A/N: For this story I'm deliberately ignoring the fact that Dobby had been hiding letters given to Harry from his friends during the 1st year/2nd year summer. Also, Ron isn't going to feature in this short story as I can't think of a place for him. Thanks for the reviews, favs and follows.

Theodore watched the muggle neighbourhood children play outside from his bedroom window. As they wore their brightly coloured shirts and rode around on their bikes, he couldn't help but feel jealous -it was the summer holidays from Hogwarts and watching them only served as a reminder that he had no friends. To be more specific, none that his father would approve of and let him socialise with. He was stuck in his manor wearing his black robes and with nothing to do except read the library's vast collection of books on the Dark Arts and were often filled with gross, cruel magic. Unlike his father, Theodore had no interest in the Dark Arts whatsoever.

Theodore regretted sending Harry, Ron and Alex owls to say that he could not do anything fun over the holidays but he knew the consequences of his father finding out that he was friends with 'The Boy who Lived', mudbloods and a blood traitor would be severe. As a result, it was only a week into his summer holidays and he was already painfully lonely.

Earlier his father had knocked on his door to tell him: "Theodore, I'll be gone for a break to Italy week or two and I'm taking Hoppity with me. There are ten galleons on the table for you to shop for food at Diagon Alley. Ciao!"

His father left without even a second glance, leaving Theodore alone in the house. When he was younger he use to feel sadness but as he grew older there was only the sense of relief of not having to put up with his father. Besides, he now had the opportunity to do what he liked in his absence.

Not only that, but he wouldn't have to be a victim of his father's fits of rage either. He would often be left bruised or scarred. Sometimes he would be cursed. But it was always his father that would supply the healing potions. His father would claim he was sorry, but Theodore didn't really see much remorse. He wouldn't stop.

Theodore's father should have never had kids. His world revolved around himself and there was little room for anyone else. Theodore had always felt that he wasn't good enough for his father. If it wasn't for his pureblood heritage (he valued that immensely) and his mother who wanted a child before it was too late, Theodore wouldn't exist. After his mother died their relationship deteriorated further, without their mutual love of her – whatever kind of bond they had before was severed. Often, though not without feeling a tinge of guilt afterwards, he wished that it was his father that had died instead of his mother.

He watched as his father walked out of the front gate of their manor before he rushed to the owlery room and took no hesitation to begin to write frantically on some leftover parchment. He could do anything he wanted now that his father and their house elf Hoppity were not here.

The summer break wasn't as fun as Alex had hoped it would be. For a start, his punishment for disobeying Uncle Ian and going into the forbidden corridor was to do a great deal of the cleaning around the house the entire time he was home. He had tried to make a deal with Jack, but she seemed perfectly fine with this sort of punishment. Secondly, the only places that his Uncle Ian was taking him to were sports sessions where he could met with some of his old friends.

"It is too dangerous for you at the moment," Uncle Ian explained in reply to Alex's complaining; his usually cool demeanour was replaced with stiff seriousness, "Being a wizard is a very valuable gift in the eyes of the spy world. Many wizards, even young wizards such as yourself have been used against your will. I don't want that to happen to you."

Alex had to admit that he hadn't given his Uncle's profession much thought since Uncle Ian told him over Christmas. Yet again, so much had happened that he hadn't had the chance to. But it was only now that he was worried about what that entailed. On reflection, Uncle Ian's true profession made sense –fitness training, travel, speaking different languages and the different skills Uncle Ian taught him such as lock picking – they were all part of a bigger plan that Uncle Ian hoped his nephew would gravitate to. However, since the revelation of Alex's magical abilities he realised that Uncle Ian was most probably left disappointed. Alex wasn't going to be a part of his world. Not as far as Alex knew.

Another realisation came to him, this one darker, what if Uncle Ian's spy world had something to do with his parent's deaths? He dismissed the question immediately.

To pass time, Alex had resorted to playing games on his X-box and watching movies with Jack. He regretted that he didn't really have many muggle friends anymore, although he did get back into good terms with some of his former friends on his football team. There was also his ten year old neighbour, a shy blonde girl called Isobel, who would invite him to play board or card games. They didn't talk about school much, to Alex's relief, and she didn't notice anything different about him. Keeping secrets was easy once you got the hang of it. Other than that, his holidays were largely boring.

Despite the dullness of his summer holidays, Alex had the deep sense that something was deeply wrong and that his Uncle's fears were larger and more valid than what Alex knew. He had seen the same man in his snake dream. Outside his window, the man would watch him. The man looked at Alex with a kind of strange curiosity, almost perversion. It made Alex shiver. Maybe that was why his uncle wanted him to go to some sort of summer camp – for his own protection.

"I've seen your uncle get into a fight with a man," Isobel told him during a game of Uno, "He was watching you and Jack in your living room. Your Uncle seemed very angry."

"That's alright," Alex told her, "I've seen him too. He has blond hair and a line in the middle of his neck, as if it was made by a ruler."

"Yeah he does," Isobel nodded, "My dad doesn't like him either. My dad knows your uncle through The Bank and says that the man is only going to cause trouble. We should stay away from him."

Alex blinked, he didn't realise that Isobel's father was connected with MI6 before now. Yet again, she didn't speak much and he doubted that she knew what her father's work really was. "I wouldn't worry about it."

"You forgot to say 'Uno'" Isobel exclaimed at Alex's one card, "Pick up another."

Alex picked up another card and shook his head. Isobel was good at games.

As much as Isobel was a nice girl, he couldn't deny that their friendship was built primarily out of mutual loneliness. Isobel was an only child who lived with her single father. She never spoke about her mother and Alex wasn't daring enough to ask. She was shy, not particularly pretty, a little strange and typically lacked confidence. Isobel didn't seem particularly clever either but she had her own kind of wit. She attended special ed classes, although Alex was not sure why. She didn't speak about school either and for as long as he had been living here, he had never seen her invite friends over from school. He assumed that school was difficult for her. He felt sorry for her, it was the same kind of sympathy he had for Neville Longbottom.

"There's an owl pecking at the window!" Isobel said excitedly while looking out the window, he doubted she had seen an owl that close before (not including zoos), "It looks like it's got some sort of letter!"

Alex turned around and jumped, he hadn't expected an owl to come. Not at this time. He didn't recognise the owl either. Usually he was happy when an owl came as it was a letter from one of his friends but because Isobel was here, he was panicking. He couldn't think of some sort of story that would make sense to her on the spot.

"You're someone who uses owls to send letters?" Isobel asked.

"Yes," was all Alex could say at the time.

"I remember people use to do that when I was really little but I don't remember who they are," Isobel said shrugging, "I would have thought email would be quicker. I wonder how they train the owls."

Alex couldn't think of anything to tell her. He took the letter from the owl's mouth after he had opened the window. It was from Theodore. He quickly read the letter and smiled at Theodore's request to go over to his house. Apparently Theodore's father had left Theodore alone for the summer so they were allowed to keep in contact. He quickly scribed a reply, suggesting the first activing he could think of and sent the owl with the message back to Theodore.

He then went back to playing Uno with Isobel. She didn't seem disturbed by this unusual occurrence in the slightest.

Harry sat at his desk, reading one of his textbooks and trying to complete the homework that his teachers had set aside for him. Realistically, he knew that very few students would actually complete the work (with the exception of a few people like Hermione and himself) and he was honestly only doing it because there was nothing else to do. Yet he felt a thrill while doing it simply because the Dursleys had forbidden him from doing so. However, it was hot in his room and he only had a pedestal fan to blow warm air at him so he was finding it difficult to concentrate.

Since he had returned from Hogwarts for the summer, the Dursleys were continuing in their efforts to 'erase magic' from him. They did not want him to go back to Hogwarts either.

'Don't they realise that after nine years of trying to get rid of my magic that they've already failed?' he thought in distain and rolled his eyes, 'I'll be going back to Hogwarts even if I have to run away and walk to platform 9 ¾ myself.'

He had to be careful. If Uncle Vernon caught him in the act of magic the punishment would unpleasant, even painful. Even Hedwig was locked up; as much as Harry would prefer to let her fly free in the sky, the Dursley's wouldn't allow it. However, he did allow her to fly around his room during the day.

Harry was also distressed that he could not leave his room. Technically he could leave his room any time he wanted to. However, there was nothing for him to do out there other than get in the way of Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. Unfortunately, the muggles in his neighbourhood were fearful of him and believed Aunt Petunia's lie that he was a juvenile delinquent who had been attending St Brutus' Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys for the last school year.

In his room he had already read the books Theodore had given him. He especially liked the James Bond ones. He would have to thank Theodore for them the next time they came into contact. It was too risky to send Theo letters. He would also be surviving off the lollies that had been given to him in the hospital wing after his encounter with Quirrell. His aunt's wilted summer salads were not particularly edible.

Harry was startled when he heard an owl fly through his open window and land on his desk. It was a plain Eagle Owl and there was a letter in its mouth. Harry quickly took the letter and read it, it was from Theodore. It came as a surprise to Harry.

'Harry,

My father has gone away for a couple of weeks, so I'm free to do stuff over the holidays. It would be cool to hang out with you guys. I've already written to Alex who said that his Uncle wants him to go to some sort of summer camp but he will be free for the next week. He suggested we could go play tennis at the court near where he lives. Ron also replied – he's too busy.

Theo.'

Harry smiled, any excuse to get out of 4 Privet Drive was welcomed but a chance to see friends was greeted with enthusiasm. He ripped a piece of paper out of his notebook and began to scribe frantically. He could hear his uncle and aunt downstairs:

"Owl!" Uncle Vernon howled, "I thought I saw an owl flying into Harry's room!"

"Calm down darling," Aunt Petunia replied, "The last time you thought you saw an owl it was just a fat pigeon in the garden. You're just being Paranoid again."

"Paranoid?! Paranoid?! I'm just try to prevent the boy getting more magic tricks. I'm going upstairs to check."

Harry began to panic. He quickly wrote a note to Theodore:

'Yes, I'm interested! Tennis sounds like fun. My uncle and aunt won't notice me gone. And be careful with your owl. It might be better to send me notes at night so my Uncle won't notice an owl. They freak him out. Harry.'

After Harry shooed the owl to return to Theodore with his reply, he frantically hid all of his school books and brought out one of the James Bonds. He could hear his uncle's slow staggered footsteps up the stairs.

"What are you doing?" his uncle asked as he opened the door.

Harry's eyes shifted, "Reading."

His Uncle gave him a strange look, "That's all you do all day, every day? Every time I come in here, you seem to be reading the same books over and over."

"Yep." This wasn't strictly true. Sometimes Harry played with one of Dudley's old Gameboys, not that Dudley would miss it anyway.

His uncle continued with his 'you're strange' look and closed the door on him.

Harry could overhear him mutter to himself, "I might have to get him a mini TV, like Dudley's. It might make him seem more normal."

Harry smirked, conning his uncle into buying him a TV would be great.

Tracey was showing Hermione and Lisa her newest set of lip glosses. She knew neither girl was interested in lip gloss but she still felt like boasting about it.

"Their nice," Hermione said, "I usually just have a mango gloss for myself."

"I use to have a lovely musk one," Lisa lamented, "But I lost it."

It was great having both girls over for sleepovers during the holidays and it was good that neither of them lived too far away. They were the only girls from Hogwarts that Tracey was really friends with. Neither of them were the kind of girls that she would have picked as friends at first glance. She was primarily interested in fashion and makeup. They were quiet and bookish. It was an odd combination.

The other Slytherin girls in her year had not really accepted her. She hated Pansy Parkinson with a passion and was excluded from their clique, although Astoria Greengrass could be nice when they were on their own. Some of the older girls were better though and she was lucky to be able to switch to stay in a dorm of third year girls after Pansy got into trouble for stealing her things. As much as she liked the Slytherin atmosphere, the only other Slytherin she genuinely, fully liked as a person was Theodore. She hated to admit it, but she was relatively unpopular at Hogwarts – while in primary school she came close to being a queen bee.

Tracey frowned, "Hey, I've been getting letters from Theodore. His dad has gone to Italy for weeks and had left him in the house alone. How sad. His father isn't the nicest of people. I told him that my parents won't let me travel to Wimbleton, not even by floo network, but he could still send letters."

Lisa shrugged, "He's sent me a few homework questions, even jokes. I figured he was just bored."

"Same here." Hermione replied, "I'm more worried about Harry. He hasn't sent any letters at all. His aunt and uncle are doing something."

"I don't think there is really anything we can do about either though." Tracey frowned.

"In contrast to Ron who sends me some of the dumbest stuff." Hermione added.

They laughed quickly and thought for a moment before Tracey continued:

"I have an idea! My sister Amethyst taught me some simple appearance changing spells. It'll be fun. I've done it heaps."

"Won't we get in trouble?" Lisa asked, "What if something goes wrong?"

"No, the ministry can't tell specifically if it is us who are performing magic in this house. At least that's what Xylia told me. I've been practicing magic over the holidays."

The girls agreed, thinking the exercise would be interesting. They brought out their wands.