𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 - Harry Potter x Fem!Reader¹

1.. OWL POST

Y/N L/N was a highly unusual girl in many ways. For one thing, she hated the summer holidays more than any other time of year. For another, she really wanted to do her homework but was forced to do it in secret, in the dead of night. And she also happened to be a witch.

It was nearly midnight, and she was lying on her back in bed, the blankets drawn right over her head like a tent, a flashlight in one hand and a large leather-bound book (A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot) propped open against the pillow. Y/N moved the tip of her eagle-feather quill down the page, frowning as she looked for something that would help her  write her essay, "Witch Burning in the Fourteenth Century Was Completely Pointless — discuss."

The quill paused at the top of a likely-looking paragraph. Y/N moved her flashlight closer to the book, and read:

Non-magic people (more commonly known as Muggles) were particularly afraid of magic in medieval times, but not very good at recognizing it. On the rare occasion that they did catch a real witch or wizard, burning had no effect whatsoever. The witch or wizard would perform a basic Flame Freezing Charm and then pretend to shriek with pain while enjoying a gentle, tickling sensation. Indeed, Wendelin the Weird enjoyed being burned so much that she allowed herself to be caught no less than forty-seven times in various disguises.

Y/N put her quill down and reached underneath her pillow for her ink bottle and a roll of parchment. Slowly and very carefully she unscrewed the ink bottle, dipped her quill into it, and began to write, pausing every now and then to listen, because if any of the Hudsons heard the scratching of her quill on their way to the bathroom, she'd probably lose her bedroom and find herself locked in the cupboard again under the stairs for the rest of the summer.

The Hudson family of number four, Autumn Avenue, was the reason that Y/N never enjoyed her summer holidays. Uncle Lucian, Aunt Eden, and their son, Cameron, were her only living relatives.

They were Muggles, and they had a very medieval attitude toward magic. Y/N's dead parents, who had been a witch and wizard themselves, were never mentioned under the Hudsons' roof. For years, Aunt Eden and Uncle Lucian had hoped that if they kept Y/N as

downtrodden as possible, they would be able to squash the magic out of her. To their fury, they had been unsuccessful.

These days they lived in terror of anyone finding out that Y/N had spent most of the last two years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The most they could do, however, was to lock away Y/N's spellbooks, wand, cauldron, and broomstick at the start of the summer break, and forbid her to talk to anyone other than occasionally talking to them in the forms of 'yes, Aunt Eden,' or 'I will, Uncle Lucian.'

This separation from her spellbooks had been a real problem for YN, because her teachers at Hogwarts had given her a lot of holiday work. One of the essays, a particularly nasty one about shrinking potions, was for Y/N's least favorite teacher, Professor Snape, who would be delighted to have an excuse to give her detention for a month. She had therefore seized her chance in the first week of the holidays.

While Uncle Lucian, Aunt Eden, and Cameron had gone out into the front garden to admire Uncle Lucian's new company car (in very loud voices, so that the rest of the street would notice it too), Y/N had crept downstairs, picked the lock on the cupboard under the stairs, grabbed some of her books, and hidden them in her bedroom. As long as she didn't leave spots of ink on the sheets, the Hudsons need never know that she was studying magic by night.

Y/N was particularly keen to avoid trouble with her aunt and uncle at the moment, as they were already in an especially bad mood with her, all because she'd received a telephone call from a fellow wizard one week into the school vacation.