Okay, for those who read my previous chapter, I forgot to add that it was a filler chapter. Thanks go to beast man 1500 for pointing out that the main character was starting to make the story lose its flavor.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the songs that might be used in this story. I only own Mary and some possible OCs.
Onwards!
Chapter 4
July23rd, 1991
When they finally let out Harry, Dudley broke about half of his new toys, summer was already a third over, and I had gotten my school uniform. It consisted of a blue-colored skirt, shoes and blazer and a silver-colored shirt and socks and no matter how many times Aunt Petunia washed it, smelled as if someone had dumped it into a dozen garbage cans.
Dudley's uniform was worse than mine. Heck, it made him look silly (and fatter if possible)! The colors didn't match at all.
One morning, when I walked into the kitchen, there was a note taped to a bundle of clothes that read:
Mary-
At the grocery store. Out of bangers, beans, and detergent. I'm letting everyone else sleep in. Please dye these clothes gray. It is Harry's new uniform for Stonewell. And get cereal ready.
-Petunia
I grabbed a tub, a box of gray dye that Aunt Tuna had thoughtfully left out for me, added it with water, and dunked in Dudley's old garments.
Later, the smell of graying clothes started to get on my nerves, so I opened the window. Unfortunately, I had made an odd-looking tabby cat faint with the smell. Soon, Harry walked into the kitchen and wrinkled his nose. "Mary," he asked. "Why does it smell like something died in here?"
"Your uniform," I responded while getting out the cereal boxes and some bowls. "Aunt Petunia left me a note that said I'm supposed to dye Dudley's old clothes so then you'll fit in at Stonewell."
Harry just raised his eyes and didn't say anything. Soon after, Uncle Vernon and Dudley waddled into the room, wrinkling their noses as well. I heard the mail slot click open and the letters follow it.
"I'll get it," I said, walking towards the hallway. When I reached it, I saw an envelope bill, a letter for Harry, a letter for me, a postcard from Aunt Mar- hold on a second. A letter for me and another for Harry?
I pinched my arm and double-checked the address. Nope. But who would write to us, though? We don't have any friends, no other family, nor do we go to any libraries, so we never got any rude notes asking for books to be returned. Yet, here it said in plain letters:
Ms. M. Potter
The Closet across from Mr. H Potter
4Privet Drive
Little Whinging
Surrey
The envelope weighed about 8 pounds, made of yellow parchment, had no stamp, and was written in the color of the leaves. When I turned it over, it was sealed with a purple wax that bore a coat of arms: a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake, all surrounding the capital letter H.
I made a mental note to ask Aunt Petunia about it later as I slid it underneath the slit of the closet doorway.
When I came back, I passed the postcard and bill to Uncle Vernon and poured my own bowl of cereal. Uncle Vernon read the postcard and announced, "Marge is ill. Ate a funny whelk and started spewing uncontrollably. "
Aunt Petunia walked in with a heavy-looking paper bag balanced on her left arm. She set it down next to the sink, wrinkling her nose. "What's that smell," she asked turning towards me.
"Harry's uniform," I responded. "You left me a note telling me to dye it grey and to set out the cereal."
Uncle Vernon and Dudley started chortling. After a minute or so, Uncle Vernon got back to his paper while Dudley started chowing down his cereal. Ew. Lost my appetite. I pushed the cereal to Harry who started adding the milk. I went back to the closet and stepped on the almost-forgotten letters. Picking them up and heading back to the kitchen, I asked, "Aunt Petunia? Do you know anything about these letters?"
When I handed them to Aunt Petunia, she went white. "V-v-Vernon," she sputtered.
"What?" said Uncle Vernon, looking up from his paper.
"I-i-it's t-t-them!" she screamed. Thrusting the parchment letter at him as if it had rabies, she yelled " The people that took her in!"
Uncle Vernon went pale when he ripped it open and read the first line. He yelled, "The three of you! OUT!"
I scurried to the closet, not wanting to know what's going to happen. Dudley and Harry, however, had stayed at the kitchen door, eavesdropping. I have a feeling that because of that letter with the weird emblem, my life was going to change.
July 24th, 1991
True to my word, the next day, Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia had moved me and Harry to Dudley's second room.
The Dursleys had four rooms: One for Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, one for visitors, one where Dudley sleeps, and the last one for his belongings that wouldn't fit into his room. It took only one trip for both me and Harry to move our stuff into Dudley's room. It had countless broken things in there, counting the newly-broken toys from his birthday. Some of the shelves had books. Only the books looked as if they've never been touched.
I heard Dudley bawling to his mum, "I don't want them in there… I need that room… make him get out…"
I turned to Harry and said, "Well, at least it's roomier for you, me , and my guitar."
Harry only nodded.
July 28th, 1991
The following week was quite eventful. For some weird reason, someone kept sending me and Harry letters, one way or another. And the freaky part is, instead of the old format as shown above, now it read:
Ms. M. Potter
The Smallest Bedroom
4 Privet Drive
Little Whinging
Surrey
For someone who really wanted someone to write to us, they must've wanted to talk to us badly because after about eighty letters had come out of the fireplace (odd, I know), Uncle Vernon had us packed up and staying at a gloomy hotel. I stayed in a room with Harry and Dudley. When I slept on the floor that night, I wondered, who could've sent those letters…
July 29th, 1991
The next morning, we had to move again because the owner of the hotel had come up to the room, telling us that there was at least a hundred letters at the front desk. The format was this:
Ms. M. Potter
Room 17
Railview Hotel
Cokeworth
To be honest, if this letter–sending was a prank, I gotta give credit to the prankster because for this reason, Uncle Vernon had us sleeping on a house on top of a rock that night after buying a long odd-shaped package at the coast. Later when Dudley was complaining about his television shows, I realized that I was going to spend Harry's and my birthday in a freezing cold house on a rock. Whoopee. What a great way to spend our belated eleventh birthday.
Later that night while trying sleeping on the mossy floor, I looked at the full moon shining through the window. I remembered that in one of my textbooks, when the moon is at exactly at the middle of the sky, it'll be midnight. Kind of like how when the sun is high in the sky it's noon. It was a couple degrees. I watched it make its nightly climb. In fact, I was mesmerized, I didn't even hear the funny crunch. Just a couple more seconds…
BOOM!
I jerked up. The whole shack shuddered as someone at the door knocked a very powerful knock.
Whew! That's got to be the longest I've ever typed! So whaddaya think? I'm pretty sure you all know who is that knocking? *wink wink* I'll skip a bunch of crap in the next chapter to save you all from falling asleep. Don't forget to rate & review!
~Annebeth3.0