The summer was not as bad as Harry had expected it to be. True, the Dursleys initially locked all of his school stuff in the cupboard, almost immediately after they had picked him up from the station, but later on he was allowed to keep them in his room. Maybe the Dursleys had gotten a bit scared over time; they were unaware of the fact that he was not allowed to do magic outside of school. Harry mostly spent his time doing homework in his room and avoided the Dursleys a bit.

Around the house not much had changed since last summer, except of course for the swimming pool that was now in the backyard. Julie's gymnastics coach had urged his players that they should all be swimming a lot this summer, as it trained both the arms and the legs. Julie, however, complained that public swimming pools were 'just plain gross' and therefore Vernon decided to get themselves a private pool. Vernon told anyone who would listen that Julie had become the national U12 girl gymnastics champion; a huge, golden trophy now sat on the fireplace. After a while her father's constant boasting seemed to embarrass her a bit.

'It's not that big of a deal, dad' she mumbled when they stumbled upon a neighbour at the mall, with whom Vernon shared it as well.

'Nonsense, it's a huge deal, you're the pride and joy of our family!' he said loudly in the middle of the hardware store. Harry laughed at Julie's embarrassment, which resulted in her taking a poke at him with her elbow. She then complained to her father that she was bored, and he gave her a note of twenty pounds so she and Harry could get some food. They left the store and walked down the hall, until they got to a store that had a huge candy-filled barrel just outside its entrance. A devious grin spread across Julie's face.

'All right, here's the plan. You go and stand right there, so the shopkeeper's view gets blocked. Then I'll grab a handful' she whispered excitedly.

Harry was shocked. 'Why on earth would you do that? You've got enough money to just buy some!' he said.

'Oh, Harry, you're so cute when you're dumb. It's about the thrill, the rush! Great positioning, now stand perfectly still.' Quick as a flash she grabbed a whole load of candy and stuffed it in her pockets. 'This is where we casually walk away,' she hissed, 'come!' They walked around the corner and Harry, only now realising what had happened, glared at her.

'Are you out of your mind? Don't drag me into your mischief!' Harry said angrily.

Julie carefully looked around and then offered him some sweets. 'Here you go, fairly earned. You did well back there.'

'Good one' Harry said, refusing the candy.

Julie just rolled her eyes. 'Fine, more for me. Serves that mong of a shopkeeper right to put his goods outside like that. Now let's go for some real food.'

They walked into a self-service restaurant and grabbed a tray. Julie allowed him to get a reasonably large sandwich and a can of soda ('Yeah, whatever.'), and they made their way to the counter. After Julie had paid for their food, they walked into the restaurant.

'One second, I need ketchup,' Harry said and he looked around, 'do you see it?'

'Yeah, right behind me. I know you're wearing glasses, but come on.'

'Oh, I'm sorry, I couldn't see past your gigantic rump' Harry snapped.

Julie slowly turned back to him, put her tray on the table with the sauces, and then, without saying a word, walked up to him and hit his tray right out of his hands. It fell on the floor with a loud bang and the entire restaurant looked at them. 'Oopsy daisy, clumsy me' Julie whispered, before stepping away from him, leaving him with the mess.

The summer days slowly but surely passed. Julie did not actually use the pool to train and instead just spent her time relaxing in it. Sometimes she would invite her friends over, which annoyed Harry as the pool was fairly close to his window and the sounds distracted him from his work. From time to time, Vernon became seriously annoyed by the sounds of Harry's owl Hedwig, and some arguments erupted. Harry tried to explain that she was bored and that it would go much better if only she was allowed out of the cage, but Vernon argued that he did not want Harry communicating with his 'fellow freaks'. Then one time Harry suddenly heard a knock on his door, and Julie came in with his Nimbus 2000.

'Here's your broom back' she said, and she casually threw it onto his bed.

'What in the world were you doing with my broom?' Harry asked angrily. He instinctively got up from his chair.

'I used it to kill a spider' Julie said, and she started to giggle.

'Don't ever touch my stuff again or you're gonna wish you were never born!' Harry said furiously, approaching her to literally push her out of his room. Julie just laughed and stepped backwards out of his room into the hallway.

'Oh, I'm ever so sorry, I didn't know you cared that much about a bunch of twigs' she said mockingly, shooting him one more nasty grin before she went downstairs.

Apart from that, it was sort of okay until the day of his twelfth birthday. The family was having breakfast, and they seemed to have forgotten or simply just ignored the fact that it was his birthday.

'Pass the frying pan!' Julie commanded Harry.

'You've forgotten the magic word' Harry said irritably. Chaos promptly erupted.

'How many times have I told you not to use foul language like that in our house?!' Vernon screamed after he had jumped to his feet. Julie smirked; she loved it when Harry got yelled at.

'I meant 'please', I didn't actually…' Harry tried to explain himself, but Vernon kept screaming.

'I warned you! Don't think I'm messing around, boy, or you'll regret it!'

'All right, I'm sorry' Harry said. Vernon glared at him once more and then changed the subject.

'So, as we all know, today's a very important day.'

For a second Harry thought he meant his birthday, but that was not the case. It was about the dinner party, scheduled for tonight. Vernon wanted to impress a rich builder, so that he could get a very lucrative business deal. If all went well, they would buy themselves a house on Majorca. Julie was very excited about that; there were few places she liked more than the beach. The Dursleys had worked out a whole schedule, almost minute by minute, but Harry's part was the easiest by far: he was to stay in his room all evening and pretend not to exist. They ran through it one more time and then after breakfast Vernon went to pick up his dinner jacket, while Petunia and Julie started baking a gigantic pudding. Harry was told not to bother them and so he went outside. There he went to sit by the pool and absently watched the water.

'Happy birthday to me' he said, feeling quite sad. He had always hated his birthday, because it was a painful reminder that nobody in his household cared about him. The only good birthday he had ever had was his last one, his eleventh, when Hagrid had come to tell him that he was a wizard. Again he had gotten no cards, no presents, nothing. Not that he expected any from the Dursleys, he was smarter than that, but he hated to admit that he was severely disappointed in his Hogwarts friends. Had Ron not invited him to spend the summer at his place? In fact he had not received any letter. Not one. Zilch.

He just sat there for a while, until he heard a voice. 'I know what today is' Julie said as she walked up to him, with one of her signature smug smiles.

'What?' Harry said, abruptly snapping out of his vicious circle of negative thoughts.

'I know what today is,' she repeated, 'it's your birthday! How come you didn't receive any cards or presents? Oh, that's right, you probably don't even have friends in that mental institution you call a school. Like, let's be honest here, who'd possibly want to be friends with you?' She grinned, apparently satisfied with her insults, and Harry had to resist the temptation of pushing her into the pool.

'At least I'm not so insecure about myself that I have to get my satisfaction out of being mean' Harry said coolly.

'What you call being mean is what I call opening you up to the truth.'

'Yeah, your truth' Harry said and he stared at the water again.

'It's nothing personal though, it's just the way you are. And why are you staring at the water?' Julie asked suspiciously.

'I'm trying to figure out how to control it and make it fall on you' he said. She immediately took a few steps away from him.

'I know you're not going to do that, you'll be in so much trouble' she said, but she did not sound convinced. Harry promptly started saying random words, gibberish if you will, and Julie ran away screaming. 'Mum, mummy, he's doing it!'

Harry knew he now was in serious trouble, but did not expect Petunia going as far as trying to hit him with a frying pan. He was then given work to do, and he would not be given any food before he had finished. His chores took hours, and while he was doing them he thought that maybe Julie had been right. Maybe he did not have friends at Hogwarts…

Julie stayed near him for the rest of the afternoon, eating ice cream and watching him work. 'Keep it up, Harry, this is even more entertaining than TV!' About an hour before the builder and his wife were to arrive she went to change into the dress they had bought for the occasion, and Harry finished his chores shortly thereafter. He was given one sandwich and a glass of water and was subsequently sent to his room.

At seven o'clock the guests arrived. The Dursleys were a bit nervous, but Julie remembered what she was supposed to do. 'May I take your coats, Mr and Mrs Mason?' she asked with a smile. They smiled back at her and after hanging up their coats with the utmost care she followed the adults into the living room. When everyone sat down she offered their guests refreshments, while Vernon started telling a well-rehearsed joke. Just before he got to the punchline he got distracted by banging sounds, coming from upstairs.

'Er, Julie must've left her television on' Vernon said, with a meaningful look at his daughter.

'Oh! Yes, probably, my apologies' Julie said quickly, smiling at the Masons before leaving the room. Upstairs she softly knocked on Harry's door and opened it. 'What are you doing? You ruined dad's joke!' she hissed.

'Er, sorry' Harry said, with his hand resting on the wardrobe door. Seeing Julie's dark green dress Harry felt she looked like a Slytherin ready for prom.

'Please be wise. If you mess this up dad won't be happy and then you most definitely won't be happy' she spat.

'You're right' Harry said. She looked at the wardrobe he was still touching and then, much to Harry's relief, went back downstairs. Things went pretty well from there, until Petunia and Julie suddenly saw their massive pudding float in the air! They spotted Harry and Julie clearly formed the word 'no' with her mouth. In shock they watched how the pudding flew towards Mrs Mason, as Harry followed it with his arms outstretched. Then it happened: just before Harry could grab the pudding it fell all over Mrs Mason, who started screaming. Harry stood there frozen with fear, while Vernon immediately tried to save the situation.

'This is just our nephew, he's disturbed, meeting strangers upsets him so we kept him upstairs…'.

It goes without saying that Vernon did not get his deal. He was so furious with his nephew that he locked him into his room and installed bars on his window. 'You're never going back to that school, boy' he said with an evil grin. The Dursleys were now aware that Harry was not allowed to use magic outside of school, as shortly before the Masons ran from their home an owl had come in with a letter. The letter informed Harry, and therefore also the Dursleys, that he had been given a serious warning about using underage magic. Having lost his only weapon, Harry now found himself trapped in his room, only getting two meals a day in addition to two bathroom breaks. Harry had never felt so desperate before. Was there any way out of this situation? What was he going to do?

One night Julie suddenly woke up. She checked her watch and saw it was about three in the morning. She groaned and wondered what had woken her up, until she looked out the window. 'What the hell!' she said aloud. There was a car hovering in front of Harry's window! In the car she saw three red-headed boys. Too surprised to do anything she saw how they attached a rope to Harry's bars.

'You'd better stand back!' she heard one of the boys say. She realised that she should warn her father, but she could not pluck up the courage to leave her room. The flying car shot forward and Harry's bars broke loose. Both the breaking and the bars falling into the yard gave quite a noise, and sure enough Julie heard her parents screaming and getting out of bed.

'Potter!' Vernon screamed and Julie heard him fiddling with the lock on her cousin's door, while the boys quickly loaded Harry's trunk into the car. Julie realised that her father really should have locked Harry's stuff into the cupboard before locking him up in his room. She then heard how her father slammed the door open. 'Petunia, he's escaping!'

Through her window, Julie saw how her father grabbed Harry's leg as he was trying to get inside the car, and how the redheads all started to pull Harry in. 'Let go of me!' Harry screamed.

'Oh no, boy! You and that bloody pigeon aren't going anywhere!'

'Get off!'

The car abruptly started flying away, causing Vernon to fall out the window. Horrified, Julie saw how her father landed in some bushes, and then she quickly shot a final glance at the car that was now rapidly flying away. The muffler shone in the night, all of Privet Drive heard a deafening noise when the boys stepped on the gas pedal with the clutch down, as if they wanted to make clear that they existed, so nobody would doubt that, since that what does not reflect does not exist.

When the car was all but gone, Julie rushed downstairs to see if her father was okay. Thankfully he was perfectly fine, and when Petunia got him inside Julie made him a cup of tea. He ranted on about what had just happened, and Julie could not help but feel somewhat impressed by Harry's friends. And that he had friends in the first place.