July 1991- Petunia

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore (Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump,

International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Mr. Dursley,

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 on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

Harry bounced around the small cottage waving his Hogwarts acceptance letter around.

'I got in! Auntie, I got in, can you believe it?' he yelled, flapping the letter about.

'Congratulations, sweetums.' Petunia grabbed him to squish him into a hug. 'Aren't you a clever little boy?'

'I'm not little!' wailed Harry, properly trapped in his aunt's embrace.

Petunia laughed, and sighed. He truly was no longer the sad, lonely toddler who had come to her all those years ago. Harry had grown up to be a thin, wiry child, with messy black hair and unfortunate eyesight. He wore round glasses that he complained about; they always got in the way when he played football with the other children in the village! But Petunia thought he looked adorably intellectual and polished, and never missed an opportunity to embarrass him by taking photographs of her 'handsome little baby!'. Dozens of snapshots of him decorated the walls of the cottage: wearing Scooby-Doo swim trunks at his first seaside holiday, eating ice lollies with his aunt at the village fair, being kissed by a giraffe at the zoo (much to his horror!), and celebrating each birthday since he first lived with Petunia. Lily had been right about one thing- he had been happy in the muggle world. Despite being thoroughly indulged by his aunt, Harry remained a kind, hard working child, and Petunia could not have been prouder.

However, the return of his magic at age six meant that Petunia could no longer keep her promise to Lily. She had to tell him about the wizarding world, and his family. She even reluctantly tried to contact Lily, despite her promise not to do so. The letters came back unopened, and from Willow's confused and irritated hooting, she suspected that her sister was magically blocking her mail. Dumbledore explained that Lily and James were probably using cloaking charms, and could not receive letters from anyone from their old lives or England. Petunia was secretly relieved; she didn't want them to take Harry away from her.

Dumbledore tracked them down, and updated her on what he believed to be their whereabouts; it seemed as though they had settled somewhere in the U.S under new names. A witch with Lily's description had accepted a position at the Ilvermony School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as the Charms professor, and a wizard matching James' likeness was working for the Department of Aurors. Petunia and Dumbledore discussed simply going to the U.S and telling them about Harry's magic, but they weren't sure what the Potters would do. What if they took Harry away? It would be too hard for him to jerked from one home to another yet again. Petunia begged Dumbledore not to contact them. Harry was all that she had. So they agreed to keep the news of Harry's magic to themselves.

Harry had been confused and sad after learning about what his parents had done; he couldn't understand why his parents would choose to give him up. He struggled with feelings of abandonment for a while. It was truly fortunate that Dumbledore had maintained a presence in their lives- he assured Harry over and over that his parents did indeed love him, and that it had been an impossible situation. Harry was young and resilient and he recovered. It helped that Petunia had provided a happy home for him.

Learning about the magical world distracted the little boy from focusing on his absent parents. Dumbledore gifted him several books, his favourite being 'Hogwarts: A History'. Together, Harry and Petunia read the entire thing, cover to cover. It was a fascinating read for her as well, as she had not known much about the school. They discussed the houses, and Petunia mentioned that both his parents had been in Gryffindor. After reading about each house, Harry couldn't decide if he was more brave than ambitious or more bookish than loyal, and they agreed to accept the Sorting Hat's decision. The other books Dumbledore gave them covered the wizarding war, helping Harry to understand his part in it, and he realised how important it was for him to keep his true identity and parentage a secret. If asked, Petunia and Dumbledore told him to say that he was muggleborn. It saddened Petunia to have Harry deny his history, but it was necessary for his safety.

Later that month, they celebrated Harry's eleventh birthday with a small party of his friends from the village. The affair doubled as a goodbye party, as Petunia had told everyone that he would be going off to a boarding school on a scholarship. Piles of cucumber sandwiches were placed on serving dishes, along with chicken puffs and small tasty beef pies. Jugs of iced lemonade and cold water provided much needed relief from the heat and generous helpings of strawberry ice cream were shared out as dessert. Pencils and pretty erasers, water guns, slinkies and small tubs of modelling clay were distributed as party favours, and the village children agreed unanimously that Mrs. Dursley threw the best parties. Finally, the time came to cut the cake. Petunia had baked a pretty chocolate and vanilla marble cake, with a delicious cream cheese frosting showered in rainbow sprinkles. Harry's face glowed in the light of the eleven candles as his friends sung happy birthday to him and Petunia smiled as he closed his eyes and carefully made a wish. If a school of witchcraft and wizardry could exist, then birthday wishes surely held much power. Magic was now more real to him than it ever was.

August 1991- Petunia

A week later, Petunia took Harry to Diagon Alley to purchase his school supplies. Since it was only two weeks till the start of term, and Cullfield was so far from the London station where Harry's train would depart, Petunia decided to make a holiday of it, and tour the city. She booked accommodations for them in a cosy bed and breakfast called the Camden Lodge. Their room boasted two narrow, but comfortable beds with warm coverlets, a little desk with a pretty Tiffany lamp, and two fat armchairs next to a fireplace. Of course, as it was summer, there was no fire, but it was a still a snug spot to curl up and discuss the day's adventures. They would take their meals downstairs with the rest of the occupants at a communal dining table where the breakfast menu promised porridge with liberal amounts of sugar and cream, accompanied by crusty home made bread and butter, bacon, hard boiled eggs and a selection of boxed cereals with milk. Supper was slated to be various hearty soups, with freshly baked bread rolls and salad. Petunia and Harry would get their midday meals while out on tours.

Dumbledore had arranged for a teacher from Hogwarts to assist Petunia and Harry as she had never been to Diagon Alley. The Evans' had never brought her along to do Lily's school shopping. As soon as she unpacked their things, she hurried her nephew to the meeting spot- a surprisingly innocuous London street. Perfectly normal, and decidedly non-magical shops lined the road. Petunia could see several clothing boutiques, a jewellery store and a fish and chips place. But nothing that looked like a wizarding tavern.

'Mrs. Dursley? Harry?'

Petunia turned around to see a tall, older woman with black hair. She was dressed in a rather severe black suit, and immediately reminded Petunia of her strictest childhood teachers.

'Hello, yes, that's us,' said Petunia, trying not to falter under the woman's stern gaze.

The woman nodded. 'Excellent. I'm Professor McGonagall. Let's cross the road. The Leaky Cauldron is this way.'

Petunia and Harry hurried after her, desperately trying to see where the tavern was.

'Now Harry, just think about the Leaky Cauldron, and you'll spot it,' instructed McGonagall, and gave him an approving look when he found it. 'As a muggle, you can see it, Mrs. Dursley, but only if you know where to look, and if you look hard enough. Now, see that clothing shop there, with the ball gowns? And the restaurant next to it? Focus on the space between them.'

Petunia concentrated, and suddenly she saw the Leaky Cauldron, as if it had been there all along. She exclaimed in surprise, and McGonagall flashed her a brief, but genuine smile. Petunia and Harry followed the professor as she briskly strode through the tavern. Petunia barely had time to observe the strange characters in the pub before they found themselves in the back alley, facing a brick wall. McGonagall tapped the bricks in a quick sequence with her wand while telling Petunia that she could have Tom, the bartender, do it for her the next time they came. As the bricks opened up, Petunia and Harry stepped through in wonder to Diagon Alley.

Petunia only half listened as McGonagall showed them around, pointing out important stores. There was so much to see and so many oddly dressed people hurrying about. McGonagall showed them to Gringotts where they could exchange muggle money for wizarding currency. Once she was satisfied that Petunia and Harry were comfortable, she took her leave and said goodbye.

The pair methodically purchased the items on Harry's list of supplies. Buying the wand was especially strange; Mr. Ollivander looked at Harry curiously when wand after wand failed to take. Finally he offered him a holly and phoenix feather wand, which emitted the most beautiful trail of golden sparks when Harry held it. The strange old man said something odd about the wand's brother having done 'great and terrible things' and that he expected the same from Harry. Petunia suppressed a shudder and ushered Harry from the store as swiftly as she could after paying.

Given all the items on display on Diagon Alley, Petunia was surprised that she only had to rein Harry in once- he begged her to buy a solid gold cauldron instead of the standard pewter, which she of course, refused.

'Please, auntie, please?' pleaded Harry. 'I swear I've never wanted anything more in my entire life! I won't even ask for Christmas presents this year!'

'No, you foolish child,' snorted Petunia. 'The list says pewter, and pewter you shall have! What'll you do with a gold cauldron anyway?'

She did buy him several extra books on fun jinxes to make up for it though. Finally, the thing left on the list were his robes. As they entered Madame Malkin's, a young blond boy came stomping out, followed by his mother.

'I wanted green robes, mother! Not black!'

'Now, now Draco, first years are only allowed black robes, dear,' his mother replied wearily. 'But of course, I'll order green for you to wear at home.'

'I want them in SILK, mother! Like father's!' he whined, as his mother walked back into the store to place the order. 'With a SNAKE on the back!'

Petunia shook her head. Some people really didn't know how to raise children!

Inside, Madame Malkin herself was scurrying about, fitting several children with robes.

'Hogwarts, dear? Lovely, just hop right up here and I'll get right to you!'

Harry jumped up onto the fitting platform, while Petunia sat on a wooden chair to wait, thankful for the opportunity to rest her aching feet.

'Hullo. Are you going to be in first year too?' said a round faced boy next to Harry, 'I'm Neville, Neville Longbottom.'

'Hi, yeah, this is my first year,' replied Harry as a tape measure flew around him. 'I'm Harry Dursley.'

'Nice to meet you! What house d'you think you'll be in? My gran keeps saying Gryffindor because that's where my parents were.'

'I don't know. I think I can fit into any of the houses, and my auntie doesn't care where I go.'

Neville looked at Petunia with mournful envy.

'That sounds nice. I don't think I'm brave enough for Gryffindor,' Neville lamented.

'Oh. I'm sure everyone's a little bit brave if they've got to be,' said Harry thoughtfully. 'But perhaps you should let the sorting hat decide. That's what I'm going to do, anyway.'

'All done, dears!' said Madame Malkin as she folded up the sets of robes for each of them.

'Well, bye Neville. I guess I'll see you on the train,' said Harry.

'Bye Harry! See you soon.'

As Petunia and Harry walked back to the Leaky Cauldron, she spotted Eeylop's Owl Emporium, and remembered how useful her own owl, Willow, was when she needed to communicate with Dumbledore and even Lily when she was still around.

'Come, Harry, we've one last thing to get!' said Petunia, grabbing her nephew's hand and pulled him into the store.

'An owl?' asked Harry, his eyes wide. He had never had a pet before.

'Yes, love. Then you can write to me whenever you like.' Petunia beamed at him. 'It's a late birthday present. Choose any owl you like.'

Harry wandered up and down the aisles, until he came to a cage that held a large snowy owl. She hooted softly at him.

'This one, please, auntie! I think she likes me!'

Petunia smiled and purchased the owl, along with a cage and a supply of owl treats. Finally, their shopping was done and Harry was set for Hogwarts.