Between the Lines and Lies

Caged

(In the clouds during sunset, we see the Warner Bros. Pictures shield moving towards the screen and rotates out of the shot. Then, the film's title in golden letters slowly zooms through the camera afterwards; it is a quiet summer evening in Surrey. Harry Potter is in his bedroom looking at the picture book that gave him at the end of his first year at Hogwarts; he looks at the picture of him as a baby with his parents, then turns the page to look at a picture of him with his closest friends and sister, Hermione, Ron and Emma; he then hears his owl Hedwig chirping and hooting in her cage. Another owl, an Elf owl named Wisdom, glares at Hedwig.)

Harry: I can't let you out, Hedwig. I'm not allowed to use magic outside of school. (Hedwig nibbles at her lock, squawking loudly) Besides, if Uncle Vernon-

Vernon: (angrily, from downstairs) Harry Potter!

Harry: (glances downstairs then looks at Hedwig before closing his book and going downstairs) Now you've done it. 

(In the kitchen, Petunia is working on a cake as Harry enters.)

"Ooh," Ron sighs with a dreamy look on his face. "That cake looks good."

Emma stares at Hermione exasperatedly, her expression asking, Does he just care about food? Hermione shrugs, indicating that that was all Ron cared about - food. 

Petunia: He's in there, Vernon. 

(Harry enters the living room, where Uncle Vernon is getting Dudley dressed up and Emma watches them, bored out of her mind.)

Vernon: I'm warning you. If you can't control that bloody bird, it'll have to go.

"BIRD ABUSE!" James screeches angrily. 

Harry: But she's bored. If I could only let her out for... an hour or two.

Vernon: (chuckles) So you can send secret messages to your freaky little friends? No, sir.

Emma: But we haven't had any messages from any of our friends this summer. Not one. 

Dudley: (stares, disgusted) Who'd want to be friends with you?

The Hall erupts in bursts of outrage. 

Dudley: Besides, you can't say anything, you still living in that-

Emma: A stupid decision, really. Making me continue living in that tiny space, just because I didn't learn any 'magic' last year. I can set fire to this whole house if I wanted to. (Her hand sets ablaze) Should I start with this couch? It's pretty ugly anyways. 

"YOU GO, EMMA!" Sirius yells enthusiastically. 

(Vernon and Dudley scramble away in fear.)

Vernon: I should think you'd be a little more grateful. We've raised you since you two since you were babies, given you the food off our table, even let Harry have Dudley's second bedroom, purely out of the goodness of our hearts.

Emma: (snorts) More like out of fear that we'd turn you into bats or something. 

"How come you never did that?" Lunar asks his mum. 

"Because of the Decree of Underage Wizardry or whatever it's called. I would've gotten expelled."

"Like what nearly happened at the start of this year," Harry smirks.

James gasps.

(Dudley creeps over to the cake and tries to take a cherry off, but Petunia gently smacks his hand away.)