Chapter 1: Magic VS. The law

It was a particularly hot summer in Surrey, people had trouble keeping themselves cool, so most of them stayed inside their houses. Despite this, in the local playground there sat a teenage girl on the swing, with long black hair, round glasses on her face and a scar in the form of lightning on her forehead. She was wearing a grey t-shirt with jeans and white sneakers. Her name was Helena Potter. Though she had lost her parents, to he who should not be named, she now lived with the Dursley family, they were terrible relatives from her mother's side and they just hated Helena for nothing more than being a witch.

Fortunately for Helena, she didn't need to stay long with them. Only two months a year, the other ten months she spent in Hogwarts, a school for wizards and witches. She loved the place as if it was her home.

Helena was slowly swinging as she watched the last child going home with their mother. She looked up at the sky as she saw that there were storm clouds forming rapidly overhead.

"That's impossible, the weather channel announced that there was a heat wave going on, it wasn't suppose to rain in weeks"; she announced to herself.

She heard voices coming from her left and turned to see who had arrived finding that it was her cousin Dudley Dursley with four of his friends. The group of six walked up to Helena who was still sitting on the swing. They were acting very full of themselves, laughing at Helena in a smug way.

"What, did you beat up another 10 year old?"; She asked her arrogant cousin in her usual sarcastic fashion.

Dudley smiled, "This one deserved it". His group of friends laughed at his statement.

Helena sighed and looked at the group, "Oh yeah, five against one... Real brave".

"Well, you're one to talk. At least I'm not scared of my pillow!" Dudley replied.

Helena gave her cousin a flat look. Dudley began to elaborate,

"They're hurting him... They're gone kill me mom. Where is your mom, Potter ? ...Is she dead?" Dudley joked in a mocking tone.

Helena growled at Dudley; "Stop it!"

"...Is she dead?"; Dudley continued, oblivious to Helena's building anger.

Helena lost it, in a split of a second she had grabbed her wand from where she'd tucked it into her jeans and placed it under the double chin of Dudley.

Not knowing about witches and wizards, Dudley's friends laughed at the poor threat of Helena's little stick. Even tough Dudley looked very concerned about that exact same stick. The laughing quickly stopped as it suddenly became dark. The storm clouds from earlier had now completely covered the sun and turned the sky completely grey.

"What are you doing?" Dudley asked nervously.

"I'm not doing anything!" Helena replied with a hint of worry in her voice.

Everyone looked up at the sky as a droplet fell on Helena's face, it ran down her cheek like a tear. Another droplet fell, then another and another until it was raining heavily.

The group ran as fast as they could, out of the playground and towards the shelter of the houses. Dudley's friends ran one way as he and Helena ran the other. The two entered an abandoned tunnel, to shelter for the rain. The tunnel was dark and murky looking, as some of the lights were flickering. It was quiet, to quiet. Suddenly it became freezing cold.

Dudley rubbed his arms; "H-How is t-this possible, i-i-it's freaking s-summer".

Helena looked up at the lights as she saw the lamps freeze over one bye one.

"Dementors..."; she hissed.

It became pitch-dark. The only sound was the whimpering of Dudley. Not being able to see in the dark, Helena followed the whimpers and found her cousin. She grabbed him by his hand as Dudley started to scream.

"Oh pipe down, would ya? It's just me"; she gently scolded her coward cousin.

"R-Right, i knew that"; Dudley replied.

Helena rolled her eyes as she guided Dudley trough the tunnel by placing her hand against the wall and kept walking step by step. They went on for a while as Helena suddenly stopped.

"What's the hold up?"; Dudley asked.

Helena stayed silent for a sec, until she stated; "Something is wrong, this tunnel isn't suppose to be this long.

Just when she said that, she could hear an all too familiar sound; the rattling breathing of a dementor. The lights flashed back on. Helena and Dudley screamed as they quickly covered their eyes, which had not adjusted to the light yet. Still holding onto Dudley's hand, Helena turned around and basically dragged Dudley back they way they came. They ran for what felt like hours but like likely only a few minutes, until Helena finally found the courage to look behind them. To her surprise, she found that nobody was following them. As a result, they slowed down and stopped for a breather.

"Why did you turn around back there?" Dudley asked while panting.

Helena looked at her cousin, "Because of the dementor of course". She reasoned flatly.

Dudley gave her look of mild confusion and distaste, "Have you lost it? There was nothing there".

Helena just stood there with wide eyes and open mouth. Eventually she came to her senses and just came to the conclusion that muggles can't see dementors. She walked over to the side of the tunnel, leaned her back against the wall and let herself slide down in a sitting position.

Dudley's breathing had calmed down and was back to normal; "What, tired already? You are pathetic".

Helena didn't have the energy to react to her stupid cousins comment. She didn't know what was going on, but she felt really dizzy all of a sudden and her head had begun to pound something fierce. Her entire body felt cold, as if she was inside a block of ice and her skin became very pale. Even Dudley started to become worried at the sight of Helena.

Helena took a deep breath and used the wall to get herself up again. She was a little shaky on her legs, but she was able to stand. Helena continued to walk down the tunnel as Dudley felt something grab his leg, but as he looked, nothing was there. Helena heard her cousin panic and turned to face Dudley as she watched in horror how a dementor dragged Dudley away by his leg.

"Dudley!" she stumbled after her cousin.

A second dementor popped seemingly out of nowhere and tackled Helena to the ground. She lost her wand in the progress. She could no longer do a thing as the nausea took over her body, and the dementor sucked all the happiness out of her. She closed her eyes as her ears started to ring, she could hear her mother scream, even though it was faint. Just when all hope seemed lost, Helena's body started to emit an orange glow. The dementor paused his lunch of happiness, to see what was happening.

The same orange glow that came from Helena's body appeared around the wand that she had dropped earlier. The dementor could do nothing but watch as the wand flew slowly into Helena's hand. From the second the wand touched Helena's hand, she opened her eyes again, "EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

A blinding, dazzling, silver deer appeared in a gallant run, dragging the dementor away into the dark parts of the tunnel. Helena could hear the two dementors scream. The cold and darkness faded away, at the same time Helena fell to her knees.

"D-Dudley..." was the last thing she could utter before falling unconscious.

***3 hours later***

"...na".

" H-e...ena!"

"Helena!"

With a gasp, Helena jolted awake.

"Easy girl, easy. You're safe, the dementors are gone"; a familiar voice stated.

Helena took a closer look to where she was. She was at the house of ...Mrs. Figg?

Arabella Doreen Figg is Helena Potter's neighbor and was often called on to watch Helena when the Dursleys went on some fun outing or other, such as Dudley's birthday parties. She is a classy old lady with too many cats.

"No, it's Pinocchio"; She replied in a sarcastic tone.

"W-wha... where...why...huh?"; Helena asked confused.

"You forgot ...WHO"; Mrs. Figg giggled.

After Helena had come to her senses, she was finally able to ask; "Why am I here? Where's Dudley? How do you know about dementors? What-"

Before Helena could ask a mountain of questions, Mrs. Figg raised her hand to silence her ; "Whoa, whoa, hold your horses, please. I know I have a lot of explaining to do... but where do i start? First of all, there is something that you should know about me, I'm what's known as a squib. My parents were a wizard and a witch, unfortunately, I didn't inherit their magical abilities. I do know however about the wizarding world".

Helena just kept staring, dumbfounded, at Mrs. Figg.

"I bet my left arm on it that Dumbledore hasn't mentioned me once to you, did he? In any case that old geezer had asked me to keep an eye on you, you know, so I could warn him in case of an emergency. Just like what had happened with those dementors earlier, I already sent him an owl. To answer your question about your cousin, he's lying upstairs in the guest room. The dementor really did a number on him, your patronus saved him in the nick of time, he almost got "the kiss". He's going to be fine after a long nap. I also informed your aunt and uncle. Don't worry, I told them that Dudley became unwell on the way home and that I found you taking care of him, so I offered my assistance." Mrs. Figg continued

"Now, about you... The only reason I found the two of you, was because i saw a blue and then an orange glow coming out of that tunnel when I was coming back from getting groceries. I figure the blue glow was your patronus, but what was that orange one? I told my story, now it's your turn." She stated.

Helena sighed, she explained everything, from feeling dizzy to emitting an orange glow that delivered her wand back to her. It was silent for a while, Mrs. Figg stared with wide eyes to Helena.

It made Helena feel uncomfortable, "D-Did I say something wrong?"

Mrs. Figg came out of her trance and shook her head; "No, I was just surprised that's all. I didn't think you would be one of them".

Helena looked at her neighbor confused.

"Between the ages of 13 and 16 some wizards (mostly purebloods) in the wizarding world would gain a special ability. An extremely small amount of those wizards, get even multiple ability's, mostly psychic in nature, and can be done without a wand: some gain fortune telling powers and become seers, others gain natural shapeshifting powers and become Metamorphagus, other abilities involves Telepathy, Telekinesis, Teleporting and so on, when such abilities manifest, those that have it must be registered in the ministry to be monitored properly"; Mrs. Figg explained.

Now Helena was the one, staring with wide eyes. She needed a second to let all this information sink in. The silence was broken by an owl with a letter aimed at Helena, it was a howler of the ministry.

"Dear Ms Potter, We have received intelligence that you performed the Patronus Charm at twenty-three minutes past nine this evening in a Muggle-inhabited area and in the presence of a Muggle. The severity of this breach of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery has resulted in your expulsion from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Ministry representatives will be calling at your place of residence shortly to destroy your wand. As you have already received an official warning for a previous offence under Section 13 of the International Confederation of Warlocks' Statute of Secrecy, we regret to inform you that your presence is required at a disciplinary hearing at the Ministry of Magic at 9 a.m. on the twelfth of August. Hoping you are well, Yours sincerely, Mafalda Hopkirk, Improper Use of Magic Office Ministry of Magic" the howler informed before turning itself to ash.

To make matters even worse, Petunia and Vernon Dudley had entered Mrs. Figg's house and had heard everything the howler had said. The two were standing in the door opening of the room, as Vernon's face was red of anger. He ran towards Helena and dragged her of the couch by her long hair. He threw Helena against the wall and pointed with his sausage looking finger at Helena; "How dare you to use magic on my son, after all the things we've done for you. What did you do to him? What is a Patronus charm?"

Vernon was interrupted by Mrs. Figg firmly stepping in, "Mr. Dursley, I will not tolerate any form of violence in my house! Now you and your wife are going to shut your mouths, grab a chair and listen to me as I'll explain what happened with Helena and Dudley, or do I need to call the helpline for child abuse?"

With much reluctance, Vernon did as he was told, so did Petunia, who was in shock from the recent events. Helena went to sit back on the couch and let her head hang in sadness as Mrs. Figg told everything that had happened to the smallest details. When she was done, Vernon kind of felt guilty for throwing Helena against the wall. He was about to apologize when they heard rumbling upstairs.

"Ah, it seems Dudley is finally awake" Mrs. Figg stated.

The Dursleys jumped up as they watched Dudley stumble down the stairs. Helena's cousin didn't say a word and looked as pale as a ghost. Petunia and Vernon ran up to him and hugged him, but Dudley didn't respond. He wriggled himself free from his parents grip, and walked over to Helena.

"...Thank you" Dudley murmured.

He went to sit on the couch next to Helena. Vernon and Petunia stared at him with open mouths. Vernon looked at Mrs. Figg, thanked her for her help and gestured to the children that they were going home. Without saying a word, the two followed Vernon and Petunia outside. Before Helena left the room, Mrs. Figg stopped her to give her one last piece of advice; "If i were you, i wouldn't tell anyone about your special magic powers. Definitely not in the ministry of magic, don't say anything about it in court".

Helena nodded and followed her uncle, aunt and cousin into their house. Once inside, she walked upstairs towards her room, locked the door behind her and went to lay on the bed as tears ran down her face.

The days flew by, days turned into weeks and before they noticed, it was already august. Tomorrow, Helena would have to go to court. Nobody knew how she was doing because nobody had heard from her since the incident. Even the Dursley's were a tad worried about her. Helena was a wreck, the last few weeks, she had locked herself in her room, she only showed herself once in a while to eat a little or take a shower.

Dumbledore had sent a letter to the Dursleys, informing them that Mr. Weasley would pick Helena up to take her to court. That night Helena couldn't sleep, she was way to nervous and scared... scared that she would lose the only place she called home. Just as promised, that morning, Ron's father stood in front of their door.

"A good morning to you all, I'm Mr. Weasley. I'm here to pick up Helena" he stated with a sad smile.

Vernon nodded and let the man inside his home. Mr. Weasley looked around, studying the home of the muggles. Petunia was holding the shoulders of Dudley, who was standing in front of her. Mr. Weasley noticed them.

"You must be Dudley, it's a pleasure to meet you" Mr. Weasley wanted to shake his hand.

Before Mr. Weasley could do so, Vernon cleared his throat, "Helena is upstairs getting ready".

Mr. Weasley stared at Helena's uncle "Right".

He retracted his hand as they all looked at the stairs. Helena was just coming down, not noticing Mr. Weasley in the hall. Mr. Weasley could not believe in how terrible shape Helena was. She was very pale and she looked like she lost some weight. Helena was wearing a beige dress and black high heels, her hair was in a neatly done ponytail.

"H...Helena?"; Mr. Weasley tried to get her attention.

Helena looked up and at the sight of Mr. Weasley a single tear rolled down her cheek.

Mr. Weasley came up to her and hugged her tightly. He broke the hug and gently lifted Helena's head. He looked at her with sorrow in his eyes as he wiped away the tear with his thumb, "It's gonna be okay".

Helena nodded. They both left the house. When they stood on the sidewalk, Helena turned around one last time, to see her uncle, aunt and cousin standing in the doorway. They gently waved at her, Helena had a soft smile on her face but it disappeared as soon as it came up. She let her head hang again as she continued her journey with Mr. Weasley to the metro station, where they would take the metro to the Ministry of Magic.