Chapter I:
New Friends
Harry watched out his open window the moving men filling the empty house across the street on Privet drive. One man carried in (some box with the picture of a Canadian flag on it).
"They're Canadian!" Harry said to himself quietly. "Petunia will have kittens."
The dreary summer holidays had just begun. Harry had been home two days from school and his fat and foolish cousin Dudley had already "accidentally" pushed him down the stairs. He was hoping this new family would bring the least bit of energy to Privet drive. Harry had been hoping that he could have something to take his recently deceased godfather (Sirius) off his mind, and perhaps they would have a son that Dudley would like and he'd be out of the house a lot. Harry was certain they had a child; the movers had carried in one King-sized bed for the parents and another queen-sized bed. The more he watched the odder he it looked. He hadn't seen a television or computer or even an electric light.
"BOY!" the voice of his aunt Petunia bellowed. He left Hedwig on the window and ran into the hallway. Aunt Petunia was at the foot of the steps, her horse-like face, as dreadful as ever. "The new neighbours will be here any minute. You stay there! The longer you're a secret the longer we'll have friends." Dudley waddled out behind her.
"They're here!" Dudley grunted he squeezed to the front door. "There's a guy on top of the cab…"
Harry ran to his bedroom window. On the street below, perch on top of a pile of trunks on a cab was a young dirty blonde haired boy reading a newspaper and holding a bag. Harry looked hard at the newspaper "It can't be…!" He thought. The boy folded the newspaper and looked around, he looked very weary. He opened the bag and a black cat with a white spot on its neck jumped out. Harry was getting so excited, yet he didn't want to get his hopes up. He listened hard to hear what he was saying.
"Go Aslan." he said letting the cat go. He looked around again. "I hate it here." Out of the cab stepped a very tall (but not nearly as tall as Hagrid) slim Dark haired man.
"I know Darrin but its best." The man said his son. From the other side of the cab came a lovely blonde woman.
"You'll make friends very soon." The woman said.
"I highly doubt anyone from school will live here." The boy said getting down off the cab.
" Take your trunks up to your room. The wardrobe will arrive this evening." The woman directed her son. "Maybe you can get that boy up in the window to help you."
Harry ducked quickly and listened to what they were saying. "I'm going inside with your father." It was the woman's voice. Harry thought about all the things he had seen. They had to be a wizarding family. "This is silly hiding like this." He started back up when Hedwig flew out the window. "HEDWIG" he whispered harshly. Harry watched her land on the boy's shoulder.
"Where did you come from?" The boy stroked Hedwig and checked her for mail. Harry knew he had to be a wizard. He pulled a trunk off the cab. A black sleeve was hanging out. He opened the cab door to the back seat and pulled out a large covered cage.
"You are the most impressive owl I've seen." He talked in that awed voice like a curator talks to a new artefact. "Wha's your name?"
"Hedwig!" Harry said automatically. Then nervously "Her name is Hedwig."
The boy was apprehensive.
"Hedwig? She doesn't, perhaps" He swallowed "Deliver mail?"
The grin on Harry's face stretched ear to ear.
"Yes she does." He said, "Especially when I'm at school."
The boy set down the cage and started across the street.
"This is unbelievable, I was so afraid-" but at that moment Hedwig flew back up to Harry. The Dursley's front door swung open and Petunia came running out as Dudley waddled behind her.
"You fool!" Grabbing the Harry's shoulders "Get that beast off this poor boy."
"No Madam-" The boy tried to defend Harry "I think we go to the same school."
"Oh no dear that is impossible. He attends St. Brutus's school for incurably criminal boys."
"Ah…" he said cursing at himself, "I thought, I almost, I need to go take my things inside." He started back across the street when something the woman said made him turn around.
"You wait until your uncle gets home freak. You'll have more scars to admire than that thing on your head." Aunt Petunia snorted as she pushed Dudley inside. The boy pulled the cover off the cage. In was a large grey owl. He then turned and opened his trunk. Harry thought it looked almost exactly like his: books, parchment, quills, and robes. He pulled out a long thin box tied with twine. He untied it when...
"Put that down young man." The boy's father had come out of the house. "I don't care how heavy your trunk is. You are not in school."
"No Father it's not too heavy, it's just-"
"Take that up stairs."
"Father I think that boy-"
"Now."
"But Father."
"Darrin, that wardrobe will be here in a little while."
"Father That boy-" He said nothing but pointed in to the house. "Yes Sir." He dragged his trunk up to stoop and into the door. The man lifted the cage.
"Hello Greyscale, I bet your ready to go hunt." He opened the cage, Greyscale slowly climbed out. His wingspan was the largest Harry had ever seen. Harry rarely saw birds that big. Sometimes Sirius Harry's late godfather would send him letters by tropical birds, but this was the first time he had seen an owl this large. As he watched the owl soar through the air, he realized he needed to write the boy a letter. To tell him he was a wizard and not a juvenile delinquent.
