(Hey guys so sorry about the slowness in getting chapters up. I actually have quite a few new chapters started for my fanfics and some are almost finished. It's just been a trip trying to figure out how to finish the chapters. So I hope you enjoy this one. I own nothing but Lucy.)
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The summer went by slower than the Potters had ever imagined it would. The Dursleys kept them busy of course, but somehow the drudging list of chores they'd always had to complete since the day they were able to walk seemed more drudging and tiresome than before.
To top it off there had been no letters from any of their friends all summer.
"Any letters today?" Lucy asked Harry in a whisper as she slipped into their bedroom after finishing in the powder room. Hedwig chirped as if to answer her and Harry put a finger to his lips.
"Shh!..No, still no letters. Why? Are you expecting one?" He teased as he usually did when his sister would ask about the mail. Lucy shot him an indignant look.
"I was only asking!" She sighed, sitting down at the foot of the bed they shared whilst picking up her cat.
Athene mewed to be put down.
"I know." Harry muttered under his breath. He sighed and up higher against the headboard. "The real problem here is Hedwig." He turned to nod at his pet who was as usual whickering to be let out to stretch her wings.
Lucy sighed in agreement. "Yeah if she doesn't pipe down, Uncle Vernon might-." She started and stopped when she heard her Uncle shout from the main level of the house.
Harry winced. "Now you've done it." He turned to scowl a bit at the owl before hopping off the bed. Lucy reluctantly followed.
"Be good." She pleaded with Hedwig before gently dropping Athene back onto the floor. Hedwig hooted ruefully.
...
"He's in there...Vernon!" Aunt Petunia nodded towards the living room where Uncle Vernon was standing in front of a mirror fixing Dudley's bowtie.
The twins gulped as one and made their way slowly out of the kitchen knowing what was coming.
"They're here, Dad." Dudley turned to greet his cousins with a wicked sneer on his face. Uncle Vernon turned his gaze from the mirror.
"There you are! Now I'm warning you two. If you can't keep that bloody bird under control, it'll have to go and there will be no arguing that point." The big burly man threatened.
Harry and Lucy exchanged glances.
"But Uncle Vernon, she's bored." Harry protested, defending his pet. "If I could only let her out for an hour or two, she might-."
"That is out of the question! Why should I let that creature run free? So she can deliver messages to your freaky little friends? I think not." Uncle Vernon snorted.
"But we haven't got any letters!" Lucy added. "Not from any of our friends for the past two months."
"Pooh!" Dudley scoffed as he reached to fix his tie again. "Who'd want to be friends with you two?" He asked bumping into Harry on his way into the kitchen.
Harry scowled slightly and rubbed his arm though it didn't really hurt much. Lucy matched his expression.
"Get those insolent looks off your faces!" Uncle Vernon ordered sharply. "You ought to be a bit more grateful you know. We raised you both since you were babies, gave you the food off our table, even let you have Dudley's second bedroom, purely out of the goodness of our hearts!" He lectured.
Lucy suppressed to the urge to roll her eyes at the last bit since she didn't want to be punished.
She and Harry both knew the Dursleys only gave them the bedroom because they were afraid of what Hagrid or Dumbledore might do if they kept them in the cupboard.
"Not now Popkin!" The Twins turned when they heard their Aunt exclaim from the kitchen. "Wait till the Masons arrive." She laughed drawing Uncle Vernon's attention.
"Which should be any moment now! Gather around! Gather around!" He motioned with his wide beefy arms as if about to share a wonderous secret.
Harry and Lucy exchanged glances wondering if they ought to sneak back to their bedorom.
"Now then! Let's go back over the schedule again, shall we? Petunia, when the Masons arrive you will be..." Vernon nodded to his wife who smiled and motioned around the living room.
"In the lounge waiting to welcome them graciously into our home."
"Good!" Uncle Vernon approved before turning to his son. "And you Dudley, you will be-."
"I'll be waiting to open the door." Dudley interrupted grinning and looking especially ridiculous with his hair slicked down.
Lucy bit her lip to keep from laughing.
"Good! Good!" Uncle Vernon's smile suddenly faded as he turned to the face the Twins. Dudley and Aunt Petunia followed his gaze.
"And you two?" Lucy's grin fell almost immediately.
Harry clenched his fists. "We'll be in our bedroom. Making no noise and pretending we don't exist." He responded stiffly. Lucy nodded her agreement.
"Too right you will." Uncle Vernon shook his finger at them. "With any luck, this day could well be the day I make the biggest deal of my career and neither of you will mess it up or else." He threatened just as the doorbell rang.
"Oh! There they are now! Places everyone!" Uncle Vernon made shooing motions with his hands as if ordering actors about on a stage.
Harry and Lucy scrambled up the stairs as fast they could, just managing to get inside their bedroom as Dudley answered the door.
"What the...?" Harry paused as he shut the door behind him. There on the bed where he was sure there hadn't been before was a little elf-like creature with long pointed ears and nose and eyes that were the size of Aunt Petunia's best dessert plates.
The creature stopped bouncing when he noticed Harry and Lucy and instead began to laugh in a strange tittering manner.
"Oh!...Harry and Lucy Potter! Such an honor it is!" The creature hopped off the bed. Harry slowly approached him.
"Who...who are you?" He asked furrowing his eyebrows. In response, the little creature bowed so low that his ears brushed against the floor.
"Dobby Sir. Dobby the House Elf." He looked from Harry to Lucy with a wide eyed fascination that made the younger Potter feel a bit uncomfortable.
"Uh not to be rude Dobby, but this isn't the best time for us to have a house elf in our bedroom." Lucy tried to be polite. Dobby nodded his head.
"Oh, oh yes Miss. Dobby understands. It's just that..Dobby has come to tell you...it's difficult Miss...Dobby wonders..where to begin...?" The elf began to pace back and forth in front of the bed.
Harry and Lucy exchanged glances. "Well..." Harry cleared his throat. "Why don't you sit down?" He motioned to the only chair that was in the room.
Dobby froze at the suggestion. "S..sit down? S-s-sit down?" He exclaimed as if Harry had just asked him to jump out of their second story window.
Lucy started to ask Dobby what was wrong, when the elf suddenly burst into tears. His crying was loud and the twins were sure that the Dursleys could hear him.
"Shh! Dobby Shh! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to offend you or anything, but you're being too loud!" Harry tried to shush him. Dobby stopped crying.
"Offend Dobby, Sir? Dobby has heard of your kindnesses, but never has he been asked to sit down by a wizard or a witch like an equal." He rubbed at his eyes.
Lucy gaze turned sad. "That's awful. You can't have known many decent wizards and witches, Dobby." She bent to get at eye level with the creature.
Dobby started to nod his head. "No, I haven't." He started to hang his head then froze as if struck by a cattle prod. To the Twins horror, he turned and started beating himself with the old desk lamp the twins had as their only light source in the room.
Frightened and worried that her Uncle might come up, Lucy hurriedly reached to take the lamp from Dobby. "Dobby stop it! You'll hurt yourself and besides! If my Aunt and Uncle hear you-."
"I'm sorry Miss." Dobby interrupted looking quite upset and remorseful. "But Dobby had to punish himself, Miss. Dobby almost spoke badly of his family." He explained toeing the rough wooden floor with one of his odd bare feet.
"Your family?" Harry asked coming to join Lucy. "The wizard family Dobby serves, Sir." Dobby turned his gaze towards Harry. "Dobby is bound to serve one family forever and if they ever knew Dobby was here..." Dobby suddenly flinched and turned towards the window as if expecting someone to be there, but there was only Lucy's cat Athene perched on the window sill.
"...But Dobby had to come Sir! Dobby has to protect Harry and Lucy Potter! To warn them...you must not go back to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year!"
"Not go back?! We have to go back! All our friends are there and so is Hagrid!" Lucy interrupted.
Dobby's ears drooped. "But there is a plot Miss! A plot to make the most terrible things happen!" He pleaded.
Harry frowned. "Terrible things? What terrible things? Who's plotting them?" He asked. Dobby started to answer then he stopped himself.
"No no! Bad Dobby! Bad Dobby!" He turned and began to hit his head on the Twins' closet.
Lucy made a grab for his arm, but missed. Athene hissed at the noise the elf was making.
"Dobby no!" Harry tried to pull the creature away to little avail. "Get away from there!" Lucy tried to help and froze when she heard quick footsteps coming up the stairs.
"Shoot! It's Uncle Vernon! Harry hurry!" She pried one of Dobby's hands loose from the handle of the wardrobe. Harry nodded and yanked Dobby away from the closet.
Without much thought he kicked open the door and threw the elf inside before locking him in, hissing at him to be quiet just as Uncle Vernon burst into the bedroom.
"Just what the devil do you two think you're doing up here?" He growled, his face turning a deep shade of red.
Lucy looked at her feet. "I..w-w-we were just-." Harry tried to explain, but Uncle Vernon cut him off. "You just ruined the punch line of my Japanese golfer joke!"
Lucy swallowed hard. "Sorry. It's just...the wardrobe door was loose and Harry was trying to fix it..." She lied nimbly hoping her Uncle wouldn't see through her.
"Well one more sound out of either of you and you'll wish you've never been born! Do I make myself clear?" He turned his steely unfriendly gaze from Harry to Lucy until both siblings nodded in acknowledgement.
"Yes, Sir."
"And fix that door!" Uncle Vernon pointed a large pudgy finger at the closet before leaving the room, slamming the door after himself for good measure.
Lucy sighed in relief while Harry went to open the closet door to let Dobby out. "See why we've got to go back?" He asked as the elf stumbled out breathlessly into the bedroom.
"We have to go back to Hogwarts! It's the only place we belong...with our friends!" He insisted, thinking of Ron, Hermione, Hagrid, the Weasley Twins, even Neville.
Dobby cocked his round head to the side. "Friends who don't even write to Harry and Lucy Potter?" He asked making Lucy frown. "Well I expect they've been..." She began and stopped herself.
"Hang on! How do you know our friends haven't been writing to us?" Lucy asked. Dobby flinched as if expecting a blow.
"Harry and Lucy mustn't be angry with Dobby...Dobby thought, that is he hoped that if Harry and Lucy Potter thought their friends had forgotten them, they might not want to go back to school." He explained as he slowly pulled a bundle of letters from behind his back.
Lucy felt the blood rush into her cheeks when she saw the letters. The one on top was addressed to her.
"Dobby..." Harry held out his hand carefully towards the elf. "Give me those letters." Dobby's eyes grew wide and quickly tried to stuff them into the dirty old pillowcase he was wearing.
Lucy grabbed his arm. "Give us those!" She snapped, managing to the grab the letter that was on top of the stack.
"No!" Dobby quickly hid away the rest of the letters and made a dash out of the Potters' bedroom.
Harry ran after him, Lucy at his heels as the little elf ran into Aunt Petunia's kitchen ducking behind the table where the fancy party pudding Aunt Petunia had been working on sat gleaming and delicious on a beautiful porcelain platter.
Lucy paled when she saw that Dobby had noticed the pudding and was eyeing it thoughtfully. "Dobby! Get back here!" Harry whispered frantically, hoping that the Dursleys wouldn't hear him.
Dobby looked right at the twins then snapped his fingers loudly, causing the pudding to rise from the platter and float right over the fancy hat and hair of Mrs. Mason the wife of Uncle Vernon's client.
Lucy shook her head at him. "Dobby please don't!" She begged, whispering as loud as she dared. Dobby raised his chin.
"Harry and Lucy Potter must first promise that they will not go back to Hogwarts." He pressed. For a second the Twins hesitated then they shook their heads simultaneously.
"Dobby we can't! Hogwarts is our home." Harry protested, eyeing the pudding with a sinking feeling in his stomach.
Lucy was already sneaking her way across the back of the parlor though, hoping to catch the pudding before it fell on Mrs. Mason. Dobby hung his head.
"Then Dobby must do it, Sir. For Harry and Lucy Potter's own good." He snapped his fingers again and the pudding fell right through Lucy's outstretched hands all over Mrs. Mason's hair and face.
Harry stood just as Dobby disappeared into thin air. Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and Mr. Mason turned to stare at Lucy in horror.
"Ohhh I'm so sorry! Its my niece, she's very disturbed they both are and meeting strangers upsets them. That's why I kept her and her brother upstairs!" Uncle Vernon spluttered as he attempted to explain while shooting Lucy and Harry death glares at the same time.
Harry swallowed hard. We're in for it now.
...
After a sound scolding and ear boxing, the Dursleys left the Potters alone in their room for the rest of the night though the Potters could hear them arguing with each other as they tried to sleep on the one bed they were forced to share.
The next day, Aunt Petunia tried to confiscate all the Twins' magic things, but Harry and Lucy moved fast and hid all the most important things in their trunks under the bed.
Then Uncle Vernon came later in the afternoon and drilled a set of bars over the Potters bedroom window muttering about freaky friends and unnaturalness.
The Twins didn't even bother asking about a ride to Kings Cross Station especially since the Dursleys had locked their bedroom door to keep them from sneaking out to get to school.
To make things worse, it was their birthday. Their twelfth birthday to be exact and there wasn't even enough dust on the furniture to make another dirt cake like Lucy did last year at the sea shack.
The only note of comfort, at least for Lucy was the letter she managed to retrieve from Dobby before he disappeared.
She'd already read it twice already, but she was reading it again since there was nothing better to do.
"Are you reading that letter again?" Harry asked as he turned the page in one of his old magic books from last year.
Lucy folded the letter. "I wish I could have grabbed the others. I bet Ron and Hermione think we forgot about them." She tucked the letter into the pocket of her nightdress before snuggling under the sheets.
Harry sighed and closed the book. "I hope not. It's bad enough that that elf is keeping us from going back to Hogwarts!" He flopped down against the pillows.
Lucy turned and nudged Harry with her elbow. "Hey Harry?...Do you really think that there's a plot like Dobby said there was? What could be so bad that he'd want us to stay home from school?" She wondered.
Harry shrugged. "I don't know. Whatever it is, I still want to go back to Hogwarts. It can't be as bad as what happened last year." He grumbled and turned over to face the window, leaving Lucy alone with her thoughts.
The hours passed and the Twins started to doze off when the sound of a car pulling up caught their attention.
Harry got up first and went to open the window. "Hiya Harry! Lucy!" Ron beamed as he peeked in at the Twins.
Lucy crawled over the bed and grinned when she saw he wasn't alone. "Ron!...Fred, George! What are you all doing here?" She asked as the wind blew her hair back.
Fred leaned towards the window. "Rescuing you two of course! Now come on! Hurry and get your trunks!" He urged as George pulled a long chain with a hook from the back seat of the car.
Harry and Lucy grabbed their trunks from under the bed and rushed back towards the window just as Ron and Fred managed to hook the chain to the bars at the window.
Athene wove herself around Lucy's legs and Hedwig hooted nervously as she fluttered in her cage next to Harry's trunk.
"You two might want to stand back a bit!" Ron warned just before he floored the gas pedal on the car.
Lucy covered her ears as the car rumbled loudly through the open window. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia were sure to hear that.
Suddenly there was a crash and the Weasley Twins crowed as the bars Uncle Vernon had fastened fell with a crash onto the lawn below.
George opened his door and reached out his hands at the same time that Ron offered his. "Hurry! Throw us your trunks! We're getting you out of here!" The older Weasley hollered as a light came on in the hallway.
Lucy panicked and tossed over her trunk quickly before grabbing Athene in her arms. Harry jumped in through the front door throwing his trunk at Fred as he landed in a heap with Hedwig in his arms.
Lucy was about to jump after him into the back seat when Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia burst into the bedroom.
"Vernon they're escaping!" Aunt Petunia shrieked making Lucy panic as they rushed into the bedroom. Uncle Vernon made a grab for her just as she leapt from the window sill, and grabbed her around the ankle just as George caught her by the hands.
"Hey let go!" Lucy screamed as she tightened her grip on George. Harry leaned over and grabbed her arm. "Step on it Ron!" He shouted as Lucy's grip started to weaken.
Ron mashed on the gas and the car sped forward, pulling Uncle Vernon clear out the Potters' bedroom window.
Aunt Petunia screamed as he lost his grip, landing painfully on a row of bushes at the bottom of the house.
Lucy barely had time to breathe a sigh of relief before Harry and George yanked her into the car.
"There!" George sighed as he pulled the door shut and hit the lock. "That was a close one! Thought we were going to lose you out there for a second, Lu." He grinned, mopping the sweat from his face with the sleeve of his pajamas.
Lucy blushed slightly. "For a second so did I." She murmured, looking down when she heard Athene mew distressedly from the bottom of the car. George settled down next to her as Lucy gently picked up the cat and cuddled her close to her chest.
"You okay now though?" He asked, reaching for his seatbelt before buckling Lucy in. Lucy nodded her head.
"By the way you guys," Ron peeked through the rearview mirror smiling as he turned the flying car away from Privet Drive. "Happy Birthday! It's today isn't it?" He asked looking down to switch on the headlights.
Harry and Lucy nodded their heads. "Yeah thanks Ron. Thanks a million." Harry smiled and squirmed a bit to get comfortable in the front seat.
He turned to exchange glances with Lucy and she smiled back at him reassuringly.
"Next stop the Burrow!" Fred hit the invisibility switch. Lucy turned to look out the window just as the car disappeared into thin air.
...