Disclaimer: I do not own HP (sob)

Disclaimer: I do not own HP (sob). I wish I did, but I don't. I don't own the Beatles either. Maybe I own the Beatles 1, but not the group. So just read this and tell me what you think.

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Alice wiped the steaming dishes with a strawberry towel. She always preferred the Muggle way when she did her chores; she got her magic practice during homework, and besides, she trusted herself this way.

She pressed her finger against the china and rubbed under the running water. It squeaked, and Alice smiled. She stacked it on the other five tea saucers and reached for the hair-drier. When it was being used, it omitted a smell like burnt soap, and maybe that was why Alice always drip-dried her hair. Or maybe she liked bragging to her father about being immune to so many illnesses by going to be with wet hair when he had a bout of sniffles once every two weeks. But it didn't matter. She clicked it on and dried the dishes. So what if her dad complained that dishes should smell like the peaches in his daughter's cheeks, not her unruly black hair on fire? She didn't care. And it left her time to vacuum the house, which, heaven knew, could take days.

"In the town where I was born, lived a ma-a-an, who sailed to sea …" Anna moaned in agony.

"Do you ever get tired of that CD, Dad?" she shouted down the hall.

"Nope!" he replied from one of the thirteen dens in the mansion. "The Beatles will rise again! You just wait and see!"

"In your dreams, old timer!" she laughed.

"Watch it, Miss-Sixth-Year! You're going on sweet sixteen! You don't want to spoil this precious time in your life with insults, do you?" He chuckled deeply at his own really bad joke.

"You bet! And I won't stop until you take me to see Godpop this summer!"

"Well, I WOULD take a mature young lady to visit an Anamaji, but since there are none present to accompany me …"

"Dad!"

"Go and get your stuff together, Miss Potter. The double-broom leaves in twenty minutes!"

"Dad! You are so cruel!" Laughter echoed down the hall as Alice ran down the red and gold corridor to her room.