Chapter 2 – An Important Letter
Jon Potter hated the summer holidays. School was an excuse to get out the house for hours almost every day of the week and without that escape he and his brother were either being put to work or left in their cupboard.
This day in particular was one Jon despised above most others. It was the 23rd of June 1991, and Dudley Dursley had turned 11. As was the case every year, Dudley's birthday entailed massive amounts of food at breakfast lunch and dinner, and a pile of presents that was so big it dwarfed even Vernon's massive girth. This year, in addition to the usual fuss, the Dursleys were set to take a family trip to the zoo. For the Potter boys, this meant a list of chores long enough to keep them occupied for the duration of the Dursley's trip and instructions to prepare a massive birthday feast for the family's return.
Both children were awake when their Aunt Petunia slid the bolt on the cupboard door open with a sharp "Up! Up! Get breakfast sorted." They slid easily into their usual routine, Jon handling the frying pan, making bacon eggs and sausages, while Harry set the table and started a pot of tea. The boys moved around each other with a grace that only comes with great practice, preparing a breakfast to a standard that most would rarely have at home. By the time the two Dursley males had pulled themselves out of bed and lumbered down the stairs a hearty breakfast was spread on the table.
The food was consumed quickly with very little in the way of leftovers and the Dursley family moved to the living room where Dudley surveyed his presents for that year. Dudley swept a scrutinizing eye over the collection of presents and turned to his father, "How many are there?"
"Thirty-six, counted them myself." Vernon replied with a happy grin.
"Thirty-six! But last year, last year I had thirty-seven!" Dudley turned red in a passable impression of his father, scrunching his fists up in childish anger.
"Ye-ye-yes, but some of them are quite a bit bigger than last year." Vernon stammered.
"I don't care how big they are -" Dudley shouted, working himself into a rage. Unnoticed by the family, Harry turned to his brother and rolled his eyes at the display of their cousin's bratty behaviour. A brief smirk crossed Jon's lips in reply before he turned back to their task of cleaning up the kitchen.
As Vernon's attempts at negotiation failed, Petunia swooped in to mollify Dudley with the promise of two new presents when they went out. Appeased, Dudley ended what could have been an apocalyptic meltdown and sped the family's progress towards the door.
Petunia and Dudley walked out to the car, while Vernon paused a moment to fix the Potter boys with a scrutinizing look. "Not a thing out of place." Vernon said, finally, "All chores done, and Dudley's birthday meal on the table."
"Yes sir." The boys chorused, keeping their eyes to the ground. With a suspicious grunt, Vernon turned and left the house, locking the door behind him.
At the click of the lock in the door, Jon and Harry both let out a slight sigh of relief. Without the threat of the Dursleys, the boys were able to make themselves a small bit of breakfast far better than what they would normally receive, before setting about their chores.
Between them the remains of breakfast were cleaned up and the plates were washed, all the discarded present wrapping was binned, the house was dusted and the vacuum cleaner was run through each room. Each task was done with a level of competence that was out of place in a pair of ten-year-olds, and a level of cooperation that spoke of years not only doing such work, but doing it together.
They stopped for a quick lunch, careful not to eat too much so the Dursleys didn't accuse them of stealing food. It wasn't often they had run of the kitchen to make food for themselves though, so the opportunity wasn't wasted. They made thick sandwiches, filled with cheese, sliced tomatoes, and bits of chicken Jon had saved from dinner the night before. To make it even better, Jon grilled each sandwich in the oven, toasting the bread and melting the cheese. There was very little in the way of conversation over lunch. Jon and Harry spent almost all their time together, and any time spent apart was spent doing chores, so talk was restricted to the books each was reading in the library at school.
"I just got finished with Return of the King, Harry. You were right, I did love it. Aragorn is such an awesome character." Jon had just finished reading the Lord of the Rings series at Harry's recommendation. Harry had read that himself just a few weeks before and knew his brother would enjoy the pure fantasy epic. "After Saruman though, Sauron isn't nearly as interesting. It's my turn to pick something for you next, right?"
Harry nodded, "Yeah, try and choose something a bit less dull than that history book from last time please." Jon let out a laugh as Harry screwed up his face in remembered boredom.
"I'll choose some fiction this time, I promise. I saw one called Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I think it's meant to be good." As the conversation came to an end, the boys gathered up their plates and got back to work, preparing for Dudley's birthday dinner.
Cooking specifically for Dudley was always a relatively simple affair compared to some of the meals their Aunt Petunia wanted them to cook. The rule was simple, make it meat and make a lot of it. As a result, the Dursley family were eating rib eye steak tonight, with thick potato wedges. Their Aunt Petunia had read an article in some fad magazine and decided the family needed to be healthier, though she wasn't wrong. She insisted they would be having something healthy with the meal. While usually Dudley managed to avoid green food of any sort, Petunia was being particularly stubborn so Dudley had agreed to a side of roast vegetables. For dessert, Jon and Harry prepared a birthday cake, complete with chocolate sponge, chocolate buttercream icing, and a hand-written message of 'Happy Birthday Dudley'.
The birthday dinner took the focus of both brothers until the Dursleys returned home at five that night, and the boys finished the meal just in time. They plated the food, and served the table before retreating from the room so the Dursleys could enjoy their meal without the presence of their 'freakish little nephews'.
Jon and Harry sat in their cupboard silently, the muffled sounds of a family enjoying a good meal filtering through from the dining room. They sat together, stomachs rumbling, knowing they wouldn't taste a morsel of the meal they had spent half the day preparing. It wasn't right. It wasn't fair. "I truly hate them." Jon muttered, his features contorting in a way that seemed so out of place on a child's face. "What they do to us, it's inhuman. They're monsters shaped like people." Jon's eyes burned with a hatred grown for a decade; stoked with each cruel action and brutal beating into a fire that raged inside him.
"At least we have each other. I don't think I could survive this without you." Harry, eyes tearing up slightly, leant against his brother's side. The tension in Jon's body relaxed, his anger lessening.
"Someday we'll get out of here, I promise you that."
A week after Dudley's birthday, the occupants of number 4 Privet Drive were back to their daily routine. It was the 1st of July, a Monday, so breakfast was prepared for 8am to give Vernon plenty of time to get to work. As the Dursley family ate, Harry and Jon stood to the side of the kitchen door awaiting instruction. The letterbox clattered as that day's mail arrived. "Fetch the mail, boy!" Vernon yelled, pointing a meaty finger at Jon.
"Yes sir." Jon spoke, turning and walking to the front door. He knelt, picking up the bundle, and was about to return when he noticed something strange on the envelope in front of him. It was addressed to Harry Potter. Jon separated it from the pile for a closer look and noticed an almost identical envelope underneath, one that bore his name.
"Hurry up boy!" Vernon's yell came from the other room.
Jon picked himself up off his knees, and quickly threw the letters addressed to him and his brother into the cupboard. He kept his eyes down as he entered through the kitchen door and passed what other letters had come to his uncle.
Vernon finished his breakfast and headed out to work, followed soon after by Dudley who was going out to meet his friends in the neighbourhood. Petunia set the boys a list of chores for the day, before settling down with a cup of tea and a book in the living room.
As they went about the jobs for that day Jon whispered to Harry, telling him about the letters he had found. Encouraged by the mystery, Harry worked harder at their chores, for once eager to be sent back to the cupboard under the stairs. Petunia wandered through the back door to where the Potter boys were gardening, intending to set them to making lunch before finishing up their work. She was surprised to find the garden perfectly tidy and the boys putting away the last of the tools. "In. You're to make lunch and then back in the cupboard until it's time to make dinner." Petunia said, failing to notice the happy smile that passed briefly over Harry's face.
"Yes ma'am." They chorused, trooping into the kitchen.
A half hour later, Petunia took her food through to the living room, mentioning she would be going to the weekly meeting of the neighbourhood mums after eating and that they were not to leave their cupboard. Having no problem with that, not that they would have said if they did, both boys entered the cupboard and closed the door firmly behind them.
"Okay, so this one is yours and this one is mine." Harry said, passing Jon the letter with his name on it and picking up his own. "Same time?" He asked.
"Sure." Jon broke the strange wax seal in the shape of a capital 'H' and pulled out the letter, Harry doing the same. "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? This can't be real…" Jon trailed off, looking to see if Harry had the same.
"Mine is identical, 'We await your owl', is that how these get delivered?" Harry asked, a look of wonderment in his eyes.
"I don't think so, I've never heard of an owl that can deliver mail. Though, they also say magic is real so we can hardly rule it out." Jon took a moment to skim over the rest of the letter, and the attached list of texts and supplies that one needs to pursue an education as a wizard.
Harry put his letter down, considering what he had just read. "It is possible, isn't it? Don't you remember all the things we used to get punished for when we were younger? That thing you did when Vernon – when you saved me. That must have been magic!" Harry was slowly getting louder as he got caught up in his excitement.
"Shhhh!" Jon hushed him, putting a hand over Harry's mouth. "Petunia hasn't left yet." Jon released Harry and slowly sat back listening carefully for any indication that Petunia had heard them.
"Sorry…" Harry mumbled, slightly red in embarrassment.
Jon sighed, relaxing. It seemed they had gotten away with it. "Okay, it seems so crazy but if you're right this could be our way out of here. I don't want to risk missing it. Once Petunia leaves, I'll go and grab a piece of paper, an envelope, and a stamp from the drawers by the table. We'll send a letter to Hogwarts, to this Minerva McGonagall, and ask for a member of staff to be sent to help us get the supplies."
Harry agreed, and soon after the sound of the door slamming and a key turning in the lock could be heard, indicating Petunia had left for her thinly veiled gossip session.
"We should have a couple hours now, before anyone gets back to the house. Let's get that letter done." Jon and Harry crept out of their cupboard, years of conditioning kept them silent despite knowing all the Dursleys were out. Jon retrieved the materials needed, while Harry grabbed a pen, and they both rushed back to the relative safety of the cupboard.
Harry passed Jon the pen, as they settled in front of the small shelf in the cupboard to compose their letter. Jon hummed quietly in thought, "How about, 'Dear Deputy Headmistress McGonagall, As our relatives are not magical and we do not know where to retrieve our supplies, we respectfully request that a member of staff be sent to assist us.' I could sign it 'Yours sincerely,' from both of us?"
Harry nodded along with Jon's suggestion, "I don't think there's much more to say. It sounds good enough to me." As Jon wrote out the decided upon message, Harry fixed the stamp to the front of the envelope and took the finished letter, slotting it inside.
Jon wrote 'Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry' on the front. He hesitated, realising that was hardly a proper address, but decided to go with it anyway as there was no more to add.
"How are we gonna send it? The only time we could possibly go is when everyone is out and they always lock the door?" Harry asked, biting his lip at the first major flaw in their plan.
Jon paused, thinking it over. "I'll go now, we can open the front window and I'll run over to the post office. It shouldn't take me more than twenty minutes so I'll be back before anyone else is." Harry opened his mouth to protest, but hesitated at the determined look in Jon's eyes. Instead, Harry pushed the door to the cupboard open and led the way to the back window.
"Twenty minutes, no more." Harry said, worry for his brother evident in his tone. Jon nodded his agreement as he slipped his shoes on, then slipped out of the window being careful not to tread on any of the flowers in the garden below.
Jon took off at a run, knowing that speed was key to this plan. He ran through the streets keeping his eyes open for Dudley and his gang. Running into them would be disastrous and definitely result in a very harsh beating, if not at their hands then at the hands of his uncle. He clutched the letter tightly, though not so tightly as to damage it, as his all-out sprint slowed to more of a jog, giving Jon a moment to regain his breath.
Jon kept up that pace, sprinting as fast as he could until he had to slow then jogging to catch his breath, until the post office was finally in sight. There was a post box right outside, as Jon knew there would be. He slowed to a stop and leaned against the post box, gasping, as he placed his precious cargo inside. He had done it. Job done, he took a moment to glance around and notice with dread the large form of his cousin inside the post office, likely buying some sweets with his friends. Not only was his cousin mere metres away and heading towards the door, but Dudley only ever stopped by the post office when he was on his way home. Jon couldn't just hide and wait as Dudley would get home before him, and he wouldn't make the sprint down the long street and around the corner before Dudley left the post office. Jon's hands began to shake as panic settled in; there didn't seem to be a way out.
At the last moment, completely on instinct, Jon ran straight at the wooden fence that separated the post office from the house beside it and clambered over, just in time to avoid Dudley's gang stepping out onto the street. Landing in a heap, Jon scrambled to his feet and through the thin gaps in the fence could see Dudley and Piers, who also lived on Privet Drive, split from their group and walk leisurely down the street in the direction Jon had just came from.
He couldn't return to the street, so Jon turned, taking in his new surroundings. The back of the post office looked similar to any other back garden, though not as well kept as the one at number 4. The fences separating each garden from the next were not particularly high, stopping just above the average waist height of an adult male, and the garden held nothing of interest except for a few boxes to restock the soft drinks in the post office.
Desperate now to beat Dudley, Jon jumped at the fence blocking the way to the garden opposite, scrambling over it with relative ease compared to the one that had barred his way to the back of the post office. After sprinting across that garden Jon opened the gate, happy that there was in fact a gate to open, and stepped out onto the street that ran parallel to the one he had left moments ago. Jon took off at a sprint towards Privet Drive, unknowingly overtaking his cousin, and didn't stop running until number 4 Privet Drive was in sight.
His heart soared as he beheld the empty driveway, and Harry's pale face in the front window where he had been watching for Jon's return. He rushed to the window and carefully pulled himself in with Harry's help. "So?" Harry asked, "Did you send it?"
"I did. Dudley's on his way back, come on." Jon said, grabbing onto Harry's hand and pulling him back towards the cupboard. With the door to the cupboard firmly closed behind them, Jon told Harry of his success in delivering the letter and the near miss that followed. Dudley arrived home, with Petunia arriving soon after, and the Potter boys were set to making dinner.
At next week's meeting of Petunia's group of neighbourhood gossips, there would be talk of a hooligan hopping fences over by the post office. Petunia would hem and haw about how disgraceful that was, and suggest it was likely to be that dreadful boy a few streets over who liked to wear all black and had an ear piercing, but would never once consider the boys in the cupboard under the stairs.