During late summer vacation, Harry Potter was peacefully "sleeping," if you could call it that with his cousin Dudley's thunderous snores from the next room, when he suddenly woke up at a tapping at his window. A strange owl, black with white around the eyes, was tapping at his window. Harry yawned and said to himself, "Who would send me a message at this hour," for it was 3:00 AM, but let the owl in anyway. The owl was carrying a sheet of parchment with what seemed to be a number of very strange symbols upon it. He wondered who it was from so he decided to hold it up to the light to see if it had any clues. As he squinted into the light, he made out the word, "WATER," written in a strange way as if the writer didn't wish to be recognized. Water, water, what could that mean? Perhaps this was written in Mermish, the language of Mermaids and Mermen who could only speak in the water. With his theory, he went into the bathroom and ran water into the bathtub, praying that the Dursleys wouldn't wake up because they would kill him for disturbing their sleep.
As he dipped the message in the water, he could see the symbols become blurry and then clear again except in a legible form. He congratulated himself on decoding the message but was very confused as he read what it said. "Dear Mister Potter, I am sending this to inform you that tomorrow evening you must, I repeat must, be on the corner of Magnolia Crescent and Privet Drive. There, you will be met by a man who says his name is Paul. Go with him where he leads you. The reason I sent this to you in Mermish is because it is the only language that Voldemort cannot read and I'm sure you assumed this had to do with him already. Regards, Professor Dumbledore." He was a bit wary of this letter although he didn't know why. How could he be sure this was Dumbledore writing?
He decided to send him an owl making sure. He took out some parchment and a quill, paused a moment and wrote, "Dear Professor Dumbledore, I'm just writing this to make sure that you wrote me the letter I received today about waiting on the corner of Magnolia Crescent and Privet Drive for a man named Paul. If you could reply to this owl before tomorrow evening it could put my fears at rest. Thank you, Harry Potter." He was growing more suspicious by the minute. Since when did Dumbledore call him 'Mister Potter?' Why did he send his owl in the dead of night? And he had never seen a black school owl before. Right now Harry was tired though, so he sent Hedwig out with the letter and went back to sleep.
* * *
Many miles away from Harry Potter a man was sitting in an armchair being worshipped by his servant Wormtail. This man was none other than Voldemort himself, back with a real body and laughing about a trap he had just set for Harry Potter. He was so mad that Harry had escaped him so many times that he thought of the perfect plan. Why not attack Harry before he left for Hogwarts, before he got under the care of that fool Dumbledore? So he had sent a letter that Harry would undoubtedly believe because it would be sent from "Dumbledore." It told Harry to stand on a certain street corner and go with a man called Paul. "Paul" was one of his agents. He knew that Harry wasn't the smartest person in the world, but he wasn't stupid either and would probably try to check to make sure it was from Dumbledore so he had sent a messenger to intercept any owls that Harry might send. To prove his point, it seemed, at that moment the owl he had sent the letter with swooped in and delivered Harry's letter. Voldemort laughed a high shrill laugh and yelled, "You are mine Potter, all mine!!!!!." He wrote a reply, every so often laughing and congratulating himself on his own genius.
* * The Next Evening * *
Harry stood nervously on the corner he had to stand on. Why he was nervous, he wasn't sure. Dumbledore had assured him it was fine and that he just had to take him to Hogwarts early but he still felt a little uneasy. Suddenly a man apparated in front of him and said, "Hello Harry Potter. My name is Paul. Will you come with me?" At this man's appearance, Harry couldn't help but feel as if his doubts had been wrong because Paul looked a bit like Hagrid except that he was much smaller. He had the same friendly face, kind eyes, and warm smile. Harry replied, "Sure," but added, "I'm too young to apparate though." "It's alright," Paul said, "Just grab on to me and you'll be fine." Harry trusted him and away they went.
In one flash of light they appeared in a dungeon. Harry looked around. This dungeon was not at all like the Hogwarts dungeons and Harry got apprehensive again and yelled, "Where are we Paul?" There was no answer except the slamming and locking of a metal barred door. Then Paul said through the bars, "You stupid boy! The dark lord is everything and you are nothing! You have escaped by luck the other times but not this time!" At this a door behind Paul opened and Harry had a feeling of dread as someone came in. As soon as Harry could see this man's face clearly his stomach turned to lead and started shaking. It was Voldemort himself.
Now Harry saw it was all a trap and berated himself for not seeing that before. As Voldemort raised his wand, time seemed to stop. He thought about what happened last year at Hogwarts when he faced Voldemort and thought about what Dumbledore said afterwards. He raised his own wand and said the first incantation that came to his head. "Avada Kedavra!" he shouted at the same time Voldemort shouted "Avada Kedavra!" Harry was horrified that he had said those words but something very strange happened. In one blast of light all the spells Harry or Voldemort had ever used burst out of their wands, straight into the air and both wands exploded. The blast knocked open a wall of the dungeon and after standing in shock for a second he grabbed his stuff, ran out, and tried to flag down the Knight Bus to hope that it could take him to Hogwarts. To his great surprise, it came.
"Where would you like to go?" asked the conductor. "Hogwarts," replied Harry shoving some money into his hand, out of breath. A little while later, they arrived at Hogwarts. Harry ran up to the gates and pounded on them with all his strength. Professor McGonagall heard him (they teachers were there because they needed to prepare their classes in the late summer) and came running. "What is it?" she asked, somewhat exasperated. "I need to see Professor Dumbledore, quickly! Knowing that Harry probably had a good reason, she let him into Dumbledore's office and left them alone.
"What is it Harry?" Professor Dumbledore inquired. Harry related the whole story and Professor Dumbledore assured him he had not contacted Harry at all, nor had received and owls from him, that summer. "Ah Harry. I see what happened," he said calmly when Harry asked what had happened with the wands. "You remember what happened last year and what I told you. When a wand meets its brother, they won't work against each other. When the owners of the wands perform the same spell, they will explode – it is a special kind of bonding and protecting magic. However Harry, you were not right to try the Avada Kedavra spell. It is a very serious thing although you will probably not be punished because you used it in defense against Voldemort. Professor McGonagall will take you to buy a new wand tomorrow and you will stay here for the remainder of the summer. You may go now."
Harry, although unhurt, was very shaken by his experiences that evening and made no objection when Professor McGonagall ushered him to the hospital wing to sleep there. Madame Pomfrey administered a dreamless sleep potion to him and he got very tired. Hoping that his time at Hogwarts this year wouldn't be as dangerous as the past evening, he drifted off to sleep.
