This is the second story in my series, if you have not read the first story, it is called For the First Time in Forever.
s/13884233/1/For-the-First-time-in-Forever-prologue
Obviously I am not JK Rowling, and I do not own the rights to her story, but I use parts of her book to help build the story for my character and her storyline.
It was a quiet morning on number 4 Privet Drive. All was right with the world and Olivia Potter was just waking up. Suddenly she heard a loud hooting come from Harry's room. Harry is gonna get in trouble again, she thought. Shortly everyone else in the house was seated in the kitchen and Aunt Petunia served breakfast. Not long after Uncle Vernon sat down, an argument had broken out about Harry's beautiful snow-white owl, Hedwig.
"Third time this week!" he roared across the table. "If you can't control that owl, it'll have to go!"
Harry tried, again, to explain. "She's bored," he said. "She's used to flying around outside. If I could just let her out at night..."
"Do I look stupid?" snarled Uncle Vernon, a bit of fried egg dangling from his bushy mustache.
Olivia thought he did look entirely stupid at times like these. "I know what'll happen if that owl's let out."
He exchanged dark looks with his wife, Petunia, Olivia and Harry's aunt.
Harry tried to argue back but his words were drowned by a long, loud, completely disgusting belch from the pig, Dudley. "I want more bacon."
"There's more in the frying pan, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia, turning misty eyes on her massive son.
"We must build you up while we've got the chance... I don't like the sound of that school food..." Olivia almost choked on her food. As if Dudley needed to be 'built up' anymore, she thought to herself as she watched Dudley eye the bacon pan with his beady eyes.
"Nonsense, Petunia, I never went hungry when I was at Smeltings," said Uncle Vernon heartily. "Dudley gets enough, don't you, son?"
Dudley, who was so large his bottom drooped over either side of the kitchen chair, grinned and turned to Harry. "Pass the frying pan."
"You've forgotten the magic word," said Harry irritably. Liv sensed the danger in his words before Harry did.
The effect of this simple sentence on the rest of the family was incredible: Dudley gasped and fell off his chair with a crash that shook the whole kitchen; Mrs. Dursley gave a small scream and clapped her hands to her mouth; Mr. Dursley jumped to his feet, veins throbbing in his temples. Olivia looked halfway between laughing and looking worried at the coming argument.
"I meant please!" said Harry quickly. "I didn't mean -"
"WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU," thundered their uncle, spraying spit over the table, "ABOUT SAYING THE 'M' WORD IN OUR HOUSE?"
"But I -"
"HOW DARE YOU THREATEN DUDLEY!" roared Uncle Vernon, pounding the table with his fist.
"I just -"
"I WARNED YOU! I WILL NOT TOLERATE MENTION OF YOUR ABNORMALITY UNDER THIS ROOF!" Liv stared from her purple-faced uncle to her pale aunt, who was trying to heave Dudley to his feet, to Harry, who had paled just a little.
"All right," said Harry, "all right. . . "
Uncle Vernon sat back down, breathing like a winded rhinoceros and watching Harry closely out of the corners of his small, sharp eyes.
Ever since Harry had come home for the summer holidays, Uncle Vernon had been treating him like a bomb that might go off at any moment, due to the fact that Harry was a wizard and Olivia was a witch. Harry had come home from his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The Dursleys were extremely displeased to have him back for the holidays, but Olivia was ever so pleased, she had missed her brother while he was away.
During the year she was the only child at the Dursleys home. They tolerated her better than Olivia had expected, even though they were meaner towards Olivia than they were when Harry was home, but any talk of Harry, their parents, witches or wizards, and magic were prohibited. The most exciting thing that she was allowed to talk about was the dear, piggy troll, Dudley. She was disappointed that Harry had only written to her three times, but she understood why. They both knew that the Dursleys would punish them, and Harry didn't want to get Olivia into trouble because of something that he had done, for she could get into quite enough trouble on her own.
As soon as Harry had come back, she had barraged him with questions, and he told her all about the year. Harry told her how much he missed everything there. He missed the castle, with its secret passageways and ghosts, his classes (not Snape, the Potions master), the mail arriving by owl, eating banquets in the Great Hall, sleeping in his four-poster bed in the tower dormitory, visiting the gamekeeper, Hagrid, in his cabin next to the Forbidden Forest in the grounds, and, especially, Quidditch, the most popular sport in the wizarding world. Harry explained to her that there were six tall goal posts, four flying balls, and fourteen players on broomsticks. Harry told Olivia about Ron and Hermione, and their adventure together.
All Harry's spell books, his wand, robes, cauldron, and the Nimbus Two Thousand broomstick had been locked in a cupboard under the stairs by Uncle Vernon the instant Harry entered their home. The Dursleys were apparently what wizards called Muggles (not a drop of magical blood in their veins), and as far as they were concerned, having a wizard in the family was a matter of deepest shame, and having two? Well, that was criminal in their eyes. Uncle Vernon had padlocked Harry's owl, Hedwig, inside her cage, to stop her from carrying messages to anyone in the wizarding world.
Harry and Olivia looked nothing like the rest of the family, Harry and Olivia didn't even look much like each other. Uncle Vernon was large and neckless, with an enormous black mustache; Aunt Petunia was horse-faced and bony; Dudley was blond, pink, and porky. Olivia was short and skinny for her age, she had an oval face, with hazel eyes and beautiful wavy red hair. She had a couple freckles on her nose and a small scar on her chin from Dudley. Harry was small and skinny just like Olivia, but he had brilliant green eyes and jet-black hair that was always untidy. He wore round glasses, and on his forehead was a thin, lightning-shaped scar. It was this scar that made Harry so particularly unusual, even for a wizard. This scar was the only hint of their mysterious past, of the reason they had been left on the Dursleys' doorstep eleven years before.
At the age of one year old, Harry had somehow survived a curse from the greatest Dark sorcerer of all time, Lord Voldemort, whose name most witches and wizards still feared to speak. Harry and Olivia's parents had died in Voldemort's attack, but Harry had escaped with his lightning scar, and somehow - nobody understood why Voldemort's powers had been destroyed the instant he had failed to kill Harry. No one seemed to understand how Olivia had survived either or didn't want her to know. The Potter's house was completely destroyed, yet both children had survived. So, Olivia and Harry had been brought up by their dead mother's sister and her husband. They had spent ten years with the Dursleys, never understanding why they kept making odd things happen without meaning to, believing the Dursleys' story that Harry had got his scar in the car crash that had killed their parents.
Then, a year ago, Hogwarts had written to Harry, and the whole story had come out. Harry left to go to wizard school, where he and his scar were famous, while Olivia was still stuck with the Dreadful Dursleys... but now the school year was over, and Harry was back for the summer. And at the end of summer Harry and Olivia would be going to Hogwarts together, finally away from the Dursleys.
The Dursleys hadn't even remembered that today happened to be Harry's twelfth birthday. Olivia, of course, was waiting for later in the day to give Harry his gift. Her present was nowhere near as cool as the stuff Harry had sent her for her birthday, but she hoped he would like the picture she made this year. It was a picture of what she thought he looked like when he had held the golden snitch for the first time.
At that moment, Uncle Vernon cleared his throat importantly and said, "Now, as we all know, today is a very important day. This could well be the day I make the biggest deal of my career," Some rich builder and his wife were coming to dinner and Uncle Vernon was hoping to get huge order from them. Uncle Vernon's company made drills. Probably the most boring company in the world she thought. Of course, Uncle Vernon was a very boring man. Scary when angry, yes, but definitely not exciting.
"I think we should run through the schedule one more time," Uncle Vernon said trying to sound important. "We should all be in position at 8 o'clock Petunia, you will be-?"
"In the lounge," Aunt Petunia said promptly, "waiting to welcome them graciously into our home."
"Good, good. And Dudley?"
"I'll be waiting to open the door." Dudley put on a foul, simpering smile. "May I take your coats Mr. and Mrs. Mason?" Olivia heard the sarcastic tone in his voice but decided not to say anything. They might as well run them through the process with no interruptions, she thought to herself.
"They'll love him!" cried Aunt Petunia fawning over her, 'Duddykins'.
Suddenly Uncle Vernon rounded on Harry and Olivia. "And you two?"
Harry answered for Olivia. "We'll be in our rooms, making no noise, and pretending were not there."
Uncle Vernon turned away. "Exactly." He said nastily. "I will leave them into the lounge, introduce you, Petunia, and pour the drinks. At 8:15–"
"I'll announce dinner," said Aunt Petunia. "And, Dudley, you'll say–"
"May I take you through to the dining room, Mrs. Mason?" Said Dudley, offering his fat arm to an invisible woman.
"My perfect little gentleman!" Sniffed Aunt Petunia.
"And you two?" Uncle Vernon turned to the Potters.
"We will be in our rooms making no noise and pretending that we're not there." Harry answered dully.
"Precisely. Now, we should aim to get in a few compliments at dinner. Petunia, any ideas?"
"Vernon tells me you're a wonderful golfer, Mr. Mason... Do tell me where you bought your dress, Mrs. Mason..."
"Perfect... Dudley?"
"How about – 'we had to write an essay about our hero at school, Mr. Mason, and I wrote about you.' " This was too much for Aunt Petunia, Olivia, and Harry. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and hugged her son, while both Harry and Olivia fought to keep their laughter silent as they ducked under the table.
"And you?" Uncle Vernon rounded on the Potters.
This time Harry was too slow to answer as he was still trying to hold back laughter, and Olivia beat him to it, "We will be in our rooms, making no noise, and pretending we don't exist."
Uncle Vernon's eyes twitched suspiciously at her, but he turned back to Aunt Petunia. "Too right, you will," said Uncle Vernon forcefully. "The Masons don't know anything about you and it's going to stay that way. When dinner is over, you take Mrs. Mason back to the lounge for coffee, Petunia, and I'll bring the subject around to drills. With any luck, I'll have the deal signed and sealed before the news at 10. We'll be shopping for a vacation home in Majorca this time tomorrow."
Olivia didn't care whether or not the deal got signed. They wouldn't take her and Harry to Majorca with them and if they did, they wouldn't be any better there than they were here on Privet Drive.
"Right – I'm going into town to pick up the dinner jackets for Dudley and me. And you two," he snarled at Harry and Olivia "You stay out of your aunt's way while she's cleaning."
Harry and Olivia left through the back door. It was a beautiful, sunny day. They crossed the lawn and sat down on the garden bench. Olivia took the picture from her back pocket. "Happy birthday Harry! I hope you like my drawing this year." Harry opened the picture and smiled.
Olivia knew that Harry missed Hogwarts and Quidditch, but she knew most of all he missed his new friends. Harry had told her Ron had wanted to invite Harry and Olivia to his home and stay with them for part of the summer at his house. She also knew how badly Harry wanted to open Hedwig's cage by magic and send her to Ron with a letter, but she told him it wasn't worth risk. He didn't want to be expelled and forced to stay on Privet Drive forever. Olivia and Harry were still sitting on the bench when Aunt Petunia called her in to clean the dining room.
Olivia was dusting the windows and staring into the trees, when she saw a small, yellowish creature with bat like ears, big green eyes, and wearing nothing but a rag, or something. She gasped as the creature saw her and disappeared with a snap.
When Olivia finished, Aunt Petunia asked Olivia to set the table and help out in the kitchen. Soon, Aunt Petunia called her and Harry in to eat their dinner. "Get in here! And walk on the newspaper!" Aunt Petunia squawked. They quickly ate their dinner, and Aunt Petunia snatched up their plates. "Go to your rooms! Hurry!" Olivia opened the door leading to the basement, and quickly walked down.
Olivia had fallen asleep soon after she had heard the Masons come in. She woke up from her usual sleepless dream, hearing Uncle Vernon screaming at, no doubt, Harry. Usually, Olivia would try to go upstairs, but this time she didn't think that it would be a good idea. Instead, she just rolled over and tried to fall asleep again. The next morning, Olivia woke up to hear banging coming from somewhere. Quickly she got dressed and walked upstairs. She noticed her breakfast sitting out on the counter. Two pieces of bread, and cold eggs. She scarfed the food down, and then went to investigate further. Assuming the noise had something to do with Harry, she climbed up the stairs towards his room. There she saw Uncle Vernon, standing, looking pleased with himself, in front of Harry's room. On Harry's door, she saw a small cat flap, and bars on the windows. Olivia sighed and walked back downstairs.
Harry then was locked in his room and only allowed out to use the bathroom in the morning and after dinner. Olivia was practically left alone again for that time. At night Olivia would come up and visit Harry and try to keep his spirits up and sneak him more food because the Dursleys weren't really feeding him at all. Harry was quite grateful for his sister in times like this.
