NEW HOPES

Number 4, Privet Drive housed the most normal family anyone could ever hope to meet. The patriarch of said family, the Dursleys, was one Vernon Dursley and he worked in a very normal firm, Grunnings, and earned a tidy amount with which to support his family. With, and often without, casual inquiries about the health and general well being of his family he would proudly talk of his respectable house-wife and growing son, but under no circumstances would he mention the other child that occupied his house.
The child, Harry Potter, was after all, everything his family stood against, that is to say, abnormal. For Harry was not a Dursley child, but the son of Petunia Dursley's late sister, the wife of James Potter, but far more importantly, the wife of a wizard the very epitome of abnormality.
The Dursleys treated the unfortunate child the only way they knew how, with absolute disdain, locking him in the cupboard under the stairs and stoutly refusing to acknowledge the fact that he existed. They refused to allow the filth of magic to taint their family again and tried in every possible way to abolish any of its traces in Harry. In their attempts to do just that, they rebuffed any questions about Harry's parents, simply saying that James Potter was a drunk and died with his wife in a car crash, which unfortunately merely laid a scar upon Harry's head instead of killing him, leaving him alive to burden the poor Durselys. Anything that seemed even remotely like magic on Harry's part led to severe punishments, as did any mention of the dreaded topic.

It was with this utmost loathing of the abnormal that they received Harry's letter of placement at Hogwarts. Petunia, remembering a time long past, when a similar owl had swooped in and delivered the same letter, stealing forever her sister, could scarcely control her emotions, and barely held her tears inside. Vernon did the only thing his rather simple mind could think of, and took to camping near the door to prevent Harry from the reading the letters and realizing exactly what he was, that is, a wizard. Eventually when the ever increasing torrent of letters intent of being read by Harry grew to an intolerable level, Vernon packed his family away to a holiday to a remote shack in the middle of a lake, and went on a long detour often doubling back and retracing his path, as he had seen many spies do in movies in order to throw the letters of track.
And so it was that during a stormy night, they dragged themselves of a wreck of a boat into an equally wrecked house and ate the meager rations Vernon had managed to procure, through much loud complaining by Dudley, the Durley's own son, and eventually fell into a troubled sleep on the eve of Harry's birthday. As the clock twelve, the thunder and lightning still raged over their shabby lodgings, and with a blow that sounded like thunder, the door broke through its hinges and flew onto a nearby wall, shattering on impact, revealing a massive silhouette whose form couldn't be contained by the doorframe.
The enormous man, then slowly eased himself under the doorframe and into the shack, having to bend slightly to avoid hitting the roof, and then proceeded to stare at Harry. It was this sight that the startled Dursleys awoke to see. Vernon quickly reached into his bag and removed his gun, which he had brought along for just such an eventuality and with trembling hands pointed it at the strange monster in front of him. The stranger proceeded to calmly grab the gun and twist it like so much putty before throwing it aside. Then, under the severe protestations of Vernon, he proceeded to introduce himself as Hagrid, the Keeper of the Keys at Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizadry, all the while getting increasingly agitated as he realized that the Durleys has told Harry nothing of his heritage and had the gall to say the Potters died in a car crash. Vernon got equally flustered as he realized things had long since spiraled out of his control and that the taint of abnormality would touch his family.
Through all the yelling and gesturing, Hagrid managed to convey to Harry that he was indeed a wizard, and delivered his letter of acceptance to Hogwarts, whereupon Vernon once again regained his courage and pulled himself together to yell out that he was not going to pay some "insane old crackpot" to corrupt Harry, a decidedly stupid move, but then again, no one ever praised Vernon for his intelligence. In retaliation, Hagrid brandished a pink umbrella he was holding, and with a loud crack! Dudley suddenly had a pig's tail at the end of his rather large behind, and he quickly whimpered off somewhere, attempting to hide his bulk behind his mother.

Vernon, finally realizing just how badly the situation was, quickly grabbed his family and fled into another room, by the time he managed to gather enough courage to timidly peek out the door, he realized that the giant of a brute was gone and had taken Harry, and good riddance. Soon after, the Dursleys returned to their home, wondering how their shattered illusion of normality could ever be repaired, and it was quickly decided that the first step would be getting Dudley's tail surgically removed, and while they were planning a cover story for the sudden appearance of the tail, the doorbell rang. Fearing the worst, Vernon quietly grabbed his gun, having bought a new one on the way back home, and opened the door, to find Harry staring back at him. Vernon quickly decided that it was not worth it to risk his family's well being again simply to turn the ingrate out, and so consented to let the boy back in and into his relatively new room.
When Harry asked to be dropped in Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, Vernon doubted he could possibly have been happier, as he knew that the platform did not exist, so he happily agreed to drop Harry there on the way to taking Dudley to a top plastic surgeon.
As Vernon dropped Harry off in the station, he wondered how long it would take for the boy to drag himself home after realizing the platform didn't exist, he didn't dare hope that the rascal wouldn't manage to lose himself and never be seen again, fearing for his family. He managed to not gloat, simply out of fear of retribution, and breathed a long sigh of relief as he drove away, leaving the boy behind.

Harry sat flabbergasted as Hagrid talked of the magical world, and the evil wizard Voldemort who had murdered his parents, who had not died in a car crash, and how he had somehow survived Voldemort's curse, sending it back on the man and banishing him, leaving only the scar on his forehead behind. He barely concealed a grin as Dudley got his pig tail, and tried, and failed miserably, to conceal his laugh, when he realized that Dudley was supposed to have become a pig, but was too much like one to be changed. He was awestruck as Hagrid lead him into Diagon Alley, revealing a world completely hidden to the non-magical people, the muggles.
His mood took a drastic turn for the worse, however, when he realized he would need to purchase several things in order to attend the school, as he had no money, and Uncle Vernon had very clearly stated that he would not pay for Harry's magical education. This directly lead to his most surprising conversation yet, when Hagrid told him, in no uncertain terms that his parents had not left Harry poor, quite to the contrary, they had left him a rather large sum of money, which, of course, the Dursleys had not been informed of. So they went to Gringotts, to withdraw money to buy his things, stopping on the way so that Hagrid could complete an errand for Headmaster Dumbledore and removed a grubby little package from a high security vault numbered seven hundred and thirteen. Harry prodded a bit, and Hagrid mentioned that Dumbledore was doing his friend Nicholas Flamel a favour.
After leaving Gringotts, Hagrid took Harry to get his robes measured out in Madam Malkins. Unfortunately, while getting his robes measured out, he met a Draco Malfoy, and had one of the most uncomfortable conversations of his life, and sighed, realizing that he would have to go to the same school as Malfoy. Harry was, however, lifted out of his bad mood when Hagrid presented him with a beautiful snowy owl as a birthday present, while Harry went through the common etiquette of declining the gift, he was nonetheless thrilled to receive something so beautiful, and more so when he realized how useful owls were.

Harry's mood then plummeted again when he realized he was to go back to Dursleys till school started, and after safely tucking his train ticket in his trunk, he quietly walked back from the train station to Number 4, expecting a severe punishment for Hagrid's actions. He was pleasantly surprised when Uncle Vernon let him in without a word and he escaped punishment, he was, in fact, more or less ignored for the remainder of his stay at the house, and even managed to get a ride to King's Station.

Once in the station, he soon realized exactly why Uncle Vernon was in such a good mood, the platform upon which the train was supposed to be waiting simply did not exist, which he found out thanks to a very disgruntled officer in the station. Just as Harry was starting to despair, he saw a sea of red, and realized that the family was acting distinctly odd, so he shuffled over to see what was going on. He heard a few stray words, such as "muggles" and "Hogwarts" and quickly realized the family were wizards and would most likely know how to get to the platform, so he quietly walked up to the mother and politely asked her how he could get through to the platform.
Upon making it through the wall with a redhead that looked to be around his age, he started to walk towards the train, when two twins, again of the same family, Weasley's, he found out they were, offered to carry his trunk for him, and he gladly accepted. He entered an empty compartment, and suddenly felt sleepy, so he closed the compartment door, stretched out and drifted into a shallow sleep, dreaming about everything magical. He dreamt of Diagon Alley, and all the shops he had seen there, and then slowly he started to dream about the instances when he had accidentally used magic, remembering the time when he had re-grown his hair overnight after a particularly bad haircut by his Aunt. He dreamt of the time when, while fleeing Dudley as his gang, he had jumped and landed on top of his school building, and most recently, the time he had released the boa from its glass cage in the zoo, and had spoken to it. When he woke up later, he would wonder about that particular ability, and wondered if every wizard could talk to animals.

Ronald Weasley walked by the train and eventually came upon the compartment containing the sleeping boy his brothers told him was Harry Potter. He had been intent on sitting with and talking to the boy he, like all others, considered a hero, but seeing him peacefully sleeping, Ronald decided to leave him alone and try another compartment.

At Hogwarts, the staff was pleasantly surprised to see Professor Trelawney join them for a rare meal in the dining room, and were enjoying a conversation when she suddenly stiffened and starting muttering portents of doom, and innocence being forever tainted.

Professor McGonagall uncharacteristically snorted and said, "Save your tripe for your new students Sybill, they actually believe it!" The rest of the staff similarly dismissed Professor Trelawney's regular doom-sayings and continued their meal.