Rescuing Someone

The time to leave school soon arrived. Since Aya had Duoduo, she only needed to tell her what she wanted to take home—her backpack was already full—and Duoduo could bring her luggage back for her.

Ron was envious when he heard. His mother had always wanted a house-elf to help with the housework.

"We can't use magic over the summer," Hermione said regretfully, holding her notice. "I was planning to study next term's charms ahead of time. What am I supposed to do now?"

"Use it in secret?" Aya asked.

"No!" Ron shook his head. "Underage wizards have the Trace on their wands. Unless there's an adult wizard nearby, using magic will get you a warning letter from the Ministry of Magic."

"Ah..." Harry was a little disappointed too. He had wanted to use magic over the summer to teach his awful cousin, who was as fat as a pig, a good lesson.

"It's all right, Harry." Ron patted his shoulder. "You can come over to my house during the summer. I'll send an owl to invite you."

"What about me?" Aya leaned over.

"All three of you, all right?" Ron said. After a whole term, even he was not so slow that he had failed to realize Aya's background was much like Harry's: she had no family. As he imagined it, Aya might have had it even worse than Harry, which was why Dumbledore had paid her special attention and sent a house-elf to look after her.

"I still have to see what my family has planned," Hermione said. Her family had often taken her traveling during previous summer holidays, and she did not yet know what her parents had arranged.

The journey back followed the same route as the one there. Hagrid took them across the broad lake by boat. The sunlight reflecting off the water was so dazzling that Aya could barely open her eyes. Squinting, she followed the others off the boat, and they lined up one by one to board the train.

Most of the students were excited about the long summer holiday ahead. Aya and her friends changed into ordinary clothes on the train and watched the scenery outside shift from forests and open fields to farmland and villages. Finally, they passed through one Muggle town after another. They shared snacks in their compartment, and after they had eaten their fill, the train pulled into King's Cross Station.

There were too many people on the train, so it took them a long time to leave the station without being noticed by Muggles.

"Oh! Is that her?" Hermione looked excitedly at Duoduo, who stood beyond the crowd. She had never seen a house-elf before.

"Yes!" Aya replied happily. Many people were saying goodbye to Harry.

"She looks lovely-oh, Mum!" Ron had spotted Mrs. Weasley standing not far from Duoduo, though his mother and dear sister clearly had not seen him.

"Harry Potter!" The girl's voice was rather shrill. She clutched her mother's sleeve with one hand and pointed at Harry with the other. "Mum, I saw him!"

"Not so loud, Ginny, and put your hand down. It's rude to point at people." Mrs. Weasley smiled and waved to them. Seeing the others go over, Aya followed.

Mrs. Weasley exchanged a few words with Harry before turning and spotting her. "Oh, good girl, I know who you are. Aya, isn't it?" She reached out and stroked Aya's head. Aya's cat ears drooped, and she stared at her expressionlessly. "Oh, you're so cute-"

"Mum, Aya's a bit of a blank face," Ron whispered, moving close to Mrs. Weasley. "She always looks like that. It hardly ever changes. Right now... she should be in a pretty good mood. You have to look at her tail."

"Oh, dear, I wish I'd known about you sooner. It's all Ron's fault, or I could have knitted another girl's sweater for Christmas," Mrs. Weasley said with a smile. Aya swished her tail.

"Huh?" Ron turned around. "How is that my fault?"

"I say, you're ready, aren't you?" Their conversation was soon interrupted by Harry's uncle, Vernon Dursley. His expression was rather unpleasant, and Aya looked at him several times.

"So people can be purple too?" Aya asked Hermione, who covered her mouth. When Aya looked back, she found Vernon staring at her ears as though he had seen a ghost. He hurried away with Harry, while Aunt Petunia and Cousin Dudley, who had come along to collect Harry, both looked alarmed and uneasy.

"So my fearsome reputation has spread that far," Aya remarked. Hermione pulled the hood of Aya's coat over her head.

"It's your ears! Merlin, how could you forget?" Hermione glanced around nervously and found that no Muggles had noticed them. They had all grown so used to Aya's cat ears that they had forgotten for a moment she could not show them in front of ordinary people.

"It's fine. Duoduo's here." Aya waved her tail.

"See, Mum? That's how you tell," Ron said, pointing at Aya's tail. Mrs. Weasley nodded and said goodbye to Hermione and Aya before leaving with a whole line of Weasley children. Hermione's parents came to pick her up by car as well. Aya skipped back to Duoduo, who took her hand and used Apparition to bring them home.

It was still the same somewhat shabby little house. Duoduo had come to clean before Aya arrived, so the first thing Aya did after entering was put the large mirror she had snatched that day in the entryway.

This was the full-length mirror she had chosen with such care. From now on, she would check her clothes in it every day before going out, and see who still dared say she was not dressed properly. The school uniform included a bow tie, and Aya had spent a long time learning to tie a nice one. For the first while, she had Hermione tie it for her, then pulled it over her head whenever she put it on or took it off, taking care every time.

For some reason, though, Duoduo always avoided that mirror.

The summer holiday began with a thorough sweep of Diagon Alley's glittering spots.

On the first day, Aya made a sweep of the place, then went to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour to stuff herself-except she did not get to, because Duoduo only allowed her one ice cream a day. Afterward, she had Duoduo take her wandering around the Muggle world to buy herself some Muggle toys.

The one thing Aya found a little strange was that Harry had gone out of contact.

At first, Aya thought Harry wanted to end their friendship, so she stopped writing to him. But then Hermione and Ron also said they could not get in touch with him, and Aya realized something seemed to be wrong.

Hermione could not go to Privet Drive, where Harry's uncle lived, to check on him by herself, and Ron was a wizard who had never spent time in the Muggle world. After Harry's birthday passed and they still could not reach him, Ron wanted Aya to send Duoduo to see what was happening.

Aya thought sending Duoduo could not compare to going herself, so she took a shoulder bag, wrapped herself up tightly in a large coat and hat, and got into a taxi with Duoduo, who had a Disillusionment Charm on her.

"Where to, ma'am?" the taxi driver asked.

"Hmm... Number Four, Privet Drive." Aya took out the slip of paper, checked it, and answered.

Wizards communicated by owl, but their owls were no ordinary birds. Sometimes they did not need a specific address and could find the recipient with just a wizard's name. Names carried magic in the wizarding world, so Aya had never looked closely at the slips of paper Harry had given each of them.

The weather was nice that day, and it was still fairly early when Aya reached Privet Drive. As she got out of the taxi, she saw that the door of Number Four, Privet Drive was shut tight, and faint sounds from a television came from inside.

Holding her cat, Aya walked over and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" a boy's voice called from inside, but it was Harry's aunt Petunia who opened the door. "Hello, who are you looking for? Are you one of Dudley's classmates?"

"I'm looking for Harry." Aya looked up at her.

Petunia's expression changed at once, obvious disgust and wariness on her face. "He's not here! Go away, quickly!" With that, she tried to shut the door.

Ever since that damned Harry had received a warning from the Ministry of Magic for using magic two days ago, her family had no longer been afraid of young wizards outside school.

Aya unceremoniously pushed the door open and walked in. The tremendous force sent Petunia staggering back. Watching Aya enter the house, she immediately screamed, "Leave! You're not welcome here, get out, or I'll call the police!"

Dudley, who was sitting on the sofa in the living room, was drawn by the noise. Seeing that the young witch was as scrawny as Harry, he immediately charged at her, waving his fists.

"Xiaohua," Aya called. Xiaohua jumped to the floor, abruptly grew huge, and knocked Petunia and Dudley aside. The two trembled at the sight of the giant cat that had suddenly appeared, their faces full of terror. "Get out, I'll make those freaks at the Ministry of Magic punish you!"

Aya ignored them and had Xiaohua lead her to Harry. He was locked from the outside in a room with a trapdoor in its door.

Although Aya could not use Alohomora, she could have Xiaohua force the door open.

There was a tremendous crash. The Muggle door was evidently much easier to break than the ones at Hogwarts. Xiaohua tore through it with one swipe, wood splinters still caught on his claws, and the cat froze for a rare moment.

"Harry?" Aya peered through the hole in the door and could only see someone lying on the bed, still unresponsive despite all the noise. "Does he sleep that soundly?" Aya muttered. She had Xiaohua make the hole a little bigger, then crawled through it.

"Harry?" Aya went to the bed and gave him a hard shake. In the end, she had to pinch him beneath the nose to wake him. "You sleep like the dead."

"Aya?" Harry's head was spinning, and he had no strength in his body. He had even thought he would starve to death. Because of that strange house-elf a few days ago, he had been locked in this room for three days, given only some cold, watery soup each day. "How did you get here?"

"How did I get here?" Aya pulled him up and saw how limp he was. "You must be groggy. You haven't sent us a letter in ages, so I came to see what was going on." She muttered, "I thought you wanted to end our friendship."

"I didn't!" Harry protested loudly. "It was an accident. I couldn't-"

"All right, all right. You were locked up, right?" Aya asked directly.

"Yes..."

"Then come with me. There's only a month of summer left anyway. Want to come stay at my place?" Aya stood up and looked around the room. "Tsk, tsk, how do you live in such poor conditions?"

Harry did not want to answer that painful question. All he could think about was that he could get out. His wand, broom, textbooks, and homework had all been locked away by the Dursleys in the cupboard under the stairs where he used to live. He had been completely trapped in this room, unable to get himself out.

"My things. I have to take them with me," Harry said, managing to sit up.

"Where are they?" Aya asked. "I brought Duoduo. She can help you take them." Duoduo instantly lifted the Disillusionment Charm and appeared beside Aya. "Hello, Mr. Potter."

"I..." Although Harry did not want to see a house-elf just now, he knew Duoduo was different from the one called Dobby. "Hello. They're in the cupboard under the stairs, all of them. Sorry for the trouble."

Duoduo vanished with a pop. Aya took Harry by the hand and had Xiaohua carry Hedwig's cage in his mouth. The two of them and the cat swaggered out. As they left, Petunia was still crouched on the floor, holding her fat son and calling Vernon, who had gone to work that day. When she saw them come downstairs, she fell silent at once, like a duck with its neck gripped.

Only after they got back into a taxi did Aya learn that Harry was like this because he had been starved.

"That's too much!" Aya said angrily. She had eaten her fill at every meal since coming to this world and had never imagined that her friend would be starved so badly he could not get out of bed. "Have some of my supplies to tide you over. We'll have Duoduo make a feast tonight!" Aya took a pie out of her backpack. Although she was a little worried about her friend, she still instinctively chose the flavor she liked least.

"Thanks. If you'd come a day later, I probably would have starved to death." Harry wolfed it down. They spoke rather quietly, and the driver in front was listening to the radio, so he did not hear their conversation.

"Then... have another one." Aya painfully handed him another.

Harry accepted without hesitation. Although he knew Aya was protective of her food, he was simply too hungry. He felt like he could eat a whole cow!

By the time they reached the Leaky Cauldron, the burning feeling in Harry's stomach had finally gone away. He was a little puzzled, though. "Why have we come to Diagon Alley?"

"My house is in Diagon Alley." Aya led Harry through a series of twists and turns to her home in the narrow gap. At the end of the alley, Harry saw her squeezing into a crack between the walls and tried to stop her, only to discover that she was going the right way after all.

"This is it." Aya pushed open the door. Although there was very little light at the front entrance, the house itself was quite nice thanks to its back garden.

Harry looked around the little house, and his gaze involuntarily fell on the enormous mirror. He walked over to it.

"Duoduo should have gone to buy groceries. Your luggage is here, but you'll have to sleep in the living room-" Aya received no answer. She turned and saw Harry standing motionless in front of her mirror.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"No, nothing." Harry quickly lowered his head and wiped his eyes. "I was just a little curious about this mirror. It's beautiful."

"Of course! I snatched it from Dumbledore!" Aya said proudly, then reminded Harry, "Remember to write to Hermione and Ron. They probably think you want to end your friendship too."

"They wouldn't."