A/N: It was asked, and so I must do it: update The Stalker! And now, the moment you've all been waiting for…the Disclaimer!
Disclaimer: No thanks, I already have a penguin. (credit to Riddle, my beta, because she may well kill me if I don't. Betas are so fun.)
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The Stalker
Chapter Three
(This actually has a plot. I'm proud of myself.)
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Monica yawned once more. Harry Potter has got to be the most boring juvenile delinquent in history, she thought to herself.
An owl flew past her, scaring her and making her (once again) nearly fall out of the tree.
The owl was a gorgeous snowy white, and Harry got up off his bed when it flew into his room. He smiled at it.
"Hedwig, you're back! Did—oh," he said as he saw the parchment envelope attached to it's leg with a leather tie.
He untied the letter and the owl—Hedwig, supposedly—hooted and flew over to the birdcage—which Monica supposed was for it—while Harry opened the letter. He quickly scanned it, snorted derisively, and tossed the letter on his desk among the books (not one of the titles had his name in it).
"Oh, sure, that's nice for them to say, they didn't just inadvertently kill the only person they really cared about…" he muttered quietly. It was only because Monica had exceptional ears that she heard him. Of course, she wasn't quite sure, he might have said, "Oh, sure, that's nice for him to say, he didn't just kill his goldfish." But she wasn't sure.
Harry wandered over to the window and looked out of it. It is a testament to his observational skills how he didn't notice her, though he looked directly at her. His eyes scanned the street, and the dry lawns, and he sighed loudly. Someone on the street would have heard him. As it was, the two people who were following him were the only people who heard.
What's that? Only one person is following him, and that's Monica? That's ridiculous. At that very moment, there was an invisible member of the Order sitting in his slightly ajar wardrobe. Of course, Harry didn't know where she was, and Monica still had no idea that Harry was a wizard, or that an invisible someone might be following him, sitting in his wardrobe. She thought that only she was watching him, and she knew that she was sitting in the tree outside his house, not in his wardrobe. Or she might have drunk some odd tea at school and this was all a hallucination she was having in early April, lying in a hospital bed in a coma. But she didn't think that comas were that incurably boring, so she was going to go with the former. And she was right, because why on earth would I be writing a story about her coma hallucinations? Come on, people.
Old Mrs. Figg from a few streets over came shuffling along the walk in front of the Dursley's house. Monica was highly suspicious of Mrs. Figg. No one could possibly have that many cats and not be up to something. The woman had eighteen, for Pete's sake! Or maybe, they had her, not the other way around, and they were using her as an instrument of impending destruction of the human race! Yes! Monica knew that she had finally figured it out!
While Monica's theories though odd, are usually correct, this one was so far off, it wasn't even funny. Little did she know that…wait, why does Mrs. Figg have so many cats? And why is it called Mr. Tibbles, anyway? Is it married to Mrs. Norris? Perhaps Monica is right about old Figgy…
Anyway, Mrs. Figg came shuffling along the walk on Privet Drive. As she passed Number Four, she looked right past Monica to Harry's window and waved. Harry gave a half-hearted mile and waved back.
Monica had to stifle yet another yawn. If he didn't do something soon, she'd have to go home and eat dinner.
As Harry watched Mrs. Figg's receding back turn the corner at the end of the street, he suddenly left his room again. Monica noticed that he held open the door a moment longer than normal and the wardrobe door opened a little before Harry closed it and left.
A minute later, Harry walked out the front door and headed off the street, the other way from where Mrs. Figg had gone, in the direction of the park. She waited until he was at the end of the street to begin down the tree. She walked slowly after him all the way to the park, staying in the shadows behind trees. Once, she hid behind a light pole, though it didn't conceal her too well.
When he arrived at the park, Harry sat down on the bottom of the slide, because all the swings were broken, thanks to Dudley and his gang. Since there was nowhere else to hide, Monica scampered up a half-dead tree, which didn't offer much concealment and was in plain sight, but given Harry's observational skills, she decided she could risk it.
The invisible Order member that was following him, however, saw Monica. Unable to do anything else, she crept slowly from the grass across the sand to the slide where Harry was sitting. Monica didn't notice the magically appearing footprints in the sand, as she was busy scratching some dirt off her right shoe.
The invisible Order member that was trailing Harry reached him without incident and whispered in his ear to look at the tree where Monica was perched. He did so, and gasped in surprise when he saw her. Monica looked up quickly and calmly said, "Oh, hello. Nice day." She had rapidly decided that acting as if everything was normal would be the best course of action.
"What are you doing?" said Harry warily.
"Oh, I'm stalking you," she said matter-of-factly.
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A/N: It's so fun to write this. Especially Monica's little theories. I really love this story. It even has a plot! Anyhoo, please review, else I compose another song or haiku for the cause!
