Not for the first time, I was annoyed with my life at Privet Drive. Uncle Vernon making threats regarding Hedwig, the Dursleys treating me as if I had a life threatening ailment, and no mail from my friends. Ron had all but said "I will send you a letter" and it was out of character for Amber to neglect me, considering she had sent mail before we knew each other well.
Yeah, there was probably something wrong. If the Dursleys let me anywhere near a phonebook, I'd look up Amber's address.
"Quick, boy! Upstairs. NOW! My clients are here, and you could very well break our deal!" Vernon's logic never failed to confuse me. Sadly, I had no choice but to follow his stupidity.
"Remember, boy… one sound…" I nodded. I entered my room, only to find an unexpected occupant.
"Harry Potter… such an honour to meet you!" said the weird-looking thing sitting on my bed. I began to phrase a question, and blurted out a different one.
"Who exactly are you?" I had been planning on asking his species.
"Me, sir? Dobby. Dobby the house-elf." That answered that question.
"Not to be rude or anything, but this isn't the time or place for a house elf in my bedroom," I told it. Downstairs, I heard a faint sing-song voice ask a question. My aunt gave a very sharp refusal.
"But we could always make it the time. What's on your mind, Dobby?"
"Ah, sir… the tale is long, and Dobby suspects that Harry Potter seeks the short version. In short: Harry Potter must not return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year."
Millions of thoughts crossed my mind instantaneously. I decided on expressing the one my mind deemed most important.
"Amber."
Second, maybe.
"Hogwarts is my home!"
"But alas, Harry Potter must not go there. He is too great, too noble, to lose. There is a plot. A plot to make the most terrible things happen within its walls."
"Well, then, if that's the case, it is far more important for me to go. Don't you see? Amber, Ron, Hermione… they could be easy prey for Sir Plotter!" Dobby gave nervous starts every time I mentioned a name. Before I could elaborate, I heard Uncle Vernon. I hid Dobby behind a dresser.
"What the devil are you doing up here?"
"Going off the deep end. I've heard that's hard to control."
"Still, you have just ruined the punch line of my Japanese golfer joke…"
"Something tells me that I just did you a favour, if that's the case." Vernon eyed me shrewdly.
"One more sound, and you'd wish you'd never been born…" He left.
"See what I mean? I don't belong here. I could do better saving the others! They're my friends!"
"Friends who don't even write to Harry Potter?"
"…Yeah. It's very suspect that Amber wouldn't write to me, isn't it? Tell me Dobby… what do you know about my letters being intercepted?"
Dobby had the look of a five year old caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He slowly removed from his loincloth the letters from Ron, Hermione, Amber, Darion, Hagrid and some other feminine handwriting.
"Give them here… properly sanitized."
"NO! Harry Potter may only look upon these when he promises not to return. He is in grave peril!"
"NO! Give them here!" Dobby chose to do the opposite: run from the room, and jump down the staircase. He levitated Aunt Petunia's masterpiece of a pudding, and sent it crashing, vanishing with a cheeky smile.
"Now what sort of racket was that- WOAH!" A motherly woman entered the room, slipped on the pudding, and fell onto her back. She began to scream in agony. The sound was horrible to my ears, and yet sounded familiar…
"Mrs Granger? Whatever may be the problem?"
"She has a very crippling allergy to cake."
"So… we get the deal signed, and send Mrs Granger to the hospital?"
"You selfish jerk. Daddy, take Mommy to the hospital. Don't worry about me. You can take Hermione if you wish." I don't know what to say about that sentence. Uncle Vernon's clients were the Grangers.
So a girl you've been crushing on is in your house.
It's not mine. There really isn't much of me, and the Dursleys wouldn't embarrass me the ways a normal parent might.
But still, they probably mentioned you…
"Harry! I thought I recognised these three dunderheads!"
No they didn't.
"Wait, do you know this waste of space?" Uncle Vernon was lucky that Amber could not, under wizarding law, cast a spell upon him to express her rage.
"Harry, cover your ears." I did so, and she let out a shrill whistle. The Dursleys clasped their hands to their ears, and ran upstairs.
"Was that necessary?"
"Nah, that was a side effect. This is the main course." A white owl flew through the window, and perched upon Amber's finger.
"Meet Willow. She's our ticket out of here."
"Huh?" Amber took out a piece of parchment, and wrote a hurried note. She tied it to Willow's leg, and sent her outside.
"Get your stuff. We're crashing this place."
Within thirty minutes, I had managed to get my trunk out from Vernon's hiding place. Amber nodded, and went out of the house. There was a conversation, and two Ambers came back in.
Wait, one Amber. The second was younger. Just as cute, though.
"Hi, Harry!" the younger one called.
"Hi… uh…" I began, before looking at the older one for input.
"Ginny Weasley." Instantly, I was reminded of Ron.
"Hi, Ginny. You look very cute."
"Tha-thanks…" Ginny turned a furious shade of red, and held out her hand. I took it, looking between Amber and Ginny. I'm sure there's a joke or a true purpose behind meeting Ginny, but one thing was for sure: Amber's not letting in on the secret.
Random? Yes. Spontaneous? Would you believe me if I said no?
Anyway, the thoughts... well... the whole Amber/Ginny dynamic, for one. That thing is something I've recently thought of, and something I've been on the fence about. And it'll introduce something potential for this story. Future readers, this will come into effect in two chapters, so check the chapter thingy.
Basically, I have plans to introduce the perspective shifts into the story tied in with this one. I'll miss out on a pun opportunity, but as I seem to have forgotten the pun, this doesn't matter. If I do, the chapter after next will be the first perspective shift (future readers, you know this, and of course, I envy you). Feel free to voice your opinions on the matter, people of the present, when chapter 8 isn't released. If I'm lucky, I'll be addicted to the ending of Legend of the Oina, giving enough time to me to make a decision... and then focus exclusively on this story! Chapter 6 and we're going back to basics already! I was expecting Book 6 for me to finish the other stories!
Neither can live while the other survives.