Disclaimer: Characters, settings, basically everything belongs to J.K.Rowling. Not to me, and I'm not making any money. Obviously.
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Juniper Lilly Potter
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"Up! Get up! Now!"
Juniper woke with a start. Her aunt rapped on the door again.
"Up!" she screeched. Juniper heard her walking towards the kitchen and the sound of talking.
"Vernon, I'll have to take her shopping. These clothes are positively indecent-" Aunt Petunia was probably talking about the dress Juniper had worn since she was eight. Of course, it had been several sizes to big when it had first been bought but was now almost outgrown. Petunia's tone of voice suggested it was almost a bad as those "Belts! Have they NO sense of decency?" that she'd seen some older girls wear, but Juniper thought they were much shorter than her dress.
"Costs me a bloody fortune-" Juniper had heard this speech more times than she cared to think. She rolled on her back and tried to remember the dream she'd been having. It had been interesting. There had been a motorbike in it. She had felt as if she'd had the same dream before. A lot of dreams were like that though, the one with the pretty red-haired woman, the giant- they weren't real, it was just a silly feeling.
Her aunt was back outside the door.
"Are you up yet?" she demanded.
"Nearly," replied Juniper, hurriedly plaiting her messy hair. Her aunt hated it and refused to let her wear it loose, it'd only need brushing every ten minutes and Petunia had broke more than one brush trying to tame it.
"Well, get a move on, we need to go shopping. I don't want to spend all day with you."
Juniper groaned.
"What did you say?" her aunt snapped through the door.
"Nothing, nothing…"
Shopping was always an ordeal. It was difficult finding clothes to fit her. Juniper had always been small and skinny for her age, she suspected it came from both living in a cupboard, where tall people would be squashed and not eating enough. Her cousin Dudley, although they were the same age, was probably four times bigger than her. Her aunt insisted upon buying far too large clothing, so that it would last for longer. This made her look even tinier. In fact, in Juniper's opinion the only good thing about shopping was that Dudley wouldn't be coming. Dudley was very fat and hated exercise of any sort- even if it was just trailing Petunia and Juniper around shops.
Juniper also had a thin face, which wasn't particularly feminine but she didn't mind. A rounder face would probably have looked odd on her matchstick body. She had knobbly knees, bright-green eyes and thick, dark red hair. She wore round glasses, held together with a lot of Sellotape from all of the times Dudley had pushed her over and they'd broke. She didn't like them very much, she was often called four-eyes at school. But the worst part, she thought was the very thin scar on her forehead which was shaped like a lightening bolt. She'd had it for as long as she could remember and the first question she could ever remember asking her Aunt Petunia was how she had got it.
"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said. "And don't ask questions."
Don't ask questions- That was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys. They didn't really appreciate intellectuals, Juniper thought but that wasn't all that surprising, what with their lout of a son.
"You're ready! Come on!" Petunia grabbed her wrist and dragged Juniper towards the door.
Uncle Vernon stomped down the stairs as Petunia opened the door to leave.
"Comb your hair!" He barked at Juniper, by way of morning greeting.
Juniper cringed, Uncle Vernon said this to her almost everyday whether she'd brushed it or not. She was amazed she had any hair left how often she brushed it. Aunt Petunia would make her re-plait and re-brush her hair before they left now.
Eventually they managed to leave the house. Petunia walked at a brisk pace and Juniper had trouble keeping up, even if her Aunt did have a death grip on her wrist.
"Don't talk to anyone, Juniper." Petunia warned.
Juniper quelled the urge to roll her eyes. Her Aunt was always terrified she'd say something embarrassing or rude to her precious neighbours, or as she liked to call them, "friends". Some friends she had, they were trickier than a Rubik's cube in the hands of a three year-old.
"Of course not." she replied dully.
They walked along the same roads as always until they reached the highstreet. Aunt Petunia didn't like it very much, she thought most of the people were rude and worried about "hooligans" trying to take her money. Not that Juniper had ever heard of that happening in this particular area, but her Aunt was a bit strange.
Juniper sighed when she saw which shop her Aunt was dragging her towards- Oxfam. It wasn't that she didn't like money going towards charities, she'd just have liked, for once, to have new clothes, new clothes that fit. Properly. Instead of sleeves that covered her hands, trousers which had to be held up with a tight belt, or skirts which came round her ankles. Her outdated, clumpy shoes were an endless source of amusement for her classmates. Not that Aunt Petunia would listen to her pleas. Well, maybe this time she could pick something herself she thought, trying to be optimistic. She looked through the clothing rack, most were boring but she found a nice blue t-shirt. It had a sparkly butterfly in the middle. Her not-quite friend, Samantha had worn something similar on a tag-day last year.
"Juniper!" Her aunt barked from across the shop. Juniper held her breath, then turned to see what her Aunt had picked up. A floral, frilly dress. A pink, floral, frilly dress. Her optimistic thinking died, this would be no different than it usually was. She put the nice top back. The next hour was spent obediently trying on many clothes, only to find they didn't fit. Some of the clothes Aunt Petunia picked out were huge. Juniper doubted they would fit, even if she never stopped growing!
"I don't see why I can't just wear Dudley's clothes," Juniper complained when she tried on the eighth pair of trousers which slipped off of her. She'd have preferred it to this.
"They're boys clothes!," Her Aunt exclaimed, sounding scandalised.
Oh dear. Juniper should have realised her Aunt would react like that, she still remembered the time Dudley had asked for a pink t-shirt. It had been a memorable experience, Dudley had shrieked in a higher pitch than Juniper thought she could ever manage. It was probably the shock of being refused something.
Eventually, Aunt Petunia had a sizeable pile of clothes which she deemed acceptable. Juniper hated all of them, and Dudley would bully her about them terribly. But at least they fit better than her clothes usually did and she'd even managed to convince her Aunt to buy her a cheap, green scarf for winter. She was still surprised Petunia had bought it for her, she usually made her have Dudley's old one because she didn't want to spend more money than she had to.
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A/n: This hasn't been betaed, for obvious reasons. I did my best to fix any mistakes but I'm sorry if I missed a lot of them.