Chapter 3: The Letter
It was a normal enough summer day. They were all standing in the living room, where his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon were both fawning over Dudley in his brand new Smeltings Uniform. His Aunt wanted to take a picture of him all dressed up. He was seated awkwardly out of the camera's view watching. I guess going off to secondary school is just as big as graduating from the Academy.
His aunt had finally found the perfect spot and the perfect pose for the photo. "Oh, smile!" With a flash, the photo was taken. She would take it to the store to get it developed, printed, and framed for the house and to send out to friends and family. "Just look at him, I can't believe it! In just two months he'll be off to Smeltings." His Aunt was beaming at Dudley with pride and joy. Like when I graduated from the Academy as the youngest Uchiha ever. Aunt Mikoto was so happy, so proud. She had insisted on walking him to his deployment with his unit and taking a photo of himself and the two others who'd graudated with him, the obnoxious nine year old Kaito Uzumaki and the short, shy nine year old girl from the orphanage, Aiko.
Vernon spoke up gruffly. "Caveat smeltonia. The proudest moment of my life!" That Dudley was going to his old school. They'd saved every pence they could, often at his expense, to make this moment possible.
"You look so handsome and all grown up." Aunt Petunia gushed. She couldn't wait to show the family.
It was a rather gaudy looking uniform, with the maroon tailcoat, orange knickerbockers, and the cane that Dudley had taken to calling a Smelting's stick and using it to hit everyone with. He wondered how long it would take Uncle Vernon to get fed up at being poked and prodded and scold his son. "I'm glad I won't have to wear that." He said, laughing out loud at Dudley's ridiculous uniform from his spot in the back, halfway between his relatives and his cupboard door just in case. "Stonewall's is normal. That thing just looks awful." Like something the Iwa nin would think up with their own awful looking uniforms.
"Harry!" His Aunt exclaimed, giving him a warning look. "Don't antagonize him. He's going to Smeltings, its one of the best private business secondary schools around. You are going to Stonewall with all the other riffraff, where you belong." He shot his Aunt a stony look. So what if my father in this life was unemployed. I'm still an Uchiha! Even Shisui had some Uchiha clan pride. He knew they were lying to him about how he died, though. Its an odd thing to lie about. I wonder what really happened.
Dudley got a cross look on his face and took a moment to come up with a retort. He wasn't sure why it required thought, the blonde wouldn't get scolded for anything he said at his expense. "You know, I heard they stuff people's heads down the toilet the first day at Stonewall." He told Shisui. "Want to come upstairs and practice?"
Dudley stepped closer to him and tried to look intimidating, clutching the black uniform cane in an angry fist. "Come here, Potter!"
He channeled chakra to his feet and nimbly dodged the cane. "Try harder next time, kiddo." Dudley had expected this, though, and didn't put so much behind it that he stumbled. "Good try, you're learning!" He was teasing him, but there was genuine praise behind the mocking tone in his voice. He used to stumble when they were younger, which gave him a wide opening to strike the boy as if to kill. If he had wanted to, that is. I'm not gonna hit a civilian, though.
"Harry, your Aunt told you to stop it!" Vernon hollered, raising his voice to scold him. The click of the mail slot opening and the flop of envelopes on the doormat interrupted them. "Dudley, go get the mail." Shisui got the feeling Vernon just wanted to separate them for a moment.
"No, make Harry get the mail." Dudley whined.
"Fine." Vernon relented, and turned to bark at him. "Harry, go get the mail."
He nodded and gave a habitual hum of acknowledgement. "Yes, Uncle Vernon." It was boring being an obedient kid all the time, and Dudley gave him so many opportunities. I wonder what it would've been like if I had a little brother? If they hadn't died in the Third War, maybe he would have had a little sibling like his cousin Itachi did in Sasuke.
Three things lay on the interior doormat. A postcard from his Uncle Vernon's older sister his Aunt Marge, a bill in a white envelope, and…a letter to one Harry J. Potter. Woah. He picked it up, his heart pounding as he read the address written on it in strange, loopy green ink that sparkled just a bit in the light of the hallway. The cupboard under the stairs? Who sent this? This isn't something Dudley would do, he's more brute and up front.
He hurriedly stuffed it in his waistband and used his new body's kekkei genkai to hold it there before taking the bill and the postcard to his uncle. "Here, Uncle Vernon. Looks like Aunt Marge wrote us. How is she?"
His Uncle Vernon ignored him and answered his Aunt Petunia instead. "Marge's ill. She ate a funny whelk…"
It was another hour of dull conversation and listening to Dudley talk about the game he was playing on the Gameboy that he'd got for his birthday before he got the opportunity to retreat back to his cupboard to read the letter. Unscarred hands steady with resolve, he opened the odd letter. It can't be just a prank. No one who knows where I sleep would ever dare talk about it, for the risk of getting Child Protective Services involved. Even Dudley won't, not after what happened in first grade. He'd barely managed to convince the teacher that he'd only been sent to the cupboard as punishment for antagonizing Dudley after Dudley foolishly mentioned his cupboard in class. Dudley had got his first real scolding from his father that evening after school.
The envelope looked normal enough, but the letter inside felt funny. It wasn't normal printer paper. Its parchment. Who uses parchment anymore?
A school crest was boldly emblazoned at the top of the paper, featuring a lion, a snake, a badger, and an eagle. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was written below with what was unmistakably not a modern ink pen, but not a Japanese ink brush either. The headmaster's name, Albus Dumbledore, was below the school's name followed by two full lines of titles.
What's an Order of Merlin? International Confederation of Wizards? This is definitely not a prank. Even if Dudley told his best friends about his living arrangements, this isn't something that three ten and eleven-year-old civilian boys would sit down and take the time to come up with. They didn't have a gram of creativity between the three of them.
Dear Mr. Potter, We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins September 1st. We await your owl by no later than July 31st. Yours Sincerely, Minverva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress.
Another paper was enclosed within, titled Instructions for Muggleborn or Muggle-Raised Pupils. What's a muggle? He scanned it briefly. The instructions were complex and very detailed, telling him how to board something called the Knight Bus to get to Diagon Alley for his school supply shopping, because the necessary books and equipment could not be obtained anywhere in muggle London and muggle alternatives would not do. A limited amount of funds were available from the school if one could not afford all the school supplies.
Huh. So somehow there's other people not related to me that have my magic kekkei genkai? But my relatives don't have it. Why not? If it were the sharingan, then Aunt Petunia and Dudley would have the chance to awaken it. Why doesn't this magic ability work the same way? Does it skip generations? He'd heard of kekkei genkai that ran in a family but were unusually hard to find within said family, like the Dead Bone Pulse of the Kaguya clan. Maybe that's how it works. But if that's so, that doesn't explain why my Aunt and Uncle lied about the circumstances surrounding my parents' deaths. A magical death would explain their fear and avoidance. Or maybe my mom was adopted into the Evans family?
Then, he remembered that line about owl. They must use messenger birds like we do in Konoha! He got a piece of paper and a pen out of his school bag and wrote up a reply in the best handwriting he could manage.
'To whom it may concern, I would be honored to accept my place at Hogwarts Witchcraft and Wizardry. Sincerely, Harry J. Potter.' He wasn't sure what else to put, so he left it at that. How did I even get in? I didn't apply. Can kekkei genkai be detected that young, here? Or was I levitating toys at just a year old?
He rolled up the paper and tied it with a random rubber band from his school bag and used magic to hold it at his waistband again. Then, he changed into his training shirt and shorts and tied his weapons hostlers on before he existed his cupboard and headed straight for the kitchen. "Aunt Petunia, can I go out play?"
His aunt glanced up at him from her work putting premixed cookie batter on a tray for Dudley. I'll have to have one when I get back. "Yes. But don't do anything too strange. You already have the neighbors talking about all this ninja nonsense." She waved him away.
He nodded. "Yes, Aunt Petunia. Thanks. I'll be back in time to help with dinner!" Well, he would try to anyways. He didn't know how long it would take it get to Diagon Alley and back, let alone do his school supply shopping.