Saga Viktorsorra fékk mig til að reyna enn einu sinni að senda þessa sögu inn, þótt hún sé á ensku. Henni hefur ekki verið hafnað, hún hefur bara ekki borist alla leið.
Hún gerist um sumarið eftir fjórða ár Harrys. Afsakið enskuna.
Stella LeCiel
Harry was bored. Hedwig was out on a journey and he had already read and reread all his spellbooks a million times, his homework was done and checked. He couldn't leave his room because some Mrs. Drag (some owner of a mechanicstore who was likely to buy drills from the Grunning Company) was visiting Mr.Dursley with her son. And as always, Harry was to stay quiet in his room and act like he didn't exist. But this time it was harder than ever before. NOT that he wanted to sit and listen to the Dursleys butter Mrs. Drag up, but because he was already feeling depressed, and listening to Dudley and Chuck, Mrs. Drag's son, playing his favourite game in Dudley's new Play Station 2, did not help cheering him up.
Harry sighed and walked over to the closed window. He had been feeling depressed ever since Cedric died, and knowing Voldemort had risen again, he was terrified. Going back to the Dursleys had just been a minor point in his state of mind.
He was wondering where Hedwig could be, when he heard a sound that made him jump; someone was knocking at the door, and Chuck's voice said; “And in this room, what is in here?” He had been so deep in his thoughts that he hadn't heard that Dudley and Chuck had stopped playing on the PS2. He heard Dudley stutter something about “old toys”, “nothing special” and “shouldn't go in there”. But he was too late, the door sprung open and Harry saw a tall, dark haired boy, about sixteen years old, standing in the doorway, staring at him. For a moment no one moved. Then Chuck spurt out: “Who are you?!” Harry glared at Dudley who seemed to feel extremely uncomfortable. “I'm Dudley's cousin, Harry…” he answered, now looking at Chuck again. “Oh.” Chuck was clearly overcoming the shock. “But why weren't you with us then? No, that's the past. The question is why don't you come with us now? We're going outside. I know a girl in the neighbourhood,” he went slightly pink, “Her name's Stella, and she loves rugby! But you must know her don't you? Or maybe not, she's new in the ‘hood. Come on; let’s see if she wants to play some ball, huh! C'mon! Everybody loves rugby!” And with that he ran away, down the stares.
By the expression on Dudley's face, he had not been planning going outside playing rugby; Dudley hated any sport, except, maybe, eating competition; he was so fat that last year, he didn't fit in his school uniform! But though he had followed a not-so-very successful diet, he was not (and that surprised Harry) much fatter than he was last year.
Harry sighed again and said: “Well, I'll have to go with you then, now that he has seen me, don't I?”
They were walking down the way toward the field; Dudley, Chuck and Stella led the way, then came some of Dudley’s friends. Harry, of course, was the last one.
They had gone see if Stella was at home and in mood for rugby. They knocked at the door and Chuck, who had been talking all the way, couldn’t stay still, but when, finally, the door was opened, he suddenly froze, speechless. “Yes?” said maybe a fifteen year old girl with elbow length, blond hair and dark green eyes. She was wearing a pair of radiant red jeans and something like a bikini top in same colour “Oh, my! Chuck! Wow, what are you doing here?” She smiled at them as Dudley (Chuck couldn’t say a word) asked grumpily, if she wanted to play rugby. Harry stayed behind, watching the girl who had to be Stella. “I don’t think a beautiful girl like…What?! What did I just think? Beautiful? Uh, oh, I’m going mad!” he thought, “But look at her! She is… very beautiful.” He blushed and looked away towards the street. Harry’s face went from pink to white within a second. There were two members of Dudley’s clique, Jose and Paulo, both big with a mass of muscles. They were Spanish brothers, but they had always lived in Britain though. They had already spotted Dudley (and obviously Stella) and were walking towards them, punching Harry in the stomach while passing. “Long time no see shorty!” Jose said taking Harry’s glasses from him. “Gim’me that!” Harry groaned snatching them back. He didn’t let the Dursleys get the better of him anymore, but Dudley’s friends were another problem; he hadn’t met them in a really long time and they had no idea Dudley didn’t bully him anymore. Or at least not as much as before and, he never actually harmed him physically. So when he met them, they did as always before, i.e. were really, really nasty to him.
Jose and Paulo said hello to Stella, Chuck and Dudley who asked them to come too. Stella had already said yes, but only if Adrienne, the only girl she knew in the neighbourhood, would come with them.
Adrienne lived next door so there wasn’t a long way to go. Harry recognised her as the most boring girl he had ever known from his class, before he went to Hogwarts, school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was pretty small for her age, rather uncute and really shy, so he couldn’t understand how in the world she could be the first girl Stella got to know! But he did understand why Adrienne wanted to go with them, even though Dudley would be what a Boggart would take shape of if she ever met one; it was Piers. She had always had a big crush on him, this rat like boy who was Dudley’s best friend. She was hoping he would also come. But unfortunately for her, Piers was spending his whole summer in Italy with his family, but she didn’t know that until they had found the last person to play with them, and now she was stuck with Dudley and his friends; a real nightmare for her!
When they finally got to the field, they had gathered a group of eight boys and two girls. Harry wasn’t counted. “We’ll make equal teams if this one doesn’t play” Jose shouted, tapping on Harry’s head.
Every one took their place when Chuck and Dudley had chosen the teams. Stella, holding the ball, yelled: “One! Two! Three! Go!” Then threw the ball between her legs at Jose who ran with it and threw it to Chuck. Harry, who had no longing for watching the game, sank deep down in his own thoughts, still blaming himself for Cedric’s death. He had had nightmares about it; how The Dark Lord had killed him, how Wormtail had cut his hand off to give a new body his master and… and dreams, dreams about his parents. For the first time in his memory, his parents had spoken to him. He had seen them walking, heard them talking… but only for few moments. Then he had had to run away for his life, but he knew he would never, ever forget this night.
After he came back to the Dursleys, he started to panic on top of the depression because he didn’t feel as safe there, as in Hogwarts. He became very aware of his scar, knowing that anyone from the Wizarding World would recognise him right away if they saw it, and if they were Death Eaters… well he didn’t really want to think that far. But he couldn’t help it. One night he couldn’t sleep because he was thinking about what would happen if he would meet a Death Eater, and in the morning, he realised that his hair had grown thicker, and his fringe now hid his scar completely. But he also realised that he must have used magic to do it, because an owl was sitting on the sill, with a letter from the Ministry of Magic, warning him that if he used magic one more time over the summer holidays, he would be expelled from Hogwarts. Harry wasn’t happy with this. He hadn’t done it on purpose, it was more like self-defence, he thought, he had to hide, right, so he shouldn’t been punished at all!
He was thinking about sending the Ministry of Magic an owl, explaining this to them, even asking Ron to check if his father could do anything about it, when Adrienne suddenly sat down beside him and making him jump. “I’ve had enough of this, now you go so they’ll make equal teams.” She said coldly to him. Harry looked up. She was covered with dirt and obviously in a very bad mood. Then he looked at the others and Chuck shouted, “C’mon Harry! We’re winning, but we can’t afford to lose a player!” but then Jose interrupted “NO way! I don’t want him to be in my team! NO WAY I said!” Chuck stared at him. “Hmm, not very good friends, huh? Well then, we must find a way, uh… DUDLEY!” He shouted the last word and Dudley, who was scowling at Harry, spun around with his fingers still in his ears. “Dudley! We can switch players! I give you Harry, that’s your name, right? Right. And you’ll give me… uh, let’s see…hmmm, who can you give me? You! You over there! Come here!” He pointed at Paulo, but Dudley didn’t want to switch someone as big as Paulo for tiny little Harry so Chuck pointed out someone else. Harry just sat watching. When they finally agreed (which did not take too long because uncle Vernon had told Dudley to “let the boy do as he wants” so it would be more likely his mother would sign the contract), Harry was in Dudley’s team, switched for the smallest one in the team (who wasn’t that small). He was put where there was as little chance as possible for him to get the ball, but he still did his best. He ran as fast as he could, tried to get the ball, tried to win, tried to forget.
When they had played for twenty minutes or so and Dudley’s team was now in lead, suddenly it was Harry’s turn to begin with the ball. Harry couldn’t believe his ears. Was Dudley really letting him do that? But then he understood. Dudley was still afraid of him and even more of his godfather. Harry still let the Dursleys believe Sirius was a bloodthirsty murderer and they knew it wouldn’t be a good idea to mess with him, so they allowed Harry some things they had never allowed him before. So Harry took his place, with the ball, facing Stella. His sparkling green eyes facing her dark green eyes. This was the last turn, if his team would score, they would win.
Harry looked in Stella’s eyes. She was really concentrating. She was, like everyone else on the field, sweaty and dirty from head to toes. Harry blinked to get rid of a sweat drop. “One!” he yelled. “Two!” He wiped more sweat off his forehead with his hand. “Three! Hop!” He threw the ball between his legs and started running. He barely noticed when Stella didn’t start running right away, but obviously she had been part of a plan, because when Paulo scored, José and the others begun to tell her off for not being quick enough. When Harry looked at her she looked kind of out of place just nodding at the boys and Harry started to wonder if something was wrong.
After the game, everyone went buying a soda or another drink and sat down, outside, in the sun. Harry was the only one who didn’t have any money to buy anything. He sat, watching longingly the Cola Dudley was slurping, when Stella asked him hesitating if he hadn’t bought anything to drink. “Wha…? No, I don’t have any money.” he answered. “I could lend you some.” She said. “We’re all thirsty after that game. You really should drink something.” “Ah, well, yeah, thank you! That would be great!” Harry stuttered and stood up as she did. They walked inside the shop and she bought him a Cola. Harry thanked her again and was leaving the shop when Stella suddenly stopped him. “What?” he asked. Stella looked at him nervously and then asked, “Are you called Harry?” “Yeah, that’s my name. And yours is Stella, right?” She nodded and then continued, “Are you the Harry?” Harry just looked at her gloomily. “What?” “I mean the Harry Potter.” she said “The one and only who defeated You-know-who and… I mean, I saw your scar!” she was so exited or nervous, she spilled some of her Sprite on the floor. Harry stared. “Y… you know? You know who I am?” She nodded again. “Well, yeah. I’m a witch! Every wizard or witch knows Harry Potter!” Harry didn’t answer. He couldn’t believe it. Stella was a witch! “She must have seen my scar when we were facing each other on the rugby field” he thought, and then he said, “I had no idea!” She smiled nervously “Well, I didn’t recognise you either.” “That’s because I live with muggles. The Dursleys would never let me wear anything non-muggleish!” They both smiled, but in that moment, Chuck burst in yelling, “Hey! What are you two doing? Come out! And you,” he pointed at Harry “you leave my girlfriend alone!” Harry thought he was quite menacing, so he just answered a simple OK and left the shop in a hurry.
Stella and Chuck, who obviously were a couple now, walked right behind Harry who heard something he didn’t know what to think of. Stella was warning Chuck of talking like that to him. “I wouldn’t be so menacing to him, Chuck,” she said. “And why not? What do you think he’s going to do? Kick my ass? Just look at him! He’s so small he couldn’t hurt a fly! And why were you so long in there anyway?” That was a whole new side of Chuck for Harry. “We were just talking, Chuck!” she answered. “Talking! What were you talking to him about? And what were you talking to him for anyway? Dudley doesn’t seem to like him very much and Dudley’s cool I’m tellin’ya! There must be a very good reason he doesn’t like him for and I wouldn’t be so kind to him, you know! He really looks dumb and if he’s going to try to kick my ass for what I said, he really is dumb, because if he thinks he’s got a chance against me…!” “There is more to him than meets the eye, Chuck!” Stella said then, in a warningly tone. Chuck seemed surprised. “What do you mean by that?” But then they had reached the others and Stella didn’t answer.
Harry didn’t know what to think, Chuck didn’t seem to like him anymore, and Stella had talked about him almost as she was afraid of him. She didn’t talk to him after that, but he could feel her glaring at him repeatedly. And so did Chuck, but he wasn’t sure he wanted him to look like that at him.
They walked home and reached the Dursleys’ house as Mrs. Drag was leaving. She was really tall. “Oh! Chuck! I almost forgot you came with me!” she grinned, “Your parents are such nice people, boy.” she tapped Dudley’s blond head with one hand, and with the other, she opened the door on her car, then pushed Chuck inside. “We’ll talk again tomorrow Mr. Dursley!” and then, she was gone.
Harry was staring after the car when he heard the door on the house being closed. The Dursleys had locked him outside. “Oh, no, not again!” He was thinking about how to get inside when someone touched his shoulder. It was Stella. “Hey, Harry.” “Oh, eh, hi!” He had thought she was gone. “So… I’ve heard you’re in Hogwarts,” she said. “Yeah, I am,” Harry answered, “Which school are you in?” “Collie’s Hill. I know, stupid name. I’m going there tomorrow.” She said a little sadly. “Tomorrow? Why?” Harry envied her going to school so soon. “Because school is starting tomorrow.” She said. ”What? But it’s August!” Harry envied her so much he almost wanted to go with her but then again, Collie’s Hill couldn’t be half as safe as Hogwarts. “I know. At Collie’s Hill, school begins earlier than other schools.” she claimed, dashing. “I don’t want to go right now. I mean, I can’t believe it, I just met Harry Potter, the most famous wizard ever, and he appears to live next door! Or almost. And I have to go away the very next day, and I’m not coming back until Christmas!” She looked a bit embarrassed and said “Sorry, you must get this all the time.” Harry smiled, “It’s OK.” She smiled back and they just stood there for a while, without talking. Then she looked at her watch (which was clearly a wizard watch) and got all exited: “Oh, no! Look at the time! I’m so late! Uh, Harry… It was really nice to get the chance to meet you, it really was!” “It was nice to meet you too!” Harry shouted after her as she ran home.
Harry turned round, facing his so called home, and he felt the depression all over him again. “How am I going to enter, I know the Dursleys won’t open the door if I ring the doorbell.” He sighed and walked miserably towards the house.