Little Girl Lost

Harry Potter was eating dinner with the Dursleys, which meant the Dursleys were eating dinner and talking to each other about the upcoming monster-truck show while Harry poked at cold leftovers in silence. This unremarkably depressing evening continued as Harry did the dishes, running up the stairs to his room when he had finished. He opened Hedwig's cage, letting her go out the window to stretch her wings for a bit. He sighed, gazing up at the stars as he thought about the events of his previous year at Hogwarts- the TriWizard Tournament, Cedric's death, and his encounter with Lord Voldemort. It seemed so unfair, he mused bitterly, that his friend had died- that Voldemort had been given a body using Harry's blood. Big things were supposed to be happening this year, but of course he didn't know anything about them, and he was stuck in this Muggle household, forced to consider these things on his own. Glancing down, he spotted a small figure, shadowed and silent, stopping on the sidewalk in front of 4 Privet Drive and looking up at the house. It ran through the lawn and neared the wall which contained Harry's window, pointing up with thin arms. Harry felt a cold chill, wondering if this was some sort of creature or ally of the Dark Lord's, come to kill Harry. A girl's voice, startling him out of his morbid thoughts, came up from the person on the ground.

"Hey you!" she cried softly, jumping up and down. Squinting, Harry could see that it was a girl, his size and with bright green eyes that reminded him of someone. "Hey you up there! Let me in! Things are trying to get me!" He could see more dark shapes flitting around on the other end of the street, and he could sense the urgency in the girl's voice. Still... "Who are you? What's chasing you?" he demanded, his hands gripping the windowsill. The girl jumped up and down in a panic.

"What in the name of all that's holy are you waiting for, wizard boy? I am going to get eaten! By beasts!" she shouted, her voice shrill. He sighed, looking around, before turning back down to her.

"I'm going to levitate you now! Don't... move!" he called down, pointing his wand at her. He swish-and-flicked, giving the proper "wing-GAR-dium levi-OH-sa" incantation and raising her rather small body, thin and a little on the short side, up to his window. He grabbed her outstretched arms, noting the sheepish look on her pale face. Pulling her into the light of his bedroom put her features into a sharper perspective. Her heart-shaped face was pale and rosy-cheeked, marked with a long, thin scar running down the length of her left cheek. Her ears were a bit long and softly pointed, and her clothes were made up of an assortment of ragged garments, looking as if she'd sewn some of them herself. She looked down, blushing, with a foolish grin on her face.

"Um... whoops," she muttered, pulling her own wand, long and slender, made of a reddish wood, out of her pocket. "Forgot I had... this... um. So, who're you?" She blinked as a Ministry owl fluttered into the open window, delivering to Harry a letter. He skimmed it, pocketing the notice that told him not to do any more magic at home, due to his being an Underage Wizard and whatnot. She poked the owl, blinking.

"What in the name of Melon's Ghost is that?" she asked curiously, pouting with disappointment when the annoyed bird flew away. Harry blinked, adjusting his glasses.

"Who's ghost? That's an owl. Who are you?" he tried to look stern, but the girl seemed to be busy examining the space underneath his bed. She looked up at him, grinning.

"Melon's. Melon is my pet rock. She... died," the girl said solemnly. "My name's Senne Potter. But mostly people just call me Senne."