Chapter 4
Time passed by as it always does, and soon it was the days leading up to Harry’s 11th birthday. Harry didn’t expect anything since he’d never gotten anything, he only knew of his birthday, because the school had them all learn their birthdays.
The day started as it always does with Harry doing cleaning, and Petunia starting with breakfast. As they, meaning the Dursley’s, sat down to eat the mail arrived for the morning.
“Go get the mail boy!”, Vernon yelled at Harry, since he hated moving if not necessary.
“Yeah, yeah I’ll go uncle Vernon.”, Harry replied, standing up from his little stool near the counter, to walk down the hallway and fetch the mail. The mail was made up of the usual stuff, adverts, a postcard from Vernon’s sister, some coupons and one of Petunia’s gossip magazines.
“Here you are uncle, that’s everything that came today.”
“Don’t expect me to thank you brat, just sit back down and be quiet.”
How nice of you that I get to have the honour to sit down, Harry thought to himself, Vernon never changes. After this Harry asked to be excused, to go start gardening for the day, while the others went out, to work, or to watch Corrie on the TV, while downing another wine bottle before lunch. It was a lovely day outside with a light breeze, and just a few clouds here and there.
“Hello friends, did you miss me? I certainly miss you guys every night in the cupboard.”, Harry said to all the plants outside. Often it felt like they at least acknowledged him without sneers and dislike. Time to start with the weeding he thought to himself. Only… what is that sound? Harry looked up, and right as he did, a huge owl came swooping down, and landed in front of him. Chocked he fell down and sat on his behind while staring at the bird.
“Umm hello there, can I help you?”, Harry said. Great now I’m talking to birds, how much freakier can it get. The owl just looked at him and dropped a large letter in front of him.
“Is this for me?”, he said. The owl just looked at him like, “Do you see any others here you fool?”.
Right no it must be for me then. Harry opened the letter, inside was some old parchment with neat writing over it. Ok let’s see what this says then. Hogwarts? What on earth is that name, that sounds foul?! A school for magic, as if something like that would exist. Although… I guess this owl must have some sort of extra sense to be a letter carrier. But me a wizard? Nah I don’t think so. Hmm they want a reply before the 31st. Why not, if it is a prank they did a good job, let me go fetch some paper and a pen Mr. Owl.
Harry went inside the kitchen, and picked up some paper and a pen. Ok how should I write this.
Dear sir or madam that this letter arrives to, you made a good prank, kudos to you. How did you train the owl to do that? Really well done of you. If it turns out to be real, then I guess I want to meet you Ms ehh McGonagall is it? You can come around to my home at Privet drive 4 whenever it fits your schedule. Sincerely, probably the most gullible boy out there, Harry Potter.
“Here you go then Mr. Owl. Take this to Ms. McGonagall at Hogwarts.”, Harry said to the bird, and with that the bird took of leaving the little garden behind.
Well now that that is done, let’s get back to the plants, he thought to himself. There really wasn’t that much to weed today, since he is out there most everyday. But if there is somewhere Harry felt at peace, it was in the garden surrounded by flowers. Under his care aunt Petunia’s garden had become a showstopper, that had the neighbours ask Petunia how in the world she had done it. Usually she just smiled and waved them off with “It’s a secret”, but Harry still felt proud every time someone commented on his work.
After working in the garden all day, it was time to go inside for the evening. Saying goodbye to all his friends in the garden, he got inside and washed the dirt off from the work he had done all day. Petunia was unsteadily cooking dinner, while Dudley sat in front of the TV, laughing at some silly show that was on. Vernon was just about to arrive home for the night. The dinner went well, with noone having any complaints about Harry for once, so with that he said goodnight for the evening and went to bed.
Meanwhile at Hogwarts
Deputy headmistress’ office
Minerva McGonagall was a dignified witch, of unknown age, really now you never ask a woman her age you know. But she loved her work with all the children at Hogwarts. She had been the transfiguration teacher for many, many years now, as well as both deputy headmistress and head of Gryffindor house. A woman of integrity, she taught with a firm but fair hand to everyone, and noone dared to misbehave in front of her, out of respect for her authority, and perhaps a little bit out of fear of that Scottish temper she was known for.
This evening she was relaxing in her office, while administrating all the acceptance letters that were coming in. It was a decent size of new students this year, which made her feel happy. The last war still haunted the number of students they currently had at school, but now it seems to be on the upswing. As she sat there, an owl came flying in with another letter. Must be a late reply she thought to herself, but when she opened the letter she was in for a surprise. Chocked she read Harry’s reply, getting a bad feeling about it. So she put the letter down and hurried down to get to the headmasters office.
Headmaster’s office
Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, was a very manipulative man. He had gotten to the top of the wizarding world through his “defeat”, of the dark lord Grindelwald, and now held most of the high office in Britain, as the headmaster of Hogwarts, head of the Wizengamot, and head of the ICW. Being over 100 and looking like a gentle grandfather, he was seen as the embodiment of wisdom and unable to do anything wrong. Inside was a different story, Albus had always been a power-hungry man, even from a young age. He had plans for all of the wizarding world, but was held back by family problems. When they were solved, there were already cries for him to help the world deal with Grindelwald, which he did in a rumoured great battle.
When the time came to fight another dark lord, Voldemort, he was the one the people turned to. However Albus wanted something like this to happen, coming back into the limelight to show what a great leader, and how unreplaceable he still was. Tom Riddle, which was Voldemort’s real name, had been a student of Albus’ from a long time ago, already back then Albus had sensed what great power Tom had, but unfortunately also his sociopathic tendencies. Instead of helping him find the right way in life, Albus made sure he’d feel fear from the muggleworld during WWII, by sending him back to the orphanage he lived in, and also denying him work opportunities, and nudging him toward the dark arts.
At the height of the first wizarding war, he overheard a prophecy made by the hopeful job applicant for the teaching of divination studies at Hogwarts. Albus was enraged by hearing about someone other than him taking down the dark lord, but as fate would have it, part of the conversation was overheard and brought to the attention of the dark lord. Getting to know this, Albus started to make plans to turn this around into an advantage, so he reached out to the two families that it could concern, and he put them in hiding, so the dark lord couldn’t find them. Eventually though his plan worked when the secret location of the potters was found, and the prophecy was made true. Still he was chocked that the baby had survived instead of dying with his parents, so he quickly sent out the groundskeeper at Hogwarts, Rubeus Hagrid, to fetch the child before it was too late.
When he got to see the child after all had quieted down, he immediately sensed something was wrong with the child. The scar on his head oozed of dark magic, and with all his knowledge he came to the conclusion that it must be a horcrux. A piece of Lord Voldemort had attached itself to Harry, keeping the dark lord alive somewhere. Albus had a choice to make, would he kill the boy now, or wait until the boy got old enough to face the dark lord. Knowing the child had been seen alive, he chose the other option and started planning out Harry’s life for him, starting with him growing up unloved and abused by the Dursley’s, which Albus knew hated magic after being at Lily and James’ wedding.
Back to the present
Albus startled when he heard heavy knocks on his office door. “Come in!”, he said and waited.
“Albus I have here the reply of a student, an important student you may say, who seem to know nothing about being a wizard. Could you explain that to me please?”, Minerva said, eyes alight.
“My dear what are you talking about, we have many muggleborn students every year”.
“Oh this student is not muggleborn Albus, he is in fact bloody HARRY POTTER! What did I tell you about those awful people all those years ago?! But nooo you are the mighty Albus Dumbledore, who can do no wrongs in his own eyes.”
“Calm down Minerva, would you like a lemon sherbet?”
“No I don’t want any bloody candy right now you fool! What life did you doom him too back then? Oh poor Lily and James, having their son at such a place, I should have taken him in myself”, Minerva said, starting to feel emotional thinking back on some of her favourite students.
“Now now no need for hysterics, in fact it’s good that you are here, I can tell you that I have plans to send Hagrid to introduce him to the magical world.”, Albus said.
“I’ll show you hysterics you old goat! You are mad Albus, Hagrid of all people? No I’ve let you have your way but no longer regarding Harry. I’ll go get him to go to Diagon alley, and introduce him to everything.”
“I’m afraid I can’t allow…”
“Hear me Albus so help me: I WILL GO! And there is nothing you can do about it.”
Feeling anger and annoyance Albus had to concede this plot point of his.
“Very well then Minerva, you take the boy. But you’ll have to do me a favour and pick up something at Gringott’s for me.”
“Fine by me Albus, now if you’ll excuse me I have to prepare for tomorrow.”
Seeing her leave Albus started plotting immediately, he had to find a way to influence the boy without Hagrid. Thinking, he suddenly remembered that the Weasley’s had a boy starting this year as well. Well then time to pay a visit to the Weasley’s he thought to himself. And with that he went to bed, fully determined to get his way, one way or another.