Hey guys! Thanks for the positive reviews, it really means a lot to me. To
StaticDarklighter, I worked out the math and Harry enters his first year at
Hogwarts when he's eleven. Eleven plus six is seventeen. I thought it was
weird at first too, he really shouldn't be that old. But, he is, so
whatever. To Lilolu - whoa. You're ridiculously nice to me. I knew it was
kind of Mary-Sue-ish, but I warned you in the beginning of the last chapter
about my idealism.
I feel like kind of a loser for updating again today, the day after posting my story. But I've had a bad day and I have no way to escape, and I've had the second chapter written for a long time. I hope you like this chapter as much as you liked the others, and if you don't, I promise they will get better.you find out what the Dursleys are up to next chapter. Please keep reading and reviewing, I really want to know what people think.
Also- if anyone knows how to make things bold, italic, or underlined in my fic [I upload from Microsoft Word] , please explain it to me. I would love you forever. I just don't get it, and its soo much harder for me to write letters like those sent to Harry in this chapter in italic if I cant use it [ I've been using the "~" symbol to signify letters]
_ _ _ * _
Harry awoke on his birthday remembering the events of the wee hours of that morning with a large smile. He was so wrapped up in remembrance that he forgot to miss Sirius and forgot to realize what had woken him up. He was dressing rather dreamily when there was a sharp tapping on his window. Harry turned towards it and immediately saw the source of the "alarm". At least half a dozen owls were hovering by his window; most carrying parcels of various shape, size, and color.
Harry ran to the window, snapping abruptly out of his dreamy state. He opened it, and the owls fluttered inside, leaving behind a trail of feathers. Harry stood, rather stunned by the number of owls currently residing on his bed. However, many of them did not stay very long. All but three of the owls left immediately after depositing their parcels and letters. Those left were Pigwidgeon, Ron's owl, Harry's own Hedwig, and a rather squat, ugly, glossy black owl that Harry did not recognize. Hedwig dropped her package and half fluttered, half waddled to Harry, nipping his arm affectionately before flying to her water and food trays. The black owl was eyeing Pig, who was, as always, twittering and bouncing madly off the walls of Harry's room. Harry grinned, though the black owl's incessant staring made him a little edgy.
Harry didn't know where to start. He looked about all the parcels on his bed and decided, because of his feelings about the black owl, to open its letter first. It read:
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Dearest Harry:
Happy birthday! You're finally old enough to break out of school and follow in our footsteps! Our joke shop is doing phenomenally, so well, actually, that we could afford this top of the line [yet ugly as hell] owl, whom we have affectionately and appropriately named Dolores. We feel that she bears a large resemblance to the original. Anywho, we wanted to thank you again for your generosity and kindness in helping us get out of that school and into business. We have decided for your birthday, we are giving you a lifetime, limitless gift certificate to our store. In other words.our store is yours!
Best Wishes, Fred and George
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Harry smiled as he thought of the new lovely ways he could legally torment Dudley. Dolores the owl, who, now that Harry thought about it, did really look quite a lot like that miserable toad woman, seemed to wink at him as soon as she took off for Diagon Alley again. Next, Harry opened his Hogwarts letter, which, he considered with a pang while slitting the letter open, could contain his O.W.L. results. Harry took a deep breath and pulled out the contents of his letter.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Dear Mr. Potter~ We are pleased to inform you of your O.W.L. results from the end-of-year tests taken last semester.
Astronomy: A Care of Magical Creatures: E Charms: E Defense Against the Dark Arts: O History of Magic: D Potions: A
Transfiguration: E
You have qualified for the following N.E.W.T. preparatory classes:
Astronomy Care of Magical Creatures
Charms
Defense Against the Dark Arts
Potions
Transfiguration
Congratulations, and we are looking forward to seeing you on September 1st for another Hogwarts year.
Minerva M. McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Harry stood in the middle of his room, simply shocked at his good grades. He had not been so confident as he left the testing that he would be able to become an Auror because of his grades, but he had qualified for all the necessary classes. He was so thrilled that he didn't read his booklist for the following year. He did, however, enjoy a large, scribbled drawing that had obviously been sneakily folded in with the Hogwarts letter from Hagrid. Apparently, Grawp was moving along nicely with English and his motor skills. He also apparently missed Harry and "Hermy" very, very much. Harry, laughing, hung the picture on his wall.
The letters from Ron and Hermione were very nice and reassuring, Hermione's mentioning "staying strong" and "being there for him". Harry missed Hermione terribly. He also missed Ron more than ever before. Their presents both proceeded to intensify his feelings of yearning for the pair. Ron's was a framed picture of the three of them in their second year, one that Colin Creevey had taken and Ron had snatched. In the picture, the three were grinning and waving madly, but what Harry didn't understand was that in the picture, Ron and Hermione were standing next to each other, and very close, whereas he remembered Colin putting Harry between the two for the picture. Harry wondered why this would happen in a picture. He had always known that Ron had had some kind of tortured feelings for Hermione, but he had only noticed them in their fourth year after the Viktor Krum/ Yule Ball fiasco. Harry shook his head and smiled warmly down on the large, rather lopsided birthday cake that Hermione had sent [and obviously baked herself] for him. He grinned and decided to bring it out tonight for he and Juliet as a snack.
At this thought, Harry was drawn into a dreamy reverie of Juliet for a few minutes.
When he finally recovered, Harry hid the food and put up the cards and pictures. The next parcel he opened contained a lovely color-changing set of Gobstones from Tonks, who challenged him to a match the next time they met, which she hinted would be soon. But the second Harry's eyes left Tonks's signature, the paper turned blank and then a new message appeared. Harry, transfixed, read the two words carefully.
tonight. ~moony
And with that, the paper burst into flame, slightly burning Harry's hands, curled into ashes, and settled into small piles on the floor.
Harry was glad for this news very quickly. Breaking out tonight! But then Harry remembered Juliet. Perhaps she would meet someone else before they saw each other again. Perhaps she would be angry with him for leaving so abruptly. Perhaps he would never see her again. Who knew where she was going after staying with Mrs. Figg. Harry sighed. He would have to find her, and now was the perfect time.
However, Harry spotted the smallest letter, covered by the wrappings of the other packages and notes. It was bright orange, and that was the only way he noticed it. He pulled it from the rubble and opened it to read:
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Dear Harry:
hello. Happy birthday? How is your sumer going? Mine is good, I gues. I wanted to tell you thanks for everything that hapend in june and for youre help with devense against the Dark arts. I got an E on the owl! She was so very pleased. I hope your okay and i hope to see you soon.
Sincerely Neville Longbottom
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Harry was dumbfounded for a moment. He was so glad that Neville had achieved so much and that his Gram [for who else could "she" be?] believed more in his talent now. This was his second best birthday present- second only to Juliet's kiss. With that, Harry remembered his looming departure and began to run as quickly as he could to Mrs. Figg's, afraid of how Juliet would take the news, given the events of the previous night, but more afraid of how easily the Dursleys would let him out of the house.
I feel like kind of a loser for updating again today, the day after posting my story. But I've had a bad day and I have no way to escape, and I've had the second chapter written for a long time. I hope you like this chapter as much as you liked the others, and if you don't, I promise they will get better.you find out what the Dursleys are up to next chapter. Please keep reading and reviewing, I really want to know what people think.
Also- if anyone knows how to make things bold, italic, or underlined in my fic [I upload from Microsoft Word] , please explain it to me. I would love you forever. I just don't get it, and its soo much harder for me to write letters like those sent to Harry in this chapter in italic if I cant use it [ I've been using the "~" symbol to signify letters]
_ _ _ * _
Harry awoke on his birthday remembering the events of the wee hours of that morning with a large smile. He was so wrapped up in remembrance that he forgot to miss Sirius and forgot to realize what had woken him up. He was dressing rather dreamily when there was a sharp tapping on his window. Harry turned towards it and immediately saw the source of the "alarm". At least half a dozen owls were hovering by his window; most carrying parcels of various shape, size, and color.
Harry ran to the window, snapping abruptly out of his dreamy state. He opened it, and the owls fluttered inside, leaving behind a trail of feathers. Harry stood, rather stunned by the number of owls currently residing on his bed. However, many of them did not stay very long. All but three of the owls left immediately after depositing their parcels and letters. Those left were Pigwidgeon, Ron's owl, Harry's own Hedwig, and a rather squat, ugly, glossy black owl that Harry did not recognize. Hedwig dropped her package and half fluttered, half waddled to Harry, nipping his arm affectionately before flying to her water and food trays. The black owl was eyeing Pig, who was, as always, twittering and bouncing madly off the walls of Harry's room. Harry grinned, though the black owl's incessant staring made him a little edgy.
Harry didn't know where to start. He looked about all the parcels on his bed and decided, because of his feelings about the black owl, to open its letter first. It read:
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Dearest Harry:
Happy birthday! You're finally old enough to break out of school and follow in our footsteps! Our joke shop is doing phenomenally, so well, actually, that we could afford this top of the line [yet ugly as hell] owl, whom we have affectionately and appropriately named Dolores. We feel that she bears a large resemblance to the original. Anywho, we wanted to thank you again for your generosity and kindness in helping us get out of that school and into business. We have decided for your birthday, we are giving you a lifetime, limitless gift certificate to our store. In other words.our store is yours!
Best Wishes, Fred and George
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Harry smiled as he thought of the new lovely ways he could legally torment Dudley. Dolores the owl, who, now that Harry thought about it, did really look quite a lot like that miserable toad woman, seemed to wink at him as soon as she took off for Diagon Alley again. Next, Harry opened his Hogwarts letter, which, he considered with a pang while slitting the letter open, could contain his O.W.L. results. Harry took a deep breath and pulled out the contents of his letter.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Dear Mr. Potter~ We are pleased to inform you of your O.W.L. results from the end-of-year tests taken last semester.
Astronomy: A Care of Magical Creatures: E Charms: E Defense Against the Dark Arts: O History of Magic: D Potions: A
Transfiguration: E
You have qualified for the following N.E.W.T. preparatory classes:
Astronomy Care of Magical Creatures
Charms
Defense Against the Dark Arts
Potions
Transfiguration
Congratulations, and we are looking forward to seeing you on September 1st for another Hogwarts year.
Minerva M. McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Harry stood in the middle of his room, simply shocked at his good grades. He had not been so confident as he left the testing that he would be able to become an Auror because of his grades, but he had qualified for all the necessary classes. He was so thrilled that he didn't read his booklist for the following year. He did, however, enjoy a large, scribbled drawing that had obviously been sneakily folded in with the Hogwarts letter from Hagrid. Apparently, Grawp was moving along nicely with English and his motor skills. He also apparently missed Harry and "Hermy" very, very much. Harry, laughing, hung the picture on his wall.
The letters from Ron and Hermione were very nice and reassuring, Hermione's mentioning "staying strong" and "being there for him". Harry missed Hermione terribly. He also missed Ron more than ever before. Their presents both proceeded to intensify his feelings of yearning for the pair. Ron's was a framed picture of the three of them in their second year, one that Colin Creevey had taken and Ron had snatched. In the picture, the three were grinning and waving madly, but what Harry didn't understand was that in the picture, Ron and Hermione were standing next to each other, and very close, whereas he remembered Colin putting Harry between the two for the picture. Harry wondered why this would happen in a picture. He had always known that Ron had had some kind of tortured feelings for Hermione, but he had only noticed them in their fourth year after the Viktor Krum/ Yule Ball fiasco. Harry shook his head and smiled warmly down on the large, rather lopsided birthday cake that Hermione had sent [and obviously baked herself] for him. He grinned and decided to bring it out tonight for he and Juliet as a snack.
At this thought, Harry was drawn into a dreamy reverie of Juliet for a few minutes.
When he finally recovered, Harry hid the food and put up the cards and pictures. The next parcel he opened contained a lovely color-changing set of Gobstones from Tonks, who challenged him to a match the next time they met, which she hinted would be soon. But the second Harry's eyes left Tonks's signature, the paper turned blank and then a new message appeared. Harry, transfixed, read the two words carefully.
tonight. ~moony
And with that, the paper burst into flame, slightly burning Harry's hands, curled into ashes, and settled into small piles on the floor.
Harry was glad for this news very quickly. Breaking out tonight! But then Harry remembered Juliet. Perhaps she would meet someone else before they saw each other again. Perhaps she would be angry with him for leaving so abruptly. Perhaps he would never see her again. Who knew where she was going after staying with Mrs. Figg. Harry sighed. He would have to find her, and now was the perfect time.
However, Harry spotted the smallest letter, covered by the wrappings of the other packages and notes. It was bright orange, and that was the only way he noticed it. He pulled it from the rubble and opened it to read:
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Dear Harry:
hello. Happy birthday? How is your sumer going? Mine is good, I gues. I wanted to tell you thanks for everything that hapend in june and for youre help with devense against the Dark arts. I got an E on the owl! She was so very pleased. I hope your okay and i hope to see you soon.
Sincerely Neville Longbottom
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Harry was dumbfounded for a moment. He was so glad that Neville had achieved so much and that his Gram [for who else could "she" be?] believed more in his talent now. This was his second best birthday present- second only to Juliet's kiss. With that, Harry remembered his looming departure and began to run as quickly as he could to Mrs. Figg's, afraid of how Juliet would take the news, given the events of the previous night, but more afraid of how easily the Dursleys would let him out of the house.