Julie Anne Dursley

Prisoner of Azkaban Part 1

This time it was only Vernon who came to pick Harry up from the station. "Julie's broken her leg during gymnastics practice," he said, "so this time we're actually happy to have you back. You're going to take care of her, to relieve your aunt." At first Harry did not buy it, he knew for a fact that when they were in primary school she would sometimes fake being sick or hurt to stay home and get pampered by her mother. However, when he walked into her room that evening, carrying a tray of food and drinks, he realised immediately that she was not faking anything.

She was lying in her electrically adjustable double bed, with her hurt leg above the blanket. The blue cast was rather big and people had written on it. On the bedside table were various get well cards and empty cans. When he entered the room, Julie looked up. She tossed her celebrity magazine aside and smiled at him. "Harry! I'm actually so glad to see you. You and I are going to be spending a lot of time together this summer."

"Why's that?" Harry asked, while handing her the tray. Julie carefully placed it onto her lap and then pulled out a whistle from under her shirt, attached to a cord around her neck.

"You see, you get to be my servant during my recovery! Whenever I blow this whistle you'll come and do my bidding. Pretty neat, huh?" Harry sighed. He hated his summer already, and he had only just arrived. Julie was still smiling at him. "Come on, between you and me you've always been my favourite cousin!" she said cheerfully.

"Is that perhaps because I'm your only cousin?"

"Well, yes, but that doesn't make it any less true, does it?"

Harry said nothing. He looked around the room. Julie's bed was right next to the window, from which she had a view over the garden with the swimming pool. In front of her bed was the plasma screen TV she had been given for losing her second bedroom to Harry. Underneath the screen were a video player and a gaming console. Next to her bed laid some books and candy wrappers. She had a big desk with a PC and an ever bigger wardrobe. There were various posters of bands Harry did not know, and on the shelves were her school books and various gymnastics pennons. Julie had the biggest room in the house but still it was barely big enough to keep all of her stuff.

"You've never been into my room before, have you? At least I hope not," she asked with her mouth full of food.

"No, because you said you'd murder me in my sleep if I did."

"Oh, yeah, right, I forgot."

Harry looked at her leg. "How did that happen anyway? You know, when people say break a leg they don't actually mean you should."

Julie rolled her eyes. "You're only the tenth person to make that joke. It's really none of your business, but fine, I'll tell you. I was training for a big competition with my personal coach at Smeltings and tried to land a complicated flip. Emphasis on 'tried', because upon landing my leg buckled and bended just below the knee. And yes, that hurt. They immediately took me to the hospital. I hate that place with a passion, it reminds me of that feather surgery."

Harry would definitely not have wished this on her, but at the same time he did not mind that she was now incapable of bullying him like she normally would have done.

The first time Julie used the whistle was early in the afternoon on the next day. The sound echoed throughout the entire house and quickly made its way into Harry's ears. He groaned and went to Julie's room. "Ah, glad you could make it," Julie said when he had stepped inside. She paused the movie she was watching and looked at him.

"Well, it's not like I have much of a choice, do I?" Harry asked grudgingly.

Julie raised an eyebrow. "That's not true, specky. In life you always have a choice, as long as you're okay with the resulting consequences. Which, in your case, would be being locked up in your room." She smiled smugly at him when saying those last couple of words.

"What do you need?" Harry asked.

"I want you to refill my jug of lemonade, and make sure to put some ice cubes in there. I also want a new glass and a new straw, and while you're at it, you can bring me a big cheese sandwich with tomato."

Harry sighed. "Do you also want me to bake you a pizza?" he said.

"No, that's okay, I'm not that hungry," Julie said, apparently not noticing the sarcasm. Harry went downstairs, wishing she would recover as quickly as possible. When he handed her the tray a few minutes later, she made quick work of the sandwich and then yawned long and loudly without covering her mouth. "All right, it's time for my beauty sleep, so you can go and do whatever Harry's do for a few hours." That was of course fine with him; asleep was when he liked her most.

After a while, Julie would sometimes prefer to lie on the living room couch rather than staying in her bedroom all the time. During the day she would usually watch nature documentaries and funny sitcoms, while in the evening just before bed she would watch a movie. Sometimes Harry would watch with her, and they would occasionally have little discussions about what they were seeing. Julie would never admit it, but sometimes she actually enjoyed his company. Her parents would sometimes treat her like a baby even though she was now officially a teenager, and she felt it a nice change to spar with someone.

The days went by like that, and except for one Sunday afternoon nothing special happened. Julie was reading a book on the couch, Harry was studying (when taking care of Julie he was allowed one school book at a time), Petunia was dusting the shelves and Vernon was doing some administrative work when the phone rang. "Vernon Dursley speaking."

"HELLO, HELLO, CAN YOU HEAR ME, THIS IS RON WEASLEY, I WANT TO SPEAK TO HARRY POTTER!" Ron's voice came blasting in the room. Vernon dropped the phone, Petunia shrieked, Julie dropped her book in shock and Harry froze. "HELLO, HELLO, I'M A FRIEND OF HARRY'S FROM SCHOOL!" could be heard from the now dangling phone. Vernon grabbed it.

"DON'T EVER CALL THIS NUMBER AGAIN!" he shouted and he promptly hung up.

"Haha, ouch!" Julie screamed.

"You!" Vernon pointed at Harry, "how dare you give our number to your fellow freaks!" He grabbed his nephew's arm and dragged him outside, into the yard, to scream his head off. A few minutes later they came back inside. Julie smiled at Harry.

"Your friend doesn't know how a telephone works? What an idiot!" She began laughing. Maybe Harry was biased, but he had always hated her laugh with a passion; she laughed like a hyena and sometimes the sound would get stuck in his head for a few minutes.