Queen of the Night: Years 1-3

by awalkerlifeforme

Tara Nox was born in Godric's Hollow nine months before Harry Potter. For a year of infancy they were like siblings, until Voldemort attacked. Tara's family was forced to flee to America while Harry was sent to live with the Dursley's. Now, nine years later, Tara returns to befriend the boy that doesn't remember her, and more importantly, to protect him from the evils to come.

37. Owl Post

For the most part, I considered myself a very normal thirteen-year-old girl. I went to a school with lots of friends that I loved more than anything else. I studied and got good marks, some of the best in my year. Only bested by one of my best friends, Hermione Granger. I spent my time doing useful things - some of which included discovering the Chamber of Secrets, stopping a plot to murder all of the Muggle-Born students at my school, defeat the worst Dark Wizard in history for a second time, and killing a Basilisk, which was one of the most dangerous magical creatures. But those were all just normal, everyday occurrences in my life.

But I supposed the one way that I considered myself abnormal was that I really did enjoy doing my homework. And, for another thing, I really did wish that the summer holidays were over. Not that I didn't love being back home, but five weeks had already passed since I'd left Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at the end of my Second Year, and now I was bored. As I prepared for Third Year to start, I was left without magic, considering that I was still underage and already had one warning under my belt for underage magic, even thought it had been Dobby the house-elf, not me. I just had to settle for watching Mom and Dad.

Things could have been much worse for me. Despite the fact that it was now coming up on midnight, I wasn't forced to do my homework in the dead of the night, like Harry Potter, my neighbor and best friend. I just couldn't sleep tonight, and Mom and Dad were up anyways. So I figured that I might as well do my homework on the couch downstairs where I could spread out. Currently I was lying on my stomach across the couch. My head and shoulders were hanging off of the front of the couch so that I could read the large leather-bound book. A History of Magic. I was sure that even with seven years of schooling, I would never finish the book.

Yawning yet again, I moved the tip of my Thunderbird feather quill down the page, careful not to blot it with ink, frowning as the late time of the night started to create a fuzz in my brain. I wasn't really tired, but I was getting sick of working. But I really wanted to finish this essay. I hated History of Magic homework so I always liked finishing it first. I'd been putting it off long enough.

Despite knowing quite a bit about the topic that I was writing for, I couldn't find a way to word what I wanted to say. So I put the essay off to the side and grabbed the paper that I had written out all of the short facts on. It was always just to help me check that things were accurate in the essay. Something that I could thank Hermione for. It was one of her strategies.

As I tapped my quill against my chin, I could hear Mom and Dad rummaging around. Like me, they were night owls. Mom was currently doing some paperwork while Dad was watching the Muggle television. "Hey Mom!" I called.

"What is it?" she called back.

"What was the Muggle town that all of the witch trials took place in? Salem, right?" I asked her.

"Yes."

"Massachusetts?"

"Yes."

"And what year was that?" I asked slowly.

She popped out from around the corner of the kitchen and stared at me. I gave her a guilty smile. "You know, I know that I was in school back when dinosaurs roamed the earth," I grinned at her, "but the last time that I checked, it was supposed to be the student doing the work, not the parents," she told me.

"You're not that old. More like when the cavemen were around," I teased. She laughed and threw the dish towel that she was using at me. I groaned at the unwashed towel and tossed it back to her. "I'm fact-checking," I said.

That wasn't entirely true. I was just being lazy and I really didn't want to go digging through all of the pieces of parchment that I had scattered around me. The essay was supposed to be three rolls long, and I was getting towards the end of my third. I groaned and shoved my head into the carpeted floor. Even Potions homework was better than this. Even though Snape gave more homework, it was usually a lot shorter pieces. Professor Binns would give us one or two huge assignments to spread out over the entire summer. Shoving my papers off to the side once I'd written a little more, I glanced back down at the assignment.

Witch Burning in the Fourteenth Century Was Completely Pointless - Discuss.

Of course witch burning was pointless. Witches and wizards were able to use the Flame Freezing Charm. It was no big deal for them. It was actually just awful for the Muggles. They were the ones that actually died. It was one of their less impressive moments. Grabbing my parchment back, I started to scribble out the final piece of my essay. Once I was sure that it was done, I nodded to myself. The last thing that I wanted to do was check and make sure that I had the right name. So I pushed the papers off to the side, rolled up my parchment, and grabbed my History of Magic textbook, reading quickly.

Non-magic people (more commonly known as Muggles) were particularly afraid of magic in medieval times, but not very good at recognizing it. On the rare occasion that they did catch a real witch or wizard, burning had no effect whatsoever. The witch or wizard would perform a basic Flame Freezing Charm and then pretend to shriek with pain while enjoying a gentle, tickling sensation. Indeed, Wendelin the Weird enjoyed being burned so much that she allowed herself to be caught no less than forty-seven times in various disguises.

But what were the dates? I was sure that I was missing one of them. I glanced up at Dad and saw that the phone was sitting on the edge of the couch. "Can you toss me the phone?" I asked him.

Dad glanced up at me and raised a brow. He threw the phone at me anyways, and I caught it, quickly dialing Hermione's number. "It's almost midnight. Who are you calling?" Dad asked.

"Hermione. Trust me, she'll still be up doing homework," I told them both.

There was no doubt in my mind that Hermione would still be awake. She never really liked going to bed early, as she always felt that there was more studying to be done. I knew that she spent most of her time over the summer studying and doing her homework. Not that it surprised me. It didn't surprise her parents either. They thought that it was sweet that their daughter loved the Wizarding World and all of its - admittedly - very fascinating history. The phone connected and I waited for her to answer.

It was three rings before I heard the receiver click. "Hello?" Hermione's voice answered.

She didn't sound tired, just confused, probably as to why someone was calling her this late. "Hey, Mione," I said.

Her voice almost immediately brightened when she realized who it was. "Hey, Tara. It's late. What's up?" she asked me.

Grabbing my paperwork, I pulled it in front of myself and started going over it. "I wanted to ask you about the homework that we got from Professor Binns -" I started to say before her angry voice cut over me.

"Absolutely not!" Hermione cried shrilly. I opened my mouth to tell her that I didn't want her to write it for me, but she continued to speak. "Ron already asked me if I would write his."

Rolling my eyes to myself, I sat upright on the couch and spoke before she could continue. "I'm not asking you if you'll write it, I just want to know if you remembered the date that -"

"Goodnight, Tara. You should be getting a letter from me soon," Hermione interrupted, effectively ending the conversation.

Sighing softly, I nodded, despite the fact that she couldn't see me. "Night, Mione," I said. I brought the phone away from my ear and clicked it off, tossing it back down onto the couch beside me.

"That sounded useful," Dad said.

Glancing over at him, I rolled my eyes and tossed the phone back to him. "Please, she's useless. She keeps thinking that all I want to do is use her essay. I don't, I just wanted her to confirm something for me," I growled, munching on another one of my Sugar Quills. "Whatever. I'll do it myself," I spoke through the candy.

Cracking the Sugar Quill, I began to scribble at the bottom of the page once more. "Didn't you learn about the Salem Witch Trials in Ilvermorny?" Dad asked me.

I nodded at him. It was one of the first things that we learned, since even Muggle-Born's knew a little bit about them. "We learned about them in Hogwarts, too. But you know how dreadfully boring Professor Binns is. That's not a real class. It's the perfect time to take a nap," I told them, wishing almost immediately that I hadn't. I always got in trouble for saying things like that.

But, to my surprise, neither Mom nor Dad seemed bothered at my remark. "She makes a fair point," Dad said.

Mom had been sporting a little frown on her face, but it quickly dissolved and she nodded slowly. "I suppose that I slept through a few History of Magic classes," she muttered.

Grinning at Dad, I leaned over and glanced back at my nearly-finished essay. I dipped my Thunderbird quill back into the pot of ink and began scribbling once more. For a long time I simply wrote back and forth, using my Vanishing Ink to take away the few mistakes that I had made, while listening to Mom and Dad walk back and forth throughout the house. I was glad that they didn't want to go to bed yet, because I didn't want to have to move upstairs. There wasn't enough room.

Almost immediately, I felt very guilty for complaining. I could only assume that Harry was having a terrible time trying to do his homework. He must have been hiding underneath his sheets, balancing everything, as he tried to do his homework. That was the way that he had to do all of his work this summer. If he didn't, I could only imagine that he would find himself locked in the cupboard under the stairs for the rest of the summer. The place that had been his bedroom two years ago. They had only moved him out of the cupboard under the stairs because they were terrified that he would light the house on fire or something akin to that if they didn't move him.

The Dursley family of Number Four, Privet Drive, were the reason that Harry was one of the few people alive that never enjoyed their summer holidays. Vermin, Horse-Face, and their son, Dudley, were Harry's only living relatives. Even though we should have been counted... They were Muggles, and they had a very medieval attitude toward magic. Dumbledore was still telling my parents that Harry was safer with the Muggles, so it meant that he had to suffer during the breaks. It had been rather funny before Harry had known that he was a wizard. Vermin and Horse-Face would try so hard to stamp the magic out of him.

Little did they know that if Harry had repressed his powers for too long, he would have become an Obscurus. And that would have really been a problem. To their fury, and my relief, they had been unsuccessful. These days they lived in terror of anyone finding out that Harry - and their neighbor - had spent most of the last two years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The most they could do, however, was to lock away Harry's spell books, wand, cauldron, and broomstick at the start of the summer break, and forbid him to talk to the neighbors - myself being the only exception, seeing that I'd threatened to tell the neighbors all about our magical school if they didn't let me over.

Despite being able to see Harry, we were not allowed to mention magic or do any schoolwork while under the Dursley roof. It meant that we could only do it at mine. And Harry was given so many chores - that I offered to help him with most of the time - that we normally spent most of our time at the Dursley household. This separation from his spell books had been a real problem for Harry, because his teachers at Hogwarts had given him a lot of holiday work.

There were lots of ways that this could become an issue. One of the essays, a particularly nasty one about Shrinking Potions - which were extraordinarily complicated - was for my absolute least favorite teacher - besides the old Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart - Professor Snape, who would be delighted to have an excuse to give Harry detention for a month. I did feel terrible for him. Snape hated Harry more than anything else - bar me - and he would love to get Harry expelled. He'd been trying since day one.

Because of all of this, Harry and I had seized our chance in the first week of the holidays. There was a trellis on the outside of Harry's room that was easy for me to climb up. That was how I'd been sneaking into Harry's room for most of the nights during the holiday. Mom and Dad knew that nothing was going on in between Harry and I - they knew that we were like siblings - so they had never minded that I was doing that. They just told me not to get caught. Thankfully stealing the textbooks was a much easier prospect than sneaking into the Dursley household in the middle of the night without magic.

It had been the middle of the day. Vermin, Horse-Face, and Dudley had gone out into the front garden to admire Vermin's new company car one day - which really wasn't that nice - and that was when we had taken our chance. It was easy to know when they were going to come back inside. They were talking in very loud voices, so that the rest of the street would notice the new car too. Harry and I had crept downstairs, picked the lock on the cupboard under the stairs, grabbed some of his books, and gone back upstairs to hide them in his bedroom. As long as he didn't leave spots of ink on the sheets, the Dursley's need never know that he was studying magic by night.

For the most part, I'd been trying to keep Harry company for as much as I could. He was essentially cut off from the magical world during the holidays and I knew that he got incredibly bored. Plus having the Dursley's constantly breathing down your neck was awful. It was why I had started sneaking into his room. For the days that they wouldn't let me into their home to see Harry, I would sneak in at night to talk and try and remind him that we were almost back at Hogwarts. Just a few more weeks to go.

Coming from upstairs, there was another little clink. Something kept hitting against one of the windows. I'd been hearing it for the past few minutes. "What is that noise?" Mom asked me.

Shrugging my shoulders, I rolled up all of my things and flipped off of the front of the couch. Mom glared at me, probably thinking that I was going to break my neck. Not that she wouldn't have been able to fix it. "Probably Harry throwing rocks at the window. I'll see you both later," I said, grabbing my things and heading towards the staircase.

Mom and Dad were now both looking at me. "They haven't locked him back downstairs, have they?" Mom asked me sharply.

She really did hate the Dursley's, considering everything that they did to Harry, but on Dumbledore's orders, she said nothing. "No, but they're not letting him use his spell books. He had to steal them back from the cupboard. He's probably either bored or confused. I assume that he's studying," I told them both.

"Invite him over tomorrow," Mom ordered me.

That was an obvious one. I brought Harry around as much as I possibly could. "Will do. Goodnight, guys!" I called out to them, turning to head upstairs.

"Goodnight darling," Mom called.

"Night sweetheart," Dad said.

Once they had waved me off, I turned and darted up the stairs. I was barely halfway up before Dad had the television back on. It sounded like it was on the news stations. Sounded like they were reporting on some criminal. I dashed up the stairs and headed into my bedroom. Gently I closed the door behind me and crossed the large room. As expected, Harry was throwing rocks at my window to try and get my attention. He was sitting on the ledge of his own window. I smiled at him and forced the window up. It had been getting stuck lately. Once it was open, I took a seat on the bench attached to my window.

The both of us shifted so that we were facing each other. The houses weren't that far from each other, so we didn't even have to shout. "I saw all of the lights on and figured that you would be awake," Harry said.

I nodded at him. "I was. Just doing some of the homework," I told him. He nodded at me. I had been right in assuming that he had been doing his homework, too. He was probably either having a problem or got bored. "You get another call from Ron?" I teased.

The two of us both laughed. It had been quite something the last time that Ron had called. Actually, it was the first and only time that anyone had called Harry. It was one of the funniest things that I had seen all summer. But it was also the reason that Harry was particularly keen to avoid trouble with his aunt and uncle. The past few weeks, they had been in an especially bad mood with him - even more so than usual - all because he'd received a telephone call from a fellow wizard one week into the school vacation.

Ron Weasley, who was one of Harry and I's best friends at Hogwarts, came from a whole family of wizards. He was one of the few genuinely Pureblooded wizarding families in the English Wizarding World. He was part of the Sacred Twenty-Nine, something that my family was also a part of. This meant that he knew a lot of things Harry didn't, sine he, like me, had grown up around wizards, but he had never used a telephone before. I'd tried to explain to it how telephones worked, but he still didn't seem to understand that the distance didn't matter. Most unluckily it had been Vermin who had answered the call.

"Vernon Dursley speaking."

It was only a week into the summer so the Dursley's hadn't found any reason to hate me and keep me out of their house yet. Plus Dudley, who had had a crush on me for years, liked to have me over. So I'd been over to tell Harry all about the new prototype broom that I had seen in Quality Quidditch Supplies a few days prior, when we'd heard who had been calling. The two of us had frozen in our tracks, and if Vermin hadn't been quite such a hothead, I knew that we both would have laughed.

"Hello? Hello? Can you hear me? I - want - to - talk - to - Harry - Potter!"

Ron was yelling so loudly that Vermin jumped and held the receiver a foot away from his ear, staring at it with an expression of mingled fury and alarm. We both had gone and stared at each other. I had explained to Ron that he didn't need to yell, but he didn't seem to understand that the distance made no difference. That was the point of a telephone. He had been accentuating every word with a piercing yell. It had even been heard over at my house. Mom and Dad had both heard and had asked me later about what had happened.

"Who is this? Who are you?" Vermin roared in the direction of the mouthpiece.

It was pretty clear that he was too afraid to put the receiver back on his ear. I leaned over to Harry, trying to suppress a smile. "Maybe we should have taught him how to use a telephone first," I whispered, not that I needed to.

It was almost impossible to hear anything over Ron's shouts. "Yeah," Harry said, looking very pale.

"Ron - Weasley!" Ron bellowed back, as though he and Vermin were speaking from opposite ends of a football field. "I'm - a - friend - of - Harry's - from - school!"

The two of us had been laughing quietly up until that comment. We'd stared at each other before paling and looking back towards Vermin. I loved Ron, but sometimes he really didn't think. He should have known not to mention that he went to Hogwarts. He knew just how much the Dursley's hated everything and anything having to do with magic. To our complete horror, Vermin's small eyes swiveled around to Harry and I, as we were both rooted to the spot. Vermin whipped back to the phone.

"There is no Harry Potter here!" he roared, now holding the receiver at arm's length, as though frightened it might explode. "I don't know what you're talking about! Never contact me again! Don't you come near my family!"

Both Harry and I had tried to move forward to diffuse the tension or to try and explain to Ron that you didn't scream during a telephone conversation, but we hadn't gotten the chance. Before we could stop him, Vermin threw the receiver back onto the telephone as if dropping a poisonous spider. It hadn't taken long for the two of us to back off, knowing that the phone call wouldn't go over well. And we were right, because the fight that had followed had been one of the worst ever – of the ones that I had heard, at least.

Vermin rounded on Harry. "How dare you give this number to people like - people like you!" he roared, disgusting spraying Harry and I with spit.

As per usual, I was unable to stop myself from saying something stupid. "Excuse you! I'm like him!" I shouted.

That hadn't worked out like I'd planned for it to. Vermin had been so furious that I'd broken the rules of his household and mentioned something about magic that he had grabbed me by the top of my shirt - something that had made Harry furious - and threw me out of the house. I hadn't been allowed back for two weeks. That was what had led to me having to sneak into the Dursley household in the middle of the night. It had also let me to spending a lot of time with Cedric, mostly spent complaining. I was glad that he thought that our adventures with the Dursley's were funny, rather than annoyed that I spent our time together angered over things that I couldn't change.

It hadn't stopped Cedric from inviting me over. We saw each other at least twice a week these days. On the other hand, Ron had obviously realized that he'd gotten Harry into trouble, because he hadn't called again. Instead, he'd been writing me and telling me to tell Harry that he was sorry. He was settling with writing. Hermione and I called quite a bit, but she hadn't been in touch with Harry. She had told me that Ron had warned her not to call. It was rather silly though, because Hermione had Muggle parents, knew perfectly well how to use a telephone, and would probably have had enough sense not to say that she went to Hogwarts.

They'd just been telling me the occasional thing to forward to Harry. I assumed that they didn't want to start risking writing letters and getting bars on Harry's window all over again. I still felt terrible though. I could go back and forth visiting everyone and write to them regularly. But Harry had essentially had no word from any of his other friends for five weeks, and for him this summer was turning out to be almost as bad as the last one. At least we were able to hang out together. As he'd said before, he would have lost his mind a long time ago if I hadn't been around. It was too bad that the Dursley's wouldn't let him come with me more often.

There was just one very small improvement from the summer before. After swearing that he wouldn't use her to send letters to any of his friends, Harry had been allowed to let his owl, Hedwig, out at night. She would frequently come over to my house to see Dai. Other times she would fly as far as she could before coming back after a few days. Vermin had only given in because of the racket Hedwig made if she was locked in her cage all the time. It didn't help that he couldn't send letters, but at least Hedwig was happier these days.

"Thankfully Ron hasn't tried to call again," Harry told me, distracting my thoughts.

I hadn't thought that he would try and call again. Besides, he was in Egypt right now. He didn't really have that much time to write. "At least this time you know that they still care about you," I told him with a small smile.

Last summer was not a good one for Harry. A house-elf named Dobby had stopped the letters that Harry was getting from Ron, Hermione, and Hagrid; it had left him thinking that I was the only person that still cared for Harry. I had felt so terribly for him, mostly because they'd all been writing to me normally. We had found out later that Dobby had only been trying to keep Harry away from the school because of a plot to bring back Lord Voldemort - the worst Dark Wizard of all time. But we had stopped him, and after a very eventful school year, I was very glad to have not seen any signs of Dobby this summer - even as sweet as he was.

Harry nodded at me, scratching at the wood on the windowsill. "I know, Tara. And I don't want you to feel bad and stop doing what you're doing," he told me. I sighed. I'd been trying to stay at home lately because I felt so guilty about leaving him alone. "I'm just so bored. Hogwarts might be dangerous and all that, but at least it's entertaining."

Smiling slightly, I nodded. "Trust me, being home is nice, but Hogwarts is a lot more fun. I called Hermione earlier," I said, trying to change the topic. "She must be sending letters sometime soon."

"What'd you call her for?" Harry asked me.

Shrugging my shoulders, I tossed him a Chocolate Frog. He collected the cards and hadn't had any Wizarding World food lately. So from time to time I would give him something. "Couldn't remember what year the Salem Witch Trials started. I know that I can find it in the books, I just didn't want to look," I explained.

"Thanks for the Chocolate Frog," Harry said. I smiled at him and watched as he unwrapped it to eat. "You've got to love Professor Binns and his homework," he continued, holding up his parchment rolls.

"That's nothing compared to Professor McGonagall," I said.

We both laughed at that. As much as I did love Professor McGonagall - the Head of Gryffindor House and Transfiguration teacher - she was very strict and loved homework. "That's true. And all of Snape's things," Harry added.

Groaning softly, I nodded. Severus Snape was the Potions teacher and the Head of Slytherin House. He also happened to hate Harry and I more than anyone else in the school. He loved giving us so much homework over the summer that it was nearly impossible to remember that we had other work. Thankfully Mom had helped me with much of it. Although I was still only half-done. And that wasn't even to mention that I hadn't finished my Transfiguration or Charms homework yet.

"I'll be nearly dead by the time that I finish all of his homework," I moaned.

His wasn't particularly long, but he always gave the most complicated homework. "I'm still convinced that he gave us more homework than anyone else. You know that it's something that he would do," Harry told me.

Honestly, with Harry and I being his most hated students, I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd purposely given us more homework than anyone else. But Ron and Hermione had both told me about their progress with the homework, and it sounded like they have been given the same amount. I leaned over to the floor and picked up another Sugar Quill. Mom and Dad were convinced that I had a problem since I seemed to always be eating one.

They were just good to eat without gaining weight. "Of course he would," I told Harry. We sat in silence for a moment before I grinned brightly. "So what do you want to do for your birthday tomorrow?" I asked.

Harry glanced up at me, seemingly surprised that I had remembered his birthday. Of course I had. He was my best friend. I never forgot his birthday. That meant everything to me. "I don't know, Tara," he muttered.

He always had hated his birthday, since I was the only person that ever remembered it. But we were going to do something. Mom and Dad had already asked me what we were going to do, but I hadn't figured it out yet. "We're doing something, Harry," I demanded. He smiled weakly at me. I thought about it for a moment before settling on something simple. "I know! Come over and I'll harass Mom and Dad into bringing us somewhere," I said brightly. He could pick.

Just as I had been expecting him to do, he shook his head at me. "It's really okay, Tara. We don't have to do anything and your parents don't have to do anything for me. They've done enough. That trip to the United States two weeks ago was incredible," he told me, a wistful smile on his face.

Two weeks ago the Dursley's had finally taken that trip to Majorca that they had been wanting for so long. They had been planning on leaving him with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady that lived down the street, but Mom and Dad had offered to take Harry and let him stay with us. They wouldn't even have to pay us anything to keep him. Plus, it kept him out of their hair. They hadn't wanted to leave him with us, considering what we were, but Mrs. Figg wanted payment, no one in their family wanted to take Harry, and they were too nervous to leave him at home alone, so they'd conceded.

They had been gone for a week so it had been our perfect opportunity to take Harry to the States with us. We'd gone all over the place. We'd returned to my previous home in Florida where we'd shown him the place that I had grown up in. Since my family was on good terms with Algibert Fontaine, we'd even brought him on a brief tour of Ilvermorny where he'd met my old friends. Ellie and Morena had been fascinated to meet Harry and had been very sweet with him. Michael, David, and Justin had kept Harry company while I'd gone off with the girls to chat about Cedric. They'd promised that they would drop by and visit sometime this summer.

On our second day we'd gone to show Harry the Magical Congress of the United States of America. He had been absolutely fascinated. He'd never been to the Ministry of Magic, and I was glad, considering that the Congress was much nicer than the Ministry. It was much younger than the Ministry, too. Harry had been fascinated as we'd walked back and forth, explaining the entire history to him. I was very glad to see that he wasn't bored. In fact, he looked like he'd never been having so much fun.

The rest of the trip to the States had been spent doing typical Muggle things. While we were visiting the Magical Congress, we'd brought Harry on a tour of our favorite places in New York City. He had really loved the Grand Canyon and we'd been sure to take lots of pictures. We'd spent two days in Washington D.C. Despite the fact that Harry didn't love history, he did enjoy learning about the history of the place that I had once called home. Plus there were a few magical museums. We had also visited New Orleans, San Diego, Miami, Los Angeles, Yosemite, Seattle, Yellowstone, and Orlando. Harry had definitely gotten used to traveling by Floo Powder during our trip. We'd decided to save Apparating for until he was a little older. I was sure that he wouldn't like it.

It was rather cute now that we were home. We had always had pictures up all over the house. But now, most of them had Harry in them. "They love you. Shut up," I told him. Harry smiled bashfully. "We'll do something tomorrow. Not like Vermin and Horse-Face will do anything for you. I'll give you my present in the morning. It's too big to toss over," I said.

"Thanks, Tara," Harry said bashfully.

"You're always getting me something for my birthday. I get to repay the favor." He smiled at me and nodded. "Come on. We'll do the homework together," I told him.

It had also been funny the moment that the Dursley's had gotten back home. We'd hidden the many things that Harry had gotten during the trip. They had been walking around, gloating about how wonderful Majorca had been. Dudley had made quite a few little comments about how Harry had never known what it was like to take a vacation. The two of us had given each other absolutely brilliant smiles before telling them all about the boring time that we'd had doing our homework.

Together, Harry and I did our homework, Harry finishing writing about Wendelin the Weird, while I started to describe how to differentiate between an Animagus and a Metamorphagus. It was part of the extra credit Transfiguration work. The entire time we chatted back and forth, ensuring that neither one of us would make any mistakes. From time to time we would pause to listen again. The silence in Harry's dark house was broken only by the distant, grunting snores of his enormous cousin, Dudley. The lights were no longer on downstairs, but three rooms away, I could hear Mom and Dad's television on a low volume. I raised my brow. It was almost one in the morning. They were still awake?

My eyes were starting to itch with the strain of concentration. I wasn't tired, but I knew that I couldn't write anymore. It seemed that Harry felt the same way. Maybe I'd finish this essay tomorrow night. So I replaced the top of the ink bottle and placed my homework on my bedside table, figuring that I'd start it again later. Harry had a much more extensive process. He had to hide all of his things under a loose floorboard under his bed. Once he had put all of his things away, he stood up, stretched, and checked the time on the luminous alarm clock on his bedside table. He seemed to be startled about something.

"Tired?" I asked him.

Harry nodded, yawning once more. "Always. I can only do the homework at night, so it's exhausting," he told me irritably.

We might have had more homework at Hogwarts, but at least we could do it during the day. "I'm sorry about all that. Bring it over more often so that you can do it at my house, during the day," I told him.

"Next week," he said.

Glancing back at the clock once more, I smiled. "Oh, hey, congratulations, you somehow made it to thirteen," I teased.

With all of the times that we nearly died, it was rather impressive that we'd somehow managed to make it to our Third Year at Hogwarts. "Think you'll manage to make it to fourteen?" Harry teased me.

There was just about three months until I turned fourteen. "We're going to find out," I said brightly.

It had always made me feel terrible that one of the many things that made Harry unusual was the fact that he never looked forward to his birthdays. Probably because he felt like no one ever cared about them. He had never received a birthday card in his life, other than the ones that I had gotten him. He had never really had any friends other than me, and the ones that we had now never got the chance to send one last year. The Dursley's had completely ignored his last two birthdays, and there was really no reason to suppose they would remember this one.

Harry was standing to try and shake the sleep from him. I watched as he walked across the dark room, past Hedwig's large, empty cage, to the open window once more. He leaned on the sill and I smiled at him. We both looked up into the cool night air. It was one of the reasons that I had come to liking slipping outside to the park at night. There was a pleasant breeze on my face whenever I went walking. I glanced back at Hedwig's cage. Hedwig had apparently been absent for two nights now. Harry wasn't worried about her and neither was I. Owls were always gone for extended periods of time. That was the way that they were. But I knew that he missed her.

"She'll be back soon," I told Harry. He glanced over at me and nodded. "How long has she been gone?" I asked him, making sure that I had my timing right.

"Just two days," Harry confirmed.

It was probably that she had gone to visit someone else. "She might have gone to visit Hermione or Ron," I told him. Hedwig liked both of their houses. But Ron's was always more fun. There was other owls and more people. "Dai is off visiting Fred and George right now. He loves them since they feed him so much."

Dai had been gone almost half of the summer holidays already, visiting Fred and George. He loved being with them. I had a feeling that he was going to permanently move in with them soon. "That's half of the reason that Hedwig likes your house so much," Harry said.

Grinning slightly, I nodded. Hedwig liked having another owl to play with. Harry glanced at his own reflection, and I did the same. He had hit one of his first large growth spurts over the summer. He was still rather small and skinny for his age, but he had grown a few inches over the last year. I was jealous. He was coming up on a normal height. Even the lack of food with Dursley's hadn't stunted his growth that much. His jet-black hair was exactly as it always had been - stubbornly untidy, whatever he did to it. I had always liked it that way. His eyes were still bright green, just like Lily's, and on his forehead was a thin scar, shaped like a bolt of lightning.

He had some pretty cool things about himself. I was a little bit different. Despite the fact that we acted like brother and sister, Harry and I looked nothing alike. While he was getting to be rather tall, I hadn't grown seriously since I was eight. I still stood at just around five feet. Harry was very scrawny, but I was built more like a mix between my Mom and Dad. I had the curves that Mom had - much to my embarrassment as they were only getting gradually larger - but the muscles and lean stature of Dad. Mom said that it was a nice figure, but it felt a little stupid.

My shirts were continuously getting tighter and I really didn't want to deal with Pug-Face Parkinson thinking that I was trying to hog all of the male attention at Hogwarts. It had more than once made me want to throw in her face the fact that her boyfriend liked my Chapstick and my eyes a whole lot better than he liked anything of hers. Of course, then I would have to admit that I had been under the Polyjuice Potion to questions Draco Malfoy, and I would have to admit that while under the guise of being Parkinson, I'd also had my first kiss sprung on me. Nope... Nope... Never happened. That didn't count.

I was positive that my first kiss would come at some point, but I wasn't in a rush. Plus, I knew the person that I wanted to have my kiss with. It was just a matter of whether or not that person reciprocated the feelings. I'd known Cedric for two years, but I was still unsure of his feelings for me. I wondered if he liked my eyes. They were a striking amber that glowed in the sun with little hints of blue. My hair had lightened with all of the time that I'd been spending in the sun and it was now getting more towards Dad's nearly white-blonde. It still hung straight all the way down my back. Mom was threatening to cut it if it got any longer. I'd have to cut it to my shoulder blades soon anyways. Playing Quidditch with super-long hair was too hard.

Glancing at Harry, I noticed that he was coming to the top of his floor-length mirror. "You need to stop growing. Every time that I see you, you're getting taller," I told Harry, a little whine evident in my voice.

"I'm still short," Harry said.

He was definitely shorter than Fred, George, and Ron, but he was still taller than me. Hermione, too. Although she was getting taller. "I'm barely five feet tall. I should be three inches taller than I am! Even Hermione's taller than me," I groaned. She was about four inches taller than me. "And you and Ron keep growing. I'm going to feel like Dobby sometime soon."

At that Harry grinned. Dobby was only about three feet tall. But with everyone else shooting up, that was about how I felt. "You aren't that short," Harry told me.

Glaring at him, I shook my head. "Yes I am."

"Okay, just a little bit," he conceded.

"Thanks," I deadpanned.

He gave me a bright smile and I rolled my eyes. We were acting like two perfectly normal best friends. But the truth was that we were anything but normal. And not just because we were magical. The Dursley's may have pretended for ten years that James and Lily Potter had been killed in a car crash, but that was not what had happened. They had been murdered by the most feared Dark wizard for a hundred years, Lord Voldemort. Harry had escaped from the same attack with nothing more than a scar on his forehead, where Voldemort's curse, instead of killing him, had rebounded upon its originator. Barely alive, Voldemort had fled. In some ways, I was grateful that it had happened this way. Because he had been coming for my parents next...

In my life, I had met Voldemort two times. Each time we had been lucky enough to walk away from the fight. But I had a feeling that we wouldn't always be so lucky. One of the things that unnerved me the most was that Voldemort seemed to know me. He seemed to care a little bit about me. But the problem was that he had never told me what I meant to him. There were so many secrets that surrounded my life. They included the mystery man in my dreams, the person that was sending me the black ribbon-wrapped boxes with notes, the reason why I meant something to Voldemort, how he knew me, and why I was a Parselmouth were just a few.

It seemed that every year we were only given more things to make our lives even harder. Voldemort had wanted to kill Harry as repentance for him destroying Voldemort in the first place, all of those years ago. The more bothersome part was why I kept getting sucked into these meetings. I had nothing to do with him. Did I? That was the major question. Remembering the last meeting with both Tom Riddle's memory and the battle with the Basilisk with a shiver, as I sat at the dark window, I had to admit that Harry was lucky even to have reached his thirteenth birthday, and I'd be lucky to reach my fourteenth.

Trying to brush off the memory of my leg appearing like it had gone through a meat grinder after being attacked by the Basilisk, I glanced off in the distance. I scanned the starry sky for any sign of Hedwig or Dai, perhaps soaring back to me with a dead mouse dangling from Dai's beak, expecting praise. He tended to like killing them. Snakes, too. On my order, he left rabbits alone. Gazing absently over the rooftops, it was a few seconds before I realized what I was seeing.

Obviously Harry had just spotted it, too. "Whose is that?" Harry asked.

Straining to see the owls, I rolled my eyes. I should have figured which owl it would be. "Errol, I'd assume. Looks like two owls are having to carry him," I told Harry.

Silhouetted against the golden moon, and growing larger every moment, was a large, strangely lopsided creature, and it was flapping in Harry's direction. The two of us stood quite still, watching it sink lower and lower. Harry looked like he was about to take the window and slam it, but I shook my head. He might as well just let them in. They'd only tap at the window with their beaks until he let them in if he closed it. Owls were patient. Harry let go of the latch and leapt aside.

Watching closely, Harry flipped on the bedside lamp. It wasn't enough to wake the Dursley's, but it was enough so that we could watch what was happening in each other's bedrooms. Through the opened window soared three owls, two of them holding up the third, which appeared to be unconscious. They landed on Harry's bed, and the middle owl, which was large and gray, keeled right over and lay motionless. There was a large package tied to its legs.

"Is it Errol?" I asked.

Harry nodded at me. "Yeah. He's got one for you, too," Harry called me.

I was about to ask Harry to send Errol over to me, but I thought better of it. "Don't send him with it. Just throw the letter. Actually, send it with that one," I said, motioning to a tawny owl.

Harry nodded at me. He took away three letters and handed it off to the third owl. It was the only one of the two that I had never seen before. I didn't recognize the thing, but it was a handsome tawny one. I knew at once where it had come from. The owl was no one's that I knew so that meant that it must have been from Hogwarts. I knew all of my friends' owls. Harry handed the letters off to the owl and it ruffled its feathers importantly before flying over to me. I thanked it, grabbed the letters, handed the owl a treat, and watched at it flew off into the night. It gave a thankful hoot before disappearing in the darkness.

"Thank you!" I called after the owl.

Grabbing the letters, I spread them out over the stoop at the window, not wanting to move too far away from Harry. I had been right about it being from Hogwarts. It was bearing the seal of the school and had Professor McGonagall's typical bright green ink across the front. The other letters were spread out on the bed next to the one from Hogwarts. I'd read the one from school later. The others were from Hermione and Ron. She had been right about a letter from her showing up soon.

Pushing my letters off to the side for now, I glanced into Harry's room. The owl that was laying on his bed was still unconscious. Harry and I exchanged a look at the pathetic thing. It was indeed Errol, and he belonged to the Weasley family. He was very old and very pathetic. Harry dashed to the bed, untied the cords around Errol's legs, took off the parcel, and then carried Errol to Hedwig's cage. Errol opened one bleary eye, gave a feeble hoot of thanks, and began to gulp some water. I was sure that the owl was going to die at any given moment.

Harry turned back to the remaining owl. The large snowy female was his own Hedwig. She, too, was carrying a parcel and looked extremely pleased with herself. She gave Harry an affectionate nip with her beak as he removed her burden, then flew across the yard. I smiled at her as she swooped into my room. She gave me an affectionate nudge and nip, I ruffled her feathers sweetly, fed her a few treats, and watched as she flew back to Harry. She immediately went to her cage to join Errol.

Once he was sure that Errol was okay, Harry sat down on his bed and grabbed Errol's package. He was holding the thing so that I could see it as he moved onto the ledge. He ripped off the brown paper, and discovered a present wrapped in gold, and his first ever birthday card that wasn't from me. He opened the envelope, showing me. Two pieces of paper fell out - a letter and a newspaper clipping. The clipping had clearly come out of the wizarding newspaper, the Daily Prophet, because the people in the black-and-white picture were moving.

I looked a little closer and smiled. As Harry opened his own letter, I looked over and glanced at mine. Slitting open the envelope from Ron, I saw that I had the same thing. I had a letter that was written in Ron's untidy scrawl, and the same piece from the Daily Prophet. I laughed and shook my head. I'd already seen this one, but I did like it. It was currently hanging up in my bedroom over my desk. I picked up the clipping, smoothed it out, and read it again.

Ministry of Magic Employee Scoops Grand Prize

Arthur Weasley, Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office at the Ministry of Magic, has won the annual Daily Prophet Grand Prize Galleon Draw. A delighted Mr. Weasley told the Daily Prophet, "We will be spending the gold on a summer holiday in Egypt, where our eldest son, Bill, works as a curse breaker for Gringotts Wizarding Bank." The Weasley family will be spending a month in Egypt, returning for the start of the new school year at Hogwarts, which five of the Weasley children currently attend.

Even from here, I could see him smiling brightly. "I meant to tell you about that earlier. Saw it in the Prophet yesterday," I told Harry once I was sure that he had finished reading.

"That's great for them," Harry said.

We were both glad for them. "They needed it. It's been a long time since they were all able to take a vacation together. I don't think they've ever been able to take a vacation together," I said.

Looking back down at the page, I scanned the moving photograph, and a grin spread across my face as I saw all nine of the Weasley's waving furiously at me, standing in front of a large pyramid. It was sweet seeing all of them together. Plump little Mrs. Weasley was standing in the middle of the photograph with her arm around Ginny. Ron was on Mrs. Weasley's other side, his pet rat, Scabbers, in his hands. Fred and George were on either side of the picture, giving stupid smiles. Percy, Charlie, and Mr. Weasley were in the background, all looking thrilled. Bill was standing in the very background and smiling proudly. Even though the picture didn't show it, they all had flaming red hair.

It was wonderful that the Weasley's had won. It would have been miserable to see a family like the Malfoy's win seven hundred Galleons. They had more money than they knew what to do with. I couldn't think of anyone who deserved to win a large pile of gold more than the Weasley's, who were very nice and extremely poor. They probably should have kept most of the money that they had won, but they also deserved to take a vacation, which they could never afford anyways. I saw Harry pick up Ron's letter and unfold it.

"What's yours say?" I asked, curiosity getting the best of me.

It says, 'Dear Harry,

"Happy birthday!

"Look, I'm really sorry about that telephone call. I hope the Muggles didn't give you a hard time. I asked Dad, and he reckons I shouldn't have shouted.

"It's amazing here in Egypt. Bill's taken us around all the tombs and you wouldn't believe the curses those old Egyptian wizards put on them. Mum wouldn't let Ginny come in the last one. There were all these mutant skeletons in there, of Muggles who'd broken in and grown extra heads and stuff.

"I couldn't believe it when Dad won the Daily Prophet Draw. Seven hundred galleons! Most of it's gone on this trip, but they're going to buy me a new wand for next year."

The moment that Harry had told me that part, I'd laughed loudly. So had he. I remembered only too well the occasion when Ron's old wand had snapped. Not only had Dobby gotten us an underage wizardry warning, but he had also closed the barrier so that we were going to miss the Hogwarts Express. As we'd been the last ones to go through, we had panicked and taken the old Flying Ford Anglia that Mr. Weasley had taken and enchanted off to Hogwarts. It had died on the way there and we had crashed the car into the Whomping Willow - a tree on the Hogwarts grounds that happened to hit back.

Once we had stopped laughing, he then continued speaking. "We'll be back about a week before term starts and we'll be going up to London to get my wand and our new books. Any chance of meeting you there?

"Don't let the Muggles get you down!

"Try and come to London,
"Ron.

"PS. Percy's Head Boy. He got the letter last week."

He stopped speaking and I smiled. That was all nice. And we should have figured that Percy was going to be the Head Boy. He wanted to be the Minister for Magic, for Merlin's sake. "That's all good and well," I said.

Harry nodded at me and motioned for me to read mine aloud. We normally read our letters to each other unless it was from someone that we wanted to keep private. But there were very few things that we actually wanted to keep from each other. I plucked Ron's letter from the pile and opened it. My letter seemed to be longer than Harry's. Clearing my throat, I moved so that my legs were dangling out of the window. The weather was absolutely lovely tonight.

"Dear Tara,

"Everyone says hello. They miss you a lot. I miss you, too. Fred and George have been hidden away in their room a lot lately. So, be warned about them. I'm sure that they'll try to do something terrible to you the next time that you come around. Ginny's going to send you a letter soon. I think she misses talking to a girl. I'm sure not going to listen to her crush on Harry. Mum's invited you and yours to dinner sometime soon, by the way. She wants to talk. Sounded like some adult thing.

"How's Harry doing with the Muggles? You should have told me that you don't shout into the phone. It really doesn't make any sense how that works without magic, honestly. They're not giving him too hard of a time, are they? I asked Dad all about telephones afterwards, and he reckons I shouldn't have shouted. Weird things, Muggles.

"It's amazing here in Egypt. You and Hermione would love it. Bill's taken us around all the tombs and you wouldn't believe the curses those old Egyptian wizards put on them. Mum wouldn't let Ginny come in the last one. There were all these mutant skeletons in there, of Muggles who'd broken in and grown extra heads and stuff.I know that Ginny was upset that she couldn't come in. But she might not have liked it. It was a little creepy. Percy was fascinated.

"I couldn't believe it when Dad won the Daily Prophet Draw. Seven hundred galleons! Wish they would have let me have at it in Quality Quidditch Supplies. Most of it's gone on this trip, but they're going to buy me a new wand for next year. How was the trip to the States? Did Harry get to go with you? Hope he did.

"Anyways, we're getting the Hogwarts letters soon. Did you get yours yet? We'll be back about a week before term starts and we'll be going up to London to get my wand and our new books. Any chance of meeting the two of you there?

"Try and come to London,
"Ron.

"PS. Percy's Head Boy. He got the letter last week."

Harry nodded at me and I noticed that he glanced back at the photograph. I did as well. Percy, who was in his Seventh and final year at Hogwarts, was looking particularly smug. I rolled my eyes. Percy was a nice guy and he meant well, but he could be a real ass sometimes. In the picture he had pinned his Head Boy badge to the fez perched jauntily on top of his neat hair, his horn-rimmed glasses flashing in the Egyptian sun. I wondered if Penelope Clearwater, his Ravenclaw girlfriend, had been named the Head Girl.

"Sounds like they've been having a good time," I said through the silent night.

Harry nodded his agreement. "It does," he said.

I was sure that whenever I caught up with the Weasley's, they would tell me what had happened with the Head Girl. I was sure that Percy wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut anyways. Placing the newspaper and Ron's letter off to the side, I glanced over at Harry. I saw that he had now turned to his present and unwrapped it. Inside was what looked like a miniature glass spinning top. It looked to me like it was a Sneakoscope, but I couldn't tell. There was another note from Ron beneath it.

"What'd they get you?" I asked him.

Harry read over the note a few times before glancing back up at me. He looked very confused. "Something called a Sneakoscope," he said. I nodded. I'd thought that that was what it was. "Have you heard of them?"

I nodded at him. I'd never had one before as there were so many fakes. "Yeah. They're pretty useful if it's a real one. They sell a whole bunch of fake ones all over the world," I told him.

"This is what the letter said," Harry told me. I nodded as he spoke.

"Harry,

"This is a Pocket Sneakoscope. If there's someone untrustworthy around, it's supposed to light up and spin. Bill says it's rubbish sold for wizard tourists and isn't reliable, because it kept lighting up at dinner last night. But he didn't realize Fred and George had put beetles in his soup.

"Bye,
"Ron."

Laughing softly, I nodded. That would probably be the reason that the Sneakoscope had been whirring. I wondered how no one had figured that with the twins in the house, it was bound to be constantly spinning. "Well that would make sense," I said through a laugh.

Leave it to the twins to do something terrible to their loving brother. Harry put the Pocket Sneakoscope on his bedside table, where it stood quite still, balanced on its point, reflecting the luminous hands of his clock. We exchanged a little look. Maybe it did work, after all. It was hard to tell which ones were genuinely real and which ones were just tourist junk. He looked at it happily for a few seconds, then picked up the parcel Hedwig had brought. Inside this, too, there was a wrapped present, a card, and a letter. I assumed that this time, it was from Hermione.

It looked like the loopy handwriting that Hermione had. "Get a letter from Hermione?" I asked him.

He nodded with a fond smile over his mouth. "More like a novel," he said.

Splitting the letter open that I had received from Hermione, I smiled. It was very like her to send long letters. Mine was on a full piece of parchment. "Me, too. What's yours say?" I asked.

"Dear Harry,

"Ron wrote to me and told me about his phone call to your Uncle Vernon. I do hope you're all right.

"I'm on holiday in France at the moment and I didn't know how I was going to send this to you. What if they'd opened it at customs? But then Hedwig turned up! I think she wanted to make sure you got something for your birthday for a change. I bought your present by owl-order; there was an advertisement in the Daily Prophet (I've been getting it delivered; it's so good to keep up with what's going on in the wizarding world). Did you see that picture of Ron and his family a week ago? I bet he's learning loads. I'm really jealous - the ancient Egyptian wizards were fascinating.

"There's some interesting local history of witchcraft here, too. I've rewritten my whole History of Magic essay to include some of the things I've found out. I hope it's not too long - it's two rolls of parchment more than Professor Binns asked for.

"Ron says he's going to be in London in the last week of the holidays. Can you make it? Will your aunt and uncle let you come? I really hope you can. If not, I'll see you on the Hogwarts Express on September first!

"Love from,
"Hermione

"PS. Ron says Percy's Head Boy. I'll bet Percy's really pleased. Ron doesn't seem too happy about it."

I was with Hermione on the wanting to go to Egypt thing. It was nice that she got to go on holiday to France. I'd never been but Mom and Dad had told me that it was nice. "That's sweet of her," I said, referring to her getting him something.

Harry nodded. But before he opened the present from her, he looked at me. "What's yours say?" he asked.

"Dear Tara,

"How's Harry doing? Ron was saying that he hasn't tried to get back into contact with Harry since the whole phone call. How's he doing? His aunt and uncle aren't treating him too badly, are they? I wish that I could have called first.

"We miss you around here. Mum and Dad want you to drop by one day. How was that trip to the States with Harry? I hope you both had fun. I'd love to go one day. I hear that the Magical Congress is really impressive. It's in New York, isn't it?

"I'm on holiday in France at the moment. It's really nice to be out here. Have you been seeing anyone else from school? I ran into Padma and Parvati Patil in the Muggle mall not long ago, but that's it. How have your visits with Cedric Diggory been? I want to hear all about them on the Hogwarts Express. In the meantime, did you see that picture of Ron and his family a week ago? I bet he's learning loads. I'm really jealous - the ancient Egyptian wizards were fascinating.

"There's some interesting local history of witchcraft here, too. I've rewritten my whole History of Magic essay to include some of the things I've found out. I hope it's not too long - it's two rolls of parchment more than Professor Binns asked for. I know, I know, I need to get a life. Let's push off the boyfriend talk for another year, okay?

"Ron says he's going to be in London in the last week of the holidays. Can you both make it? Will Harry's aunt and uncle let him come? Can your parents bring him with us all? I really hope that he can. You'll be there, right? If not, I'll see you on the Hogwarts Express on September first!

"Love from,
"Hermione

"PS. Ron says Percy's Head Boy. I'll bet Percy's really pleased. Ron doesn't seem too happy about it."

Harry had been smiling along with the whole letter until I had gotten to the point where she'd mentioned visiting Cedric. I grimaced, wishing that I would have bypassed that part. Or the part with getting her a boyfriend. "Do not get her a boyfriend," Harry snapped at me.

Scowling at him, I rolled my eyes and kicked my booted feet up on the windowsill. "You boys are pathetic. One day you'll find some girl that you like. Trust me. And I'll make sure that I'm as annoying as I possibly can be about it," I told him, meaning every word that I had said.

"I'm sure that you will," Harry said. We were silent for a few moments before he straightened up and looked at me again. "What have you been doing with Diggory?"

"Stop!" I hissed at him.

They were all so terrible when it came to Cedric. I couldn't even speak with him without hearing something about my crush on him. "You can tell me," Harry said.

"Absolutely not. Go look at your present," I snapped, knowing that he was only going to harass me about everything that we did together.

And Cedric and I had done a lot together. Not that way, of course, but we had spent a lot of time together since the holidays had begun. We had spent quite a few days in Diagon Alley together. It had become one of our favorite things to do. We liked walking back and forth and teasing each other about the things that we liked. I liked to tell him that his taste in ice cream was disgusting. Which it was. He liked weird things like strawberry and mint. He thought that I was just being a baby and not being adventurous enough.

Of course that would lead to me reminding him that I had battled a Basilisk and lived to tell the tale. He hadn't been happy to be reminded of that. So I'd settled for allowing him to buy me any flavor ice cream to try and not complain. He'd made me try pistachio, and I was ashamed to admit that it was actually rather good. He had laughed and made it very obvious that he was proud of being right. But, other than that, we liked to go and play Quidditch in his yard, and we'd even gone walking through London a few times.

It was about once or twice a week that we had seen each other since the beginning of the summer. I had missed seeing him last week - except for one family dinner - and the week before when we'd been in the States. And the family dinners were quite something. As much as I loved my parents and as nice as Amos Diggory was, those dinners were terribly embarrassing. Our parents didn't seem to think that they were saying anything wrong, but they had certainly said enough that made me blush to the roots of my hair.

More than once their conversations had made us duck out of the dinner and head to the little playground around the corner. There had been a few times that my parents had asked Cedric if there were any girls that he liked. He had looked stunned and had merely awkwardly told them that there were a few cute girls, and one that he had his eyes on, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to ask her out yet. That had led to a terribly embarrassing moment of all of the adults at the table asking him what she was like. He hadn't given away much, and everything that he had told them had been generic things, but I was sure that he wouldn't meet my eyes all night. I couldn't help but to wonder if that was because he didn't want to admit to my parents that the girl that he was crushing on, was me.

But that was wishful thinking and I didn't want to get my hopes up. So I glanced over and saw that Harry was laughing. I realized quickly that it was because my face was bright red. Snarling at him, he put Hermione's letter aside and picked up her present. Judging by his reaction, it was very heavy. Knowing Hermione, I was sure it would be a large book full of very difficult spells. That was what she liked to give us. But it wasn't. That much, I could tell. The only thing that I could see was that it was a large black case. That must have been what the owls were having such a hard time carrying.

"Wow, Hermione!" Harry whispered, unzipping the case to look inside.

The curiosity was burning in me. "What'd she get you?" I asked.

Harry looked up at me and smiled. "A Broomstick Serving Kit," he said. I smiled brightly. That was what I had gotten him last year. "Not as nice as the one that you got me, but still, this is something coming from Hermione."

They were also very expensive. It was nice of Hermione to send him something like that, knowing what Quidditch meant to him. "That's sweet of her. You'll have extras of everything that you need. What's in it?" I asked.

Harry glanced down and looked through everything that was in it. "There is a large jar of Fleetwood's High-Finish Handle Polish, a pair of gleaming silver Tail-Twig Clippers, a tiny brass compass to clip on the broom for long journeys, and a Handbook of Do-It-Yourself Broom Care," Harry told me, placing everything to the side.

It was all the normal things that came with the servicing kits, but they were all things that people needed. "Standard stuff. But still really useful," I told him with a small smile.

Apart from our friends, the one thing that I missed most about Hogwarts was Quidditch. It was the most popular sport in the magical world - highly dangerous, very exciting, and played on broomsticks. Harry and I both happened to be very good Quidditch players; we had been the youngest people in a century to be picked for one of the Hogwarts House teams. Rules had been bent for us to join. And we'd only gotten on the team because we'd broken the rules. We had been caught trying to get Neville Longbottom's Remembrall back from Draco Malfoy when Professor McGonagall had spotted us and brought us to Oliver Wood - a Seventh Year and the Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

It had all been a wonderful surprise, and the first of many times that I had thought that we were going to be expelled. Dad had been a professional player for the United States Stars up until a few years ago and he'd passed his skills down to me. I was now a reserve Chaser up until one of our current Chasers - Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, and Katie Bell - would graduate in a few years. One of Harry's most prized possessions was his Nimbus Two Thousand racing broom, since he had very few other possessions. I had plenty of things that I loved, but there were very few things that meant more to me than my Nimbus Two Thousand.

The two of us smiled at Harry put the leather case aside and picked up his last parcel. He turned it over towards me and I smiled. The writing was blurry from the distance and lack of light, but I could tell that it was from someone with very bad handwriting. And judging by that clue, I could see assume that it was from Hagrid, the Hogwarts gamekeeper. The package was merely a brown paper-bag wrapped around something. Harry tore off the top layer of paper and I leaned out of my own window slightly. It was green and leathery. Before he could unwrap it properly, the parcel gave a strange quiver, and whatever was inside it snapped loudly. I could hear it from here. It sounded as though it had jaws. Well that can't be good...

"Who's that from?" I asked.

Harry gave me the answer that I had been expecting. "Hagrid," he said weakly.

From here I could see that Harry had frozen. Hagrid was one of the nicest people that I had ever met. And I knew that Hagrid would never send Harry anything dangerous on purpose, but then, Hagrid didn't have a normal person's view of what was dangerous. Hagrid had been known to befriend giant spiders, buy vicious, three-headed dogs from men in pubs, and sneak illegal dragon eggs into his cabin. We had learned all of those through unfortunately close encounters.

Watching closely, I felt a little hint of amusement. Hagrid did send some of the funniest gifts, even if he thought that they were perfectly normal. Harry poked the parcel nervously. It snapped loudly again. He glanced over at me and I shrugged my shoulders, nodding. What was the worst that could happen? Harry reached for the lamp on his bedside table, gripped it firmly in one hand, and raised it over his head, ready to strike. Then he seized the rest of the wrapping paper in his other hand and pulled. And out fell a book. I rolled my eyes. That must have been the Monster Book of Monsters. We had it. It flipped onto its edge and scuttled sideways along the bed like some weird crab.

"Is that a book?" I called out to him.

Harry seemed to be a little bit bothered by the fact that he now had to run away from a textbook. "Uh-oh," Harry muttered.

Rolling my eyes at him, I debated on hopping over to his house to close to for him. "Stroke the spine, Harry!" He gave me a look that was if to ask me if I had lost my mind. "We have that book. That's how you get it to calm down," I explained.

"I'm not touching that thing," Harry said.

Once more I rolled my eyes at him. He was going to get bitten by it and I was going to laugh. I'd gotten bitten by the book a few times as a kind and afterwards I'd refused to ever touch it again. The book toppled off the bed with a loud clunk and shuffled rapidly across the room. Harry followed it stealthily. I was watching bemusedly, munching on yet another Sugar Quill as I watched him. I really wished that I had my camera ready. The book was hiding in the dark space under his desk. Very stupidly, Harry got down on his hands and knees and reached toward it.

I couldn't see him anymore, but I could hear him. "Ouch!" he cried.

Snorting under my breath, I leaned up so that I could see him. Just as I had been expecting, the book had snapped shut on his hand and then flapped past him, still scuttling on its covers. Harry scrambled around, threw himself forward, and managed to flatten it. Even from my house I could hear Vermin give a loud, sleepy grunt in the room next door. Hedwig and Errol were watching with vague interest as Harry clamped the struggling book tightly in his arms, hurried to his chest of drawers, and pulled out a belt, which he buckled tightly around it. The Monster Book shuddered angrily, but could no longer flap and snap, so Harry threw it down on the bed and reached for Hagrid's card.

Watching him closely, I found myself incredibly amused. If only he listened to what I had told him to do. But he never did. "I told you to stroke the spine," I told Harry as he nursed his hand.

"Shut up," Harry told me.

"What's Hagrid got to say?" I asked, spotting that he was now holding Hagrid's letter.

"Dear Harry,

"Happy birthday!

"Think you might find this useful for next year. Won't say no more here. Tell you when I see you. Hope the Muggles are treating you right.

"All the best,
"Hagrid.

Raising my eyebrows, I leaned back against the windowsill once more. "I wonder if they're changing out the Care of Magical Creatures teacher?" I asked mostly to myself. Harry gave me an inquisitive look. "That's the only reason that I could think that you would need that book. Cedric doesn't use that one."

Harry sighed and shook his head. "Wonderful. A class where we have to fight the book," he said.

I smiled. He was right about that. Although it was actually a good book, once you got the damn thing to calm down. "It's informative, if nothing else," I told him.

He nodded at me. I could tell that he was still upset about the whole Monster Book of Monsters debacle. He would probably never study for Care of Magical Creatures with that thing. It did strike me as ominous that Hagrid thought a biting book would come in useful, but it was something that I could worry about later. I could see Harry put Hagrid's card up next to Ron's and Hermione's, grinning more broadly than ever. Now there was only the letter from Hogwarts left for both of us. It was rather thicker than usual. Harry and I both slit open the envelope, pulled out the first page of parchment within, and read Professor McGonagall's notice.

Dear Miss Nox,

Please note that the new school year will begin on September the first. The Hogwarts Express will leave from King's Cross station, platform nine and three-quarters, at eleven o'clock. Third Years are permitted to visit the village of Hogsmeade on certain weekends. Please give the enclosed permission form to your parent or guardian to sign.

A list of books for next year is enclosed.

Yours sincerely,
Professor M. McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress

Despite wanting to stay quiet, even though Mom and Dad were still awake, I wiggled excitedly in my spot. I was thrilled to get to go to Hogsmeade. Legally, this year. Cedric had taken me through a secret passageway that he'd overheard Fred and George talking about last year as a birthday present for me. It had been wonderful to go and explore, but we'd had to be very careful that we weren't caught. We hadn't been down for long. But he had asked me if I'd wanted to go with him at some point this year. So... Was that a date?

It didn't matter. I was just so excited at the prospect of actually getting to go. "I'm so excited to get to go to Hogsmeade legally this year. It was gorgeous. You'll love it," I told Harry brightly.

But he didn't seem as excited as I was. "If I can go," Harry said sadly.

Harry and I pulled out the Hogsmeade permission form and looked at it. Even though my smile had brightened, I could see that he was no longer grinning. It would be wonderful to visit Hogsmeade on weekends; I had told Harry, Ron, and Hermione all about it. Harry knew it was an entirely wizarding village, and I'd mentioned all of the shops that were lining the streets, but he had never set foot there. None of them had. I knew what his issue was. How on earth was he going to persuade Vermin or Horse-Face to sign the form? They hated everything having to do with magic. He looked over at the alarm clock. I did the same. It was now two o'clock in the morning.

Knowing that he really wanted to do, and knowing what a task it would be to get one of the Dursley's to sign the form, I glanced back at him. "I'll see if Mom and Dad can sign it," I told him.

Harry nodded at me with a weak smile. "Thanks, Tara." He stood from the windowsill and motioned into his bedroom. "I'm gonna go to bed," he told me in a whisper.

He had his hands on the top of his window. "Night, Harry," I told him.

I stood from my own windowsill. "Come over tomorrow morning, alright?" he asked me.

"Sure thing."

We both got up from the windowsills and closed our windows. He shut his window curtains quickly and I saw the light go out almost immediately. Despite knowing that I should have gone to bed, I couldn't bring myself to go to bed. So I sighed and got back to my feet and crossed the room. I turned off the main light and flipped on the lamp on my bedside. I sat down with the other letters, pulled out a few rolls of parchment, and began scribbling away at my responses. I'd have to wait until Dai returned to actually send them. He should be back soon. He'd already been gone for three days. I wrote my response to Ron first.

Ron,

Tell everyone back at the Burrow that I miss them all, too. And you, too, of course. Tell Fred and George that they had damn well better stay away from me with whatever it is that they're making. I don't trust them. They sent me a letter the other day and it was something like a Stunning Spell! I couldn't move for hours. Tell Ginny that she can send me a letter whenever. I do miss her, too. Oh, come on, the crush on Harry is kind of cute. She'll outgrow it. I'll come by dinner soon. A few days maybe? The adults are always talking about something bored.

Harry's been alright with Vermin and Horse-Face (my nicknames for them) although I know that he wants to go back to Hogwarts. I do feel terribly for him. I didn't think that you'd go shouting through the telephone! You speak into it, you idiot. You don't shout. And of course they're giving him a hard time. That's what they do. Hopefully these next few weeks pass quickly.

I'm really glad that you're having a lot of fun in Egypt. Take a lot of pictures for me! I want to see everything. I wish that I could have come with you guys. Hope Bill is doing alright. How's he liking, working for Gringotts, anyways? Poor Ginny, I bet that she would have loved all of that stuff. I know that I would have. I can't believe Percy was enjoying himself. He doesn't seem to like Dark Magic.

You guys have the best luck when it comes to stuff like that. Seven hundred Galleons! That's awesome. You could have bought ten Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones and shoved them in Malfoy's fat face. Or you could buy one of those new prototype brooms. Firebolt or something like that. Dad was talking about them. They're apparently going on the market pretty soon. We'll have to grab Harry and take a look at them one day. The trip to the States was wonderful! I'll tell you all about it when I head back to the Burrow. Let me know whenever you're free. And yes, Harry came with us. We were gone for a week.

Just got the Hogwarts letters. Haven't opened them yet but I did see the permission form for Hogsmeade. It'll be nice to legally go, yeah? We'll all have to look around. I think Cedric said that the first weekend was around Halloween. That works for me. We'll meet you guys there around midday or so.

See you soon,
Tara.

P.S. As much as Percy annoys you, school means a lot to him. You should be proud. Although, see if you can get Fred and George to do something with that new Head Boy badge.

Smiling at the letter, I grabbed a piece of tape and sealed it, placing it off to the side. A moment later I grabbed another roll of parchment to write back to Hermione. As I began to scrawl across the page, I saw Dai float towards the window. I leaned over and opened the window, allowing Dai to playfully nip at me for a while before settling back into his cage, munching on a few owl treats. As I'd been expecting, he had been visiting Fred and George, who had sent me back a letter, asking if I thought that something called a Puking Pastille was a good idea. I'd grimaced and placed their letter back to the side, intent on responding later. Instead, I'd written back to Hermione.

Hermione,

Harry's doing about as well as can be expected. He hates being back home with the Dursley's, you know that. I'd feel even worse if I didn't live next door to him. Ron only just wrote him a letter but I've been relaying what you both have told me either over the phone or in the letters. His aunt and uncle are terrible to him, just like they always are. He's been reasonably lucky this summer. They've been trying very hard to ignore him. He's worried about getting the Hogsmeade letter signed. I wish that you would have called first, too.

Oh I miss your family, too! Your parents are wonderful. Ask them about it and I'll come over whenever you're back from France. How is it there, by the way? I've never been but I hear that it's nice. The States was wonderful! I love you guys but I do miss some of my old friends. Harry met them. He seemed to have a good time. The Magical Congress is gorgeous. It's much nicer than the Ministry of Magic. Yes, the main branch of the Congress is in New York.

Hope you're having a good time in France. I've seen pretty much everyone at least once. Harry even came with me to Diagon Alley one day so that we could meet up with the Gryffindor Quidditch team. That's sweet. The Patil girls are both nice. Ugh, Hermione, they've been so good! I'm pathetic. I just need to tell him how I feel, but I can't bring myself to say anything. I nearly get killed by a Basilisk... No big deal. But tell a guy that I have a crush on him? Yeah, right. I'll tell you everything on the way back to Hogwarts. I saw the picture. He's not learning, come on. But I'm jealous, too. I'd love to go to Egypt one day.

How have you written two more rolls than what Professor Binns wanted? I just finished the essay earlier. Thanks for hanging up on me, by the way! Although my Transfiguration essay got pretty long and wordy. Yes, you do need to get a life. No way! I'm starting to look for a boyfriend for you this year. There has to be one.

Harry and I will be in London during the last week of the holidays, promise. I'll get him out of there somehow, even if I have to pry him away from the house. See you soon!

Much love,
Tara.

PS. I heard that Percy was Head Boy. He seems to be quite thrilled with himself. Ron seems to think that he's only going to start acting more like a prat. He's probably right.

As much as I wanted to send the letters back right away, I knew that Dai was probably tired. I figured that I'd send them off in a few days, once the owl had gotten a chance to rest back up. Instead I stood from my desk and got ready for bed. I pulled on my tank top and pair of flannel pants, tying my hair up a moment later. I had just peeled back the sheets on my bed, intent on forcing myself to go to sleep, when I saw a familiar owl flutter into my room. Tonight was definitely the night for mail.

"Hello Rusty. Thanks," I told the owl.

It was Cedric's owl that had become rather fond of me since I'd met him last summer. A few times, Rusty had come to visit me without even bringing a letter. It would usually warrant a letter a day later from Amos's owl, with Cedric's apology that Rusty had gotten out. I'd always laugh and send him back a letter telling him that it was fine. I loved the little owl. And Dai liked him as well, evidence as when Rusty spotted Dai and hopped into his cage to say hello. I smiled at the owls before grabbing the letter and slitting it open.

Tara,

Sorry about sending you an owl this late, but Rusty didn't get back with your previous letter until a few hours ago and I didn't want to just leave it. I have a bad habit of forgetting to write back to people. Not that I could ever forget about you. It would be hard, anyways. I somehow imagine that I'd only have to wait so long before seeing your name in the wanted section.

Not that I don't have faith in you. I do. And I've been so proud. You've managed not to get yourself into any trouble. Not that I've heard, anyways. We'll see how long that lasts.

I've been dreadfully bored lately. With Dad out of town so much, there's not much to do around here. What are you doing over the next week or so? I have to get out of here. I'm going to drive myself nuts. And I really need to have some fun before going back to school. O.W.L. exams are not something that I'm looking forward to.

Anyways, how have your holidays been? How was that trip to the States? Did Harry get to go with you?

You didn't take me. How dare you.

Let me know whenever you're free to do something. Literally anything. Even if it's just to do your homework or something. Just to show how bored I really am.

I'll see you soon,
Cedric.

Smiling at the letter, I read it over a few times before placing it down on the side of the table and grabbing another parchment. I couldn't help but to wonder if he had asked anyone else if they would come and keep him company, or if I was the only person that he had asked. I didn't like the feeling that I was probably one of many people that he had written to, asking them to hang out. He was popular and had lots of friends, so I couldn't have been surprised. Trying to shake off those thoughts, I rolled my eyes at myself and wrote back a letter that I thought was equal parts cute and snarky.

Cedric,

Don't worry about waking me up. I wasn't sleeping anyways. I've been so bored lately, too. As much as I love being back home, there's certainly a whole lot less to do here than there is back at Hogwarts. But there aren't as many life-threatening scenarios either, so that's a plus. I'm waiting the night before sending Rusty back. He looks tired. He can hang out with Dai. You would forget to write to me? Ouch. Now that hurts. But since you say that you couldn't forget me, I suppose that I'll forgive you. I'm very hard to forget, after all. Hey now! My name won't be in the wanted sections. Not for a few more years, at least.

It would be a little stupid for you not to have faith in me. I did find the Chamber of Secrets, figure out what the monster inside it was, and fight it without dying. It's been a whole five weeks that I've gone without getting myself into any trouble. Isn't that impressive? I'm sure that it must be some kind of record. You should know me. It won't last long.

Sorry to hear that things are so boring back at your house. That much really going on at the Ministry? Dad doesn't seem to be too busy, but Mom has been in and out a lot. Adult things, I assume. I'm not doing anything over the next week or so. Tomorrow - today by the time that this gets to you - is Harry's birthday, so I'm spending the day with him. But after that, nothing. Come visit me whenever. Don't be stupid. You're more than welcome to pop into the house whenever you'd like. Mom and Dad love you. And just write if you want to do something. I do miss you. Well I'm always good for some fun! Good luck with those O.W.L.'s. I'll be rooting for you.

My holidays have actually been pretty good. We should go and play Quidditch out in that field by your house someday. That was a lot of fun last summer. The trip to the States was wonderful. I think that you'd really like it back there. Maybe one day I can get Dad to take you with us. How would you feel about playing in a regulation Quidditch Pitch? Yes, Harry got to come. I'll tell you all about it whenever I see you.

You always could have asked to come. I guarantee you they would have let you come with us. Brat.

After tomorrow I'll be free to do anything. Literally anything. I've still got quite a bit of my homework to do. You could always come and do my homework for me, if you'd like? O.W.L. practice, you know. I'm never boring, so come on over!

Love always,
Tara.

Smiling, and very proud of myself, I'd folded the letter up and placed it on my bedside table with the others. As I'd said in the letter, the owls looked tired. It was a long flight from both Ron's and Cedric's houses, so I wanted them to have some time to rest. I closed Dai's cage, glad that it could hold two owls, placed the blanket over them to keep the light out, and walked over to the bedside table once more. I flicked off the light and the room plunged into darkness, letting the moonlight illuminate the room. I sighed and dropped into bed, staring at the roof.

Unfortunately for me, it was a very long time that I was left staring at the roof. As hard as I tried, I couldn't bring myself to fall asleep. I supposed that by now I was used to all of the late nights at Hogwarts doing my homework - or being unable to sleep due to fear of a murderous Dark Wizard trying to kill me - and all of the nights that I hung out with Harry. It didn't help that I could still hear the television rumbling lowly in my parents' bedroom. What the hell were they still doing awake? It was coming up on three in the morning. They were normally in bed by one in the morning.

It was what had made getting out of the house so easy. I just went over once they were asleep. Sometimes they knew, but most of the time I didn't bother to tell them. Knowing that I wasn't going to be able to sleep, and knowing that they would never let me out of the house, I stood from my bed and grabbed a sweater. I slowly opened my window and climbed down the trellis that was on the side of my house. My wand was tucked into the side of my fluffy boot, just in case. I hit the ground easily and slowly meandered out onto the main street.

The lights from the lampposts were on overhead so I didn't even need to use the Lighting Charm. It was all perfect. I walked down the street quickly, chewing on the last Sugar Quill that I had. I really needed to stop eating them. I made my way over to the public park and planted myself on the swings, gently pushing back and forth, eating little chunks of the candy. It was about fifteen minutes or so - that I'd spent mostly humming to myself - when I'd spotted a large dog moving out of the shadows. It was coming straight towards me and I smiled.

It was a cute thing. It was definitely large. If I had been standing it would have been at just about my waist. Probably closer to my chest. It was jet black. It reminded me very much of Harry's hair. The dog had pointed ears that were twitching in the direction of my crunching jaws. It looked a little bit like a German Shepard. I glanced at it a little closer and sighed. The fur was sticking up in all directions. It was either a stray or it had been away from the owners for a long time. The thing that really caught me was that it had brilliant yellow eyes. It was slightly showing me its teeth, growing softly.

"Hello. Lose your way?" I asked it.

The dog continued to growl lowly in its throat. It didn't bother me. Dogs had never scared me before. I'd never been bitten by one and I had a feeling that this one wasn't going to bite me either. It looked very sweet. Just scared. It had probably thought that no one would be out here at this hour. I had startled it. The dog was very slowly slinking towards me. I wasn't sure if it was going to get close enough that I could pet it, so I figured that I would continue to speak.

"Come on then. I promise I don't bite," I told the dog. As I second thought I added, "Do you?"

If I hadn't known any better, I would have sworn that the dog had laughed at me. As I'd been expecting, the dog didn't come forward to let me pet it. But it did get a little bit closer. I had a feeling that it liked hearing me speak. It was looking at me very closely, the same way that I was doing with it. I couldn't tell whether or not the dog was a male, but it certainly looked like one to me. That was when I realized that the dog wasn't looking at me. It was looking at the Sugar Quill hanging limply from my hand.

"You want it?" I asked the dog. It merely stared at me. "It's not Muggle food. You might not like it. Okay. Not much, but it's something. Here. You look hungrier than me," I said.

Gently, I tossed the Sugar Quill towards the dog. It landed halfway in between where I was sitting on the swings and where the dog was standing. It stared at the Sugar Quill for a moment before coming forward towards me. It grabbed the Sugar Quill before backing off again. I smiled, knowing that it would take some time to get the dog to trust me. I felt a little bad that it had to eat something like that, but I didn't want to risk going back to my house to have the dog be gone by the time that I came back. To my surprise, the dog swallowed the Sugar Quill in one bite.

It must not have eaten in a long time. "Come on home with me. I can get you more food than that," I told the dog.

Standing from the swing set, the dog watched me very closely. I moved towards it to try and guide it back to the house, but the dog immediately backed away from me. It had stopped growling while it had been eating the Sugar Quill, but now it was back to giving me the same dangerous growl, the one that warned me to stay away.

Holding my hands up in surrender, I backed away from the dog. "Okay, okay, fine. You don't want to come with me. But you have to be hungry. No collar," I noted, spotting that there was nothing that indicated that the dog belonged to anyone. "No owner. Just a stray, huh? That's okay. Sometimes I feel like a stray, too. Got some Dark Wizard that wants me alive. Not a good thing though. Not that you care," I muttered, realizing that I was talking to a dog.

It was just a dog. It didn't care about my problems. But there was some solace in the dog. Maybe I was completely insane, but it seemed like the dog was actually listening to me. That was stupid though. It didn't understand what I was talking about. But just as I thought that, the dog gave a soft whine. I glanced up at it and saw that the features on the animal had softened. I smiled as it came a few steps closer to me, still managing to stay out of reach.

"His name is Voldemort. People don't even want to say his name. Crazy, right?" I asked the dog.

Sighing softly, I realized that I must have been losing my mind. Here I was, talking to a dog. I'd already been labeled as insane because I could talk to snakes. Did I really need to make things worse by admitting that now I could talk to dogs? At least they were cute and fuzzy. The dog merely continued to stare at me.

Grinning at the dog, I realized that I couldn't just keep calling it dog. "Well if you won't let me pet you, you're going to at least have to let me name you," I said.

I'd really thought that the dog would just sit there and continue to stare at me. But maybe the dog really did understand what I was talking about. It sank back onto its hind legs and dropped its muzzle to the ground. Even from here - about ten feet away from the dog - I could hear that it was growling at me again. So maybe it did understand me.

Smiling softly, I shrugged my shoulders. "Too bad. I'm going to name you," I told the dog. I hummed to myself and thought about dog names. I wanted to see if it really could understand me. So I'd give it as stupid of a name as I could possibly manage. "How about... Snuffles?"

It must have understood me. Either that, or the dog really didn't like me very much. The dog began to growl even louder at me. I smiled and leaned back on the swing, gently rocking it back and forth. Snuffles still didn't move away. He merely watched me closely, his eyes glinting dangerously. But if he hadn't attacked me yet, I was inclined to think that he never would.

"Well you wouldn't let me pet you so I'm going to give you a stupid name," I told Snuffles. He merely continued to glare at me. "You can come with me if you'd like. But I'm going back home. It's late. We can bring you to the shelter if you'd like?"

Snuffles looked like he might have taken me up on my offer to head back home. His ears had perked up slightly. I'd thought that he might have come towards me, but he merely stayed put where he was. He must have had some trust issues. Normally I was very good with dogs. They almost always came over to me. This one seemed, not necessarily afraid of me, but more like it would rather just stay near me than actually let me pet it. Perhaps the previous owners had been terrible to him.

"I can talk to snakes, you know? Maybe I can talk to dogs, too. You live around here then?" I asked.

I'd always found that dogs had a way about emoting. Sometimes they were better about showing their emotions than humans were. Snuffles had given me a long look when I'd mentioned that I could talk to snakes. Right now he was just standing in his spot. He had stopped growling. I could have sworn that he was nodding his head at me. Did the dog really understand me?

As much as I would have liked to stay with the dog all night and try to get him to come to me, I couldn't. It was late and I was finally getting tired. "Take care of yourself. See you later Snuffles," I said.

The name still wasn't going over very well with the dog. It leaned down once more and began to growl at me. I smiled and waved at the dog as I walked away. It slowly backed away from me as I passed it, but it still didn't attack me. It wouldn't. It had been given a long time to try and attack me, but it never had. I smiled as I realized that Snuffles was following me. I thought that he might have ended up coming back home with me, but he only walked to the edge of the park before stopping. He watched me for a while before slinking back into the shadows.

Making my way back home quickly, I climbed up the trellis and slipped back into my room. I threw my sweater back over my chair, being very careful not to wake up Dai or Rusty. The moment that I'd closed my window and drawn the curtains, I headed back to bed. But just as I laid down, already starting to drift off, I realized that Mom and Dad were still awake. It was coming up on four in the morning. I couldn't believe that they were still up. But the television was still muffled and I could hear them chatting away with each other. They must have thought that I was asleep already.

"You saw it Marcus, he's on the Muggle news," Mom said.

There was a hint of desperation in her voice. "How did he get out?" Dad asked.

There was a long silence between the two of them. "I don't know," Mom finally conceded. "But he must have been desperate to leave since the very beginning."

Another silence passed. "What do we do?" Dad asked.

"Nothing. There's nothing that we can do. Dumbledore is well aware that he's gone. They're doing everything in their power to stop him. I don't know if he did everything that they claim that he did, I don't know if he could have done all of that, but he needs to stay low. Keep out of sight until we can figure things out." There was a very tense silence before Mom spoke again. "Do you think that he did it?" she asked.

Even from here, I could hear the sigh that they let out. "I want to think that he didn't. We knew him, Jules," Dad said.

"I know... but... with everything that happened..." Mom said slowly.

"Do you think that he'll go after them?" Dad asked.

It was the first response that Mom had given automatically. "I know that he will."

The television turned off a moment later and their voices dropped so low that I could only hear the soft rumbling. I couldn't make out any of the words anymore. But now I was desperate to know what they were talking about. Something had happened with someone in the Wizarding World. And it had to be important if even Dumbledore had become concerned with it. And what did they mean, if he would go after them? Was this person dangerous? And who were they? I had a terrible feeling that somehow I was involved with this. It would explain why they both sounded so concerned. But before I could come up with any plausible answers, I'd finally succumbed to sleep.

A/N: Next time... Tara spends much of her time at the Dursley household to make Marge Dursley's visit more bearable, but a fight between the family members makes this impossible. How sweet, Tara's made a new furry friend. Sirius Black always has been one of my favorite characters. I'm very excited. Anyways, welcome to Prisoner of Azkaban! It'll be fun. Thanks so much for the follows and favorites! Please review! Until next time -A

New question: If I were to do a P.O.V. change for a piece of a chapter, at some point soon, who's would you want it to be?

Guest: Thank you! I love having a good mix of the original story and the new story that Tara is a part of. I never want to just get rid of the original stuff, because Harry Potter is so wonderful! The Weasley's were always one of the best families. I love Cedric, and that's exactly the way that I imagine that he would react to someone he cared about doing all of those stupid things. I'm glad they're your OTP! Dumbledore definitely know, but there's a reason that he isn't speaking. But you're right, Tara does deserve to know! Dobby is adorable, the feast was so much fun to write, gotta love Hermione's return, and stupid Mrs. Norris - but she makes Filch happy, so whatever. Julia definitely went full mam bear mode. But as much as she likes to embarrass Tara, she doesn't want to make her look too stupid in front of Harry or Cedric. Their parents love to make things awkward at the dinners. I love the long reviews! I agree that the Hogsmeade outing would be a good time to start a romance. The sender of the packages will be revealed, but not for a while! Thanks for your great review!

Grin like the Cheshire Cat: I'm glad that you love the new relationship between Harry and Tara. I think that a little romance on the trip to Hogsmeade would be cute, but it would be a little cliche. That would be funny. I have a plan for them to officially get together, but I might do a little something with Hogsmeade. I'm glad that the last chapter made you happy!

MadJazzy: I'm glad that you enjoyed that chapter! People love Tara and are very glad that she helped stop the attacks and lived to tell the tale. Plus punching Lockhart helped. Tara's parents love Harry like he's their own son. No, I love the Tara/Harry friendship and I like to have guy/girl pairings as just friends where neither ever develops feelings for the other. I still haven't decided on what to do with Cedric. I want him to live, but his death does mean something. His character is so hard to give flaws, as seen in the books, when he literally never does anything wrong. He's basically the perfect human being. I'm working on it. I'm not sure where I want Tara/Draco to go. I love and hate Draco all at the same time. Thank you for reading the story! Ah, now I remember the Mooncalf. They're adorable.

Nils123: Yes, Harry was able to go to the United States with them!