Harriet Potter book 1

School Prep and Mystery Letters

On with the fourth chapter, enjoy~

Harriet was suffering from the longest punishment she has ever had because of that trip to the zoo. By the time the punishment was lifted Dudley had already broken two of his birthday presents, the fat jerk had knocked over poor Mrs. Figg, and summer break had arrived. Harriet was glad that school had been let out but she still feared for the bullies she met on a daily basis at school. The reason for this is that everyday Dudley's stupid friends came over in order to play their favorite game: Harriet Hunt.

So, naturally, Harriet spent as much time as possible being anywhere other than home. She spent a lot of time marvelling over the fact that once school started up again she'd only have to have to deal with Dudley at home because he was accepted into Smelts, the prestigious school his father had gone to. Harriet was going to attend a local public school: Stonewell, which Dudley found hysterical.

"I hear they stuff peoples heads into the toilets on their first day at Stonewell." The snarky jerk gestured to the stairs, "Want to go upstairs and get some practice in?"

"I don't think we should make the toilet suffer like that cause it's never had anything even half as bad as your head in it," Harriet quickly ran and hid after that.

Then, of course, came the purchasing of Dudley's Smelting uniform. I tried hard not to laugh has he strutted in his maroon coattail, orange knickerbockers, flat straw hat, and a knobby stick the boys use to poke each other during class. Aunt Petunia burst into joyous tears as Uncle Vernon boasted about how proud he was of his son.

The next morning Harriet was greeted by a horrible stench as she entered the kitchen for breakfast. Upon asking her Aunt about the dirty rags in gray water she receive a look that could probably kill and a sneered, "That is your uniform. I dyed some of Dudley's old stuff gray, it'll look like everyone else's when I'm through with it." Even though Harriet knew that it would have no resemblance and that she'd likely be a laughing stock from day 1 because of that, she held her tongue and didn't speak back.

Soon the familar cling of the mail door and the light thump of letters hitting the door mat rang through the house. "Get the mail Dudley," Uncle Vernon ordered.

His son whined back, "Make Harriet do it."

"Get the mail Harriet."

"Make Dudley do it," Harriet tried

"Dudley, hit her with your Smelting stick," Harriet narrowly dodged the stick as she dashed to the mail.  As she shuffled through the mail she found a letter addressed:

 Ms. Harriet Potter

The Cupboard under the Stairs

4 Pivot Drive

Little Whinging

Surrey

The envelope was heavy and thick in size, it was a yellow tinted parchment, the address was written in a pretty green ink. The envelope had no stamp on it. Harriet trembled as she slowly flipped the envelope to see a purple wax seal. The seal was a coat of arms containing a lion, a badger, an eagle, and a snake; behind the animals there was a clear H. 

"Hurry up," Uncle Vernon screamed. "Are you checking the mail for bombs or something?" He snickered loudly at his own joke.

Harriet couldn't taken her eyes off of the envelope as she headed to the kitchen. Without looking up she handed Uncle Vernon the bill and the postcard, took a seat, and began to slowly pry open the letter she had received.

Vernon tore the bill open, grunted in disgust, and then moved on to read the postcard. He quietly told Aunt Petunia that Marge was sick, "Said she ate a funny whelk..."

Without warning Dudley began to shout, "Dad! Dad, Harriet has got something!"

Harriet had just begun to unfold the heavy paper that her letter was written on when Uncle Vernon roughly stole the parchment from her hands.

"That's mine!" Harriet roared as she tried to take the letter back.

"Who in their right mind would send you a letter?" scoffed Uncle Vernon. He shook the letter open with one hand and glanced at it. His face went from red to green as his eyes ran over the parchment again and again. Then his face settled on a grayish white tone that would put old porridge to shame.

"P-P-Petunia!" he wheezed, out of breathe.

Dudley tried to snatch up the letter to read it, but Uncle Vernon held the letter out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it from him and read the first line. As the read she grew pale and looked like she might faint at any given moment. She clutched her throat and choked back her words.

After a moment she squeaked, "Oh my goodness- Vernon!"

They stared at one another like they had forgotten Harriet and Dudley were still in the kitchen with them. Dudley wasn't use to being ignored and didn't care for it much so he tapped Uncle Vernon's head his smelting stick.

"I want to read the letter," He demanded loudly.

"No I want to read it," Harriet tried to justify herself by adding, "as the letter is mine."

"Out, the both of you," Uncle Vernon croaked, forcing the letter back into its envelope.

Harriet refused to move. " I WANT MY LETTER!" She shouted at the top of her lungs.

"Let me see it," insisted Dudley.

"OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, he grabbed Dudley and Harriet by the scruffs of their necks and threw out into the hall before slamming the kitchen door behind them. Harriet and Dudley immediately began a silent fight over who would be able to listen in through the keyhole. Harriet lost, her wire frame glasses dangled from her ear as she flattened her stomach to the ground so she could listen at the crack between door and floor.

"Vernon," Aunt Petunia chocked out, "look at the address- how is it that they know where Harriet sleeps? Is it possible-......do you think that they're watching our house?"

"Watching- spying- they might even be following us," Uncle Vernon irrationally murmured. 

"What should we do, Vernon? So we write them back? Do we tell them that we don't want-"

Harriet could see the shine off of Uncle Vernon's black shoes as he paced back and forth across the kitchen floor.

"No," He finally said. "No, we have to ignore it. If they don't receive an answer......Yes that's probably best....we just won't do anything..."

"But-"

"I refuse to have one of them in the house, Petunia! Didn't we agree on that when we took her in? That we would stamp out all that dangerous nonsense?" That put an end to their conversation.