[Chapter Size: 1900 Words.]

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  Auunia returo her room, and Harry imagined she was in a bad mood.

  If things were as Harry suspected, Auunia had watched her sister get chosen for a school of magic while she herself had bee behind. And now, she was seeing Harry receive the same opportunity. She must have been utterly miserable.

  However, Harry wasn’t too ed about Auunia’s distress. She had excellent self-trol and would likely pose herself by noon. reoccupied him more at the moment was the owl, Auunia had chased it away. So how was he supposed to send a reply?

  As he mulled over this dilemma, Harry opehe door and stepped outside for a walk.

  The moment he did, the rge oerched atop the street sign just outside the yard, directly in front of the door.

  In broad daylight, instead of finding a pce to rest, the owl lingered, watg the house. That was truly magical.

  "Are you waiting for my response?" Harry walked up to the owl and asked curiously. But as soon as the words left his mouth, he felt a bit foolish. Why did he think the owl could uand and respond to him? After his experiealking to the s the zoo, he had tried speaking with other small animals, but none had ever answered.

  To his surprise, the owl seemed to uand. It hooted twid nodded.

  "Well, that’s iing," Harry said with a grin. "Wait here for a moment."

  He turned and ran baside, heading straight to his room. Sitting at his small desk, he began drafting a response.

  "Dear… hmm, should I address this to Magall or Dumbledore? Well, the st signature oter was Magall, so it must be her!" thought Harry.

  Dear Deputy Headmistress Magall,

  I am hoo receive your letter. I’m very excited to attend Hogwarts and study magic, to bee a witch, or is it a wizard? It should be a wizard. Anyway, I do have a problem.

  I don’t know how to get to school, nor do I know where to buy my supplies. Even worse, I don’t have any moo pay for tuition. I’m not sure if the school help with my situation, but I hope to hear from you soon.

  Sincerely,

  Harry Potter

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  After reviewing his letter and making minor adjustments to e sounded polite, Harry felt satisfied. Just as he was about to go downstairs, he heard tapping on his bedroom window.

  Turning around, he saw that the rge owl had returned and was now perched on the windowsill.

  "Amazing!" Harry murmured.

  Despite all the magical things that had happeo him retly, he still found this owl incredibly fasating. It was so intelligent that it barely seemed like an animal at all.

  "Could it be a transformed wizard?" He eaihe thought for a brief moment but quickly dismissed it as unlikely.

  Opening the window, he hahe folded letter to the owl. It took the envelope in its beak, turned, spread its massive wings, and soared into the sky.

  "If it flies around so openly, someone might shoot it down with a hunting rifle or a slingshot," Harry thought.

  The British postal system was notoriously unreliable, so Harry didn’t expect a response for at least three to five days.

  However, it seemed the wizarding world's postal service was far superior to that of Muggles.

  That evening, after dinner, Harry y in bed reading a ic book when he once again heard the familiar sound of tapping at his window.

  When he looked up, he nearly jumped.

  The outside was pletely dark, and with only his small bedside mp illuminating the room, everything around him was shrouded in shadows. Outside the window, he saw nothing but a bck silhouette staring at him with a pair of glowing green eyes, like tiny nterns.

  For a split sed, Harry almost screamed, until he realized it was just the owl.

  "A respohis soon?" he muttered in surprise.

  Switg on the main light, he hurried to the window and ope. Sure enough, the rge owl was there again, holding another part envelope in its beak, identical to the first.

  Harry took the letter, and without hesitation, the owl took off once more, disappearing silently into the night.

  "Kind of cute, actually," he thought.

  He unfolded the letter and saw the now-familiar handwriting:

  Dear Mr. Potter,

  I am pleased to hear from you. We are aware of the difficulties you are fag.

  Do not worry; we will send the school's Keeper of Keys and Grounds to your home to assist with your preparations before the start of term. Any financial s will also be addressed at that time.

  Our Keeper will visit you between 11:00 PM and midnight on July 5th.

  Sincerely,

  Deputy Headmistress Minerva Magall

  P.S. Our Keeper of Keys is a very rge and imposing man. Please do not be armed by his appearance, he is a true gentleman.

  "Exceptionally rge and imposing?" Harry was intrigued. Could this Keeper of Keys be taller than Dennis Rodman?

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  The m, Harry mentiohat Hogwarts’ Keeper of Keys would be ing to pick him up the following night.

  Uncle Vernon and Auunia seemed calm, it was obvious they had discussed the matter the night before. Only Dudley appeared surprised.

  "Hogwarts? So, you're tellihe letter you got yesterday wasn’t a joke? That school actually exist?" he asked.

  "So far, it seems like it does," Harry nodded.

  "Then… you’re not going to Smeltings with me?" Dudley asked, looking genuinely startled. A flicker of panic fshed in his eyes, the kind of panic he felt when he imagined how terrible his test scores would be without Harry’s help.

  The fact that his cousin was going to another school didn’t really bother Dudley. In truth, even though they had attehe same primary school, they were never in the same css and rarely pyed together.

  Harry gave him a knowing look and said, "Yeah, don’t worry, I’ve thought about it.”

  Dudley and Harry had a sort of unspoken uanding. With just a gnce, Dudley khat Harry had figured out his and had a solution in mind, so he dropped the subject. Instead, he shoveled food into his mouth and, with a touusement, asked,

  "What kind of school is it, anyway? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it before. Do they teach magic tricks and juggling? That would suit you, Harry."

  Harry’s fingers were incredibly nimble, even without real magic, he was skilled at sleight of hand, particurly card tricks, which had fooled Dudley more than once. Unfortunately for Dudley, who excelled in sports, mastering those tricks was beyond him.

  It seemed that Dudley had misuood Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as some kind of circus training academy. Of course, the word wizardry should have clued him in, but with Uncle Vernon as his role model, Dudley wasly sharp when it came to nuance. For the loime, he had even thought Harry’s little tricks were real magic.

  "Well, I imagihere are a few differences," Harry said with a grin, choosing not to expin further.

  As Harry had predicted, Dudley didn’t seem to care much. After breakfast, he asked Harry if he wao go out and py. When Harry deed, Dudley left to hang out with his friends.

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  On a summer day in July, in the UK, only children would willingly run around outdoors.

  Time always moves slowly when you're waiting, and for Harry, that day felt like aire year. He couldn’t stop gng at the clock, willing the sun to set, willing nightfall to e.

  Auunia spent the entire day in a daze. That evening, while washing dishes, she was so distracted that she actally broke a pte. Uncle Vernon was unusually gentle as he forted her, as if he uood how plicated her emotions must have been about what was about to happen.

  The only person in the family who remained unged was Dudley. He was as oblivious as ever, he went out to py after dinner, came back, ate again, then dragged a distracted Harry into a video game match. Harry easily defeated him, prompting Dudley to swear revenge ime before stomping off to bed.

  For an eleven-year-old, ten o’clock was already sidered te.

  Harry, however, felt wide awake. And apparently, so did Auunia.

  Although Uncle Vernon seemed a bit irritated, he still chose to stay in the living room, sitting beside Auunia, waiting with her.

  With no og TV, the room was unfortably silent. The tension in the air was thid strange.

  Harry decided to break the silence.

  "So… my mum was a witch?"

  But the moment the words left his mouth, he realized it was the wrong thing to say.

  "Yes! A witch! Ha ha! A witch! Just like you!"

  Auunia had been suppressing her emotions all day, but now, Harry’s words seemed to snap something inside her. Her green eyes locked onto him, and she spoke through ched teeth.

  "Just like you, she got a letter and the off to Hogwarts. Oh, how wonderful! Witches turn teacups into rats and dung into turtles! My parents were so thrilled! Hah! Imagine how delighted they were to have a wit the family!"

  It was as if she had finally found an outlet for years of pent-up rese.

  "The that Potter… then she married him… and then she had you. But I suppose wizards aren’t as great as they think they are, are they? Because suddenly, they were dead! Both of them!"

  A siear slipped from Auunia’s eye, but she wiped it away so quickly that Harry almost missed it.

  "So we had no choice but to take you in. Harry, we’ve been good to you all these years, haven’t we?"

  The suddeion caught Harry off guard. He hesitated, then nodded.

  "Hah! Well, the truth is, I never liked you!" Auunia stared at him intensely. "Just like I never liked your mother! Because you’re both… monsters!"

  The moment she spat out that st word, it was as if all the energy drained from her body. She slumped into Uncle Vernon’s arms, looking utterly spent, like a balloon that had just defted.

  Harry eechless.

  He had just learned something new, his parents hadn’t died in a car act, as he had always been told. But now clearly wasn’t the time to press the issue.

  "I’m sorry, Harry…" Auunia murmured suddenly. But with her face buried in Uncle Vernon’s chest, her voice was muffled and barely audible.

  "It’s… it’s fi’s fine," Harry mumbled, waving his hands awkwardly, then realizing she couldn’t even see him.

  The room fell into an awkward silence more.

  Time dragged painfully on.

  Finally, after what felt like ay, the clock struck eleven.

  Just as Harry started to wonder whether this Keeper of Keys would show up at the very st mi precisely 11:30 PM, there was a knock at the door.

  ******

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