Julie Anne Dursley

Order of the Phoenix

The summer thus far had been extraordinarily calm. It was hot and sweaty and general activity was low. The Dursleys were even weirder than usual. Julie hardly left the house and only laid in bed, staring at the ceiling while listening to music with her walkman; Harry had seen that a few times when she had left her door open. She did not bully him, in fact she did not even really acknowledge him, which he was fine with, but he still thought it was somewhat odd. Also, she usually did not wake up until very late in the afternoon, and watched TV throughout the night, which annoyed Harry deeply for his room was right next to hers.

Vernon did not like her sleep pattern much. Quite out of character he had told his daughter several times that she had to be up and dressed at eleven a.m., but she did not seem to care much. One Sunday afternoon, Harry witnessed an argument between Julie and her father, when he had told her off for showing up in the living room around three p.m., wearing her pyjamas and dressing gown. That was weird, as Julie and her father were always really close; she had always been his little princess.

Harry saw Julie during breakfast, if she was up, and dinner and then she hardly said a word. Petunia treated her like she was ill, while Vernon was a bit cold towards her. Harry knew something must have happened within the family and he was admittedly quite curious, but his main focus had been on the news. He tried to watch it every night, wanting desperately to hear if something unusual had happened that could maybe be related to Voldemort. It was about two months ago that he had returned after all. The lack of news worried him a bit, and the fact that the letters he got from Ron, Hermione and Sirius were utterly useless did not help either. He got the impression that they were all at the same place, but the letters were full of noninformation.

One evening Harry anew got caught trying to hear the news. The Dursleys thought it was suspicious that he was so eager to hear the news ("Julie couldn't care less, like a normal teenager."), and did not allow him to sit and watch with them. Therefore he was forced to find hiding spots, but today he got caught in the flowerbed. He had a short exchange of words with his uncle and then he wandered off.

He walked around for a bit, trying to find discarded newspapers, until he stopped at the local playground where Julie had once painfully pushed him off the slide when they were really young. He sat down on a swing set and thought for a while. Suddenly he heard voices and laughter. A group of teenagers walked past the playground. Harry recognised Julie and some of her childhood friends, whom had always liked to join in on bullying him. Apparently she had gotten bored of staring at the ceiling of her bedroom all day and went out. Harry noticed that her way of dressing had undergone a radical change; one of her shoulders was exposed and her bellybutton showed under her dark pink shirt. It struck him as rather rebellious and nothing like the way she used to dress, which was rather upper class.

"Did you already choose a new school, Julie?" Harry heard one of her friends ask.

"No, not yet, my parents are still trying to find the supposedly 'best school', whatever that means. I just want it to be close to home, I've got only three years to go anyway," he heard his cousin say. So she was no longer enrolled at Smeltings? That was actually quite surprising to Harry; it was Vernon's old school and very prestigious (too prestigious for him at least) and his uncle and aunt were always very proud to have Julie there. "Well, until tomorrow then, I guess? Same time?" Julie asked the group.

"Sure, my place, my parents are out," a girl said.

"All right, see you then."

"Bye, Julie!"

"Nighty night!"

The group split and Harry got up from the swing set. He knew that he was not supposed to get home later than Julie and so he followed her. He picked up the pace and got close enough to hear her hum a song. "Hey, Juliebee!" he said, catching up to her. She turned around.

"Oh, hello there, scarface. What are you doing out?" she asked.

"Could ask you the same thing, don't you stay in your bedroom all day? Well, at least you bothered to put on some clothes today," Harry said.

"I stay in my room all day so I don't have to see your ugly mug!" she said.

"Seriously, though, are you feeling all right?" Harry asked her casually.

"I'm feeling knackered, so it'd be nice if you could pipe down."

They had started walking. Harry enjoyed the moment; it felt really good to vent his frustration of the lack of news on Julie.

"So, you no longer study at Smeltings then?" Harry asked her. She abruptly came to a halt and looked at him.

"How do you know that?" she asked, sounding shocked.

"I overheard you and your friends at the playground. Let me guess, your grades were too bad and you're not as good at gymnastics as people think?" Harry asked nastily. The look Julie gave him was now nothing but furious. It seemed like she really had to restrain herself from slapping him. When she spoke, she tried to sound calm and confident, but her voice shook a bit.

"Keep your nose out of my business, or you won't have a nose to stick no place." They were now walking through a dark alleyway.

"Oh, did I just strike a nerve? I'm sure your parents are mighty disappointed in you leaving Smeltings. But don't worry, Julie, you could always go back to being a zoo animal, you were really good at that." Julie was now visibly trembling with rage; she even had tears in her eyes.

"I've never done anything that mean to you. And at least I have parents, you twat!" she spat. Now it was Harry who came to a halt. Realising that she was now in control, Julie went on. "If you still had them, I'm sure they'd hold your hand at night so you don't squirm in bed screaming 'don't kill Cedric!' 'don't kill Cedric!'." She grinned nastily while Harry was too taken aback to respond. "Who's Cedric, your cute little boyfriend? You can try to deny this, but I heard you last night."

"Julie, I'm warning you, never talk about that again!" Harry said loudly. Now it was he who was furious.

"Ah, so you can dish out, but can't take it? I don't know Cedric but he deserves better than..." Before she could finish, Harry had grabbed her by the neck and pushed her against a wall. She barely had time to say 'ow!' before he had grabbed his wand. He poked her neck with its tip.

"Do I make myself clear?! Want me to give you feathers again?!" Harry screamed.

"Let go of me, you freak! I'll tell dad!" Julie screeched.

"Oh, running to daddy, are we?!" Harry continued screaming. He felt fifteen years of bullying and torment from Julie boiling up inside of him. What he would give to curse her so badly that she would have to crawl home like an insect... After a few seconds Julie actually grinned at him.

"Who do you think you're kidding? Curse me or whatever, it won't change a thing."

"It'll change your face."

"Maybe, but are you really going to throw your whole future away just because you're mad at me? I thought you were smarter than that, Harry James Potter." Harry inadvertently lowered his wand. "That's what I thought. Wise choice, scarface."

Suddenly something changed. The noises in the distance faded away and it became much darker and colder. For a moment Harry thought he had performed magic without realising it, but Julie was unharmed. She too had noticed the change. "What are you doing? Make it stop!" she said. Harry let go of her and looked around. "Stop it right now, I mean it!" she said, looking scared and angry at the same time.

"Julie, shut up, I'm not doing anything! Stay close to me!" Harry said. They could not be here, they just could not... Then suddenly Julie made it very personal, as in, she swiftly kicked him in his personal area. Completely taken off guard, Harry groaned, dropped his wand and fell to his knees.

"I warned you!" She then dashed away.

"Julie... no... you're running... straight into them!" Harry groaned and at that exact same moment two Dementors appeared in his sight. Julie tripped and smacked onto the ground with a groan. She tried to get up, but found the cold overwhelming. Not only that, but she felt a sensation she had never felt before. It was like the wind had blown away all the colours in life, and she felt nothing but misery. Would she ever feel happy again? It became colder and colder until suddenly she felt like she had been transported to another place. She saw images flickering through her head, as if she was watching a movie, only this movie was not pleasant.

She was in her room at Smeltings, looking at pictures of her parents. She found it hard to be away from home almost all year. Being homesick was not her only problem, though. Her studies stressed her out and her grades (that had always been acceptable) had dropped significantly. Her best friend since four years old had moved to Australia and she felt lonely. She did not perform well in gymnastics either and in fact did not even like it anymore, mostly because she felt she always had to meet people's expectations. For most of the school year she had to deal with stress and depression and would much rather just be home, in the comfort of her parents. Maybe the indulgent attitude of her parents had insufficiently prepared her for the mean sides of life. She did not recognise the person in the mirror; there was no confidence, no happiness to be seen in that stranger's face. She somehow made it to the next year, but when she got home for the summer break she plucked up the courage and told her parents that she wanted to quit gymnastics and change to a local school. As expected, they did not take it too well. "We've invested so much into your gymnastics endeavours and got you a spot at a very prestigious school, you can't just give that all up because of some moodiness!" her father had said. Her mother had been more understanding and took her to see a psychiatrist, or a 'soul scanner' as Julie preferred to call them. She was diagnosed with serious anxiety issues and was given medication to keep her stress levels and depression under control. She took the pills, and they helped somewhat, but she did not feel like doing anything and ended up with a weird sleep pattern. Her father was still quite uncomprehending and Julie could sense that he was disappointed in her quitting gymnastics and leaving Smeltings, which was also a reason for stress and caused her to be more defiant. She occasionally felt bad about that, but was it really her fault? Life was very complicated sometimes...

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Her cousin's voice woke her up, or got her back to consciousness, or whatever it was. She saw something blue rushing towards her and the cold lifted immediately. She had never seen something so beautiful before. The light was reminiscent of a deer or a stag and it seemed to drive away whatever was attacking her. As sudden as it had entered her line of vision, as sudden did it disappear. She suddenly felt incredibly sad about that. She wanted it to stay, to keep her company, to make her feel safe. The memories (that was what she decided she had seen) had been so vivid that before she knew it she started crying. She sat up and buried her face in her arms and sobbed uncontrollably; it was like all of her misery had built up inside of her only to now all come out at once. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Julie? Are you all right? It's over, they're gone," Harry said. He had never seen her that upset before. She lifted her face from her arms and leaned back against the wall. She had never liked to cry in Harry's presence, but she could not control herself at all. She had definitely not been ready to be confronted with that awful memory like that. Harry stared at her. Even though he had been ready to jinx her a few minutes ago, he actually felt some sympathy for her now. He remembered all too well his first encounter with a Dementor. "Julie?" he asked again and he offered her his hand to help her up, even though a part of him, especially his private parts, felt like leaving her there. She, however, seemed unwilling or unable to stand up. She sat there with her face buried in her arms once more, still crying.

"W-what just h-happened?" she whimpered and she looked up at him.

"I'll explain at home, let's get out of here," Harry said, and Julie, after drying her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt, took his hand. He pulled her back on her feet, but had to grab her immediately as she lost her balance right away. Julie had stopped crying, but was now shivering even though she was not feeling cold and her legs were shaking to the point that she could not walk independently. She allowed Harry to put one of her arms around his neck so that he could support her (she was a bit shorter than he was so that was easy) and they slowly started walking home.

"You didn't... do that... did you?" Julie asked feebly.

"No, of course not," Harry said. A million thoughts ran through his head. Why were there Dementors in Little Whinging? Why did they attack him and Julie?

They got home. Harry made Julie hold the garden fence so that he could ring the bell. A light went on in the hallway, the door was opened and Harry's aunt appeared. "Jewel, is that you? I was worried, what..." She abruptly stopped speaking when she saw Julie clinging on to the fence. Completely ignoring Harry, she rushed to her daughter, who suddenly let go and vomited loudly and in very dramatic fashion all over Petunia's flowers. She then panted heavily and groaned. "Oh my goodness, Jewel, what happened?! Are you hurt?! You are covered in dirt! Vernon, come quick!" That call proved unnecessary, though, for Vernon had heard his daughter vomiting. He too ignored Harry and together with Petunia they got Julie, who again could not walk by herself, inside and put her in an armchair. Harry tried to make use of the commotion by sneaking up to his room, but as soon as he had set one foot on the stairs he heard his uncle scream for him to come. Petunia had covered Julie in a blanket and gave her a cup of tea.

"What happened, what did you do, boy?" Vernon demanded at once.

"Nothing," Harry said.

"Don't lie! You think that's normal?" he pointed at his daughter, whose hands were shaking so violently that she could not properly hold her cup.

"No, but I didn't do that!" Harry said. Suddenly an owl came flying into the room through an open window. It dropped a letter at Harry's feet ("Those bloody pigeons!") and disappeared through the same window. Harry picked it up.

"Read it aloud, boy," Vernon said threateningly. Harry started reading:

'Dear Mr Potter, we received word that you performed a Patronus Charm in the presence of a Muggle around 9:57 p.m. This is a direct violation of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery. Furthermore, as this is not your first breach, you have hereby been expelled from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Your presence will be required at a disciplinary hearing at the Ministry of Magic at nine a.m. on the twelfth of August.'

Vernon grinned menacingly. "Justice..." he mumbled. Harry could not speak. Expelled? A hearing? This could not be happening... "How come you are expelled if you didn't use any you-know-what, boy?" Vernon asked nastily, but it was Julie who answered.

"He did use it, but it was only to drive away something evil. It wasn't his fault." She had spoken those words quietly but firmly. Everyone was in shock, not in the least Harry. She had never defended him before, it was usually quite the opposite; she loved getting him in trouble. "He pointed his wand at me, and he shouldn't have, but suddenly everything went dark and cold and I saw something... something bad. But Harry made it go away," she said. Her parents looked at her as if she had just announced that she was going to climb Mount Everest. "Please don't punish him, it wouldn't be right," she said, looking at nothing in particular. Still no one else spoke. Julie slowly got up. "I want to go to bed."

"All right, Juliebee," Petunia said softly. Julie walked out of the room, and Harry followed her. He was not called back this time. On the floor above, the two teenagers looked at each other.

"Thank you for telling the truth," Harry said.

"Well, thank you for carrying me home. And that blue light was really beautiful," Julie said. They stood there awkwardly for a few moments, and then Harry opened his bedroom door. "They aren't really going to expel you, are they?" Julie asked. To Harry's surprise she sounded rather worried.

"Well, I don't know, I guess that'll be decided at that hearing," he said.

"I see. And, er, Harry... I'm... I'm sorry that I kicked you." She looked at the ground when saying that, and Harry also did not quite know how to react.

"Er, that's okay."

"Well, good night."

"Good night."

The following night Harry was gone. The Dursleys had been invited to some show that did not actually exist, and by the time they got back Harry was not there anymore - only a letter stuck on the fridge explaining where he had gone. Various days went by, and once again Julie was lying on her bed staring at the ceiling. She had no energy to do anything; maybe that was a side effect of her medication. She hoped that her new school would be a good one and that she would make new friends, and most of all that she would one day be happy with herself again.