Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter.
Note: As mentioned in the first chapter, this story originated on another website; given the relative enthusiasm with which the first installment has been received here, I'm in a position to update with this installment (and perhaps with a couple more after it) relatively quickly, since the material, at least as far as the story goes, is in essence already written. Past that point, updates will get somewhat haphazard in timing since I have a number of other calls upon what 'writing time' I have. As a reminder, this story assumes a version of the magical world in which 'betrothal arrangements' have some legal and social standing in the UK, as of the late twentieth century, and that in late 1979 James Potter entangled his (then unborn) son, Harry, in one (with one Daphne Greengrass). With a Wizarding War otherwise ongoing, as in canon, Voldemort nonetheless went after the Potter family, much as in canon, only to be 'defeated' by a bouncing Killing Curse due to maternal sacrificial protection on the night Hallowe'en, 1981. Some of the circumstances surrounding this differ from canon, but with both his parents dead, Harry, as in canon, was placed with the Dursleys, and had had an experience much as in canon, up until the opening of this story in the first chapter, when during one evening in late October, 1986, a knock came upon the door of number four Privet Drive...
Further Note: This chapter is from Harry's perspective, and takes place during the latter stages of 1986. This story is rated 'T'.
The morning after his unexpected visit to the Greengrasses' house, Harry found himself on the receiving end of a heavy-duty questioning from his aunt and uncle about it. They wanted to know what the house looked like, how the family dressed (and in particular did their clothes 'look expensive'?), and what, if anything, they'd said about Harry or Harry's parents? During the questioning Harry's uncle looked more and more calculating – and at several moments he stroked his walrus moustache, which was a sign that he was thinking really hard.
Harry's aunt and uncle also wanted to know if Harry had mentioned to any of the Greengrasses that up until now his 'bedroom' had consisted of the cupboard under the stairs? Harry said that nobody had asked him about where he went to sleep, and he hadn't mentioned it. Uncle Vernon then said that up until now it had been necessary for Harry to sleep in the cupboard because it was 'character building', but now that Harry was so old, he didn't need his character building that way any more, which was why he had been moved last night into what would now be his own bedroom.
Harry thought that that sounded like an explanation that would make sense if he were an adult – and which probably didn't matter much right now anyway – but he was sufficiently confused about one particularly important part of this 'character building' business to ask about it: He asked why Dudley had always had his own bedroom and never been in a cupboard? Uncle Vernon beamed and said that it was because Dudley wasn't a junior wizard who had blown up another one at the age of one and a quarter, and so it wasn't as important that Dudley build up his character.
And then Aunt Petunia spoke about how Harry had 'really' arrived in Privet Drive. She said she'd never been told any of the details of what had happened to Harry's parents – Harry had simply been dumped on the doorstep one night in November, 1981, along with a letter from one of his mother's old teachers saying that Harry's parents had been killed by an evil wizard and that – for the safety of Harry himself and the Dursleys – they must take him in. Oh: and the letter had said that Harry must have 'as normal an upbringing' as possible. Exactly what that last bit had been meant to mean had not been made very clear. Aunt Petunia said that she and Uncle Vernon had taken it to mean that Harry was supposed to have 'with as little to do with magic' as possible. Except now with the Greengrasses, and this very important 'betrothal' thing, which Harry's father had apparently arranged, that was clearly looking a bit complicated.
After being asked so many questions by his aunt and uncle about the previous night, actually hearing a different version of how he had arrived in Privet Drive from 'Your parents were killed in a car crash, and a policeman dropped you off' had been the last thing he had been expecting and it was a bit much for Harry to take in – especially since this version with his having been simply left there in the middle of the night with only a letter to explain things (and that not very well) sounded a lot scarier than the one he had heard before now about the car crash and Harry's having been handed over by a police officer.
Harry thought it was going to take him quite some time to properly understand everything which was going on…
There then followed a period of several days, during which whilst Harry's aunt and uncle weren't exactly nice, they told him to do far fewer things than normal. It was most strange. And then one morning a letter arrived for him in the post at breakfast. A letter. For Harry.
It was written on something that didn't look like normal paper, and the actual letter had been folded up to make its own 'envelope', with Harry's name and address written in a bit wobbly handwriting on the outside, and with the stamp stuck on at a funny angle, and the whole thing sealed shut on the back with a green blob of wax pressed flat with some funny wavy lines in it.
Harry noticed his aunt flinch slightly at the sight of it. His uncle looked at Harry very closely.
"Well aren't you going to open your mail, boy?" Uncle Vernon asked.
"What's that Harry's got?" Dudley demanded in a loud tone of voice.
"It's a letter. From some old-fashioned people." Aunt Petunia said to Dudley.
Since his trip to the Greengrasses' house, Harry had been strictly ordered not to tell Dudley anything about witches or wizards, and as far as Harry knew, his aunt and uncle had said nothing, either.
"Old-fashioned is silly." Dudley loudly opined, in between mouthfuls of cereal.
Fumbling slightly, Harry managed to break the blob of wax and to unfold the letter. He read it very slowly and carefully.
"Well?" Uncle Vernon asked.
"It's from Daphne." Harry said. "She says thank-you for the coloured pencils and some other stuff, using words I don't know."
"Let me see." Uncle Vernon held out his hand, making it clear that this was an order, not a request, and Harry handed the letter over.
Uncle Vernon looked it over then held it up to his face, and sniffed, slightly, and then peered closely at the wavy-lines ink design which had been stamped in the top right corner of the letter. Then he read it through again, and passed it to Aunt Petunia.
"That's real, high-quality, parchment, pet." Uncle Vernon said to Aunt Petunia. "And that must be some sort of coat of arms in the corner. They may be a bit 'odd', but clearly these people are rich and important."
"Someone has at least trained the girl how to write a letter properly." Aunt Petunia said, tight-lipped, and inspecting the letter for herself. "And she's what – seven? I suppose it would be possible to make allowances for some 'oddities'."
And from that morning on, Harry's life noticeably changed.
It wasn't just the having been moved into a bedroom of his own thing. His aunt and uncle told Dudley 'not to make so much fun of Harry', and they were (usually) much politer to Harry, although still practically never nice. As if to make up for this, though, his aunt and uncle expected Harry to 'behave properly at all times'. This meant a variety of things, ranging from the relatively easy (sitting up straight, always, at all mealtimes, and never allowing his elbows to touch the table) to the more difficult (always looking tidy when he was going out, and a general ban on his doing anything muddy apart from looking after flowers in the garden) and the fiendishly complicated (such as learning what all the cutlery was supposed to be used for if he ever got invited to some sort of very-posh-restaurant or important meal at someone else's house).
Harry's aunt and uncle didn't seem to mind so much about whether Dudley ever 'behaved properly', but they were fanatical about it when they came to Harry – Aunt Petunia especially so.
And some of the things Aunt Petunia said were really strange. She told Harry on one occasion that he must never carry frogspawn around in his pockets – not that Harry had ever thought of doing so (or even knew, at that point, what 'frogspawn' actually was).
In December, a couple of Saturdays before Christmas, Harry and the Dursleys went into London. In the morning, they went around some big shops, and they lost Dudley in the toy-section of Harrods for ten minutes, which actually got Aunt Petunia (who seemed to be worrying about something) slightly cross at Dudley, which was unusual. They paused in the 'confections' section of one store, and Harry had to pick some sweets to send to Daphne for Christmas.
They had lunch in one of the big shops' tea-rooms.
Then, in the afternoon, they started to walk along the Charing Cross Road. They were supposed to be looking for a pub called 'The Burbling Basilisk', but if it existed, they never got around to spending enough time looking to find it. Aunt Petunia was just saying how much everything seemed to have changed, when she stopped dead, and went very pale, staring at a café which looked a bit old and grotty.
Then she went a bit wobbly at the knees, and Uncle Vernon had to get her inside the café to sit down, and they had a pot of tea whilst she recovered.
Apparently, she'd used to come in here with her parents, years and years ago, to sit and wait around whilst her sister 'did stuff somewhere in this area', and seeing it had brought back all sorts of memories and upset Aunt Petunia.
It was clear that Aunt Petunia wasn't in any state for them to carry on looking for the pub, so after she was feeling well enough to get back on her feet, they went back home.
It was only during the journey back to Little Whinging that Harry realised that, unless Aunt Petunia had had some relative whom she hadn't ever talked about before, the 'sister' (whom she'd not once named, whilst speaking in that café) must have been his own mother.
Harry wondered what must have happened to his mother and Aunt Petunia's parents, who (except in a few old photos, around Privet Drive) he'd never seen? They must have gone away somewhere or died years ago, Harry concluded. Given how upset Aunt Petunia still was at the moment, Harry decided that it probably wasn't a very good idea to ask her about what had happened to them right now.
Author Notes:
I've assumed that as far as this universe goes, Harry has some very basic reading skills at the age of six and a quarter, so is able to recognise some of the 'easier' words in Daphne's 'thank you letter'.
Harry's aunt and uncle – mostly at Petunia's insistence – are trying to keep Dudley in the dark about magic for as long as possible. Petunia is hoping against hope that Dudley never has to find out about it.
My inspiration for Petunia's instruction to Harry about frogspawn in pockets in this chapter came from the scene in the novel of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone where Petunia includes it in the list of some of the 'outrageous' behaviour that her sister engaged in, in a rant at Hagrid.
During the afternoon of the trip to London, in December, the Dursleys and Harry are looking for the entrance to Diagon Alley. As far as Petunia's memory of what her sister rabbited on about the place goes, that entrance should be in a pub called 'The Burbling Basilisk'. Since on this occasion their search for the pub didn't last very long, before Petunia was overwhelmed by memories involving her parents, they didn't find out that either Petunia had remembered the wrong name (it must have been at least half a decade since she could have heard her sister talk about anything) or that the pub has since changed its name to 'The Leaky Cauldron'.
One difference from the canon universe due to feature on the periphery of events within the next chapter or two is that in this universe Albus Dumbledore installed Arabella Figg (as a 'watcher') actually in Privet Drive, just across the road from number four, instead of a couple of streets away in 'Wisteria Walk'.