Bloom and Harry showed back up at the Dursley's house - their reception was exactly as they expected it.
Vernon all but refused to let Bloom back into the house, she had no qualms about using her magic on him - at least to scare him.
"No, she's not coming back here."
Bloom drops her armload of stuff and walks straight up to him with a glare full of fire - making Vernon take a few steps back into the house, which she follows until he's against the wall for a change.
"Listen to me Dursley, listen very closely. You think you scare me, but you don't. The evil wizard who's been trying for two years now to kill the two of us doesn't scare me, what makes you think you have any chance of it?"
Vernon tries to muster any courage, and is failing miserably.
"You can't use magic outside of school, don't try to scare me with your tough talk."
"Charmix!"
Bloom is surrounded by fire, and stuns all three humans into silence when she floats up to Vernon's eyelevel.
"Wanna bet? I am not from the Wizarding World, and I can use these powers outside of Hogwarts and on humans if I so choose. Lucky you three, I have a moral compass. I don't use magic on people who can't protect themselves unless I am either attacked, or am protecting someone. And someone, in this case, is Harry."
Dudley hides behind Petunia, and whimpers "Mummy, make her stop…"
Bloom grab's Vernon's clothes just under his chin, lifting him up so he's standing on his tiptoes, and says "You have no idea what I can do Dursley, don't try me. Put one hand on Harry at all, and I will blast you. Put a hand on me, and I will send fire up your arm so much that it'll feel like I'll have burned out every nerve in your arm for days. Try to keep us from leaving this year, like your stunt with the bars last, and I will personally leave you hanging from the ceiling by your ankle after blowing up whatever it is you've come up with. Have I made myself clear?"
Vernon nods silently, not wanting to say the wrong thing and get a face full of fire.
"Good."
She flies back a foot or so, lands, and floats her luggage up to the room she and Harry were using before. She doesn't go up the stairs though until Harry's taking some of his stuff up - she floats the rest of his stuff up behind them.
Vernon glares at the stairs, embarrassed that he can't seem to stand up to a twelve-year-old girl - of course, that twelve-year-old girl has wings on her back when she wants and can legally blow them to smithereens.
Like last summer, this one is actually enjoyable for Harry.
The three of them are too scared of what Bloom would do to even think about trying to order either of them around.
Vernon doesn't lay a hand on Harry or Bloom, just glares and glowers at them both - Bloom matches each look in full, making him back off almost instantly.
When Dudley teases them about living in the same room, Bloom coldly replies "Well, Harry's not going to be stuck in a broom closet if I have anything to say about it - and, believe me, I do."
Dudley backs off and doesn't say another word on the subject - chances are, he'd be the one sleeping in the broom closet if Bloom had her way.
It's no secret Bloom considers the Dursleys rotten excuses of people - Dudley a spoiled brat who picks on anyone weaker than him, Vernon an abusive man with extreme anger issues, and Petunia a stuck-up woman with a slave-driving complex when it comes to Harry.
It's also no secret that she hates people who grind others into the dust for no good reason, and to her there is no good reason.
Only a day before school starts, the Dursleys are getting a guest for dinner: Vernon's sister, Marge.
She doesn't know about Bloom, or magic at all, so she's supposed to stay upstairs for dinner while Harry is downstairs - she uses her invisibility spell and leans against the wall while eating from an invisible plate of food.
Harry is the only one who can see her, she worked the spell that way - unfortunately, Marge seems every bit as bad, if not worse, as Vernon, Petunia, and Dudley.
Dudley gets what must be a hundred dollars' worth of notes, while Harry gets contempt and scorn.
When Marge starts insulting Harry's parents, the glass in her hand suddenly explodes, but she says it's from her firm grip.
Harry knows it was Bloom though, and he's not sorry about that.
It's when Marge calls Lily a bitch and says it's all her fault Harry's such a lost case that they both lose their cools.
The entire room starts shaking with Bloom's anger, and stuff starts lighting on fire randomly - and Marge starts swelling.
She blows up like a balloon, while her drink boils away and her food gets charred black - Vernon tries to hold on to his sister, but he lets her go when he starts floating up.
Bloom's absolutely disgusted with Vernon right then, she'd never let Daphne or any of the Winx go - or Harry, Ron, and Hermione either.
The four of them are like family, Harry and Bloom are all but siblings by now.
Given her stance on being adopted and her blood family being dead, she really does consider him to be something of a brother by now.
Harry and Bloom pack all their stuff in minutes, using magic without a care for whether any rules are broken now.
They get their wands from the spelled drawer they keep them in, and find Vernon waiting at the front door for them.
"YOU BRING HER BACK! YOU BRING HER BACK AND YOU PUT HER RIGHT!"
Harry yells "No! She got what she deserved!"
Bloom uses her fairy powers to lift Vernon up and throw him to the other side of the room - too far to stop them from leaving.
He nervously says "You can't leave. You have nowhere to go."
Bloom asks "Wanna bet? It's only a day 'til Hogwarts starts. And besides, anywhere is better than here with you people."
Harry nods, and they both leave as the door slams open on its own then slams shut.
They make their way to a deserted park, and Bloom's finally letting her disgust and revulsion of the Dursleys spill out.
"Honestly Harry, I am sick to my very wingtips of your extended family! I can't believe anyone could be so cruel to their own relatives! I can't believe I'm saying this, but Draco is better than them - he treats us like we're people, they treat us like we're freak-animals that should be wiped out."
Harry nods, he couldn't believe it either for the first few years. He quickly came to accept that that was his life until he could move out though, but all that changed when he went to Hogwarts and met his three best friends ever - he even has to agree with Bloom about Draco being slightly better than the Dursleys, he treats them like they're beneath him but he treats them like they're people.
Harry sits on a carousel while Bloom paces - she's trying to think of where they could go for a while that's close enough to the Wizarding World to get the stuff they need, but also safe enough that they won't be attacked by something.
She half-joked about them camping for the entire summer - but now it looks like they might actually do that for a night.
Suddenly, both sense a cold presence in a shadow nearby.
Bloom automatically moves between Harry and the shadow, still going with her mission of protecting Harry.
At this point, she wouldn't care if she was on the mission or not - she'd still move between them.
Suddenly, they see what looks like a bus made of smoke.
Harry trips and falls, and Bloom accidentally stumbles over him and lands on top of him - their wands blaze, and they see the bus is actually the most ridiculous color of purple they've ever seen on a vehicle.
It's a triple-decker bus, and they're positive its magical - it's also called 'the Knight Bus.'
The doors hiss open, revealing a boy in a wrinkled conductor's uniform and raccoon eyes - he looks like he could use a week's worth of sleep.
"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. My name is Stan Shunpike, and I'll be your conductor this evening."
Bloom helps Harry to his feet, and they immediately gather their stuff with their wands and float it onto the bus.
As Harry boards, Bloom looks over at the shadow they sensed before - buts it's an ordinary shadow now.
"What are ya lookin' at?"
Bloom stares for another moment at the shadow, then says "Nothing…"
Harry and Bloom are both surprised to find there's no seats on the bus, only beds.
"Where're you two headed?"
Bloom and Harry think for a moment, and Harry says "The Leaky Cauldron. In London."
Stan grins devilishly, and a shrunken head hanging from the rearview mirror cackles and says "The Leaky Cauldron! Stay away from the pea soup!"
Harry and Bloom are suddenly flung backwards a bit as the bus starts moving at high speeds, and Harry asks "Isn't this a bit…um, dangerous?"
"Naah, haven't had an accident, in what? A week, was it Ern?"
Harry and Bloom share a look and gulp, that doesn't bode well for this ride.
They nearly hit a little old lady, and the bus stops inches from her.
Harry and Bloom both face-plant into the windshield, and then get thrown back into the large mattress they're sitting on.
Bloom quickly does a small spell to keep them on the mattress before they get thrown into the glass again.
Worst bus ride ever Harry.
No kidding Bloom.
Bloom notices the headline on Stan's newspaper, the Daily Prophet. It reads 'ESCAPE FROM AZKABAN!' and the picture below is of a man with a sunken-in face and matted black hair and he's glowering and struggling occasionally.
Bloom asks "Who's that?"
"That's Sirius Black, that is. You never heard of Sirius Black?"
Both kids shake their heads, and Stan says "A murderer, he is. Got himself locked away in Azkaban for it."
Harry asks "How'd he escape?"
"That's the question, isn't it? He's the first one to have done it. Tell ya though, gives me the collywobbles thinking he's out there. Big supporter of You-Know-Who, you've heard of him haven't ya?"
Bloom and Harry look at one another, and Harry says "Yeah, we've heard of him."
Black's picture meets Harry's eyes for a moment, but Bloom tells him it's just a coincidence.
Suddenly, the bus shrinks down to fit between two double-decker buses heading straight for them.
They arrive at the Leaky Cauldron intact, though very shaken up, and the owner of the Leaky Cauldron greets them.
They get their stuff into a room and find Hedwig is waiting there for them.
She sits on Harry's arm while Bloom strokes her feathers.
"Right smart bird you've got there. Arrived minutes before you did."
A figure suddenly clears its throat, making Harry and Bloom jump.
Bloom immediately gets in front of Harry again, but the figure tells them Marge was found, deflated, and her memory modified so she doesn't remember what happened.
He then turns around and reveals himself to be Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic.
"So, that's that. And no harm done. Pea soup?"
AN: Anybody else all that surprised that Bloom didn't get the warmest reception from the Dursleys after the reception of her foot in Vernon's face? Anybody surprised about Bloom scaring Vernon Dursley witless? I'm not! I'm also not surprised Bloom is fed up with them - her wingtips are the equivalent of someone's back teeth for the expression - and I almost wish Dudley would be stupid enough to try and bully her. How much of his face do you think she'd coat in ash? shame is, Dudley's got a few more brains than Draco - he knows enough not to mess with her, but she's also magical and he isn't. It may just be self-preservation, but it's clearly something Draco lacks.