"Harry!"

Willow was approaching her brother, who was currently sitting on the bench in the Dursleys garden, with her hands behind her back; an excited expression on her face. He looked up at her, obviously in a bad mood. Which changed instantly when she revealed what she had been hiding behind her back. "Happy Birthday, I love you!" She cheered and held out her present, which was wrapped in an old newspaper, but decorated with a cute ribbon.

It were fingerless leather glows she had secretly worked on the last couple of weeks. She thought they would look cool and give him a better grip when he flew his broom while playing Quidditch (a sport in the Wizarding world which's rules she still didn't fully understand) and so hoped he would like them and cheer him up.

They were now a month into their summer holidays and today was Harrys 12th birthday. But he wasn't happy about it at all. Not only hadn't the Dursleys remembered it (though that was quite normal), his friends hadn't written to him at all until now. Not even today had come letters from them. Harry was disappointed and sad and Willow deeply felt for him. Pondering if they both could have been blind and had misjudged the characters of his friends.

"Will..." Harry mumbled quietly as he held the soft leather gloves in his hands. He was touched. At breakfast he had been convinced this would be one of the worst days of his life. The Dursleys and his friends seemed to have forgotten his birthday and this evening he and Willow would have to be as silent as possible and pretend that they didn't exist while their family got a visit from someone important for Uncle Vernons work and dined like kings.

But Willow... his little sister hadn't forgotten him. She had used her new talent and made him something as a present he could use for his beloved sport, Quidditch. A sport that he knew by now she had little interest in. He looked up at her, wanting to thank her from the bottom of his heart, when he spotted something in the hedge behind her. Two giant, green eyes were looking at them.

Harry jumped to his feet, startling Willow. "Harry?" She asked confused, cocking her head. Still he was looking at the hedge and the eyes in it. He wished that he had his wand with him in case that whatever creature was currently staring at them would attack. But Uncle Vernon had locked it into the cupboard under the stairs, along with his other school stuff and broom. With a questioning gaze Willow slowly turned around to see what her brother was staring at, but the moment she did the eyes vanished and Harry blinked. Had he just imagined it?

"I know what day it is ~" a voice sang and their cousin Dudley, who was quite overweight, came waddling towards them. "What?" Harry asked absentmindedly, still staring at the hedge. What was he staring at? "I know what day it is." Dudley repeated, coming right up to them, and Willow mentally prepared herself. Dudley initiating a conversation could only mean one thing - he was looking for a fight. And she had to somehow limit the damage. Harry was in a bad mood already anyway and could, if prompted, explode at any moment... and then they would have nothing but trouble. And as if on cue, her brother reacted to the bait.

"Well done," he said with a sarcastic voice. "So you've finally learned the days of the week." Willow winced. That couldn't be good. "Today's your birthday," their cousin sneered and Willow made a small step towards Dudley. "How come you haven't got any cards? Haven't you got friends at that freak place?" Willow held her hands up. "Please, Dudley, could you not-",

"Better not let your mum hear you talking about my school." Her brother coolly interrupted her attempts of peacemaking. Dudley hitched up his trousers and glared at Harry. Then his gaze switched to the hedge the boy was still staring at. "Why're you staring at the hedge?" He asked suspiciously. Willow saw the tiny, evil grin emerge on Harrys face and fear rose inside her.

"I'm trying to decide what would be the best spell to set it on fire"

"Harry" she hissed. Of course, she knew this wasn't true. Not only was her brother not someone to maliciously damage things, she also knew that he wasn't allowed to use magic outside of Hogwarts. He didn't have his wand with him anyway, as their uncle had locked it away in the cupboard under the stairs - their old room. But their family didn't know this, a fact that had led them to be treated a little bit better this summer, as the Dursleys were afraid of Harry. Still. Why did he always have to provoke them?

Dudley stumbled backwards at once, a panicked look on his face. "You c-can't" he stuttered while doing so. "Dad told you you're not to do m-magic. He said he'll chuck you out of the house - you and your sister both - and you haven't got anywhere else to go! You haven't got any friends to take you-" "Dudley!" Willow tried to interrupt him. "Of course, that was just a -" But her brother just wouldn't let her. "Jiggery pokery!" He said in a loud, fierce voice and jiggling his fingers at the hedge. "Hocus pocus... squiggly wiggly..."

"MUUUUUUUM!" Howled Dudley, tripping over his feet as he dashed back towards the house and Willow heaved a deep sight. "MUUUUUM! He's doing you know what!"

"Are you happy know?" She asked Harry who finally looked away from the hedge. "You know that they will make us pay dearly for your three seconds of fun and satisfaction from scaring Dudley. Was that really necessary on your birthday?" Well, for a tiny second he did feel bad. Because he knew his sister had to suffer with him, even though it had been all his doing. But the opportunity just had been too good to let it pass. "And what were you staring so intently at?"

Harry just wanted to tell his sister about the creepy eyes staring at him from the hedge, when Petunia appeared in the back door that led to the garden. Harry took an aggressive stance and Willow took a tiny step towards her brother, trying to swallow down her fear and wishing she had tried harder to stop that argument from happening. "Inside. Now." Their aunt commanded in a steely voice.

And pay for it they did. Although it was clear as the day that Harry hadn't really done any magic, they were punished severely. They had both been given hard slaps on their hands and then had to work. While Harry had to work outside - cleaning windows, washing Uncle Vernons car, mowing the lawn, taking care of the flowers and repainting the garden bench - Willow had to help their aunt clean the house and cook the grandiose dinner for the guests coming this evening. She felt saliva gathering in her mouth as she decorated the huge bowl of pudding with whipped cream and sugared violets, a treat they would never get to taste. Neither of them had been allowed to eat or even drink since their incident with Dudley this morning.

Finally, half an hour before their guests where supposed to come, Petunia let them stop and have their own dinner - a sad meal of two slices of dry bread with cheese and a glass of water for each of them. After hurriedly eating it they were then ushered upstairs, Uncle Vernons warning of

"Remember kids - one sound..." ringing after them. And there will be hell to pay Willow mentally finished his sentence. He had only said that every day since this dinner had been planned.

Harry decided he needed to make a quick trip to the bathroom before "pretending to not exist", so she entered their room first and honestly just wanted to lie down on the bed and sleep for at least two days. This day had been exhausting. There was only one problem - someone... or something... was already sitting on it.

And then everything went down the drain.

—

Willow stared emotionless into the small bowl containing ice cold canned soup. Her stomach growled, but seeing this disgusting looking liquid with chunks of who knew what sloshing around spoiled whatever appetite she still had left. Why... how did it come to this?

Everything had started with this creature... a house elf. Dobby, it said, was his name. It had suddenly appeared in their room, talking about how Harry, and with that Willow, couldn't return to Hogwarts. Because, apparently, something dangerous was waiting there for Harry. It couldn't say what - just that it was dangerous and so they both should, under no circumstances, go to the school. It had went even so far as to stop any letters coming their way.

Yes, people had written to them all summer long. Harrys friends hadn't forgotten him and there were even a couple of letters for Willow. But Dobby had prevented this letters from reaching them to make them think there was no one caring for them at Hogwarts. Then he had tried to make them promise, in order to get their letters back, to not go to Hogwarts this year - but they just couldn't. Hogwarts was their only escape from the Dursleys. Dobby had then, as they were leaving him "no choice", kinda... teleported?... downstairs and had used magic to make the huge bowl of pudding Willow had decorated this afternoon float and then let it drop with a big bang.

Pudding had splattered everywhere in the kitchen and Willow, who had been told by her brother to wait upstairs, had hurried down the stairs. She could have laughed if she hadn't been so horrified by seeing Harry covered from head to toe in the pudding. Silently the siblings had then began their cleaning and at first it seemed like everything would still go more or less well - Uncle Vernon had managed to gloss the incident over and Aunt Petunia had dug out some ice cream for dessert. But then the owl had come.

The ministry of magic was giving Harry a warning for supposedly using magic outside of Hogwarts. The Dursleys guests promptly left - the woman running and screaming - and now they knew that Harry wasn't allowed to use magic. This had resulted in the beating of their lifetime and then they were locked up in their room. Uncle Vernon himself had put bars on the window and fitted a cat-flap on the door the very next day. Now they were allowed to leave their room only twice a day - at morning and at evening - to use the bathroom. Otherwise they were locked into their room, a bit of food and two glasses of water being pushed three times a day through the flap.

Willow sighed, putting the untouched bowl of soup on the nightstand and laid back down on the bed, her face to the wall. She just wanted to sleep.

Harry watched his sister lie down, concern in his gaze. He walked over and lightly touched her shoulder. "Will... are you not eating?" She hadn't eaten anything since they had been locked up, which had been a couple of days ago. Instead, she was constantly sleeping. This new behavior terrified Harry. It was as if she didn't have energy for anything anymore... as if she had given up. Willow shook her head and for a short moment he could see her swollen cheek and black eye.

Uncle Vernon had held true to his word. He had beaten them up mercilessly after the ruined dinner. He seldom beat them, he rather outright ignored them and pretended that they didn't exist and you had to do something he deemed really bad to react this way. But when he did he was just as bad as his wife. Harry, with his quick reflexes, had managed to at least protect his face. His body was sore and he had bruises all over, but at least his face was okay. Willow hadn't been so lucky.

He softly caressed her hair. "Willow... please. Eat something." Already he could see that she had lost some weight... and she had been nothing but skin and bones before as well. He took the bowl, his stomach growling at the sight of the soup, and held it out for her. She just looked at it and then turned her head back to the wall. "I'm not hungry." She said quietly. "Eat it yourself or give it Hedwig." He looked at the bowl and then slowly walked over to Hedwigs cage, hearing Willow mutter softly "Who cares if I eat? At this rate were going to starve sooner or later anyway."

Harry, shocked, looked at her back. But there was nothing he could say. Because this was a fear he had as well.

—

Willow woke with a start and pressed her hands on her mouth, trying to hold in the scream threatening to come out of it. Tears gathered in her eyes as she laid there, remembering the terrible, terrible dream she just had. She and Harry had been nothing but skeletons, starved to death, locked up and forgotten forever in this very room. The Dursleys living outside as if nothing had ever happened. As if they had never existed in the first place.

Her breathing was labored, but slowly she felt herself calm down enough to take her hands away from her mouth, sure now that she wouldn't scream and she sat up. It was dark and her brother laid sleeping in the cot next to her bed. The clock showed that it was almost four in the morning. With trembling legs she got up as silently as possible. She couldn't sleep, couldn't lie anymore. Because she was terrified of falling asleep and having the same nightmare again.

She tiptoed over to the desk and sat on the stool, lying her head down on her arms and faced the window. It was open and the light breeze coming through the bars caressed her sweaty and hurting face, calming her down even more. Hedwig hooted softly. The moon was shining, but the stars were already fading slowly and she could see a silver lining at the horizon. Soon the night would end and another day would begin. Another day in their prison. She swallowed.

The dream had felt so real. And she didn't know how to escape what she had seen in it. They had no way of getting out. The door was tightly locked and when they were let out to go to the bathroom Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia didn't let them out of their sight until they were back in their room. The window had bars in front of it and Harry couldn't use magic because then he would be expelled from Hogwarts. But then again, who would care about him getting expelled if he couldn't go anyway?

She felt terrible for thinking that, but it was true. No matter what they did they would lose. She couldn't even tell Mrs Figg because she didn't know how. Willow felt utterly hopeless and tried to blink away the tears threatening to come again, trying to focus on something outside to distract herself. And that made her notice something. Was there a star coming nearer?

Slowly she got up and took the remaining step to the window. Yeah, a star... a light?... was definitely coming nearer. And now she noticed a faint noise. Car noise. It came nearer and nearer and now she was sure that it was the light of the headlights on a car coming nearer. A flying car. She had to be dreaming. She lightly touched her swollen cheek. It still hurt very much. Then this wasn't a dream? But how?

A turquoise car flew over and parked right before the window, hovering in the air. And staring at her through the window were - "Ron?! George, Fred!" The boys looked at her, their smiles fading.

"Blimey, Willow. What happened to you?" Fred asked flabbergasted.

The boys were shocked. The tiny girl looked like she had been used as a punching bag. She had a black eye, a swollen cheek and several bruises on her arms - and this was only what they could see in the faint moonlight. And at this moment they all knew that, no matter what, Harry and Willow were coming with them.

—

Willow lightly shook Harrys shoulder. "Hm... stop it." He groaned. But she did it again. He lightly tried to slap her hand away, muttering "Leave me alone... cut it out..." And again, more forcefully this time. He groaned and snapped his eyes open. "Will, I'm trying to - " "Harry." She interrupted him, an exciting expression on her face he hadn't seen her make in days. "Harry," she whispered again. "The Weasleys are here to get us out!" She pointed at the window. Harry frowned. That was impossible. Even if they did could come, they didn't know he and his sister were locked up and in need of help. Slowly turning around he wondered if Willow was still dreaming. Or maybe he was, his brain trying to make this whole situation mor beara- "Ron!"

As a matter of fact, the face of his best friend Ron Weasley was looking at him through the bars of the window. And he saw Fred and George sitting in the front seats... of a car? "What... how..?"

"Stop gibbering." Said Ron. "We've come to take you home with us." Harry frowned. "But how? You can't use magic and as you see we can't exactly just march out of this house." Ron grinned and jerked his head towards the front seats. "We don't need to. You forget who I've got with me." Freds face appeared, throwing him the end of a rope. "If the Dursleys wake up we're dead." Harry whispered as he tied the rope tightly around a bar and Fred revved up the car. "Don't worry," Fred tried to reassure, "and stand back."

Harry moved back into the shadows next to Hedwigs cage, who seemed to have realized how important this was and so, for once, kept still and silent. Willow moved back to the door, pressing her ear to it. When she heard nothing she nodded to the Weasleys. The car revved louder and louder and suddenly, with a crunching noise, the bars were pulled clean out of the window as they drove straight up in the air. Harry ran back to the window and for a moment and watched the bars dangle a few feet above the ground. Willow, listening intently, could hear a hitch in Uncle Vernons snoring, then everything was back to normal. She breathed out and turned around, whispering "I think they're still sleeping."

Panting, Ron hoisted the bars into the car and then Fred reversed the car as closely as possible back to the window. "Get in." Ron said. "But all my Hogwarts stuff..." Harry complaint, "And our clothes!" Willow chipped in, already moving to the closet. "Where is your stuff?" Ron asked Harry. "Locked in the cupboard under the stairs and I can't get out of this room - "

"No Problem," said George from the front passenger seat. "Out of the way, Harry." The twins climbed carefully through the window into their room and George whipped out a hairpin, making quick work of the lock. "A lot of wizards think it's a waste of time knowing this sort of Muggle trick," Fred explained, grinning smugly, "but we feel they're skills worth learning, even if they're a bit slow."

There was a small click and the door swung open. "So -" George whispered, "we'll get Harrys stuff and you grab anything you need from your room and hand it out to Ron." "Already on it!" Willow whispered back, stuffing T-Shirts into an old and battered looking duffel bag. "Watch out for the bottom stair, it creaks." Harry warned the twins. "And there is a - you know what, I just come with you, that's faster."

For a while Willow went around the room, collecting all her and her brothers things, and handed them over to Ron one after one, trying to be as silent as possible. The boys came in, just as she had finished, heaving Harrys trunk with great effort. Willow climbed into the car with Ron's help and together they got the trunk into the car - her and Ron pulling, the other three pushing. Then the twins got into the car and Harry wanted to follow, but his sister stopped him. "Harry! Hedwig!" She pointed at the cage. She hadn't yet put it into the car because Hedwig didn't like anyone carrying her but Harry. But, for whatever reason, this was the moment the owl had decided to let out a loud, drawn-out screech.

It took only a second for them to hear Uncle Vernons voice. "THAT RUDDY OWL!" The kids looked at each other in fear and Harry dashed over to Hedwig, took the cage, dashed back to the car and handed it over to Ron and his sister. Harry was just about to climb into the car himself when the door suddenly crashed open, their Uncles burley silhouette standing in its frame. For a second he stood there seemingly frozen, then he let out a bellow like an angry bull and dived at Harry, grabbing him by the ankle. Ron and Willow immediately grabbed Harry's arms, pulling at him with all their might, trying to prevent Vernon pulling him back again.

"Petunia!" He roared. "They're getting away! THEY'RE GETTING AWAY!" He pulled harder and Willow felt a rush of fear. What would happen if the Dursleys got him back? This couldn't end well. It just couldn't. "NO!" She screamed in desperation. "Let him go! Let him GO!" Suddenly the window frame was exploding out of the wall, Uncle Vernon letting go of Harry's ankle and falling outside.

The car made a jump forward and Ron and Willow hurriedly pulled in Harry. Fred wanted to get them away as fast as possible but Willow yelled for him to stop. She fearfully looked out of the still open car door, down at front yard. She wanted to get away from the Dursleys, but she didn't want Uncle Vernon to get seriously hurt because of it. He didn't seem too bad - he had landed in a bush. "AH! VERNON!" Petunia, who was standing with a dumbfounded Dudley at the hole the window had been in a moment before, screeched.

Vernon opened his eyes and Willow let out a breath. "Okay, he is still alive." She announced and then, when she saw him trying to get out of the bush "Aaand he can still move his body." She pulled back, hurriedly closed the door and Ron yelled "Put your foot down, Fred!" He didn't need to be told twice and put down his foot on the accelerator. The car shot away. "See you next summer!" Harry yelled at the house that got smaller the farther they went.

And so the Potter siblings, with the help of the Weasley brothers, finally escaped their own, personal prison - together this time.

AN: Well guys, sorry this took so long. Half a year, I think? But after releasing the last chapter I finally got myself a PS4 with some games and then, obviously, got sidetracked. Mostly with Persona 5 Royal, haha. Speaking of, have you seen the trailer for Hogwarts Legacy? I'm so excited! I can't wait to make my own character and then explore the castle, Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. Or at least I hope you can, but the developers did say it will have an open world.

By the way, I recently watched The Umbrella Academy and because I liked the show so much, started a new FF about it. Check it out if you're interested! Also, I'm starting university in October and don't know, yet, how regularly I will be able to upload new stuff then. Don't worry if you don't hear from me in a while, that doesn't mean I gave up. I probably just don't have time to write. Thank you for being patient with me.

PS: this chapter was a nightmare to upload today, because for some reason, the site just didn't want to do what I wanted. Was I the only one with his problem? Lol

XOXO Lulu