Disclaimer: This is my first fanfiction so go easy. Also, I do not own Harry Potter. All Harry Potter works belong to the wonderful J.K. Rowling.
Harry stared at the strange letter with weird paper and addressed in green ink. His address covered the entire front and there was no stamp or return address. On the back was a coat of arms that showed a lion, badger, eagle, and snake surrounding a large letter H. Harry had no one to write to, so he never got letters, yet he still wanted to know who was writing him.
"Hurry up, Harry!' came Uncle Vernon's voice. "What are you doing, checking for letter bombs?"
"Coming." he shouted back.
"What came?' asked Vernon as Harry walked back into the kitchen.
"A letter from Aunt Marge, what looks like a bill, and… a letter for me." Harry responded handing over the first two items.
Vernon quickly read the letter from Aunt Marge informing them about her health and then tossed aside the bill before asking, "Who's the letter from?"
"No idea, but there is no stamp or return address." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Aunt Petunia suddenly pale at the sight of the letter and its description.
Harry slowly opened the envelope and tossed it aside where it was snatched up by Dudley. Reading the first few lines, the letter was quickly thrown away as well as Harry angrily demanded out loud "IS THIS SOMEKIND OF A JOKE?"
The letter was quickly grabbed off the table by Aunt Petunia who read it while her husband read it over her shoulder. Both of their faces were extremely white as Petunia muttered "Im-Impossible..she…she said.."
"Who said what?' asked Harry curiously. Even Dudley had forgotten about his breakfast to learn all about what the big deal was with the strange letter.
Petunia's only response was 'My sister'.
At these words, Harry's anger grew. Everyone in number four hated the Potters. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon because of some strange reason that Harry never asked nor cared about, Dudley because his parents hated them, and Harry because of the way that they abandoned him. He even planned on changing his name once he became of age because he didn't like being named after his father.
"What do my parents have to do with that letter?" asked Harry.
Sighing deeply Petunia answered, "Everything. When we took you in, my sister said that you wouldn't get this letter. That is the only reason we took you in. This letter is no joke, it's real; witches and wizards are real. It started late one night in early November ten years ago. Your parents came to us in the middle of the night asking us to take you in. They said that you weren't like them, that you were like us, and that they didn't want you. When I heard that you were normal, I just knew I would have to take you in. Although there were signs while you were growing up, I didn't want to believe it. Your magic didn't happen very often and I just wanted to believe that you were normal, but now I have to accept the truth; you really are a wizard."
At the end of the tale both Harry and Dudley were staring at Petunia and the letter in her hand. So the only reason that my parents abandoned me was because they thought that I wasn't a wizard, was Harry's thoughts as his aunt started to rant about her freakish sister from the day she got her own letter to the day that she and her good-for-nothing husband dropped Harry off on their doorstep.
"This is perfect" Harry finally said out loud, stopping his aunt from going into detail about a prank that his father and friends played on her one time they visited.
"How is being a freak like your freakish parents perfect boy?" Uncle Vernon nearly shouted, his face turning redder by the minute.
"Because this is a chance for revenge, for both of us." was Harry's reply. "This gives me the chance to show them that I am a wizard, a better wizard than my brother. Plus this gives you the chance to show you can raise a better wizard, you the normal family are able to make a better wizard than a wizard family. Think of it as the ultimate prank on a group of pranksters. Not to mention that you can brag to the rest of Privet Drive that I got into a prestigious, private school that my parents didn't think I'd be able to get into, and people will start to talk if your attitude towards me suddenly changed."
As Harry talked and his relatives thought about it, he could see that they were slowly starting to come around to the idea as their smiles grew. "Alright boy, we'll allow you to go, but you better make good on your promise. And another thing, we won't be paying much for your schooling."
"Not a problem Uncle Vernon, I still have a bunch of money saved up from my work around the neighborhood. I'll do more work over the summer and that combined with your money should be more than enough for me."
Aunt Petunia relented. "Very well Harry, we'll take you London to buy your school supplies on your birthday. There is a place on Charring's Cross were you can get them, but you're on your own, I'm not setting on foot in that world ever again."
Around ten on his birthday, Harry was walking along the road that his aunt had said to find the entrance to the wizarding world. His aunt had told him to look for an old pub called the Leaky Cauldron. From what his aunt could remember it was very popular, so he could expect a handful of witches and wizards going in and out, and normal people couldn't see it, so just look for a building that everyone on the street ignored.
Harry quickly found the pub in a couple of minutes. It wasn't hard with a giant man walking down the road. The giant had wild black hair and beard and was wearing what looked like a tent with fur for a coat. The size of the man wasn't what tipped him off, although it did give him a clue, it was a word he said that his aunt had also mentioned; muggles. When the giant walked into a dirty old building with what looked like a witch stirring a cauldron, Harry knew he had found the right place.
The pub was very dark and only slightly crowded. Harry took a quick look around and then walked up to the bald, old bartender. "Excuse me sir, but is this the Leaky Cauldron?" asked Harry.
Looking down and giving a toothless smile he responded, "Yes, it is. I take it you're a muggle-born?" Seeing Harry's confused face he continued "A muggle is what we call a non-magical person and a muggle-born is a witch or wizard born to muggles. What is your name young man?"
"Harry sir."
"Hagrid!" the bartender called after the giant who entered before Harry who was now walking out the backdoor, "Could you take young Harry here and show him around Diagon Alley?"
"Sure thing Tom. Come along Arry." The giant called Hagrid beckoned Harry to follow him out the back.
"Thank-you sir." Harry called out to Tom the bartender as he and Hagrid walked into a small courtyard in back.
"Now let's see here…three up and two across" Hagrid said as he tapped bricks on the wall. Suddenly the bricks started moving and formed an arch which led to a long street behind the Leaky Cauldron. "Welcome Harry, to Diagon Alley.
