The Same World
by Healer Pomfrey

All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.

COMPLETELY AU! Partly OOC. It is my story, and I intend to write it the way I want it. If you don't like it, go and find something else to read or write your own story to your liking!


This will be my new daily page story. Originally, I wanted to post this from New Year's day onwards, however, several of my Facebook friends wanted me to begin posting this for their birthday, and my friend and long time reader Carol's birthday (today) was the first, so I decided to begin posting today - Happy Birthday Carol :)


Ten-year-old Harry Potter eagerly finished painting. With a small sigh, he laid down his crayon and critically looked at his drawing, before he closed his eyes and wished what he imagined as the completion of his work. Sometimes, he could wish for things and, while his relatives used to call him a freak, he found that on one or the other occasion his ability to wish came in handy.

He anxiously opened his eyes and smiled upon realising that his picture had turned out just like he had imagined it. It was a painting of Father Christmas who leaned down to a small girl of about Harry's age and handed her a present. The girl was meant to be Connie Cox, and she was the only girl in the class who used to be friendly to Harry in spite of the fact that Dudley and his gang threatened everyone who did as much as voice a kind word in Harry's direction.

The teacher, who was already used to the freakish touch that he occasionally gave his paintings, and apparently did not mind, looked at his work with obvious interest and smiled.

"Well done, Harry," she said, gently, causing Harry to smile happily.

"Oh wait until my father sees that you've done freakish things again," Dudley suddenly roared from behind Harry, making the small boy jump in panic.

"What's his problem?" a soft voice suddenly trailed over from his right hand side. "I like the picture and what you've done to it," Connie said, smiling.

"Thank you," Harry replied, feeling in irritation that he could not prevent himself from blushing. Before he knew what he was doing, he picked up the painting and held it over to her. A feeling of happiness overcame him, when she simply accepted the gift.

"Thank you Harry. I really like it," she said, as she closely inspected his work.

"You're welcome," Harry replied, smiling.

Neither of them noticed that the teacher was observing the scene with a small smile playing on her lips. However, from that time onwards, Harry and Connie became best friends.

一つの世界

From that day onwards, Harry spent every free minute with Connie. The girl was living together with her parents, not far from the Dursleys. In fact, it was just a three-minute-walk to get to the Cox' house, and when Harry told Connie that he wouldn't be able to visit her over Christmas, because the Dursleys used to lock him into his cupboard over the holidays, Connie simply invited him to spend Christmas with her and her family.

Her parents, Giselle and John Cox, who were both professors at a university in London, were both very nice and apparently did not mind Harry's freakishness as the Dursleys used to call it.

"I've heard that there are people with such abilities, but it's very rare. You can deem yourself lucky, Harry," Giselle said, as she admired his painting.

"Are you sure that your parents won't mind having me at your home over Christmas?" he asked Connie, looking at his friend in disbelief.

"Not at all," Connie reassured him. "I've already asked them, and they said you were very welcome to spend Christmas with us. My parents are really great. As long as I do what I'm supposed to do and behave, they allow me most things, and I think they really like you."

"I like them, too," Harry replied, smiling, thinking to himself, 'It must be great to have parents.'

Knowing that the Dursleys would not allow him to spend Christmas with his friend, Harry did not ask but just left after finishing all the cooking for the Dursleys for Christmas.

For Harry, it were the best days of his life, at least as far as he could remember. For the first time in his life, he received a present from Father Christmas. It was a book about different kinds of magical beings and contained magical animals like phoenixes, but also elves, goblins, werewolves and many more.

Harry knew better than to show the Dursleys his new treasure. For safety reasons, he left his book in the guest room of Connie's home that was slowly becoming his own room. However, he used every free minute reading the book.

During the following months, he spent more and more time at the Cox' house, and by the time the Easter holidays approached, he completely stopped returning to the Dursleys, knowing that his aunt and uncle could not care less.

一つの世界

It was just a few days after the beginning of the summer holidays, when Connie and Harry were sitting in the garden playing a match of chess, that an old barn owl made its way into the Cox' garden and sat on the table right next to the chess board holding her right foot out to Harry.

"She's carrying a letter," Connie blurted out, her eyes widening in surprise.

"Is that for me?" Harry asked, kindly, before he gently took the letter from the owl.

It was addressed to

'Harry Potter
The Guest Room
10 Castle Road
Little Whinging
Surrey'

"Who writes me a letter?" Harry wondered aloud before curiously turning around the envelope.

"It's from… 'Hogwarts School for Witchraft and Wizardry'," he read in surprise, causing Connie to gape at him open-mouthed.

"Maybe you're a wizard," she guessed. "That's why you can do all these strange things. Now go on, open it."

Harry stared at his best friend in shock and anxiously opened the envelope, reading his invitation to Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry in disbelief.

"They want me to come and study at their school to learn magic," he said, tonelessly handing the letter over to Connie.

Her face brightened immensely upon reading the invitation. "Harry, you need to do that," she then said, enthusiastically. "It would be amazing for you to learn what you can do with your abilities. Even if I'd miss you terribly, but we could speak over the phone every day, and maybe you could even come home during the weekends."

"Yes," Harry said, slowly, before a sudden thought crossed his mind. "Oh no, I don't have money to pay for the school fees, so I can't go."

"Maybe my parents can pay for them," Connie replied, convincingly.

"Definitely not," Harry replied in a firm voice, causing his friend to sigh.

"Why don't you send them a letter and ask about the fees?" she then suggested. "Look, the owl is waiting for you to send a reply back."

"All right," Harry agreed, readily. He quickly fetched a piece of paper and his pen from his room and set to scribble his response.

'Dear Professor McGonagall,
Thank you for the invitation to Hogwarts. I would love to attend; however, I don't have any money to pay for any possible school fees. Could you please inform me if there are school fees and if there is any possibility to work at the school in order to earn the necessary money to pay for the fees?
Yours sincerely
Harry Potter'

"All right, let's continue playing," he said after carefully tying his letter to the owl's leg.

"Okay," Connie agreed, and they went back to their chess game, which Harry lost fairly quickly due to his inattentiveness.

"Sorry, I'm totally excited," he apologized, smirking.

"Oh, I fully understand," Connie replied. "I'm extremely thrilled, too, even if I won't be able to go to that school with you."

一つの世界

The reply arrived early the next morning. The Cox hat just sat down for breakfast, when an owl tapped her beak against the kitchen window.

"Harry, look! Your reply from Hogwarts," Connie blurted out in excitement, and Harry hurriedly took the letter from the owl.

'Dear Mr. Potter,
Thank you for your fast response. I can assure you that you do not have to pay school fees at Hogwarts. Since you were raised by Muggles, I will ask Hagrid to take you to Diagon Alley in the morning of your birthday to assist with your shopping.
I am looking forward to seeing you on the first of September.
Best regards
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry'

"Harry, don't you have to ask the Dursleys if you're allowed to attend that school?" Giselle spoke up, questioningly.

"No," Harry replied in determination.

During the last couple of months, he and Giselle and John had had multiple conversations about his unfit guardians, and the Cox parents had inefficiently tried to report the Dursleys to child services or gain the guardianship over Harry. However, due to Vernon Dursley's high position at Cunnings, he was apparently able to buy himself out of trouble, and as much as the Dursleys seemed to despise their nephew, for some reason they were not willing to give up the guardianship.

'Giselle and John are like the parents I never had,' Harry thought, feeling very happy, as he quickly scribbled an affirmative response to the deputy headmistress' letter.

一つの世界

Connie and Harry could not wait for Harry's birthday to arrive in order to meet a fully educated wizard or witch.

Giselle and John had allowed Connie to travel together with Harry to buy his school supplies and had given them an adequate amount of money for their shopping, before they both left for the university with the promise to return early enough to have a proper birthday party for Harry, leaving two very excited children at home.

To their relief, it did not take long before the door bell rang, and they almost stumbled over each other's feet, as they rushed towards the entrance door – only to stop in shock upon seeing a very big man stand outside.

The man introduced himself as Hagrid and greeted the children, before he produced a small birthday cake from one of his large pockets and handed it to Harry.

"Very well then, Harry, shall we go?" he finally suggested.

"Yes, we're ready," Harry replied. "Connie is going to accompany me."

Hagrid looked at the girl in surprise. "Are you going to Hogwarts as well?" he enquired.

"No," Connie replied, sounding sad. "I'm not magical."

"Then I'm afraid that I can't take you with me, Hagrid replied in a soft voice.

"In that case, I'm not going either," Harry said in determination. "Good bye Hagrid."

Hagrid let out a deep sigh, before he relented. "All right then, you may come with us, but you mustn't tell anyone about the magical world."

"I won't," Connie promised, smiling, her blue eyes shining with joy and excitement.

tbc...

Please be so kind and review - looking forward to hearing from you. More tomorrow!