Julie Anne Dursley

Half-Blood Prince

King's Cross station, June 26, 1996

The Dursleys had gotten to the station relatively late, and by the time they made it to platforms nine and ten a lot of students had passed them already. They had obviously expected to find Harry there, but what they had not expected was that he seemed to be accompanied by a group of people. There was a man with a bowler hat and a staff, a woman with long pink hair and a man with grey hair and a long overcoat. The three Dursleys also saw the red-haired family they had had the displeasure of meeting before, and Julie got a bit frightened at the sight of the twins, standing there in what seemed like brand-new green jackets.

Harry spotted the Dursleys and walked towards them, with his entourage following suit. The group consisted of the three people the Dursleys had noticed first, as well as the red-haired man, one of his sons and a girl who were both about as old as Julie. She inadvertently took a step backwards when the group came to a halt right before them.

"Good afternoon, my name's Mr Weasley. You might remember me," the red-haired man said. They surely did; it did not happen every day that a wizard came to their house only to cause a substantial amount of damage. Furthermore, Julie had seen him twice already. Her father did not say anything, but his eyes narrowed. "We wanted to talk to you about Harry," Mr Weasley said, smiling politely.

"Yeah, about how he's treated when he's at your place," the man with the bowler hat joined in. Petunia looked terrified and Julie tried to avoid eye contact with every member of the group, looking down at her sneakers instead, but Vernon did not budge.

"I'm afraid that it's none of your business what goes on in my house."

"And I'm afraid that we'll check on Harry if we hear he's being treated horribly, and we'll definitely hear about it," the pink-haired woman said, smiling but sounding somewhat ominous.

"Yeah, and then you'll have us to answer to," the man with the bowler hat said.

"Are you threatening me?" Vernon said loudly, and Julie really wished that he would just say 'okay' so that they could get out of there.

"Yes, I am," the man said pleasantly and he revealed a revolving magical eye. Julie and Petunia gasped, and Vernon actually jumped backwards. "So, Potter," the man addressed Harry, "let us know if you need us. We'll send someone along to check on you if we don't hear from you." Julie strongly hoped that that would never actually happen, and the thought alone made Petunia whimper a little. Much to the Dursleys' relief, the group then all said goodbye to Harry, with some of them touching his shoulder. After waving at the group once more, Harry turned around and the Dursleys hastily followed him out of the station.

Three days prior to that frightening encounter, it had been Julie's sweet sixteen. That Sunday there was a big pool party at four Privet Drive, with lots of (new) friends, an exorbitant amount of presents, food, games, laughter and loud music. Julie was feeling happy again and the grand scale of the party reflected that well. She had made friends at her new school and also met her boyfriend there. His name was Calum and the only empty seat at the first day of school had been next to him. They eventually became friends, even though Calum was the introvert type and Julie quickly became quite popular, but they fell in love when she went to his house for a school project. They never got around to finishing the project, but they were in agreement that some things were more important. The following months they went to movies, to restaurants and met each other's families. With her first official relationship, having found her place at school, getting good grades and the feeling that her father had finally come to terms with her leaving Smeltings, Julie could afford to stop with her medication.

Harry met her boyfriend once, when one evening he went downstairs for a quick bite. Vernon and Petunia had gone to the theatre, and Julie and Calum were making lasagne while singing and dancing along to the radio like idiots. When Harry entered the kitchen, Julie immediately turned off the noise. "Harry! Hey! Did you meet Calum yet?" she said.

"Hiya, mate," Calum said, offering Harry his hand. Harry shook it.

"Hello."

"Harry's my cousin that I told you about," Julie said.

"Right, I heard you went to a special boarding school. That's so cool!" Calum said.

"It's all right, I guess," Harry said. He was not really in the mood for conversation and just started making a sandwich. Julie stepped aside to give him space.

"You can eat with us if you like, we're almost done with the lasagne and there's plenty," Calum said.

"Thanks, but that's okay," Harry responded.

"It's gonna be incredibly good, though. A lot of spices and a decent amount of love," (she smiled at Calum), "one of my specialties!" Julie joined in.

"You're so modest," Harry said.

"Yupsolutely, I'm the humblest person in the history of humble people, like ever," she said.

"Ha, yeah, I don't know why you've never had a boyfriend before," Calum said.

"It must've been her personality," Harry said, and after a few seconds of silence Calum started laughing.

"He got you there, babe!" Julie just smiled awkwardly.

"Yeah, Harry's so full of jokes." Harry felt tempted to say 'I was serious', but did not feel like causing drama. Besides, Calum seemed like an all right bloke. Harry nodded them goodbye and went back to his room.

Julie's happiness stung Harry a little. While her life was looking great again, Harry felt terrible. The loss of Sirius had left Harry feeling numb, like something had been ripped out of his body. He hardly left his bedroom. He was often alone at home, since Vernon and Petunia were looking to buy a vacation home at the beach and away frequently, and Julie and Calum went out regularly to play pool or go to the cinema. In the past, Harry had found being at home by himself a rare moment of peace and joy, because there were no Vernon or Petunia to shout at him or Julie to bully him, and he would sometimes play on her computer. These days, however, he had no energy to do anything, much like Julie last summer. Every time Harry woke up he wondered how he was going to make it through the day.

To her own surprise Julie felt a bit worried about him, maybe because his behaviour reminded her of her own from last year, and one time decided to bring him some food, since he had not shown up for dinner again. She put some leftover birthday cake and a cup of tea on a tray and carefully took it upstairs, where she knocked on Harry's door. "Harry? I got some food for you," she said.

"Why?" Harry called through the closed door.

"Because, well... can you open the door?" She heard her cousin get off his bed and a second later the door was opened, revealing Harry.

"I'm not your charity case, Julie. I can take care of myself."

"I know, I was just..."

"Whatever, just leave me alone."

"I'll just put the tray here, is that okay?" Julie said hesitantly, putting it on his desk. Harry did not respond and when Julie made eye contact with him, the words came out before she realised it. "Look, Harry, I don't know what's going on with you and I don't expect you to tell me, but starving yourself is not the answer. Besides, there's not much a good cake can't fix," she said with a nervous smile. She was a bit scared of Harry in this state.

"You're right, you don't know and you don't care, so why don't you just go and bother your boyfriend?"

"Er, he left actually," Julie said feebly.

"Can't blame him."

Julie rolled her eyes, then without thinking she stepped further in his room and went to sit on his bed. Her arms folded, she looked him straight in the eye. "What's going on?"

"Get off my bed!"

"Not until you tell me why you're acting like this."

Harry sighed, and before he knew it the words came out. "Fine, Juliebee. My godfather was killed two weeks ago and it was my fault. I've literally no one to talk to about it in this bloody house and it's eating me up inside. Happy now?" he said angrily.

"Harry, I'm... I'm sorry."

"Sure you are."

"Well, yes, that was one of the very few times in my life that I said that I was sorry and actually meant it," Julie said. This combined with the expression on her face made quite an impression on Harry, who went quiet and looked away. "Well, I don't know what happened, but are you sure it's your fault, though? Maybe it was a chain of unfortunate circumstances," Julie asked carefully.

"Doesn't make a difference."

"Do you talk to your friends about it, even just through letters? You can't just beat yourself up like this."

"No, but even if I did, I don't know what good it'd do. Nobody understands."

Julie nodded. "I somewhat understand what that's like. Like when people ask you about your mental wellbeing. It's just a bunch of crap. They don't want to know how you feel, because when people ask you to 'express your feelings' they don't mean your actual feelings. They mean the feelings that they want you to have, because people can't deal with dark, scary or weird. They want you to smile and say 'yeah, everything's great!' because then they can just go on with their boring lives, and not think about you again," she said. Harry said nothing, thinking about what she had just said. He had never seen this side of her before. She got up. "Still you should keep your friends close. I don't need to tell you out of all people this, but life can really, really suck sometimes. Best is to spend time with people who don't."

"Why are you being nice to me?" Harry asked.

Julie shrugged. "Because I want to. Now you should drink your tea before it gets cold." She smiled at him and left.

Julie did not bother Harry after that, as she respected his wish to be left alone. One evening she was watching TV with her parents in the living room. It was rather late and she was already in her pyjamas, when the doorbell rang. They all looked up in surprise. "What kind of person would call at eleven p.m.?!" Vernon shouted. He got up to answer the door. About a minute later he came back to the living room, with Harry, and, much to Julie's surprise, a very old wizard with a long beard.

"Ah, this must be Petunia," the wizard said when he saw Harry's aunt, "and Julie. My name's Albus Dumbledore." He nodded at her. She nodded back, feeling a bit uncomfortable to be in his presence wearing only her pyjamas. She had been lying on the couch, but sat up straight when her parents sat down on both sides of her. Dumbledore sat down in the armchair nearest to the electric fireplace that had been destroyed and repaired by Mr Weasley two years ago and Harry settled himself in the remaining armchair. "I take it there'll be no offering of refreshments?" Dumbledore asked Vernon, and without waiting for a response he took out his wand. A flick and a bottle and five glassed appeared. The bottle emptied itself into the glasses, which then floated to each person. "Butterbeer," he explained and Harry and he took a sip. Julie took the glass and smelled it, but almost dropped the glass when her father snapped at her.

"I forbid you to drink that, Julie!"

She quickly put the glass on the little table in front of her. Her parents' glasses were gently nudging them on the sides of their heads, but they did not take them. Dumbledore then turned his attention to Harry. For a while they spoke about Sirius and his house, and that Harry had inherited everything his godfather had owned. While Vernon greedily asked for details, Julie shot Harry a look. The conversation for the most part went right over their heads, but then Dumbledore flicked his wand again and with a loud bang a creature appeared. The creature was about three feet tall, had bat-like ears, enormous eyes and a snout. All three of the Dursleys gasped in shock, and Petunia even screamed. "This is a house-elf," Dumbledore explained, "and hopefully Harry's." Dumbledore looked at Harry. "If he belongs to you now, he'll have to obey. Give him an order."

"Er, Kreacher, shut up!" Harry said. It worked, where Kreacher had been throwing a tantrum he fell silent immediately.

"Excellent," Dumbledore said with a smile. They spoke a bit more about things the Dursleys did not understand, like 'Buckbeak', and then Harry was told to get his trunk.

Nobody was talking when Harry came back to the living room. The atmosphere was very tense, and Harry could not wait to leave. "I'm ready, professor."

"Very well. Just one last thing," Dumbledore said and he turned to the Dursleys once more. "As you might know, next year Harry will come of age..."

"No," Petunia interrupted, "he's a month younger than Julie, and Jewel doesn't turn eighteen until the year after next."

"Ah," Dumbledore said politely, "but in the wizarding world, we come of age at seventeen. You might know that Lord Voldemort's back. Harry's in even greater danger now than the day I left him on your doorstep, with a letter explaining about the murder of his parents and the hope that you'd care for him as though he were your own." The Dursleys inadvertently drew closer together when he said that. "You did not do as I asked. You've never treated Harry as a son. He's known nothing but neglect and cruelty at your hands." Vernon looked at Dumbledore with his mouth slightly ajar, Petunia went red and Julie looked guiltily at the floor. "I ask only one thing and that's that you allow Harry to come back once more to this place, before his seventeenth birthday. Harry enjoys powerful protection as long as he can call this house home, no matter how awful he's always been treated. Now Harry, let's go." He abruptly got up and Harry gladly and hastily followed him outside into the night.