Harry appears looking at his Aunts home, and it takes him a moment to regain his bearings. Mrs fiddler walks past him blithely and says "Hi" as though he hasn't just appeared out of nowhere. Walking into the house he's met by Petunia.

"And where do you think you've been?", she taps her foot on the floor in time with each syllable.

"Out, thinking. I got a letter to a school called Hogwarts earlier and I needed to think about it."

Petunia sags and sits in one of the chairs, "Oh, I suppose you'll be wanting a proper bedroom then."

"Ah, actually I'd rather stay where I am if that's ok with you."

"But you must be getting too big for that cupboard now."

"Na, it's fine. It just means that I have to bend over before I climb down the ladder."

Petunia looks up sharply, "Ladder? What ladder?"

Harry quickly tries to place the ladder in the cupboard, when it tells him he can't afford it, he realises that he's no longer part of the household budget. Selling a load more fruit, he quickly buys it as well as a posh cauldron and magical paraphernalia for his bedroom that he'll move around properly later.

"This one Aunt Petunia. I'm just going to write a reply to the letter if you want to come down."

"Uh, how long has this been here?"

"Since I was 7, I got fed up with sleeping on the ratty mattress and made my own room."

Petunia followed her nephew down three different ladders until they arrived in a very nice room that took up the entire plot of land well underneath the house. While she was taking in the layout of the room down here, Harry took the time to change the access on the cupboard door to exclude Dudley, Marge, and Vernon. Not that he had anything against Dudley at the moment, but he was still childish, and prone to breaking things.

"But, how?"

Harry smiled a massive shit eating grin, "Magic."

"There's a video game unit in the corner over there, the TV gets all the channels, same with the stereo next to it. The bookshelf might have some titles you're interested in. Make yourself at home, I've just got to write this. Do you think I should address the Headmaster or the Deputy?"

"Deputy, the headmaster's the one that dumped you on our doorstep." She replies absently as her brain continued to look around and tried to reboot and make sense of what she was seeing.

"How does this sound? To Deputy Headmistress McGonagall. I have received your invitation to the school, and have managed to get some of the supplies. However, I will need assistance in getting the specific books, ingredients and a school uniform. Additionally, I'm not sure that the Cauldron I bought is correct as it hardly seems like something I could take to classes. Please could you offer some assistance as I live with my Aunt and Uncle in a non-magical area. From Harry Potter."

"That sounds good. Wait, how are you able to write so well?"

"I really needed to learn to read, so according to the people I chat with on the message boards I come across as around 5 years older than I am."

"Chat? Message boards?"

"Well, yeah, what do you think the computer's for?"

"But we don't have…"

"Don't worry about that, my computer's taking care of that."

"And your TV, where?"

"Oh, don't worry, all of this came out of the money that you're not getting paid for me. £800 a month at last count."

"But Vernon said we weren't getting any money for you."

"Oh, just sit down Aunty, the chairs aren't going to bite. In fact the hardest part is actually making yourself stand up again."

As she sits down the tension and discomfort that she's feeling seems to just melt away. See, harder to decide to get up.

"This is better than our bed."

"It's got nothing on my bed. But until I go to school, it's mine only. Oh, and as this is a boarding school, it would be nice if I had a new cousin to come home to." He tries to hide the mischievous smile on his face as he says that, and instead busies himself with summoning Sunbeam again. It seems to take longer than it did before, as though he's reaching further than he did before. That stands to reason he figures, as he's no longer standing in the realm of magic. Once he finishes summoning her his Energy bar is an angry red. He looks over to the sofa to let his aunt know he's going to have a nap, only stopping when he sees that she's already napping on his sofa.

"I'm gonna sleep for a bit Sunbeam, have a look around if you want. Sorry I can't stay awake." He promptly staggers over to the bed before he falls into an undignified heap on the floor and sleeps on his face again.

Once he's asleep, Sunbeam hops onto the back of the chair he was using and looks at the letter intently. Nodding to herself she looks over to Harry to make sure that he's asleep before hopping down to the letter and carefully picking it up in one claw before disappearing in a flash of light that is ignored by the occupants of the room.

Minerva McGonagall isn't so lucky, as Sunbeam appears just in front of her with her trademark fulgent flash of light. The Deputy head leaps backwards clutching her eyes and screaming in agony as she knocks over her chair and then bumps into the wall behind her desk. Sunbeam drops the letter and flies to perch on the chair in front of the desk while she waits for the deputy to recover. Eventually Minerva recovers enough to draw her wand and, on the third try, send a patronus message to Poppy asking for something to counteract flash blindness in her office. It doesn't take long for Poppy to arrive, though the long pause as she takes in Sunbeam's magnificence delays the administration of whatever cure is involved significantly. Sunbeam just preens at the attention.

Eventually Poppy recovers enough to cast a fairly simple spell on Minerva's eyes, and she blinks back tears as her vision clears.

"Thank you Poppy. Did you see anyone on your way up here?"

Mutely Poppy just shakes her head and points to Sunbeam who is currently burning claw prints into the back of the chair. Minerva just stares at her and then at her desk where the slightly browned piece of paper is lying on top of her paperwork. She reads the letter twice before she looks up at the phoenix.

"Is this really from Harry Potter?"

Instead of answering, Sunbeam launches herself from the seat back towards Minerva. Her full raptor heritage on display for the brief moment before her talons contact Minerva's shoulder. There's a brief scream that's cut off by Sunbeam flashing out, but that's OK, Poppy's scream and stumbling around clutching her eyes makes up for it.

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Minerva appears in Harry's bedroom with Sunbeam as the phoenix finishes landing on her shoulder and turns around to face the front. When Minerva doesn't respond fast enough Sunbeam nips her ear and indicates the bed with her wing. Walking over cautiously she looks at Harry's peaceful face as he naps on top of the covers. Staggering backwards, she spots an armchair by the thing mounted on the wall and walks over, idly noting Petunia sleeping on the long sofa. The reason for that becomes apparent as she sinks into the sinfully comfortable chair, maybe the loveseat across from her would be a better choice. Regretfully standing up, she makes her way over to the love seat and sits down and feels herself relax. Before she knows it she's joined Petunia in napping on a sofa.

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Back at Hogwarts Albus Dumbledore, wearing lime green robes with purple and orange footballs moving around on them, arrives at Minerva's office after been called by the portraits after they saw Poppy staggering around clutching her eyes. It doesn't take long to apply a pain relieving charm, which allows her to cure her own flash blindness.

"My dear Poppy, whatever happened to you?" He asks genially.

"I almost wish I was still blind." She mutters before continuing in a louder voice, "Minerva just got taken by phoenix after she read a letter from Harry Potter."

"Fawkes!"

A beautiful phoenix flames in onto Albus's his feathers looks like the colours of flames as drawn by children everywhere around the world. His slim body sits regally on Albus' shoulder, his fruit and seed eating heritage clear to see from the curve of his beak to the claws designed for manipulating rather than ripping and tearing. He was very proud of his plumage, and took great care over his grooming every day. Once he'd taken a moment to be admired, Fawkes trills a questioning note.

"Did you take Minerva anywhere?"

Fawkes shakes his head while trilling a negative note.

"Would you be able to take me to her please?"

Fawkes bobs his head before flaming out with Albus. Poppy sighs with relief as Fawkes' exit leaves her with only mildly irritated eyeballs rather than someone's trying to claw them out with a rusty spork eyeballs.

"Oh, thank Merlin that's over with. Tempus. Oh good, I can make the shops in Diagon."

With a brief moment of prescience, Poppy heads off to Diagon Alley to buy herself a pair of glasses that will protect her eyes from sudden changes in illumination.

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Albus and Fawkes appear in Harry's bedroom and are momentarily nonplussed by the lack of windows. This moment's introspection is broken by a magnificent specimen of a female phoenix launching from the back of a chair to circle lazily around Fawkes, examining him like a particularly good side of beef. Fawkes puffs his chest out and flares his wings slightly, to show off his plumage to it's best. That is until he realises just what he's looking at. Then he lets out a trill that sounds a lot like "Oh shit, I thought they were all supposed to be trapped. I'm to young to be a father." Before flaming out without care, and setting Albus's beard, hair, and hat on fire.

Poor Albus doesn't even have time to start patting his beard out before Sunbeam flashes out after him. The Fulgent light illuminating the room like the flash from a welding torch when it touches metal in a dark room. On the plus side, his scream of agony as his retinas are lightly toasted wakes everyone else up. Harry pulls a CO2 fire extinguisher from somewhere and quickly hoses Albus down, but not before his beard and hair have burnt through, leaving the length of both to fall in wisps on the floor.

"Well, I'm Harry Potter. I'm pretty sure I know my aunt. But who are you two, and how did you get in here?"

"I my dear boy, am Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry."

Harry idly notes the notification saying that he's ambitious, loner, and self-assured. "It's nice to meet you."

"I am Professor McGonagall, I believe that you wrote a letter to me."

He notes the notification saying she's Proper, Family-Orientated, and Genius, before nodding to her, "I did, though I was going to put it into the post box outside once I woke up."

"Well a beautiful phoenix brought me here, and I must confess I sat on one of these seats and couldn't help falling asleep."

"That's probably because they have a comfort rating of 8, I couldn't find anything with a higher rating when I bought them. My bed is much more comfortable though."

Albus' eyes start to twinkle as he says in his best grandfathery voice, "That brings up a good point, I was under the impression that you were living with Petunia Dursley."

"Do you mean my Aunt, who you've ignored even though she's standing beside your deputy?"

"Yes, but this is clearly not Number 4 Privet Drive."

Harry can't help it, he doubles over in laughter. Petunia on the other hand huffs, "Well, if you deigned to actually visit us on occasion you'd know full well that this is Number 4, and we're currently under the cupboard under the stairs. I was initially surprised at just how inventive Harry was, but now I'm glad that he did make his own bedroom. You couldn't even be bothered to answer my letters about help paying for Harry's stuff."

"But my dear, I visited with your dear husband and arranged everything with him."

"Harry is MY nephew, this house is MY house in MY name given to me by MY sister as a present at MY wedding. Do you have any idea what being hostage to an oaf like Vernon has felt like all these years? Harry asked me if he could have a new cousin earlier, do you know what. I would love to give him a new cousin, but the stupid fat oaf can't even keep it up long enough to WooHoo properly. Not only that, he stinks, he's a slob and he's mean. To cap it all, I've just found out that I could have kicked his sorry arse to the curb years ago and still had enough coming in to look after both children. And you have the temerity to tell me that your chauvinistic and misogynistic arse spoke to the person that has the least say in the running of the house?"

Harry gapes at the fire engine red colour of his Aunt's portrait in the conversation indicator. It's the first time he's ever seen a very angry response from anyone. Quickly he brings up her simology panel and looks at her basic traits. Family-orientated, neat, and jealous. Pulling up Venons panel he compares the two, materialistic, slob, and hates children. Well that explains a lot, though there must be a lot of not so prominent traits causing friction. He can't see that she's got any additional traits, so it must be one of those things that's been building for ages. He looks up from his musings as it looks like his Aunt is not going to blow a gasket, but also try to strangle Albus with it.

Gently grabbing her arm, he tugs her away to a bookcase door that hides the stairs down to his bathroom and gym area. "Aunt Petunia, why don't you come down here and have a bubble bath. It's nice and quiet, and there's a stereo in the corner that you can turn to any channel you like. You'll like this bath, it's got spa quality water jets."

Focusing on Albus, Harry uses the "ask to leave" menu option that says that they will leave with no hard feelings. He feels himself say, "Mr Dumbledore, I think it's time you left."

Albus nods, and replies, "I'm sorry, I need to go now," before climbing the ladder that leads to the cupboard under the stairs and leaving the property. He comes out of his daze on the pavement outside the house. Unfortunately, Harry has added him to the banned list on all the doors by the time that happens, as Albus finds it quite impossible to re-enter the house.

As Petunia walks down the stairs Harry turns to the Deputy Head Mistress, "I'm sorry about that, would you like to have a seat while we wait for my Aunt to finish her bath, or would you prefer to chat now?"

"I don't think it would be right to have this discussion without at least one of your guardians present."

"Would you like a tea or coffee?"

"Tea please."

"I can do you calming Chamomile, Earl Grey, Healthy Green, Pitch Black, Run Oolong, and Steamy Ginseng."

"I'll have an Earl Grey please."

Making her a mug of Earl Grey, he gets himself a glass of water before sitting down on the sofa. She puts her own mug down on the coffee table and sits in the armchair. Harry turns on the TV to Sky 1 for something to watch while they're waiting, something that seems to fascinate McGonagall.

Suddenly Harry speaks up, "Oh, Sunbeam's coming back and she feels happy, satisfied, and disgruntled. I'm not sure how you can feel both satisfied and disgruntled."

Minerva throws her elbow over her eyes just in time as the room is illuminated for a fraction of a second.

"So did you get to WooHoo with Fawkes? Uh huh, oh, he asked for an egg half way through. No, I have no idea what that feels like. No, but Vernon will find out first hand if we can persuade Aunt Petunia to ask for a child. Not right now, we need to be in the same area. Sure, I can do that. I don't know if it's typical. Look, I'm only 11, it's not like I'm likely to WooHoo with anyone for years. Maybe you should ask the Deputy over there. What do you mean she can't hear you? Does that mean that I've been looking like a complete idiot for the last 5 minutes? Oh, jee, thanks."

Fortunately for Harry, the sound of giggling laughter coming up the stairs breaks the flow of the conversation. Coughing lightly, Minerva broaches a subject that has been bothering her. "Mr Potter, you said in your letter that you'd been able to get some supplies. Would you be able to show me what you've bought?"

"Oh, right, yeah. Well the Cauldron is right over there." He points his thumb behind him.

"That's a cauldron? I thought it was a fancy washtub."

"Why would I need one of those when we've got a washing machine?"

"Oh, I, um. Well it's somewhat larger than I've ever seen used for potions. What else did you buy."

"You've met sunbeam, I was pretty lucky to find a phoenix familiar there. I've also got a raven. A Broom, though that's for travel in the Realm of Magic and surrounds more than school. And finally a wand, specifically a wand of astral creation."

"Maybe we should get Ollivandar to look at the wand when we go to Diagon Alley."

Harry glances down at the untouched tea and notices that it only has a few minutes left on it's spoiled timer, "Deputy Head, you might want to drink your tea before it goes bad."

"Call me Professor McGonagall or Mrs McGonagall, after all I'm going to be one of your teachers."

"Oh, what subject do you teach?"

"Transfiguration. That's the art of changing one thing into another. There's a lot of theory involved, but you'll start out at a very basic level, and progress to more complex and dangerous changes as the years go on. Like most magical subjects, there is always going to be some level of danger from miscast magic if you're not careful. However, unlike potions, any danger in my class comes from deliberate use of something that is poorly understood. Such as turning someone's blood to mud or wine. That's why I spend so much time on theory, so that none of my students can ever say, 'but I didn't know it would do that'. I know that some of the other schools spend less time on the theory and dangers so that they can fit in an extra class or two. But we never do that at Hogwarts."

Minerva jumps as Petunia leans over the back of the chair and drapes herself over her shoulder. "Hello beautiful. I don't think we've formally met. I'm Petunia Dursley, formally Evans."

Harry stares and goes bright red as he forgot just what items he put around the bath to make his bubble baths more fun, and he hadn't turned off their emotional auras. "I'm just going to the loo, be back in a bit."

He did go to the loo, he also played around with the boxing post until the sounds of giggling stopped coming down the stairs. When he heads back up and rejoins the conversation, he can see the familiar yellow of embarrassment on both their portraits, not that he needs the portraits.

"Right, Mrs McGonagall. My Aunt is here now, what was it you wanted to talk about with a guardian present."

Minerva coughs, "Right, first of all. Mrs Dursley, last time I saw you, you seemed to be very much anti magic. What's changed?"

Petunia looks down at her hands, "I was jealous, Lily got to go to learn magic and I had to stay behind in the normal world. Then she met the perfect man, and well, I met Vernon. It wasn't until Dudley was born that he changed, and I was just mad that she got all the luck. I… took it out on Harry during his early years. It's not something I'm proud of. But Dudley, Vernon, and I all had to go to counselling because of Dudley's gender non-conforming behaviour. And, well, I had to face some ugly truths about myself. Then Harry started to show that magic wasn't just flashy, it could also be discrete and useful."

Harry abruptly stands up and heads for the stairs. "I'll, be right back, I just need to make a phone call."

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Harry heads back down to the gym area and uses his interface phone to call Simeon, Sunbeam balancing on his shoulder.

"Hello Harry, to what do I have the pleasure of this call?"

"I've just found out that a lot of my problems with my Aunt have stemmed from her Jealousy about the fact her sister had magic and she didn't. I know you said that it was possible to give someone magic, do you think you could do it to Petunia?"

"I can't leave here, but if you check your interface phone, there should be an invite over option. If you do that I'll send over a duplicate, it's a virtuoso level spell so don't bother asking. I can then talk to your aunt and make a decision then."

"I've also got Professor McGonagall here, she's the deputy head of the school I'm going to go to."

"Do you mind if I bring over a colleague? She's the sage of mischief magic."

"I don't mind. I'll send the request now."

A few moments later there's a swirl of light as Simeon appears next to Harry, "I'm just calling L. When she arrives you'll need to invite her in, as the interface won't let her automatically come in without someone on the property making the invite."

"Oh, sure, let me introduce you and then I'll go up the lawn entrance and invite her in."

It doesn't take long before there are 5 of them in Harry's living room area. The conversation quickly turns to magic and the differences between their different styles of magic. Both Simeon and L can see Petunia's Jealousy rising as something she's wanted all of her life is discussed around her. When Simeon sees L give him a nod, he stands up.

"Petunia, do you think I could have a word in private please?"

Simeon reflects on the fact that while L is mean, she's managed to channel it into her magic and express it as a mischievous streak a mile wide. If she's given the nod, then Petunia must be a basically good person despite her jealousy.

Simeon stops once they get downstairs.

"Petunia, L and I could both see how jealous you were getting during the discussion. I'm only going to offer this once, so think about it before you make a decision. I can give you magic, now, today. You'll need to spend a lot of time studying, and it would be our style magic rather than the more flexible magic that Minerva uses. But it would still be magic, and you could also learn to brew our alchemical potions. Which, again are more limited. However, all of our spells have direct practical applications, so I don't think you'll find yourself stinted. You'll also be able to learn how to duel with magic. So, take a deep breath and count to 30 before you make your decision."

He adds the last bit even though her portrait has gone from the blue of sadness to the green of happiness. She's fair vibrating in place by the time the 30 seconds is up, "Yes! Yes! Yes yes yes yes yes."

"OK, stand over there and I'll cast the rite on you. You'll need to gather 7 motes of magic tomorrow and give them to me so I can complete the rite. But this should allow you to go to the realm of magic."

As he casts the spell to channel large amounts of raw magic through someone in a way that will activate their ability to use magic, Simeon can feel this duplicate tiring fast.

Once the spell runs its course, Simeon can barely stand. "Petunia, I'm going to have to go as that took a lot out of me. Give them my apologies. Harry is coming to the Realm of Magic tomorrow anyway, so ask him to talk you through coming there yourself, as it's something you'll need to know.