The sun rose on the tidy front garden and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' house, it crept into Nala's bedroom to wake her up. The photos in her room showed little truth. They were only of her. Why would she want any of Dudley? The only sad thing was that there were none of Harry. It's Dudley's fault, Nala guessed, that Harry doesn't like her and it's sad. None of the photos in the house show that the boy lived here.
Yet her cousin, Harry Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. Nala's mother, his Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice, which made the first noise of the day.
"Up! Get up! Now!"
Nala sighed, wishing her parents were kinder to the boy.
"Up!" Petunia shrieked again. Nala heard her walking towards the cooker and so Nala headed downstairs. Harry still wasn't up. Nala bit her lip nervously and knocked on Harry's door.
"What? I'm getting up Aunt Petunia!" Harry yelled angrily. Nala's eyes widened in fear for her cousin.
"What was that?" Petunia asked.
"Nothing," Harry covered quickly. Harry's cupboard door swung open to reveal Nala stood there. He glared at her and then snarled, "What do you want?"
Nala nearly burst into tears. She'd just wanted to get him up without the yelling. Petunia took no nonsense on the twins' birthday.
"Harry, get a move on!" Petunia called angrily. "I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything to be perfect on Duddy's birthday."
Harry groaned and Nala sighed discontentedly. It was always Dudley's birthday and the fact it was hers as well was just an afterthought. She was always the forgotten twin and she hated it. Nala walked to the kitchen to see that everything was covered in presents. She knew better than to think that half of them were hers.
It looked as though Dudley had got the knew computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike. Nala found the thought of her fat brother on a racing bike simply comical.
"Hi sweetie!" Petunia trilled at her daughter.
"Happy Birthday, Princess!" Vernon said to his daughter as he entered the kitchen. Nala almost shook her head in disbelief, they always pretended that they loved her as much as Dudley but it was obvious Dudley was the favourite. He spotted Harry and gave the boy his usual morning greeting. "Comb your hair!"
About once a week, Vernon looked up from his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together but it made no difference. His raven-black hair simply grew that way, all over the place. Nala, on the other hand, always wore her ruby-red hair in perfect neat pig tails.
Nala was voluntarily laying the table (otherwise Harry would have another job to do)by the time her brother arrived in the kitchen with their mother. Dudley looked very similar to his father. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small watery blue eyes and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel. Privately, Nala agreed with Harry's description that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.
Dudley counted his presents and grinned.
"Yes!" he cried triumphantly. "Forty! That's two more than last year!"
"Darling," Petunia said. "Four of those are Nala's."
Dudley's face fell, "Thirty-six? That's two LESS than last year!"
"You haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy," Petunia supplied quickly. Dudley still looked absolutely fuming so Petunia came up with another plan. "And we'll buy you two more presents while we're out today. How's that popkin?"
Dudley nodded slowly, "Yeah. That means I'll have thirty-nine, right?"
"Mhm," Petunia said. Dudley grabbed his nearest present and unwrapped it.
"Spoilt brat," Nala murmured under her breath. Petunia handed her daughter the four presents. Nala pretended to be grateful after each one but they all just proved how little Nala's parents knew about her. They'd given her a make-up set, a hairbrush, some shampoos and a box of cheapy chocolate. Sure, the chocolate was okay, but the others? How did her own parents not know that she was a book nerd? The lights in the room flickered and for some reason, Nala almost felt it was her.
"We'll have to get the electricians to sort that out," Vernon said. He then handed Nala a stack of birthday cards. She reached the last one and cocked her head to the side. The envelope was made of parchment, or that's what it looked like and it had a wax seal. It was also surprisingly heavy.
"Something wrong, Sweetie?" Petunia asked. Nala shrugged and shook her head. She opened it to reveal an acceptance letter to a magic school called Hogwarts. Nala's eyes widened but then she snorted. Petunia's head snapped in Nala's direction. "What is it?"
"Some kinda joke," Nala shrugged. "Some idiots taken the time to write me an acceptance letter to a school that clearly doesn't exist."
"What've they named it, Princess?" Vernon chuckled.
"Hogwarts," Nala shrugged. Her parents froze and the two boys followed suit. Nala could literally hear her own heartbeat. She broke the silence. "What's wrong?"
"It's a real school, my sister went there," Petunia said shakily and took Nala out of the room.