Title: Whisper on a Stream (4/?)
Author name: darkforest214
Category: Drama, Angst
Spoilers: Books 1 through 5
Rating: PG
Summary: Um, well it's Harry's 6th year and some surprises await him (as does danger).
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. Aka... I own nothing (except for a few characters...my little first years and few others I won't mention just yet...)
Chapter Four
Push on a Shove
"You two finally came out?" said Uncle Vernon as Harry and Liv entered the dining room.
"Harry was helping me get comfortable, to unpack...and make me feel more at home," said Liv with a smile.
"Olivia, want to spend the day together tomorrow?" asked Dudley. "I could take you to the park," he added hopefully.
"Harry already took me to the park," she said without thinking.
"Oh," said Dudley quietly, sounding slightly depressed.
"Hey, cheer up, maybe you could take me to meet your friends," said Liv, hoping he wouldn't say 'yes.'
"I don't know if that's a good idea," Harry whispered. Liv caught Harry's eye and gave him a subtle wink, Harry nodded his head once and Liv continued.
"I would love to meet your friends, even if they're only half as interesting as you," she said, a cynical smile on her face.
Dudley was too thick to catch that she was messing with him and said somewhat shocked, "If... if you really want to."
"He better find some new friends then... and soon," Harry muttered between mouthfuls of food.
"That's enough, boy," said Uncle Vernon strictly.
"Sorry, Uncle Vernon," Harry muttered unconvincingly.
They ate the rest of dinner in silence, Dudley was smiling all throughout dinner and for once he didn't beg for thirds. Afterwards Harry and Liv disappeared once more into Harry's room.
"You're actually going to go meet his friends?" asked Harry disbelieving.
"Yeah, I'm think I'm going to play a few tricks on them... a few magic tricks that is," she said, a sly smile on her face.
"If you're allowed to do magic again by then," said Harry.
"Good point," laughed Liv.
"You're horrible, you know that, right?" said Harry admiringly.
"Thank you," she replied with a big smile.
"Anytime," he said with a laugh.
Liv sat down at the desk with her computer, "That's an interesting little owl," she said as she looked up when a tiny owl flew in through the open window and zoomed wildly around the room.
"Pig! Pig, calm down!" said Harry as he snatched the small owl out of the air.
"Pig?" Olivia asked.
"Pigwidgeon, 'Pig' for short. It's Ron's owl. My godfather gave it to him after he lost his rat," he said with a hint of sadness in his voice. He forgot about the twittering little owl in his hands until Pig nibbled his fingers a little too hard. "Ouch! Bloody bird!" he muttered.
"So the letter is from Ron?" Liv asked.
"Yeah, and I imagine he has some questions about you as well," said Harry said as he unrolled the letter.
"Of course he would. It's not everyday some girl moves in with your best friend... Oh, wait 'til he hears about Ty staying with Hermione!" said Liv.
"He'll freak out. He's never admitted it, but I think he has a bit of a crush on Hermione," said Harry thoughtfully.
"Really?!" Liv laughed, "I was joking! What does the letter say?"
"Hear, you can read it yourself," said Harry as he passed it to her. She took it and read the following;
Harry,
So...how's the exchange student? Hermione told me that it was indeed a girl. Oh, Hedwig is resting here a bit but is anxious to return home to you. Guess what?! Hermione has good news, but I'm not suppose to tell you... she mentioned something about a questionnaire she wanted you to fill out. Oh well, I'll tell you about it anyway. Hogwarts is getting a second exchange student! Cool huh? I'd tell you more, if I knew anything else. Hermione didn't tell me anything. I guess she figured I'd tell you... I'll let you know if I find out anything else from her.
Ron
"This confirms it even further," said Liv as she handed the letter back to Harry. "Not that it need further conformation..." Harry nodded his head in agreement.
Harry went over to his trunk and pulled out a book. He sat down on the floor across from the bed and opened it. He sat there, thoughts racing through his head, too preoccupied to read. He finally gave up after reading the same sentence five times.
He looked over at Liv, who had moved to the bed, was doing something on that little computer of hers. There was something about her, but Harry couldn't quite put his finger on it. 'Maybe it's the way she teases Dudley, or maybe the way she argues with Uncle Vernon and manages to win every time. Or maybe it's the way she talks about her brother, the two were close and I could hear the love in her voice.' Harry thought.
Liv looked up and saw Harry looking at her. She smiled and blushed slightly, Harry quickly returned his gaze to the book in his lap, but his thoughts stayed on Liv. 'When she smiles she lights up the room. Maybe that 'something' has to do with the fact that I can talk so easily with her and she actually listens to me...' He liked how she treated him like a normal teenage boy, not as a famous wizard responsible for the downfall of Lord Voldemort. There where so many great things about her, but there seemed to be some kind of mystery floating about her.
"Harry?" she asked, snapping him out of his thoughts. He looked up from his book to show that he heard her. "You've got another visitor," she said indicating the window.
"I never get this much mail!" Harry said as he stood up and went over to the owl. Taking the letter from the owl and reading the address on the front he recognized Dumbledore's handwriting in the crisp, green ink. "It's for you!" he said handing it to her. Harry noticed the owl hadn't left, it was clinging to the chair at his desk looking important.
"It's from Professor Dumbledore, letting me know that it's okay to do magic again," said Liv after reading it. "He's got it all cleared up with the Ministry."
"That's good," said Harry.
"Marty, come here," she called. The cat jumped up onto the bed and looked up at Liv. "Dumbledore has sent this owl to take you on a little tour of England. That way you won't get lost and I can use you to send letters," she said to the cat. With a meow of excitement he turned into an owl. Liv carried him to the window while muttering, "We don't have to worry about Sammy getting lost, do we? But then again, he's not an owl..." Marty hooted in agreement and took off through the window, the other owl left too. Harry and Liv stood by the window watching the two owls fly out into the growing darkness.
"Who's Sammy?" Harry asked, "I heard you mention him to Marty."
"She's my brother's cat, well I guess she's sort of mine too considering we share just about everything." Harry looked at her blankly so she decided to explain further. "Sorry I didn't mentioned Sammy before because I didn't want Marty to be two homesick. When my brother and I began our wizard training Mom bought us each a magical cat. Marty can turn into an owl and he acts as the family's owl...although Dad just thinks he's a cat. Marty can also distinguish wizards from muggles. And Sammy, who's real name is Samantha, likes to find things. And she does it quite well I might add," she said. Harry decided not to ask. "You just tell her what you're looking for and she'll run off and find it."
A knock on the door brought Harry and Liv's attention away from the window. "Who is it?" said Harry, reluctant to ask.
"It's me... I want to speak with Olivia," Dudley said quietly.
"Oh great," Liv muttered sarcastically to Harry. She crossed the room and opened the door, "What's up Dud?" she asked with a fake smile.
"I was wondering what you thought of my guitar," he said shyly as he entered the room.
Liv sighed and exchanged looks with Harry, "I'm going to be honest with you," she said. She went over to the guitar and picked it up, "Dudley, you killed this poor thing."
Dudley hung his head and muttered inaudibly.
"It's going to need a lot of work, it's an excellent brand name, you just didn't take care of it," said Liv.
"You can have it want, I don't know how to play," said Dudley still not looking at her.
"No, Dudley," she said sharply, "I don't want it."
Dudley turned to leave the room and said sadly, "Tomorrow, you don't have to come meet my friends if you don't want to. I'll understand if you'd rather spend your time with this freak."
"Now wait a minute," Liv said suddenly. "You have no right to call him a freak!" Dudley was taken aback, but soon recovered.
"You wouldn't say that if you knew what he really is," Dudley sneered. He was hoping to damage her view of Harry, but instead she was starting to hate Dudley even more than before.
"Oh really?"
"Yeah,"
"Honestly, Dudley, I don't mind at all that he's a–"
"Olivia!" Harry interrupted.
" –wizard." She finished, glaring defiantly at Dudley.
Dudley was shocked and took a step back. "How did you–?" he managed to say.
"With a flick of her wrist Harry saw her wand drop into her hand. She pointed it straight at Dudley who backed up against the door in shock. "Wizards aren't freaks." She said, her eyes flashing in anger.
Dudley regained a little bit of confidence as he remembered something that could save him. "You can't do anything to me."
"Can't I?" she replied her wand still pointed at his chest
"Olivia, I don't think–" Harry cut in.
"Don't worry about it, Harry," Liv said quietly.
"You can't do magic out of school, you'll be expelled," he said snobbishly like a know-it-all.
Liv smiled a sardonic, evil smile that made both Harry and Dudley cringe as she pulled the note from Dumbledore out of her pocket with her free hand.
"Olivia, don't," said Harry cautiously
"Harry may not be allowed, but I am. In America we're allowed to at the age of sixteen... and guess how old I am," she sneered.
"Six-sixteen" Dudley stuttered.
"Exactly,"
"W-what are y-you g-going to do?"
"Nothing, for now," she said. "But if you tell your parents... let's just say I'm not a very nice person when provoked." She waved her wand in his face before making it disappear back into her sleeve. She turned and walked back to the window where Harry still stood slightly shocked and Dudley waddled out of the room as fast as his fat legs would carry him.
"Liv, why did you–?" Harry started to ask.
"He needs to show a bit more respect towards people with more power than him," she said staring out the window, anger still shining in her eyes.
"I've always wanted to do something like that..." Harry muttered admiringly. "Although hearing it from you was probably more a shock to him than if I would have done something like that.
"It felt good," she said appreciatively. She flexed the muscles in her right arm and her wand dropped into her hand.
"How did you do that?" Harry asked as he watched her twirl her wand in her fingers.
"It took practice, but I learned to make it work eventually," she said as she pushed up the sleeve of her shirt to reveal a leather harness wrapped around her arm.
"What's that?" Harry asked.
"The reason I almost always wear long sleeves," she joked. "No, it holds my wand against my arm, that way it's always easily accessible," she said as she slid her wand back into the harness. "All I have to do is flex the right muscles in my arm and it'll release the wand, letting it fall into my hand." She demonstrated and once more she was twirling the wand in her fingers.
"Wow, that's pretty cool, where'd you get it?" Harry asked as he looked at the harness on her arm.
"My grandfather had one, my brother and I found it when we were cleaning the attic of our grandparents' home last summer," said Liv, "When I asked him what it was he put it on and showed Tyler and I how to work it. He made one for Ty and me and gave them to us on our 16th birthday."
"Oh, I was hoping I'd be able to find one in a store somewhere..." said Harry sounding somewhat disappointed.
"I could make you one... Grandpa showed me how after my first one shrank. Did you know that if you soak leather in water it shrinks?"
"Uh, no, I guess I didn't know that," said Harry.
"Well, my harness had shrunk and would cut off the circulation on my arm. He helped me make this one, and out of nice black leather too," she said with a smile.
"When's your birthday? I could make one for–"
"HARRY!!!" came Uncle Vernon's booming voice from downstairs.
"Uh-oh, you don't think Dudley told already, do you?" Liv asked nervously.
"No, he probably twisted the story around and made it sound like I threatened him," Harry said as he turned to leave the room.
"Want me to come along?" Liv asked.
"Yeah, but you better use my invisibility cloak," said Harry. He rummaged through his trunk and pulled out a silvery cloak and handed it to Liv.
"HARRY, GET DOWN HERE NOW!" called Uncle Vernon again.
"Cover yourself completely, and don't make a sound...then again he won't be able to hear you over his own yelling," said Harry as he hurried out the door.
Liv replaced her wand and pulled down her sleeve, covering herself with the cloak she followed Harry into the living room.
"How dare you threaten my son," hissed Uncle Vernon. His face was a dark shade of purple and was growing darker.
"And you did it in front of our guest!" Aunt Petunia exclaimed.
Uncle Vernon grabbed Harry by the shirt collar and got right in his face. "I've had enough of you boy. We raised you, we've housed you, fed you, clothed you... we even bought you those glasses. But I could take all that away from you so quickly your head would spin," Uncle Vernon snarled trying to keep his voice down in case Liv overheard. "And we've allowed you to go to that school of yours and put up with that bloody bird. Let me tell you, boy, I've just about had it!"
Harry stood there silently as Uncle Vernon continued to remind him how 'gracious' they've been to him and how ungracious he is. Liv slipped back upstairs and set the cloak on the bed and returned downstairs in time to see Uncle Vernon on the verge of explosion.
"You got anything to say about that, boy?"
"Yes," said Harry calmly, "you clearly don't want me here."
"Damn straight I don't! I should have you shipped off to–"
"Harry and I will be gone before the end of the week," said Liv as she came supportively to Harry's side.
Uncle Vernon released Harry and looked at Olivia as if he had just swallowed a poisonous frog.
"What?" Aunt Petunia managed to say, she was dumbfounded.
"Just give us a day or two to arrange transportation and we'll be out of your hair for the rest of the summer," said Liv. "Harry, we should go pack."
"Wait a minute," Uncle Vernon said after snapping out of his stupor. "Why... where do you... why would you go with him?" he said confused.
"Because I will not stay in a house full of muggles that treat wizards the way you treat Harry," Liv answered sternly. Harry imagined she was about to tense the muscles that would release her wand into her hand if need be.
"Muggles! How do you know that word?" said Aunt Petunia.
"She's... she's a witch," said Dudley, his voice a mere squeak.
"You can use ma-ma–?"
"Magic?" Harry said helpfully, and Uncle Vernon glared at him.
"Yup," Liv answered.
"Upstairs, both of you... I need some aspirin, you're giving me a headache, Petunia darling..." Uncle Vernon moaned.
"Like we need you to tell us to go upstairs," Harry said spitefully.
Harry and Liv quietly went upstairs and once in his room Harry spoke. "You didn't have to do that," he said quietly.
"I'm sorry Harry... I don't know what came over me. I just... I hated seeing you being yelled at like that," said Liv staring at the floor not wanting to meet Harry's eyes.
"Liv, don't worry about it. I probably would have run away before the end of summer anyway," said Harry.
"It's just that, I get really frustrated when people are treated badly just because they're different," she said. She looked up at Harry and he noticed a single tear falling down her cheek.
He walked over to her and wiped the tear from her face, he then smiled and said, "Don't worry about it. What Uncle Vernon says doesn't bother me."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm proud of my heritage, and if my talent angers him..." he shrugged, "It's also fun to annoy him with the fact that I am what I am," he said with a reassuring smile.
Liv smiled, "He's scared of you, scared of your power."
"I've never thought about it that way!" said Harry.
"They treat us bad because they're scared of us, scared of what we can do. And in some cases, muggles are jealous too..." said Liv thinking out loud.
"Exactly! Hmm...maybe that's why the Ministry of Magic works so hard to keep our world a secret," said Harry.
"Wait! Where are we going to go? We can't stay here!" said Liv suddenly.
"Oh yeah... Well, we could stay at the Burrow," said Harry after a moment of thought, "Or at the Inn above the Leaky Cauldron at Diagon Alley."
"Do you think we could stay at the Burrow? I'd love to meet your friends," said Liv.
"We could ask...but neither of our owls are here and Pig left already," said Harry.
"Oh, right..."
"Let's just go to bed and maybe at least one of them will be back by morning," Harry suggested.
"Sounds like a plan to me," she said trying to stifle a yawn. The two then went to bed, Harry laying on the floor, and about ten minutes later Liv spoke up. "Harry?"
"Hmm?"
"I can't sleep," she said.
"Neither can I," he muttered from his spot on the floor.
"Too much excitement... mind if I play my guitar for a bit? Usually a little bit of music puts me right to sleep, depending on the music of course," she said. She crawled to the foot of the bed and looked down at Harry.
"I don't mind... in fact, I'd love to hear you play," said Harry as he looked up at her. She crawled out of bed and over to her trunk. Pushing her clothes aside she reached down through the bottom of her trunk and pulled out her guitar by the neck.
"Magical trunk," she said when she turned around and saw the quizzical look on Harry's face. She draped the shoulder strap over her head and sat on the bed. Getting comfortable she played a few chords before starting a song.
Harry closed his eyes and listened as the slow and melodic rhythm slowly put him to sleep. When the song ended he said in a sleepy voice, "That was good."
"Thanks...I didn't write it though," she said. Harry heard a soft clunk as she set the guitar down next to the bed. "I'll have to play some of the other–" she yawned, "–songs I know for you some other time." She curled up in bed and soon both were asleep.
Harry was walking along a stream and stopped to stare into the water. He thought he heard a voice, whispering softly. Harry strained to hear what the voice was saying but he was suddenly awakened from his dream by two loud 'cracks' coming from the kitchen. Sitting up he looked at the clock, 2 A.M. forgetting his dream he grabbed his wand and crept quietly down the stairs.
"Ouch, George! That's my foot!" he heard one voice say.
"Sorry, Fred, but I can't see a–" Harry flipped the lights on, "–thing."
In the middle of the kitchen Harry saw the red headed Weasley twins shielding their eyes from the sudden brightness of the room.
"Fred?! George?! What are you–?"
"We've come to kidnap you!" said Fred.
"Yup, we want to get you out of this strange place and bring you back to the norm." said George.
"That and we want you to see the progress we've made with our store," said Fred with a shrug.
"You'll take us to the Burrow?" Harry asked.
"Yup," said Fred nodding his head.
"Us?" George asked.
"Didn't Ron tell you?" Harry asked. Both twins shook their red heads and looked questioningly at him. "One of the Hogwarts exchange students is staying here."
"You're crazy muggle relatives let another wizard stay in their house?!" said Fred shocked.
"Willingly?" asked George.
"Yeah, they didn't know about it until tonight," said Harry.
"Then that black owl must have been the exchange student's," said George.
"Marty?"
"We don't know its name. It just showed up with an owl from Dumbledore," said Fred.
"The other owl had a note saying you needed out of here so Fred and I left the black owl in our room and made plans to come here tonight," said George.
"How did Dumbledore know?" Harry asked, thinking out loud.
"Who knows," Fred said with a shrug. "Let's get down to business. I'll go keep an eye on your relatives."
"Harry, you'll pack and I'll wake your guest," said George.
"Um...okay," Harry muttered. Fred had already left the kitchen and started up the stairs, George following close behind.
Fred positioned himself in the hall outside of Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia's bedroom and George walked into Harry's room, Harry close behind.
"Start getting your stuff together, I'll wake him up," George said quietly.
"Not a 'him' but a 'her'... Liv's a girl," Harry corrected him.
"Oh... oops," George muttered.
Harry started throwing things in his trunk while George quietly slipped over to the bed. He covered Liv's mouth with his hand and she was startled out of sleep. "Shh, it's okay... Fred and I are here to get you and Harry out of here," George said quickly and quietly. Liv nodded showing she understood and the look of terror left her eyes. George removed his hand.
"Hello, I'm uh...I'm Olivia James," she introduced herself, "but you can call me Liv... everyone else does," she said with a smile. She couldn't take her eyes off of him.
"Nice to meet you Liv, I'm, uh... I'm George Weasley," he said. He couldn't seem to take his eyes off her either.
Harry cleared his throat to get their attention, "Liv, you should probably pack... oh, and don't forget your guitar."
"Right...pack...don't worry, I'd never leave my guitar behind," she said as she got up and threw her items into her trunk and placed the guitar back in it as well.
"Harry, did you know that your uncle snores like a bear?" Fred said as he entered Harry's room. "No need to worry about him waking up, a little sleeping spell took care of them both...unless his snoring wakes him up," he added with a laugh. "You must be the exchange student," said Fred when he caught sight of Liv, "I'm Fred."
She looked up at Fred and did a double take; these were the twins Harry had told her about. Harry was right; they did look almost exactly alike, almost.
"Hi, I'm Liv," she said, avoiding the formal introduction she gave earlier.
"Uh, you two about ready?" George asked as he looked at the time on Harry's bedside clock.
"Yeah, I'm done," said Liv. "I haven't been here long enough to need much packing."
"I'm almost finished, hold on... I can't find my Quidditch Through the Ages book," said Harry as he rummaged through some old, useless papers on his desk.
"It's under your bed," said Liv.
"What?"
"I saw it under there when I was trying to get Marty to come out the other day..."
"You crawled under the bed?" Fred asked.
"Yeah," Liv answered with a shrug of her shoulders.
"You're skinny, but that still looks like a tight squeeze," said George.
"Why, thank you," Liv said with a smile.
Harry looked to Liv as if to ask if it was all right to reveal her Animagi secret, she nodded and Harry said, "She's an unregistered Animagus."
"Oh," Fred said. Both Fred and George were giving her (matching) looks of admiration.
"I'll get it for you," she said blushing slightly. Fred and George watched in amazement as they saw her tail disappear under the bed. She then pushed the book with her nose out from under the bed and crawled out from under it, her tail wagging. George bent down to pick up the book and scratched Liv between the ears before standing up and handing the book to Harry.
"Thanks," said Harry.
"Anytime," said Liv with a smile as she reappeared, standing at George's side.
"Okay, I'm ready," said Harry as he locked his trunk.
Fred took Harry's trunk and George took Liv's while Harry and Liv carried their pet's empty cages and followed Fred and George out of the room.
"Un... how exactly are we going to get there?" Harry asked when they had all gathered in the living room.
"The Knight Bus," Fred answered.
"Not to exciting, I know... but you two are two young to Apparate and the fireplace isn't connected to the Floo Network, so..." George said with a shrug.
"Knight Bus it is then," said Harry.
They all went outside and walked down to the end of the driveway. Fred pulled out his wand and held it out into the street. The four heard a loud 'bang' at the end of the street and a triple-decker, purple bus came zigzagging down Privet Drive. Fred had to push Harry out of the way and George backed up into Liv and stood protectively in front of her as the bus stopped where Fred had been standing moments before.
Harry laughed, the Knight Bus was in the Dursley's yard, and he hoped it left tire marks...
"Why, I remember you!" a zit faced man said to Harry as he handed the man money for his ride fare and Liv's as well.
"Nice seeing you again too, Stan," said Harry somewhat sarcastically.
"Not running away from home are ya boys?" said Stan, Liv cleared her throat, "and girl?," he added. "Sorry, miss..."
"That's all right," she said. She smiled and followed Harry and the twins to the back of the empty bus.
"Name's Stan Shunpike, and I'll be yer tour guide fo the eavinin'," Stan joked. "Actually–"
"Just do yer job boy," the driver called out.
"Er, right, Ernie. So, where are ya goin'? The Knight Bus will take ya anywhere that's not under water... Where to?" said Stan.
"The Burrow," Fred said. "Mum won't mind waking up a little early..."
"I hope," George muttered to Harry.
"Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride," Stan said as the bus lurched forward and they started on their frightening trip across London.