be as bad as she thought. Mrs. Figg was plenty friendly but, her house smelled of too many cats and stale old person. It definitely needed to be aired out. And because she was so old, she didn't have anything fun, so Heather had to sit and watch old television shows and look through old albums of people she didn't know. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon were still trying to reach a consensus of what to do with Heather when Dudley heard his parents mention the slightest possibility that Heather might have to come along and he was having none of it.
"You better not ruin my day you little turd," he whispered, stepping down on Heather's hair, making it so she couldn't get off the floor.
Heather tried to push his foot off of her hair but she was having no luck. Then suddenly he got off her hair and backed away from the door. Heather heard Aunt Petunia sigh and footsteps approaching. She quickly stood up and backed away from the door as well. Aunt Petunia opened the door, nervously wringing her hands, Uncle Vernon stood behind her, hands on her shoulder in support.
"Dudley, honey, I know it's your special day but, Mrs. Figg has broken her leg, and can't have any company right now. So Heather is going to have to come to the zoo with us. But don't worry-"
"NO! I don't want her coming, she ruins everything, girls are gross, and smelly. She'll just ruin everything!" Dudley screamed.
Heather crossed her arms at the insult, if anyone here was smelly, it definitely was not her. She washed everyday and always wore clean clothes, more than anyone could say about Dudley.
"Now, now Dudley, it will be fine, you won't even notice that she's there. Mommy promises," Aunt Petunia promised, over Dudley's screams.
"Dudley, get a hold of yourself, stop yelling, the neighbors will hear you!" Uncle Vernon bellowed, face starting to turn red.
Before Dudley could complain anymore, the doorbell rang. Dudley suddenly lit up, it was his friend Pat, here to go to the zoo. He ran to the front door and let his pal in, quickly telling him that they'd have to put up with Heather, that it wasn't fair. Heather poked her head out the kitchen door, looking over at Dudley and Pat, a very unpleasant feeling growing in her stomach. She didn't like Pat, he was confusing. He'd make fun of her all the time when he was with Dudley but every time in math class he'd smile at her and wink, always trying to sit next to her. She wasn't sure what to do about it, she didn't want to look stupid so she didn't ask anyone about it. Besides, he'd probably deny being nice to her anyways, so she just let it go. Nonetheless she felt really awkward thinking that she'd be going with Pat to the zoo, of all Dudley's friends, he invited Pat. Just then Aunt Petunia grabbed Heather's arm.
"It looks like there isn't anything to do about it, go get ready, you have five minutes. And try to look presentable, so that means do something about that nasty scar!"
Heather quickly ran into the bathroom to brush her teeth and hair. There wasn't anything to do about her clothes; they all looked the same on her anyways. So she concentrated on her wavy black shoulder length hair. She brushed some of her hair from the right side of her face over to the left, giving her side bangs that swooped over her forehead, effectively covering her scar. She then pulled the rest of her hair back into a rubber band at the base of her neck, leaving the swoop loose, slightly pulled back behind her ear. She then hurried over to her cupboard to pull on some socks and shoes. Ready to go she went over to Aunt Petunia so she could be inspected and cleared as presentable.
"I guess that will do, at least your scar is covered, hurry up, out to the car," Aunt Petunia said, after giving her a quick examination. Heather was trying not to smile, she didn't want to get left behind in case they thought she looked too happy.
"Heather, come over here a second," Uncle Vernon said as he pulled her aside.
He leaned down until they were face to face, pointing an accusatory finger at her, "I don't want ANY funny business while we're at the zoo, do you understand me? Anything at all and you'll be without supper for a week."
"I understand Uncle Vernon, no funny business."
Heather had given up trying to explain to him that none of it was her fault. She figured she might as well enjoy the weird things if they were going to blame her for it anyways.
"Turd, you're sitting in the middle seat, since it's the most uncomfortable, hurry up and get in," Dudley called over to her. She climbed into the car and buckled herself in, sandwiched between Dudley and Pat. Almost immediately, Dudley starting pinching her legs, trying to get her to say something, Heather knew the minute she said stop would be when Uncle Vernon started yelling at her so she kept her mouth shut. On the other side of her Pat kept crossing and uncrossing his arms. Every time he did so he'd run his fingers down her arm, smiling at her. Heather didn't know which experience was worse; she prayed the zoo wasn't too far away. Dudley eventually gave up pinching Heather, realizing that she wasn't going to make any remarks while Pat decided to look out the window and comment on what he noticed going down the road. Soon enough they arrived at the zoo, Dudley and Pat quickly getting out of the car and running towards the entrance. Heather made sure to stand close to Aunt Petunia, so she couldn't be accused of wandering off and getting into trouble.
The group slowly made their way through the zoo, Heather having a great time, learning about all these exotic species and seeing them in semi-natural habitats. Her favorite exhibit was the Owl exhibit; she found owls to be quite beautiful. As she walked around the exhibit, she noticed one of the owls watching her, hopping from branch to branch, slowly getting closer. Heather leaned in against the low security wall, to get a better look. It was a beautiful owl, light gray plumage with brown streaks going down its chest and belly. Looking around, she quickly spotted the owl's picture. It was a Barred Owl, mostly found in North America and Canada. As she was reading more about the owl, it flew down to the closest branch and regarded Heather with a tilted head. Heather stared into the owl's eyes, feeling something stir inside her but before she could figure out what it was, Dudley walked over.
"Hey, you look like you're having too much fun," Dudley decided as he reached up and grabbed her hair. His was about to yank on it when the owl flew at the fence, grabbing onto it with its talons, screeching and flapping its wings. Dudley jumped back and screamed in terror, flinching away from the bird. Heather looked over at the owl and smiled, glad to have made a friend, somehow. Her smile faded pretty fast when she looked over at Uncle Vernon and saw the nasty look on his face. She quickly waved bye to the bird and followed her uncle to the next exhibit.
They entered the reptile house, seeing all kinds of snakes and lizards. Dudley immediately headed towards the giant monitor lizards, just about to be feed some meat from a zookeeper. Heather, not wanting to watch the feeding, wandered over to the venomous snakes. One of the smaller tanks had a Cape Cobra, a pretty yellow snake. She read the sign saying that it was highly venomous and found in most regions of South Africa. She looked into the tank to see the snake slither past the glass.
"Man, it must really suck being stuck behind this glass all the time, everyone staring at you. I feel like that all the time," mused Heather as she watched the snake. The snake paused in its slither and turned to look at her. The snake reared up and looked at Heather, then at all the people milling about.
"Can you hear me through the glass?"
The snake nodded its head slowly, seemingly entranced by Heather. Heather couldn't believe that the snake was responding to her, people must come up to the glass all the time and try to engage it, what made her special?
"Well, it may suck being in there but at least you are alone, no one to bully you," Heather complained as she looked over at Dudley, who had moved on to look at the tortoises now. The snake tilted its head closer to the glass to look over at Dudley, opening its hood once it caught sight of him. Heather sighed and nodded her head agreeing with the cobra.
"He's really mean to me, and there isn't much I can do about it, his parents let him get away with anything. Any time I try to fight back, I only get into more trouble."
The snake shook his head sadly then turned back to look at Heather, but before Heather could think to ask the cobra any more questions, she felt herself get shoved to the floor, elbow crashing into the concrete floor. As she looked up, she saw Dudley, nose pressed against the glass, looking at the cobra.
"Whoa, look at this one, it's actually doing something, Heather's ugly face must have scared it," he laughed.
Heather was mad, not only did he just shove her onto the ground; he was blatantly making fun of her, she felt her face go red. Pat came over and was about to help her to her feet when Dudley suddenly screamed, jumping back from the tank. The cobra was rising, hood extended, hissing loudly, the glass from the tank suddenly gone. The cobra slid forward out of the tank, lightly dropping onto Heather's legs, everyone screaming and backing away from her. Heather felt her heart beating against her chest but she wasn't really afraid for herself, she just hoped the snake wouldn't hurt anyone and then be put down. The snake looked over at her and gave a quick shake of its head. It continued to slither around her legs, hissing at everyone coming too close. Within minutes some of the reptile experts were around her, hooks and nets in their hands.
"It's okay little girl, we're going to get that cobra off of you in just a moment, don't make any sudden movements. Everything will be okay."
"I'm not worried, just please don't hurt the snake. I'll put it back in the tank and you can grab it from there. But you won't hurt it right?"
"That's not safe, that snake is very venomous and might bite you. But we're not going to hurt the snake, it hasn't bitten anyone, but we'll have to find somewhere to put it to calm it down and find out how it escaped," reassured one of the staff members, perplexed at the missing glass.
Despite their warnings, Heather gently reached forward and cradled the snake in her arms. She slowly stood up and adjusted the snake. One of the staff took a few steps forward, holding out the snake hook. The cobra arched up and hissed, until the employee quickly stepped back. Looking at Heather, the snake relaxed its hood, safe in her hands. She walked over to the tank, still missing the glass, and gently placed her hands inside and let the snake slither off of her arms. She smiled at the snake and took a few steps back, letting one of the staff to cautiously come forward and lift the snake with a hook. Immediately a second employee came forward with a net and together the navigated the snake into the net safely. Everyone started clapping once the snake was in the net, glad for the employees' hard work. Many people came up and pat her on the back, commenting on her courage. The next hand she felt on her shoulder squeezed painfully, it had to be Uncle Vernon but Heather was too afraid to look at his face. If there was anything that could be classified as funny business, it was a dangerous snake escaping its tank and falling right into her lap.
"What do you think you're doing Heather, just look at all this attention you're getting, attention that makes the family look very not normal," hissed Uncle Vernon into her ear.
"Come on children, I think it's time we leave! Dudley, it's okay, that nasty snake is gone now, you're safe," Aunt Petunia said as she hugged Dudley, trying to comfort him.
"But she totally sent the snake after me, you saw it!"
"I did no such thing, how could I send a snake after you, it was behind the glass when I was looking at it!"
"You did it, you had to have, because you're always doing things like this, sticking out like a sore thumb."
"I didn't do anything, how can I just make glass disappear? That's not something I know how to do, can you explain it? It was like magi-"
"Don't say that word!" bellowed Uncle Vernon. "We're going home now, finishing up Dudley's birthday and having a good night!"
Everyone went quiet and started heading back towards the entrance and out to the car. Once they were in the car, Uncle Vernon turned around, face so red it was bordering on purple.
"I'll deal with you when we get back, I don't want to hear a sound on the way home," he growled, glaring at Heather. The ride back seemed painfully quiet, Heather dreading the moment they arrived. All too soon the car was pulling into the drive way and everyone was ordered out of the car. Heather trudged into the house, waiting for Uncle Vernon to yell at her. Dudley smirked as he walked by; Pat looked her with apologetic eyes, unsure of what to say to her. Both of them made their way into the kitchen for dinner and dessert. Uncle Vernon pushed Heather into the living room, turning her around roughly to face him.
"I have no idea what you did back there, but that was the most outrageous thing you have ever done, setting a snake loose," he snapped.
"I told you, I have no idea what happened, the glass was there and then it wasn't. How can you explain that? I can't, I have no idea!" Heather retorted.
"Well it doesn't matter, I know you were behind it you little freak, so you can go to your cupboard and think about today, no dinner. Now get!"
Heather gave him a dark look and stalked to her cupboard. She heard Uncle Vernon slide the lock closed, preventing her from leaving. She flopped down on her bed, angry at everyone, wishing she could come up with a way to get out of here. It would be her birthday in a little over a month and she would probably still be locked in here. Heather was still stewing over the injustice when she heard a light knock on her door.
"Hey, Heather, are you okay?" came a quiet voice.
Heather sat up and looked through the small grate in her door. She saw Pat looking back at her through the grate.
"Pat, what are you doing down here? If Dudley sees you-"
"I know, I know. I told him I needed to use the restroom, and then came down here to see you; I can only stay for a moment really."
"Thanks, I guess. Why are you nice to me Pat, you hang out with Dudley and he's a big meanie."
"Well, I guess, it's because, I-I think... you are, well, p- pretty," Pat stammered, cheeks turning red. Before Heather could think of anything to say, they heard Dudley calling.
"Hey Pat, did you fall in or something, get back upstairs, we have to finish this level before your mom comes to get you."
"Okay! Well I guess I have to go... I'll see you around I guess, hope you aren't stuck in here too long."
"Yea, me too, see you around," Heather quietly responded as he retreated out of sight and upstairs. Heather figured she had another hour or so before her Aunt and Uncle went upstairs, letting her out beforehand to use the bathroom. Then she'd be back in here until the morning. She'd have to find something to do in the meantime, distract herself from being hungry. Before long Pat's mom came to get Pat and the house went quiet again. She searched through her small amount of belongings until she found a sharpened pencil, and then took out her notepad. She'd have to remember to get all her pencils sharpened the next time she was out of her room. She started a new picture, one of the Barred Owl that she saw at the zoo. She hadn't gotten too far when she finally heard her Uncle get up from his chair in the living room. She quickly stuffed the notepad under her pillow and put the pencil in her mug, next to her various pens and markers. She wasn't prohibited from drawing but she'd rather her uncle didn't see it.
"Alright you trouble maker, time for lights out so go use the restroom. Hurry up, go on," Uncle Vernon said as he unlocked her door. Heather quickly got off her small bed and went to the bathroom. Afterwards she returned to her room and watched as Uncle Vernon turned off all the lights, then listened as they went upstairs and closed the door. She waited a half hour before pulling the flashlight off her shelf and retrieving her notepad. Within a few hours she finally fell asleep.
Most of the following week was the same, they'd let her out in the morning, she'd spend the whole day doing any chores. If they left for any reason, she'd be locked back in her room. And of course, each night she was locked away, without dinner, listening to Dudley's jeering remarks. But once her week was up, she was allowed outside the house again, mostly so Aunt Petunia wouldn't have to look at her, just as long as she completed all of her chores each week.