Title: Letters
Rating: G
Summary: Vernon and Petunia fight the invitations to Hogwarts that keep coming for Harry. (A little more cleaning of the hard drive.)
Warning: This is an "Odds & Ends" story, so typos and thinko's probably abound.

Vernon Dursley looked up from his newspaper as he heard his boy march through the room and tapping his hand and other solid items with his new knobbly stick. He thought the new Smeltings uniform looked good on him, especially the maroon tailcoat.

As he was about to return to his newspaper, his wife Petunia walked in and was holding up an envelope, the funny one they'd received this morning. "What is it Pet?"

"I've looked through it. They're expecting Harry to reply and go there," she commented.

Vernon harrumphed. "Absolutely not, we'll not be having any of that non-sense here. Just bin it."

"That won't work," she told him. "They'll keep sending more."

"Then reply 'no'," he countered. "Surely they have to respect that."

Petunia looked at him for a moment. "That has possibilities; I'll see what I can do."

Vernon nodded and returned to his newspaper. "Bloody magicals," he murmured to himself.

— — —

Petunia had been correct that they'd received another letter the next day, but that was all as the letters had stopped after that. Petunia had preened, telling Vernon, "I thought it was rather clever of me to use the owl they sent to deliver the second letter to send a reply back." Vernon had nodded and gave a "Well done."

Now three days later there was a knock on their door and Petunia opened it up to find an old man with a long white beard and white hair and a somewhat younger woman with graying hair standing at her door, each in clothes that were horribly out of date.

"May I help you?" Petunia asked as she wondered why the woman looked slightly familiar.

"Mrs Dursley, I presume?" the man asked.

"Yes. Who are you?"

"I'm Albus Dumbledore and this is my associate, Minerva McGonagall; we're from Hogwarts and we've come to speak to you about your nephew Harry."

Petunia stiffened. They were here and now she had a name to put to the man she'd written a letter to long ago, as well as who'd written the note that had been left with Harry in his basket. Now she also knew why the woman was familiar as she'd met her once, when Lily was eleven.

"I see," Petunia said slowly. "Why are you here? Was the reply not clear enough?"

"Perhaps we could come in to discuss it," Dumbledore suggested.

"You didn't answer her question," said Vernon, joining her at the door. His voice was unexpected and almost caused her to jump, but she managed to control herself.

"This really would be better discussed in your living room," Dumbledore said again in a friendly but firm tone.

"I suppose they won't go until they've had their say," Vernon grumbled. "Fine, let them in so we can send them back on their way as soon as possible." He turned back for his chair while Petunia let the guests in and directed them to the sofa while Petunia took her normal chair.

When all had sat, Vernon ignored all of the common courtesies and said, "The question still stands."

"Mr Dursley," Dumbledore said with a gentle smile, "a position for Harry has been saved at Hogwarts by his parents since shortly after he was born. We've recorded magical activity here over the years – though not so much lately," Dumbledore admitted, "but enough we know Harry is here and therefore he needs to go to Hogwarts to receive training for that. So you can't ignore the letter that was sent for him."

"We've not ignored it," Petunia answered. "A reply was returned and I even had Harry sign it so you'd know it was real. Why can't you people honor our wishes?"

"Mrs Dursley," McGonagall tried caringly, "don't you want Harry to grow up be all that he can be like his mother?"

"What?" Petunia replied indignantly, "And get himself killed before he's 21? I should think not. You might hate him that much but I do not, I assure you."

"Mrs Dursley, please?! I meant no such thing," McGonagall protested.

"Well, it sounded like it to me," Petunia returned. "Now, we've told you no and you've seen Harry's reply tell you no on the return letter, so please leave. Your first letter," she looked at Dumbledore, "said you'd leave us alone if we took him in and raised him, which we have done. Since we've honored our side of the bargain, you should honor your side."

"Mrs Dursley, that was until Harry turned eleven and was to go to Hogwarts," Dumbledore replied smoothly.

"The letter in his basket said no such thing," Petunia argued. "Now please leave."

"Could we talk with him at least since we've come all this way?" Dumbledore asked. "Surely that can be done?"

"I suppose you won't go until you have, even if it is a waste of time," Petunia huffed and stood. Walking over to the stairs in the back of the room she called up loudly, "Harry? Please come down right away."

"Do I have to?" came floating down faintly, as if from far away.

"Yes, it's very important," she called again. "That problem we talked about has happened."

They all heard a door banging and then feet racing on the floor above them before what sounded like a herd of elephants on the stairs. The herd turned out to be two eleven year-old boys dressed alike in their new uniforms of maroon coats and orange knickerbockers along with their flat straw hats, their still new-to-them sticks under one arm. They stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked at each other before chuckling quietly then looking at their mother. "We're here," Dudley said.

"Harry," Petunia said calmly and with a smile. "I mentioned that the professors from Hogwarts might show up and they have. This is Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall. It seems they don't believe that you've turned down their offer to attend Hogwarts and want to hear it from you."

Harry shrugged and looked at the two visitors. "Err, hi. Uh, yeah, don't really want to go to a school to learn a few magic tricks; I'd rather go to the university and learn about science."

"We can teach you a lot of interesting things, like Transfiguration, Charms, Herbology, and Potions," McGonagall spoke up quickly.

Harry screwed up his face somewhat as he was obviously trying to understand. "My teachers at school say I need to learn physics and calculus and stuff like that. Sounds a bit hard but they say it'll come to me as I'm good at maths. Do you teach physics and calculus?"

McGonagall blinked at him for a moment and said, "No. We have Arithmancy which teaches some math."

Shaking his head, Harry said, "Doesn't sound too useful then. Still don't want to go." He looked at Petunia who smiled at him. "Mum, can we go back to the game we were playing before?"

"Of course," she answered.

"Wait!" Dumbledore called out. "Harry, there's so much to teach you and you have a place in our world."

"I'm sorry, but it doesn't sound very interesting. Besides," Harry beamed at Vernon, "I'm a Smeltings man, just like Dad - right Dad?"

"A chip off the old block, son," Vernon said with his own smile. "Run along and have fun; we'll take care of this."

"Thanks!" Harry said before he turned and raced up the stairs, followed by Dudley who was hot on his heels.

As the herd of elephants left, Petunia retook her seat smugly. A door slammed above them. "You have your answer. I believe there is no other reason for you to be here. Harry will be going to Smeltings where he received a full scholarship for his excellent grades, not to Hogwarts for a few magical tricks."

"But how…" McGonagall stammered for a moment. "You lied to him, there's no other reason he could be like this." Dumbledore looked like he agreed.

Petunia made an amused sound, trying not to laugh like she wanted to. "Lied? Not at all, Professors. I merely told him the truth that there are others out there that are a little different and they live by themselves, and that if he were to go then he'd probably never see us again – people who love and care for him. I also pointed out that the other world killed his real parents when he was one year old and it was a miracle that he lived.

"We also did as you requested and raised him as our own. We even adopted him so that he calls us Mum and Dad; we treat him just like Dudley and make sure they each have the same opportunities. We also ensured he understood what our world has to offer and it's his goal to either fly fighter jets for the Royal Navy or else try to go into outer space … typical eleven year-old dreams, but he has his heart set on those so we're doing all we can to make them come true.

"Honestly, Professors, he's happy and doesn't need magic in his life. So do you really want to take him away from his family and make him unhappy? Is that how you treat children?" she ended accusingly.

McGonagall looked down embarrassed before she looked at her colleague, who still looked determined.

"He must come to Hogwarts, madam; it is his destiny," Dumbledore said firmly.

"Why?"

"Because it's his destiny," Dumbledore repeated.

"Poppycock," Vernon said with a snort. "You have your answer, please leave before I have to call the constable to have you removed."

"Albus, we must leave, those are the rules, though I dread to think what will happen when it becomes known Harry Potter turned down Hogwarts to live as a Muggle," McGonagall said shaking her head.

"But he must come," Dumbledore continued to say until his eyebrows suddenly shot up. "Wait! I just realized Harry doesn't have his scar anymore. What happened to the scar on his forehead?"

Now Vernon snorted. "Why would we leave a child disfigured like you did so he'd be made fun of? We had it removed. Cost us quite a few Pounds, but it was a good thing. All of his 'accidents'," Vernon emphasized the word, "quit after we did that, so some of the best money we ever spent in that regard. So are you going or shall I call the constable?"

Minerva McGonagall stood and pulled on the arm of her companion. "Come, Albus, we have our answer."

"But he has to come-"

"He's our son now," Petunia said as she rose and did her best to herd them out the door. "If you didn't want him thinking like us, you shouldn't have left him here. It's your own fault. If you wanted him in the magical world, you should have kept him.

"Oh, be sure to keep your kind away from here or I'll be forced to go to our newspapers and tell them all about you and how you come and take our children away when you don't like our answer. Do you really want that to get out?" Petunia threatened sweetly.

McGonagall glared but said, "No," as she pushed her supervisor out the front door. "We'll stay away as promised."

Petunia shut the door and smiled at her husband. "I think that's done it, but you should call Marge and tell her everything's all right and not to send the letter to the media yet, that we'll keep checking in every week."

"And if she doesn't hear from us to send it on," Vernon said with a nod as he rose to go phone his sister.

Petunia walked into her kitchen smugly and thought, `Maybe that'll teach them.`

— — —

Minerva McGonagall sat in the Headmaster's office as he ranted about needing to go back and get Harry, while she again pointed out that would be kidnapping as the Dursley had legal custody of the boy.

While Albus glared at her for her answer, she had a sudden thought. "Wait, her sister Lily and Severus were childhood friends, which means Petunia would have known him and been friends with him too."

"That's it," Albus exclaimed, "I'll get Severus to go talk to her and convince her to send Harry here."

"You're missing my point," she said a little frostily, "Severus wound up in Slytherin. Despite Lily going to Gryffindor, which I believe was because of the usual Muggle-born being brave to enter a new world, she showed many Slytherin traits. What we just experienced at that house was a Slytherin plan if I ever saw one."

"So?" he said, unconvinced.

"So, Albus, what would a Slytherin do? It was obvious Petunia Dursley had a plan for this and it wasn't an overnight thing; no, she worked on this for years. Albus, this won't be a simple matter to overcome and I wouldn't be surprised to hear Severus will want no part in this either. You're also bound by our laws, not policies but laws, not to interfere," McGonagall told him.

Albus sunk into his chair and put his head into his hands. "Merlin, this is going to be a disaster for all of us."

McGonagall nodded. "Well said, Albus." After a moment, she added, "Well played, Petunia, you have your revenge."

(A/N: What if Petunia had a little more backbone and was willing to stand up to the magical world. She had ten years to put plans into place. She had the knowledge of seeing what her sister did and heard about the magical world to gain knowledge. If Petunia had gone to Hogwarts, McGonagall is correct that Petunia would have been sorted into Slytherin.

If the story continued, it'd be Petunia versus Albus. To make it interesting, it'd have to be Albus playing within the rules; because if not, he'd stomp on her with an Imperius or other compulsion, or even just kill her and Vernon - if he were that evil - then I could finish the story here as I'd only need a few more pages … then this blip is almost all that's different from the books.

The original title was "A Smeltings Man", but that would have given too much away. Who was the boy in the first paragraph? In my mind, that was Harry but it could have been Dudley as we saw when they presented themselves dressed alike in front of the professors.

As always, if someone would like to adopt this and continue it, they have only to ask and give me credit for this first part.)