Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, nor do I make money off of this in any way.

A Study in Magic

Chapter 2: The First Case

Towards the middle of July, Harry found himself without any new evidence against Uncle Vernon, though he was almost certain that Petunia was helping him out where she could. He began to plan a way to enlist her aid directly. It would be difficult though, she would turn a little pale whenever Vernon entered the room, and she frequently flinched whenever Vernon made and large hand gestures. She was clearly afraid of him, and Harry had to find a way around that fear.

Harry was looking for a way to actually gather evidence on Vernon. He got his chance the day after his aunt and uncle took Dudley to get his uniform for Smeltings. Harry woke to an unusually acrid smell that originated from the kitchen. Harry briefly wondered if he had cooked so often that no one else remembered how to cook anymore and if someone burnt something. He came to the kitchen to find the sink filled with a giant metal bucket and dirty rags drifting in slate gray water.

"What's this?"

Aunt Petunia stiffened slightly, "Its your uniform for school. I'm just dyeing it for you so it will look like everyone's uniform."

Harry couldn't suppress his frown.

Uncle Vernon and Dudley came into the room and ordered Harry to get the mail. Harry, not wanting to draw the ire of Dudley and his Smelting Stick that he carried everywhere, headed off and grabbed the mail.

Sitting underneath the mail slot was just three letters: a postcard from Marge, a nondescript white envelope that probably contained a bill and – a letter for Harry?

Harry's heart pounded, there wasn't anyone who would write to him. Especially not with the way that the letter was addressed:

Mr. H. Potter

The Cupboard under the Stairs

4 Privet Drive

Little Whinging

Surrey

Harry wracked his brain for any hints, any at all. He had no friends, they were all chased away by Dudley and gang, he had no other relatives, and he certainly no one knew of him living under the stairs.

Harry turned the letter over, spying a giant wax seal bearing a lion, a snake, an eagle, and a badger surrounding a letter H. He couldn't remember seeing another letter with a wax seal on it either. Wasn't that an archaic practice? Some of the stories he read didn't even have that despite being in a time period that did.

Gently Harry broke the seal, feeling a small tingle in the finger tips as he did so. He slid the flap back and slowly, almost reverently pulled out the letter.

"Boy! What's taking so long? You checking the letter for bombs or something?" He chuckled slightly.

Harry turned and tossed the postcard and the bill at Vernon before sitting down to read his letter. Harry briefly wondered why the paper felt different than usual. It was certainly thicker and had a strange yellowish hue to it. Harry put it out of his mind, too excited to have actually received a letter from someone. He just started to unfold it when Dudley knocked his stick at the table and pointed it at Harry. "Look Dad, Harry's got something!"

Harry had just began to read, ignoring the shock of Dudley yelling and the stick waving wildly near his face.

Hogw-

Suddenly Harry found himself staring at his fingers, the letter pulled from his grasp. "HEY, THAT'S MINE!" Harry reached out to snatch it back just to be held by by Vernon's pudgy hand. Vernon shook the letter open, and almost let another page slip out. Harry didn't realize that the letter had multiple pages.

Vernon's rage instantly vanished and he turned a pale white, as if he had seen a ghost or perhaps he had suddenly became an opaque ghost.

"P-P-Petunia!" He called over, and she hurried to his side. He handed the letter to her and Harry thought Petunia might faint. She had instantly gone the same deathly white that Vernon had.

They stared at each other for a bit, seemingly forgetting that the Dudley and Harry were in the room.

"I want to read the letter," announced Dudley, giving his dad a poke on the shoulder with his Smelting Stick.

"It's not your letter. I need to read it," retorted Harry.

"Get out, both of you!" Vernon turned back to the table, spotting the slightly yellow parchment the envelope was made out of and shoved the letter back in. Harry would have been impressed that Vernon's giant hands and brutal force hadn't ripped the envelope apart.

"Go, get out!" He shoved shoved Harry out towards his cupboard. Harry stumbled along, but stood outside for a moment. He could hear Vernon and Dudley arguing about the letter. Harry turned around, to march back in there to snatch his letter back, but he spotted something curious outside. He noticed a regal reddish brown owl stared at him. Harry just stared back, almost hypnotized by the great amber eyes. His gaze was broken when Dudley stomped past Harry, clearly angry, and banging his Smelting Stick against the wall. Harry was just glad that Dudley hadn't turned the stick on him in rage. Harry turned back to the owl. The owl titled it's head for a moment before ruffling its feathers and taking off. Harry continued to stare at the spot of the owl.

"Boy, what are you looking at, get into your room!"

"I want to read my letter."

"What letter. There was no letter. It was a mistake." Harry wanted to point out Vernon's contradiction there.

"Where is my letter?" Harry demanded.

"I burned it."

"WHAT?"

"Get. To. Your. Room."

"Room, don't you mean cupboard?"

"No, about that, your are getting Dudley's extra room. Grab your stuff and go up there now."

Figures, the letter knew he was living in the cupboard so now they were going to move him to an actual room. Harry begrudgingly grabbed his scant belongings, barely a handful of small objects, and made the trip up to Dudley's toy room.

Had it been any other time, Harry would have been ecstatic to have this room, but now he just wanted to read that letter. Hogw-? Who or what was that?

Harry set his stuff down on the three legged desk before he sat down on the bed – then he suddenly leapt back up. A broken spring had stuck out and he had sat down on it. Harry carefully moved away from the spring sticking out of the mattress and gingerly sat down in a different spot, rubbing the scratch now present on his bum.

Harry glanced around the room. It was Dudley's second room. His toy room, rather more accurately described as his broken toy room. Sitting on the self was his broken airplane, crashed earlier this summer – while Harry was in solitary confinement due to the strange boa constrictor incident. Sitting next to that was the broken remote control car that practically got eaten by a neighbor's dog, the video camera from last year that Dudley had accidentally sat upon. Harry briefly wondered what happened to the new video camera Dudley got for his birthday this year.

Harry suddenly had an idea. Dudley wouldn't use anything that was broken, even if it was still functional. Harry got up and pulled the broken camera down from the shelf. He looked at it, the small screen was broken, clearly not designed to support anywhere near Dudley's weight, but the rest of it seemed fairly functional.

Harry clicked the thing on and then hit the record button. He heard the cassette inside the video camera start moving. Harry silently cheered. He might not be able to see what the thing was recording, but at the very least he should be able to get sound. Maybe video if he was lucky and Dudley hadn't sat on any other important parts.

Now that he had a method of recording evidence, he just needed to catch Vernon in the act. Preferably both him abusing Harry, and if Harry was lucky, perhaps he could also catch Vernon abusing Aunt Petunia.

Harry thought about what he could do, Harry certainly knew methods of enraging Vernon, that was easy. He wondered how he could protect Aunt Petunia too. With that Harry started preparing everything. He made sure that the video camera had fresh batteries, which wasn't too hard considering some of the toys here Dudley had crashed during his first time using them. Harry still wondered about the letter. He hoped that whoever sent the letter would send another one. He decided that he would head to the library sometime in the next week to check for anything of significance that started with H-o-g-w; an odd combination of letters to be in a word.

Harry headed off to bed early that night, hoping to get up early to snatch the mail if he had the chance. Harry dreamed of having an actual family, being fussed over like the parents at the playground, fussing over the smallest things.

Maybe he didn't want that, but at least he wished to experience it.

Harry snapped awake. The sound of echoing laughter and riding a broom still echoing in his head. Riding a what? The dream dissipated in his mind. He just remembered the feeling of elation and wild freedom.

Harry was brought out of his feelings of wild elation when he remembered where he was. On top of the fact that his bed was extremely lumpy and comfortable. He could distinctly feel the cold metal of a spring resting against his back. He reached over and grabbed his glasses to get ready for the day.

He thought about it for a moment and decided that he would set up the camera. If Vernon decided to act out today, he would be able to record Vernon abusing him. He got up, slightly earlier than usual. He was grateful that this door didn't have a lock on it – yet. He quiet walked down the stairs, making sure to avoid the third stair so it would squeak.

Harry came down and came to the mantle place by the sitting room. It was right in between the kitchen and the front door, and would hopefully catch any conversation in either place. Not that Harry had any doubt, once Vernon started yelling, the whole house could hear it easily.

Harry shifted some of the pictures on the mantle place. He noted that all of them were of the Dursley's. None of them had him in it, and there were no pictures of his parents. His parents couldn't always have been a drunk right? Harry placed the camera behind the pictures and arranged them so that the camera was mostly hidden. No one would look for it.

Harry then started actually looking at the pictures. The picture of just Vernon and Aunt Petunia, they looked like a normal happy couple. Harry was shocked that Aunt Petunia had smiled so brightly before. He had never seen her smile like that, her smiles never reached her eyes, or had the bright properties they had in this picture. The pictures after that showed Aunt Petunia slowly fading it seemed. Each picture the smile seemed a bit more strained, and bit more forced. They never reached her eyes. Vernon seemed oblivious to all that. Though his smiles after that first picture definitely also lost a quality of… niceness to them. They were also forced, though not as forced as Petunia's.

Harry heard something shift upstairs, he quickly put the picture he was looking at back on the mantle place and ignored the pang of hurt that he wasn't in any of them. He quickly poked the record button on the camera and moved away from the mantle towards the kitchen.

Harry quickly started cooking a meal for the Dursleys, eggs and bacon and everything he would only get scraps of. Harry had long since learned not to try to sneak any food if there was even a remote chance of Vernon or Dudley catching him.

Vernon came trudging down and sat down at the table. He snapped opened the newspaper like he did every morning. Dudley stomped down the stairs. Perhaps Dudley had forgotten that Harry now moved to the smallest bedroom. Dudley paraded into the room, he still carried his gnarled Smelting Stick. Harry gave them their breakfast and headed out into the hall, mumbling something about forgetting something in his room, just in case the breakfast wasn't distracting enough.

Harry walked by the front door just as the mail slot clicked open. Harry silently thanked consistent mailmen. Harry quickly sifted through the letters. Something about Smeltings Academy for Dudley, something that was probably another bill, and – Yes! Another letter for Harry. This time it was addressed to the "Smallest Bedroom". Somehow whoever addressed this must be watching him closely. Harry quickly opened the letter and pulled out the contents of the letter and put it into his sock. He would read it later when he had time away from Vernon.

Harry came back into the kitchen, once again tossing the other two letters at Vernon. Vernon looked up and immediately snatched up the letter. He took one look at the letter and turned red. "Hey give that back!" Harry protested.

"Boy, we won't have you working with those worthless freaks."

This was not the first time that 'those worthless freaks' was mentioned, though Harry still had no idea what it was about. Someone he was related to?

"But its my letter. I want to read what it says!" Harry responded furiously.

"We'll tolerate none of your freakishness in this house!" Vernon stomped over to the sitting room and tossed the letter into the fire. Harry made a halfhearted attempt at clawing at Vernon to try to get the letter, but he knew the contents were safe with him anyways.

Harry observed that Vernon was in a prime location. Time to pull the trigger. "But imagine what that letter could be." Vernon turned red at this, Harry wasn't sure why he was so averse to imagination, but it was one of his triggers. Harry braced for impact. "Maybe I don't have to go to Stonewall High."

At this Vernon – and Petunia, though Harry couldn't see her – turned pale. Harry realized immediately. He must have guessed accurately, another school had accepted him. That was why Vernon and Petunia were talking about ignoring the letter. If they don't get a response, they'll stop was Vernon's though process yesterday.

"No, you won't mingle with those freaks. You won't be getting close to anyone with that freakishness. Go back to your room."

Vernon shoved Harry roughly towards the stairs, before muttering about getting a lock for the door. He pulled Dudley with him and they left the home. Harry just walked up the stairs, he had the perfect time to see what the letter said with Vernon and Dudley out of the house. Before he went up to his room, he went over to the camera and poked the record button again. Carefully, he pulled out the tape and went to his room and hid it.

He carefully pulled the pieces of parchment out from his sock, and slowly, respectfully unfolded the letter.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Harry's eyes widened as he read down the page: The headmaster was a guy called Albus Dumbledore, who had quite a few titles to his name, Harry made a note to look them up, though he couldn't recall any of titles in the books that he had read. Chief Warlock? Supreme Mugwump? Order of Merlin?

Harry couldn't decide if this was some elaborate joke, or if this was something serious. He read down. He was accepted to this school, a school he had never heard of, and it seemed to be a school for witchcraft?

We await your owl no later than July 31.

The first thought that registered in Harry's mind was that it was his birthday, just a week from today. The next thought was Owl? They awaited his Owl?

Harry thought for a moment before snapping his head up to look out the window. Sure enough there was the same Great Horned Owl as yesterday staring at him. Is that my owl? Harry wondered. Harry looked down. He guessed that he would have to write a response to it. Though he wasn't sure how to send it. Unless. The owl? Harry wondered if the owl would know where to send it. He shrugged as he sat down.

Dear Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall,

I am pleased at my acceptance, but as I have no knowledge of this school or what Witchcraft and Wizardry are, I would appreciate it if you could send someone to help me out. I am unsure where to find any of these books, as I have been to libraries and not seen any of these titles. I require some assistance.

Sincerely,

Harry Potter

Harry didn't mention the confusion at quills and cauldrons and wands, but he felt that he didn't want to come off as too ignorant. The rest of that could be figured out later. Harry looked over the letter one last time, cringing slightly at his formal language, but he felt that at least it might leave a good impression. He noticed that the owl hopped off it's perch on the tree and flew over to the window sill. It tapped a few times and sent a sharp glare at Harry. Harry quickly got the message and opened the window. The owl fluttered in and landed on the desk. Harry, not sure what to do rolled up the paper and held it up to the owl. The owl's leg flashed out and snatched the paper out of his hand and then hopped over and nipped Harry on the finger before taking off back out the window.

"So you will be heading off to their world too?"

Harry jumped and spun around, surprised at the voice behind him. Aunt Petunia was leaning up against doorway. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough to watch you read your letter and send it off." Aunt Petunia crossed the room and sat down upon the bed. The bed lightly protested the weight. Harry got over and sat down next to his Aunt, keeping a respectable amount of space between then—avoiding the spring to stuck out of the bed.

Harry decided to speak first. He pondered which thing to ask about first. 'Their world' or Vernon. Harry decided with the latter, he was sure to get some information on the former sooner or later anyways. "Vernon's abusing you." Harry didn't ask it as question, he stated it.

Petunia averted her eyes, looking anywhere but at him. She studied the bed, poking the bed spring that poked through the mattress, then studied the ground. "Vernon… he wasn't always so bad."

"The years before Dudley?" Harry remembered the looks from the picture.

Petunia nodded. "He… He was nice then. He still had some violent tendencies, and definitely had a short temper, but he was also extremely supportive. He would stand up to those who tried to bully him. He was determined, determined to be the best at whatever he did."

"What happened?" That didn't sound like the Vernon he knew at all, except for the violent tendencies and short temper.

"During the year we had Dudley, the same year James and Lily had you, they came to visit. James seemed reluctant to do so, but Lily insisted. She... just wanted to be my sister again." Petunia paused for a moment, trying to gather her thoughts. "She was magical, just like you. Those strange things that happen around you? That is because you are magical."

Harry just gave a quizzical look at that. Magical? That explains the witchcraft and wizardry as well as the various items, wands, cauldrons and such.

"I was extremely jealous of Lily and her... ability. I pushed her away when she started learning how to use it. I... called her a freak.

"I think I hurt her very badly then, by pushing her away. She just wanted to be a sister to me, and I turned her away." Tears started leaking from her eyes. "Lily tried to make up with me, and during that year she had come to visit, sometimes with James and yourself. We started getting along again, but then something set off Vernon. It was their last visit b—before..." Petunia's tears started flowing faster at that.

"I—I think Vernon saw James's wand and figured out that he was magical or something. I don't know why but Vernon started getting really angry. Lily and James made sure they never had showed their magic around me. I don't even know how, but Vernon just started yelling about freaks."

"He chased James and Lily out of house. That was the last time I saw Lily."

Harry just sat there and took it all in. Magical people, Vernon suddenly getting set off about freaks. Harry wondered if that was why Vernon mistreated him so much. Because Vernon knew that Harry was a magical child?

"Can you tell me about the magical world?" Harry asked, changing the subject away from Lily. Petunia was still crying softly.

"There... isn't much I can tell you. I stopped talking to Li—Lily's teachers had come in to talk to her about their world. I didn't listen to it too much." Harry realized that there wasn't much else he could talk about. He just sat there silently and then scooted over to try to comfort his aunt.

Harry was unsure of what to do, so he just settled on patting Petunia's back gently. He felt really awkward doing so. After a while Petunia calmed down enough. Harry just scooted back away from her.

Petunia turned to Harry. "I really should have been there for you. More. There was only so much I could do to stop Vernon from tossing you out completely."

"Its alright." Harry wasn't sure what else he could say. He did harbor some resentment for the chores he had to do, for being effectively treated like a slave for most of his life. He held more resentment for Dudley, but mostly because Dudley—Probably at the orders of Vernon—had bullied any prospective friends away. Dudley also never did any chore. Harry wasn't sure if Dudley could do any household chore, be it cooking, cleaning, or any yard work.

"No, it really isn't alright." Petunia held out her arms. It took Harry a few moments to realize that she was offering him a hug. His first hug. Harry awkwardly tried to figure out what to do, and embraced Petunia. Harry thought that it would feel warm, or tender or something, but to him it just felt a little awkward. Harry could only really think of how uncomfortable his aunt's bony shoulder was.

They separated after a moment. Harry thought about something before sitting down and pulling out the tape he recorded earlier from his pocket. "I'm... gathering some things on Vernon, hopefully to get rid of him. If you want to help, that would make things simpler."

Petunia just nodded at that. They both heard the car pull up to the driveway, and Petunia got off the bed. As she headed out the door, she turned for a moment and gave Harry a small smile.

Vernon came into the house shortly afterward, still yelling about something. He immediately came to Harry's door and upon checking that Harry was still inside, he started banging away on the door with a hammer.

Harry just sat and thought about what Aunt Petunia had told him. He imagined what the magical world was like. Maybe he could learn something cast a spell to protect him from Vernon. He thought about his parents. Well, what little he now knew about them. They weren't drunks, and their deaths certainly didn't seem like an accident.

Harry noted to ask whatever professor came to tell him about the magical world about his past. Maybe they would know something, or they would know his parents.

Harry heard some fluttering outside, and looked up to the desk. He noticed that he never closed the window from earlier, when he had sent his acceptance letter. An owl just swooped in and landed on the desk. It dropped the letter it clutched in its claws and took off, not even taking note of Harry.

Harry rushed over to the letter, grateful for once that Vernon had already locked the door. He opened the letter.

Dear Mr Potter,

I'm pleased to have received your acceptance to our school. While it is most unusual for a half-blood such as yourself to not have knowledge of our school or of anything in the magical world, I understand that you are under some unique circumstances.

I will have either myself, or another trusted professor to stop by your house and fill you in, as well as aid you in your school shopping should you need it sometime within the next week. We are busy introducing some of the other muggleborns to our world too, so I apologize in advance if I myself cannot make it to your appointment. I look forward to seeing you at Hogwarts.

Sincerely,

Professor McGonagall.

Harry looked over the letter, and read it several times. He finally had something to look forward to.