Ember slowly flicked through the photo album that Hagrid had given her for the nth time. She paused on the page with her parents and herself as a baby on it. The hybrid smiled softly "hey mum, dad", she said quietly. She turned to the next page which had a photograph captioned with Azalea Turner née Evans and Will Turner: her aunt and uncle. The soon to be 12 year old traced the red feather brooch secured to her aunt's cloak.
According to the book her mother had given her, every descendant of Idalia receives a feather when he or she becomes of age. It was said that they're fused with the matriarch's essence, imbuing the recipient with power thus enabling them to strengthen their inherited abilities. The book also mentioned that the feathers were able to disguise themselves as a defence mechanism in order to protect the members of House Pyrrhos from those who'd want to use their powers as for their own selfish gains.
A thoughtful look crossed her face as her fingers gently clasped the raw orange-red stone hanging from the silver chain around her neck. The girl wondered if whether the piece of jewellery was a feather from her ancestor. Azaela would probably be able to tell her if it weren't for the fact that her aunt was busy untangling the web of problems that a certain git had woven this summer. Thanks to him she was forced to keep living with the family who utterly despised her.
However, her living situation had improved somewhat though, she was no longer being forced to sleep in the cupboard under the stairs. Despite finally having a proper bedroom, she would've preferred to be with the aunt who actually wanted her rather than the one who didn't.
Hedwig started chirping rather loudly in her cage, breaking Ember from her thoughts. "That time again already?" the ginger smirked. Her uncle had made the decision to 'force' her to keep the owl locked up in her cage for the duration of the summer. Big mistake for it only made the girl encourage Hedwig to make as much racket as she possibly could, during the day, every two hours. That'll teach Vernon to make her keep her friend caged up!
"Ember Audrey Potter!" the muggle hollered up the stairs.
The ginger calmly set aside the photo album and got up from the desk. Felix meowed at her as she passed. "Don't worry buddy, I won't hold back", she assured him. It was about time she ripped into her so called 'family' for all their mistreatment of her! She walked toward the door, not even stopping as she smoothly moved through it. The ginger grinned as she did so. Man, she loved that power! She skipped down the stairs and into the kitchen where her aunt was making a cake. She moved into the living room where her uncle was adjusting an ugly looking bow tie around Dudley's neck. "I'm warning you. If you can't control that bloody bird, it'll have to go", Vernon threatened.
"Shouldn't have made me cage her up then", Ember shot back "Hedwig isn't supposed to be locked away for hours on end. She has to stretch her wings every once in a while or she will go stir crazy".
"Not a chance", her uncle snapped "you'll only use her to send secret messages to your freaky little friends".
The hybrid's eyes flashed red-gold in annoyance but she bit her tongue. She wasn't about to give her so called family anymore ammunition by admitting that she didn't get any letters from her friends. Nor did she receive anything from Azalea, not since the beginning of the summer where her aunt had promised she would handle the problems Dumblegit had made which kept her mother's twin from becoming her legal guardian.
"I should think you'd be a little more grateful", Vernon states "We've raised you since you a were a baby, given you the food off our table, even let you have Dudley's second bedroom, purely out of the goodness of our hearts".
"Are you kidding me?!" the hybrid cried "What exactly do I have to be grateful for? The tiny, cramped 'bedroom' I slept in for 10 years? Or perhaps the barest amount of food, right up until I was able to cook and THEN I had to do a fair few of the meals. And let's not forget the fact that I was no more than a free servant for you lot to use, abuse and walk all over?" the ginger scoffed "as for giving me Dudley's other room, that was hardly out of the goodness of your heart. One, none of you have a heart. Two, I've proved time and time again that you lot can no longer keep me confined in that cupboard anymore. And three…I'm no longer someone you can push around. You want breakfast? Damn well do it yourself. Now, if you'll excuse me. I have an owl who's overdue some exercise" And with that, she turned and walked out of the room, leaving behind three uneasy looking muggles.
The girl headed upstairs and froze when she heard someone laughing madly in her room. She crept up the door and phased her top half through it. Her eyes widened when she saw some skinny creature wearing a ratty cloth, bouncing on her bed. "Who the hell are you?" she demanded, moving all the way through the door. The creature stopped bouncing and turned to face her. That was when she saw that it had large ears and saucer sized eyes.
"Dobby miss, Dobby the house elf", Dobby replied "and it's such an honour to meet you, Ember Potter".
"Ok…" Ember said slowly "well, then Dobby, could you tell me why you're playing trampoline on my bed?"
"Well…" Dobby hopped off of the bed "Dobby has come to tell you…it is difficult, miss…Dobby wonders where to begin?"
"Why don't you sit down?" the hybrid gently suggested, scooping Felix up from the floor when he decided to take an interest in the House Elf "take a moment to gather your thoughts".
"S-sit down?" house elf stuttered "S-sit- sit down?"
Much to Ember's surprise, he started to cry. "Dobby, ssh!" she shushed him "I'm sorry!" Dobby cries louder "I didn't mean to offend you, or anything".
Dobby stops crying "Offend Dobby?" he repeated "Dobby has heard of your greatness, miss, but never has he been asked to sit down by a wizard or witch…like an equal".
"You can't have met many decent ones then", the ginger remarked, setting Felix onto the bed.
"No, I haven't", Dobby admitted. His eyes grew wide "That was an awful thing to say" he went over to her dresser drawers and proceeded to bang his head against it "Bad Dobby! Bad Dobby! Bad Dobby!"
Ember darted over and pulled him away, parking him on the desk chair "why did you do that?" she asked, rather taken aback by what he'd done.
"Dobby had to punish himself, miss. Dobby almost spoke ill of his family, miss", the house elf replied.
The soon to be 12 year old frowned "Your family?"
"The wizard family Dobby serves, miss. Dobby is bound to serve one family forever", Dobby explained "If they knew Dobby was here..." he shivered "But Dobby had to come. Dobby has to protect Ember Potter. To warn her. Ember Potter must not go back to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year. There is a plot, a plot to make most terrible things happen".
"What terrible things? Who's plotting them?" Ember pressed.
"Oh, he! Can't say!" Dobby said, struggling to keep the words to himself.
"Okay, I understand. You can't say", the hybrid said softly but the house elf jumped onto her desk and proceeded to smack himself with her lamp.
"Bad Dobby!" he shouted. The ginger grabbed the lamp, trying to wrestle it out of his grip while Dobby still tried to hit himself with it. Upon hearing someone come up the stairs, Vernon by the sounds of the footsteps. Ember yanked the lamp out of Dobby's hands, setting it down before she picked him up again and stuck him inside her wardrobe.
"Stay quiet!" she hissed. A second later, Vernon stomped into the room and glared at his niece.
"What the devil are you doing up here?!" he demanded. Ember didn't say anything, just fixed him with a look which made him take a step back. Dobby slowly opens the wardrobe door; the ginger calmly pushes it closed. "You've just ruined the punchline of my Japanese golfer joke", the muggle continued, angrily.
"The joke is terrible anyway so no big loss", the ginger cheekily retorted and Vernon's glare deepened "and if you really must know…" she closed wardrobe door again as Dobby tried to escape for the second time "I was playing with Felix". She gestured with her thumb at the ginger cat who was licking his paw.
Vernon lifts his finger at the ginger "One more sound, and you'll wish you'd never been born, girl" the wardrobe opened for the third time "And fix that door".
Ember closed the door again "Sir, yes, sir", she said giving him a mock salute. Vernon glared at her again and he left the room, pulling the door closed. She stuck her tongue out at the closed door. "Please sort this out Aunt Azzie", she murmured "if I don't leave soon I'm gonna curse em which'll put me in touch with the ministry". She opened the wardrobe, letting the house elf out. "See why I've got to go back?" Dobby removes a sock from his ear "I don't belong here…I hate it here. Hogwarts is the only place for me" Dobby sniffs the sock and throws it aside and turns to her "Well, that and Azalea's house. There's the only places where I have friends…family who care about me".
"Friends and family who don't even write to Ember Potter?" Dobby asked.
"Well, I expect they've been…" Ember frowned "hang on, how do you know they haven't been writing me?"
Dobby took a step back "Ember Potter mustn't be angry with Dobby" the house elf revealed a bunch of letters from within the folds of his cloth "Dobby hoped if Ember Potter thought her friends had forgotten her, Ember Potter might not want to go back to school, miss…"
"Give me those. Now", the hybrid ordered, holding out her hand.
"No!" Dobby cried stuffing the letters back into his garment. Ember made a grab made a grab for him, but the house elf dodges her arms and darts for the door. Dobby opened it and ran out into the hall and down the stairs, the hybrid hot on his heels.
The house elf stopped in the doorway of the kitchen, eyeing the cake on the counter. He glanced at Ember, who'd stopped in the hallway. "Dobby don't do anything", she pleaded. Dobby looked back at the cake and snapped his fingers, making the cake hover.
"Ember Potter must say she's not going back to school", Dobby whispered fiercely.
The hybrid shook her head "I can't do that. Hogwarts is where I belong", she argued.
A saddened expression appeared on Dobby's face "Then Dobby must do it, miss. For Ember Potter's own good", he said snapping his fingers again. Ember pushed past him as the cake started to move towards the sofa where a man and a woman was sitting, presumably the Dursley's houseguests. She held her hands out, her eyes flickering red-gold as she focused on the floating pudding. She had no idea if she could do wandless magic but she had to try something even if it meant breaking the no magic rule.
Unfortunately the cake continued to move until it hovered above the head of the woman sitting on the sofa. From just out of sight Dobby snaps his fingers for the third time and the cake drops onto Mrs Mason! "I'm so sorry!" Vernon said very apologetically to his guests "it's my niece…she's very…disturbed". Ember glanced back, glaring at Dobby. The house elf just smirked, snapping his fingers for the fourth time and vanished. She turned back to his uncle, aunt, cousin and the Masons who were all looking at her now. Bloody house elf she internally grumbled. He'd just gotten her into very big trouble.