Harriet Potter book 1

More Mysterious Letters

The next morning everyone was silent. Dudley was in complete shock. The previous day he had screamed, hit his father with the smelting stick from his school, purposely been ill, kicked Aunt Petunia, and thrown his pet tortoise through the greenhouse roof. He couldn't understand why his parents hadn't given him back his room. As Harriet thought back she bitterly regretted not ducking in to her cupboard before trying to read the letter. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia sat there in grim despair, shooting dark looks between each other.

When the mail arrived that morning Uncle Vernon had sent Dudley to do it, he was being oddly nice to Harriet since yesterday. As he walked to the door Dudley bashed his smelting stick on everything. then he yelled "There is another letter 'Ms. H. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privot Drive-'"

Before Dudley could finish reading off the address Uncle Vernon cried out and rush down the hall to the door, Harriet was hot on his heels. Dudley wrestled on the ground with his father to keep custody of the letter. What made the situation worse was that Harriet was on Uncle Vernon's back, arms around his neck. There was a bout of confused fighting where everyone was being hit left and right with the smelting stick, before Uncle Vernon straightened with a gasp, the letter clasped tightly in his fist.

"Harriet cupboard," He wheezed, pointing to under the stairs. "No wait I mean your bedroom and Dudley just go."

Harriet paced round and round her bedroom. Somehow whoever was sending the letters knew that she had moved out of the cupboard and they also seemed to know that the first letter had never been read by her. That meant that they would try to send another, right? This time she had to make sure that she didn't fail to get it. She had a plan.

The now repaired alarm clock rang at six o'clock the following morning. Harriet was quick to silence it and made sure she was quiet as she got dressed for the day. She absolutely couldn't wake up the Durselys. She slunk down the stairs without turning on any of the lights.

She had decided to wait for the postman on the corner of Privot Drive, that way she could get the mail for number four first. She felt like her heart was in her throat as she stole across the dark hall toward the door-

"AAAAAHHHH!"

Harriet jumped, she'd stumbled on something large and squashy on the doormat- something that was alive!

The lights clicked on upstairs, giving enough light for Harriet to realize that the big, squashy ting happened to be her Uncle Vernon's head. Her uncle had been lying right in front of the door in a sleeping bag, clearly knowing Harriet would try something to get that letter. He yelled at her for about half an hour before making her go prepare a cup of tea. Harriet dragged her feet in a miserable shuffle to the kitchen, by the time she had made it back the mail was already in Uncle Vernon's lap. Harriet could see that there were three letter addressed in the same green ink as the first two.

"I want-," is all she managed to say before Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters to shreds right in front of her.

Instead of going to work that day Uncle Vernon had stayed home so he could nail the mail slot closed.

"You see if they can't deliver them then they will just give up," he explained to Aunt Petunia around a mouthful of nails.

"I don't think that'll work, Vernon."

"But Petunia, these people's minds work in strange ways; they don't think like you and I do," said Uncle Vernon as he tried to hammer in a nail with the piece of fruitcake Aunt Petunia had brought him.

On Friday there were no less than twelve letters addressed to Harriet in that familiar green ink. Since they could no longer go through the mail slot they were slid under the door, forced through the sides, there were even a few forced through the small window in the downstairs bathroom.