𝓗𝓲𝓼 𝓒𝓱𝓸𝓼𝓮𝓷 𝓞𝓷𝓮

2.0 | A House Elf Named Dobby

"CHLOE POTTER!!"

Upon hearing her uncle's loud voice, Chloe screwed her eyes shut. "Nevermind." She sighed, under her breath, before she shut her photo album, put it on her bed, stood up and began to walk out.

It certainly wasn't the first time that week Hedwig had unintentionally gotten Chloe into trouble. But it wasn't fun for her to be in a cage every single day.

Chloe reluctantly made her wat downstairs and into the kitchen. It was an early morning and Vernon and Dudley were having their breakfast at the table whilst Petunia was decorating a cake.

"Vernon.." Petunia spoke up, to inform her husband that their niece had walked in. Vernon looked up from his newspaper, turned to Chloe and sternly said, "Third time this week! I'm warning you.. if you can't control that bloody bird, it'll have to go."

"But she's bored," said Chloe, as she fiddled with some of her hair. "She's used to flying around outside. If I could just let her out at night-"

"So you can send secret messages to your freaky little friends? Absolutely not." Vernon scoffed.

"But I haven't had any messages from any of my friends. Not one. All summer," said Chloe, sadly.

Dudley, Chloe's cousin, shot her a glare. "Who'd want to be friends with you?" He sneered, coldly.

Vernon, rather than scolding his son which Chloe didn't expect him to do, just sighed, "I should think you'd be a little more grateful. We've raised you since you a were a baby, given you the food off our table, even let you have Dudley's second bedroom, purely out of the goodness of our hearts."

"I thought she still had the room to not turn us into dung beetles for shoving her back in that old cupboard." Dudley blurted out, then let out a loud belch. "I want more bacon." He told his mother.

Petunia turned to her large son. "There's more in the frying pan, sweetums. We must build you up while we've got the chance. I don't like the sound of that school food." She commented.

"Nonsense, Petunia, I never went hungry when I was at Smeltings," said Vernon heartily. "Dudley gets enough, don't you, son?" He questioned.

Dudley proudly grinned, before he turned to his cousin. "Pass the frying pan." He insisted. "Most people use the magic word," sighed Chloe.

The effect of that simple sentence on the rest of the family was incredible - Dudley gasped and fell off his chair with a crash that shook the whole kitchen as Petunia immediately gave a small scream and clapped her hands to her mouth; Vernon jumped to his feet, with his veins throbbing in his temples.

"I meant "please"! I didn't-" Chloe said, quickly. "WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT SAYING THE 'M' WORD IN OUR HOUSE?" Her uncle thundered.

"But I-" Chloe justified. "HOW DARE YOU THREATEN DUDLEY," roared Vernon, pounding the table with his fist. "I just-" Chloe said. "I WARNED YOU! I WILL NOT TOLERATE MENTION OF YOU ABNORMALITY UNDER THIS ROOF!" Vernon boomed, firmly.

Chloe stared from her purple-faced uncle to his pale aunt, who was trying to heave Dudley to his feet. "All right," murmured the Potter girl.

Vernon sat back down, breathing heavily and watching Chloe closely out of the corners of his small, sharp eyes. Ever since Chloe had come home for the summer holidays, Vernon had been treating her like a bomb that might go off at any moment, because Chloe Potter wasn't a normal girl. She was, in fact, as not normal as it is possible to be.

Chloe Potter was a witch, fresh from her first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

And if the Dursleys were unhappy to have her back for the holidays, it was nothing to how Chloe felt.