In the attic, Petunia pulled out a large dilapidated trunk and motioned for Harry to come over. "This belonged to Lily, it was her school trunk, I'm certain that there are books in here that you will be able to use," Petunia lectured.
"Now, mind you," she continued, "if Vernon gets wind of this, then there is nothing I can do to help you. Do you understand?"
Harry nodded adamantly. "Yes, Aunt Petunia," she said staring at her only connection to her mother. Gently, she ran her fingers across the top of the trunk until they came to the first latch.
Quickly, as if she just couldn't wait any longer, Harry flipped the first latch open and continued on to the others. When she finally opened the trunk, the first thing she noticed was:
Man that's a lot of dust! She sneezed twice and then got herself under control, Ok, she thought, this is Mom's trunk! Look at all those books, I wonder if I was like her… Harry's thoughts were racing as she shifted through the numerous books that were in the trunk.
She finally stopped at a book called Hogwarts: A History, this book looks like it might explain a few things, Harry thought before she set it aside to look at what seemed to be introductory books to several subjects completely unfamiliar to her.
It was not until after she had picked out all of those books that she noticed Petunia had left her up in the attic to sort things out for herself. Carefully, she balanced the stack of books on her arms and proceeded to walk down the steps of the attic and went into her room.
She dropped the books on her bed and ran up to the attic again to close the trunk, and then she came back down to hide the books under her bed. The next couple of days Harry learned about the fascinating place that was Hogwarts was and about the Wizarding World.
Harry spent most of the summer studying the different subjects that were covered in the primary books and even beginning to try out some of the spells. Of course this was done in the privacy of her room without the knowledge of her uncle or even her aunt, who preferred not to know what Harry was doing with all those freakish books.
Harry had a very hard time at first because she realized that she didn't have what the books called a wand. It took her several days to find what she thought would be a suitable stick that would act as one. Harry chose a maple branch and used some of the sandpaper from the garage to smooth it out.
After she finally had her wand prepared, things went far more smoothly. Although she was still only able to perform the most basic spells, she was excited by her progress and couldn't keep it to herself any longer.
"Aunt Petunia," she yelled excitedly, "Aunt Petunia, can I show you something really amazing? Please can I? I just learned how to defy the laws of gravity!" she screeched before she skidded to a halt in front of her aunt.
Sighing Petunia looked down at Harry and said: "Ok, Harry, let's see you defy gravity." Excitedly, Harry pulled a pen out of her pocket and then her maple wand. "Wingardium Leviosa!" she chanted and, much to Petunia's disbelief, the pen rose several inches into the air before it slowly dropped to the table again.