Alright, this is a shorter one. I hope you still like it, though. As always, reviews are highly appreciated!

Reluctantly, both Vernon and Petunia joined them at the table after Dudley had hurried to sit down on the front end. Harry's aunt was now sitting opposite him while his uncle was across from the professor.

"Now that we're all sitting and ready to talk, I would greatly appreciate it if you would not interrupt me. Any questions you might have, I will answer afterwards." She gave the Dursleys a stern look and Vernon was already opening his mouth again but, changing his mind, closed it again. "So, I originally came here for young Mr Dursley but Mr Potter told me that he had never before heard of Hogwarts and thought the letter was a joke! It's otrageous that you concealed his true identity from him! However, seeing how you reacted when I said that your son would attend the school, I shouldn't have been surprised. I observed you the day before Mr Potter was brought here, you know. It didn't even take me ten minutes to realise that you are, indeed, the worst sort of muggle there is!" Vernon's face redenned more and more with every word the professor said but she didn't seem to mind. She just kept talking and Harry was having the time of his life. Finally, someone was putting them in their rightful place. "I have never had the misfortune to meet anyone who was this narrow-minded, this racist, this afraid of anything you don't know or can't control." Petunia just sat there, staring at the teacher with a grim face while her husband looked like he was going to explode. Professor McGonagall paused for a brief moment, just enough for her to take a breath.

"However, just because you are so petty, doesn't mean your son has to be, too. He got a letter from Hogwarts which means that he is a muggle-born wizard. I assume that you know what muggles are. Your nephew is, of course, also a wizard. They will both start attending the school on 1 September. Before then, we will send someone to help with their supply shopping in Diagon Alley." She now looked from Dudley to Harry and back again. "On 1 September, you will have to be at King's Cross station where the Hogwarts express will depart at exactly 11am from platform 9 ¾." Harry half-heartedly opened his mouth, his eyebrows raised. As far as he knew, there was no such platform anywhere. The professor raised her hand, however, and silenced him before he had started talking. "To get to the correct platform, you simply have to run at a wall between platforms 9 and 10. There will be plenty of other wizards. Just observe what the peculiar looking people are doing." Looking at the two boys, she amusedly noticed both of them staring at her in the same fashion, eyes wide and mouths ajar.

"Dudley will not go to this school. I forbid it. And neither will Harry." Both boys turned their heads to Mr Dursley at his remark. Harry, as always, didn't say anything to this because he never did whenever one of the Dursleys made his life miserable. Dudley, however, was furious. His round face became as red as Vernon's had earlier and he even had a vein popping out where his father had one, too. These two definitely would never be able to deny that they were related.

"What do you mean, I won't go?! Of course I will go! I want nothing more than to learn how to do magic!" Dudley practically screamed the words at his father. The professor watched him closely, wishing that he wouldn't end up in her house. Although it would hardly matter. She would teach him any way. "You can't expect me to stay here now that I know that I really am a wizard!" The lights in the kitchen started flickering slightly. That was something the teacher hadn't anticipated.

"That's quite enough, Mr Dursley." Although her voice was calm and quiet, it also possessed the kind of authority that made Dudley shut up and look at her expectantly. "Please, sit." He instantly did as she had asked and sat back down, his hand on the table's edge as if to await further instructions. But Professor McGonagall turned her attention to his father before continuing to speak. "This is exactly the kind of behaviour I was expecting." She paused for a second to make sure that she had all of their attention. "Did you notice the lights flicker just now? A wizard or witch who is not allowed to practice magic and is oppressing it instead, can become unpredictable and dangerous. Very dangerous, indeed. I bet you don't want neither your son nor your nephew to accidently blow up the house?" She pronounced every word carefully to ensure that he perfectly understood what she was trying to tell them. The threat of having his house blown up seemed to bring Vernon to his senses.

"You're probably just saying that to make us give our son to you people." Vernon was desperate. He definitely didn't want neither of the boys to go to the school but he didn't want to deal with unwanted magic either. He remembered his nephew making things disappear and reappear in the most inconvenient ways. "But if what you say is indeed true, maybe it would be better for both of them to go." Harry couldn't believe that this was it. Hadn't it been too easy? "When will this person come and take them shopping?" Expectantly, everyone's eyes were on the teacher.

"We will send another letter containing the details of the shopping trip." She looked at the boys and then back at their guardians. "If you don't have any questions left, I will leave you now. There are more muggle-borns awaiting a visit from me today." She got up and didn't really leave anyone the chance to ask any questions. Harry stood up, too because he thought it was the most polite thing to do, although he didn't know why. His aunt and uncle got up as well, followed by their son.

"I'll show you to the door." Petunia sounded a bit too eager to finally get rid of the intruder. The professor, of course, noticed her tone and raised here eyebrows. Harry's aunt had stepped into the corridor already, leaving the door open for the other woman to follow. Looking at the two boys one last time, the latter followed. Shortly before reaching the door, however, she stopped abruptly.

"One more thing. The existence of magic is a well-kept secret. Sharing it with the muggle-world is a crime under wizarding law. You won't tell anyone about the fact that you'll be going to a wizarding school or anything I just told you, is that understood?" Both Harry and Dudley hurried to nod. Harry wouldn't tell anyone. Mainly because there was nobody to tell it to but even if he did, who would believe him anyway? Dudley, on the other hand had a few friends and Harry was sure he'd be eager to tell at least Piers. "Good. If you do tell, you can trust that we will know. And then there will be consequences." Both boys looked a bit terrified and the professor seemed to be satisfied that they wouldn't share the secret. "Well then, goodbye. I will see you on September 1st." She nodded courtly and left the kitchen after Harry and Dudley had said their goodbyes.

Upon entering the corridor, she found Mrs Dursley standing there with her arms crossed and one of her feet tapping the ground. She was impatiently waiting for the professor to finally leave them. If she had seemed eager to get her out of the house earlier, it was nothing to how she was now behaving. The professor hardly cared. She was equally glad to finally get out of the house and away from those awful people. She couldn't help but feel sorry for the Potter boy again.

Fifteen minutes later, Mrs Dursley was furiously cleaning the kitchen where the professor had sat, as if it was contaminated in some way. Mr Dursley was watching telly, every now and then having an outburst of rage, talking loudly to himself how this woman had come to their home without any kind of invitation. Harry, who had been roughly criticised not to let strangers into the house ever again, was now upstairs in the bathroom, looking into the mirror. He couldn't believe all of this was actually happening. He would go to Hogwarts, the best school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, according to the professor. And he would learn all the great things his parents had learned before him. Thinking about his parents, he got sad again. He wondered why his parents hadn't saved themselves by doing magic. Or maybe it had just gone down to fast for them to react. He didn't know much about the accident, just that they crashed their car.

A knock on the door snapped him out of his thoughts. He hesitated for a second before opening the door. On the other side, his cousin was standing. Harry was uncertain what to do. Even if Dudley had conveniently forgotten to be mean to him over the last few days, most of the time there was anguish involved whenever they met somewhere. "Can we talk?" Maybe Harry was wrong and the other boy would at least stop bullying him from now on. At least they had something in common now.

"Sure." Dudley gestured for Harry to follow him to his room, which he did. Closing the door behind him, Harry looked at his cousin and waited for him to say something. Before the latter could say anything, however, he started speaking. "I can't believe this actually happened."