Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: Oh wait, there's nobody to hide Harry's letters from him now ... Nor would it make sense for Hogwarts to send them and risk the whole institute learning about the wizarding world! So how to do this? Read and find out.

Harry No. 5 and the Philosopher's Stone

Chapter 3: Letters from Nobody

"Harry number 28! Harry number 28, please report to the headmaster's office!" the voice rang out through the institutes's loud-speaker system.

"Ooh!" made Harry. "But I didn't even do anything!"

"It's probably just your orientation meeting," the teacher reassured him. "You will all have them over the next week or so. You go to the headmaster's office and he tells you what secondary institute you're to be transferred to. That's something you need to know so you can tell your friends where they can write to you."

Harry's face lit up. "Oh yes!"

He didn't want to lose Malcolm forever if they were sent to different places.

"Go on," the teacher said. "Pack up and go to your meeting."

Harry nodded eagerly, hastily closed his notebook and stuffed it into his desk drawer.

"All done!"

The corridors were unusually silent and empty and Harry reached the office much faster than he could have during a break. He knocked on the door, waited until he heard the word "Enter" and then opened it and entered the headmaster's waiting room.

"Harry number 28 reporting," he told the headmaster's secretary. "I've been called."

She nodded and pressed a button on her communication device.

"Harry number 28 for you, Sir. You know, he's that one."

"Ah yes," the headmaster's voice answered. "Excellent. Send him right through."

Harry wondered what 'one' he was. His number was 28 after all. But there was no time to ask as the secretary waved him on to the next door.

"Good morning, headmaster," Harry said as he entered.

"Good morning," the headmaster answered and indicated a chair. "So you are Harry."

"Yes Sir, I'm a Harry." Harry nodded.

"Well Harry, I have had a look at your reports and saw that you are a good and diligent student."

Harry beamed. "Thank you, Sir."

"And I am sure that you would do well in any secondary institute, but you see, there is a little problem."

"A problem, Sir?" Harry asked worriedly. He'd been looking forward to going to his secondary institute and didn't want to be left behind attending the primary institute for another year while all his friends left.

"Oh, it's nothing to worry about," the headmaster assured him. "We can fix it quickly. I need you to make a decision, though, and I know that that is quite a lot to ask of an eleven-year-old."

"What decision, Sir?" Harry asked. So far the only decisions he'd had to make in his life had been on what answers to give on a test if he hadn't been sure which ones were correct.

"I think I should explain all the background to you first so you'll know what to base your decision on."

Harry nodded.

"You see, when your parents were little children just like you, they went to Hogwarts Secondary Institute."

Harry didn't think he was quite that little a child. He was eleven and about to go on to a secondary institute, after all. But one ought not to contradict an adult, especially not such an important adult as the headmaster.

So all he said was: "That's a funny name."

"Yes, but I assure you it is a very good and exclusive secondary institute. Very few students are invited to go there. But your parents did, and when you were born, they reserved a place for you right away."

Harry nodded again. "So I am going to Hogwarts Secondary Institute?"

"Well, you might go there. They did reserve a place for you, but listen to all I have to tell you before you decide to accept it."

Accept it? One was sent to a secondary institute, one didn't accept or reject it.

"You see, about a year later something terrible happened. The nursery institute where they had placed you was attacked by very bad people and when your parents heard of that they rushed there to protect you and the other children and were killed."

Harry listened with wide frightened eyes. His parents ... were dead?

"They must have been very brave," the headmaster assured him. "You can be very proud of them."

Once again Harry nodded, but he didn't feel proud. Instead there was a very strange pain in his throat and his chest when he realised that his parents were gone and he would never get the chance to meet them.

Of course not all parents chose to meet their children and not all children chose to meet their parents, but he had always thought that he would like to know them if they agreed and now he knew that they'd never be asked.

"So after they died, your aunt and uncle ... Your aunt, that is the sister of your mother, a girl that had the same parents as your mother did. And your uncle is the husband of your aunt."

Harry nodded again to show that he understood.

"So your aunt and uncle are your closest family now, and they were afraid that a nursery institute that had already been attacked once was not a safe place for you. They also have a little son, just like you, and they decided to put you in the same institutes they had chosen for their own little boy. That boy would be called your cousin."

Harry once again nodded.

"Now when your uncle was a little boy just like you, he went to Smeltings Secondary Institute. That is a very good institute, too, and your uncle has reserved a place for you there, just like he did for his own son, your cousin. Your aunt and uncle would very much like for you to go to Smeltings Institute. But Hogwarts Institute is even more exclusive and your parents probably wanted you to go there just as much. Right now both institutes are expecting us to send you to them and I will have to tell one of them no, even though they are both good. So this is what I'm asking you to decide: Will you go to the institute your parents chose or the one your aunt and uncle chose?"

Harry thought about it. He would never get to meet his parents.

"When I'm sixteen," he said finally. "Will I be asked whether I want to meet my ... aunt and ... uncle, or won't I be asked at all?"

"Why of course you will be asked!" the headmaster exclaimed. "I cannot promise you that they will choose to meet you, though."

"But I will be asked even if I go to Hogwarts Institute?"

"Yes," the headmaster confirmed. "What institute you're in doesn't make a difference."

"Then I want to do what my parents wanted. Cause I'll never meet them, you see."

"Of course. I will write to Smeltings Institute that there was a mistake then and you will go to Hogwarts."

Harry nodded one last time, thanked the headmaster and returned to his classroom.

"I am going to Hogwarts Secondary Institute," he announced to the whole class. "So now you can all write to me."

"Adam number 7!" announced the loud-speaker system. "Adam number 7, please report to the headmaster's office!"