"Harry!" I shrieked, leaping out of my bunk and landing on the floor lightly, using my awesome time-twisting skills that I had been practising since I got home (and I was now pretty good at it). "It's our birthday today!"
"Huh ... you what?" Harry mumbled as he rolled over in the bottom bunk.
"Get up, you lazy lump!" I grabbed his arm and dragged him out. He landed with a thud on the floor, tangled in his bedsheets.
"Argh!"
"Dudders!" I hollered down the hall.
I heard muttered cursing and then his door opened a few seconds later. "What?"
"It's our BIRTHDAY!" I cried, stepping on the wall, slowing down time, and doing a backflip. Then I remembered that I wasn't a cheerleader anymore, I was a ballet dancer, and spun a few pirouettes.
Dudley, who was used to this, still screamed, "That's SO hardcore!"
"I know, right?!" I yelled.
"What is all this racket?" Aunt Petunia stepped out of her room, rubbing her eyes.
"Mum, Mum, look what Daisy can do!"
I still hadn't shown Aunt Petunia yet. I got the impression that, as much as my aunt and uncle love me, they strongly dislike magic.
"Look, Aunt Tuney!" I cried, happening to look into her eyes as I said that. She flinched and drew in a sharp breath. I turned and stepped up on the wall again, gathering all my concentration - and crashed back down again.
"Huh?" I gasped, holding my butt, which I landed on. "How the -"
I got up, and tried again, and this time I could do it. "Whee!"
"It's our birthday! It's our birthday! YESSS!" I heard Harry scream from inside our room.
I facepalmed.
"Harry, I practically figured that out YEARS ago."
So we all went downstairs and Harry and I opened presents. I had warned all my friends and the Weasley's (I sent them a letter) of the interceptor, whoever that was, and they had all encased their letters and packages with an Anti-Interception spell each. We got pressies from all our friends and from the Dursley's.
We also had a party later on that night, before this rich builder and his wife came around so that Uncle Vernon could persuade them to buy his drills.
"Oh my gosh, Hannah, when did YOU cut your hair?" I asked loudly when I noticed Hannah's haircut.
"Don't worry, I only got it, like, a day ago. It's, like, so cool. I've got so much, like, swag!" She gushed.
I facepalmed.
--
That night, Harry got sent upstairs to pretend that he doesn't exist, to my protests (which were shot down). We all got ready for the builder and his wife, Dudley and Uncle Vernon standing in the hall ready to welcome them, and Aunt Petunia and I standing in the living room, ready to welcome them 'to our lovely home'.
"You look wonderful, dear." Aunt Petunia smiled as she looked at me.
I was wearing a green dress which apparently brought out the colour of my eyes (On the side).
"Thanks. You look nice too, I guess."
Then sounds of welcoming from the hall. I sighed. WHY ...
~~~
"Oh, yes! That's wonderful, Mrs -" Aunt Petunia laughed, but was cut off by a loud thumping noise coming from upstairs.
"Daisy, go and check Dudley's TV, will you? He must have left it on." Uncle Vernon said, shooting me a look that said 'please shut your brother up'.
"Sure." I stumbled up to our room.
"Harry, what the fuck are you - WHAT IS THAT?" I gasped, staring at the weird creature that was standing beside the chest of drawers, clutching a lamp in both hands.
"This is the house elf which has been intercepting our letters in our first week back." Harry said grimly, throwing a bundle of letters to me. I caught them.
"Oh, and those first few letters from Draco ... I wouldn't look at them. Actually ..." Harry darted over to me and tried to grab them. I squealed and danced away.
"Well, fine. Whatever. But this is Dobby the house elf. They're like, elves that clean your house and do all the chores and stuff. He also thinks we shouldn't go back to Hogwarts."
"WHAT?!" I yelped. "We can't just not go back to HOGWARTS!"
"Try telling him that."
"But WHY?!" I exclaimed.
"Apparently it's too dangerous to go back, whatever that means." Harry replied.
"Daisy and Harry Potter must give Dobby their word that they will not go back to Hogwarts!" Dobby shrilled.
"Are you mental? No!" I said.
"Then Daisy and Harry Potter leave Dobby no choice."
And Dobby leaped out the bedroom door.
We sprinted after him and he stopped in the kitchen, raised his hand -
"DOBBY!" I shouted - then remembered that the Mason's were in the dining room.
Everyone rushed into the kitchen, and stopped dead when they saw Dobby. But he vanished from sight a second later.
--
All our Hogwarts stuff, our broomsticks, and our wands were locked in Harry's old cupboard. We were locked in our room, with bars on the window. I had no hairpin, or anything to pick the lock with.
Uncle Vernon wasn't very happy with us, apparently.
I had fell asleep in my dress, but I woke up several hours later at soft rattling at the bars on my window.
"What the ..." I sat up, blinking and rubbing my eyes.
Then I looked over at the window. Ron was goggling in at us between the bars!
"Harry, Harry, wake up!" I hissed at him as I leapt down from my bunk, my head whirling around with dizziness.
"Huh, what ..." He murmured, stirring.
I pushed up the window. "Ron!" I exclaimed quietly. "How did you - what the -?"
Ron was leaning out of the back window of an old turquoise car, which was parked in MID-AIR. Grinning at me from the front seats were Fred and George Weasley, two legendary members of my elite pranking group, the Insurgents!
"All right, Daisy?"
"S'up?"
"Why are you locked up?" Ron asked. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. So's Harry. HARRY!" I hissed through the darkness again at him. "Get your ass outta bed!"
There were muttered curses as Harry stumbled out of the lower bunk and came over to the window.
"Hi, Ro- WHAT THE - I'm so done with this. It's one in the morning and - what even -" Harry tried to talk.
"Dad charmed the car. It's awesome!" George said enthusiastically.
"We've come to take you home with us!" Ron said happily.
"But you can't magic us out!" I said.
"You forget who I've got with me." Ron said, jerking his head towards the front seats and grinning. "We don't need to."
"Tie that around the bars." Fred said, throwing the end of a rope to me.
"If the Dursley's wake up, we're dead." Harry said apprehensively as I tied the rope tightly around a bar and Fred revved up the car.
"Don't worry," said Fred, "and stand back."
We moved into the shadows with Hedwig and Snidget. The car revved louder and louder and suddenly, with a crunching noise, the bars were pulled clean out of the window as Fred drove straight up in the air - we ran back to the window to see the bars dangling a few feet above the ground. Panting, Ron hoisted them up into the car. I listened anxiously, but there was no sound from the Dursley's bedroom.
When the bars were safely in the back seat with Ron, Fred reversed as close as possible to our window.
"Get in!" Ron whispered excitedly.
"But all our Hogwarts stuff ... our wands ... our broomsticks ..." Harry said.
"Where are they?"
"Locked in the cupboard under the stairs, and we can't get out of this room -" I said.
"No problem." George said. He and Fred climbed carefully through the window into our room.
'You have to hand it to them.' Harry sent to me, looking impressed, as George took an ordinary hairpin from his pocket and started to pick the lock.
'Indeed.' I sent back.
'Naturally!'
"A lot of wizards think it's a waste of time, knowing this sort of Muggle trick," Fred said conversationally, "but we feel they're skills worth learning, even if they are a bit slow."
There was a small click and the door swing open.
"So - we'll get your trunks - you guys grab anything you need from your room and hand it out to Ron." George whispered.
"Watch out for the bottom stair, it creaks!" I whispered back as the twins disappeared onto the dark landing.
We collected all our stuff together and passed them out to Ron, then went back to help Fred and George with the trunks.
We pushed the trunks through to the car, then climbed in. But just then, a screech came from behind us. Snidget and Hedwig!
"THAT RUDDY OWL!" Uncle Vernon!
I dove out of the car back into the room, and snatched up both cages. I passed them through to Harry, then scrambled on top of the desk.
But then Uncle Vernon burst through the door and caught me around the waist.
Harry, Ron, Fred and George seized my arms and pulled as hard as they could.
"Petunia!" Uncle Vernon roared. "They're getting away! THEY'RE GETTING AWAY!"
The Weasley's gave a gigantic tug and I slid out of Uncle Vernon's grasp. As soon as I was in the car and had slammed the door shut, Ron yelled, "Put your foot down, Fred!" and the car shot suddenly towards the moon.
I wound down the window, looking down at Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Dudley hanging out of the window, dumbstruck.
"See you next summer!" Harry yelled.
"Next time, try locking up a witch and wizard who DON'T have connections!" I yelled too.
The Weasley's roared with laughter as my twin and I fell back in our seats, grinning.
"Here, let the owls out. They haven't flown all summer." I said, and George handed Ron the lock pick, and a moment later, the owls were soaring outside in glee.
"So - what's the story, twins?" Ron asked impatiently. "What's been happening?"
We told them all that had happened this summer, including Dobby.
"Very fishy." Fred said finally.
"Definitely dodgy." George agreed. "So he wouldn't even tell you who's supposed to be plotting all this stuff?"
Harry had told me all that Dobby had said before I came up.
"I don't think he could. I told you, every time he got close to letting something slip, he started banging his head against the wall." Harry said.
Fred and George looked at each other.
"What, you think he was lying to me?" Harry said.
"Well, I reckon old Dobby was sent to stop you coming back to Hogwarts. Someone's idea of a joke. Can you think of anyone at school with a grudge against you?" Fred asked.
"Well ..." Harry pondered. "Draco Malfoy used to have one against me, but not anymore, I don't think ..."
Fred and George raised eyebrows at me at this, as if they thought that Draco stopped hating Harry for my sake. I flipped them off.
"Well, what about Floppy or Pratinson, Daisy?" Fred suggested.
"Probably." I sighed. "Though I don't know if he or she have house elves."
"Whoever owns him will be an old wizarding family, and they'll be filthy rich." Fred replied.
"House elves come with big old manors and castles and places like that ... you wouldn't catch one at our place, for example." George said, looking wistful. "All we've got is a shitty ghoul in the attic and a load of irritating gnomes in the garden ..."
I felt myself go pale at these words. Draco has a manor ... his family is a very old wizarding family ... and he is loaded. What's the chance that his cousin will be exactly the same?
I told them this, and they looked grim. "It would probably be him, then. You're driving too far west, Fred." George added, pointing at a compass on the dashboard. Fred twiddled the steering wheel.
We drove in silence for a few minutes, all of us extremely tired and worn out from our sort-of adventure.
"So your dad doesn't know you've got the car." I stated.
"Nope." George replied.
"Laughing crying emoji."
"Touchdown!" Fred said as we landed on the ground with a slight bump. We were next to a very crooked, odd looking house.
It was fantastic!
"Welcome to our lovely home, the Burrow!" The Weasley's chorused.