17

A Birthday and a Warning

Emily sat in her window seat staring at the gift in her hand. She had been going back and forth on whether she should send it or not. The package was a birthday gift for her twin brother Harry, this was their first birthday apart and Emily was afraid it may be the first of many.

Emily Potter was a witch and had just finished her first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She had grown up with her twin brother Harry, living at their aunt and uncle's house on Privet Drive. This summer she had moved into Malfoy Manor with her best friend, Draco Malfoy's family, while Harry had returned to live with their aunt and uncle. Draco and Emily had met in Diagon Alley exactly one year ago today and they were fast friends. Once at Hogwarts they had both been sorted into Slytherin House, however her brother on the other hand had been sorted into Gryffindor. The Slytherin and Gryffindor Houses had a long standing rivalry that her brother had taken to heart. It hurt being separated from him but Draco had stepped in making sure she was never alone.

Over Christmas break Emily had felt comfortable enough to confide in her best friend of her beatings at the hand of her relatives. She told him that she had been raised to believe she was a freak not knowing that magic was real until Hagrid, the loveable Hogwarts gamekeeper, had shown up with her Hogwarts letter in hand. She even confessed her fears of returning to Privet Drive and what Dudley's gang might do to her if she did. Draco had gone to his parents and in turn they had invited her to stay with them. Emily had never dreamed when they invited her that she would be given her own room let alone that they would treat her like their own daughter, but that is exactly what they did. Her first day at the Manor Narcissa, Draco's mother, had taken her shopping for furniture and bedding. "You need to be comfortable in your new home," Narcissa had told her. "The first step is decorating your room." She had been right, decorating her new room had given the young witch a sense of belonging and allowed her for the first time to have something that represented her. It was a space she could retreat to at any time and feel completely comfortable. Emily's room now had dark gray walls with white crown molding and long white silk drapes hung to frame her lead paned windows. She had a black baroque French upholstered king sized bed with mirrored nightstands next to it. Her bedding was white with black detailing but there were tons of purple pillows on it. Her fireplace had two white leather wingback chairs in front of it with more purple pillows on them.

Emily loved her room. In fact, she loved the whole Manor, she was surrounded by magic wherever she turned. Like Hogwarts there were portraits that moved decorating the walls and it even had a few secret passageways. There was a library full of books she could read, a potions lab where Professor Snape would help Emily and Draco brew potions and three times a week they had lessons on occlumency which was a hard form of magic but Emily knew it was worth the challenge. Occlumency was proving helpful for Emily. It helped her with her emotions and made it less likely that her secrets could be found out and for her age Emily had a surprising amount of secrets. The largest being that the Dark Lord Voldemort, who had given her the scar on her shoulder, had broken into Hogwarts at the end of the term not only looking for the Sorcerer's Stone but also wanting to kidnap her hoping to form her into his Dark Lady.

But right now, it was Emily's twelfth birthday. Since the beginning of the summer holidays she had written to her brother a few times, receiving no reply. It wasn't that she expected much after the past year but she had hoped for at least a short response letting her know he was ok. She finally decided to write to the Weasley twins, whose younger brother Ron was Harry's best friend, to see if any of them had heard from him. Finally setting the package down she decided she would send it after hearing back from the twins.

Just then a knock came at her door. "Come in."

Draco opened the door, "Hey get dressed we are having your birthday brunch!"

"Kay, be right there." Draco noticed the box Emily was holding as she moved Harry's gift over to a side table before heading to her closet.

"Are you going to send it?"

Emily looked at the gift and back to Draco, "I'm going to wait until I hear back from Fred and George."

Draco nodded in understanding as Emily walked into her closet to put on her birthday dress, that she and Narcissa had gotten on a shopping trip a few days ago. As she looked around herself she still couldn't believe that the closet for her clothes was larger than where her and Harry had slept for ten years before going to Hogwarts.

She quickly put on her dress and new shoes before going into her bathroom to fix her hair and makeup. She had started to wear mascara and beige eye shadow this summer. Narcissa had been a positive change in her life. Having never had a woman she could look up to, to teach her about things such as makeup and go to for advice before, she welcomed the change. She imagined this was what it was like to have a mother growing up.

She exited the bathroom and noticed Draco was sitting in one of the chairs by the fireplace waiting for her. "I'm ready."

"You look beautiful, Em," he told her getting up and holding out his arm for her.

"Thanks Dray," she took his offered arm and they left her bedroom making their way to the dining room.

"Always the gentleman," Emily teased.

"Of course," Draco inclined his head towards her.

The dining room was a long room that had light gray walls. As in all the rooms in the manor there was a large stone fireplace and a crystal chandelier hung over a long table in the center of the room that seated twelve people. Currently Lucius, Draco's father, was sitting at the head of the table to his right was Narcissa and next to her was seated Severus, Emily's Potions Master at Hogwarts. He was good friends with the Malfoys and spent a lot of time at the manor. Emily and Draco took their usual seats to Lucius' left.

"Good morning," Emily greeted everyone.

"Good morning dear," Narcissa returned with a smile. "Happy Birthday!"

Lucius and Severus wished her a happy birthday as well and Emily couldn't stop the smile from spreading across her own face. She had never had people truly care enough about her to celebrate her birthday before, this feeling was entirely new to her.

Brunch was promptly served now that everyone was seated, the group all enjoyed their Eggs Benedict which was Emily's favorite breakfast food. Since coming to the manor the young witch had tried many new things but when it came to breakfast nothing could beat Eggs Benedict in her mind. She wished Harry would have agreed to come here so he could share all this with her. She shook her head, she shouldn't dwell on it, she knew it would only sour her mood and what was the point over something she could not change, Harry had made his decision.

"Shall we go open presents?" Narcissa asked rising and heading into the small lounge just off the dining room. They all rose following the blonde woman from the room. When Emily entered the room, she was greeted with a large pile of gifts.

"You really didn't have to get me anything," she said taking in the sight. "You have already done so much for me!"

"Hush, come and sit, you are in our care and we haven't given you anything less than you should have had all along."

Emily sat in her favorite spot on the chaise by the fire and began to open her gifts. From Severus she had received a gold cauldron which was used in brewing certain advanced potions. He had also given her two rare potion texts she had been wanting. Draco had given her a charm bracelet. It had a snake to represent Slytherin House, an Egyptian ankh represented both her love of ancient Egypt and life, and the third charm was an onyx stone which is believed to be able to help in healing the traumas of one's past.

Narcissa had bought her the Burberry coat she had seen in Muggle London when shopping, another pair of UGGs and a set of nail polishes that she could take to school with her. She opened Lucius' gift last and immediately ran to the man hugging him. He had bought her the brand new Nimbus Two Thousand and One broomstick. It was the newest Nimbus model on the market and also the fastest broom in production. It had an ebony handle with silver rotating stirrups. On the end of the handle in silver leaf letters was 'Nimbus 2001'.

After she had thanked everyone profusely Draco helped Emily take all her gifts back to her room. Upon opening the door to her bedroom she noticed that it wasn't empty. There standing before her was a House Elf, but it wasn't wearing the uniform the Malfoy elves wore. Emily looked to Draco who seemed to be trying to figure out if he knew this elf or not.

"Hello," Emily said letting the elf know he was no longer alone.

"The great Emily Potter!" the elf exclaimed turning to face her. "It is an honor miss…"

Emily looked to Draco who shrugged. He obviously couldn't place the elf and had no idea why it was here. "Uh… thank you," Emily said. "You know my name, but may I ask what your name is?"

"I am Dobby miss," he said sinking into a deep bow.

"It's nice to meet you Dobby. Is there a reason you are in my room?"

"Oh yes… well… Dobby has come to you miss… it is…" the elf seemed to be nervous but she waited patiently. When she realized he was struggling to decide what to say she took in his appearance, his hand was wrapped in a bandage and there seemed to be a few bruises on his body. He wore an old stained pillowcase making her wonder who he belonged to. All the Malfoy elves wore black robes with the Malfoy crest on it.

"Dobby are you okay? Is your hand hurt?"

Emily thought she had said something wrong as the elf burst into tears. "Oh Dobby I'm sorry," she said moving to console the elf.

"The great Emily Potter asks about poor Dobby! You is so kind!" he said letting Emily kneel before him and pat his shoulder.

"Dobby, can you tell me what family you serve?" The elf shook his head no. "Okay, so they didn't send you?"

The elf shook his head again, "Dobby has come to warn miss!"

"Warn me?" she shared a look with Draco.

"Terrible things are to happen miss! Dobby must protect the brave Emily Potter!"

"What is going to happen, Dobby?"

"I cannot say miss!" the elf looked upset with himself, he was wringing his long fingers in nervousness. He turned to acknowledge Draco for the first time. "Young mister Malfoy you must keep her safe!"

Draco stepped forward, "Emily is safe with my family, but it would help if we knew what we were keeping her safe from?"

"Horrible things have been planned… Hogwarts is not safe! You must protect the great Emily Potter!" the elf looked pleadingly at Draco.

"The House of Malfoy protects her Dobby. She is safe with us." Draco looked to Emily who was trying to process what the elf was saying. What was planned for this coming year that could make this elf worry for her safety?

"What at Hogwarts isn't safe Dobby?" The elf squeaked and looked at her pleadingly to understand. "Dobby, is your master involved? Is that why you can't say something?" He grabbed his ear and began to pull on them while looking around the room.

"You cannot punish yourself in this home," Draco told the elf.

Dobby stopped looking around but gave his ears one last tug before releasing them.

"Dobby, does this have anything to do with what happened at the end of the year?" Emily asked.

The elf looked pained, "Oh Dobby knows the great Emily Potter escapes Dark Lord for a second time… She is very great to escape him twice!" Emily looked at Draco who again seemed to be at a loss.

"Maybe I should go get my father," Draco said but Dobby jumped putting his hand in front of him.

"I must go! Dobby must leave! Protect the great Emily Potter!" with another deep bow the elf was gone.

Emily and Draco were quiet for a few moments as they stared at the spot the elf had just left. Emily was the first to recover and called out, "Mipsy!"

The elf the Malfoy's had assigned to take care of Emily popped into her room giving a small bow of her head, "Mistress Emily calls Mipsy."

"I need you to go get Lucius, and Severus if he is still here. Tell them to come to my room."

"Right away Mistress," with another nod of her head she disappeared.

"Dray, help me put all of this away while we wait," Emily said pointing to all her birthday gifts. The two got to work and had just sat down on Emily's bed when they heard a knock at the door.

"Come in," Emily called. Lucius opened the door and was followed into the room by Severus. They walked over to the bed the two teens were sitting on and joined them.

"Is everything alright?" Lucius asked, his face showed concern at being summoned.

The teens both hesitated before Emily launched into telling the two men about the strange visit from Dobby the house elf. "And then he left after telling Draco to protect me. He seemed really worried," Emily finished.

"I see," said Lucius looking over at his friend. "Severus and I will look into it. The elf called himself Dobby?" Emily and Draco nodded. "Okay why don't you two go out for a fly and we will call you in for dinner." Emily and Draco agreed grabbing their brooms to head out to the practice pitch. One of the many perks of being at the Manor was the Malfoys had a Quidditch pitch complete with regulation hoops to practice on.

For the first part of summer when they played Emily rode a Comet 260 from the broom shed. Now Emily couldn't wait to try out her new broom. Draco had received a Nimbus 2001 as a late birthday present when they had come home from Hogwarts for the summer and now she had her very own. Once Emily kicked off the ground she fell in love with her gift. It moved at the slightest touch as she raced with Draco around the pitch.

When they were called into dinner both teens were exhausted. They enjoyed a dinner of roast chicken followed by Emily's birthday cake that was shaped like a stack of books. The book on the top of the pile was green and had the Slytherin crest with 'Happy Birthday Emily' written on it.It was perfect.

When Emily got back to her room that night she noticed that there was a small pile of packages on her bed that Mipsy must have dropped off. A soft hoot drew her attention to Apollo who was sitting on his perch with a letter and package tied to his leg. She walked over and petted Apollo, letting him affectionately nip at her fingers when she gave him a treat. She untied the letter and went over to her bed deciding to open the other packages first. As she opened them she realized they were birthday gifts from her friends. Blaise had gotten her a broomstick care kit. Obviously, he had known she was getting a broom.

Marcus Flint had sent her a Puddlemere United Jersey and a book on the team's history. She was shocked to see Theo had sent her a beautiful silver hand mirror that had a snake winding around the handle with green emerald eyes. She set her gifts aside and reached for the letter and package Apollo had brought back.

Our Dearest Emmykins,

First we must thank you for the idea of adding less flobberworms to the potion. You were right it reduced the thickness. As for your brother, Ron has not heard from him either. He has written several times with no response. We are planning to break him out in a few days. The next night Dad has a raid to go to for work we are going to sneak out and get him. So no worries the magnificent Gred and Forge are on it! We will write to you when we have him. Promise! We have added a little gift for our dear little Snake!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Your loyal pranksters extraordinaire,

Gred and Forge

Emily smiled as she reached over to open the package. Inside she found a beautiful green quill and of course a bundle of blood pops. She had a feeling she would never run out of blood pops with Fred and George around.

That night when Emily went to bed her thoughts drifted to her brother. While she felt a little better that she wasn't the only one he hadn't written to she was worried about why he hadn't even written to Ron, his best friend. She hoped he was okay and that Fred and George could get to him soon.