Dudley, who was so large his bottom drooped over either side of the kitchen chair, grinned and turned to Heri. "Pass the frying pan." "You've forgotten the magic word," said Harry irritably. Really, were manners too much to ask for? The effect of this 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; Aunt Petunia gave a small scream and clapped her hands to her mouth; Uncle Vernon jumped to his feet, veins throbbing in his temples. "I meant 'please'!" Heri tacked on when she realised what she had said. "WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU," thundered his uncle, spraying spit over the table, "ABOUT SAYING THE 'M' WORD IN OUR HOUSE?" "I —" "HOW DARE YOU THREATEN DUDLEY!" roared Uncle Vernon, pounding the table with his fist. "I just —" "I WARNED YOU! I WILL NOT TOLERATE MENTION OF YOUR ABNORMALITY UNDER THIS ROOF!" Heri had enough. She stood to her feet and roared back, "I'LL GIVE YOU ABNORMALITY, YOU BARKING BASKET-CASE! YOU'RE THE ONE THAT LOSES HIS MIND AT THE MENTION OF ONE LITTLE WORD! I'M THE ONE THAT'S NOT NORMAL? ANYONE ELSE WOULD HAVE YOU COMMITTED!" Uncle Vernon swelled with indignity, ready to continue his shouting when Heri marched over to the open window, bringing attention to the alarmed neighbour peeking over the fence at them. "Calm yourself down before we have the police pounding the door in," said Heri, frowning disapprovingly at the nosy woman. "It sounds like you're abusing me in here!" She punctuated her statement with the slam of the closing window. Heri stared from her purple-faced uncle to her pale aunt, who was trying to heave Dudley to his feet. "It's one thing to not be accepting of something," said Heri. "It's another thing entirely go completely batty at anything that might have something to do with it. What part of all but ripping your hair out over something supposedly imaginary is normal?" "I won't have it in this house!" Uncle Vernon insisted again, lowering his tone from the shock of seeing the woman next door listening in. "Well, maybe if you just ignored my supposedly freaky traits and let Hedwig be outside more often than she's in her cage, it literally wouldn't be in the house!" He made a low, impatient sound almost like a growl. "Fine!" snapped. "It stays outside from now on! I don't want to see hide or hair of it in this house ever again!" Uncle Vernon sat back down, breathing like a winded rhinoceros and watching Heri closely out of the corners of his small, sharp eyes. Overactive toss-pot. Ever since Heri had come home for the summer holidays, he had been treating her like a bomb that might go off at any moment. Honestly, if he wanted to prevent her from going off, nattering on like a nutter wasn't the best way of achieving that. Heri moved the frying pan from its place on the stove and sat it next to Dudley. The boy flinched but didn't hold himself back from going back to stuffing his face. "I'm going to my room," Heri said, getting up from the table. "I'll let Hedwig know she's to stay outside." Heri walked off without another word. She spent a good thirty minutes flinging her box-cutter at the dartboard before she calmed down enough to do more of her summer-reading. "So, you're telling me," said Heri, watching the strange creature with her arms crossed. "That someone is out to kill me again and that you believe I'll be safer staying here?" "Yes, Miss!" the thing, Dobby the house-elf, squeaked. Heri looked at him as if he were insane. Heri had spent the rest of her day in her room, reading and napping. Uncle Vernon had some rich guy and his wife coming over for dinner and neither her aunt nor uncle had called her down to do the cleaning. Likely they thought she'd infect a plant with her magic or something. She had been stretched out on her bed in another snooze when something poked at her shoulder. She had awoken to a little creature with large, bat-like ears and bulging green eyes the size of tennis balls crouching on the bed next to her. She had been too shocked to go for her box-cutter she kept under her pillow. The creature slipped off the bed and bowed so low that the end of its long, thin nose touched the carpet. Heri noticed that it was wearing what looked like an old pillowcase, with rips for the arm- and leg-holes. It had proceeded to tell her that it was a house-elf, and his name was Dobby. Dobby then launched into a fervent spiel about how she absolutely couldn't go back to Hogwarts because it had heard about a plot to plant something dangerous at the school and she couldn't return because she could die. Dobby was very insistent that Heri absolutely couldn't be allowed to die. If it wasn't for the fact that she was looking forward to going back to school to get away from the Dursley's, Heri might have given the suggestion of staying at Privet Drive more merit. "Listen, Dobby, I appreciate you coming here to warn me, but I don't think it would be a good idea for me to stay." Dobby looked distraught. "But, Miss—!" "Listen. From what you've said, it doesn't sound like they're after me in particular. That means that something's going to happen that will affect everyone at school. It's nice that you think I'm important enough to be kept away specifically, but everyone else would still be in danger. If I stay here and don't get a chance to tell anyone about it, lots of people could get hurt." "Heri Potter is brave and noble," said Dobby, his eyes filling with tears as he stared up at her with stark adoration.
Want to continue the story?
The next 20+ chapters are already available on Patreon!
By joining, you'll get:
📖 Early access to upcoming chapters
🗳️ Exclusive bonus content just for members
✨ Extra scenes and special material not available elsewhere
Don't miss out—read ahead and stay ahead of the story! 👀
👉 Visit: Patreon.com/c/Playerfanfic (search it on Google Chrome)