Euphemia Potter, resident of No.4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey, was certainly the strangest person ever to live there. Why she was so strange, she didn't know exactly. But she was definitely glad. She didn't exactly see eye to eye with her relatives Vernon, Petunia and Dudley, who were the epitome of normal. To be called an abnormal freak by those people was quite possibly the highest compliment they could pay anyone. After all, Petunia was a woman who looked rather like a horse and prided herself on knowing all the gossip there was to know in their reasonably quiet suburb. Her greatest accomplishment in life was managing to keep her kitchen surfaces so shiny that it was possible to see your reflection in them. Vernon Dursley worked for a company called Grunnings Drills. He and his son Dudley managed to eat enough food for four people. They would be labelled as obese by a medical professional, not that they would listen.

She hadn't had an easy life. Her parents had died in a car crash before she could remember. She suffered from dyslexia and severe ADHD. Her relatives treated her with disdain and indifference, and did their best to make her miserable. Dudley acted like an angel in front of his parents and teachers, but oversaw a relentless bullying campaign against her. He didn't hit her, but he called her names and isolated her from her peers.

The teachers hadn't interfered to improve her situation. From the very first day Euphemia had struggled in school. The letters just wouldn't stay still! While Dudley certainly couldn't be described as intelligent, he managed to do better than her in school and turned the teachers against her. Euphemia grew more and more desperate for friendship.

In truth, Euphemia knew she was different from the other children. She was certainly as different from her relatives as it was possible to be. She had a lean and wiry build, unruly black hair and a fringe that concealed a thin lightning bolt scar. She was fit and rather muscly from playing football in school, and from doing outdoor work for her relatives. She suffered from dyslexia and severe ADHD. She was intelligent, she just found it difficult to read. The letters always seemed to float off the page. She could learn when people explained things to her, and she found learning interesting. It was just so difficult for her to put what she knew on paper for tests or homework. If she was asked the questions orally, she would undoubtedly be one of the better students in the class. It irritated her, but there was nothing she could do about it.

Strange things happened around her too. Once, when Dudley was chasing after her, Euphemia, overcome by a wave of terror, had managed to vanish and reappear on the roof of the school. She knew nobody else whom this had ever happened to, and had gotten in trouble for climbing on the school building. Another time, she had turned a mean teachers hair purple.

There had been much stranger incidents too, where the principal had been ready to expel Euphemia, and had then forgotten about it. It was like the incidents never happened. Euphemia was the only one who seemed to remember. They seemed to let more go, and it took much bigger and more serious events to earn the next threat of expulsion.

One thing was for certain, there was something special about Euphemia Potter.

Possibly the strangest incident occurred on Dudley's eleventh birthday. She had first been awoken by her aunt Petunia's shrill voice. She had dragged herself out of bed, mentally preparing herself for a dreadful day. Dudley's birthday, along with her own birthday, was one of the worst days of the year for Euphemia. Dudley's every whim was catered to, and Euphemia was treated like even more of a slave. Euphemia had lived in a cupboard under the stairs until she was eight. She had innocently asked Aunt Petunia did normal people sleep in cupboards. She had produced a believable fib; that her learning assistant had asked her to draw a picture of, and describe her room for homework. Aunt Petunia, sickly pale, had ordered her to move her things to Dudley's second bedroom. Her room certainly wasn't anything extravagant, but it was a hundred times more comfortable than her cupboard.

On Dudley's birthday Euphemia learned three things.

1. Dudley was worse at mathematics then she thought possible.

2. She could speak to snakes.

3. She was a halfblood (whatever that was).

They had gone to the zoo, where Euphemia had an intriguing conservation with a Brazilian snake. Somehow, the glass had disappeared, and the snake had escaped. As it slithered past it had hissed at Euphemia

"Thanksssss, half-blood."

Euphemia had had lots of time to think after that incident. She had been locked in her room after being issued with her longest ever punishment. She simply could not find a rational explanation for this. She spent hours contemplating her situation. There was something more motivating her relatives than simple dislike. Her aunt and uncle seemed to know why these strange things always happened around her. And why had that snake called her a half-blood?

Euphemia didn't know the answers, but she would make it her business to find out.