Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling, and hence don't own Harry Potter. I am no mindreader, but this is my version of Book 7, so I do own the plot.

A/N: Sorry it took so long to update. I had two ideas for this chapter originally, and I ended up not using either one.

Chapter 6: Dumbledore's Letters and Petunia's Note

"Harry, you're underestimating our power," said Hermione. "Certainly we'll be able to find out the likely locations of Mr. Ollivander."

"If he's even still alive," said Harry.

"The chances are he is. Even if the Death Eaters have got him, they'd be using him to make wands, after all he is the best wandmaker there is."

"Well, I've had enough discovery for today. I think it's about time we go back to the Burrow."

"Do we have to?" asked Ron. "Mum's going to kill Ginny and me."

"Yes. After all, the best source we have for the location of Mr. Ollivander will have to wait until we go back to Hogwarts," said Harry.

"I'm not waiting until then, when we get back to the Burrow, I'm going to look up any information about Mr. Ollivander and try to find any hints about his possible location," said Hermione.

"I was counting on it, but the best source is still at Hogwarts," said Harry as he grabbed Ginny's hand and Disapparated. Ron and Hermione followed suit, both Disapparating from Godric's Hollow.

OoOoOo

There were three loud cracks as Harry, Ginny who Side-Along Apparated with Harry, Ron, and Hermione Apparated at the spot on the Weasley's property that they had Disapparated from. The Burrow looked very inviting to all of them until Mrs. Weasley came out screaming, "I can't believe you left in the middle of the night! It's dangerous out there! I thought you all had more sense than that! I might not be able to control what Harry and Hermione can do, but Ronald and Ginerva, you should know better! In fact, all four of you should know better. You could have gotten killed like...," at this point her tone changed, "Harry's relatives. Now I never liked them, but they most certainly didn't deserve to die the way they did. No one ever deserves to be murdered."

"What!" said Harry, shocked. He may have hated the Dursleys and sometimes wished they would die and had used the threat of Sirius murdering them when it was widely believed he had killed 13 people with a single spell, but he always knew that not even the Dursleys actually deserved to be murdered.

"Here, read this," said Mrs. Weasley as she handed Harry the most recent copy of the Daily Prophet.

MUGGLE RELATIVES OF CHOSEN ONE MURDERED

The Muggle relatives of Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, the Chosen One, Vernon, Petunia, and Dudley Dursley were discovered dead in their home at Number 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey by Muggle Authorities last night at approximately 8 p.m. The Muggle Authorities were perplexed with how they died. Besides Vernon and Dudley being overweight, all of them were in perfect health and have officially listed the cause of death as unknown since there was no damage to their bodies at all. These conditions describe the effects of the Avada Kevadra curse. The Muggle Authorties questioned the Dursley's neighbor, Arabella Figg but yielded no results. The Ministry of Magic is now investigating the murders. and it is believed these murders are linked to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named trying to locate Harry Potter, which our sources indicate left his relatives' house on or around July 31.

Harry still couldn't believe it. The Dursleys were dead and that meant he was truly alone. The only family he had, even though they didn't treat him as they should have, had been murdered by Lord Voldemort. "You know, they were mean to me, but they didn't deserve to be murdered by Voldemort or any one else," said Harry. Now I'm the only one left of my family, he thought. Then an owl came and landed next to Harry. He promptly untied the letter from the owl's leg, opened it and read it.

Dear Mr. Potter,

I must regretfully inform you that your relatives, Vernon, Petunia, and Dudley Dursley have passed on. While most of the Dursley's possessions have come into the possession of your uncle's sister, Marge, several letters from Albus Dumbledore to your Aunt Petunia have been explicitly given to you as well as a note from your Aunt to you in the case of her death. These items have been sent to Gringott's for safekeeping until you claim them.

Sincerely,

Rufus Scrimgeour
Minister of Magic

"Hmm. This is odd. I never thought they'd leave me anything when they died," said Harry.

"But Harry, it does make sense. The letters from Professor Dumbledore could easily violate our secrecy bylaws," said Hermione.

"But a note from my aunt? She always treated me horribly."

"Maybe it's an explanation of why she treated you horribly even though she did take you in and raised you," said Hermione.

"If you could call it that," said Harry. "We'll just go to Gringott's tomorrow to get the letters while we're in Diagon Alley for our school supplies tomorrow." Harry let out a yawn.

"Harry. You look like you haven't slept in a while. You should go upstairs and rest," said Mrs. Weasley. "I'll call you when dinner's ready.

"You're right," said Harry. "I do need some rest."

"In fact, you all look like you need some rest," said Mrs. Weasley.

"But mum! We don't need it," said Ron and Ginny.

"Yes you do. Bill and Fleur will be able to help me with dinner tonight. Now get upstairs and rest, all four of you," said Mrs. Weasley. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all went upstairs to rest even though Ron and Ginny didn't want to, but they knew their mother was right. They did need sleep after not getting any the night before.

OoOoOo

Harry woke up around 5 p.m. that evening, and noticed that Ron wasn't in his bed. He must already be awake, thought Harry as he stumbled out of bed and found his glasses, and then he went downstairs.

When he got downstairs, he saw Mrs. Weasley, Bill, and Fleur. "Where's Ron?" asked Harry.

"He's outside with Hermione and Ginny," replied Mrs. Weasley. "Dinner's almost ready, and you definitely need some more food. You're too skinny."

Harry just said, "Thank you, Mrs. Weasley," and headed out the door to find Ron, Hermione, and Ginny de-gnoming the garden.

"It would have been nice of you to wake me up," said Harry.

"I tried. You were sound asleep," said Ron.

"And you looked so peaceful," said Ginny.

"Hey. What were you doing there?" asked Harry.

"Getting Ron to help me with de-gnoming the garden. It seems to be getting worse," said Ginny even though that wasn't the real reason.

"Your mum said dinner's almost ready," said Harry. "We better get inside." Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were glad to hear this, so they went inside to eat dinner.

OoOoOo

"Now, you four better get to sleep early, tonight," said Mrs. Weasley. "We have a busy day tomorrow."

"All right, Mum," answered Ron and Ginny.

"All right, Mrs. Weasley," answered Harry and Hermione as they all sat down to eat.

"These books are getting more and more expensive each year," said Ron.

"We'll manage. We always have," said Mrs. Weasley. "I just hope that your father's not overworking himself at the Ministry. He's been working overtime all summer long except for Bill and Fleur's wedding day."

"Don't worry, I'm sure Dad's fine," said Ron right before he took a big bite out of his dinner. Mrs. Weasley, Bill, Fleur, Ron, Ginny, Harry and Hermione had an interesting conversation about whether any other students would return to Hogwarts. Hermione seemed to think that Seamus Finnigan would convince his mother to let him attend, and she was sure Neville would be made to attend by his grandmother.

"I wonder if Luna's going to be coming back," said Ginny.

"Probably," said Hermione.

When they were finished with dinner, Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione played two-on-two Quidditch until it was too dark to continue, so they went up to their respective rooms to sleep before their trip to Diagon Alley.

OoOoOo

"Wake up, Ron and Harry! We're already running late!" said Mrs. Weasley.

"Okay, mum, I'm getting up," mumbled Ron. "Harry, get up!"

"Just five more minutes," mumbled Harry.

"Harry! Get up!" yelled Ron.

"Okay, Okay," said Harry. "But I was having the best dream I've had in a long time," said Harry.

"What was it about?" asked Ron.

"I defeated Voldemort." At the sound of Harry saying Voldemort's name, Ron cringed.

"How?"

"I'm not quite sure how. All I know is that I defeated him, and people celebrated that day and several days afterwards."

"Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter, get downstairs now!" yelled Mrs. Weasley. "The Ministry cars have been waiting for half an hour.

"We better get going," said Ron as he left the room and Harry followed. When they get downstairs, Mrs. Weasley immediately rushed them to the Ministry cars, and Mr. Weasley, Harry, Ron, and Hermione got into one while Bill, Fleur, Mrs. Weasley, and Ginny got into the other one. Before they knew it, they were outside the Leaky Cauldron. They entered and the barman looked up from wiping a glass. "Sorry, Tom. We're just heading to Diagon Alley today," said Mr. Weasley as he headed out the other door and tapped the bricks in a certain order to reveal Diagon Alley in front of them.

"We can't do what we did last year. We need to go to Gringott's to get some money for your school supplies, then I'll take Ron and Harry to get new robes. They're both still growing a lot. Speaking of robes, you're going to need to get new dress robes since you've grown so much."

"Why do we need dress robes for?" asked Ron.

"Don't you know? There's a ball after graduation from Hogwarts. Open to only graduates and their dates," said Mrs. Weasley.

"Why hasn't anyone ever told us this?" asked Ron.

"Tradition. Of course, this year the graduation ball may be canceled if things don't start turning our way. Arthur, can you get their school supplies? Here's the list," said Mrs. Weasley.

"Of course, Molly," responded Mr. Weasley as they arrived at Gringott's.

"Mr. Weasley, we thought you'd still be on your honeymoon," said one of the goblins addressing Bill.

"There was a change in plans," responded Bill. "And how many times do I have to tell you, just call me Bill."

"Come this way. We still need to verify your identities. Security procedures in these dark times," said the goblin as he assured them to another goblin who used some sort of modified secrecy detector that revealed everyone was who they said they were. "Everyone can come with me down to the vaults. Mr. Potter, the letters from the late Albus Dumbledore to your late Aunt Petunia as well as the note from her to you are in your vault." So they all went to their vaults. The first stop was of course, the Weasley family's vault where Mrs. Weasley scrounged around for enough money. Then they went to Harry's vault, where Harry unsuccessfully tried to block the view of how much money he had and found some money he could use for his supplies, as well as some to donate to the needy of Godric's Hollow and the letters from Dumbledore to Harry's Aunt Petunia and the note from her to Harry.

When they get back to the ground level, Harry instructed the goblin to change the wizarding money to it's Muggle equivalent and donate it to the needy of Godric's Hollow anonymously. Then Mr. Weasley went with Hermione and Ginny to get school supplies and Mrs. Weasley with Bill, Fleur, Harry, and Ron to get Harry and Ron fitted for some new robes. Afterwards, the Weasleys, Harry, and Hermione headed to Number 12 Grimmauld Place, which was now owned by Harry with the death of Sirius Black.

OoOoOo

When they were all settled in, Harry took out the letters he had gotten from Gringotts when he was alone with Ron and Hermione.

"Are you going to look at them?" asked Ron.

"I'm not quite sure. I'm sure there's something in them, but I'm not quite sure if I want to read them," said Harry.

"Harry, you know you need to," said Hermione. "Your aunt and uncle wouldn't have taken you in unless Professor Dumbledore somehow convinced them."

"Okay, I'll start with this one. It's the oldest," said Harry.

Dear Mrs. Petunia Dursley,

I am writing to inform you that your sister and her family may be in danger from a wizard styling himself Lord Voldemort. I would like to request that you allow them to temporarily hide themselves in your house.

Sincerely,
Albus Dumbledore

"Apparently, they didn't want us there," said Harry as he started to read the next letter.

Dear Mrs. Petunia Dursley,

You may disregard my last letter to you. Lily, James, and Harry have been hidden in a small village for the time being, but we may meet again depending on how certain things happen.

Sincerely,
Albus Dumbledore

"I'm guessing that letter must have been sent after my family decided to hide in Godric's Hollow," said Harry.

The last letter that Harry read was the letter from Dumbledore to his Aunt Petunia that had instructed Petunia to take Harry in and treat him like he was her own and that Dumbledore cast protection that relied on the family connection between Petunia Dursley and Harry Potter that would last until Harry comes of age. Then Harry finally opened the note from his aunt.

Harry,

I am sorry for how I treated you these past years, but I felt I needed to take Vernon's terrible stance towards you in order for him to allow you to live with us. Dumbledore reminded me that I would want Dudley to be with family if Vernon and I died and that we were the only family that you had.

I feared magic because I could not do any and was jealous of Lily. I knew more than the average non-magic person because I overheard a conversation between Lily and an awful boy during her schoolyears at Hogwarts. Unfortunately, that's all I can tell you in this note.

Your Aunt Petunia.

"Somehow I find it hard to believe that my aunt would have actually cared for me like I was her own," said Harry.

"Well, she didn't, but she did take you in," said Ron.

"That shows that she did realize that you had a right to live," said Hermione, "and it's possible she loved you in her own sort of way."

"This just doesn't seem right," said Harry before he realized how late it was and let out a yawn. "I think it's time to call it a night."

You read it, now please review. Constructive criticism is welcome.