J K Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.

Chapter 3 – The Letter

Shortly after Dudley's 11th birthday "The Letter" arrived.

At first Harry and Dudley thought it was a joke, until Petunia sighed and told Harry to "go outside and see if there is an owl around and if it is, bring it in here."

There was an owl, Harry brought it in, gave it a piece of bread to nibble on while Petunia started explaining to both boys that yes, Harry was a wizard and had to go to that damn school whether any of them liked it or not.

Then Petunia got out some paper, a pen and an envelope and wrote a letter, tied it to the owl and sent the creature off. "Hopefully, in a few days someone will show up and we'll go shopping."

Albus Dumbledore had planned everything concerning Harry Potter's life. He had allowed the letter to be sent the usual way knowing full well that Vernon Dursley would prevent the boy from receiving it, then Minerva would have to send dozens, if not hundreds more until at last, on the boy's 11th birthday, Hagrid would be sent to personally deliver the letter and rescue the boy.

Imagine his surprise when Minerva came to his office asking for the key to Harry's trust vault as Petunia Dursley had responded but said "they weren't paying the boy's school fees."

Dumbledore was shocked but told his Deputy that he would personally take care of things. He was still going to send Hagrid so that he could introduce Harry to the Magical World the way he wanted him to be reintroduced and then influenced to become a Gryffindor.

He had placed the Squib Arabella Figg to monitor the Dursley household when Harry had been sent there. She reported back that the Dursleys were treating him horribly and begged him to put a stop to it. He just told her he had everything under control and not to worry about it. However, he hadn't planned on the woman nearly ruining his plans by having the nerve to die. She had been hit by a Muggle vehicle called a bus and had died instantly. It was a year before he had even found out about it.

He toyed with the idea of placing another minion as a watcher of the boy, but then decided not to as he did have his monitors placed on the boy and they showed that the boy was still alive and living with the Dursleys and that was all that counted.

On Harry's 5th birthday, Vernon decided to give him a "present" namely, Vernon bought a cat-of-nine-tails and gave the boy a birthday beating for the simple reason that he had been born and was alive. He did the same in August when he had failed to make a large sale, had gotten dead drunk and decided it was the freak's fault and he had to be punished. He had nearly killed the boy as the monitors nearly exploded alerting him that the boy was near death.

Dumbledore had been obliged to obliviate the personnel at the hospital which Petunia had taken the boy to. Harry had been inches from death and the scars on his back were too noticeable. Therefore, not only did he have to obliviate the hospital staff, but the police who investigated the "accident" as well as the nosy neighbors who had witnessed it and Mrs. Figg. Dumbledore was also obliged to get a healer to fix the boy, heal and erase the scars and then the healer had to be obliviated also. It had taken up much time and Dumbledore left Vernon with a strict warning not to go that far again or else he would not like the consequences.

But Vernon was dead in December and Mrs. Figg had been hit by that bus in November so Dumbledore never knew Vernon was out of the picture, he just thought Vernon was behaving himself.

But Petunia "knew what to do" and how he wanted her to raise her nephew and since no one disobeyed Albus Dumbledore, he was content to think everything was going as planned. Therefore, he decided to send Hagrid to fetch Harry and taken him to Diagon Alley as well as letting the boy see Hagrid picking up the mysterious package at Gringotts.

However, just because Albus Dumbledore willed it so didn't mean it would be so, or at least not in this situation. Just because he was sending Hagrid on Harry's birthday to rescue him didn't mean Harry was going to be home to be rescued, and he wasn't.

Since no one had contacted Petunia or Harry since Petunia had sent the letter back saying he was going to attend, it seemed like no one was coming or the letter hadn't been received. Therefore Petunia decided to take matters into her own hands and take both boys to Diagon Alley herself.

Since the "cat was out of the bag" now, Petunia started telling Harry and Dudley what she knew of the Magical World. She didn't pull any punches and told them why she and Lily had been estranged. Granted Petunia had been jealous and spiteful but Lily had not been an angel either. So Petunia told what she had been guilty of and then what Lily had done to her to warrant the estrangement.

It had been a long story and Petunia had cried a few times during the telling of it. However, Harry and even Dudley being two 11 year old boys could see why Petunia had acted the way she did some of the times. It might have helped matters that Petunia was drinking some wine for courage, something she usually didn't do, as well as having her free hand resting on the Evans Family Bible during most of the telling.

Therefore, Petunia decided to make a family outing and taking time off from her job, they would be driving to London on July 30th, finding a cheap place to stay, do Dudley's shopping first and then on the 31st, which was Harry's birthday, they would go to that "magical shopping mall" to do Harry's shopping.

Petunia vaguely knew where that Leaky Cauldron place was having been allowed to go on one of the shopping expeditions the second year. She hadn't wanted to but her curiosity had gotten the better of her and as she and her mother had not been allowed to go the first year because that old witch McGonagall was taking Lily around and only wanted Mr. Evans because he had "banking to do" and was needed.

The second year she had gotten only as far as the Leaky Cauldron before being told by that obnoxious Snape boy who they had given a ride to do his shopping that his mother had heard "there was some unpleasantness in the Alley" so only Mrs. Snape, Snape, Lily and Mr. Evans got passed the cheap bar and she and her mother had been obliged to go shopping in London. But this time she was going to see the place and no one was going to stop her.

Although Petunia stopped talking, writing and communicating with Lily, Lily still sent her letters. Well Petunia really didn't have a choice because even if she wanted to write to Lily (and she didn't) she couldn't have as Lily always sent an owl, who dropped off the "bragging letter" and flew off. Lily didn't have a normal address or if she did she never told Petunia about it.

Petunia had shown Harry the letters his mother had sent one of which announced his birth. She had bragged in the letter that the first thing done after his birth was his paternal grandfather had started a trust vault for Harry to be used for his education. His entire seven year tuition had also been paid in advance so what ever happened, Harry would go to Hogwarts.

Petunia did carry some of the cash she got every month for Harry's upkeep "just in case" and she knew from Lily's experience that she would have to get their good Pound Sterling money changed to the Goblin stuff so Harry could buy his things.

They parked the car near the area of the Leaky Cauldron and Harry spotted it right away. They entered dressed in their normal clothes although she had covered Harry's scar with makeup as his short haircut showed it and…well, she didn't want to call attention to them.

At the end of last year Harry had been fitted with contact lenses because it would improve his vision and helped when he did his martial arts and his sports. Therefore, with short, manageable hair, no ugly round black glasses and the scar hidden, he didn't look much like James Potter did and no one would give him or them a second glance other than to notice they were those "Muggly creatures" which most Magicals insulted and made fun of.

Tom the barkeep opened the wall for them and they entered the magical world of Diagon Alley, were duly amazed and made their way to Gringotts. Petunia cringed looking at those nasty Goblin creatures but Harry and Dudley thought the Goblins were "cool" especially the ones wearing armor. Dudley even told one of the Goblin warriors, "You guys look so…awesome. Do you get to kill a lot of people?" before his Mother dragged him away. The Goblins thought Dudley was cute, for a human.

On their best behavior, they waited in line for a teller and Petunia told them what their business was and whispered that she was here with her nephew Harry Potter and that he was supposed to have a trust vault or something and could they get money to do his school shopping. The teller called for another Goblin, whispered in his ear and sent him off to fetch someone, while the trio was told to "wait over there and don't make trouble."

Shortly an older Goblin made his way over to them and they were taken through a long hallway (followed by two Goblin warriors) until they reached his office. After the doors were shut, they were told to "sit and explain yourselves" so they did.

That was when the Goblins found out that other than some money which was sent to her late husband under some deal with "that Dumbledore bloke" and the fact that her late sister told her about the trust vault, she and thus Harry had never had any contact with "this world" until Harry received his letter. Petunia had brought Lily's letter as well as the letter which Dumbledore left with Harry in the basket.

The Goblin took the letters and told them they should come back after their shopping was done so that a meeting of account managers, etc. could take place. "Be back here by 4:00 p.m." Since they did not have a key, Harry had to give a few drops of his blood before a new key was issued and then another Goblin took them down to the trust vault to get money for their shopping.

The boys loved the wild cart ride although Petunia nearly lost her breakfast. Harry asked the Goblin to explain the money – which was totally cool to see piled up at stacks as it was. The Goblin was in a good mood (for a Goblin) and sold Harry a bottomless bag and explained how it worked. After another cart ride, they made their way out of the bank just as Hagrid was breaking down the door at 4 Privet Drive to "rescue Harry Potter" and take him shopping.

The neighbors were horrified, as Hagrid ran through the house yelling loudly for Harry as "I'm here to save you lad" while ripping off doors, knocking over furniture and then finally running out of the house to knock on the doors of the neighbors to see if they knew where Harry was. He had grabbed an unsuspecting woman who was just getting out of her car after dropping her husband off at work. Naturally she was terrified of the "Thing" and started screaming hysterically.

One of the other neighbors yelled out from the safety of her house, "Petunia took the boys to London to do their school shopping" so Hagrid dropped the screaming woman and started running off to a place where he could portkey away from Muggle eyes. The police arrived to see a "huge man running toward the woods" and to have neighbors stream out of their houses to help one of their own and tell the police what had occurred. There would be plenty of gossip going around Privet Drive for many weeks regarding the "nutcase" incident.

The police secured the Dursley house and placed the yellow crime tape around and the inspector in charge gave Mrs. No. 2 his card to give to Petunia to call him.

It was going to be a long day full of surprises for Muggles and Magicals.