The letters from no one
Once Harry was let out by his relatives it was already summer break, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang who visited the house everyday. Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot he was the leader.
"Aren't they charming" Ragnar laughed, it was amusing seeing how people in the future are both smarter and dumber. "At least there is plenty to eat in the future" Helga spoke happy thinking that no one will starve.
The rest of them were happy to join in Dudley's favourite sport: Harry hunting. He didn't mind cause then he got to watch Liva's favourite sport, baseball. Well she liked the bat and had no problem taking out people's knees or in Malcolm's case breaking his leg.
Ivar laughed manically as he watched her break that boy's leg. "We should train her with a sword" Hvitserk said to his youngest brother, "I'd say axe is more like that weapon she had but sharper" Ubbe added in.
Harry hunting wasn't as popular after that, so they resorted to mocking Harry for his lack of parent's when Liva wasn't around. The two spent a lot of time outside staying clear of the Dursley's, they would've gone to Liva's but her guardian was quite old and she didn't want to disturb him.
Ivar looked put out at someone else raising his child but hoped that they were kind to her unlike her friends relatives.
Aunt Petunia was dyeing some of Dudley's old uniform grey so Harry could use it for secondary school, Harry sat down as the table after some back and forth with his aunt. Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in and wrinkled their nose at the smell before sitting at the table, his uncle opened his newspaper as usual. While Dudley banged his smelting stick on the table, he had taken to carrying that thing everywhere.
"Liva's is bigger" Bjorn laughed at the tiny stick that the child was carrying, how was that going to do any damage.
They heard the mail coming in from the letter box, "Get the mail Dudley" Uncle Vernon said behind his paper.
"Make Harry get it" "Get the mail, Harry" "Make Dudley get it" "poke him with your smelting stick, Dudley". Harry dodged the stick and went to get the mail. There was a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge, a brown envelope that looked like a bill, and - a letter for Harry.
Harry picked it up and stared at it, it was an old looking letter compared with the other mail. Harry rarely got mail and if he did it was from Liva when she was away in Romania, yet here it was there could be no mistake:
Mr H. Potter
The cupboard under the stairs
4 Privet Drive
Little Whinging
Surrey
"How did they know about his living conditions?" Ubbe thought out loud, everyone else thought how strange it was.
The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald green ink. There was no stamp. Turning the envelope over, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H.
"What an odd coat of arms" Aslaug commented not recognizing it.
"Hurry up, boy!" shouted uncle Vernon from the kitchen. "What are you doing, checking the letter for bombs?" he chuckled at his own joke. Harry went back inside the kitchen, still staring at his letter. He handed his uncle the bill and postcard, who ripped open the bill snorting in disgust and flipped over the postcard. "Marge's ill" he informed Aunt Petunia. "Ate a funny whelk..." "Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Harry's got something!".
"I really don't like that child" Hvitserk laughed thinking of how he could mess with him.
Harry was near unfolding the letter, which was written on the same parchment as the envelope when it was jerked sharply out of his hand by Uncle Vernon. "That's mine!" said Harry, trying to snatch it back. "Who'd be writing to you?" he sneered, as he looked at the letter his face went from red to green at an alarming speed.
"Punch him" "stab him"
"...and what did we learn" Liva teasingly asked her friend, "to hide letters not from you from now on" he answered. Harry sighed before explaining how odd the letter was, Liva perked up before smiling big "Did your letter have a purple wax seal with a lion, an eagle, a badger" she asked startling Harry. "and a snake" he finished flinching as she squealed.
The men flinched at the squeal, "wasn't expecting that noise from her" Sigurd rubbed his ears. "She's excited" Ivar snapped, "and couldn't show it quieter?".
Grabbing his hand the two ran towards her house, it was large and old looking she opened the door and ran straight to her room. She let go of his hand and went over to her desk grabbing a familiar looking letter, "did it look like this?" she handed it over, he took it:
Miss L. Lothbrok
Second biggest room
Emrys Manor
Little Whinging
Surrey
"She has our last name!" Ragnar smiled, "so she must know that her guardian isn't related to her" Ivar thought out loud. "I want to know what's going on with the letters" Bjorn added in.
"Read it" She urged, listening to her he opened the letter that was identical to his. All he was was 'Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry'. "You're like me" Liva smiled, "you're a wizard Harry".
"Shit" Hvitserk breathed laughing slightly, Floki, Ivar and Aslaug were delighted. "A witch! our family has a witch" Aslaug hugged Ivar closed and pressed a kiss to his forehead in joy. "That explains the snake" Ubbe managed to get out, "So someone who is similar to Ivar has a lot of magic and power?" Sigurd sounded worried.
"I'm a what" he gasped, she fondly rolled her eyes before repeating. "Now that i am 100% sure i can show you something" she grabbed his hand again and pulled him down the stairs. "Is it magic stuff" Harry asked in excitement, "i want to show you my familiar. He is adorable" she smiled widely.
Harry stood with his jaw dropped, "you said adorable?" he asked in disbelief. Liva nodded "and he is!" she then looked at the large dragon by her side. She was smaller than the dragon but was cooing at him like he was a small kitten "whose a good boy? ...you are....yes you are", "she's insane" Harry whispered to himself.
"I agree" Sigurd stuttered, the others were stunned. First they get to see a dragon even if it's not in person and their daughter/niece/grandchild is talking to it like an infant. "Is it purring?" Ivar laughed in sheer disbelief, that broke Floki and Ragnar who laughed as they haven't in years.
"I heard that" she replied still looking at her familiar who was rubbing his scaley dark green face against her cheek. "You can come closer" she told him finally looking at him, Harry inched closer slowly but stopped suddenly when the creature screeched at him. He was the size of a horse, he only managed to fit in Liva's room due to it's large size.
"Look at those teeth" Floki muttered in wonder, "he's protective of her" Ubbe stared in awe no one alive or dead has ever seen a dragon act like that. "He's beautiful"
"Harry is friend not food" "what?!" "nothing. He'll be fine now" she reassured, Harry inhaled deeply before coming close and raised his hand lightly stroked his back. He gasped lightly scared before the dragon leaned into the touch, "this is incredible! what's his name?" he asked getting more comfortable but was still wary. "Ivan"
Everyone turned to Ivar there was no doubt that the dragon was named after him, "Does that mean that she knows I'm her father?" he asked the seer who ignored him.
"Want to see something cool?" she asked whilst walking over to grab a packet of marshmallows and a few sticks, "more cool than a dragon?". Ignoring him Liva placed the sweet on the stick before doing another one and handing it to Harry, "Ready?" she asked not really looking for an answer. She held the stick up in front of Ivan, Harry followed her example. "Dracarys" Ivan's head snapped up and let out a roar as flames came out his mouth roasting the marshmallows.
"Shit!" Ubbe jumped up as if the flames would reach him, Ivar laughed and clapped his hands like a manic. "My daughter commands a dragon! No wonder the Gods want to show her to us!" he cheered with Floki joining in. Sigurd's face was contorted while it was impressive, he could only image the damage that Ivar could, would do with that power.
Harry jumped, Liva wasted no time and added the burnt treat in between two chocolate digestives. She handed it to Harry who took it and gleefully bit into it as she did the same.
"That looks delicious" Hvitserk drooled.
"What now?" Harry asked his voice muffled as he chewed, "we can use my uncles owl to take both our replies" she responded licking the chocolate from her hands. She went to her desk, pulled out a piece of parchment and some ink whilst Harry sat next to her. She began writing when Ivan let out a screech, Liva stopped writing and corrected a spelling mistake, "thank you".
"Did she just thank the dragon?" "It did point out an error it's only polite"
Once written she handed the quill to Harry so he could write his own reply, grabbing the letters they sealed them and then gave them to her family's owl to deliver it to McGonagall. Liva stood up with her friend following as the rushed downstairs to her guardian 'Uncle Merly', "Hello children" he smiled at them always happy to see them unlike Harry's relatives.
"He seems nice" "yeah seems".
"Harry got his letter uncle Merls" Liva smiled, Merlin turned to Harry, "congratulations! I suppose you are both going to need to go to Diagon Alley?". After they both confirmed the elderly man got up with a groan, he held out his arms. Liva went up and grabbed the right following her lead Harry grabbed the left, "Forewarning you may feel like you are going to be sick" Merlin smiled, "what?!". With a pop the trio disappeared before reappearing outside an old looking building.
"Huh, that's useful" Ragnar mused, "Imagine how much quicker it would take us to reach England for raids" Floki added. "Would definitely take them off guard" Ivar thought out loud fiddling with a knife.
"Now Harry before we go into the wizarding world there's something you should know. You are very famous" Merlin told him, "what?" Harry asked his eyes wide with shock. "You need to know your own story when every kid in our world knows your name".
"That's a lot of fame" "but how he didn't know about magic until recently"
"But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently, he looked suddenly anxious. He turned to Liva wondering if she knew but she just looked confused.
"He never told Liva?"
"I never expected this," he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea I'd be the one telling you but you can't go to Hogwarts not knowing. Well i'll tell you as much as i know some parts are still a mystery"
He stared at the old building, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with – with a person called Voldemort but not a lot of people like saying his name and instead call him you-know-who"
"He inspires that much fear that a lot of people don't even say his name?" Bjorn breathed out not even Ragnar scared the Christians that much.
"Why not?" Liva asked not understanding why a name is scary."People are still scared darling. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went...bad. AS bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse."
"Please say he's dead i don't want Liva having to be afraid of this man" Ivar pleaded.
"Anyway, this – this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started looking for followers. He got them, too – some were afraid, some just wanted a bit of his power, all right. Dark days, you two which is why i never told you Liva. People didn't know who to trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches...terrible things happened. He was taking over. Of course , some stood up to him – and he killed them. Horribly. One of the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Dumbledore's one of the only one Voldmort was afraid of. Didn't dare try taking the school, not just then, anyway."
"At least the school is safe" Aslaug rubbed Ivar's shoulder in support, Ivar was grateful for her comforting words.
"Now, your mum and dad no one knows why he targeted them or well you. Maybe he thought he could persuade them...maybe he just wanted them out of the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You were just a year old. He come to your house and killed them. And then – and this is the real mystery of the thing – he tried to kill you, too. Wanted to make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killing by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on your forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what you get when a powerful, evil curse touches you – took care of your mum and dad but it didn't work on you, and that's why your famous, Harry. No one ever lived after he decided to kill them, no one except you and he killed a lot of powerful witches and wizards"
"So he's famous for surviving while he parent's died?" Hvitserk thought out loud. "i think more for surviving what many others didn't" Ubbe explained.
Something very painful was going on in Harry's mind. As Merlin's story came to a close, he saw again the blinding flash of green light, more clearly than he had ever remembered it before – and he remembered something else, for the first time in his life: a high, cold, cruel laugh.