It Started When?
It was a seemingly ordinary weekday at the Dursleys when everything changed once more for one Harriet Potter. She had been out in the garden doing her best to revive the roses Petunia had managed to kill while she was at school when an unusual bird swooped down from the sky and landed in front of her. She didn't recognize the bird at all but it was holding a distinctly wizarding world looking letter so she assumed it must belong to someone she knows. After all, nobody else aside from her friends within the wizarding world seemed to send her things, so why would that change now? Taking the letter from the strange bird and apologizing that she didn't have any food to give it Harriet turned the letter in her hands around. It had the Gringotts seal.
Odd, why would Gringotts be sending her a letter? She hadn't done anything with her money aside from buy school supplies the whole time she's been in the wizarding world so she knew she still had plenty left, and it wasn't close to the time she would be going to get next years supplies yet either. Opening the letter up she saw that it was a summons. Her Gringotts manager wished to speak with her about a few revelations that recently came to light during a routine inspection regarding her accounts that were too delicate to put within the confines of a letter. She was to present herself at the bank tomorrow at precisely midday and inform a teller that she has an appointment with a goblin known as Griphook. Looking up from the letter Harriet noticed that the bird had flown away and realised she should probably get back to work before Petuna found her slacking and took the letter away. Stashing the letter under her baggy, oversized shirt she quickly got back to work.
As she raked any leaves she found into a pile Harriet began to think. How would she get out of the Dursleys household, to Londen and into the wizarding world before 12 tomorrow? She could theoretically catch the Knight Bus to the Leaky Cauldron and then wait for someone to open the wall and slip though then, but how would she get out off the Privet Drive without getting in trouble? If she had access to her wand and was allowed to do magic outside the wizarding world this wouldn't be a problem, she thought despairingly. With her precious wand locked up in her former room under the stairs with all her other prized possessions she had no way to use magic on her own. That really was a real oversight of the wizarding world. With everyone so reliant on wands to do everything, without them most wixen were worst off than muggle children when it came to doing everyday tasks. Surely there were other ways of conducting and focusing magic to do things without the need for wands? How did Wixen use magic before the art of wand making came about? Surely stuff like that would be written down somewhere given how much wixen seemed to care about the past and their history? But her theories would have to wait, first she would need to actually get her stuff out of The Cupboard Under the Stairs.
***
Once she saw the twins pick the lock of a door when Aloruma didn't work. Maybe she could replicate their technique? She remembered that they used two different bits of metal. A skinny paperclip like piece of metal that was jiggled about inside the lock, and a bigger flatter piece that was used to turn the lock. She was pretty sure she could repurpose some of Dudley's junk to get the needed bits of metal, and then she would only need to wait for the Dursleys to leave the house before she could grab her stuff and leave. Hopefully they wouldn't be too mad when she returned. She would of course need to practice first, and her bedroom door would be perfect for that. Although now she thought about it, why hadn't she tried picking any locks earlier?
***
Surprisingly everything went off without a hitch. She managed to find the two necessary pieces of metal by taking apart some of Dudley's broken things (Hopefully he wouldn't find out and throw another tantrum.) without much struggle. After that it was simply a matter of putting them to use. The perfect opportunity to do so arose latter when Vernin locked her in her room only using the tumbler lock, so the Dursleys could go shopping without worrying that one of the neighbors would see their freakish ward while they were out.
After practicing the lock picking technique on her own door and subsequently freeing herself she felt she understood what she was doing enough to head down stairs and free her stuff. After doing exactly that she began the process of carefully taking her trunk upstairs and stashing it in her room, hoping that it wouldn't be found and taken from her before she could sneak out tonight. While she had free range of the house, and was at no risk of being punished for something, Harriet decided to look around the house to see if there was anything else she might find herself needing. Not finding much of interest aside from a little food that would not be missed, Harriet headed back upstairs and relocked herself in her room to await the Dursleys return.
***
It was ten thirty six and number 4 Privet Drive had finally gone silent. All who called number 4 home were asleep.
It was ten forty nine and the house number 4, at Privet Drive had one less resident.