Understairs (Harry Potter fanfic)

No Bars Held

"I still think we should put bars on the window," Vernon said.

If things were happening the way they did in the books, movies, or perhaps even games, there would definitely be bars placed over Harry's window. The neighbors wouldn't second guess the addition of the bars as Harry was supposedly sent away to a particular school so that a special child would need special accommodation.

"For all the talk about wanting to come across normal, you would think having a nephew attending a special school would have been a big no-no rather than a go-to."

"Do you want us to look strange," Petunia retorted. "I mean, that would be no different than telling our neighbors that our nephew, and possibly this next year our niece, is attending a school for reprobates or something as bad. And what if they thought it was Dudley rather than Harry?"

Alisha found herself thinking over one essential thing: Harry would not be going with the Weasley family that summer as he did in the books, which meant no Ginny avoiding Harry because of her crush. Yet, the car didn't seem to factor into what would happen during the following year, which would be a problem later on when Harry and Ron went into the forest.

She found herself mulling over what was come, all of her thoughts fearing the Harry Potter timeline being changed in a way which would, in fact, create more havoc for those involved, being that if the wrong thing were missed along the timeline, it could, in turn, mean something else that was equally important to Harry becoming the hero would result in Harry not becoming the hero he was in the books.

So came the nightmares.

They weren't anything that had her waking up screaming, thus drawing the attention of everyone in the house. Instead, they were almost like being in a movie—the Harry Potter movies, with her finding herself lurking somewhere near that snake-faced villain at times which left her stomach-lurching, as did the dreams of things changing within the plot, not in her control.

"I've got to do something," Alisha hated it, not knowing. Which in turn meant, "I've got to do something."

That played over and over in her head. Her ability to talk to her brother and Dudley still did not feel right as she watched them sitting at the kitchen table chatting away regarding everything magical, particularly Quidditch. Harry ended up playing with Dudley relating his exploits with boxing.

Yet, she struggled to come up with something she could talk to them about, particularly since everything she knew or could talk about she shouldn't already know about, or it might end up being something that might slip. Yet, as she watched them, she remembered something. "Hey. Dudley. What was it you sent Harry for Christmas?"

"I sent a fifty pence," Dudley laughed.

Alisha found herself staring as Harry laughed as well. "How is it such a horrible gift from the original canon suddenly becomes such a wonderful gift?"

"Yeah. Dudley was correct in assuming Wizards and Witches wouldn't have seen much Muggle money."

"Wait?" Alisha said. "Dudley has a brain."

Thankfully, Dudley and Harry were laughing, yet she might have found herself punched if it had been anything like the canon material.

"Actually, would I? I don't recollect anything about him hitting girls in the books, so would it not have happened?"

"Very funny," Dudley said.

And Alisha thought to herself about something else she might be able to ask. "So, Harry. You were vague in your letters."

"And?"

"Friends?"

Harry frowned. "Friends?"

She stiffened. "Didn't you make any?"

"I don't know. They've not sent any letters," Harry said.

At that moment, Alisha wanted to yell out that a House Elf named Dobby might be stealing his letters, but then—Dobby might be the key to getting the bars on Dudley and Harry's room without the Weasley family interfering.

"I don't write my friends during the summer," Dudley replied. "They'd think I was a dork if I did."

"Yeah. I can see that," Harry said. "But I've heard you call them on the phone, right?"

"And?"

"Wizards don't use phones, Dudley."

"Oh. So it is weird that they've not sent a single letter?"

"Yup."

Alisha wondered how exactly the interaction with Dobby would occur this time around. She tried to remember the essential details of the event behind Dobby taking Harry's letters, only to remember when her Aunt Petunia asked her to put on the newest dress from their latest shopping trip as she wanted to impress the Masons while reminding her that she was to say their parents died in a car crash.

She quipped back, "I guess it's a good thing you came up with that before Harry started attending, right?"

"Well, yes," Petunia said, blinking, almost as if she were insulted by what Alisha noted, but then she seemed pretty pleased. "You're right. That is a good way to cover for it. It's rather weird saying, though, boarding school and not either of the schools Vernon or I attended, so we can't quite remember as it's got a rather odd name."

"But doesn't it? So it's not a lie." Alisha quipped, still wondering when Dobby would show. Yet they were, all three being stuck listening to Vernon attempt to entertain the Mason family, which was boring, although Vernon and Mr. Mason were two peas in a pod. And, nothing happened.

She found herself thinking over it when a commotion occurred from next door, and she found herself hurrying to see—

Dudley was putting Dobby in a headlock. Harry stared. "Hey. Maybe you should take on wrestling?"

Dobby gave off his line, "Mr. Potter must not return to Hogwarts."

It made her blood run cold as Dobby tried making Harry think he didn't have any friends, to which Harry clued in, and Dudley threatened bodily harm to the poor House Elf. Petunia, of course, overheard the noise and tried intervening, coming in to hear that line from Dobby about how Hogwarts wasn't safe.

"And we're supposed to take your word for it?" Petunia said as Dobby banged his head around the place. "Get out of my house!"

Alisha frowned, noting that in this timeline, Dobby's tactic to get Harry not to go didn't work, so there were no bars on the window after all.