Disclaimer: ...bleh

A/N: Yes, I am alive! Sorry for the wait, everyone, and I do appreciate all the reviews I've gotten since. It's just been a busy semester, what with research papers, the school newspaper, and a play for my drama class. Things are finally slowing down with Christmas so near. Until now, I haven't had much incentive to write, and I was pretty much stuck about halfway through this chapter (which I had started more than a month ago). But, now it's finished! Also, thanks again to the magnificent Spiderlily for taking time out of her busy schedule to proof this for me!

Now without further ado, I give you: CHAPTER 2!

(The curtain goes up, and the crowd goes wild!)

("Hey, down in the front row!")

At the very hour that insanity was running rampant in the Dursley household, a rather decrepit and bedraggled-looking owl was slowly making its way toward number four Privet Drive. He bore a letter addressed in a hasty scrawl to one Harry Potter. His target's magical signature shown like a beacon in the dark night, and it was the only thing that kept the sorry bird moving with each tired beat of its wings.

Anyone other than a Weasley might have been concerned about the way his breathing labored in the occasional hoarse hoot. However, they were perfectly used to things that were old and/or damaged, so they could tell that Errol was still good for a few more years yet.

The weary owl nearly collapsed in relief when he closed in on the house. This had to have been the third time in a single week that the Weasleys had sent out mail to this particular recipient, and Errol could only hope he managed to deliver it this once. He was a proud creature, but getting on in years, and his family already doubted his mail carrying prowess. And yet, these last few misses had been through no fault of his own.

No, IT was stopping him each and every time. But Errol was ready for IT now. He was going to keep both of his bulging orange eyes on the lookout, despite his bad vision. He would not fail again. No, not again-

A startled squawk went unheard by the residents of Privet Drive, so preoccupied were they with the shouting done by those normally polite folks at number four. On any other night, though, it still might have been dismissed as an unfortunate bird. They all knew that batty old Arabella Figg let her mangy cats do as they please, wandering the local neighborhood and terrorizing the natural, normal wildlife.

And yet, no one would have ever guessed that something even more unnatural than those flea-bitten felines was prowling the streets. At that moment, IT was perched on the roof of number five, crouched down to avoid notice, and only its pointed ears swiveled to and fro in speculation. A long-fingered hand clutched the latest missive to Harry Potter tightly, and IT shoved the envelope down a dingy pillowcase tied around its torso, where it joined the already noticeable bulge of stolen letters.

Poor Errol turned his tail feathers toward home, regretfully empty-handed, but much lighter without the heavy letter. IT had foiled him once again. Oh, well. Errol gave a sighing hoot. Maybe next time.

Hallie groaned as she finally managed to pull a rather stubborn dandelion out of her aunt's garden. Sighing tiredly, she sat back on her heels and tightened the rubber band holding back her hair. The sun was high overhead, and she could already feel the beginnings of sunburn on her face and arms. She was tired, thirsty, and dying to take a cold shower.

It was the morning after Dudley's scare, and Hallie was suffering the consequences today. Her uncle had ordered Hallie to keep Sable locked in her room at all times. She knew he would have preferred just tossing the cat outside, but with its abnormal appearance, that was just not an option. Hallie had agreed reluctantly, just glad that Sable could still climb out onto the tree outside her window, so she didn't have to worry about the mess he might leave in her room.

As for her own punishment, Hallie was told to weed both the front and back gardens, and she was not allowed to come in until she finished. Now, Hallie could have easily protested- it was far too hot outside, and this constituted as slave labor in her book- but she didn't say anything. Hallie wasn't sure how long her relatives' fear of magic would hold out, and she didn't want to push her luck.

Grabbing a fistful of torn weeds, Hallie stuffed them into a giant plastic bag. A small green snake slithered through the upturned dirt by her leg, startling her for a moment, but Hallie let it be. Her aunt had said to get rid of the weeds; snakes were most certainly not in the job description.

Hallie stood up, trying to brush the dirt off of her jeans, but only grinding it in worse, and stretched painfully. She'd already finished the flowerbed next to the driveway and the one under the kitchen window in the back. Now there was just the one around the birdbath to do, and then she could retreat into the air-conditioned house.

Crunching footsteps on the purely decorative gravel behind her warned Hallie of what was sure to be some unpleasant company.

"Having fun, Potter?"

Forcing back a groan at the familiar voice, Hallie turned around. The kitchen door bounced against the side of the house as a rather reluctant Dudley waddled outside, following his best friend, Piers Polkiss, who had an eager glint in his eye as he approached Hallie.

Piers was perhaps the worst of Dudley's friends, and Hallie had little tolerance for him. She had known him since they were both very small, Piers having been her cousin's first cohort. Ever since kindergarten (when Dudley had discovered the joys of making his classmates cry), Piers had always been there to lend a helping hand. He was a short, sallow-skinned boy with muddy brown hair, narrow black eyes, and a sharply angled nose. Hallie had always felt a distinctly rodent-like quality about him, which for some reason, made her distaste of him double.

For most of her life, Piers had tormented her, side by side with Dudley. Whereas Dudley sometimes had trouble catching Hallie once she ran for it, Piers was the swift one who could always tackle her to the ground for him. He was quick, and probably the cleverest of Dudley's little gang, with his sharp tongue and penchant for lying. Hallie knew without a doubt that if he'd ever, Merlin forbid, been a wizard, Piers would have made Slytherin House hands down. Dudley could have, too, for that matter. He did remind her a bit of Goyle- big and stupid. Or maybe she was giving him too much credit…?

"Mate, why don't we go back inside?" Dudley tried, in what he thought was a jaunty tone. "You know I've got that new computer game, Alien Blaster 2 in my room. Just got it yesterday and-"

"What's the matter with you, Dud?" Piers asked in a sneering voice. "You're always coming up with some excuse these days not to mess with Potter!"

"Uh, well, I just don't want to! Who cares about her when I have better things I could be doing?" Dudley seemed unsure of what to say in his own defense. Hallie tried to hold back a smirk as she watched her cousin flounder.

Piers noticed her expression, however, and asked the squirming blonde, "Don't tell me you're afraid of a girl now?"

"NO WAY!" Dudley protested quickly.

"Then prove it," Piers said. Deciding to show Dudley how it was done, he ripped the bag out of Hallie's stunned grasp, and laughed as he dumped the mess of plant matter on top of Petunia's flowers.

Hallie glowered. "That took me three hours, you bloody bastard!"

"Oops, how clumsy of me," Piers grinned unapologetically.

"Sod off, Polkiss," she said between gritted teeth, her fists twitching in her garden gloves to just go ahead and strangle him.

"Make me, Potter."

Now, more than ever, she wished she could do just that, but Hallie knew there was no way for her to get rid of him without using magic. She bit her lip and glared down at her oversized tennis shoes in silence. Piers let out a bark of laughter when he saw her lack of response. Stepping forward, he gave her a hard shove. Hallie stumbled, but didn't back down.

"C'mon, Potter!" he jeered. "Fight back already! Don't start something if you're not going to finish it!"

Dudley watched from the side as Hallie allowed another to push her around. Why hadn't Piers been turned into a toad or something yet? Where was her little magic stick now?

Hallie bit back a cry as she was knocked backwards again, this time tripping over a rock and hitting the grass hard. She wondered if she could still make a quick escape and hide out in the local park.

'Just like old times,' Hallie thought bitterly.

As she glanced up at the two boys through her fringe, she recognized a look of rare calculation showing on her cousin's face. That didn't bode well at all. If she didn't do something soon, he was sure to run to his parents later and say that Hallie had been faking all along.

'I need to do something, and fast…'

"You're pathetic, Potter. You still don't have the guts to fight back!" Piers spat, glaring at her with disgust.

Hallie met his stare, not phased in the least after an entire year with Snape. They sounded a lot alike. Always picking on Hallie, calling her worthless and weak... What did they know anyway? Nothing, that's what!

Dudley came forward then, snickering at his helpless cousin. He was already cracking his knuckles in preparation as Hallie pushed herself off the ground.

'BUGGER THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC!' Hallie silently raged. At this point, she was too furious to listen to that voice of reason that asked, 'Do you want to be expelled?!' Instead, she told herself, in what she hoped was a believable tone, 'They only look for magic done with a wand, right? So, I won't use my wand. I'll use my amazing psychic powers to blow him up!'

Hallie purposely ignored her inner Hermione who pointed out how completely ridiculous that was. She didn't have any psychic ability, as she well knew, but her inner Ron was egging her on. 'Kick his arse, mate!'

'Come on...' Hallie squinted at Piers's pinched face, barely noticing as Dudley came around her back to effectively surround her. 'EXPLODE ALREADY!' she screamed, picturing his tiny head just bursting like a balloon.

While Hallie was giving herself a migraine, Dudley pulled her arms around her back to keep her from getting away. He was positively jiggling with glee at the thought of returning to his favorite pastime. Piers had been right. Boy, had he missed tormenting his cousin!

Piers advanced on Hallie, who was beginning to struggle as panic set in. Nothing was going to save her now, not her magic, and most certainly not her relatives. She watched, as though in slow motion, as the boy in front of her pulled back his fist. This was going to hurt... Hallie forced her eyes shut at the last minute, just waiting for the inevitable blow...

But it never came.

In fact, what stopped her cousin's bullying friend was a situation perhaps even more unbelievable than Hallie's nonexistent mind powers. It was a tiny green snake who came to her rescue. The very same one she had seen in the garden.

"AAAAAHHHHH!" Piers shrieked, hopping around on one leg and shaking the other madly in an attempt to dislodge the snake slithering up his pants leg. Dudley remained in shock for only a moment before he dropped Hallie as though she was something contaminated. He didn't even bother to rescue Piers, instead choosing to run back inside with his hands clinging protectively to his bottom.

'What the hell was that about?' Hallie frowned.

Piers squealed as the snake finally dropped to the ground, and took off after Dudley, leaving Hallie without a backward glance. Hallie herself could only stare for some time in the direction that the two boys had fled, wondering just what had happened. Shrugging it off as unimportant, she turned back to her aunt's garden, and resumed the arduous task of picking out all the weeds burying her aunt's prized petunias.

'Now how narcissistic is that?' Hallie thought with disgust towards the garish flowers.

The little green snake slithered back into the garden as Hallie retrieved her bag. Smiling at the little reptile, she whispered her gratitude.

"It wass my pleassure..."

Hallie froze and did a double-take. The snake was gone, and Hallie was hearing voices. Shaking her head, Hallie muttered something about heatstroke and went back to work.

As the daylight waned and the air temperature finally cooled down, Hallie worked on, even after her uncle's car pulled into the driveway, and he heaved his large bulk inside. He had completely ignored his toiling niece, except to give her a harsh word to finish up quickly if she expected any supper. She doubled her efforts in response, not for his sake, but for her own growling stomach.

Sable had stopped by as the sun finally set, having obviously climbed down the large oak outside her window. He mewed at Hallie reproachfully, as though it was somehow her fault that neither of them had eaten yet. Hallie wasn't very sympathetic to his grumbling tummy; it was, after all, his actions that had put her here, regardless of how much enjoyment she had gotten out of Dudley's shrieking.

At last, after piling the heavy trash bags near the sidewalk to be picked up, Hallie was free to go inside. Sable trotted after her eagerly, keeping to the shadows so his dark coat wouldn't be seen by any of the Dursleys. Yawning, Hallie simply grabbed an apple and a leftover dinner roll from the table, as well as some scraps of chicken for the cat, before trudging upstairs. All the while, she mentally counted off another day until her return to Hogwarts. Now, how many did that leave?

'Too many,' her fuzzy mind replied.

Long after Hallie had fallen asleep that night, a shadowy figure moved from its hiding spot in the bushes where it had been watching the oblivious girl at intervals throughout the day. It was now eager to get back to the manor before its presence, however ignored, was missed. Before disappearing, it took one last glance at the second floor window.

The house elf shook his head in bemusement, large ears flopping against his face as he did so. Even weeks after his first visit to the Muggle neighborhood, there were still many things he could not understand. Like most creatures bound to the service of wizards, he could sense magical signatures clearly. As it was, his internal radar had led him right to the small girl at this house, and that could only mean one thing...

Mr. Harry Potter sir was a girl!

The other elves would never believe him.

As the weeks passed, Hallie grew increasingly desperate for any human contact (the Dursleys obviously didn't count). She had taken to staying awake into the early hours of the morning, just sitting at the tiny window of Dudley's second bedroom, as though ready to wave down any owl that might be looking for her. At that point, she would have gladly accepted any correspondence from her only friends, even if it was a short and abrupt letter stating that they never wanted to see her again. Anything would be better than this horrible waiting, not knowing what they thought... Yeah, right. That was what her despondent mind had tried to make her believe, but Hallie was sure that the loss of either Ron or Hermione would destroy her utterly.

Hallie sometimes wondered if she was being ridiculous. Ron and Hermione had proven themselves beyond loyal in just the year they had known each other, and she didn't see them as the type to just forget about her. However, Hallie had never had the highest self-esteem growing up with the Dursleys, so it was hard to compare what she should know with what she already believed; that no one would ever want to be friends with a freak like her.

Still, she couldn't really blame them if they did stop being her friends. Who would want to after what Hallie had put those two through? There were so many times the previous year that she had gone looking for trouble, dragging them with her, and it had found all three of them. They could have lost their lives last month, all because Hallie had thought it her duty as the Boy-Who-Lived to stop Voldemort. Even if it was, that had given her no right to bring Ron and Hermione down the trapdoor with her.

Even as Hallie reasoned that neither would have stayed behind no matter what she said, she knew that a small part of her was eternally grateful that they hadn't. She'd have probably been dead if not for Hermione's smarts and Ron's strategy. What could she, Hallie, have ever accomplished on her own? She was just one scrawny little first year, raised up on a pedestal for something she barely remembered. If it had been just her down there, Hallie probably wouldn't have survived past the Devil's Snare, and even if she had, the chessboard would have surely done her in. She was, after all, rubbish at that game.

But perhaps the most serious reason for Ron and Hermione to ever consider breaking their friendship would be the way she had lied to them. Sure they had said it was no problem, but now that they'd had an entire month to think on it...? They would probably be perfectly content to never see her face, glamour or not, ever again.

Hallie felt like crying at the thought, but it was the only thing that made sense. Why else would she have received not a single word from anyone that summer? Not even Hagrid had written, although she supposed he had no reason to. He had probably only helped her out as some sort of penance to her dead parents.

Even as exhausted as she was from lack of sleep, Hallie stayed awake a few more hours, still grasping at the hope that it was all just some mistake, and that soon the owls would come pouring in... But of course, she didn't really believe that. Hallie fell asleep still poised on a chair at the window, her head resting on her folded arms. Hedwig and Sable exchanged a look from behind the sleeping girl, conveying their worry for the young witch in a way that their own speech could not. Each stayed up that night, dutifully continuing Hallie's watch.

Not a single owl turned up.

REVIEW!!

Okay, the next chapter is already underway (let's hope I can get it done soon). Chapter 3 is going to be about Dobby, dinner with the Masons, and summer at Malfoy Manor. I hope I've kept your interest so far. It's not exactly like the book, and you will see a change in events very soon, probably by Chapter 4.