Sandcastles

"You must be Lily," said the giant standing nearby, overshadowing Alisha as she continued building a sandcastle at the remote vacation spot the Dursley family located themselves so, at the very least, they wouldn't draw the attention of the neighbors with all of the owls coming to the house. Thankfully, her one-piece swimsuit wasn't pink as Hagrid towered over her. "You look like your mum."

"Oh." And then she said, "You must be the giant on the motorcycle my brother dreams about, right?"

"He remembers that?" Hagrid said. She couldn't see his face with the sun behind him, but she was sure he was smiling.

"Don't tell Aunt Petunia that," Alisha said, sitting there in the sand.

"Lily! Don't talk to strangers!"

"But he knew, mom!" Alisha said, pointing at the giant and watching her Aunt Petunia squirm, a touch of sunburn already touching her cheeks as Vernon snored, startling awake at Petunia's words. She grinned big. She turned to Hagrid and said. "Aunt Petunia doesn't like talking about magic stuff, just to let you know."

"Oh?"

Alisha pulled up her legs. "I think Aunt Petunia blames magic for taking mom away, though she tells us it was a car crash. I don't quite get it, though."

She ultimately got it as she sat there smiling, suddenly feeling like a villain, a villain whose very existence changed the canon material. And she continued smiling even though she didn't like it, smiling up at Hagrid.

"Do you think I'll get to go to Hogwarts as well?"

She watched Hagrid begin to stroke his beard. "We're a little concerned that Harry's not returned a response to his letter. And tomorrow is his birthday and all."

"Yup. Harry turns eleven tomorrow," Alisha said, pretending to be a ten-year-old girl who wasn't an adult stuck in a child's body. "We're going to have cake and ice cream, though it will likely be Dudley's favorite."

"Why Dudley's?"

"Because Dudley thinks he knows best about that kind of thing, so Harry doesn't argue." Except, she wasn't sure whether or not that was the case and honestly made it up as she went. "Actually, I don't know who picked out the cake and ice cream. Chances are it was Aunt Petunia."

"Oh."

"And we can't send a letter back if we don't have an owl."

"Well, aren't you a bright young witch?"

Alisha continued messing with her sandcastle, noticing that Hagrid was venturing into calling her by Hermione's title, the brightest witch of her age, and she didn't like that. "I don't even know if I'll get to go," she said. "And there's no way of getting supplies either."

"Well, that's what I'm here for," Hagrid says. "And I have an owl on me."

Alisha let her mouth twist into a pout. "In that big coat of yours?"

"Yes."

"How mean!"

"Mean?"

"I'm sure the owl didn't like it." And she didn't like acting like a child, the child everyone expected her to be, but then she didn't want anybody to find out. Not until she'd figured out a bit more—she wasn't sure what a bit more was. Even as an adult, she didn't even like how Hagrid stuck an owl in his pocket as if it weren't a living, breathing thing, only for the man to end up loving critters more than anybody.

"I hadn't thought of that."

"Which explains a lot, I guess."

"Excuse me, but who are you?"

"The vampire came out into the sun!" Alisha said, causing her aunt's eyes to pop out of her head nearly.

"Lily Petunia Potter-Dursley."

"It's just Potter, mam," Hagrid said. "Because I'm sure you didn't get permission to change the children's names."

"It's to make them feel normal."

"Because Aunt Petunia likes normal!" Alisha said, working away at her sandcastle, bored out of her mind and tired of pretending to be a child—by that, she couldn't get too creative with her sandcastle.

"I'll say."

"And who are you?"

"A friend of the Potters, you might say."

"I see," Petunia took a deep breath. "This is about Harry's letter?"

"Yes."

"Why the bloody hell didn't anybody send a proper adult to explain things? How can the school expect me, someone who can't use magic, to get all of these school supplies? I'd have thought from when my sister attended a school that they weren't this lax."

"Well, in Lily's case, she was Muggleborn, while Harry is not. And perhaps they thought you knew? How to get to Diagon Alley?"

"I do not. I was not involved in..." Petunia stopped. "It's not as if I was welcome."

"Oh. I'm sorry about that. Lily didn't seem like the type to..."

"She wasn't. It wasn't her."

"It's complicated," Alisha said. She paused, looking up to see her aunt glaring at her. "Oh. Shouldn't have said that."

"It's complicated," Petunia sighed.

"And did you really tell the children their died in—what did you call it?"

"Car crash?"

"And how was I, someone who can't use magic, explain it? And I really don't like talking about that."

"I can't blame you, Ms., um?"

"It's Mrs. Dursley. Petunia Dursley."

"Ah! Lily gave her daughter your name for her middle name. Or was it James?"

"I don't know. I didn't really communicate with them much," Petunia sighed. "I don't have money for supplies." This made Lily look over Vernon, who let out a sniff of disgust.

Hagrid looked over. "Well..."

"Sorry, but I may not know much about the world my sister was drawn into, but she did have money that wasn't like ours."

"Oh!" Hagrid let out a laugh. "Don't worry! Dumbledore gave me the key to the Potters vault. They're from old money, but not old money like the Black family."

"Wait..." Petunia paled, and Alisha laughed.

"I can take Harry to Diagon Alley," Hagrid said.

And it was at that moment the boys decided to return, and Dudley had to say, "I want to go too!"

"No."

"But..."

Alisha tilted her head, noting the look of horror.

"Please!"

And there Dudley was begging, and he always got his way. Alisha noticed this might be still true even though he was nice to his cousins, yet—

"No. Not this time," Petunia took a deep breath.

"I'll bring back a treat for you and Lily, Duds!" Harry said, completely happy, a stark contrast to the unhappy Harry from the books.

Petunia's mouth twitched. "Fine. Have him back by dinner."

It felt odd that Petunia was trusting a complete stranger as Harry headed off with Hagrid. Except, something Vernon said about how he wondered if she was sure about that if they should have let Harry go off as they wanted to be rid of this magic nonsense—

Alisha wasn't sure Petunia wanted Harry to go.

And, of course, Dudley turned to his father and said it wasn't nonsense. Which, in Alisha's mind, was weird to hear. She went back to making her sandcastle, thinking about how she should interact with this world and if he should do something different.