Chapter 51

Petunia gave a breathless scream when her letter arrived.

It was not the green colored Hogwarts letter she had gotten from Dumbledore; this one was in a standard black and done in a different hand. This letter had the symbols for an entirely different school, but could it be for the same purpose? She opened it with slitted eyes and numb finders.

She was invited to attend the first official year at Prewetts, the school for alternate witchcraft and wizardry. She squeezed her eyes shut and clamped her hand around the letter. She was afraid to let go and terrified to open her eyes, yet she had to look again.

She fought a dangerous wave of hope as she confirmed the and why's, a frown creasing her forehead as she went on. Now she was afraid to move as she read it; it was like she was dreaming and the slightest breath would make this bubble pop.

To Petunia Dursley

Allow us to be the first to congratulate you. Due to your past letters to Hogwarts, we reevaluated your case and found you are a member of the group now known as the undetectables. This allocates you to a place in our school for its first year in operation.

Unlike Hogwarts, Prewetts is not a boarding school. Students will spend two days there and two days at home. With the acceptation of the first day, travel to and from will be via floo powder.

Students will be required to collect all books and supplies before August 3, list included at bottom of this letter. Students will also be required to find their way to Pier 34, birth 4, on august 5th at 8:00 am.

Due to the nature of undetectable students, attendance is not compulsory.

Headmistress Molly Weasely.

She cried then, missing the hidden meaning in the last statement as bitter sweet tears fell. She would learn its meaning without any regrets though. The letter was for her and she was wide awake!

She was finally on a level with her sister! The problem was, who could she share the news with? Her husband hated the magical world and all things connected with it. Her son feared wizards and witches, with good reason. Worse, the people she really wanted to call this very second, had died years ago. Too much had happened between her and Harry; she never allowed herself to acknowledge why she hated him, and was not about to admit it now. Well, not out loud.

Petunia loathed Harry for the same reason she hated his mother; they were special, Petunia was not. That's how she saw it anyway. When lily started sprouting powers Petunia was instantly jealous. That only got worse as when Lily's letter showed up; her parents were elated and so interested. Now she felt like she had won a race without spectators.

Now that Petunia thought about it, she did know who to tell: Misses Figg! The woman she handed Harry off to when they wanted to go out minus "the boy." She was in on the whole magic secret, making her the next best thing.

That turned out to be a disappointment too: Figg had also gotten a letter and had been receiving early lessons from the head mistresses daughter! Apple polishing, boot lick…Calm down, this woman will probably be your first friend in this school.

She had indeed become friends with misses Figg, or at least more of a friend than she ever had been. Figg helped her get into Diagon alley by using her wand on the new eagle gargoyle that was set into the wall at the Leaky Cauldron. They even shared a cab down to the pier.

Arabella chose to let Petunia go her own way after that. She knew how badly Harry had been treated under this woman's care. Proper educate said she must be civil to Petunia, it did not say she had to give her the grand tour. She made a bee line right to the Weasely twins preposterous store front and hid her small smile as Petunia refused to follow her in.

Petunia winced at the cacophony coming out the closing doors. What is that silly woman doing in there? She shook her head and reluctantly set forward alone. Petunia was ready to embrace the magical world, now that she was a member of the club, but there was a limit to her acceptance.

The rest of her time spent getting her supplies was tempered by an undercurrent of disappointment. Petunia knew deep in her heart why, her mind was just refusing to listen. A few people sneered at the books she was buying and one woman tried to tease her about the toy wand she would be forced to use. That woman never knew why Petunia had laughed along with her. You just admitted that I am a witch. That thought almost brought the truth out, but she still wasn't ready.

Vernon was especially focused on his paper the day his wife was scheduled to leave for "her little get away". He refused to so much as mention that this was all about the M word. Petunia was ready for this, or so she thought. That nagging voice she was ignoring was getting louder.

The boat ride to the school blew her worries away. Three gorgeous ships awaited them at the pier. She was aboard hers and under way before she realized that Arabella Figg was on a different ship.

Her ship was three times bigger on the inside than the outside could possibly hold. The wood inside was so polished it glowed, with birds and faces in the grain of almost every board. The upper interior, that was the main floor, was set up like airplane seating, with every other row facing the row before it.

The seating made Petunia nervous. She could not decide if it was better to be the first to sit and have someone join her or be the one to join. Someone took the choice away from her. As she was lurking near one of the only empty booths, a tall, slender, white haired woman with a smart hand bag sat on the bench opposite of her.

The woman leaned forward and pointed at the seat Petunia was next to with an urgent look on her face. "Quick, sit down or he will pass us by!" Even her comment was urgent.

Petunia sat in a hurry. An invitation was better than she could have hoped for, no matter the reason. The man in question sat next to the woman a moment later, nodding his head oddly until Petunia got up and sat on his other side.

The unnamed man put his brief case on his lap and looked over his shoulder, opening it without turning back. Out of the corner of his mouth he said "one galleon four sickles each."

Inside was a neat stack of reeds, a small cauldron of bubbling liquid and an improbably tall patch of grass. It took Petunia a moment to realize what these strangers were up to: they were getting bootleg wands! She narrowed her eyes for just a moment, and then paid the man.

Ten minutes later Petunia and her new acquaintance Jenpohr had their wands up on deck with a growing group of new students; all of which had bootleg wands of their own.

The group began going silent; the captain was on deck and could not have missed the wands. His tall form was shrouded in a robe like coat to his Knees, heavy hiking boots tucked into his denim slacks, topped with an antique royal navy hat. He scratched his upper lip as he looked around at the passengers and glanced at their fellow ship off the port bow. "We are falling behind the Tullworth, a pity there is nothing to be done." Without another word, the captain left his first mate behind as he went below.

The first mate rubbed one of his curly sideburns as he eyed the shifty looking students. "There is a handy spell you can try," he pulled a reed wand from his sweaters bulky sleeve to demonstrate, "once you get a wand at the school." He made a triangle movement and shot his wand thru it as he bellowed "hallumph!" A mist formed above him and slowly began to fall behind him

Petunia missed his hint because the three ships were side by side, flying along inside what looked like a water spout on its side. An elbow to her arm brought her around and she tore her eyes from the swirling water. "Take the hint!" That from Jenpohr.

With more apprehension than she had ever felt in her life, Petunia raised her wand. She repeated the form in her head three times before trying. Holding her breath she let it all out as she shouted the spell in a voice that trembled with fear and hope. "Hallumph!"

Instantly the mist poured out of her wand to hover a moment above her head. Her mouth fell open and she watched her little cloud, the cloud she had made with magic, until it fell out of site behind the ship.

A quiet voice dared to say what she had always dreamed: I just used magic. In a very different voice, Petunia shouted. "I just used magic!"

Someone chuckled at her shout. Soon everyone was laughing and not at her outburst. That shout was what was on the lips of many of the new students, most of those, former squibs.

The spells had made such a small effect that most of them were doing the spell just for fun. That died off as the captain came back on deck again. He marched importantly to the port side and assessed their position in line with the other ship.

A stiff standing man on the other ship was trying to shout something to them, all of which was lost due to the rushing water and wind. Petunia's captain lifted his hat and bowed to the other ship. A hint of a smile played across his lips as he returned to his former position by steering. He told no one in particular to "carry on" as he passed the students.

She could use magic and she was going to a magic school! She wanted to scream her joy over the side of the ship. Then her horror at being so unreserved took over and she squashed the thought.

Her joy was about to start shriveling: school would be a lot harder than she thought.