Chapter 1- The Dursley's

Every Christmas without fail a letter would come. Every since Gracie Dursley could remember, a letter would shoot through the door's mail slot at half past 6 on Christmas day even though there was never post on Christmas.

The letter was always written on the same heavy looking parchment and never had a stamp to accompany it. Gracie had long given up asking her parents how it managed to be delivered as they seemed to be quite bewildered about it themselves. They were ordinary folks, Mr and Mrs Dursley, and didn't seem to be able to deal with anything extraordinary.

Mr Dudley Dursley worked in his father's firm Grunnings as the junior head of Management under the watchful eye of Vernon Dursley, and the ever beady eye of Petunia Dursley. That's how Dudley and Yvette met you see, through Vernon and Petunia Dursley. Gracie could only begin to imagine how it occurred,

"Dinky Duddydums! There you are, come over here and meet Yvonne!" Gracie could imagine her grandma, her tall bony frame squashed into a fancy pink salmon cocktail dress, calling out to her father as she desperately tried to keep her mum from slipping away.

She needn't have worried.

There was something about Dudley's chubby cheeks and boxer physique that hooked Yvonne. The way he slowly walked over, with a seemingly 'crisp' facial expression, (it was Yvonne's way of saying blank, as crisp sounded nicer), and the way he mumbled through awkward conversation as Petunia hung on his arm, laughing her high horsey laugh, touched Yvonne. They wed 14 months later, and baby Gracie arrived a year after that, and then after that they,

"Gracieeeeeeeeee! Get out of bed and do the dishes for me please!" Gracie was jolted back to reality by her mum's fierce shouts. Gracie groaned and rolled slowly off her bed, making her way gradually down the stairs of number 4 Privett drive towards the kitchen.

Upon entering Gracie spotted her Dad sitting in his regular seat shoving bacon down his mouth as it was the last breakfast he was ever going to eat in his life. Gracie stared sadly at her dad. The boxer physique hadn't lasted long. After Gracie was born and Yvonne became a stay at home mum Dudley had began to eat again as he had done as a teenager. The fact that he still lived in the house where he grew up couldn't of helped much either Gracie thought as she absentmindedly scrubbed the fry pan.

Suddenly Gracie noticed that she was all alone. Yvonne had left for her weekly quilting class and Dudley had gone to work, even though it was the middle of summer and too hot to even think about working or quilting in Gracie's opinion. She smiled. Here was an opportunity that was too good to miss. Gracie slowly turned around, a large grin plastered on her face. She extended her arms as far as she could, and after muttering 'oops' dropped the plate.

It smashed onto the floor with a loud ringing sound. Gracie took a deep breath and concentrated hard on the dish. Slowly, very slowly, the pieces quivered. They rattled and vibrated. With a loud snap the pieces zoomed in together and reformed the plate.

Ha! Gracie looked at the sink and the dishes sprung into action, cleaning themselves and even putting themselves away. Gracie turned and pointed towards the vacuum cleaner which immediately turned on and began to vacuum the living room like her mother asked her too. After a few more whirls and bouts of intense concentration Gracie collapsed on the couch absolutely exhausted, but pleased. She knew it wasn't quite right and not something that most people probably could do. But it was so exhilarating to be able to do something that was far from ordinary.

Gracie sighed and remembered hours spent in the library, reading fantastic books on fairytales and things that couldn't possibly be real, dragons, werewolves and unicorns for instance. Normalcy was what was encouraged in the Dursley household, and whilst reading was acceptable, (though usually there would be something far more interesting on TV), reading fairytales was more often not. That was the main reason Gracie practiced her little 'quirk' when her parents weren't home, which luckily was often as they were both extremely busy people.

Gracie bounced over to the mirror above the fireplace and studied her reflection against the photos of her parents underneath. Thank goodness that she didn't look too much like her father, Gracie thought feeling somewhat relieved. But she certainly looked nothing like her plump merry mother either. No, Gracie Dursley hadn't inherited her father's lack of neck, or thick blonde hair, and she hadn't inherited her mother's plump cheeks or pointed ears. Grandma said that she looked like her great grandmother as a younger girl, with her long red curly hair and her bright green eyes.

Dudley had always seemed haunted by Gracie's eyes, but not as much as her Grandmother who would shriek if Gracie stared at her for two long about how she had been cursed with the 'green eyes' and why wouldn't they leave her alone? Gracie didn't know how to answer this. How could her beautiful eyes be a curse?

Gracie was also lucky that she was quite skinny, considering the colossal size of her father, but that may have been because the sight of her Dad eating usually put her off whatever meal she was supposed to be eating.

Gracie continued to look at herself. She had a nice face; she decided turning it from side to side. It was a nice oval shape. Gracie stared at the picture of her parents on their wedding day and wondered if they had indeed picked the wrong child up from the hospital where she was born. Obviously she looked nothing like her parents, but also had a completely different personality.

Whilst Dudley couldn't stand books, Gracie didn't mind a good one, and whilst her mum was meek and somewhat pathetic, Gracie was strong, both in her actions and thoughts. She was nicer than her parents and certainly more intelligent, (or that's what she had always thought anyway).

But certainly some Dursley attributes had prevailed. Gracie knew that she could be lazy, and sometimes spoilt. Gracie also liked to think of herself as 'highly inquisitive' when really she was a bit of a busybody- not unlike Petunia. It was a trait Petunia lovingly encouraged in her only grandchild.

As Gracie continued to study her reflection a familiar click and whirl sound rang through the house.

What was that sound?

Gracie stared blankly (crisply) at the mirror for a few more seconds before it hit her 'oh, the post man.' She bounced over to the door and with one graceful swish, picked up all the letters from the ground. They were fairly straight forward; bills, magazines, the usual, but. Gracie scooped up a letter that seemed to be made of extremely thick paper, bearing no stamp, and even stranger, it was addressed to her!

Gracie turned the letter over, and found that it was sealed with a wax seal, which encased a badger, a lion, a serpent and an eagle around the letter H. How very peculiar, Gracie considered as she slowly began to prise the letter open.