Imaginary

Summary: Harry is sent to live with the Dursleys by his parents. The neighbor works for a U.S. Magical Research Center…oh and Petunia is granted her biggest desire…to become a witch. How would becoming a witch change Petunia's feelings and actions towards Harry? What about Vernon and Dudley?

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Evanescence.

Chapter 9: I lie inside myself for hours

Leila's birthday party was a small affair as the girl really didn't want to invite a lot of people she didn't talk to. Hermione and Harry were like the VIP people at the party along with others being invited. The party was in the Brown's backyard and included rented ponies and moon bounces. Petunia couldn't help but snap a picture of Leila, Harry and Hermione together in the moon bounce. Or when they rode the ponies…or started the food fight.

Darryl had chuckled at the food fight while Petunia took pictures for 'blackmailing' purposes of course. Harry would tell you it was the best party he had been to and he actually enjoyed going. Hermione would tell you the same thing only with bigger words because she liked to sound intelligent. Dudley would tell you it was a stupid party and that he couldn't believe his mother made him go.


It had been 2 years since Harry saw his family. Those 2 years were the best in Harry's life. His aunt and Darryl flirted with each other causing Leila and Harry to place bets on when they would get together. Hermione being the mature child she was scoffed at the idea until a manga -Naruto- was thrown at her head. "That'll make you both cousins." Hermione told them mournfully as she thumbed through the offending book.

Vernon only came by on Dudley's birthday and Christmas. Petunia whose divorce was finalized in December of '98 never said more than she had to, to Vernon. Dudley was seen occasionally around Privet Drive because that's where his friends lived. Dudley had a tantrum when he saw that Harry now occupied his old room. "Dudley you don't even visit me so don't complain about having a smaller room. Now you have two rooms again." Dudley wasn't the same since his father left his mother, but he dealt with it by getting everything he wanted.

Andromeda Tonks was often visited by Harry and Petunia. Ted Tonks, actually worked at the Research Center and on slow days often took Harry (and Leila when she was there) to see Nymaphdora. Nymaphdora was by far the funniest person Harry and Leila ever met, because she seemed to trip over then air. Also, Harry and Leila were often seen with the weirdest hair colors after calling Tonks, Nymaphdora. Harry also saw his godfather once in awhile over the last 2 years whenever Ted or Tonks were babysitting.

Petunia in the 2 years that had passed was able to take the required OWLs and pass them with all O's and EE's. This year she planned to take her NEWTs during the winter break. Harry was able to practice a little magic using Petunia's wand, but mostly studied potions with her as it was easier. Petunia Evans' was up cooking breakfast on this hot summer day, why? The nephew that she considered a son was going to turn 11 soon and hopefully be going to Hogwarts.

What is today's date? July 1st, 2001. Harry's 11th birthday was coming up and Petunia had planned out the perfect trip with Darryl. The doorbell rung and Petunia turned the frying pan down and opened the door for Darryl who was holding her mail. "Postman just left." He said when Petunia raised an eyebrow.

"Good Morning to you too, did you book the tickets?" Petunia asked as the Browns entered her house.

Darryl smiled, "Better. I got us a two way porkey to the international gate in the US." The brunette woman raised any eyebrow and fought the urge to wince at the idea. Porkeys were not Petunia's or Harry's favorite of traveling.

"I guess that's better, much faster." Petunia finished the bacon and turned the pan off flipping through the mail, "Harry's replied to his acceptance letter." Darryl raised an eyebrow at that.

"So has Lei. We need to get their school things." Petunia frowned and nibbled on her bottom lip.

"Spending the rest of the summer in the States should be fine." Leila wasn't listening and had disappeared upstairs to Harry's room where said person was asleep. Leila crackled evilly and disappeared into the bathroom.

Petunia laughed at the sight of her nephew drenched in water. Leila was looking innocent 'reading' a manga although no one was fooled. "Leila you're dead!" Harry shouted causing Leila to snigger proclaiming innocence.

"Are you both packed for our trip?" Petunia asked watching as both children nodded.

"We packed yesterday." Leila informed the adults. "So how are we getting to the States?"

"Porkey," Darryl replied and smirked at the 2 children groaning. "We leave in an hour. So you better get dressed Harry. Leila we have to go show the load up the car."

Leila sighed not wanting to do any work. Harry groaned as he dragged himself out of the bed and towards the shower.


The ministry cars drove the group to the International Magical Travel Center just outside of London. Harry was playing Pokemon on his Gameboy SP, while Leila was playing Pac-Attack on SP. Petunia and Darryl were talking about sights that the children would have to see.

"It should include at least one museum." Petunia snapped. Darryl was against the whole thing, "But its summer time you know vacation time! I'd rather we go to Myrtle Beach and Six Flags."

"You sound like one of the children, a museum or two while we're in DC and then we'll go have fun."

"We have to include the shopping trip for them. Do you remember what the uniform looks like?" Darryl asked.

Petunia frowned and looked thoughtful. "It's gray with black robes not too hard to remember."


The beginning of the trip was spent in DC just visiting local landmarks and taking pictures for Petunia to put on the wall next to Dudley's. Petunia and Harry were more interested in the museums then Leila or Darryl. "School trips," both said in unison. The Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum held Harry's attention with exhibits of the rockets. Petunia was more interested in the Spy Museum. On July 4th the two families could be seen on the monument watching the fireworks being lit.

"I wish I could've lit my own." Leila whined. Harry agreed looking at the exploding lights and wondering what fireworks could make those colors (red, white and blue).

A few days after that Darryl led a road trip, Harry and Leila's first one, to New York City. The two families enjoyed the sites and shopping they got done. After that Darryl led another road trip a few days later this time to Hershey Park. Leila and Harry planned to go on every ride there was until after the first roller coaster. Leila refused to go near the mechanical nightmares and ended up going with Petunia around the park. Darryl and Harry came back looking like they won the football championship or something.

Leila and Petunia came back arms weighed down with stuffed toys the girls had won. "How did you get so many?" Harry asked tossing Scooby-Doo in the air.

"Magic, now gimme my Scooby…" Leila said

"No," Harry replied. "And why were you using magic to begin with?"

That ended with Harry getting hit in the head by Tweety Bird and Bugs Bunny. The road trip back to DC was relatively quiet as both children fell asleep after half an hour.


Now it was the day before Harry's birthday. Darryl drove the car into a remote and much more suburban part of DC that board-lined Virginia. "Alright so school shopping now and then tomorrow we'll celebrate Harry's birthday." Both children groaned at the school part and cheered at the birthday part.

"Here we are." Darryl said parking the car. All four left the car and were led around the Wizarding shopping center by Darryl, "So money first then clothing and books." Harry who had been to Diagon Alley was surprised at the difference between the 2. Diagon Alley looks really old like no one bothered to update it to follow the muggle world. The magical shopping center they were at was surprisingly modern and even had a 'Magitech' store.

"What's Magitech?" Harry asked.

"A company that sells magical versions of normal stuff like laptops and Gameboys." Leila answered following her father to the bank. Petunia followed Darryl and Leila into the American Wizarding Bank, Gringotts.

"Wow they weren't lying when the said goblins run every Wizarding World bank." Harry mumbled to himself. Petunia nodded having seen goblins before when she was younger. The Gringotts was much more modern then the British branch. Each teller seemed to have desktops on their desks along with surveillance cameras. The 2 families met up outside the bank a few minutes later to start shopping.

The males were against getting robes first, but Petunia dragged nephew towards Quality Clothing: We sell Robes, Uniforms and Everyday Wear! Since Harry refused to go by himself he dragged Leila with him. Quality Clothing was decidedly a better store than Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions; Harry liked the fact that Quality Clothing was more like a muggle clothing store and didn't make you wait for your clothes.

"Hello, welcome to Quality Clothing I'll be assisting you today." An auburn haired woman said smiling. "My name is Ariel."

"I'm Petunia, this is Harry and Leila." Petunia introduced, "The guy that looks like he'd rather be outside is Darryl."

"What can I help you guys find?" Ariel asked.

"Does your store carry Hogwarts uniforms? I know its odd, but…" Petunia trailed off when Ariel laughed.

"I'm sorry ma'am. It's just that we get a demand like that late August when most touring Brits are headed back home. We carry their uniforms in all types of fabrics." Ariel led the group towards a group of racks with the uniform pants, skirts, skorts and shorts. On the wall behind the racks were different white button ups with black colorless ties. "The ties change into the house colors of first years." Ariel explained. "All clothing has shrink-to-fit charms on them that I can activate if nothing fits the children sizes." Petunia nodded liking the idea. Darryl looked defeated and settled to Petunia's way of shopping.

Ariel and Petunia practically forced Leila into trying on the A-straight skirt ("I'd rather wear the skorts!" she proclaimed.) After that it was jumpers, Leila refused to wear it no matter what, then it was pants ("finally!" she exclaimed). Leila ended up with 2 skirts, 2 shorts, 1 skort, 5 pants, 2 ties (one girl tie and one boy tie) and 5 (male button down, 3 short sleeve and 2 long sleeve) shirts along with stockings to wear. ("I hate stockings!" Leila complained.)

Harry didn't bother to fight his aunt's shopping habits. Since he was a boy all he had to try on was pants and shorts ("Lucky!" Leila mumbled). Harry was done a lot faster than Leila with 5 pants, 4 shorts, 2 vest, 2 ties and 5 shirts (3 short sleeved; 2 long sleeved).

After getting the uniform, both children tried on black robes over their uniform. Leila and Harry got 3 robes a piece, along with their own black winter cloak. Ariel managed to grab 2 pairs of adjustable dragon hide gloves ("They grow along with their hands." Ariel explained).

A good amount of gallons later and the group was carrying the bags with the uniforms…or more specifically Darryl and Harry were carrying the charmed wieghtless bags. Petunia led the way to Spellman's Bookstore. The bookstore was semi-empty. Witches were in the romance section, teenagers in the graphical novel section and wizards in the sports section. Leila and Harry disappeared into the graphic novel section to find more mangas to read. Darryl seemed to disappear going over to the sports section.

Petunia went to the transfiguration section of the store with the shopping cart and started looking for A Beginners Guide to Transfiguration. "Can I help you with something ma'am?" a male asked leaning on the bookshelf.

"Yes, I'm looking for the books on this list… I need two copies of the books." Petunia said handing the man Harry's copy of the book list. The guy looked at the books and raised an eyebrow.

"Wow…lemme get those transfigurations books while we're over here." The man scanned the shelf and handed Petunia two copies of the book to put in the shopping cart.

"Magical Drafts and Potions," the man mumbled going over into the potion section looking along the shelf for the book. "Alright ma'am here's the potion text, if you don't mind me saying I'd recommend getting Potions Demystified- Why It Works by Sashia Coates. It explains about magical properties for potion ingredients and is excellent reads for first years because this book (shows Magical Draft) doesn't explain anything about the potions they'll be making." Petunia looked more interested in the Potions Demystified book then anything.

"I'll get both…and an extra copy of the Potions Demystified." As the guy led Petunia around the store to pick out Harry and Leila's school texts he pointed out extra readings to help out with the older books.

Darryl was in the sports section reading up on the latest Quidditch ratings and the new rising top ranking seeker (a school aged German kid). Harry and Leila were sitting on the floor reading mangas; another kid was sitting on the floor with them also reading. (1)

Petunia frowned when she spotted only Darryl in the store and walked towards the graphic novel section. "Come on Harry, Leila I have your books."

"Can I buy this Aunt Petunia?" Harry asked showing the cover to a Yu-Gi-Oh manga. Leila grabbed two more Black Cat mangas off the shelf and raced over to her father.

"Daddy can I get these?" Leila asked showing both books. Darryl glanced up and then shrugged. "Sure, Princess." Leila made a face at being called 'Princess' but didn't comment.

"Ms. Evans is done getting our books." Leila told him watching as Petunia headed their way. Darryl offered Petunia a smile as he tried to hide the sports magazine he had been reading ("She's worse then my mother!" he would later tell Harry and Leila).

Dragging her father out of the sports section Leila led her father towards the counter where Harry was waiting with 2 Yu-Gi-Oh mangas in hand. Petunia sighed as she put the shopping cart on counter. Darryl paid for all the books avoiding Petunia's glaze ("Honestly you could've helped me find them!" she snapped outside the store). Harry and Leila exchanged glances sniggering all the way out the store.

Darryl, being a nice guy, held open the door at Sabrina's Magical Office Center. This time Leila disappeared down one of the store aisle looking for magical post-it notes. Harry caught up a few minutes later looking at Leila oddly. "Why did you-?"

"Look!" Leila cut-in pointing to the post-it notes that wrote down what Harry just said and tossed itself at him. Harry glared at the paper and was surprised when it hit him on the forehead than his hand. Giggling Leila watched as Harry tried to get rid of the flying menace. "Open it and it'll stop."

Opening the paper Harry sighed when it stopped launching itself at his nose. "How did you-?"

"Right there," Leila said pointing to the instructions on the packs of posts-it notes. Going around the office store took longer because Leila kept stopping staring at things ("Can I get the Sudoku Cards?" Leila asked). Darryl and Harry were amused when Leila let one of post-it notes follow her around. Petunia rolled her eyes huffing at the post-it note before she gave a soft smile ("Honestly she's crazy and if hadn't known that I doubt I'd be any saner!" Petunia told Andromeda later.) 4 standard pewter cauldrons, 2 multi-compartment trunks, 2 mood changing backpacks, 2 sets of crystal phials, 2 telescopes, 2 sets of brass scales, 2 sets of notebooks, packs of parchment, quills, pens and journals later the group left the store money bags lighter.

The males of the group left to place everything in the trunk of car. "Alright, now all we're missing are the wands and Harry's birthday present which he can pick out tomorrow." Petunia told Leila as they headed towards Wand-Tips Your Wand is New or It's Customized Free! Leila looked around the wand shop which seemed really, really clean for some reason.

"Hello I'm Danny owner of this fine establishment and you must need a wand little lady." A brunette male said looking at Leila, "Wand arm little Lady?"

"My left one," Leila said shyly holding out her left arm. Danny smiled reassuringly at her before going over to one of the shelves.

"Try this one my dear. It's made of willow, dragon heartstring. Give it a wave." Leila barely raised it up before it was snatched away. "No, no…" Danny was looking at the shelves again before pulling out another wand. "Mahogany, unicorn hair 10 ½ inches, try it." That wand barely made it even a quarter of the way up. Petunia looked around the room and spotted Darryl and Harry standing by the door watching Leila get her wand. Finally after 10 minutes Danny pulled another wand off the shelf examining it.

"Maple, phoenix feather 11 ½ inches…" Danny told Leila. The wand felt warm in Leila's hand and with a wave green and silver sparks flew from the wand tip. "Excellent! Now I believe your getting a wand as well young man before I ring this one up?" Harry nodded. If Petunia and Darryl thought it took a long time to get Leila a wand, they didn't count on it taking an hour before Harry even got a match.

"Holly, phoenix feather 11 inches…" Danny said to Harry, "An excellent wand for defense masteries, not a lot of these in circulation because it's a rather unusually combination." Red and gold sparks flew out the tip after Harry waved it.

As Petunia went to pay for it they noticed the shop keeper muttering the word curious to himself. "Excuse me, but what's so curious?" Darryl asked half-annoyed.

"Well, Mr. Brown the phoenix that gave the feather for Mr. Evans' wands was rather peculiar."

"How so?" Petunia asked.

"It wasn't a native American Phoenix…no it was a British Phoenix no doubt it knew you would need that feather in specific." Danny said ringing the 2 wands up. "12 gallons is the total…"


July 31st was met with a loud shriek, as 10 year-old Leila Brown rolled out of her ice cold bed…literally ice cold. Harry had placed a freezing charm on Leila's bed to wake her up. The door to Leila's room burst opened as 2 wary adults stepped into the room.

"I'm going to start ignoring all loud noises from you two." Darryl said as he leaned against the doorframe annoyed at being woken up. Petunia pulled her bathrobe around her tighter and sent her nephew a dark look.

"Its to early in the morning for this…you would think after 2 years of this I would be used to it." Petunia muttered to herself leaving the freezing room.

"Daddy!" Leila shouted. Darryl sighed, honestly why did he have a daughter? He'd never figure out how to ignore that look of hers. Waving his wand the room started to heat up and Leila looked relieved to not be freezing anymore. Harry on the other hand mouthed the word 'traitor' at Darryl who shrugged in return. The raven haired boy didn't expect the pillow thrown from behind him to hit him on the head. "Out of my room stupid pig!"

"I'm not stupid, nor am I a pig." Harry said not moving. Darryl left the room knowing it was better to let the 2 of them go at it. Glaring Leila picked up her wand and started casting random spells at Harry before settling on the Body Bind and Tickling Charm. Harry Potter never stood a chance…or stayed in her room after being released from the curses.

"Honestly where did you come up with that type of combination?" He asked panting slightly holding his ribs.

Leila glared. "Just thought of it, but now I think…" Raising her wand Harry decided not to stick around for another curse. He doubted he'd last under another one.


That afternoon after much glaring and hair pulling ("Get off my braid!" Leila shouted), the group was inside well…Chucky E. Cheese. Leila and Harry disappeared to play games after getting their tokens. After watching some kids cheat on the game where you slide the ball up the ramp, Harry and Leila joined in. (2)

Leila and Harry wasted all their tokens on that game but won a total of 250 tickets. "Wanna go get more tokens?" Leila asked.

"Alright." Petunia and Darryl were actually seated in the dining area where the stuffed robots were. The robots of the Chucky E. Cheese crew moved around on stage and talked. Leila actually grabbed onto Harry's arm looking at the odd things warily.

"They're fake you know." Harry told her.

"Doesn't mean I have to actually care." Leila held on to his arm until they reached their guardians. After that Leila sat herself on her father's lap refusing to move.

"What happened?" Petunia asked as Darryl held Leila. Harry pointed to the stage wondering why his friend was afraid of the stupid mouse.

Darryl frowned trying to remember why he never took Leila there. "She hates those things for some reason…they scared her when she was younger." Harry looked surprised and worried about his friend.

"Come on Lei-chan we can go get more tokens." Harry said, knowing how much Leila like anything Japanese related. Darryl poked Leila, but the auburn haired girl refused to even look in the direction of the things on stage.

"Hello boys and girls! Having fun?" The guy in the Chucky costume asked from behind Harry. Leila had literally jumped and then fainted out of fear.

Harry chuckled nervously, "Better yet how about we just leave for Leila's sake?"

"You sure Harry? Because I'm sure Leila and I can just go somewhere else…" Darryl offered.

"Eh…really it's okay…since we're leaving can we check out that Magitech store that we didn't visit yesterday?"


(1)- Ever notice when you go in a bookstore (at least in the US anyway) there's always some kid sitting on the floor in that section of the store? I know I'm one of them, but it's just weird sometimes.

(2)- Sorry when ever I go to Chucky E. Cheese there's always some kid cheating on that game. Not that I can I actually talk as me and my brother do come up with slightly unique ways to win (hahaha I'll never tell you!)

Silver: A long chapter with a shopping trip, games and Harry's birthday…maybe I should've split it up to make it smaller. Oh well…just review and tell me what you think of my Magical American Shopping Center. I liked it personally, especially Magitech and Sabrina's Magical Office Center (I just love buying Post-It Notes). Review please!

(PS- more side chapters coming! along with Hogwarts!!

PSS- I'm sorta gonna slow down with updates because I have two research papers to do this weekend. Damn I can't wait 'til schools out...then i can update a lot!)