A New Time
Based on the Harry Potter Series
I do not own Harry Potter or anything you may recognise.
- Chapter One -
The Letter
Harry Potter sat on the kitchen table with a piece of paper clutched in his hand, deep in thought. In front of him laid an envelope addressed to him in scruffy writing. The letter read:
Dear Harry,
My eldest daughter received her Hogwarts acceptance letter today. I don't know why I'm telling you this but I just want to apologise for the seventeen years of hell I gave you. If she grows up to be as great as you, I'll be the proudest father ever. Please forgive me.
Dudley.
He had not seen his cousin Dudley in over nineteen years. The last time he saw him, he was leaving his home in Little Whinging, Surrey, with his magic-hating parents. Another thought occurred to him. Did Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia know about their magical niece? How did they react? Harry wasn't even sure if they were alive or not. Dozens of questions were now running through his mind and yet he didn't have a single answer to any of them. He had spent most of the past month wondering about all these things. What he had to do now was next on his mind.
'Oh Harry, are you still thinking about that letter?' Ginny Potter had just walked into the kitchen.
'What do you think I should do, Ginny?' asked Harry.
'Well,' she stopped and considered for a bit, 'I think you should just talk to him,' and she began preparing dinner.
'W-what? You can't be serious. I mean, I haven't seen the guy in nearly twenty -'
'Do you want to sort this out and get it over and done with or do you want to spend the rest of your life questioning yourself?' Ginny interrupted, holding a saucepan tight in her hand.
'But -'
'No, I didn't think so,' said Ginny, turning her back to Harry, placing the saucepan over the stove. With a flick of her wand, the stove ignited. With another flick, vegetables flew from the worktop and into the saucepan. Harry sat watching her and began to chuckle.
'You always have been able to get your own way. I really do need to learn how to do that.'
Ginny glared at him and turned back to adding ingredients to the saucepan. Harry took a quick glance at the clock and jumped.
'Albus should have arrived at Hogwarts by now, don't you think?' he thought for a moment or two and then continued 'If the letter arrived at the time that it had been written, Dudley's daughter should be in Albus' year. I think I may just ask him if there's a 'Dursley' in his year once I've asked him about the sorting and his experience so far.' Harry leapt to his feet and head towards the door 'I think I might just owl him now,' and he ran out of the kitchen, in the direction of his study.
Harry's study was the room at the end of the corridor on the second floor along with four bedrooms and a bathroom. Downstairs was the kitchen and the living room. The house overall was quite tidy. As Harry entered his study, a large wooden desk with ink, quills and a table lamp faced him. The walls were filled with shelves of books. Scrunched pieces of parchment were scattered across the floor. He quickly sat down, grabbed a piece of parchment lying around and began to write.
Albus,
So, how was the journey to Hogwarts and did you enjoy it? How did the sorting go? You must have been really nervous standing in front of everyone. Well, I hope all is well. I just want to ask something. Whilst at the sorting, was there a 'Dursley' by any chance? Please get to me as soon as you can with a full encounter of your journey. Mum and Lily both say hello by the way.
Love Dad.
When finished, he walked across to the other side of the room where a small, brown owl was perched in its cage.
'I have a little job for you, Hedwig.' He took Hedwig out of the cage and attached the letter to her leg.
'Take this to Albus and make sure he replies.' Harry paced towards the only window in his study, opened it and let Hedwig go. Closing the window, he made his way back to the kitchen where he could here Ginny call Lily for Dinner.
Harry awoke the next morning to loud laughter coming from downstairs. He got up, got dressed and went down. He entered the living room to find Lily and Ginny sat on the sofa with a letter, giggling. To Harry's relief, Hedwig was settled on Lily's lap.
'Oh dad, just wait until you read Albus' letter,' said Lily, 'it's pretty funny if you think about it,' and she passed the letter to Harry.
'Oh come off it Lily, it wasn't that funny,' said Ginny, grinning broadly, 'you just over exaggerate.'
'That's rich coming from the person who started laughing,' muttered Lily. Ginny glared at her.
'So, can I read the letter now?' interrupted Harry, throwing quick glances at Ginny and Lily. Without waiting for a reply, he began to read.
Dear Dad,
The journey to Hogwarts was awesome, I loved it. James, being the div he is, decided to move to another compartment as soon as the platform was out of sight. Apparently, he didn't want to be seen with a 'loser' so I just sat with Rose. You'll never guess who sat with us. Malfoy! Scorpius Malfoy! At first, it was pretty awkward but then we began to talk. The lunch trolley came, had something to eat and exchanged chocolate frog cards. He wasn't that bad. When it started getting dark, we both changed into our Hogwarts robes as Rose already had hers on. Could you imagine the look on Uncle Ron's face if he found out that me and Rose, especially Rose, were now 'friends' with a Malfoy?
When we got off the train, we got to Hogwarts by the boats as you said we would. We're in 2017. You would have thought that we would be taken by something else more modern. The first sight of the castle was just amazing.
When we got there, we had Professor Thomas show us into the Great Hall. He's the Head of Gryffindor and also the Deputy Head. One by one, students sat on the stool to get sorted as the sorting hat was placed on their heads. Rose was quite difficult by the looks of things. Apparently the sorting hat couldn't decide whether she should be put in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor. Eventually, she was put in Gryffindor. Sounds a bit like Aunt Hermione, don't you think? Well, the same thing happened to me but between Slytherin and Gryffindor. I think the sorting hat did decide to go with where I wanted to be sorted into because eventually I ended up in Gryffindor and to be honest, I didn't really change my mind about not wanting to be in Slytherin. Even Scorpius was put in Gryffindor. I swear his whole family was in Slytherin?
After the sorting, it was the feast. It was way better than mums cooking- no offence mum.
Before I forget, there was a Dursley. Her name was Ellie. She got put in Hufflepuff. She's lucky because she has Neville as her head of house. Speaking of "Professor" Neville, James is refusing to give him mums love and I don't think he will. It's a shame Lily isn't here, she's missing out on so much. Tell both of them I say hello and not to miss me too much. Rose sends her love.
Love, Albus
The smile Harry had when he began to read the letter had faded. His main concern now was Dudley's daughter.
'So,' said Ginny, breaking the silence, 'are you going to go visit him? Or at least write to him?'
'Well,' Harry stopped for a moment, 'just because she's a Dursley, it doesn't mean she's Dudley's daughter-'
'Just stop with the excuses, Harry. You have to accept the truth sooner or later.'
Ginny was right. Harry couldn't hide from this forever. He thought to himself that after all these years, he would have been done with hiding from people.
'Hmph, I'm going to get some breakfast then go to work,' Harry said after a while and head towards the kitchen.
