The letter of hopes and prayers
The last months of the school year flew by faster than any of them had anticipated it. She remained there, watching the boy, just like she had decided on doing so. Things calmed down after the incident in the zoo and fell back into a normal routine. The only change in it was that the boy was not permitted to leave the home for anything other than school, and with the start of the summer break, he was barely doing anything besides chores around the house. His cousin's friends still remained one of his daily tormentors. She could see the happiness of the boy when his uncle finally ended his house arrest of sorts.
He frequented a nearby park during the day.
watching the happy families bring their children out to play and enjoy the weather. With the number of adults nearby, his cousin and his friends did not give him much trouble.
A week before his birthday, she was still keeping an eye on him to make sure he would be receiving his letter, and on a bright and sunny day, he did for the first time. Everything started out normally, just as the Dursley family liked it. Dudley was parading in his new school uniform as he was going to start where his father went in September. When his aunt and cousin went to shop for those, he was placed in the care of Mrs. Figg for the day, who was uncharacteristically bearable. She was inside the house with them for some time, hiding in the shadows, listening to the old woman’s tale of how she had broken her leg. As it had turned out, she had fallen over one of her cats, but this was not why she was keeping a close eye on the old woman.
Since she had been keeping an eye on the boy, she researched the whole neighborhood and its occupants too, looking for those out of the ordinary. This was when she found her. She was a squib living close to the Boy Who Lived and regularly babysitting him. It couldn’t be a coincidence that someone had deliberately placed her there to look after the boy, and she had an idea who it was too. Someone clearly overestimated the abilities of the woman, as she could barely take care of herself, let alone handle overseeing the boy's family and how they were raising him.
She did not expect the Dursleys to be ignorant enough to try to enroll their nephew in an ordinary school, but they did, as one morning she smelled something unimaginably foul. Looking for its source, she quickly spotted something sitting in what seemed like at first gray sludge.
“What is that?” she heard the boy ask his aunt.
“Your new uniform,” she answered pointedly.
This is unacceptable, she thought to herself. Surely, even if the boy was going to an ordinary school, they would not send him in that thing. Right? When the remaining two members of the little family came down, they also had turned their noses up to the smell. Not long after they had all sat and started eating came the unmistakable sound of the mail falling to the ground.
“Go get the post Dudley” grumbled his father.
“Make him get it” he whined while pointing at his cousin.
“Go get the mail boy!”
“Make Dudley get it” he retorted.
“Hit him with your cane Dudley.” but before he could do his cousin was already out of his seat walking out to get the post.
That cane is going to break somehow, she decided. How could the parents encourage senseless violence that was beyond her? When he came back there were three things in his hands. Placing the postcard and the bill in front of his uncle he sat down with a thick yellowish envelope and slowly started to open it. She quickly realized it must be the letter from Hogwarts. Finally.
“Dad, he got something too!” yelled Dudley pointing at his cousin's letter.
As the boy was about to unfold its contents, his uncle yanked it out of his hand to look at.
“That is my letter!” he protested loudly.
“That can’t be who would even write to you boy?” he laughed at him but as soon as he started to read it his face turned white as if he was a ghost. “Petunia dear look at this,” he spoke and when she did, she took on a similar appearance as her husband.
“Oh, my goodness Vernon”
These reactions were definitely not good. They can’t keep the boy from learning the truth for much longer and she would make sure of that.
The parent's reaction just made the children want to know more about the contents of the letter.
“Give it to me Dad” whined the blond boy.
“No give it to me it is my letter,” yelled Harry.
“Get out the both of you this instant!” howled his uncle with a face so red it would put tomatoes to shame.
While the boys tried listening in through the door, she remained inside listening to the elder Dursleys herself.
“Look Vernon they even know where he sleeps! They are watching us!”
“They are watching us! They are spying on us!” he spoke angrily.
“What should we do? Reply? Tell them we don’t want this?” asked Petunia in a worried tone she knew what those magicals were capable of.
“No-no my dear we will do no such thing with time they will realize that we want nothing to do with them and everything will go back to how it was.”
“But Vernon?”
“It's final I will not house one of those in my house.”
One of those? She was furious at the man how dare he speak like that about the boy. She would like to see how he planned to keep the boy from attending the school as she was sure they would send someone over if his letters remained unanswered. Also, just for good measure, she decided to intercept the next letter to make sure it got to him in one piece. Remaining there she listened to the uncle's excuses about how it was a mistake and it wasn’t his letter so he should not want it. What a dunce. To her surprise, after all this, they had decided Harry had outgrown his cupboard and he should move into Dudley’s second bedroom upstairs. They tried to frame it as a gift to the boy, but she knew they were terrified of the repercussions they could face from making him sleep down there. The boy brought all of his measly possessions up there and sat down in his new room. The room itself was full of garbage there was barely anything usable in there but in her opinion, even this was better than his accommodations before. While inspecting the room they both had heard the cries of none other than the room's previous owner Dudley Dursley.
“I don’t want him in there!” he yelled at his parents threw things at them and broke things, but nothing changed their minds.
The next day the family was unusually quiet until the post came for which Vernon himself went out.
“Pet look another one,” he spoke clearly angry at the sender.
“What should we do?” she asked scared.
“Nothing just as before nothing,” he said then to everyone’s surprise he threw the letter in the blender and destroyed it.
She was a little bit amused by how much and how badly they tried to deny that this was going to happen whether they wanted it or not. That morning when the first owls came, she managed to steal one of the letters they were carrying to the poor creatures' surprise. Sneaking it in the boy’s room was the easy part making sure he read it in secret first was the harder.
When the boy came back from doing that day's chores he was surprised to see the letter on his new bed. His letter was there, and he could finally read it now. Slowly and carefully opened it taking out a stack of yellowing parchment he started to read.
Dear Mr Potter!
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.
Yours sincerely,
Deputy Headmistress
Minerva McGonagall.
He stared at the letter shock visible on his face. Putting everything down he stood up wanting to confront his relatives about it. He wanted to tell them that he read the letter and did not understand why they would be so worked up over some prank letter. He went downstairs with it in hand and found his aunt was still cleaning up after their supper in the kitchen. When she saw him letter in hand she paled to an unnatural whiteness.
“Aunt Petunia” he stared but could not finish as his aunt had interrupted him.
“Where did you get that from?” she shrieked at him.
“It was on my bed but aunt why...” he started to ask when she yelled over him again.
“Vernon come down fast,” she yelled for her husband.
“Aunt Petunia?” he tried again.
“Quiet down!” she yelled at him. In the distance, they could hear the rapid stumping of Vernon coming downstairs.
“What is it my dear?” he asked his wife concerned.
“He knows.” was the only thing she said and pointed at her nephew.
“Boy, what have you done?”
“Nothing I swear uncle. But I don’t understand it is just a prank, right? I mean there is no such thing as magic.”
“You are damn right boy. Now go and pack your bag we are going away tell Dudley to do the same,” he ordered him but when the boy remained unmoving, he yelled again. “Go now!”
She watched the couple freak out and she was not pleased in the slightest.
“They broke into our home! We are not safe here anymore Vernon we will have to move at this rate.”
“Now my dear it will not come to that we just have to be gone until September when I am sure things will stop.” he tried to reassure his wife.
She couldn’t help but laugh at this statement. How much more naïve could this man be. The whole family packed one bag each and gathered inside their car. Deciding on following them she made sure to remain unseen by everybody. Vernon in his infinite wisdom had decided to try and outrun the wizards. The whole night and day they were on the move without stopping for food or anything else. By nightfall even Petunia was begging his husband to stop and that this was madness. For the night they stayed at a cheap motel. One room for the parents and one for the children but the boy could not sleep thinking about the extremeness of his uncle's reaction to him reading the letter.
The next day all awoke at sunrise to eat their meagre breakfast. Not long after that came the motel owner knocking at their door informing them that there were at least a hundred letters addressed to someone named H. Potter. Vernon quickly went and dealt with that but Harry still found a letter in his bag too. It was her reminder to him that he has to answer that letter fast if he wants to go to Hogwarts.
The uncle did not share her sentiments about his nephew's schooling and after the quickest checkout in history, he ushered his family back into the car again, and on the road they were again. They made a bunch of stops just for Vernon to get out of the car look around shake his head then get back inside the car again and start driving. The sun was already setting when he finally found the right place in his mind an old shack on a rock out in the sea.
Getting there was not an easy feat as the boat they got lent was barely able to hold their combined weight but, in the end, they had managed to arrive there still dry. The house as if it could be called that looked even worse from up close. She decided Vernon Dursley had officially lost his mind. With barely any food and nothing to burn in the fireplace, they all settled in for the night. She remained with the boys keeping an eye on Harry who will soon become eleven years old. Seeing him shiver under a paper-thin blanket she charmed it to be much warmer for the night but the boy still could not sleep. She saw him looking at his cousin's watch no doubt counting back till it was officially his birthday. There were still a few minutes till midnight she noted to herself this was when she felt a stir in the air. Someone with magic was near and they were coming here. The boy lay there peacefully as she ventured out into the storm to get a better look at their would-be guest. She soon spotted a rather large man standing by the edge of the little island they were on. She watched him approach the door and at precisely midnight he started banging on in waking up every occupant of the shack.
Boom! Boom! With a final knock of his fist, he brought the whole door down. To this sound came Vernon with a shotgun in his hand ready to defend his family from any intruder he could encounter.
“Show yourself!” he yelled into the darkness.
The giant man stepped into the shack looking over the frightened family then spoke.
“A good cuppa tea would be nice it is not the greatest time to travel outside.” he then made himself at home on the couch that was when he finally spotted Harry.
“Harry!” he exclaimed “You grew so much the last time I saw you were just a wee little thing barely bigger than this,” he spoke with arms outstretched showing him how much he meant by it. “Here you go I made this by myself I might have sat on it the way here, but the taste is what matters,” he said giving him a deformed box out of many of his pockets.
“Who are you Sir?” came his questioning voice.
“How rude of me! My name is Rubeus Hagrid keeper of keys at Hogwarts but you know all about that.”
“You are here about those prank letters Mr. Hagrid?” he asked.
“Just Hagrid none of that mister stuff and what do you mean by prank letters?” he asked.
“I mean there is no such thing as magic.”
“Of course there is.” but before he could elaborate Vernon decided this would be the time to show how tough he was.
“Now listen here mister we want none of that hocus pocus around us you hear me. When we took the boy in, we swore to raise him to be a proper citizen of this country and not one of you.”
“I’d like to see you try and stop him Dursley.” and with that, he went into detail explaining the boy's past to him. He told him about magic, his parents, and Hogwarts.
During this, she had a hard time controlling her laughter. It was marvelous seeing someone put Vernon in his place.
“Now that’s over you should read the rest of your letter too Harry.” said the giant man taking a yellowish envelope out of his coat and handing it to the boy. He eagerly did so, taking out the list of supplies and looking over them.
UNIFORM
First-year students will require:
- Three sets of plain work robes (black)
- One plain pointed hat (black) for daywear
- One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)
- One winter cloak (black, with silver fastenings)
Please note that all pupils's clothes should carry name tags.
COURSE BOOKS
All students should have a copy of each of the following:
The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk
A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot
Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling
A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch
One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore
Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander
The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble
OTHER EQUIPMENT
1 wand
1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)
1 set of glass or crystal phials
1 telescope
1 set of brass scales
Students may also bring, if they desire, an owl OR a cat, OR a toad.
PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST-YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICK!
Yours sincerely,
Lucinda Thomsonicle-Pocus
Chief Attendant of Witchcraft Provisions
He was still in denial, even after Hagrid had told him and shown him everything. While he was reading over the list, the giant had already written out the response to the school, and she was watching him do so from over his shoulder. By this time, the Dursleys had retreated to the other room of the house, as far away from them as they could.
“It’s still very early; you should sleep a bit more, then we will be heading out to get your supplies,” said Hagrid again.
“But I don’t have any money, and Uncle Vernon said he would not give me any.”
“Don’t worry about the fact the fact that your parents did not leave you with anything. Now go and rest a bit; we will have a long day,” he told the boy, who then went and did just that.
She decided he would be safe with Hagrid for the remainder of the day and with the Dursleys for the rest of the summer. After making sure the warming charm would hold for the next few hours, she left the shack and its occupants and decided to pay a visit to him, as she had been so busy lately that they barely had time for each other. With one last look, she disappeared into a wisp of smoke.