Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything relating to JKRowling.
Summary: Harriet Driscoll is a transfer student from Noctar Academy, attending Hogwarts as a Gryffindor for her first and final. As a memento of her time at Noctar, the librarian has sent her a book: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. As a new classmate and friend of the main character's parents, what is Harriet supposed to do?
Note: I don't know if it matters to anyone else, but I have this idea in my head of what my characters look like, and I feel like it's worth mentioning here. Lily Olivia Evans is Isla Fisher. Harriett Johanna Driscoll is Rachel McAdams (Time Traveler's Wife or Family Stone), Marigold Dawn Burns is Hayden Panettiere, Darcy Parks is Eliza Bennet (Inkheart), Grace Tracy is Georgie Henley (Narnia), and Constance Forrester is Anna Popplewell (Narnia). American Schools: Nadova (Nevada), Whooshsky (Wyoming), Misinnipso (Missouri), Noctar (North Carolina)
Second Note: Please review! Thanks
Previously: Gemma has a nightmare, Harriett meets the Marauders, Harriet is given a book as a memento from Noctar Academy which is later revealed to be Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Lily calls James by his first name (off screen), Sirius flirts with Harriet/Hatts/Harry/Hattie, Harriett is oblivious to Sirius flirting, Harriett is confused and irritated by the over abundance of care her new classmates are giving her, Sirius and Harriett squabble over her inability/lack of interest to trust, Harriett reveals parts of her childhood, Harriett has her first fight with Marigold (again over trust), Lily decides not to let James read the book, and Harriett meets Darcy Parks (from Hufflepuff) and Constance Forrester (from Ravenclaw).
Chapter Four: Hatts, "Owl Post"
Second Moment of Truth tonight.
"Who wants' to read about my future sons future first?"
Harriett grabbed the book before any of the girls could make a comment about Lily's statement. They'll figure it out soon enough.
CHAPTER ONE: OWL POST
Harry Potter
M-HA! I knew it!
L-Yes, Marigold, I marry James Potter. (Lily was rolling her eyes, but they could see a smile tugging her lips.)
H-You guys do realize that I've only read six words right? And that four of them were a title to a chapter?
C-Well, if you had read the title or given us a clue what to expect, we wouldn't have to interrupt you two words into the story. (H-Bleeding know-it-all.)
H-Constance, are you one of those girls who likes to correct other people, because I don't like those girls.
D-Does a name count as two words? I mean isn't it one proper noun?
L-You know what, this doesn't interest me nearly as much as my son's life, so getting back to that.
H-Yah, alright.
was a highly unusual boy in many ways.
C-Number one, he's James Potter's son. (H-Seriously, what is everyone's issues with the Marauders?)
M-James isn't that unusual.
H-Guys, I haven't even finished a whole two sentences yet.
For one thing, he hated the summer holidays more than any other time of the year.
M-Are you sure this is your son Lily?
H-Marigold, be warned, I will hex you.
For another, he really wanted to do his homework,
H-Not a word Marigold!
but was forced to do it in secret, in the dead of night.
D-Well that's weird.
And he also happened to be a wizard.
C-That's not unusual.
H-Nope, just not overly common.
It was nearly midnight, and he was lying on his front in bed, the blankets drawn right over his head like a tent, a torch in one hand and a large leather-bound book (A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot) propped open against the pillow. Harry moved the tip of his eagle-feather quill
D-Those write terribly well. I got one for my birthday last year.
down the page, frowning as he looked for something that would help him write his essay, 'Witch-Burning in the Fourteenth Century Was Completely Pointless - Discuss'.
D-I had to write that essay last year. It was awfully difficult, since I live in the muggle world. All I could find in my book was about Wendelin the Weird.
M-How come you don't threaten to hex Darcy when she talks?
H-Maybe I like her better than you.
M-No offense to Darcy, but you do not like her better than me. I'm 100% lovable.
H-Yes, but Darcy doesn't attack me with 100% lovable-ness in the middle of the day for no reason.
M-What is your issue against hugs in the mid afternoon? (H-Besides the fact it's weird?)
The quill paused at the top of a likely-looking paragraph. Harry pushed his round glasses up his nose, moved his torch closer to the book and read: 'Non- Magic people (more commonly known as muggles) were particularly afraid of magic in medieval times, but not very good at recognizing it. On the rare occasion they did catch a real witch or wizard, burning had no effect what so ever. The witch or wizard would perform a basic flame freezing charm, and then pretend to shriek in pain while enjoying a gentle, tickling sensation.
L-You know, I never thought of this before, but if they were suppose to burn at the stake and the used that charm so that they didn't, how did they explain, once the fire went out, why they were still alive. I mean didn't they watch withes being burnt as enjoyment then?
C-Maybe they apparated?
L-But then there wouldn't be a body, isn't that a little suspicious?
H-Might I suggest you look it up later?
Indeed, Wendelin the Weird enjoyed being burned so much that she allowed herself to be caught no less than forty-seven times in various disguises.
C-I wonder if she wrote a book. I mean there has to be a record of the 47 times she's done it.
M-What I want to know is if she managed to get into the Wizards World Records.
Harry put his quill between his teeth and reached underneath his pillow for his ink bottle and a roll of parchment. Slowly and very carefully he unscrewed the ink bottle, dipped his quill into it and began to write, pausing every now and then to listen, because if any of the Dursley's
M-I'm sorry, who?
the Dursley's
M-Who?
the Dursley's
C-You repeating to her their name doesn't clear up who they are.
H-My bad, I thought she couldn't hear me.
the Dursley's heard the scratching of his quill on their way to the bathroom, he'd probably find himself locked in the cupboard
L-WHAT?
H-I'd rather not repeat that if it's all the same to you.
L-What does he mean under the cupboard? Why would they lock him in a cupboard!
H-Lily, I think you are scaring Darcy. And to be honest, as the person who is hold the book you are currently pointing a wand at threateningly, I'm a little scared of you too.
M- Lily, sweetie, sit down. We won't know until Hatts reads.
C-I may be wrong, but I think that was an implied order, Hattie. (H-She's bossy, too. Why can't she be sweet like Darcy? So much easier to deal with if she was. Although she has relented on calling me Harriett.)
under the stairs for the rest of the summer.
L- For the rest of the…the
C-For the love of Lily, don't stop reading there, Hattie!
The Dursley family of number four, Privet Drive, was the reason that Harry never enjoyed his summer holidays. Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia
L-I never thought that I would say this, but I'm going to hex her till it hurts when I get a hold of her scrawny neck.
M-I'll help you.
C-I'll make sure you don't go to Azkaban for it.
D-I'll make sure you're treated nice when you do go there.
H-I will keep reading, and hopefully none of us with have to do anything else.
and their son, Dudley, were Harry's only living relatives.
(Hattie witnessed the shocked and worried reactions. At this point in the story, Lily's name hadn't been mentioned, but they knew it was her son, because anyone who knew Lily had at least heard of Petunia and Potter.)
M-Lily?
C-What do they mean by that?
D-Oh, Lily!
They were Muggles, and they had a very medieval attitude towards magic.
L - Medieval. That really was the best way to put it.
Harry's dead parents,
(Hattie wished there had been a better introduction to that fact, but as there wasn't, she'd have to make do with the reactions she received. Everyone rushed over to Lily, like she was about to fall off right there. While Lily was still pale, she otherwise took the news calmly; she didn't want to scare her friends with her own fears and sadness with the situation.)
MCD-LILY!
L-I know, I know. Hatts told me before we read the book.
M-But, but-
C-That book is evil. (H: Another Ravenclaw who is an idiot. I don't believe she just called my book evil. A hell of a find? Yes, but not evil.)
H-It's not evil, you idiot. It's what we are going to use in order to save Lily's life. And James' and, I believe by the sound of things, Harry's life as well. So hush it up.
who had been a witch and wizard themselves, were never mentioned under the Dursleys' roof.
M-Are you sure we can't hex her till it hurts anyways. I mean she might have done this if we gave her the chance to do it, so she's sort of guilty even if we save Lily-flower.
H-When you put it that way…
L- You guys!
For years, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had hoped that if they kept Harry as downtrodden as possible,
D-I'm in for hexing.
C-You can't, you'll still be underage when we graduate and go kick her butt.
H-Is Prefect Connie in?
C-What did you just call me?
they would be able to squash the magic out of him. To their fury, they had been unsuccessful and now lived in terror of anyone finding out that Harry had spent most of the last two years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
L-She's just jealous because she couldn't go!
The most the Dursleys could do these days was to lock away Harry's spell books, wand, cauldron and broomstick at the start of the summer holidays, and forbid him to talk to the neighbors.
M-A prisoner in the only home he probably knows at thirteen. Those jerks.
This separation from his spellbooks had been a real problem for Harry, because his teachers at Hogwarts had given him a lot of holiday work. One of these essays, a particularly nasty one about Shrinking Potions, was for Harry's least favorite teacher,
M-Binns
C-Sprout
D-Kettleburn
H-You know, I don't think I've ever had a least favorite teacher before. I'm never really at a school long enough to form one.
M-That's a little sad, having a teacher you can't stand is part of the whole education process. It sets you up so you know how to deal with your future boss.
L-Really, Marigold!
C-Do you really not have a teacher that you can't stand, Lily?
D-Come on Lily, there has to be at least one that gets under your skins a little.
M- One that does things that tick you off, even if it's not directed at you.
H-I've got it! I'll get Slughorn to be my least favorite. Look, Lily-flower, now you have to pick a least favorite teacher, cause even I have one!
L- Fine! I don't like the divinations teacher.
M-You don't take divinations.
L-Because I don't like the teacher!
Professor Snape,
M-Wouldn't want him as a teacher either, Hatts, but I'm pretty sure that we are going to graduate from Hogwarts before Snape becomes a professor.
C-I think she was reading the book, Marigold.
M-Oh. Oh! Oh, that poor boy. Snape is going to be awful to him.
L-He might not…
H-Wait, why should he be awful to him?
M-Remember when Lily said you should have been here a couple years back?
H-Yah…
M-Basically, James and Snape had a war going on inside the castle.
D-It was absolutely ridiculous, there were people getting into the fights claiming to be Team Potter and Team Slytherin.
C-That is a complete exaggeration, Darcy.
H-What were they fighting over?
MCD-Lily.
L-They were not!
M-Okay, so they fought over a lot of things, mostly just hexed one another because the other one was available to hex, and don't let Lily's give you the speal about it was all James' fault because it wasn't and she knows it.
L-I didn't say it was all his fault!
C-And yet, you never yelled at Snape for hexing James.
L-Because James was stronger than Snape, and James knew it.
M-…I'm not allowed to tell James that, am I?
L-NO! Hattie, please read.
who would be delighted to have an excuse to give Harry detention for a month.
M- Two sickles says that Harry looks exactly like James.
C-Eyes and hair color? Or body size?
M-…mmm. I think I say that he has the same physique, hair color and eye color as James.
C-Alight, I say same physique and hair color, but Lily's eyes.
L-Why are you betting on my son's genetics?
D-I side with Marigold.
H-Then I'll take up with Connie. You in Lily-flower?
L-I'll take Hattie and Connie's side.
C-Unbelievable, in the six years you've known me you've never once called me Connie until now. I blame Black for this.
H-But he isn't even here.
C-Doesn't mean he's not to blame.
L-…Connie and Sirius used to date.
C-Lily!
H-Oh like I care who you dated. I'm going back to the story.
Harry had therefore seized his chance in the first week of the holidays.
While Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and Dudley had gone out into the front garden to admire Uncle Vernon's new company car (in very loud voices, so that the rest of the street would notice it too),
D-I have neighbors who do that. It's really annoying. They woke up my baby sister with their bragging once.
Harry had crept downstairs, picked the lock
L-Oh goodness, he's going to be a troublemaker like his father.
H-But James turns out alright in the end; I mean he does convince you to marry him and have a child with him, after all.
C-And then they all lived, except scratch that, because they didn't all live happily ever after.
H-Fairytales are for grim brothers, not intelligent witches.
L-Grim Brothers and fairytales, that's funny.
on the cupboard under the stairs,
L-Where Petunia used to make him sleep, bloody bat.
grabbed some of his books and hidden them in his bedroom. As long as he didn't leave spots of ink on the sheets, the Dursleys need never know that he was studying magic by night.
Harry had been keen to avoid trouble with his aunt and uncle at the moment,
M-Okay, so maybe he isn't exactly like James.
L-Actually, they haven't caused too much trouble since they've been back. Other than the opening feast, which, at this point, is almost a tradition for them, and so I can't really hold it against them.
C-You're taking this whole being married to the boy who annoyed the hell out of you for years easier than I expected you too.
D-I did try to tell you that she was in denial, Connie.
C-You, too? Harriett!
as they were already in a bad mood with him, all because he'd received a telephone call from a fellow wizard
D-Must have been a pureblood
one week into the school holidays.Ron Weasley,
D-I was right.
M-Why does that name ring a bell though?
L-I don't know why it rings a bell to you, but I know that Molly Prewett was the last Head Girl from Gryffindor and that she married Arthur Weasley once they got out of school. James told me that they've got three kids now.
C-How does James know them?
L-Molly has two younger brothers, Fabian and Gideon. James said that they encouraged him and his friends to cause mayhem wherever possible in their first year because the twins were graduating that year.
H-Do you think the Marauders will do the same for another group of kids?
C-I hope not.
D-I hope so. Oh, don't give me that look, Connie. There jokes are pretty funny.
M-She's got a point, the world needs a little laughter.
who was one of Harry's best friends at Hogwarts, came from a whole family of wizards. This meant that he knew a lot of things Harry didn't, but had never used a telephone before.
H-All of you know what a telephone is, right?
MLCD-Yes.
H-Thank you, Muggle Studies.
Most unluckily, it had been Uncle Vernon who had answered the call.
"Vernon Dursley speaking." Harry, who happened to be in the room at the time, froze as he heard Ron's voice answer.
"HELLO?
H-Oh, for the love of chocolate. He' screamed?
C-Feel free not to do so yourself.
H-What would be the fun in that?
L-You'll lose your voice.
H-Point to Lily-flower.
HELLO? CAN YOU HEAR ME? I - WANT - TO - TALK - TO - HARRY - POTTER!"Ron was yelling so loudly that Uncle Vernon jumped and held the receiver a foot away from his ear, staring at it with an expression of mingled fury and alarm.
"WHO IS THIS?" he roared in the direction of the mouthpiece. "WHO ARE YOU?"
"RON - WEASLEY!" Ron bellowed back, as though he and Uncle Vernon were speaking from opposite ends of a football pitch. "I'M - A - FRIEND -
D-He isn't going to be stupid enough to say that he's from Hogwarts, right?
C-Even if he is, all he has to do is call again and lower his volume or change his voice. I doubt that Vernon would figure it out.
M- I bet you that they don't do that though.
OF - HARRY'S - FROM - SCHOOL -"
L-No offense to Harry's choice in friends, but of all the brainless things to say.
Uncle Vernon's small eyes swiveled around to Harry, who was rooted to the spot.
"THERE IS NO HARRY POTTER HERE!"
M-HE LIES! What a bad example for children to follow!
H-And yet, you refuse to talk around a sneakascope.
M-Who's children am I corrupting by doing that?
H-Darcy, sweetie, cover your ear, I don't want you to hear what the bad role model has to say.
M- Stuff it.
D-Did she just say fluff it?
he roared, now holding the receiver at arms length, as though frightened it might explode. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT SCHOOL YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!
M-And the lies keep rolling.
NEVER CONTACT ME AGAIN! DON'T YOU COME NEAR MY FAMILY!"
C-I'm pretty sure that no one wants to come near your family; besides Lily and Harry, your family sounds awful.
L-Mum and Dad are great, it's just Petty who's being…petty.
And he threw the receiver back onto the telephone as if dropping a poisonous spider.The row that had followed had been one of the worst ever.
L- DON'T YOU DARE YELL AT MY SON! You, you, Dirt Bag!
H-You don't know how to curse, do you Lily-flower.
L-Cursing isn't nice….
M-That would be the point of why you aren't suppose to do it, unless that person deserves it. Like Vernon.
"HOW DARE YOU GIVE THIS NUMBER TO PEOPLE LIKE - PEOPLE LIKE YOU?" Uncle Vernon roared spraying Harry with spit.
D-Who else was he expecting Harry to give his phone number too? A Piglet? What a silly man.
C-I think he meant wizards, Darcy, not friendly humans.
Ron obviously realized that he'd gotten Harry into trouble, because he hadn't called again.
M- Maybe it's just the age gap, because it sounds like a fairly obvious decision to try again with a voice change to me.
Harry's other best friend from Hogwarts, Hermione
C-Are you sure you pronounced that right?
H-Does it really matter in the grand scheme of things?
C-Details are important.
H-But does this actually matter in the grand scheme of things?
C-…I suppose-
H-Okay, the answer was no. No it does not matter. Now stop correcting people!
Hermione Granger, hadn't been in touch either. Harry suspected that Ron had warned Hermione not to call, which was a pity, because Hermione, the cleverest witch in Harry's year
M-Well, I guess that you won't have to worry about him failing school if he's got the smartest girl in the school as a best friend.
L-Sadly, I was thinking the same thing. Which is awful, because for all I know now, he could be terribly bright.
, had Muggle parents,
D-Bet you anything that she's a know-it-all.
L-What makes you say that?
M-Lily, do you remember what you were like at 13?
H-…Was it really that bad?
C-Worse.
L-You guys!
C-I'm sorry, Lily, but you were irritatingly intelligent.
knew perfectly well how to use a telephone, and would probably have enough sense not to say that she went to Hogwarts.
H-Well at least Harry knew that Ron had been stupid to mention the school.
So Harry had had no word from any of his wizarding friends for five long weeks,
M- Sad.
L-I know. I don't think I went two days without getting a letter from one of you guys over the summer.
H-I wonder what that's like.
and this summer was turning out to be almost as bad as the last one.
L-What happened last summer?
H-I guess that answers my questions if there were more books. It seemed strange to me that the series would start with him at twelve.
There was one, very small improvement: after swearing that he wouldn't use her to send any letters to any of his friends
M-Why the heck not?
Harry had been allowed to let his owl, Hedwig, out at night.Uncle Vernon had given in because of the racket Hedwig made if she was locked in her cage all the time.
D-Bloody owl abuse, that is.
Harry finished writing about Wendelin the Weird and paused to listen again. The silence in the dark house was broken only by the distant, grunting snores of his enormous cousin, Dudley.It must be very late. Harry's eyes were itching with tiredness.Perhaps he'd finish this essay tomorrow night...
L-Yes, dear. Get some sleep.
M-Mayday, mayday. Lily has gone Mother on us. This is a red heart alert.
L-Fluff it.
M-…what?
L-You heard me!
He replaced the top of the ink bottle, pulled an old pillowcase from under his bed, put the torch,A History of Magic,his essay, quill and ink inside it, got out of bed and hid the lot under a loose floorboard
D-I always wanted one of those.
C-Bet you wish you had one now that you have Grace.
D-Nah, I'd get lazy and she would find my secret stash and report it.
H-Does she seriously have nothing better to do?
D-Other than to disapprove of me and Sirius Black? No.
L-Sirius dated Grace, too.
H-Ah! I understand now.
M-No you don't.
H-You're right, I don't. And I don't think I want to, so back to reading.
under his bed. Then he stood up, stretched, and checked the time on the luminous alarm clock on his bedside table.
It was one o'clock in the morning. Harry's stomach gave a funny jolt. He had been thirteen years old, without realizing it, for a whole hour.
M-Aw, Lily. Your son was born at midnight!
C-Was he? Or does he just start celebrating his new age at the beginning of the day he was born?
L-Why are you asking me like I should know this?
Yet another unusual thing about Harry was how little he looked forward to his birthdays.
M-Which is completely opposite of your parents, who go INSANE on their birthdays.
L-Neither one of us go insane…we just like to enjoy the day to the fullest. And so will he, once I figure out a way to fix this.
He had never received a birthday card in his life.
D-Accio pen and paper!
L-What are you doing?
D-Writing your son his first birthday card ever!
H-But…you know what, knock yourself out.
The Dursleys had completely ignored his last two birthdays,
M- Jerks.
and he has no reason to suppose they would remember this one. Harry walked across the dark room, past Hedwig's large, empty cage, to the open window. He leaned on the sill, the cool night air pleasant on his face after a long time under the blankets. Hedwig had been absent for two nights now. Harry wasn't worried about her- she'd been gone this long before- but he hoped she'd be back soon. She was the only living creature in this house who didn't flinch at the sight of him.
H-Ladies, this is the moment of truth. They are about to describe Lily's future son's outer appearance. Are you ready?
Harry, though still rather small and skinny for his age,
M-James
had grown a few inches over the last year. His jet-black hair,
H-James
however, was just as it always had been: stubbornly untidy, whatever he did to it.
L-James
The eyes behind his glasses were bright green,
C-LILY. Losers pay up.
MD-Damn.
and on his forehead, clearly visible through his hair was a thin scar, shaped like a bolt of lightning.
L-What happened? Why does he have a scar on his head?
H-I'm getting there, I'm getting there.
Of all the unusual things about Harry, this scar was the most extraordinary of all. It was not, as the Dursleys had pretended for ten years, a souvenir of the car crash that had killed Harry's parents, because Lily and James Potter had not died in a car crash.
C-A CAR CRASH!
M-KILL LILY & JAMES!
D-WHY THOSE AWFUL, HORRIBLE, LYING FLUFFERS!
(Hattie, who had already read up to this part, pushed off some extra tears and looked to see Lily's reaction to the news. She was pale, and obviously angry, but to sad to say anything about her sister.)
H-…Lily-flower?
L-I'm fine, keep reading, Hattie.
They had been murdered,
L-Keep going.
murdered by the most feared Dark wizard for a hundred years, Lord Voldemort.
M-Oh, Lily.
D-Oh my goodness, Lily. You and James and that that…
L-Keep reading.
Harry had escaped from the same attack
CDM-What?
L-Oh my gosh, I don't believe it.
with nothing more than a scar on his forehead, when Voldemort's curse,
L-HE TRIED TO CURSE MY BABY!
instead of killing him,
L-HETRIED TO KILL MY BABY?
had rebounded upon its originator.
L-My baby did what?
D-That is without a doubt, the most awesome baby I have ever heard of.
C-Agreed…
Barely alive, Voldemort had fled...
M-So, so Voldemort is gone in the future. Lily's baby made him leave?
But Harry had come face to face with him since
H-I guess that means he fled and then regained power and came back.
at Hogwarts.
D-But Hogwarts is suppose to be the safest place in the Wizarding World!
L-Where the hell was Albus for this?
M-Does hell count as a cuss word?
C-It's technically a place, even though I'm not sure she used it correctly in the sentence.
Remembering their last meeting as he stood at the dark window, Harry had to admit he was lucky even to have reached his thirteenth birthday.
M-Okay, so he is somewhat like his father.
H-How is James lucky to have reached 13?
M-Well, really it's all four of them and they are lucky to have reached 17, because I was sure that McGonagall was going to kill them a couple of times.
He scanned the starry sky for a sign of Hedwig, perhaps soaring back to him with a dead mouse in her beak, expecting praise.Gazing absently over the rooftops, it was a few seconds before Harry realized what he was seeing.Silhouetted against the golden moon, and growing larger every moment, was a large, strangely lopsided creature, and it was flapping in Harry's direction. He stood quite still, watching it sink lower and lower. For a split second, he hesitated, his hand on the window-latch, wondering whether to slam it shut, but then the bizarre creature soared over one of the street lamps of Privet Drive, and Harry, realizing what it was, leapt aside.
Through the window soared three owls, two of them holding up the third, which appeared to be unconscious.
D-Aw. Why must people uses owls on journeys they can't make. It's lucky the owl found two more to help him, he could have died!
M-So the owl must belong to Harry's friend Ron, then.
They landed with a softflumpon Harry's bed, and the middle owl, which was large and grey, keeled right over and lay motionless. There was a package tied to its legs. Harry recognized the unconscious owl at once- his name was Errol, and he belonged to the Weasley family.
L-Really, Ron, what could have possessed you?
M-Mother Mode has engaged.
Harry dashed to the bed at once, untied the cords around Errol's legs, took off the parcel and then carried Errol off to Hedwig's cage. Errol opened one bleary eye, gave a feeble hoot of thanks, and began to gulp down some water.
D-Your son is a good boy, Lily.
C-So he does have something from Lily other than his eyes. I was worried.
L-What is that suppose to mean?
Harry turned back to the remaining owls. One of them, the larger snowy female, was his own Hedwig. She, too, was carrying a parcel, and looked extremely pleased with herself. She gave Harry an affectionate nip with her beak as he removed her burden, then flew across the room to join Errol.Harry didn't recognize the third owl, a handsome tawny one, but he knew at once where it had come from, because in addition to a third parcel, it was carrying a letter bearing the Hogwarts crest.
When Harry relieved this owl of its post it ruffled its feathers importantly, stretched its wings and took off through the window into the night.Harry sat down on his bed, grabbed Errol's package, ripped off the brown paper and discovered a present wrapped in gold, and his first ever birthday card.
D-Aw, that' so sweet.
C-Are you still going to give him your card?
D-Well, yah!
Fingers trembling slightly, he opened the envelope. Two pieces of paper fell out- a letter and a newspaper cutting.
The cutting had clearly come out of the wizarding newspaper, the Daily Prophet, because the people in the black and white picture were moving. Harry picked it up, smoothed it out and read:
MINISTRY OF MAGIC EMPLOYEE SCOOPS GRAND PRIZE
Arthur Weasley, Head of Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office at the Ministry of Magic, has won the annual Daily Prophet Grand Prize Galleon Draw. A delighted Mr. Weasley told the Daily Prophet, "We will be spending the gold on a summer holiday in Egypt, where our eldest son, Bill, works as a curse breaker for Gringotts Wizarding Bank. The Weasley family will be spending a month in Egypt, returning for the start of the new school year at Hogwarts, which five of the Weasley children attend.
L-Apparently they have more kids as time goes on.
H-Do you think they stopped at five?
Harry scanned the moving photograph, and a grin spread across his face as he saw all nine of the Weasleys
C-They had 7 Kids?
M-That's a lot of love to go around.
waving furiously at him, standing in front of a very large pyramid. Plump little Mrs. Weasley; tall, balding Mr Weasley; six sons; and one daughter, all (though the black and white picture didn't show it) with flaming red hair. Right in the middle of the picture was Ron, tall and gangling, with his pet rat Scabbers on his shoulder and his arm around his little sister, Ginny. Harry couldn't think of anyone who deserved to win a large pile of gold more than the Weasleys, who were very nice and extremely poor. He picked up Ron's letter and unfolded it.
Dear Harry
Happy birthday! Look, I'm really sorry about that telephone call. I hope the Muggles didn't give you a hard time. I asked dad, and he reckons I shouldn't have shouted.
M-That one needs to take Muggle Studies.
It's brilliant here in Egypt. Bill's taken us round all the tombs and you wouldn't believe the curses those old Egyptian wizards put on them. Mum wouldn't let Ginny come in the last one. There were all these mutant skeletons in there, of Muggles who'd broken in and grown extra heads and stuff.
C-That sounds completely unpleasant.
D-Seconded.
I couldn't believe it when Dad won the Daily Prophet Draw. Seven hundred Galleons! Most of its gone on this holiday, but they're going to buy me a new wand for next year.
Harry remembered only too well the occasion when Ron's old wand had snapped.
M-Jeez, what's with this guy?
It had happened when the car the two of them had been flying
L-They did what?
H- Let me finish
The car the two of them had been flying to Hogwarts had crashed into a tree in the school grounds.
M-That's amazing!
D-That's awful!
C-They could have gotten us found out!
H-They could have gotten hurt.
L-His father will be over the roof.
C-…seriously, Lily? That's what you think first?
We'll be back about a week before term starts and we'll be going up to London to get my wand and our new books. Any chance of meeting you there?
Don't let the Muggles get you down!
Try and come to London,
Ron
P.S. Percy's Head Boy. He got the letter last week.
Harry glanced back at the photograph. Percy, who was in his seventh and final year at Hogwarts,
M-Aww, like us.
C-Well, most of us.
was looking particularly smug. He had pinned his Head Boy's badge to the fez perched jauntily on top of his neat hair, his horn-rimmed glasses flashing in the Egyptian sun.Harry now turned to his present and unwrapped it. Inside was what looked like a miniature glass spinning top. There was another note from Ron beneath it.
Harry - this is a Pocket Sneakoscope.
H-Of which, Marigold has a phobia.
M-I do not!
If there's someone untrustworthy around, it's supposed to light up and spin. Bill says it's rubbish sold for wizard tourists and isn't reliable, because it kept lighting up at dinner last night. But he didn't realize Fred and George had put beetles in his soup.
- Ron.
Harry put the Pocket Sneakoscope on his bedside table, where it stood quite still, balanced on its point, reflecting the luminous hands of his clock. He looked at it happily for a few seconds, then picked up the parcel Hedwig had brought.Inside this, too, there was wrapped a present, a card, and a letter, this time from Hermione.
Dear Harry,
Ron wrote to me about his phone call to your Uncle Vernon. I do hope you're all right.
I'm on holiday in France at the moment and I didn't know how I was going to send this too you - what if they'd opened it at Customs?
D-Isn't there someone who working at customs from the magical world?
C-Yes, that's what my uncle does.
But then Hedwig turned up! I think she wanted to make sure you got something for your birthday for a change.
L-I like that owl!
I bought your present by owl-order; there was an advertisement in theDaily Prophet(I've been getting it delivered, it's so good to keep up with what's going on in the wizarding world).
Did you see that picture of Ron and his family a few weeks ago? I bet he's learning loads, I'm really jealous - the ancient Egyptian wizards were fascinating.
There's some interesting local history of witchcraft here, too. I've rewritten my whole History of Magic essay to include some of the things I've found out. I hope it's not too long, it's two rolls of parchment more than Professor Binns asked for.
L-Okay, even I wasn't that bad!
M-No, you were one and a half rolls over.
Ron says he's going to London in the last week of the holidays. Can you make it? Will your aunt and uncle let you come?
I really hope you can. If not, I'll see you on the Hogwarts Express on September the first!
Love from
Hermione
P.S. Ron says Percy's Head Boy. I'll bet Percy's really pleased. Ron doesn't seem too happy about it.
Harry laughed again as he put Hermione's letter aside and picked up her present. It was very heavy.Knowing Hermione, he was sure it would be a large book full of very difficult spells - but it wasn't.
His heart gave a huge bound as he ripped back the paper and saw a sleek black leather case with silver words stamped across it:Broomstick Servicing Kit.
MLH- JAMES!
L-You know that I finally played a game last year? It's a lot harder than I thought.
D-I told you so!
"Wow, Hermione!" Harry whispered, unzipping the case to look inside.There was a large jar of Fleetwood's High-Finish Handle Polish, a pair of gleaming silver Tail-Twig Clippers, a tiny brass compass to clip onto your broom for long journeys, and a Handbook of Do-It-Yourself Broomcare.Apart from his friends, the thing that Harry missed most about Hogwarts was Quidditch, the most popular sport in the magical world- highly dangerous, very exciting and played on broomsticks. Harry happened to be a very good Quidditch player; he had been the youngest person in a century to be picked for one of the Hogwarts house teams.
D-No way! He got picked as a first year?
C-I wonder how he did that.
L-Something I liked to know too, although I guarantee that it was something dangerous.
One of Harry's most prized possessions was his Nimbus Two Thousand racing broom.
Harry put the leather case aside and picked up his last parcel. He recognized the untidy scrawl on the brown paper at once: this was from Hagrid, the Hogwarts gamekeeper.
H-Who's Hagrid?
M-We haven't introduced him to you yet?
L-We'll go see him tomorrow. You'll love him. Most everyone who knows him does.
He tore off the top layer of the paper and glimpsed something green and leathery, but before he could unwrap it properly, the parcel gave a strange quiver, and whatever was inside it snapped loudly- as though it had jaws.
L-Oh, dear.
H-What?
C-Hagrid has a tendency to see
D-Something dangerous as harmless
Harry froze. He knew that Hagrid would never send him anything dangerous on purpose, but then, Hagrid didn't have a normal person's view of what was dangerous.
M-Oh look, he's already learned from experience.
Hagrid had been known to befriend giant spiders, buy vicious, three-headed dogs from men in pubs and sneak illegal dragon eggs into his cabin.Harry poked the parcel nervously. It snapped loudly again. Harry reached for the lamp on his bedside table, gripped it firmly in one hand and raised it over his head, ready to strike. Then he seized the rest of the wrapping paper in his other hand and pulled.
And out fell - a book.
M-Well that was anticlimactic.
Harry just had time to register its handsome green cover, emblazoned with the golden title,the Monster Book of Monsters,before it flipped onto its edge and scuttled sideways along the bed like some weird crab.
"Uh oh," Harry muttered.The book toppled off the bed with a loud clunk and shuffled rapidly across the room. Harry followed it stealthily. The book was hiding in the dark space under his desk. Praying that the Dursleys were still fast asleep, Harry got down on his hands and knees and reached for it.
"Ouch!"The book snapped shut on his hand and then flapped past him, still scuttling on its covers. Harry scrambled around, threw himself forward and managed to flatten it. Uncle Vernon gave a loud, sleepy grunt in the room next door.Hedwig and Errol watched interestingly as Harry clamped the struggling book tight in his arms,
M- It occurs to me that it's a good thing the boys aren't here to read this. They would get ideas.
hurried to the chest of drawers and pulled out a belt, which he buckled tightly around it.TheMonster Bookshuddered angrily, but could no longer flap and snap, so Harry threw it down on the bed and reached for Hagrid's card.
Dear Harry,
Happy Birthday!
Think you might find this useful for next year. Won't say no more here. Tell you when I see you.
Hope the Muggles are treating you right.
All the best,
Hagrid.
It struck Harry as ominous that Hagrid thought a biting book would come in useful,
L-As it should. Love Hagrid, as I do, he isn't always the most cautious of individuals.
but he put up Hagrid's card next to Ron and Hermione's, grinning more broadly than ever. Now there was only the letter from Hogwarts left.Noticing that it was rather thicker than usual, Harry slit open the envelope, pulled out the first page of parchment within and read:
Dear Mr Potter,
Please note that the new school year will begin on September the first. The Hogwarts Express will leave from King's Cross Station, platform nine and three-quarters, at eleven o'clock.
Third-years are permitted to visit the village of Hogsmeade at certain weekends. Please give the enclosed permission form to your parent or guardian to sign.A list of books for next year is enclosed.
Yours sincerely,
Professor M. McGonagall
M-Minnie!
H-Don't let her hear you call her that.
L-Says the girl who has and didn't get caught doing it.
H-That was such a lucky break.
Deputy Headmistress
Harry pulled out the Hogsmeade permission form and looked at it, no longer grinning.
M-What is wrong with your kid, Lily?
It would be wonderful to visit Hogsmeade at weekends; he knew it was an entirely wizarding village, and he had never set foot in there. But how on earth was he going to persuade Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia to sign the form?
M-Oh.
H-Why doesn't he just forge it? One of his friends must know how to forge.
L-That's illegal.
D-So is owl abuse, and yet people get away with it every year.
He looked over at the alarm clock. It was now two o'clock in the morning. Deciding that he'd worry about the Hogsmeade form when he woke up, Harry got back into bed and reached up to cross off another day on the chart he'd made for himself, counting down the days left until his return to Hogwarts. Then he took off his glasses and lay down, eyes open, facing his threebirthday cards.
Extremely unusual though he was, at that moment Harry Potter felt just like everyone else: glad, for the first time in his life, that it was his birthday.
Lily quietly wished him a happy birthday as Hattie closed the book. All the girls sat quiet for a moment, not knowing how to react to the devastating future of one of their party or the unfair treatment her only son received due to no fault of his own.
"Lily-flower?" Lily looked up at Hattie and gave a small smile.
"You were right, this isn't a happy book." I'm sorry. "But I'm glad we are reading it. Now I know what's going to happen, and I'm going to damn well change it."
"Well then, mind if I read next?" Hattie handed the book to Marigold, and sat back in her chair to listen to the next chapter of Prisoner of Azkaban.