Disclaimer: We do not own Harry Potter, it's slightly illegal to own slaves in this country. As I'm sure most of you could guess we would much rather have Draco Malfoy or Fred/George Weasley, etc. for our personal slaves…(wink, wink) Besides, I'm far too anti-social to be famous.
Harry Got Left Behind
Chapter 1: Summer of Letters
It was a relatively uneventful night on Privet Drive. No parties, no loud music, no unusual visitors. Each family stayed peacefully and completely oblivious in their own little world. No one noticed as an owl flew overhead and into a second story window at No. 4 Privet Drive. For the past seven years the entire street failed to notice the strange comings and goings at that particular house and thus remained quiet and…normal.
Harry Potter had been awaiting his customary pre-term letter for a couple of weeks and finally with only a couple of weeks remaining before term was to begin an Hogwarts owl arrived with a rather large envelope. *I hope this doesn't mean a long list of texts for the year. I certainly don't want to spend the entire year reading!* harry thought as he cautiously unsealed the envelope and read the first piece of parchment:
Dear Mr. H. Potter:
We are sorry for the delay in this year's letter's arrival but a few events caused some urgent changes in preparations for the coming term. The enclosed letter is to be delivered to your parent/guardian explaining said changes.
First and foremost, welcome to your seventh and final year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! This year should prove to be the most challenging but also quite rewarding.
Secondly, the following is a list of texts needed for your seventh year at Hogwarts:
The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 7)
Advanced Transfiguration
Death Omens: What to Do When You Know the Worst Is Coming
As a reminder, the school year starts on September the first and the Hogwarts Express departs from King's Cross station at eleven o'clock.
You will find that the enclosed letter for your parent/guardian is unreadable to any person under the age of eighteen. Please do not attempt to break the spell and promptly deliver the letter. When the letter has been marked and signed you will be asked to deliver it to Hogwarts the first day of term.
Thank you,
M. McGonagall
(deputy headmistress)
and
A. Dumbledore
(headmaster)
Harry could not help but wish that his godfather were still alive. He would have sent the parchment to him, but now he would have to face the Dursley's with it.
Harry waited a whole week before he asked Uncle Vernon to look at the parchment. Vernon Dursley had read the parchment a few times over and declared, "Even your precious…school…doesn't trust you. How fitting." Vernon had signed the paper with a smirk and placed a check on the lower right side of the parchment before handing it back to Harry.
Draco Zaltys Malfoy was hunched over a piece of parchment, writing rapidly with a crazed look on his face. One would expect him at any moment to start laughing and scream, "Welcome to the Land of the Purple Fungus Trees! HAHAHA!"
An Hogwarts owl flew in through Draco's open window, dropped the pre-term packet on his desk, and quickly flew back out the window. Most owls were smart enough to leave the Malfoy manners as soon as possible, the few that didn't, well…
Draco grudgingly left his parchment for the letter. The parchment, now visible to anyone watching was titled:
How To Get Even With
POTTER
die, potter, die
The first three lines read:
Snog Granger
Snog Weasley (accompany with alcohol)
Get Hagrid Fired (must, must, must)
Draco smirked as he read his Head Boy announcement letter and placed his Head Boy badge on his robes. When he got to the mysterious letter he stood up, went to his mirror, promptly told it to "shut the fuck up" and quickly groomed himself. His father would throw a fit if he showed up not looking perfect. He then proceeded to take the letter to his father.
Lucious Malfoy was sharpening his knife collection in the dungeons and one could hear whimpering coming from a cell on the left.
"Yes?" Lucious said when his son entered the chamber.
"A letter from Hogwarts arrived for you, sir." Not saying "sir" to Lucious Malfoy would result in being stuck in the dungeon for at least a week.
Lucious read the letter and laughed. "Dumbledore is a fucking moron! He should know all Slytherins with any pride are going." He promptly checked the left side of the parchment, signed the bottom, and resumed sharpening his knife collection.
***
Mandy Brocklehurst, y'all remember her from the first book…she's a Ravenclaw, tiptoed into her father's study. When Mr. Brocklehurst finally looked up from his notes Mandy was leafing through his wonderful volumes on Arithmancy. After spending far too much time discussing said topic Mandy remembered why she was there in the first place and gave her father the letter.
Mr. Brocklehurst read the letter and yelled, "Dotty!"
A little house elf dressed in a ratty, green pillowcase scurried into the room. "Yes sir?"
"Dotty, please go ask your Mistress to come here."
"Yes sir!" Dotty said while trying to bow, curtsy, and back out of the room. Shortly after the house elf's departure a 40-year-old witch found her way into the study.
Before the witch could talk Mr. Brocklehurst said, "Marge, Dumbledore sent this," he handed her the letter, "what do you think?"
After carefully reading the letter she exclaimed, "She has to, this is the opportunity of a life time!!!"
Mr. Brocklehurst marked the left side of the parchment and signed the bottom. He handed the paper to Mandy and said, "Be sure not to forget this when you leave for Hogwarts, you'll need your first day back."
Mandy looked at the parchment, the only thing she could see was a little check mark on the left and her father's signature at the bottom.
***
Hermoine Athena Granger was smiling and humming to herself as she packed her Head Girl badge. She couldn't reasonably wear it around muggles, now, could she? She took her letter to her father, being the daddy's girl that she was, and said, "Daddy, there's a letter here from school for you!" In her most chippery voice.
Mr. Granger read the letter, yes he did! After re-reading the letter multiple times with a confused look on his face he said, "OK, if I'm right, they're offering you a chance to…wait, it says I can't tell you what it says! Damn! Would you like to be more challenged for the year?"
"Of course daddy"
"Ok, then that's a yes…" Mr. Granger marked the left side of the parchment and signed the bottom before handing it back to Hermoine.
***
Mrs. Weasley took the letter from Ron and sat down at the kitchen table to read it. Her face paled and she said, "No! Ron, no matter how much you beg, NO!"
"What, mum?" asked a perplexed Ron Weasley.
"No!" she yelled again while checking the right side of the parchment and signing the bottom. She proceeded to wrap her arms around Ron and coo, "My baby, my little baby, no, no, no…"
***
Neville grabbed the letter and ran out of the room, knocking over a poor, defenseless house elf. He continued his trip down the corridor of the Longbottom mansion when he stopped suddenly. He could not remember where his grandmother was. Damn! Is that a cuss word? Am I allowed to say that? Or rather, think that?
He turned around and approached the house elf that was still recovering from his fall. "Mr. House Elf, where did you put my grandmother?"
"I did not put your grandmother anywhere, Mr. Longbottom, sir…Mr. Longbottom's grandmother is still in the drawing room. The house elf shrank back against a wall and Neville started to walk away. "Mr. Longbottom, sir, you dropped this paper." Said the elf, offering Neville the letter from Hogwarts. Neville and letter thus proceeded toward the drawing room and Grandma Longbottom.
"Hello, Neville! What are you doing down here? I thought you were supposed to be cleaning your room?" Said Mrs. Longbottom. She was definitely graying, but my goodness…she seemed to be in exceptional shape and health.
"Oh! I'll go do that then!" Said Neville, already without the slightest clue as to why he was there.
"No! Why did you come here?"
"I don't know, I forgot…" Neville trailed off and the old woman noticed the letter in his hand.
"What's that in your hand, darling?"
Neville looked at the parchment and seeing nothing on it said, "A blank piece of paper, grandmother."
"Well, why don't you let me look at that?" Neville handed Mrs. Longbottom the parchment and she exclaimed, "Neville, this isn't a blank piece of paper! This is a letter from Hogwarts!"
"Oh, I forgot about that!"
Mrs. Longbottom read the letter and proceeded to mark the left side of the paper and sign her name at the bottom. She desperately hoped that this would help Neville to become slightly less forgetful and if nothing else it would be a good experience for him. After all, his parents were aurors.
***
By the end of the day every seventh year from Hogwarts had received their letters and had them checked and signed by their parents/guardians…