Guess who's back! And also Guess who finally has a beta reader for my stories! Big shoutout to DarkLadyEris over on archive of our own! If you didn't know I posted my stories over there as well as here.

They've been a big help so once again big thanks to DarkLadyEris for offering to read over my stories for me and understanding when I have writer's block.

Anyways, onto the reviews!

Hikari Nova chapter 3 . Oct 25

nice chapter and will ember be acting like an older sister figure to crystal? also ember's reaction to Crystal being another 'halfa' like Danny is going to be amusing

Me: Not gonna lie, I honestly have nothing really concrete planned for Ember in this, I'll probably just add details as I go like normal.

Guest chapter 3 . Oct 26

Which character is going to be romantically pairing in the future with Crystal?

Me: I don't know, I haven't planned a love interest for her yet. Not to mention she's still a child so she has time before dating.

Now onto the story!

Crystal spent the next few years in a routine. She would get up in the morning, make breakfast and sneak a few bits here and there when she wasn't being watched. Then she would get ready and walk to school while Dudley was driven by Aunt Petunia. After school, she and Dudley would sit down and do their homework with her helping him with anything he didn't understand.

After homework, she would do her chores. She would weed the garden whenever the weather would allow her to. Then she would go wash her hands before dusting and vacuuming the house. Once a week she would have to paint the shed and fence, and three times a week she had to clean the cars. Her uncle just recently got a second one which meant more work for her.

After that she would be made to make Dinner, then she would be locked into her cupboard for the night. At least as far as the adult Dursleys were aware.

She would silently wait until she could hear her Uncle's snoring before she would use her powers to sneak out of her cupboard and steal a decent meal. Then she would go patrol the area, stopping any crime she came across.

After a night of fighting crime, she would sneak back into her cupboard before going to sleep. Thanks to being a half-ghost she didn't have to sleep as long as a normal human did, she still needed sleep though.

On the weekends the schedule was slightly different. She would wake up, make breakfast, and then get started on her chores. After her chores were done she would then be allowed to leave the house and roam the area. This was how she managed to have time to train her powers.

She also made sure to check up with her three friends during this time. Danny had finally told his parents he was a half-ghost not long ago and they accepted him. Sure they did a few blood tests to make sure nothing was wrong with him but they still accepted him as their son. They were shocked that he managed to hide this for five years and only chose to tell them when he was nineteen.

Danny had also managed to find a way to train her. After he had met frostbite of the far-frozen and found that map thing he realized he could use it to help him get to England to train Crystal.

He came around as often as he could, once every few months. He didn't have a lot of time with all the ghost attacks, school, and homework. He still wanted some downtime and didn't want to make Vlad suspicious of where Danny was going if he disappeared too often.

Anyways it had been several years since she became a half-ghost and in a little, over a month she would be eleven. Today was Dudley's birthday though and she wanted to make this a good day for her older cousin. He had become a good person in the last five years, he became protective of her despite knowing she could take care of herself now. He snuck her extra food and made sure she didn't get bullied by the other kids anymore.

She couldn't get him a gift so she always made sure his birthday breakfast and dinner were made perfectly. Today the family was going to go to the zoo, Dudley had broken Mrs. Figg's leg so Crystal would be able to go rather than being babysat by her.

Crystal had told him not to do something like that in the future, she didn't want him hurting people for her but she also hugged him. She smiled at Dudley as he walked in. She put his plate of bacon, eggs, and toast down in front of him. "Happy birthday Dudley."

"Thanks Crystal."

She sat down on the uncomfortable wooden chair that the adult Dursleys made her use. It was nothing like the ones they used that had soft plush cushions on the bottom and backs of them. Crystal didn't mind her chair though, even if it did give her splinters in her legs sometimes. At least the Dursleys were letting her use a chair instead of making her stand there.

Petunia gave her a slice of toast and one strip of bacon for breakfast before she went back to her own. She started eating the toast and bacon slowly as she waited for the others to finish their breakfast so Dudley could open his presents.

After his presents, they were going to go to the zoo. After ten minutes of eating Dudley was now opening his presents, his parents had gotten him thirty-six this year despite him telling them he didn't care how much he got. While he was opening his gifts the phone started ringing making Petunia stand up and go into the hallway to answer it leaving Harry and Vernon to watch Dudley open his gifts.

The first gift was a blue and black racing bike, the second was a video camera. Crystal was confused about why they got Dudley a video camera since he never showed any interest in recording things. The third gift was a remote-controlled yellow airplane.

They got him sixteen new computer games and a new VCR with a few new movies. He was in the middle of unwrapping a gold wristwatch that both of the children thought was too much when Petunia came back.

"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take her." She jerked her head in Crystal's direction.

"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Crystal as though she'd planned this. Crystal knew that she didn't have any proof, not that it would matter. She didn't plan this, hell she didn't even know it was being planned by Dudley until it was done.

"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.

"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the Girl."

There they went again, talking about Crystal like she wasn't even there or like rather like she was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug. She hated when they did this but she was also grateful. It gave her an idea of what to expect whenever they talked like this.

"What about what's-her-name, your friend — Yvonne?"

"Don't be silly Vernon, you know she's on holiday right now." Petunia sighed, "It looks like we have two options, we either take the girl with us and leave her in the car or leave her here."

"That car's new, I'm not having her sit in it." Vernon barked in response.

"Then we leave her here?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"And come back to find the house blown up? Not a chance." He shook his head, looking conflicted about what to do to save his son's birthday from the freak of a girl they had to take care of.

Dudley decided to pipe up, this was the perfect time to ask them. "Mom, Dad we could take her to the zoo with us?"

"Dudders are you sure? You've been looking forward to this day for ages." Petunia hovered over him, looking worried that he would be upset that they would need to take Crystal with them on this trip.

"I'm sure mom, it'll be fine!"

"Well, alright." Petunia agreed.

Half an hour later Crystal and Dudley were sitting in the back of the car on their way to the zoo. Crystal couldn't believe her luck and spent the time staring out the window of the car trying hard not to show how excited she was.

She ignored Vernon complaining. He liked to complain about things like the people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favorite subjects. This morning, it was motorcycles.

"… roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.

This made Crystal remember the dream she had last night, She was sitting on a motorcycle that was flying high above London. There was a man there, he had black wavy hair that went down to his shoulders and gray eyes. For some reason, she felt as if she knew this man long ago, she even knew his name, Sirius.

Soon enough they got to the zoo, Vernon grumbled to Petunia about needing to pay for Crystal to go inside but she just reminded him that it was Dudley's birthday and he better not ruin it for their son.

Vernon bought Dudley a large chocolate ice cream with fudge and sprinkles on it at the entrance and then because the smiling lady in the van had asked Crystal what she wanted before they could hurry her away, they bought her a cheap lemon ice pop. Crystal didn't mind, she found that it was pretty tasty.

They spent some time watching the gorillas, and she thought that Vernon would fit right in with the rest of them. He already looked and acted like a gorilla after all.

After a while, they went to the zoo's restaurant which was decorated with cheesy giraffes, zebras, and penguins. It had circular tables surrounded by four or six chairs each.

Dudley had thrown a fake tantrum, saying his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, this made Uncle Vernon buy him a new one and Dudley shoved the first one to Crystal with a wink and a small smirk that she returned.

After lunch, the small family and Crystal went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Crystal was excited, she loved snakes but she had never seen one in person before.

She and Dudley were looking at a Boa Constrictor, it was huge, big enough to easily wrap around Uncle Vernon's new car at least two times and crush it, it looked fast asleep at the moment though so no car crushing today.

She had to remind Dudley not to put his face against the glass, and also remind him not to tap on it when he did.

Vernon and Petunia were busy talking to one of the employees a ways away so they didn't see when the snake opened its beady little black eyes and raised its head looking right at Crystal.

Then it winked.

Crystal's own eyes widened, she knew for a fact that snakes did not have eyelids. She turned to Dudley, "Did you see that?" She hissed quickly.

"Yeah, I saw the snake look at you, god that's so cool!" Dudley replied.

"No, I mean did you see what it did? It winked, Dudley snakes can't wink but this one did." Crystal turned back to the snake seeing it looked amused but that made no sense either, how could a snake look amused? Snakes didn't have the facial muscles needed to make an amused face.

"Crystal, it didn't wink, are you okay?" Dudley asked getting a bit concerned for his little cousin. He didn't know if she was getting sick or if this was another one of those half-ghost things. As he grew up he realized how messed up his cousin being half-ghost was, sure he thought it was cool when he was younger but that's because he didn't realize what that meant back then.

It meant that Crystal had died halfway, she was half dead, half alive, stuck in between. Could she even die fully anymore or was she stuck like this forever? Would she stop aging after a certain point or would she keep aging and die of old age? He really wished he knew, questions like this kept him up at night several times. Filling him with worry for his little cousin.

And she was his little cousin, it might only be by a month but he was still older, he was her protector when she couldn't protect herself.

"I'm fine Dudley, just I know what I saw." Crystal whispered.

"I know Cris, listen how about we move on?" he said softly, wishing he could do more for her.

"Yeah, let's-" Just then the snake moved its head left and right. "Did that snake just shake it's head?"

Dudley stared at the snake with Crystal. "Okay, I saw that this time."

"Um hello, snakey?" Crystal said she was so confused. Was this a new power? The power to talk to snakes. The snake waved its tail in response, she got the impression that it was saying hello.

"I'm Crystal and this is my cousin Dudley, we're from private drive where are you from?" The snake pointed with its tail to the sign that read, Boa Constrictor, Brazil.

"Oh was it nice there?" It shook its head and pointed at the sign again making her take a closer look and read the small words at the bottom of the sign. 'This specimen was bred in the zoo.'

"Oh, I see — so you've never been to Brazil?"

The snake once again shook its head before lying down, clearly ready to go back to sleep. Crystal and Dudley shared a wide-eyed look before walking over to his parents when they called for him. They didn't call for Crystal but she knew that she was expected to just come over anyways.

The ride home was silent, Uncle Vernon refused to turn the radio on but he also wasn't complaining about anything so she wasn't upset. When they got home they sent Crystal to the bathroom to clean up and then locked her in her cupboard for the night.

She lay on her lumpy mattress and stared at the dusty ceiling with wide eyes. Could she actually speak to snakes? She spent the entire time until she dozed off thinking about it and vowed to find another snake to test it out with later. She didn't go out and patrol tonight, she was too tired for it at the moment.

She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep, once again dreaming of a man named Sirius taking her on a motorcycle that flew high above London.