Harry woke up the morning of August 31 with a terrible feeling something was very wrong, although he didn't know what. He could tell it was early, because Aunt Petunia hadn't come to yell at him to get out of bed and there was no noise outside his closet besides Uncle Vernon's snoring.
He tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't shake the feeling something was off, so he did what he always did when he needed comforting, and went to talk to Samantha. He crept out of his door and up the stairs, thankful he was so light.
He got to Samantha and Lauren's room and silently opened the door. He saw Lauren, sleeping peacefully in her bed and the curtain separating her and Samantha's sides of the room closed. He crept over and pulled it open, expecting to see Samantha asleep, or possibly reading, or drawing, or doing anything Samantha deemed as fun. But instead, he saw Samantha's bed empty and neatly made, and a few of her belongings missing, such as clothes and her favorite book.
Harry looked around, making sure Samantha wasn't anywhere else in the room, then shut his eyes tightly and reopened them, as if he hoped he was just seeing things. He looked back over to where Lauren slept, checking to make sure it was only Lauren in the bed, because sometimes when Lauren got scared Samantha would lay with her for comfort, but it was only Lauren, with her long, dark red hair in front of her small, soft face as she slept peacefully.
Harry didn't want to wake her up just yet, so he decided to look downstairs to see if Samantha had gone downstairs to get food. He looked all throughout the house, but Samantha was nowhere to be found.
Finally, knowing he had no other choice, he decided to ask Lauren.
He crept back up the stairs and back into his sisters' room. He sat on the end of Lauren's bed, and carefully brushed the hair out of her face.
"Lauren," he whispered.
"Hm?'' Lauren replied quietly, slowly opening her hazel eyes and sitting up. "What's up, Harry?" she asked, rubbing her eyes, her young voice slightly raspy.
"I, er- can't find Samantha," said Harry awkwardly.
"Huh? What do you mean, you can't find Samantha?" Lauren asked, looking around and seeing Samantha's made, empty bed.
"She's not here. I've looked around the whole house and I can't find her," Harry told Lauren.
"But... where could she have gone?" Lauren asked, looking around the room.
"I don't know. I was hoping you'd know something, because you two share a room. She was here last night, so she must've left sometime while we were both asleep," Harry reasoned. "So did you hear anything?"
Lauren shook her head. "No."
Harry sighed. "We need to tell the Dursleys that Sam is missing," he said, standing up and walking to the door.
Lauren ran up behind him and grabbed his arm. "No, Harry, you can't do that! The Dursleys will kill you!" Lauren cried. She was always the scaredy-cat of the bunch, the one to keep the other two from doing things that would get them in trouble, and both Harry and Samantha felt a deep need to protect her as best they could.
Harry paused, looking at her. "Lauren, I know you're scared, and I know you don't want me to be hurt, but this is necessary. Samantha could've been kidnapped. She's out there all alone right now and we have no idea where she is. We need to talk to the Dursleys, because every minute we're here knowing she's missing, she could be getting farther and farther out of our reach, and getting her back safely is top priority," Harry explained.
"I know. But, Harry, I don't want you getting hurt," Lauren said, her eyes wide with fear.
"Erm- how about this. I'll go to the Dursleys and say that I can't find Samantha, which is the truth. But you'll pretend to be asleep and then you'll have absolutely nothing to do with it," Harry offered.
Lauren looked apprehensive, but knew it was necessary. "Okay. Be safe, Harry," she said, then climbed back into her bed. Harry nodded, then walked to his aunt and uncle's room.
He knocked on their door very lightly, and when there was no response, he knocked again, because he assumed they hadn't heard him over Uncle Vernon's snoring.
Finally, after knocking for a third time, the door opened and Harry saw his aunt standing there, looking disheveled and furious.
"What could you possibly want at a time like this!" she yelled at him, and Harry was, for once in his life, thankful Uncle Vernon was still snoring.
"Samantha is missing from her bed. And she isn't anywhere in the house," said Harry.
Aunt Petunia's face suddenly went very white. "What- what's the date today?" she asked.
"Huh? Why is that important?'' Harry asked.
"Don't ask questions, boy! What is the date today?" Aunt Petunia asked in a hushed but urgent tone.
"It's- er- the- the 31st of August, I believe," Harry stuttered.
Petunia's face, if it were possible, went even paler than before. After a minute, however, she seemed to regain control of herself. "Just as I expected..." she muttered.
"Huh?" Harry said, confused, but Petunia ignored him.
"I'm assuming you went into her room?" asked Petunia, and Harry nodded. "Was there anything odd there?"
"N- no, not really. Just a few of her things are missing," Harry answered.
"Of course, of course," Aunt Petunia muttered, walking to Samantha and Lauren's room. She inspected Samantha's side of the room, looking for anything odd. She didn't seem to have found anything, though, because she returned to the hall a minute later.
"Right, well, breakfast should be started. Harry, go downstairs and make it," Petunia instructed.
"That's it? Aren't you going to look for Sam?" Harry asked.
"No. I know where she is. She'll come back eventually, sadly. Go make breakfast," Petunia instructed
"Wait, you know where she is? Where is she? How do you know we'll see her again?" asked Harry.
"Don't ask questions, boy, just go make breakfast before I shut you in your closet until Christmas!" Petunia sounded frustrated, and Harry had lived with the Dursleys long enough to know that you didn't want to mess with any of them when they were frustrated, so Harry scampered down the stairs and started making breakfast.
Harry sat in silence at the table as Aunt Petunia and Dudley ate. He'd tried to eat some bacon, however, that had ended when he realized that he was too worried about Samantha to eat. He noticed that Lauren wasn't eating either, and assumed it was for the same reason. Uncle Vernon hadn't come down yet, and Harry was thankful. He had a gut feeling that he would try to pin Samantha's disappearance on Harry, and wasn't looking forward to it.
Dudley, however, had come down the stairs, but he was too busy shoving his face with bacon and pancakes to even notice Samantha was missing.
Just as Harry was about to ask if he could return to his closet, he heard Uncle Vernon coming down the stairs. Uncle Vernon took one look at the table and noticed immediately something was wrong.
"Weren't there three of you? Where'd the other one go?" he grunted, adjusting his tie.
"Vernon," Aunt Petunia said quietly. "The letter."
Uncle Vernon was outraged. His face went red, and he slammed his coffee mug down on the table.
"Out. All three of you. Now," Uncle Vernon said.
"No!" Dudley cried, banging his hands on the table.
"OUT!" Uncle Vernon yelled, and Dudley, looking petrified, grabbed his plateful of bacon and ran out, closely followed by Harry and Lauren.
Harry and Dudley argued for a minute before Dudley broke the tape attaching Harry's glasses and Harry had to simply lean against the door and hope that he would be able to hear his Aunt and Uncle's conversation.
"She ran away? Petunia, she'll come back and tell them all about it, we can't have that-," Uncle Vernon said.
"Yes, I know, Vernon. We'll make sure she shuts her mouth when she's here. And we'll be more careful with the other two. We'll make sure neither of them get their letters," Petunia reassured Uncle Vernon.
There was silence. And then they were let back into the kitchen.
"Are you gonna look for her?" Lauren asked apprehensively when they came back in.
"Why would we? With her gone, that's one less mouth to feed. Think of the money we'll save with her gone!" Uncle Vernon said much too happily, and Harry felt the anger bubbling inside of him.
Uncle Vernon took a sip of his coffee, but just as his mouth touched the brim, the cup exploded, sending burning hot coffee down Vernon and cutting him with the shards of glass that fell from the cup.
Everyone froze as they looked at Vernon, who was bleeding and burnt, and whose suit was now covered in blood and coffee. Then, slowly, he turned his head in the direction of Lauren and Harry, his face flaming red.
"WHICH ONE OF YOU DID THIS?!" Vernon screamed, absolutely outraged, more mad than any one of them had ever seen. Dudley, terrified, backed out of the room, still holding his plate of bacon.
"How could we have done that? We weren't touching the cup. Maybe you were holding it too tight?" Harry suggested, but knew at once he shouldn't have said that.
"GET OUT! CLOSET- ROOM- NO FOOD-," he screamed, unable to form complete sentences in his rage, and Harry and Lauren ran for their respective rooms, where they both stayed until school started on September 9th. They were, however, brought food the next day and the remaining days after that, but it was mostly Dudley's leftovers or old food that had gone bad, and the occasional cold can of soup. When they were finally allowed to leave to go to school, they were both skinnier than they had been before and looked even more skimpy in their much too large hand-me-downs.
Harry arrived at school that day with Dudley's old backpack, Dudley's old clothes, and messy hair. Lauren had another of Dudley's old bags, Samantha's old clothes, and her wavy hair pulled out of her face in a messy ponytail. In the years before, Samantha would always do Lauren's hair in a nice braid, but since Lauren didn't know how to braid her own hair in the ways Samantha did, she'd had to go without the braids.
Harry got to class and realized his teacher was new.
"Hello, class, I hope you're all doing well today. I'm your teacher, Miss Quinn. It's my first year teaching, and I am very excited to start this journey. So, let's all go throughout the class and introduce ourselves. Say your name and one fun fact about yourself," Miss Quinn smiled warmly.
The class went through and said their names. Some kids talked about how they had two moms or two dads, some talked about their pets, some talked about sports they played or hobbies they had, and one kid even said that his mom was going to have another baby. Harry, on the other hand, had no idea what to say. Anything interesting about him was just depressing. Saying his parents died when he was a baby would just give him the teacher's pity, and saying his sister ran away would make the teacher suspicious that he would run away too.
Harry thought and thought, and eventually settled on just saying that he liked to read.
"My name's Harry and I like to read," Harry told the teacher quietly.
"Hi, Harry, it's nice to meet you," Miss Quinn smiled, marking something on her attendance sheet.
Harry smiled awkwardly back at her and was grateful when she continued on to the next student, a new girl named Audrey who's mom was in the military and she moved a lot, so this was the fourth school she had been in.
At recess, Harry sat alone and read, which was much better than the normal of being chased by Dudley and his gang.
"Why's that boy over there all alone?" Audrey asked her new friends Emma and Diana.
"Oh, that's Harry. He's kind of weird. His parents died when he was really little so he lives with his aunt, uncle and cousin, who's Dudley. His clothes are always too big and his glasses are held together with tape, plus he has this weird lightning bolt scar on his forehead. No one really talks to him much, because Dudley hates him and no one wants to mess with Dudley and his gang," Diana explained.
"Oh. Well, that's sad about his parents. I'm gonna go talk to him," Audrey decided.
"Are you crazy? Dudley or Piers beats up anyone who willingly goes within ten feet of Harry," Emma said, finally looking up from her newly painted nails.
"Yeah, sure. He seems lonely. I know what it's like to be the kid no one will talk to, and it sucks," Audrey decided, and went over to Harry.
"Hi, you're Harry, right? I'm Audrey," Audrey asked him, holding out her hand for him to shake.
"Y- yeah, I'm Harry. Hi, Audrey," Harry said, nervously looking in Dudley's direction.
"You seem nice. Why are you all alone?" Audrey asked.
"Oh, well, er, my cousin Dudley doesn't really like for me to have friends, so..." Harry explained, looking very embarrassed.
"Is Dudley your legal guardian?" Audrey asked him.
"Er, well no, but my Aunt and Uncle don't really like it when I defy Dudley, so I usually don't, so I don't get in trouble, because when I get in trouble I don't get to eat," Harry explained.
"Wait, your punishment is no food? That's awful!" Audrey exclaimed.
"I'm used to it. It's not my favorite, but it's not the worst that could happen. My sister used to really stick up for me and my other sister, for some reason my aunt and uncle seemed scared of her," Harry explained.
"Used to?" Audrey questioned.
"She um... she kind of ran away, like about two weeks ago, and we haven't heard from her since. My aunt said she knows where she is, but she won't tell me and refuses to look or report her missing to the police," Harry said. He didn't really know why he was telling all of this to Audrey, but something about her made him trust her.
"What? Is that even legal?'' Audrey asked, growing angrier every word Harry said. "That's messed up, Harry."
Harry shrugged. "I don't know... I hope I'll see her again, I really miss her. I also just hope she's not.. dead or anything. My parents, I don't even remember them. All I remember is pain on my forehead and a lot of green light. I don't know what my parents looked like, or sounded like, and I mean, I can get over that, I never knew them and I never will, but I'm so close to Samantha, my sister... I don't want to lose her," Harry said. "Sorry, I was rambling. You probably don't want to hear about my dead parents on your first day. Not very uplifting."
"It's fine. I'm sorry about your sister. I hope she's okay, wherever she is," Audrey said politely, and Harry smiled. He liked feeling as if he had a friend.
Harry heard the teacher call all of them inside, and he walked into the classroom.
"Okay, everyone, I'm going to be assigning you all partners to do a Science project on," Miss Quinn said. Harry didn't know if he was imaging it or not, but he felt like she was staring at him weirdly the whole class.
Harry's partner ended up being Audrey, which Harry was very thankful for. He liked Audrey, she was easy to talk to and very smart. They were able to get a lot done in a very quick amount of time, and they thought very similarly.
After class, when they were all heading home, Miss Quinn pulled Harry aside.
"Hi, Harry, how are you?" Miss Quinn asked, smiling sweetly at him, her straight blonde hair tucked loosely behind her ear.
"Er, I'm fine," Harry replied awkwardly, unsure of where this was going.
"I overheard you talking to Audrey at recess," Miss Quinn explained. Harry's face went red. "I just want to let you know that I'm always here if you need to talk. I'm very sorry to hear about your sister," Miss Quinn said, giving Harry a look of pity.
"Oh, uh, thank you, Miss Quinn." Harry smiled awkwardly. "I've gotta get going now, before I get in trouble for being late. Um, bye," Harry said, then rushed out of the classroom.
Miss Quinn sighed. She felt bad for Harry.
She gathered her papers and walked out of the door, driving to a bookstore a few blocks away to clear her mind and see if anything looked interesting.
She walked in the door and saw a man wearing the uniform who she had never seen before, so she assumed he was new. He had sandy blonde hair with kind brown eyes and a few scars on his face. Miss Quinn liked him instantly.
"Hi, can I help you find anything?" he asked her.
"Um, I was wondering if you had any book recommendations for a fifth grade class?" Miss Quinn asked him.
"Huh, that's a hard one... how about we look around for something?" the man suggested.
"Sure, that works," Miss Quinn agreed.
The two looked around for a while, finally deciding on the book Bridge to Terabithia because they thought it looked interesting.
"Thank you so much for your help...?" Miss Quinn said once they had picked out the book.
"Remus. Remus Lupin," Remus smiled kindly at her.
"Issy Quinn," Issy smiled, shaking hands with Remus.
"This may sound strange, but my shift ends in five minutes, would you like to get coffee together? It doesn't have to be coffee, it could be whatever," Remus offered.
Issy had to hide just how happy she was. "Coffee sounds great, " she said.
"Brilliant. Well, I'll just finish up and I can meet you outside?"
"Yeah, yeah that works," Issy smiled.
hey, hope you enjoyed! Based slightly off this fic I read a while ago that was unfinished but I have no clue what the name is. Anyways, have a good day!