Redhead

Prologue

MAGIC WAS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN in the Dursley household. The word wasn't even spoken. Was being the keyword as Elizabeth Potter had just discovered a new section in the school library. Never in her life had she read so many books in one day, or been so enamoured with the simple phrase 'once upon a time'. This world was so new to her, a world where animals could talk and there was always a happily ever after in the end. Her brother Harry even enjoyed it in the slightest when she read the stories before going to sleep. What a wonderful time Elizabeth had.

Then her awful, horrid and, absolutely despicable--not that Elizabeth knew what that word really meant but it was the latest in vocabulary--cousin discovered her new hobby. And boy, when Dudley Dursley got his hands on Elizabeth's most recent reading venture, did he have a field day. Without warning, the elegant cover had been ripped off and thrown at her feet. Page after page was crumpled and ripped while Dudley laughed at the idea of a lion living in a wardrobe.

"Get your hands off!" Elizabeth screamed. Tears welled in her eyes when the dirt from the front garden seeped onto the pages. "It's my book, give it back!" She jumped towards the much bigger boy with a screech. That screech was what alerted her brother to the trouble brewing on the front porch.

Harry picked up his pace, as he had been running from the likes of Piers Polkiss all the way from the neighborhood playground. Dudley liked to pick on the pair of them for sure, but Harry never had anything of value that his cousin could take. Elizabeth always had her books, her art, or worse: her teddy. Lucky for Dudley, it was only a book this time.

In an attempt to diffuse the situation before his aunt and uncle heard the brewing battle, Harry resorted to the first statement that popped into his eight year old mind. "I know you can't read, Dudley, but you don't have to take it out on Lizzy's poor book." Honestly, it was probably one of the stupidest things that Harry could have possibly said, but he wasn't one to think things through.

Despite the stupidity, Elizabeth had no problem with shooting her brother a smirk and an eye roll at his childish wit just before Dudley pummeled him into the ground. They were working on the sarcasm. Then, releasing another screech, she barreled into Dudley's side. The next thing they knew, the three children were covered head to toe in mud, mulch, and trampled flowers. What a sight Petunia Dursley faced when she opened the front door to shoo off whatever cats were fighting in her front yard.

Without a word, as she was worried that her neighbors would get suspicious of her yelling, Petunia Dursley stormed towards the quarreling children. All she offered was the coldest stare Elizabeth and Harry had ever seen before they tumbled away from Dudley and into the demolished flower beds. Petunia helped her son to his feet, cooing and worrying over him as he shed his perfect little crocodile tears.

"Cupboard. Now," she growled at the Potter twins. Petunia continued to hover over Dudley while the two, much worse off children, stumbled inside. The pair knew by the sound of their aunt's voice that they would be stuck in that dusty little cupboard until their uncle came barreling in at five on the dot.

Until then, however, the twins would spend their time trying their best to clean the dirt out of each other's hair without getting it on their beds. Things only seemed to get worse after Elizabeth took in the full damage that had been done to her new book. In that moment, Harry realized that his glasses had been smashed...again. Of course he didn't want to bother his sister, who was scribbling in her torn book, but tapping the frames of his glasses together was more of a two person job.

"What have those rotten brats done this time?" Vernon Dursley's booming voice echoed down the hallway. He slammed the front door so harshly that the cupboard's supports shook and rained dust down on the twins. "I swear, I don't know why we keep them, Petunia." Vernon wasn't yelling anymore, but he was just outside the cupboard.

And the next thing Elizabeth knew, Harry was yanked out of the cupboard in a flash of black hair and tattered clothes. Then the cupboard blurred into the hallway and Lizzie crumpled into the floor next to her brother. Uncle Vernon had one large, white-knuckled hand wrapped around each of the twins' shirt collars. His face was so purple with rage it looked as if he had chewed Willy Wonka's special gum.

"They were ruining my azaleas, and beating poor, little Dudley!" their aunt cried in a shill voice. She wrapped her bony arms around her son and held him in a crushing cradle. The boy began to whimper out more crocodile tears.

Lizzie and Harry glanced at each other. They were going to be in so much trouble. Uncle Vernon tightened his grip on their shirts and started to drag them through the kitchen and into the backyard. The perfect suburban grass was ripped up under their tripping feet. He shoved them out his grip, and the scrawny children knocked and wobbled into each other. Elizabeth looked up with dread at what Uncle Vernon had brought them to.

In a hidden corner of the Dursley's backyard was a tiny fairy garden that Lizzie had been constructing over the past month or so. Harry had started collecting shiny trinkets and fallen leaves to help. He knew how much this miniature village of twigs and flowers meant to her. She would sit outside on foggy days to make sure that it didn't flood in the rain. And here the twins were, standing and watching Uncle Vernon lift his boot over the fragile houses.

Everyone in the yard was dead silent, then Lizzie spoke up. "You won't do that." Her face was blank, a habit that she picked up after years of scolding and punishment.

"And why not?" Vernon grit his teeth so hard that it bristled his mustache.

Lizzie kicked into the grass nonchalantly and put her hands behind her back. "There's a party two houses down. If you so much as touch that village, then I'll scream so loud they'll hear me in London." She cast her eyes around the yard, and made sure that there actually was a sign of someone outside. Even better than two houses down, there was a woman reading in the yard next door. "It never is good when an eight year old screams bloody murder."

Petunia looked frantically at Vernon, and then around the fences she so frequently peaked over. When she spotted their neighbor next door, she gestured Dudley back inside. Vernon grumbled and growled before dragging the twins back inside by the collars of their shirts. He tossed them back into the cupboard and slammed the door in their faces.

"You won't be leaving that cupboard all weekend!"

Harry looked at Lizzie, and then to the cupboard door, and back to his sister. His face twisted in anger under his glasses. He pushed against the cupboard door and, like they expected, it had been locked. They were stuck.

Elizabeth Potter would have sold her soul just to get out of the Dursley home.