Harry and Alexa Potter

The Sorcerer's Stone

Chapter 2

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During the next few weeks, strange owls were spotted on Privet Drive. It started out as owls only flying past the road, but soon they started landing and perching themselves on trees in people's yards and cars. The residents of Privet Drive were starting to get suspicious, and highly irritated on having to clean up after the strange birds that happened to take a liking to the street. Vernon Dursley blamed the mysterious events on the twins, them and their 'funny business'.

"You're right mad, like we could possibly just call up owls and ask them to please invade our street. Yes, that's exactly what we did." Alexa told Uncle Vernon one morning, obviously having no problem pointing out to him that he was crazy.

"Don't you speak to me like that, you disrespectful child!" Vernon roared, his face turning a bight red color.

"Disrespectful? Ha! You expect me to be respectful? I live under a sink, Harry lives under the stairs, you treat us like dogs, and you expect to be respected? You're mad!" Alexa was ignoring the looks he was giving her that clearly told her to shut up or not to bring him into it.

"At least we let you stay here, we didn't ask to care for you two!" Vernon said, pointing a threatening finger at Alexa.

"And that's our fault? We didn't ask for our parents to die, we didn't ask for any of it!" Alexa screamed back, obviously pained.

Vernon was about to reply, but he was interrupted by an owl swooping into the kitchen and dropping off two letters on the table. The letters weren't very big, and they had a neat, green scroll on them. The seal was made of red wax and had a capital 'H' imprinted on them. They were addressed to Harry and Alexa. Dudley quickly snatched up the letters and started parading around the kitchen.

"Letters for scar-head and the runt! Who in their right minds would want to write you two? Sending them b owl no less, they must be mad!" Dudley laughed at them.

"Hey! Those are ours!" Harry yelled at Dudley while Vernon took them from Dudley. He read the return address and the red 'H' on the seal, and he suddenly looked a lot paler than before. Then, he ripped the letters apart and threw them away.

"I told you the owls were their doing, Petunia! Well there will be no little letters for you two, I'm off to work." Vernon said, turning to leave the kitchen and he was out the front door. Aunt Petunia gave the twins a weird look and excused herself and Dudley, seeing as hey needed to go shopping for his upcoming school year at some private school. Harry and Alexa usually used Dudley's old school supplies, and they went to public school. They usually stuck by each other and didn't really talk to any other kids.

Each morning for a week, more letters addressed to Harry and Alexa showed up. Via owl, of course. And each morning, Uncle Vernon would rip up the letters and discard them in the waste bin. The twins were getting slightly annoyed, they were their letters after all. Vernon started closing the kitchen window after the third day, but the letters just came through the mail slot in the front door. The twins tried to get the letters before Vernon, Petunia, or Dudley, but they never did. They came close one day, but Dudley is just stronger than the two of them. At the end of the week, Vernon nailed the hole shut.

"It's Sunday. Such a delightful day, do you know why that is?" Vernon said one afternoon, while everyone was in the living room. Alexa was pouring tea and Harry was offering biscuits.

"There's no post on Sundays?" Harry inquired.

"Right you are, boy. No more blasted-," He didn't finish his sentence, as about ten letters filed in through the open living room window. Vernon collected the letters after letting out a brief roar, due to his anger. He threw the letters in the fireplace and lit a fire and that was it. The twins glared, but didn't say anything. And that's how it went for the next few weeks, letters would come through the windows, or the fireplace, and Vernon would start burning them. Each day, more letters came and Vernon got even angrier and either burned them or ripped them up. One night, Harry caught Uncle Vernon burning the bits of letters he had previously ripped up.

One night, Alexa crawled into Harry's broom closet. She pulled out fragments of an envelope out of her pocket, "This is all I could manage to get." She said, as Harry watched her tape the pieces together like a puzzle.

"Harry and Alexa Potter, Number Four Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey, England," Harry paused before continuing the next part, "Hogwarts—there's not enough pieces. It doesn't say anything else."

"Who is Hogwarts?" Alexa asked, curiously.

"How should I know? Whoever it is, must want to contact us real bad." Harry replied, softly as to not be heard by Aunt Petunia or Uncle Vernon, or worse- Dudley.

"Well it is our birthday in two days, maybe they know us. Could whoever it is have something to do with," Alexa looked at Harry and whispered, "our parents?"

Harry looked surprised. He paused and took a moment to think. Could it have some thing to do with their parents? Could it possibly be a relative of theirs? Could they be saved for living there with their aunt and uncle? They could only hope. "I don't know." Harry finally answered.

The following day, Vernon went crazy after some more letters came. There must have been about fifty of them. He boarded up all of the windows, reinforced the mail slot in the front door and closed off the fireplace. People would have thought he was trying to cover up a murder or something. Petunia and Dudley watched him hammer and nail off every entry to the house- he even locked and bolted the front door. Harry and Alexa were playing an old board game in the closed under the stairs; there was more room in there. Plus, they wanted to avoid Vernon's mad breakdown. They weren't too lucky, as Vernon locked the closet from the outside and opened the vent in the door of the closet.

"Don't expect to come out of there anytime soon! This is all of your freaky fault!" Vernon shouted through the vent, and before the two of them could protest, he snapped the vent closed. Harry shrugged and turned on the light bulb that was hanging in there and continued to play their game, they were used to being locked up as a punishment. It never lasted more than a week. They were usually separated, though.

They stayed like that until the next night, and no letters came. Vernon cheered at the lack of letters, so he unlocked the closet door and let the twins out. To celebrate, the Dursleys left the house to go out to dinner. This left Harry and Alexa free rein of the house to do whatever they pleased. Harry went to go make sandwiches and Alexa tired to find if there was anything worth watching in the television, if not they usually watched the news.

"So, do you think the letters aren't going to come anymore, and whoever it is is going to give up?" Alexa asked once they were settled in front of the news.

"I hope not, I mean, if their sending a million letters day after day, it must be important right?" Harry responded, taking a bite out of his ham sandwich.

"Maybe, I hope you're right." Harry nodded and they both focused on the news. In a couple of hours, the Dursleys were due back home so the twins cleaned up after themselves and went to their respective 'rooms'.

The next day was quite different indeed. Vernon was cheerful at the table, his smile disappearing into his plump face. Aunt Petunia was looking nervous, as she always did. Harry and Alexa were finishing up clearing the breakfast table when the house started to shake a little. Uncle Vernon's smile disappeared and a piece of wood covering the window broke and about ten letters hit him in the back of the head. The, before they knew it, millions of letters filled through every boarded up section of the house. The windows upstairs and down, the mail slot in the front door, and even the fire place. Vernon was shouting and the twins were trying to catch as many letters as possible. Aunt Petunia was screaming and holding onto Dudley, who looked terrified.

"THAT'S IT! EVERYBODY, WE'RE LEAVING!" Vernon shouted as soon as the letters stopped pouring in. The letters Harry and Alexa had accumulated were ripped by Vernon and Dudley. Then they were shoved out the front door, careful not to be let near any of the letters that covered to floor. In the backseat of the car, Harry and Alexa exchanged surprised looks. What had just happened? Whoever was trying to contact them, what normal person would go to those means and send that many letters?