Disclaimer: I own nothing of this series… well, except the new characters I've added.
The one thing that pushed Vanessa to the point of misery was not being able to see her brother. In the passed year, when they had been given their rooms, Vanessa would squirm through the shaft on the wall of her attic, climb out onto the roof, and through her brother's window; but since uncle Vernon had installed bars on Harry's window she could only sit on the roof and see him through what seemed like prison bars.
She supposed she could pick the lock on his door, but what would be the point? Uncle Vernon would just hear the loud creak that the door makes, wake up and drag her back to the attic. Their uncle didn't think he had to install bars on her little shaft because he didn't even know that a human being could fit through it. (not that he would know, since the only people he counted as human beings were larger than Santa Claus!) Besides, who would've thought that a shaft could be an escape route?
Whenever it was meal time, her aunt Petunia would slide a bool of soup through the door, and tonight the soup looked just as inedible as the rest she was given. Vanessa sniffed the food once, and would've gagged, had their been anything in her stomach to expel. She decided to starve rather than be poisoned.
It was about the middle of the night, when Vanessa heard something that sounded like an engine. She looked out her shaft and saw a car... A flying car! it was hovering just next to her brother's window. She carefully exited her attic, and when she was close enough, she could see that her brother had his window open, as always.
"Talk about having friends in High places Harry." She said, making all of the red-heads in the car jump three feet.
"Jeez Harry! who's this?" The one on the passenger's side asked.
"This is Vanessa; Nessie, this is Ron, Fred, and George Weasley." Harry said in a bit of a rush. "Now we're all acquainted, can we focus on how to get all of the Hogwarts things out of the hall closet?"
"Nice to match the name with the face Vanessa." The one in the back seat said, shaking her hand.
"You too." She replied, smiling. "Now, the hall closet; would that be our "Dear-little-cupboard-under-the-stairs" Harry?"
"That's the one Nessie" Harry replied.
"How convenient." She said, a spark of mischief illuminating her eyes, but her face just as strait as always. "Leave that one to me; I'll be back in fifteen minutes. You all concentrate on getting those bars off the windows." She said, already making her way back across the roof.
She climbed through the shaft, picked the lock on her door, stepped quickly down the stairs to the cupboard just under them, unlocked the cupboard door with her hair-pins, took out Harry's trunk and broom, made her way upstairs to unlock Harry's squeaky door, and dragged the trunk through the door rather quickly.
"We have to hurry." She told the others. "Uncle Vernon might not seem like a light sleeper, but that door is loud enough to wake the dead." They had tied a rope, one end around the bars and the other was secured to the car.
"Harry..." she said as she and her brother made ready to speedily pack the Hogwarts things into the car when the bars were off.
"No." He said simply, his face completely straight as he continued to pack whatever else he might need.
"Why no-" He cut her off.
"Because you don't know how to ride a broom Nessie." He said barely glancing her way, his expression never changing.
"I might be good. You never know."
"I have no doubt that you'll be good. I even want you on the Quiditch team someday. But you have to be alive to do that." She glared as he rolled his eyes, smiling.
"Do you always read her mind Harry?" Asked the one in the passenger's seat, Fred was it? Vanessa glared at him as well before saying in an underlying huff, "Can we go? We're wasting time." All the red-heads snickered as Harry tried and failed to keep a straight face, at her reaction.
"Alright boss." Said the driver, and the car drove at a high speed away, the bars straining to keep hold to the window, and finally letting go with a loud objection, then the car swerved back to them.
"Alright everyone in." Said the smaller one, Ron. "That Uncle of yours might have not noticed the door, but that sound would wake the dead." And sure enough, as Harry was readying to climb into the car, uncle Vernon came ambling through the door.
"NOOO" He yelled, as Harry's foot swung into the car to join his friends and sister, then all their uncle could do was watch helplessly from the window as they flew off into the night.
As the sun was just peaking over the distant mountains as a shed of bright red, that soon deepened into a blinding orange yellow. The three Weasley boys, Harry and Vanessa was just making their way into the Burrow. Vanessa awoke on her brother's shoulder, slightly groggy as she noticed they were about to end their journey. Harry looked up, noticing his sister's disappointment at missing the view of somewhere other than the Dursley's home. "You didn't miss much." He said, trying to console her. When he saw that it didn't work he said, "I'll tell you all that I saw later." That made her smile. Harry had a talent for embellishing stories, so that, even if it didn't remotely resemble the original, it always made the tales far more interesting to hear.
"Won't your mother be angry that you took a joyride in your family car?" Vanessa asked.
"Nah." said George, the driver.
"She won't even know we left." Continued his twin, Fred, but as they were just about to enter the door Mrs. Weasley saw them from the clothes line and stalked over to them screaming at The twin pranksters and Ron. The twins then chorused, "Busted."
"Where on earth have you been? We had a search party out looking for you. Your father and I were worried sick! What when we woke up to find you three out of bed and the car gone, we were about to call the Aurors, but we called on the muggle authorities instead of troubling them for one of your IDIOTIC STUNTS!" She then noticed Harry and his sister standing on the side with wide eyes. "Oh hello Harry dear, and who might this be?" She asked, having never before met Vanessa.
"This is my sister, Vanessa ma'am." Harry replied, amused but sorry about the situation he had just seen.
"Well come in dearies, you must be hungry." Mrs. Weasley said, leading them all inside. as they were sitting down Harry whispered to the three, "Sorry about getting you all in trouble."
"Oh, don't be." Fred whispered back.
"Yeah, we usually get in trouble for loads more of things than taking the car for a spin." George added.
"They sometimes reserve the weekends though. Free time and all." Said Ron. They then sat down to eat when Ginny the youngest Weasley entered with her father and saw Harry. She made a quick Bee-line out of the kitchen, and Vanessa saw, with a mischievous hidden smile, the blush she was exiting with. Vanessa had always teased her brother about getting a girlfriend, and she could see this as a chance for her jokes to broaden... on both of them.
"Shy?" She asked.
"You could say that." Fred said smirking. Mrs. Weasley dished them all some eggs and beacon, and Vanessa, startled at the casual use of magic with which the plates were placed in front of them that she spilled her water.
"First time seeing magic?" Fred asked with a smile.
"You could say that." She replied sheepishly.
"And where exactly were you boys last night?" The boy's father asked as an older boy came into the room, reading a book as he came. "You gave your mother and I a heart-attack!" He looked at Harry and Vanessa and his expression became quizzical. "Who are you two?" He asked kindly.
"Arthur, this is Harry and Vanessa." Mrs. Weasley said smiling.
"The Potter siblings! I should have known. Very nice to meet you Harry, Vanessa." He said to them.
"Nice to meet you sir." Harry replied.
"It's a pleasure sir." Vanessa echoed.
Mr. Weasley looked from Harry to Vanessa and back again. "You don't look too much alike, do you?" He said. Harry and Vanessa looked at each other with puzzled expressions.
"What do you mean sir?" Harry asked.
"Well, the eyes are the same, but the faces aren't. I son't know, I can't put my finger on it." He snapped his fingers. "I've got it! You look more like your mother than your brother does."
"Lily had curlier hair..." Mrs. Weasley muttered, frowning slightly. Harry looked at Vanessa with eyebrows raised, and she bit her lip. What was going on?
A few days later, they all went to Diagon Alley to get supplies. Vanessa made it through the Floo alright, if not completely covered in soot, but she was still waiting for Harry to emerge from the fire-place.
"He should have come through already." Mr. Weasley said, concerned.
"Maybe we should search around." Ron suggested.
Vanessa leaned closer to George. "He's going to be alright, isn't he?" She looked pale. Or more than usual.
George whispered, "He's going to be fine, Ness. don't worry." And she gave him a sideways grin.
"I'm his sister. I never stop worrying."
"Then be thankful your not my sister." He said. "You'd have had heart problems by the time you were two."
"Harry! I was scared out of my mind!" Vanessa screamed, running toward her brother.
"I'm fine Nessie." He said as he spun her around. "Don't worry so much."
"Who, me? Worried? About you? You've got to be joking." She said, smiling slyly.
"Where'd you end up?" Fred asked.
"Knockturn Alley." Hagrid answered for him.
"Oh my goodness!" Shrieked Mrs. Weasley.
"What was is like?" Asked the twins together.
"Boys!" She scolded.
"Mum band us from ever going in there." They said.
"And for good reason." Hagrid said.
While this exchange was taking place, Harry tapped Ron and Hermione's shoulder's, and spoke to Vanessa in their language, "We all need to talk." Vanessa glanced at the adults to make sure they weren't looking their way, ominously took in her surroundings, looking for a secluded shadow where they all could talk. She nodded to her brother and led the way over to the one she though could cover them all.
Harry told them about seeing the Malfoys, and all that the father and the store manager had talked about.
"Sounds down-right skulduggery to me." Vanessa declared, casually leaning against the wall.
"I agree." said Ron. "Anything the Malfoys do is skul... Well, you know what I mean." Vanessa smiled. "You could have just said smelled fishy. That would have been sufficient." He said.
"What would've been the fun in that?" She asked. "And what a complete wast of words." Harry frowned, and she sighed and said, "All I could do at the Dursley's was work and read. It isn't your fault that you had other styles of entertainment."
"Reading isn't bad entertainment." Hermione said, looking offended.
"We'd best go get our supplies." Harry said quickly.
"Yeah, lets go." Vanessa agreed.
Well, that's the end of another chapter. Please Review with criticism. If I'm doing something wrong, I want to know about it! :) Also, I know that the Parseltongue wasn't in italics in the last chapter, but it's going to be from now on; Sorry if I caused any confusion. I wan't to thank, Lee Mcloven and Marsda for their unending support, and criticism. I hope y'all enjoy; please read and review!