Disclaimer: I only own Erica Potter. Everything else belongs to J.K Rowling. That's all. I hope you enjoy the chapter!

July 7th, 1989

Third Person POV:

   May 31st, 1989 passed with little fanfare, even though it was Erica Lily Potter's eleventh birthday. 

   Crammed in the cupboard under the stairs, Harry had whispered happy birthday then promptly whisper-shouted, "Can you move your foot please?!" 

   The slight irritation was due to the fact that the aforementioned foot was digging into his shoulder, a slight setback from the fact that there are two taller children stuffed in there. There was no recognition from the Dursleys at all, almost as if she hadn't existed.

   Barely a month later, on July 7th, the Potter-Dursley relations grew even more strained than they already were with the arrival of one letter with a strange insignia made from red wax.

   Erica wakes up with the sun, although she doesn't particularly mean to as a spider from the wood above landed directly on her forehead.

   "Eurgh," she mumbles under her breath as she flicks the spider off of her with her index finger. Untangling herself from the mess of limbs in the cupboard, she slowly inches her way towards the door, freezing abruptly when Harry shifts in his sleep. 

   Breathing out a sigh of relief, Erica continues making her way towards the cupboard's exit, opening the door and standing up once she gets outside. She runs a hand through her dark ginger, nearly auburn, locks that she inherited from her mother along with her name.

   Making her way to the foyer of the house to get the mail, Erica nearly rams right into... a tawny owl? What the bloody hell would an owl be doing in Number 4 Privet Drive? 

   If Erica was being overly sarcastic, she would wonder why they didn't just call it Number 4 Prat Drive and be done with it. The Dursleys were definitely acting like prats anyway.

   "Uhh... hello?" Erica greets the owl, immediately berating herself. "Nice going Erica," she mutters, "saying hello to an owl, a bloody animal. Next thing you know the Dursleys will be sending you to a house for nutters."

   Stooping to pick up the mail from that day, she files through it uninterestedly. "Bill, bill, Aunt Marge-" she pulls a disgusted face at this one - "Ms. Erica Lily Potter, another bill, wait what?" Erica shuffles the envelopes around until she finds the one that has her name written on it in a sloping green ink.

   Flipping the envelope around, she sees an insignia created from a bloodish red wax with four animals on it. The lion rears up, baring its teeth at the snake, whose tongue is extended out towards the lion in anger. Directly below the snake, a raven - or an eagle? - displays its wings and it looks at a badger. The badger, under the lion, looks at the snake on its diagonal.

   "Hogwarts," she questions herself. "Where have I heard that before?" Erica scours her memories, searching for an occasion when she has heard this odd term before. She gets pulled into a memory from before her brother's birth.

   "She's going to be a Gryffindor, Pads, I can just see it!" James Potter declares, pushing his glasses up higher on his nose. "So's the little one." He looks at his wife, Lily, as he says this, a baby bump protruding from the woman's lithe frame.

   Sirius Black barks out a laugh. "No objections here, mate. As long as she's not a Slytherin." His elegant features knit themselves into an expression of abject disgust.

   Lily rolls her eyes. "She could be in all four of the houses at Hogwarts. She has the capabilities for it."

   "Gwyffindow!" Erica exclaims excitedly as James and Sirius roar with laughter.

   Jerking out of the memory with a jolt, she frowns slightly. Tucking a loose strand of red hair behind her ear, she flips the envelope back over to read the address.

Ms. Erica Lily Potter

The Cupboard Under the Stairs

4 Privet Drive

Little Whinging

Surrey

   "How do they know that I sleep in a cupboard??" wonders Erica softly as she debates with herself whether to open the envelope or not. Hearing her aunt moving around upstairs and a door creaking open, she quickly stuffs the letter into her shirt. Erica doesn't know how her aunt and uncle would react about receiving this letter, but if her parents were excited about Hogwarts she knows that the Dursleys would hate even the mentioning of the word.

   Spinning around just in time, she sees the owl still waiting patiently on its perch on top of the fridge. "Quickly, in here," she ushers the tawny owl into the cupboard, waking Harry up quickly and closing the door on the owl.

   "What's going on?" Harry questions, confused. "...Did you just put an owl in the cupboard?"

    Erica nods slightly. "I don't know what's going on, but Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon would be on the warpath if they found out there was an owl here. Don't tell them, okay?" She pleads with her brother, who promises not to tell them in a very uncertain voice. The quiet agreement came just in time, as the moment Harry finished speaking Aunt Petunia came down the stairs with arms crossed.

   "Girl, start making Duddy's bacon and eggs. Boy, start weeding the garden." Erica muffles a groan of exasperation, as she hates cooking with a burning passion.

   "Yes Aunt Petunia," the Potters say in unison, Erica with a bit more subtle sass and snark compared to Harry. Erica walks over to the stove and turns the front burner on, getting a frying pan, butter, eggs, and bacon out of the fridge.

   She cuts a slab of butter off of the stick with a knife, dropping it onto the pan and putting the pan on the stove. Getting a wooden spoon out of a drawer, she moves the butter around and watches it melt. Her hazel eyes fixate on the off-white butter as it melts more as she swishes the butter around the sides of the pan.

   Cracking a few eggs into the pan, she begins to violently whisk the eggs around, scrambling them and letting all her anger out at the predicament her brother and her are stuck in. She starts frying the bacon in another pan.

   A few minutes later, Erica has finished making Dudley's breakfast. She gets a plate and scrapes the fluffy yellow eggs onto the plate and adds some bacon strips onto it. She slides the plate onto the table, spinning it gently as it slows to a stop right at Dudley's place. Erica has mastered this skill down to a precise science.

   Erica exits the kitchen with a slight flounce, mustering enough sass that Petunia would notice but not enough where she would get pissy over it. She kneels down next to Harry and quietly begins helping him with the gardening, assuming that the faster the task is over the faster she could open the letter.

   Her assumption comes to fruition, as four hands work faster than two and the garden is thoroughly de-weeded in a few hours. The two Potters quickly wash their hands in the sink and leave the house, leaning up against the outside wall. Looking around quickly to make sure nobody could hear or see them, Erica reaches into her shirt and pulls out the letter.

   "What's that?" Harry wonders in fascination as he examines the neat penmanship of the envelope.

    Erica smirks, looking eerily like her father. "An envelope," she replies innocently as Harry groans.

   "I know that!" he exclaims, frustrated. "It says it's for you."

    Erica slides her thumb across the seal of the envelope, breaking it. She opens the flap and pulls the letter out, putting it in the middle of her and Harry so they could both read it at the same time.

Dear Ms. Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Students shall be required to report to the Chamber of Reception upon arrival, the dates for which shall be duly advised. Please ensure that the utmost attention be made to the list of requirements attached herewith. We very much look forward to receiving you as part of the new generation of Hogwarts' heritage.

Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus

Professor McGonagall

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore, D.Wiz, X.j.(sorc.), S,of Mag.Q.

   "What do they mean, wizardry? Isn't that just a fairy tale?" Harry questions, increasingly confused about what this letter is saying.

   Erica chews on her lip, unknowing of how to explain this entire thing to her brother. "I don't know much, but the short version is that our mother and father were a witch and a wizard respectively and they've passed it on to us. The Dursleys hate magic and would never let us attend this school although, according to Dad, it's 'the best magical school in the entire world.'" She smiles wistfully, remembering her father passionately declaring this instead of trying to get her to go to bed one night when she was stubbornly resisting sleep.

   "You remember our parents?" Harry whispers hushly to his older sister, desperate for any unbiased information about them.

    Erica nods and leans her head against the wall. "Dad looked like you, except your eyes are more Mum's. I'm the opposite - eyes like Dad's and everything else like Mum. Them and Dad's three friends were... Gryffindors? Whatever that is. But that's all I remember. I'm sorry Harry."

   Harry rests his head against his older sister's shoulder. "It's fine. At least you remember something. I don't even remember their names, let alone what they looked like."

   "I think I'm going to write them a letter back and send it with the owl - I remember that it was apparently a mailing system? But hopefully sending the letter will get one of the teachers at the school to come visit us and convince the Dursleys to let me, and you later when you turn eleven, go to Hogwarts." Erica stands up from her seat on the ground and brushes off her pants gently, handing the letter to Harry. "I'm going to go get paper and a pen. Don't let the Dursleys see this, okay?"

   Harry nods eagerly. "Okay!"

   Erica ventures back into Number 4 as she beelines for the small office that is rarely used. It's more of a storage room at this point. She quickly grabs a sheet of paper and a black ballpoint pen and leaves, everything just the way she found it. Almost as if an afterthought, she picks up a hardcover book and lugs it out of the room as well.

   She rushes out of the house and returns to Harry, lofting the book, paper, and pen high proudly. "Got it," she cheers lightly, putting the book down first and then the paper on top of it. She smiles, proud at her makeshift desk. She pens a letter onto the paper, speaking it aloud to Harry before she writes it as a second ear.

Dear Professor McGonagall,

Thank you for your letter informing me about my place at Hogwarts. I would gladly like to accept this offer, but unfortunately I don't think that my aunt and uncle would approve of me attending. As my aunt and uncle are my guardians under the law, I can't do anything without their permission since I am a minor. Could you please send somebody to my house to talk to my aunt and uncle about the benefits of attending Hogwarts so they could learn more and agree to let me go? Thank you.

Sincerely,

Erica Potter

   Erica signs her name with a flourish, capping the pen and setting it on the lush green grass. "There we are." 

   She lets her head fall back against the brick wall with a soft bang. "Bloody hell," she mumbles under her breath, quiet enough so that Harry can't hear. "I forgot an envelope."

   "I'll get it!" Harry reassures, leaping up and running into the house. He goes as fast as he can, intent on getting back to his sister before any Dursleys see what they're doing. Within two minutes Harry's feet are again flying on the grass as he brandishes the envelope dramatically in his hand. "Here it is!!"

   "Thanks Harry," Erica grins at her brother. "That might make things easier." She gently folds the letter up, making sure that the ink is dry and unable to be smeared. Sliding it into the envelope, she furrows her eyebrows. "How are we going to get the owl out from under the stairs?"

   Harry shrugs. "Be quick and quiet? I don't know. I don't even think Aunt Petunia's here anyways, and Dudley's at one of his friend's house." Erica nods and the two siblings swiftly make their way into the house, Erica holding the letter firmly but gently in her grasp. 

   They reach the cupboard with no issues, opening the door softly and dreading the hinges creaking at all. Luck is in their favor, as no noises sound from the old door that is prone to creaking at the most inopportune of times.

   The owl hoots in indignation at being locked in the cupboard nearly the entire morning. Erica softly shushes the owl and holds up a letter. "Can you help me get this to Hogwarts?" she soothingly asks the tawny owl, who promptly sticks out one scaly leg.

   Harry and Erica look at each other. "I'll take that as a yes," Harry says bluntly, Erica agreeing and tying the envelope to the owl's leg.

   "Thank you," Erica says softly, picking the owl up and bringing it to the window. "Thank you so much." The owl flaps its wings and soars off into the air, away from Privet Drive, away from Little Whinging, away from Surrey, and away from England. The Potter siblings stand at the window and watch the owl flap its wings, heading towards a location currently unknown but will later be revealed as Scotland.

Word Count: 2,322