Demigod Dreams and Wizard Letters

The Letter From No One

"Go cupboard - stay - no meals," Uncle Vernon wheezed before collapsing into a chair.

Harry escaped from the living room into his cupboard and lay on his bed. Today had not been a good day. To start with, it was Dudley's birthday, which was usually terrible anyway, thanks to. Mrs Figg. This time, though, he'd managed to talk to a snake, make the glass from its exhibit disappear, and set the aforementioned snake free - definitely too magical for the Dursleys to handle.

Harry resigned himself to waiting for dark, so he could sneak some food from the kitchen until he noticed the envelope on the edge of his bed. That definitely hadn't been there this morning; he didn't even recognise it. Harry picked it up warily, suspecting that it was one of Dudley's practical jokes, and read the address on the front: Mr H. Potter, The Cupboard Under the Stairs, 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey. There was no stamp.

Harry ruled out the possibility that Dudley had put it there - the writing was far too neat for his cousin. Funny, when he turned the envelope side to side, Harry could just make out a different address that flickered in and out of focus: it was for someone named Percy Jackson, who lived in America. Harry turned the envelope over to open it. However, there was more writing on the back.

Dear Mr Potter, (it read)

It has come to our attention that it might benefit you to have correspondence with a certain Percy Jackson, for reasons that will become clear later. Mr Jackson now has an envelope just like yours, and when you place an item in your envelope and seal it, the item will be appear in Mr Jackson's envelope. This transportation works both ways. It is intended that you will write to each other. To avoid confusion, you will write the first letter, however, after that, you are free to do as you please. This envelope has been protected from water, fire and other physical destruction, so it should not break or age in any way. Should this happen, a new envelope will find its way to you shortly. Finally, you will not be able to tell anyone about your correspondence in the interests of safety - this has been enforced by magic - so please do not attempt to do so.

Enjoy.

The note bore no signature. Harry simply stared at the envelope for a second, completely overwhelmed. Well, if he could talk to snakes and make glass vanish, why not magical envelopes? All of a sudden, Harry realised he had no pens or paper. As soon as he thought this, though, the envelope became noticeably heavier.

Harry looked inside it and found a quill, a sealed bottle of blue ink and some blank paper that had soft edges - parchment, Harry thought. So, as he had nothing better to do, Harry sat down and wrote a letter to Percy Jackson.

Dear Percy Jackson,

I guess if this is real, you've got an envelope as well. I'm not even sure this will even work - but then again after what happened today, I'm not really in a place to judge.

I suppose I'll start this off like any other letter to a pen friend (although this definitely isn't your normal pen friend situation), I'll tell you about myself.

When I was a baby, my parents died in a car crash, and I was adopted by my aunt Petutnia and uncle Vernon. The have a son called Dudley - who's the biggest kid going into high school you'll ever see, and not in the muscular sense - and they treat me, well, not the best.

I sleep in the cupboard under the stairs - which I'm now confined to because of what happened today - have to do everything the Dursleys want me to do while Dudley sits around playing on his many games consoles, and am generally called 'boy' by my uncle.

Not that I'm really complaining - it's probably better than an orphanage - but it might have been more bearable if I had any friends at school. That's a dream, really, because Dudley turned everyone against me (though I'm a bit of a misfit to start with, which doesn't help). Dudley was the residential school bully at my last school - now I'm moving to St Brutus's Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys, which gives you an idea about what my aunt and uncle think of me.

Now, what happened today. Well, you see, loads of weird things seem to happen to me (like my hair growing back overnight after aunt Petunia gave me a haircut so short I was almost bald), but today was the strangest yet.

Today was Dudley's birthday, and we went to the Zoo with his friend Piers Polkiss. We were in the reptile area, and Dudley got annoyed at the boa constrictor because it wasn't moving. When he went over to another enclosure, I went over to the snake and talked to it. I know - crazy, right? But I was pretty lonely, and I still am, and I kind of felt sorry for the snake (Dudley can be pretty stuck up).

So I said to the snake, "Sorry about him. You must get all kinds of horrible people in here."

I leant onto the bar in front of the glass window, and (I couldn't believe this) the snake nodded!

"Can you hear me?" I asked. It nodded again. We were in the middle of a conversation about the snake's home when Dudley came sprinting over (which was quite impressive, considering his huge size) and leant on the glass, ogling the snake.

I got really angry, then. Dudley was just so ... Dudley-ish! And as I was thinking this, the glass disappeared, Dudley fell into the enclosure, and the snake escaped!

I don't know what happened - I couldn't have made the glass disappear - it's impossible, right? - but Piers told uncle Vernon that I'd been speaking to the snake, and that's why I'm in the cupboard (the Dursleys are funny about anything strange, especially magical stuff. They don't even like people saying the word 'magic' in their house!).

That's about all I've got to tell you, Percy - I hope your life's a bit more interesting than mine - what's it like, living in America?

From,

Harry

Harry folded up the parchment, slipped it into the envelope, and sealed it. As he did so, the envelope lit up from the inside with bright white light, and then deflated - Harry's letter to Percy had been delivered.