Hi, this is my first Harry Potter fanfic. I hope you like it. I know it's short, but I'll post more soon. Please read and review!!!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Or the Dursleys.
Mr. and Mrs Dursley were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. But that was before things changed.
The year after the downfall of Lord Voldemort, the Dursleys were sitting in the living room, watching television in silence. Outside the tightly drawn curtains, the sun was setting behind the grey clouds and the street was silent except for the sound of the birds.
When the sound of one particular bird's wing beats grew ominously close, all of the Dursleys looked up nervously.
"Dad…" Dudley began, edging away from the window. A tapping noise began, gentle at first, but fast becoming more urgent. Petunia and Vernon exchanged worried glances.
"Don't worry, Petunia, I'll sort this out," Vernon said with false bravado. He rose from his chair with difficulty, dumping his newspaper on the floor as he did so, and picked up Dudley's long disused Smeltings stick. With a look back at his wife and daughter, hoping for their support, he began to edge towards the window. The tapping noise was much louder now and would soon begin to arouse the neighbours' attention if they weren't careful. And that was the last thing they needed, Vernon thought. They'd only just got rid of that boy, and now here they were being bothered again.
"It'd better not be another orphan," he muttered. He took a deep breath and then he had no excuse to put it off for one more second. He ripped open the delicate curtains and brandished the stick.
A tawny owl was sitting impatiently on the windowsill outside. It paused for a second, looking up at Vernon expectantly before resuming its frenzied tapping of its beak on the window. Vernon turned to his family uneasily. Petunia nodded at him, grabbing Dudley's fat wrist with both hands and backing into the corner. Vernon took yet another deep breath and reluctantly opened the window.
The owl hopped lightly into the room and refolded its wings. Petunia winced as a single withered feather glided down onto the immaculate carpet. The bird stuck out its leg, to which a letter was tied. Vernon turned back to his family again. Petunia nodded vigorously whilst backing even further into the corner and he tentatively untied the knot with trembling fingers. He turned it over and the seal brought a wave of déjà vu with it. He had seen that exact same symbol on hundreds, if not thousands, of letters almost exactly eight years ago. He opened the letter agonisingly slowly.
"Dear Mr., Mrs and Master Dursley,
I am pleased to inform you that you have been accepted…"
Vernon's face turned red, then yellow, and then deathly pale and he staggered before falling to the floor in a faint.