Mr. And Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense. Because of this, there wasn't much special about Bailey Dursley.

Except that her parents hated her.

Luckily, they hated her cousin-Harry James Potter-quite a bit more and had for quite a bit longer and she used that to her advantage, tripping him or working with her twin brother Dudley to mess with him in some way: she could be quite a bit sharper than her brother and came up with plots that made him grin a grin almost comparable to his waistline. It could be quite a lot of fun and the approving nod she got from her father was icing on her favorite chocolate chip chocolate cake. But then something slightly odd would happen, or a teacher would call and she'd get that look. That terrifying look as both her parents studied her like some strange creature. And, as she knew what they thought about strange things, this made the little girl stick her chin out, toss back her raggedly chopped and rather short blonde locks, and somehow cause ten times as much damage as she had in the first place, never quite able to know why.

Bailey Lilac Dursley was a rather lost little girl.

She supposed, she thought, waking up on her eleventh birthday with a small yawn, that she was lucky. She was getting presents soon, for one thing. Stupid, scrawny little Harry never got much of those. And she had parents… she supposed that was nice. Sometimes. There was a small pause in her contented ceiling gazing as she wondered… what if… what if her parents had been the ones… What would Harry's parents have thought of their chubby, blonde niece. Would they have liked her?

Bailey broke out of this thought with a roll of her eyes and a roll out of bed. Please. Aunt Lily was probably a carbon copy of Mum. Bailey threw on her favorite t-shirt and jeans and raced to the stairs, hoping that Harry hadn't been woken yet and that she could shower him with spiders as she made her clumping way down the staircase. But no such luck, he was in the kitchen preparing birthday bacon and listening to Dudley whining his head off about his presents. Bailey blew a raspberry at her brother as she walked by, but he didn't notice. He was too busy arguing about the validity of their shared presents in his list.

"Happy birthday, Baby." Her mother said shrilly, using the old nickname for her daughter.

"Thanks mum." Bailey replied quietly.

"Ready for our trip? Liz and Piers should be here soon." Petunia said, her voice still too chipper to be sincere.

Bailey frowned thoughtfully. But no, she wasn't ready. Or excited.

She already knew this day was going to be a bore.