Petunia Evans opened her door a crack, glancing up and down the landing to check on her parents' and sister's bedroom doors. The light was off, which was a good sign. Her parents' door was shut and there was no sliver of light along the bottom of the frame. Good, that meant they were asleep. Petunia noticed that the door opposite hers, that of her little sister, Lily's, bedroom was wide open. This wasn't terribly helpful, however, as Lily tended to sleep with her bedroom door wide open.

Petunia squinted into the darkness and made out the faint silhouette of a bump under Lily's duvet. Petunia knew that her sister liked to read under the duvet by night, particularly since their parents had taken her on a trip up to London to buy all of those magic books, but it didn't look like there was a faint light shining through the covers. Sure enough, Petunia inched across the landing and poked her head around her little sister's doorframe, only to hear the reassuring sound of slow, steady breathing that confirmed Lily to be asleep.

Petunia returned quietly to her own bedroom, careful to make no noise closing the door. It would not do to wake her family up.

Sitting down at her wooden desk, Petunia switched on her table light and took a clean sheet of paper and her favourite pen out of her desk drawer. Inordinately glad that her year ten teacher had recently reiterated the proper way to write a formal letter, Petunia put her pen to paper and started to write.


5 Meadow Lane,

Spinner's Hamlet,

Wrexham,

Clwyd,

Wales.

8 July, 1971

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to you to enquire about your educational establishment, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. My younger sister (Lily Evans) has been offered a place, and she starts in September, but I hadn't heard anything about magic running in the family before one of your staff visited our family informing our parents about my sister's scholarship last month.

I was just wondering if there was any possibility that I might also attend your school, that maybe I have the necessary qualities? I'm sure that I would do Hogwarts proud, I am a good student, I always do my homework on time and I get on well with my teachers. English is my favourite subject but I'm sure I would be able to keep up with any new subjects that might be on the timetable.

I know that you most likely have a fairly full register, I heard your staff telling my parents that you educate children all over the UK and such a wonderful sounding school is surely in high demand, but if a space happens to come up please would you consider me for it?

Thank you very much for reading my request, I eagerly await your response.

Yours faithfully,

Petunia Evans.


Petunia re-read what she had written. Perhaps it wasn't the most professional-sounding letter that had ever been written, but thinking it was polite and adequately communicated her point, Petunia decided that perhaps the fact that her desperation had creeped in slightly didn't matter in the overall scheme of things: after all, she did feel desperate.

Deciding that she was fairly pleased with her efforts and she wouldn't be able to rewrite it to be any better in the circumstances, Petunia folded the sheet of paper carefully and put it into an envelope, carefully attaching a first-class stamp she had stolen from her mother's handbag to the upper-right hand corner of the envelope.

Petunia stared at the blank envelope, unsure of exactly what to put on it. Petunia was certain that such an elite class of people that wielded magic wands must not bother with the Royal Mail, that they must be able to wave their wand and have their letters delivered to the intended recipient immediately, so how would somebody with no wand ensure that their letter reached its destination? Where in the world WAS Hogwarts located, anyway?

Eventually, Petunia decided to just write "The headmaster, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry" on the front, put it in a post box and hope for the best.

Knowing that the best time to post the letter would be now, when nobody was around to see her, Petunia put on her pink dressing gown and slippers, hiding the letter in her pocket in case she ran into any member of her family on the landing, switched off her light and quietly opened her door. Careful not to step on Snapdragon, the family cat (so-named for her foul temper and readiness to lash-out or snap at anybody who stroked her when she didn't want to be touched) who was stretched out on the landing, Petunia crept down the stairs towards the front door. Opening the door, Petunia stepped out into the balmy summer air and glanced towards the post box ten yards down the road. Grateful that the full moon provided enough light to ensure that she would not trip over the roughly-laid pavement, and that the post box was in such close proximity to her front door, Petunia nervously dashed to the box, posted the letter, and ran back home. Even in the light of the full moon, Petunia was nervous about being outside on her own in the dark.

Locking the front door behind her, Petunia sneaked back upstairs, dodged the sleeping cat and hurriedly entered her room again. She hung up her dressing gown, put her pen back in the drawer and went to bed, hoping against hope that the Hogwarts headteacher would write back to her soon.


Author's notes: GAH. Sorry about the address formatting, apparently FF doesn't want me to put it on the right-hand side. Just pretend it is in the proper place. It'll presumably be the same for Dumbledore's response, but Dumbledore can better get away with being eccentric I suppose.

This is part of my collective August Camp NaNoWriMo writing.