Lia was absolutely miserable.
Cooped up in Harry's room, she thought that if she didn't find some miraculous way to escape through, she really, really was going to go insane.
Her brother's quarters were tiny, now that two people were living inside it. When she'd tried complaining to the Dursley's that there was no way she and Harry could both fit on the cramped single bed in the corner, Vernon had attempted to heave in a set of blankets.
Unsurprisingly, it had not fit into the tiny cat-flap he'd had installed – the flap was how she and Harry got their food now – and he had been forced to open the door momentarily and throw the linen and a pillow at Lia's face.
"You can sleep on the floor," he'd said.
She wondered how she could ever have thought that the Dursleys weren't too bad. As soon as they'd got back to the house, she'd confronted Harry's aunt and uncle about they could have 'forgotten' to a) inform her that she wasn't actually a Potter, and b) actually tell her something about who her true parents were.
"So you know now," Petunia had said in her haughty voice. "Good. It was tedious pretending that someone like you, could ever be a blood relative of mine." She'd then launched into a lengthy, heated tirade of abuse towards her and her parents. Lia had zoned out to avoid smashing her fist into Petunia's face, and she'd only caught small snippets.
"Foul, corrupt people they were ... don't know why we ever agreed to take you in ... dangerous ... bad influence on my duddlykins ... evil just like them ... horrible girl."
Presently, Vernon and Petunia were in an atrocious mood, they were always in bad moods, but this time it was even worse than normal. It had started ever since Dobby had gone ahead and dropped that cake on Mrs. Mason's head.
Since both Harry and Lia had denied having anything to do with it, Vernon had decided to just punish the two of them. The only thing Lia had been looking forward to was going back to Hogwarts after the break - now it looked like she would be confined here forever. Looking forward to that, and teasing Dudley. She still remembered the incident that had occurred on that beautiful June day.
She had stood outside Dudley's room. He'd left the door to his bedroom open again.
"What are you doing, Lia?" Dudley had questioned her. "Go away! I'm calling mum."
"Shhh. You'll break my concentration."
"Concentration? Concentration for what?" her cousin looked scared then. "You're not doing magic are you? That's not allowed! I'm telling mum! She'll lock you up again."
"Dudley!" she snapped. "This is urgent. We have no time to discuss mundane matters like that."
"What? What is it? What's urgent?"
"I don't mean to alarm you … but there's a Crup in your room."
"A cup?"
"No, you fool. A Crup."
"What's a crup? You're sprouting your magical nonsense again! I don't see anything."
"Well obviously you don't. They're only visible to those with the magical sight. Didn't you know? Crup's are giant foul dog-wolves, the size of lions. They have the sharpest fangs, and a sizable appetite. Ahh!" she screamed. "Dudley! Dudley, it's eating your … what is that … oh no! It looks like it's going to eat your brand new playstation!" She gasped. "It's a monster. It's horrible." Her face went pale.
"What? No! No! My games! NO! I haven't even had the chance to play them yet!" Dudley looked grief-stricken. "Lia! Do something!"
"I can't use magic remember? You said so yourself. And I'm not looking forward to being stuck in my room all summer!"
"I don't care!" he swore. "Not my games!"
"Don't worry Dudley," she said in a comforting voice. "It'll leave once it's full. It'll probably only want to devour a few more stuff. Maybe your T.V.? Or your bed. Maybe some of your clothes? And then it'll leave. It should be fine."
"Fine? Fine? It's not fine! How will I watch SpongeBob then? Where will I sleep? What'll I wear? Lia, help me!" He paused, looking torn. "Okay, okay I won't tell mother, alright? Just stop the beast."
"Do I have your word? Promises are important things in the wizarding world. If you break this one, all of the hair will fall out off your head, and you'll have no eyebrows for the rest of your life."
"I promise not to say anything, alright? I promise!"
She waited a moment for dramatic effect. "Very well. Just because I'm a good cousin, and I know how upset you'd be if it ate everything of yours. Now, Dudley. I'm going to need your help with this. Here's what you need to do. Are you listening?"
He nodded fervently.
"Grab your secret food stash out from under your bed. Slowly."
"How'd you know it was under my bed?"
"Do you doubt my magic abilities? Fine then, if you don't think I'm a capable witch ... I guess I'll just leave. Maybe you can ask Harry. He's not as kind as me though, and he's in a bad mood, I think you might have to beg."
Dudley looked horrified at the idea of even asking Harry for anything. "Alright! Alright! I'm getting the food." He bent to his knees and pulled it out.
Lia's mouth watered at the sight. Lollies. Chocolate. Chips. Jelly beans. She'd missed eating those.
Dudley looked at her hungry face. His eyes narrowed a little in suspicion. "What good's junk food going to do?"
Lia looked at him emotionlessly, as if he'd just asked her what one plus one equalled. "Have you been listening to anything I've said? Okay, Dudley. I'll dumb it down for you. Monster," she pointed at one corner of the room. "Monster hungry. Monster wants to eat PlayStation. But," she said, now directing her finger at the food now piled on the floor, "Monster eat this food instead."
"So," Dudley said, his face scrunched up again. "Instead of eating my PlayStation and bed and stuff, it'll just take these sweets instead?"
"Precisely. But we can do better. I'm going to trap it. What to do? What to do? I know! Dudley grab that bag there for me. And put all the food in it."
"Okay, … done."
"Now pass it over. Good. I'm going to do a spell now. It's a complicated one alright? It might drain your energy a little, but it's for the best right? Your belongings are important."
Dudley nodded and glanced around anxiously.
Lia cleared her throat and raised her hands up towards her chest, the palms pointing outwards.
"Jumbo Mumbo Corno Crumbo!" she chanted in a loud voice. "Crooky Mooky Dotty Hop! Soopa tuba lomba ... libbily dow!" Her eyes snapped open. "Dudley!" she screamed, "Dudley! Watch out, the Crup's coming at you!"
"What! ME! Why?"
"It probably thinks that you're food! Oh! Its mouth is opening over your head!" She ran over and shoved her cousin to the floor.
She pulled at the top of the bag, so that the sides split apart and she cried for good effect, "Away foul beast!" She then slammed the bag shut, and tied a knot around it.
"What happened?"
"I've trapped it for now. It's in this bag at the moment."
"That bag? It's so small though."
"The Crup shrinks itself to fit its enclosure. They're good hiders. If they were all enormous, wizards would have captured them long ago, you know? Ow" she winced.
"What's wrong?"
Lia looked down at her arm. "It's bitten me! The venom is poisonous! I only have minutes before my heart will stop beating."
"What! Lia!"
"But alas. I have the antidote."
"Oh … thank goodness!"
"I must leave you for now, my dear cousin, and attend to my wounds."
The food had lasted her and Harry about a whole month before they came to the last chocolate bar. It had been delicious, and worth every lie she'd said to Dudley. Even better, though, true to his word, Dudley hadn't breathed a word about the incident to his mother or father. Whenever he looked at her now, there was a sort of respect in his eyes. Lia had 'saved' his life after all.
She was really wishing for one of those bags of chips now. "Harry. I'm hungry," she whined.
Harry ignored her. Trapped in this locked room for three days already, the two were really getting on each other's nerves.
"Urghhh," she flopped onto her makeshift bed, groaning into her pillow.
"Let's just go to sleep," said Harry.
It was only a while after Lia had fallen into a dream – she'd been at an all you can eat buffet, a magical one, where every time she thought of a food she'd like to try, it had appeared in a tray on her table – when she was awoken again by a tapping sound at the window.
She saw that Harry was up too.
She walked over to the window, and peered through, stumbling back. Ron Weaseley's face and vivid red hair looked back at her.
"Ron," Harry whispered, pushing the glass open. "How did you…?"
"What even…" murmured Lia. She'd caught sight of the explanation for how Ron was hovering many feet up in the sky, staring at them. He was sitting, leaning his head out of a shabby looking turquoise car. "A flying car? Impressive."
"We thought you'd like it," Ron's older twin brothers – Fred and George – said in unison.
"All right, Harry? Lia?" asked George.
"What's happened?" Ron said. "Why haven't you both been answering my letters-"
"Dobby," said Lia, as if that would explain everything to the Weasleys.
Ron continued. "I've asked you two to stay about a dozen times in those letters. Then Dad comes home and tells me that you both got some official warning for using magic in front of Muggles –"
"It wasn't us," said Harry, just as Lia replied with "Dobby" again.
"How did he know?"
"Dad works for the ministry," said Ron. "Harry, Lia, I thought you guys knew that you're not allowed to do spells outside of school."
Lia snorted. "Like you can talk." She gestured at the hovering car.
"What this? This doesn't count. It's Dad's and it wasn't us that enchanted it. But you two! Don't you know better than to do magic, especially in front of those muggles you live with?"
"Ron, you're a person of rare intelligence ... It's rare when you show any."
He glared at Lia, and then sighed. "I've missed you. Both of you."
"This is touching and all. But what are we going to do now?" asked Harry. "Can you tell them at Hogwarts that the Dursleys have locked Lia and I up and won't let us come back, and obviously we can't magic ourselves out, because the Ministry'll think that's the second spell we've done in three days, so -"
"Don't blabber," said Ron. "I barely heard any of that. Besides, we've come to take you all home with us."
"How? You're underage too. You can't use magic to get us out either."
"We don't need magic. Tie this around the bars will you?"
Lia watched grinning, as Fred revved up the car and drove upwards, pulling out the iron bars that had trapped her. Freedom felt good.
She was just about to climb into the car, when a thought stuck her. "What about my Hogwarts stuff?"
"My wand … my broomstick …" said Harry.
"Where did you put it?"
"I need to get to the cupboard under the stairs, and Lia needs the laundry room, but we can't get out of here. The door's locked."
"No problem," George said, he was getting out of the front passenger seat now. "Out of the way, Harry. Step aside for the masters, Lia." He took a simple hairpin out of his pockets and began picking the lock. She heard a click and the door swung open.
"Not many wizards think this kind of Muggle thing is very useful," said Fred, "but for us, they're skills worth learning, even if it does take a while to work."
"Teach me that sometime, won't you?" said Lia, feeling inspired. "Heaven knows I'll need it."
Once all their belongings had been packed up, they went to help the twins carry their trunks up the stairs. Harry, Fred and George panted as they heaved up Harry's heavy trunk.
Fred looked at Lia, who was agilely springing up the stairs, trunk in one hand, her owl Tyto's cage in the other. "How are you-?"
"Feather-light charm," she said. "I did it at Hogwarts, so I'm lucky that it's lasted until now."
They were eventually able to load up Harry's trunk, whilst Lia gently placed her own baggage delicately on top of it.
"Okay, let's go," whispered George.
Lia thought that they were finally having a scrap of good luck, that they'd be able to get away without a struggle, when Vernon yelled, "THAT RUDDY OWL!"
She groaned internally, she had already placed Tyto in the car, but it seemed that Harry had forgotten his own one.
Her suspicions were confirmed mere seconds later when he called out, "I've forgotten Hedwig!"
"Imbecile," said Lia.
She watched her brother leap out from his seat on the car, whizz back across the room, just as the landing light switched on. He quickly grabbed Hedwig's cage, ran back to window, passing it to Lia, who placed the bird on her lap. Harry scrambled back onto the drawers, so that he could pull himself into the car, when Vernon knocked on the door. Since they hadn't relocked the door, it swung open with a bang.
Her uncle stood there in the doorway, for a moment he looked at them with bemusement, before his brow furrowed and he charged at Harry like an angry tornado, seizing him by the ankle. Lia and the Weasleys all grabbed onto Harry's outstretched arms and pulled him up as best they could.
"Petunia!" Vernon roared. His face was puffed up in a disagreeable shade of red. "They're getting away!"
The four of them gave another hard tug on Harry's arms. Their combined effort finally worked, and Harry was hauled out of the window, now hanging in mid-air. Unfortunately, Lia saw that they couldn't pull him in yet. Vernon was still hanging onto her brother's ankle, hollering.
"Get off me!" Harry yelled, trying to shake him off, but his uncle's grip was iron-tight.
Lia grumbled. Vernon was so going to make her pay for this next time he saw her ... but some things just had to be done. She opened the car door a smidge, stuck out her left leg and with a well-aimed kick down, knocked the livid man hard against his balding head.
She watched as he shrieked, momentarily loosening his grip enough that Harry was able to wriggle out of his grasp. He immediately fell down towards the garden. Lia knew that there was a bunch of shrubbery beneath him that Petunia had planted, so he'd be fine. She wasn't worried - the plants would break his fall.
"VERNON!" her aunt screeched like a harpy. "ARE YOU ALRIGHT?"
He was getting up now, raising angry fists up at them. She thought that he was yelling something, his lips moved frantically, but the wind blew away the sound. Petunia and Dudley were standing beside the window, staring, stunned, as the car rose up into the sky.
"See you next summer!" Harry and Lia yelled together.