Chapter 1: The Worst Birthday

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"Maybe I'm lacking manners. But looks? Oh, I definitely have those."

Y/n's POV:

I tip-toed past the kitchen, up the stairs, and into my and Harry's room. He was flipping through the photo album Hagrid gave us at the end of last year.

I threw myself onto my bed and sighed. "Today was tiring."

"Where were you?" Harry asked.

"On a walk," I answered then pulled out a bag of cookies. "I bought these. Want some?"

He took one. "Thanks."

Hedwig and Butterscotch screeched and rattled their cages causing my black cat, Regulus, to jump awake.

"We can't let you out," I said to the owls. "We're not allowed to use magic outside of school."

The owls kept screeching. I sighed. Last yeas I was able to talk and understand animals. But I couldn't understand what the owls or Regulus are saying. I was never able to understand them, not even at Hogwarts.

Maybe I could only understand magical creatures. Like unicorns and three-headed dogs. Then I remembered that I could understand Mrs Norris. Her eyes are red. There must be something magical about her. What about that thing that yelled, 'Eek— They'll step on us!'

I chewed on my lip in thought. I was near the Forbidden Forest that time... It was probably a bowtruckle or a billywig.

I heard Harry talk to our owls that were still screeching loudly. "If Uncle Vernon—"

"POTTERS!" Our uncle's voice called from downstairs.

I shot our owls a glare. "Now you've done it!"

Harry and I walked downstairs and Regulus followed. He was allowed to roam around the house since their was nothing suspicious with a cat.

Aunt Petunia's nose flared. She didn't trust Regulus at all. She kept trying to catch him clawing on the curtains or shading on the furniture, but she couldn't. Regulus exited the house through the cat-flap.

"He's in there," said Aunt Petunia nodding a towards the living room while adding the final touches to the cake. "Vernon."

We walked into the living room -with me planning on how to steal a part of the cake- to find our uncle fixing Dudley's bowtie.

"I'm warning you," he said, "if you can't control those bloody owls, they'll have to go!"

This was not the first discussion about Hedwig and Butterscotch.

My brother tried, yet again, to explain. "But they're bored. If we could only let them out for... an hour or two."

Uncle Vernon scoffed. "So you could send secret messages to your freaky little friends? No, sir."

"But we haven't had any, messages from any of our friends. Not one," said Harry. "All Summer..."

"Who wants to be friends with you?" Dudley, asked rudely while bumping Harry's shoulder to get to the kitchen.

"I could ask you the same question," I shot while crossing my arms. "Seeing as you're no looks or manners."

"And you think you've got that?"

"Maybe I'm lacking manners. But looks? Oh, I definitely have those."

"I should think you'd be a bit more grateful. We've raised you since you were babies, given you the food off our table, ever let you have Dudley's second bedroom, purely out of the goodness of our hearts," said Uncle Vernon.

Dudley tried to get a taste of the cake but Aunt Petunia slapped his hand -lightly- away. "Not now, Popkin. It's for when the Masons arrive."

"Which should be any minute!" Uncle Vernon clapped his hand once and the four of us surrounded him. He cleared his throat, "Now, let's go over our schedule once again, shall we? Petunia, when the Masons arrive, you'll be...?"

"In the loung, waiting to welcome them graciously to our home!" she answered and I barely managed to stop myself from pointing out that there was nothing gracious about her, nor her peach coloured dress or even her house.

"Good," Uncle Vernon turned to my cousin. "And Dudley. You'll be...?"

"I'll be waiting to open the door," he said with a stupid smile on his face.

"Excellent!" Then he looked at Harry. "And you?"

"I'll be in my room, making no noise and pretending I don't exist," Harry answered and Uncle Vernon turned to me. "You, girl?"

"With Harry. Making no noise and pretending I don't exist."

"Too right you will. With any luck, this could be the day I make the biggest deal of my career, and you will not mess it up."

I tried not to roll my eyes. No one's even noticed that it was our birthday.

I started after Harry up the stairs and towards our bedroom.

No cards, no presents, and we would be spending the evening pretending to not exist. More than anything else at Hogwarts, more even than Quidditch, I missed my best friends, Pansy Parkinson, Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott. They, however, don't seem to be missing me at all. None of them had written to me. Harry's friends were the same story, even though Ron Weasley had said he was going to ask us to come and stay.

Countless times, I had been on the point of unlocking Butterscotch's cage by magic and sending him to my godfather, Severus Snape, but it wasn't worth the risk. Underage wizards weren't allowed to use magic outside school. Harry and I hadn't told the Dursleys this; we knew it was only their terror that we might turn them all into dung beetles that stopped them locking us in the cupboad under the stairs.

For the first couple of weeks back, I enjoyed muttering nonsense words under my breath and watching Dudley tearing out of the room as fast as his fat legs would carry him. But the long silence from my magical friends had made me feel so cut off from the magical world that even taunting Dudley had lost its appeal — and now my godfather and friends had forgotten our birthday.

What would I give now for a message from Hogwarts? From any witch or wizard? I'd even be glad of a sight of my arch-enemy Astoria Greengrass, just to be sure it hadn't all been dream...

But then it can't have been.

All our belongings, from our pets, wands and school supplies proved otherwise.

Harry opened the door and we were about to enter, ready to collapse on our beds.

The trouble was, there was already someone jumping on Harry's.

A/n: Sorry for the short chapter. Hope you enjoy it tho.

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