A Concerned Adult
Chapter 1
Flora Hawkins walked down Diagon Alley looking around at all the people passing through the alley, she had been doing this every day for the last week, ever since it was known that the Hogwarts acceptance letters had been sent out. You see, Flora hadn't been looking at everyone she had been looking for someone in particular, a boy, a boy who's eleventh birthday it was today, the thirty first of July 1991, Flora had not seen this boy since his first birthday, it was also the last day she had seen the sister of her heart and her husband, the boys parents, they had been killed only a few months later leaving the poor boy an orphan. Flora had tried to find him but those in authority had fobbed her off saying that he was safe and that it would be better for him if she left things alone, so for ten years Flora had studied and planned, now all that was needed was for her to meet the boy and see for herself what type of person young Harry was.
It was around mid morning as Flora was hoping that Harry would show within the week before her holidays were over, that a stir swept through the Alley, the whispers soon reached Flora, the words "Harry Potters here", Flora moved surely but without appearing to rush towards Gringotts the bank, as she stepped up the steps leading up to the bank Flora nodded briefly to the goblins manning the door acknowledging their presence but otherwise ignoring them, walking in she moved slower as her eyes took in the people lining up at the counters manned by goblins, non of them looked like Harry, or how she thought Harry would look, trying to decide what to do next, the voice of Rubeus Hagrid, or just Hagrid, rumbled over the crowd "Morning, we've come ter take some money outta Mr Harry Potter's safe."
Flora spun around to see the large figure of Hagrid, beside him was a poorly dressed young boy with messy black hair, Flora drifted over toward the counter as Hagrid searched his pockets for the requested key, as she moved she studied the young boy who seemed to be looking at everything as though he had never seen this scene before. The more Flora studied the young boy the angrier she got, it was clear to her that this was Harry Potter, it was also clear that he had no knowledge of wizarding society or that he had been cared for properly, as the two went toward the carts that led to the vaults, Flora turned around and walked out of the bank to the alley to find a place to observe from.
All day she observed them till late in the afternoon as they left Ollivanders she slipped unnoticed a piece of parchment with a small letter written on it, the parchment had been charmed to go unnoticed for a few hours hopefully Harry would trust the note and would reply using the owl she had seen Hagrid buy the boy. It was the best that she could do with Hagrid playing bodyguard to the boy, Hagrid was a good guy, but if she had gone over and talked to Harry, Hagrid would be sure to report it to Albus Dumbledore the Headmaster of Hogwarts as well as the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, and Supreme Mugwump of the ICW, all these titles made Dumbledore a very politically powerful wizard allowing him to get away with many acts against the law or creating laws to get what he wanted. All this meant that Flora had to work quickly and quietly keeping a low profile, this she felt would be a very difficult task.
Harry Potter stood in his new bedroom at the Dursley household, it had taken some time to walk from the train station carrying/dragging his new belongings, even though it was summertime and the sun set around quarter to nine it was quite dark by the time he had reached Private drive, for this fact Harry was very happy as it would not give the neighbors anything to complain about and this would keep his relatives a little bit happier, meaning less problems for him. As Harry turned to face his newly named owl, Hedwig, he heard and felt a piece of paper crinkle in his pocket, confused he pulled out an envelope with his name written on the outside turning it over in his hands he wondered when it was put in his pocket and why he hadn't noticed early, curiously he opened it, and read it out loud to Hedwig, not even thinking that there could have been anything wrong with the letter.
To Harry Potter,
My name is Flora Hawkins and I have been trying to find you for many years, the reason I have been looking for you is that your mother and I were very good friends, so good in fact that we became blood sisters, I had promised your mother that I would help look after you if anything happened to her and your father. I was not in the country at the time of their death as I was preparing a hideaway for them in Australia, upon my return to England I found you missing, your parents dead, your godfather in jail and godmother and her husband in the permanent spell damage ward at St Mungos ( a wizarding hospital), I soon realised that if I pushed to hard I may end up the same as either of your godparents or with no memory of you. With this in mind I have been making plans for the day when we could meet, I knew you would be going to Hogwarts this year and as such would have to pass through Diagon Alley at some point so I have waited in the Alley for the last week, hoping to meet you. I knew when I saw you with Hagrid that I could not stop and chat with you as I am sure he was told to keep people from bothering you too much, I also did not want to overwhelm you with too much information so upon seeing Hagrid giving you such a beautiful owl I decided to slip you a letter in the hope of either meeting or at least starting a correspondence with you. I am sure you have a lot of questions that I would be very happy to answer, all you have to do is write a letter, address it to,
Flora Hawkins
The Garden Coop
Tregaron
Wales
You do not need to give me a return address if you do not want to I will just ask your owl to wait for a reply.
Hoping to hear from you,
Flora Hawkins
"Well Hedwig what do you think I should do? Should I write to meet this person or just find out more about her first?" Harry spoke to his owl as he had no one else to advise him, not expecting any answer Hedwig replied with two soft hoots leaving Harry to reply with "so just find out more about her first?" Hedwig replied with a hoot who's tone suspiciously sounded like an "of course" Herry just smiled and thought it was great to have a friend even if that friend was a bird, he sat down at the rickety desk that occupied a small area of the small room, Harry deciding that he didn't want to waste his own parchment as he was not sure how much he would need at Hogwarts or if he could get any more while there, he flipped the letter over and started writing on the back.
To Flora
I have so many questions I am not sure where to start...
It was now the sixth of August and Harry and Flora had been corresponding everyday, Harry was reading his school books while waiting for Hedwigs return, in his last letter he had decided to give Flora his address and was hoping that she would write back that she wanted to meet him in person, he felt that it would be far easier to ask and answer questions in person than it was to write it all down, though the writing had helped his quillmanship especially after Flora had given him some tips, he also wanted someone to talk to other than his owl, as his so called family were ignoring him. Harry continued to read for another ten minutes when he became aware of a shadow at his open window, he looked up to see Hedwig entering the room with another unknown owl, quickly standing he moved away from his desk to give the owls room to land, both were soon settled on the desk holding out letters toward him with Hedwig ensuring that her letter was received first, Harry was quick to praise her for her quick delivery giving her several head scratches opening the letter that she carried almost saw him laugh out loud the letter only contained one sentence
Upon realising that I was sending you a letter with my eagle owl Antheia, Hedwig started complaining until I told her I would send a letter with her as well, also explaining that I needed her to make sure that Antheia, my eagle owl, made it through any wards around your house, I am hoping that both owls are there, if not send a reply and I will rewrite the letter and send it with Hedwig.
Harry now turned to the other owl which still stood on his desk holding out its letter, he quickly moved to remove the letter and then asked Hedwig if it would be okay for the other owl to rest here while he read the letter and then wrote a reply to Flora Hedwig gave a small hoot and a dignified bob of her head before moving over to the area that Harry had set up for her to roost so that she did not have to stay in her cage,the other owl followed. Harry sat down nervously as he wondered what Flora had written back, as he sat there holding the letter he thought about the reasons why he would be nervous, the main one being what if after all the letter writing she did not want to see him, thinking about it made him realise that he was being silly, as Flora had staked out Diagon Alley for a whole week that decided he opened the letter.