Logan's glaring at a yellowish envelope when Harry wakes up. That's never happened before. Nobody sends either of them mail. Who would? They don't have any friends or family besides each other. They don't stay anywhere long enough to have an address, and the door on their truck home doesn't have a mail slot.
"Yer name's on it." Logan tells him. Harry has to trust Logan about that, since he can't read it himself. He hadn't stayed in school long enough to learn, and his aunt and uncle never read to him or let him look at Dudley's untouched books.
Aside from pets, the one thing Logan hasn't given Harry is books, but Harry hasn't seen Logan read anything except occasionally the newspaper when they stay in hotels or motels.
"Someone's followin' us. Knows where ya sleep, even." Logan scowls down at the bed he makes Harry sleep in, then frowns more as he scents the air. "I don't smell anyone."
Harry thinks Logan's going to drive away, then laughs at how ridiculous that is. Logan never runs from a fight. Sure enough, Logan doesn't move towards the door.
Harry eyes the letter in Logan's hand. His curiosity is just as overwhelming as the strange situation. He taps Logan's knuckles, urging him to extend a claw and use it as a letter opener, but Logan hands the letter to Harry instead.
Harry has never opened a letter in his whole life.
It's heavy like a newspaper, but it feels different and isn't as bendy. Harry runs his fingers over the animals on the back, all surrounding the letter H, like his name. A snake, a lion, a wolverine and a bird. No wolves.
Maybe it will tell him where to find those animals. Harry hopes there are maps inside.
He sets the envelope next to his toy animals and flips open one of his pocket knives. If Logan won't use his claws as a letter opener, Harry will.
Harry gets a bit too excited and ends up hacking the envelope and letters inside to pieces. It's quite enjoyable, but he growls at the pieces on the floor. They're not maps at all, just words.
It's useless, and not just because it's all in scraps.
Logan won't let him keep a real lion. Harry knows a lion wouldn't fit in their home, and Mrs. Figg's cats had scratched up her couch.
Harry doesn't think much of the letter as they keep driving around, but the next morning, there's another yellow envelope with green writing. Just like yesterday's, but it's not cut up at all.
Whoever sent it followed them to this town, and Logan says the new envelope has their new location written on it. Not even Logan can smell anyone on the envelope.
This time, Harry gets Logan to open it.
The envelope holds more thick, yellowish parchment filled with more words Harry can't read. He watches one of Logan's eyebrows rise as he reads.
"Dragon hide." Logan snorts. Harry snorts back. There's no way to find dragons.
Logan mutters more nonsense words, "Spells. Wands. Broomsticks. Ya gotta be kiddin' me."
None of those are real except broomsticks, and Logan doesn't make Harry sweep.
Logan starts reading the other paper aloud. Something about a First Class, and then "Dear Mr. Potter, We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of-"
Harry clamps his hands over his ears, trying to drown Logan out by making motorcycle sounds. He hasn't been called Potter since he went to primary school back in Surrey, and he has no desire to repeat that experience. The school thought he was as troublesome as the Dursleys always said. He was still treated as a problem, still seen as a stain on their usually normal lives.
School had hardly been the escape Harry had hoped for.
Harry's perfectly content roaming with Logan and never going to school again. He snarls at the letters in Logan's hands.
Logan stops reading, shaking his head. "Wizard school, huh? We'll see if this jokester thinks he's funny once I catch him."
Harry knows it's a joke. Wizard schools aren't real, and if they were, they probably wouldn't be any better than the school he'd gone to.
When Logan mentions it's supposedly a boarding school, and explains it means living at the school, Harry hates the thought even more.
Harry eagerly shreds the letter on purpose this time. When it's just scraps on the floor, he goes outside and runs with his hockey stick held between his legs. He's always pretended it was a tail, but for some reason, he keeps thinking of it as a broomstick.
He shakes his head vigorously, trying to get the stupid letter out of it.
The next day, they're in the middle of a forest, but still three envelopes arrive for Harry. Harry runs to Logan, who's smoking his cigar outside. Shoving the letters into the cigar, Harry grins with satisfaction as they catch fire. He drops them on the forest floor, ready to watch, but Logan stamps them out furiously with his boot.
"You tryin' ta start a forest fire?" Logan demands, probably thinking it'll ruin his chances of chopping wood. Harry scowls. He's seen Logan stamp out lit cigarettes on the forest floor too, though he always picks them back up to shove in his pocket. He's also seen Logan put them out on his own palm, and watched the burn heal before his eyes.
The following morning, Harry finds an envelope wedged between every animal in the line beside the mattress and another under his stuffed wolverine's paws, like the wolverine is offering it to him.
Nobody's following them that Harry's seen, and Logan's always teaching him to better watch for that. But Harry's wolverine has been following him for years.
Harry wonders if his toy wolverine is really alive and evil, like that movie with the killer doll he heard some teenagers in town talking about a while back.
Harry imagines his wolverine sneaking off at night and getting the letters, now that Harry's sleeping all night. His wolverine hasn't tried to kill him yet, like Logan says a real wolverine (or a snake, or a wolf) would.
Looking around their home, Harry sees more letters stacked up by the dishes and stuffed into their shoes and boots.
Harry grabs his wolverine by the scruff of the neck and shakes it furiously. He found the jokester, and it's not funny.
He doesn't want to claw his wolverine to pieces, but if it's evil, he'll have to. He heard the teens say the murderous doll got chopped and burnt at the end. And shot, but Logan doesn't like guns.
Still holding his wolverine, he clutches his knife claws and aims them threateningly at his toy. He's never been bothered looking in his toy's glass eyes, but he avoids them now.
Logan grabs Harry's wrist before he can stab the wolverine. "What's gotten into ya, bub?" he asks. "Ain't he your favorite?"
He's the jokester. Harry throws his head back and cackles maniacally to get the point across.
Logan keeps his iron grip around Harry's wrist, and Harry starts to yell. He's trying to stop these stupid letters from coming. That school sounds like the loony bin Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had discussed shipping him off to. They made that place sound even worse than living under their roof, which didn't seem possible.
With his unrestrained hand, Harry whacks his wolverine against the stack of letters, scattering them.
"Yer wolverine ain't responsible for this." Logan huffs, as if Harry's being ridiculous.
Harry sniffs pointedly. Logan still hasn't caught a scent of someone else following them and leaving the letters.
"I'm gonna find whatever comedian's followin' us and show him something funny." Logan growls. He still hasn't let go of Harry's wrist, but Harry knows Logan won't hurt him, especially when it isn't his fault.
Harry pulls his toy wolverine into a crushing hug, ashamed he was about to hurt it.
"Carrier pigeons ain't used much anymore," Logan grumbles, sniffing the newest batch of letters. "And these smell 'o owls, not pigeons."
That makes as little sense as the letters themselves. Magic wands and owls. Harry wishes it would quit.
No matter where they go, the letters follow. Once, Harry wakes up thinking it's still nighttime, only to realize that letters have been plastered to every window in their home.
Harry helps peel them off the windows and tries to fold them into paper boats, which he sends down the gutter when it pours that afternoon.
Logan seems furious he can't sniff out the real culprit. Harry's furious too. If some loony bin magic school tries to take him from Logan, he'll sink his knives into them.
After several days with even more letters each day, Harry awakens to Logan's snarl. He thinks Logan's having a nightmare until he hears thudding footsteps outside. It's obviously something giant, like a bear, but bears are quieter.
Outside the window, a massive man, far too big to even fit in their home, clomps towards them. He's more wild-looking than Logan, with long hair and a long, shaggy beard.
Logan roars, throwing open the door and launching himself at the giant. Harry follows with a scream that's much higher than Logan's, but he's just as ready to join the fight.