Adelaide (HP Book 1)

3. 1 Letter, 2 Letter, Egg Letter, Immortal Letter

After the incident with the boa constrictor, Harry and Adelaide weren't able to leave their cupboard until the summer holidays had started, and while Harry spent a good amount of his time out of the house, Adelaide had gotten the short end of the straw and was stuck doing chores nearly every day. This was a difficult matter in and of itself with Dudley's entire group of friends constantly visiting. 

Both Adelaide and Harry had no disagreements about looking forward to the new school term because, for the first time in their lives, they'd be at school away from Dudley. For you see, while Dudley would be attending some fancy shmancy private school called Smeltings, the twins would be attending the local public school. 

They had absolutely no problems with that. 

Besides, the two got a fair few laughs in at the sight of Dudley's new uniform, which was absolutely horrid in both style and color scheme.

Then again, their uniforms weren't going to be much better. 

They weren't quite sure what it was supposed to look like yet as they had simply walked into the kitchen one morning, and Aunt Petunia had been dyeing some of Dudley's old clothes. It was rather acrid smelling, and they could tell it was grey. However, that was about it. They sat at the table in silence, not even wanting to think about it.

Soon enough, Dudley and Uncle Vernon walked in doing their usual — Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper while Dudley banged his Smelting stick on the table. 

It was all quite the ordinary scene, so, of course, the twins had absolutely no way of knowing that the letters that were just being dropped through the mail slot were about to change their lives.

After a quick back and forth over who would check the mail, Harry ended up being sent to retrieve it after Uncle Vernon told Dudley to hit the boy with his Smelting stick. However, when it took Harry longer than usual to come back, Adelaide nearly stood up herself to see what was wrong.

Her uncle, however, wasn't as kind.

"Hurry up, boy!" the man shouted. "What are you doing, checking for bombs."

Adelaide couldn't help but feel her shoulders relax a little as the man chuckled. If he was chuckling, that meant he wasn't really angry.

She watched in curiosity as Harry strolled into the kitchen a bit absent-mindedly, handing Uncle Vernon a few pieces of mail before dropping a letter in Adelaide's hands that matched a similar letter that he continued to hold and begin to open.

Adelaide looked at the letter that had been dropped into her hands with utter befuddlement.

Who would be writing to them?

Made from a yellowish parchment and written on with an emerald-green ink, the letter was addressed simply:

Ms. A. Potter
The Cupboard under the Stairs
4 Privet Drive
Little Whinging
Surrey

On the other side of the envelope was a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms of a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding the letter H.

Instead of opening the letter, however, Adelaide stuffed it down her shirt and into her bra before anyone could notice. 

She glanced around the table and sighed in relief upon noticing that everybody was too caught up in their own thing to see what she'd done. 

"Marge's ill," Uncle Vernon informed Aunt Petunia after looking at a postcard he'd received. "Ate a funny whelk…"

"Dad!" Dudley exclaimed suddenly, and Adelaide's eyes widened upon noticing he had his eyes on Harry's letter that he was on verge of unfolding and reading. "Dad, Harry's got something!"