~June 1988~

Harriet Potter, perhaps better known as Harri, stood on a wooden stool in front of the stove, bacon and eggs sizzling and coming along nicely. She thought she'd become a decent cook over the past year, though her relatives might not want her believe that about herself.

"Hurry up girl," Vernon barked from the dining room table, as he did most every morning. Harri knew that there was no way that she would ever please her uncle, and with no way to speed up the preparation of the Dursleys' meal, Harri continued methodically tending to the eggs and bacon, enjoying the wonderful smells as she cooked, and trying to imagine what they might taste like.

A minute or two later, Harri heard the mail flap creak on its hinges and then a small stack of mail hit the floor. She had a very keen sense of hearing; she had to in order to be able to sneak into the kitchen late at night, only moving when she could hear that the rest of the house was asleep.

"Girl, go get the mail," Vernon demanded in a smug tone. Harri could almost see the smirk on his face with her back turned. She knew he wanted any excuse to criticize her cooking, and then punish her for it, so she gave the food on the stove one last flip and then jumped down from her step stool and scampered to the front hall to pick up the mail. In her haste, her foot caught the edge of the foyer rug and sent her tumbling to the floor, landing almost entirely on one knee. Her knee ached and her leg felt a little numb, and it would probably probably be black and blue later, but she knew that this would pale in comparison to what her punishment would be if she didn't get up quickly and get back to tending to the stove.

Back in the dining room, Vernon let out a half chuckle as he heard the sound of his niece falling to the floor. Half limping, but still trying to move quickly, Harri set down a stack of mail in front of him, then raced back to tend to his breakfast. He looked through the pile idly, but nothing seemed important. He would leave the rest for Petunia to deal with. Just a moment later, as if called for, Petunia came down the stairs to join him at the table.

"Good morning Honey," Petunia greeted him along with a quick peck on his cheek. He hardly looked up, more focused on the paper and on his increasingly impatient appetite. Petunia sat down across from him and started sorting through their mail.

Vernon turned in his seat, about to chastise Harri again for the absence of his food, but saw the girl already carrying it over to the table. She silently and carefully served them, giving Vernon close to three times the amount that was on Petunia's plate, just as she was supposed to. He gave it a little taste and found it quite good, but of course he couldn't say that to her. "It's edible, girl, but next time don't dawdle about and let it burn, hah!" he chuckled. The girl looked relieved that he wasn't going to criticize her more, and bowed her head. "You can make yourself some toast and then go to your room," he added graciously.

Harri limped back to the kitchen and made herself two pieces of toast lightly buttered; if she took more Vernon get mad again. Harri quickly retreated back to the safety of her cupboard under the stairs, and happily nibbled on her toast. It had been a good–if ordinary–morning, but that was about to change.

From her cupboard Harri could hear the conversation going on in the dining room. She had to strain a bit to catch what Petunia said, but it would be hard to miss Vernon's booming voice. Alone in the darkness, she pressed her ear to the door and listened.

"Look at this Vernon, this is odd. It seems to concern the little freak." Harri was just as surprised as Petunia by this development. She could hardly imagine a reason that anyone would write to her or about her.

"What is it? An invitation to a school? Is this some of that freak business?" Vernon questioned angrily.

"Well, no, or at least I don't think so. St Catherine's school for girls… we could do a bit of research, but I think I've heard of them before," Petunia replied pensively.

"Well why should we do anything about it? Why should we have her go to some fancy school?"

"Well dear, it seems that we wouldn't need to do anything or pay anything. They'll take her, and then she can be kept away from Duddikins. And look, in a few years we could even have her stay there, and we could go back to being a normal family."

Harri's eyes widened in surprise in the dark. She couldn't believe her luck. Now she only had to hope that Petunia could convince Vernon, and she'd be able to get away from her horrible family for most of the day.

"Well I suppose I'll do a little bit of digging into it, it would be nice to get rid of her as much as possible," Vernon grumbled.

Back in the cupboard under the stairs, Harri wanted to dance and cheer in victory. Instead, she settled for pumping a fist and smiling, hoping against hope that finally she might catch a break.

~October 1988~

Hermione prowled the rows of the St Catherine's School library. The librarian had informed her that the book she was looking for hadn't been checked out, but there was a very conspicuous gap in the set of books where it normally would be found. So now she was searching the rest of the library, trying to find out if perhaps some other student had taken to read while remaining in the room.

She had come across a few small groups of girls reading or doing work, but after invading their personal spaces to check the titles of the books they had with them, she kept moving in search of her target. Eventually she made her way to the very back corner which was furnished with a few beanbags. She'd already gone by here once before, but apparently she'd missed something the last time, as now she noticed someone. There, wedged in between a pair of the beanbags, was a very small girl holding a book. Hermione approached and tried to get a look at the cover, and sure enough it was what she was looking for.

Before she could say anything, the girl peered over the top of book, and upon seeing Hermione so close to her, jumped back and almost submerged herself under the beanbags. "Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you," Hermione called out quietly.

Slowly, the other girl pulled herself out and straightened her glasses, but left her messy black hair to hang partially over her face. She pulled the book back closer to her defensively, and just stared back up at Hermione.

Hermione was a bit thrown off by the lack of a response, but pressed on anyways. "Well I was looking to find a book, but it wasn't there, and it seems that you have it. I must say, I didn't expect to find The Hobbit being read by someone in reception*."

The strange girl continued to stare up at her, holding the book in front of her face like a shield, before finally responding cautiously, "I'm not in reception. I'm the same age as you. I'm in your class."

Hermione was shocked, but tried not to let it show. The girl would be small even for some of the younger grades, and seemingly quite thin too, though it was hard to tell under the girls baggy old clothes. She was also rather embarrassed that she didn't recognize one of the girls in her class. "Oh. Well then I'm very sorry. May I know your name?" she asked politely.

"I'm Harri," the raven-haired girl responded bluntly. "And I already know you're Hermione." Hermione blushed, further embarrassed by the fact that this girl knew her, but she didn't recognize Harri.

Harri looked down to try to start reading again, but Hermione wasn't satisfied yet. "So, have you been the reason why this book has been missing for the last month?" Harri looked up at her a bit defensively, but simply nodded after a moment. "Why's that?" Hermione continued. "Why not just check it out?"

Harri paused, unsure how much to say, but eventually answered. "Well umm, my family wouldn't want me bringing books home, especially not books like this one. So I just read it here during lunch and after school."

Hermione looked mortified, as if that was the most horrible thing she'd ever heard. "What!?" she yelled loudly, then quickly realizing what she'd done she looked to the librarian across the room and mouthed "sorry." Turning to face Harri again, she continued quietly but passionately, "Why would they not want you taking books home!? The Hobbit is one of the best books ever!"

Under this line of questioning, Harri curled up into a ball, clutching the book and looked away from Hermione. She realized that Harri might not want to talk about something like that, especially to someone she hardly knew, and decided to try to change the topic. "So you've been reading it for over a month now, right? Are you getting close to the end?" Hermione asked.

Harri looked up and shook her head, then reached out with the book to offer it to Hermione. "I'm sorry, you probably want the book, don't you?"

"Oh, no, if you haven't finished it, please keep reading. I've actually already read it twice but I just love it so much!" At that Harri gave her a look like she thought that Hermione was slightly crazy. "So have you gotten to the part where Bilbo gets the, wait, just tell me where you are in the story so I don't give anything away." Hermione sat down on one of the adjacent beanbags and started discussing her favorite book with Harri, who slowly started to come out of her shell as they chatted quietly in the back corner of the library.

Author's Notes:

*Reception is the English equivalent to kindergarten in the US. Or so it seems from a bit of online research. I'm American, so if this is not correct, or I miss something like this in the future, I do apologize and I'll try to fix it.

If you would be so kind as to leave a review, it would be really wonderful to me. Getting feedback like that is proof that someone out there has read this and enjoyed it, and that there's a reason to keep posting on here.

~ JAE