Chapter Three - The Keeper of the Keys
Violet scratched another tally mark on the wall above her bed. She stared at the marks for a second, counting them, the hairpin she had used to make them now thoughtfully between her teeth.
She had been locked in her cupboard for forty-nine days. She was only allowed out for meals and for bathroom breaks.
When she was originally confined, the door had been left unlocked, but after a week of sneaking out at night to snitch food from the kitchen, Aunt Petunia began to notice the absence of random food items. At first the Dursleys had assumed that Dudley had eaten the missing food, but Uncle Vernon, ever untrusting of Violet, stayed up one night to spy on the refrigerator. Violet, completely unaware that her uncle was waiting for her to sneak out, crept into the kitchen in the dark, and was caught. Uncle Vernon then locked her in her cupboard, and the door was only unlocked three times a day.
She was given little food at each meal, she was only allowed to go to the lavatory when she was already out of her cupboard, and she was only allowed to bathe once a week. (The Dursleys probably wouldn't have allowed her to bathe at all, except then she would eventually begin to smell.)
The hairpin between Violet's teeth that had been used to carve forty-nine marks fell from her teeth as her door rattled. Someone was unlocking it.
"Punishment's over," Uncle Vernon said gruffly.
Violet gasped, then grinned and bounded out of the cupboard; it wouldn't be locked tonight.
She'd been trapped in her cupboard so long, by the time she was let out of it the school year had ended and it was summer holiday. At the moment, she was standing in the kitchen wrinkling her nose over a metal tub in the sink that appeared to be full of dirty rags swimming in grey water.
"What's this?" she asked Aunt Petunia.
"Your new school uniform," her aunt replied.
Violet looked back into the bowl. "Oh." She stared for a second. "It looks huge. I guess I didn't realize Stonewall's uniform was an elephant suit..."
"Don't be stupid, I'm dyeing some of Dudley's old things grey for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when I've finished."
Violet seriously doubted this. Anger flashed in her eyes as she snapped, "That won't work! I'm a girl! Don't you see, I can't wear boy's clothes, I'll be a laughingstock!" Violet knew immediately that she'd gone too far. Aunt Petunia slapped her across the face.
"Never, never speak to me that way, girl, what will it take to make you understand? It doesn't matter, nobody likes you anyway! You'll always be a freak!"
Violet stared. Calling her a freak was a bit harsh, even for Aunt Petunia...
Just then, Uncle Vernon and Dudley entered the room, their noses wrinkled from the smell of the dye. Violet's cheek stung from Aunt Petunia hitting her. Uncle Vernon sat down at the table and opened his newspaper as usual. Then they heard the click of the mail slot and flop of letters on the doormat.
Uncle Vernon ordered Dudley to get the mail, but he refused, insisting that Violet should get it. Violet retaliated.
"Poke her, Dudley," Uncle Vernon said in response to Violet's retaliation. He didn't even look up from his newspaper.
Violet hurried out of the room before Dudley could 'poke' her (his 'pokes' were more like punches) and went to get the mail. On the doormat lay a postcard from Marge, Uncle Vernon's sister, who was vacationing on the Isle of Wight, what appeared to be a bill, and-- no way, it couldn't be-- a letter for Violet?
She picked up the letter and stared at it, her heart pounding. No one had ever written to her. Who would? She had no friends, no other relatives, nobody to correspond with. Yet here was a letter addressed:
Miss V. Potter
The Cupboard under the Stairs
4 Privet Drive
Little Whinging
Surrey
The envelope was made of yellowish parchment, and it was thick and heavy. The address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp.
She glanced back at the kitchen.
"Hurry up! What are you doing, checking for letter bombs?" Uncle Vernon called.
She raised an eyebrow, started toward the kitchen, then stopped, realizing that the Dursleys never let her have anything, so why would they let her keep her letter? She slipped the parchment envelope inside her pocket (the pockets were large since her rather baggy jeans had once belonged to Dudley) and entered the kitchen and threw the other pieces of mail at Uncle Vernon.
Later that night Violet opened her letter in her cupboard with trembling hands. There wasn't much light, but it wasn't too dark to make out the writing:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Miss Potter,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall,
Deputy Headmistress
Violet stared. What was this? Was this some kind of joke? How stupid. Clearly the Dursleys played a prank on her. Wait... the Dursleys wouldn't play a prank! None of them had a sense of humor, and they disapproved of imagination! But then... what was this letter?
Violet noticed suddenly that this letter wasn't the only page. Pulling out another scrap of parchment, she read:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
UNIFORM
First-year students will require:
1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)
2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear
3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)
4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)
Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags.
At this, Violet was unable to believe what she was reading. She was about to stuff the parchment back into the envelope and throw it aside, but decided she was still curious about what it said, even if it was a hoax, so she kept reading, and read a list of course books, along with a list telling her she needed a wand, a cauldron, a set of glass or crystal phials, a telescope, and a set of brass scales. It also said:
Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad
PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS
Violet's heart leapt for one glorious moment: SHE WAS GOING TO LEARN MAGIC AND LEAVE THE DURSLEYS! ...But where was she supposed to get all this stuff? Who was she kidding... apparently the letter was telling her she was a witch, but magic couldn't possibly be real, and her first instinct had been that this was a hoax, and if she knew anything, it was that her original instincts were almost always correct.
She sighed, and stuffed the letter and school supply list back into the yellow parchment envelope. Before she closed her eyes to go to sleep, however, she couldn't help but wonder what it meant when it said, "We await your owl", and couldn't help but notice that the owl had to be sent by her eleventh birthday...
That morning during breakfast, Violet sat eating quietly while Aunt Petunia gossiped about the neighbours. Uncle Vernon was reading the newspaper. Dudley was complaining that there wasn't a television in the kitchen. Violet couldn't get her mind off of the Hogwarts letter. She glanced up when the doorbell rang.
"I'll get it," Aunt Petunia said, and hurried out of the kitchen. Violet listened dully to her aunt's footsteps and then voices as she opened the door. She returned a moment later looking furious and shot a terrible look at Violet. Violet, not seeing how she could have possibly done anything wrong, looked away, her brow slightly furrowed.
The doorbell rang again, and this time it was immediately followed by a pounding on the door that seemed to shake the whole house. Violet, Uncle Vernon, and Dudley looked toward the living room in astonishment. Aunt Petunia only seemed to look angrier. She rounded on Violet.
"Did you, by any chance, get any letters that you didn't show us when the mail came yesterday?"
Violet's heart skipped a beat.
"No-- okay, yeah, I did get a letter... from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
The Dursleys' jaws dropped. They were clearly dumbstruck as the front door was thrown off its hinges. Uncle Vernon jumped to his feet, and he and the other Dursleys and Violet hurried into the living room where Uncle Vernon, Dudley, and Violet were all struck dumb again by the appearance of a giant, a man twice the height of any normal man, and at least five times as wide.
"I told you to go away!" Aunt Petunia snarled fiercely.
The giant took one look at the Dursleys, then focused his gaze on Violet. She could tell he gazed at her forehead, at the lightning-bolt shaped scar, if only for a moment before meeting her shockingly green eyes. Violet swallowed, unable to speak.
"Ah, Violet, I haven't seen yeh since yeh was a little baby!" the giant said gruffly, his black eyes glittering in a very friendly way.
Violet recovered enough to ask, "Who are you?"
The giant chuckled. "Oh, righ', haven't introduced meself, have I? I'm Rubeus Hagrid. You can call me Hagrid, everyone does. I'm the Keeper of the Keys and grounds at Hogwarts."
"Hogwarts?" Violet said softly. "So-- so this Hogwarts place-- this school-- it-- it's real?"
Hagrid gave her an odd look, but chuckled again, though rather uncertainly and said, "Yeah, yeah, o' course it's real! Where else could yer parents have learned it all?"
Violet cocked her head. "All what?"
Hagrid was shocked.
"I'm sorry," Violet said quickly.
"SORRY? SORRY! IT'S THEM AS SHOULD BE SORRY!" Hagrid roared, and drew a pink umbrella from inside his moleskin overcoat and pointed it at the Dursleys. "DURSLEY!" he roared at Uncle Vernon, "ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT THIS GIRL KNOWS NOTHING OF OUR WORLD?"
Violet was quite alarmed, then thought for a moment. She took a step toward Hagrid then and said firmly, "Now, really, that's going a bit too far! I do know some things, after all. I'm actually rather good at maths, believe it or not, and I happen to get fairly pleasing marks in all of my subjects!"
Hagrid turned and stared at her for a second, then said gruffly, "No, no, I mean you don't know anything abou' our world. Yeh know, your world, my world, yer parents world--"
"You mean..." Violet thought again, then asked quietly, "Were my parents... a witch and a wizard? I'm a witch, right? That's why I got that letter?"
Hagrid beamed down at Violet and said happily, "Tha's right, Violet! An' here I thought I'd have to tell yeh everything! Well, let's get a move on, then! Violet, fetch yer letter. We're goin' to get yer school supplies."
Violet smiled, nodded, then ran to her cupboard to fetch her letter. She returned a moment later to give the Dursleys an evil look before she and Hagrid went out the door.
A/N: Yeah, I finally got this chapter up. Sorry it took so dang long, but I kind of got writer's block. I know this chapter could be better, and frankly, it felt a bit awkward for me to write, but I'm sure the next chapter will be better. Also, I've decided to make a sort of schedule with my updates, and have decided that I'm going to try to update this story at least once a week. Sadly, though, school starts soon, and high school students, as I'm sure many of you know, get a lot of homework, which means that I might not have much time to do more than research for homework purposes on the internet for awhile. It's even tougher because I'm in marching band, and will most definitely begin suffering from major lack of sleep...again...sigh Oh, well. I'm still going to try my very best to update this story at least once a week. Please R&R!