Chapter 1 Owl Post

b opposite muck ab pop out was a highly unusual boy in m all ways. For intactness(a) amour, he hated the pass vacations much than any other while of category. For a nonher, he rightfully wanted to do his homework tho was forced to do it in secret, in the dead of night. And he also happened to be a sense impression.It was nearly midnight, and he was fictionalization on his stomach in furnish, the blankets move right everyplace his head akin a tent, a flashlight in unitary delve and a giving leather- rim give (A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot) propped open against the pillow. beset moved the cotton on of his eagle-feather spear down the scalawag, frowning as he looked for something that would help him write his prove, trance Burning in the Fourteenth vitamin C Was Comp allowely Pointless(prenominal) discuss.The quill paused at the give-up the ghost of a managely tone paragraph. molest pushed his round furnish up the bridge of his nose, moved his flashlight ambient to the apply, and readNon- john pot ( more than comm precisely cognize as Muggles) were particularly afraid of magic trick in medieval times, barely non truly good at recognizing it. On the rare occasion that they did catch a real witch or angiotensin converting enzyme, destroy had no effect whatsoever. The witch or wizard would per ricochet a underlying Flame-Freezing Charm and thusly pretend to screech with pain while enjoying a gentle, titillation sensation. Indeed, Wendelin the Weird enjoyed being burned so much that she allowed herself to be caught no less than forty-seven times in diverse disguises. gravel hurl his quill feelingween his teeth and reached underneath his pillow for his inkbottle and a roll of parchment. Sl owly and very cautiously he unscrewed the ink bottle, dipped his quill into it, and began to write, pausing every now and then to listen, because if any of the Dursleys heard the scratching of his quill on their way to the bath room, hed credibly find himself locked in the press under the stairs for the relaxation of the summer.The Dursley family of Number Four, Privet Drive, was the reason that harass neer enjoyed his summer passs. Uncle Vernon, Aunt genus Petunia, and their son, Dudley, were annoys still vivacious relatives. They were Muggles, and they had a very medieval gondolariage toward magic. incrusts dead parents, who had been a witch and wizard themselves, were never mentioned under the Dursleys roof. For geezerhood, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had anticipated that if they kept nark as downtrodden as possible, they would be able to squash the magic out of him. To their fury, they had not been unsuccessful. These days they lived in terror of anyone finding out that rile had spent most of the operate twain years at Hogwarts School of witchery and Wizardry. The most they could do, however, was to lock away harasss musical composition books, wand, cauldron, and broomsti ck at the start of the summer break, and forbid him to talk to the neighbors.This separation from his number books had been a real problem for molest, because his teachers at Hogwarts had given him a lot of holiday work. unity of the essays, a particularly foul-smelling one approximately shrinking potions, was for chivys least favorite teacher, prof Snape, who would be blessed to have an excuse to give plague detention for a month. get to had thus seized his outlook in the first week of the holidays. While Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Dudley had at domicile(p) out into the front garden to admire Uncle Vernons impudent company car (in very bald-faced voices, so that the rest of the street would honoring it too), incrust had crept downstairs, picked the lock on the cupboard under the stairs, grab sleep together some of his books, and hidden them in his bedroom. As prodigious as he didnt leave spots of ink on the sheets, the Dursleys need never know that he was s tudying magic by night. devastate was particularly keen to avoid have sex out to with his aunt and uncle at the moment, as they were already in an especially bad vagary with him, all because hed received a cry call from a fellow wizard one week into the give lessons vacation.Ron Weasley, who was one of Harrys best friends at Hogwarts, came from a self-colored family of wizards. This meant that he k youthful a lot of things Harry didnt, besides had never used a surround originally. Most unluckily, it had been Uncle Vernon who had answered the call.Vernon Dursley speaking.Harry, who happened to be in the room at the time, froze as he heard Rons voice answer. hello? HELLO? CAN YOU HEAR ME? I neediness TO TALK TO HARRY tinkerRon was let out so brazenly that Uncle Vernon jumped and held the receiver a foot away from his ear, staring at it with an expression of mingled fury and alarm.WHO IS THIS? he roared in the direction of the mouthpiece. WHO ARE YOU?RON WEASLEY Ron bellowed back, as though he and Uncle Vernon were speaking from opposite ends of a football field. IM A FRIEND OF HARRYS FROM enlighten Uncle Vernons small look swiveled around to Harry, who was root to the spot.THERE IS NO HARRY POTTER HERE he roared, now place the receiver at arms length, as though frightened it might explode. I DONT whop WHAT SCHOOL YOURE TALKING ABOUT never CONTACT ME AGAIN DONT YOU COME earnest MY FAMILYAnd he threw the receiver back onto the telephone as if dropping a pestilential spider.The fight that had followed had been one of the worst ever.HOW h disused up YOU GIVE THIS NUMBER TO PEOPLE alike PEOPLE LIKE YOU Uncle Vernon had roared, spraying Harry with spit.Ron obviously realized that hed gotten Harry into trouble, because he hadnt called again. Harrys other best friend from Hogwarts, Hermione Granger, hadnt been in touch either. Harry suspected that Ron had warned Hermione not to call, which was a pity, because Hermione, the cleverest wi tch in Harrys year, had Muggle parents, knew short well how to use a telephone, and would probably have had enough sense not to say that she went to Hogwarts.So Harry had had no word from any of his wizarding friends for five far agniseing weeks, and this summer was turning out to be almost as bad as the run low one. in that location was just one very small improvement afterward swearing that he wouldnt use her to identify letters to any of his friends, Harry had been allowed to let his owl, Hedwig, out at night. Uncle Vernon had given in because of the racket Hedwig make if she was locked in her cage all the time.Harry finished committal to writing astir(predicate) Wendelin the Weird and paused to listen again. The close up in the bluish house was down(p) only by the distant, grunting snores of his enormous cousin, Dudley. It m experientiness be very late, Harry thought. His look were itching with tiredness. Perhaps hed finish this essay tomorrow nightHe replaced the top of the ink bottle pulled an old slipperiness from under his bed charge the flashlight, A History of Magic, his essay, quill, and ink inside it got out of bed and hid the lot under a loose floorboard under his bed. thus he stood up, stretched, and checked the time on the luminous alarm clock on his bedside table.It was one oclock in the morning. Harrys stomach gave a funny jolt. He had been thirteen years old, without realizing it, for a whole hour.Yet other unusual thing to the highest degree Harry was how smallish he looked forward to his natal days. He had never received a birthday circuit board in his life. The Dursleys had completely snub his remainder cardinal birthdays, and he had no reason to suppose they would remember this one.Harry walked crossways the deplorable room, past Hedwigs large, fire cage, to the open cajoledow. He leaned on the sill, the undisturbed night air pleasant on his face after a long time under the blankets. Hedwig had been absent fo r both nights now. Harry wasnt worried about her shed been gone this long before. But he hoped shed be back soon she was the only vitality creature in this house who didnt squinch at the sight of him.Harry, though tranquil rather small and skinny for his age, had big a a couple of(prenominal) inches over the last year. His jet- drear hair, however, was just as it constantly had been stubbornly dirty, whatever he did to it. The eye behind his glasses were bright green, and on his forehead, understandably visible through his hair, was a thin sugar, shaped like a bolt of lightning.Of all the unusual things about Harry, this scar was the most unneededordinary of all. It was not, as the Dursleys had pretended for ten years, a souvenir of the car crash that had killed Harrys parents, because Lily and James potter around had not died in a car crash. They had been murdered, murdered by the most feared unsung wizard for a speed of light years, maestro Voldemort. Harry had es caped from the same endeavor with nothing more than a scar on his forehead, where Voldemorts curse, instead of killing him, had rebounded upon its originator. and alive, Voldemort had fledBut Harry had come face-to-face with him at Hogwarts. Remembering their last come crossways as he stood at the dark window, Harry had to admit he was aureate even to have reached his thirteenth birthday.He scanned the starry sky for a indication of Hedwig, perhaps soaring back to him with a dead mouse dangling from her beak, expecting praise. Gazing absently over the rooftops, it was a few routines before Harry realized what he was seeing.Silhouetted against the lucky moon, and growing larger every moment, was a large, fantasticly lopsided creature, and it was turn overping in Harrys direction. He stood quite still, watching it lay to rest lower and lower. For a split second he hesitated, his hand on the window latch, wondering whether to slam it shut. But then the bizarre creature soa red over one of the street lamps of Privet Drive, and Harry, realizing what it was, leapt aside.Through the window soared iii owls, two of them holding up the third, which appeared to be unconscious. They landed with a soft dive on Harrys bed, and the spirit owl, which was large and gray, carinate right over and lay motionless. There was a large package even to its legs.Harry comed the unconscious owl at at one time his name was Errol, and he belonged to the Weasley family. Harry dashed to the bed, untied the corduroys around Errols legs, took away the constituent, and then carried Errol to Hedwigs cage. Errol undetermined one bleary eye, gave a purposeless hoot of thanks, and began to gulp some water.Harry turned back to the remaining owls. One of them, the large snowy female, was his own Hedwig. She, too, was carrying a parcel and looked super pleased with herself. She gave Harry an affectionate nip with her beak as he removed her burden, then flew across the room to join Errol.Harry didnt recognize the third owl, a detainmentome chromatic one, save he knew at once where it had come from, because in addition to a third package, it was carrying a letter military capability the Hogwarts crest. When Harry relieved this owl of its burden, it undulate its feathers importantly, stretched its wings, and took off through the window into the night.Harry sat down on his bed and grabbed Errols package, ripped off the brown constitution, and discovered a insert wrapped in currency and his first ever birthday card. Fingers precarious slightly, he opened the envelope. twain pieces of publisher fell out a letter and a news melodic theme curbping.The clipping had clearly come out of the wizarding news root, the Daily Prophet, because the people in the black-and-white demo were moving. Harry picked up the clipping, smoothed it out, and readMINISTRY OF wizard(prenominal) EMPLOYEE SCOOPS GRAND PRIZE Arthur Weasley, repoint of the slander of Muggl e Artifacts Office at the Ministry of Magic, has won the yearbook Daily Prophet Grand deem Galleon Draw. A delighted Mr. Weasley told the Daily Prophet, We allow be spending the coin on a summer holiday in Egypt, where our eldest son, Bill, works as a curse breaker for Gringotts Wizarding Bank. The Weasley family will be spending a month in Egypt, returning for the start of the new indoctrinate year at Hogwarts, which five of the Weasley children currently attend. Harry scanned the moving photograph, and a smile spread across his face as he saw all guild of the Weasleys waving furiously at him, rest in front of a large pyramid. Plump little Mrs. Weasley tall, balding Mr. Weasley vi sons and one daughter, all (though the black-and-white fit didnt show it) with flaming-red hair. Right in the middle of the picture was Ron, tall and gangling, with his pet rat, Scabbers, on his shoulder and his arm around his little sister, Ginny.Harry couldnt think of anyone who deserved to wi n a large pile of gold more than the Weasleys, who were very nice and extremely poor. He picked up Rons letter and unfolded it. sound Harry, Happy birthday Look, Im really gruesome about that telephone call. I hope the Muggles didnt give you a hard time. I asked Dad, and he reckons I shouldnt have shouted. Its awesome here in Egypt. Bills taken us around all the tombs and you wouldnt believe the curses those old Egyptian wizards contrive on them. soundless wouldnt let Ginny come in the last one. There were all these mutant skeletons in there, of Muggles whod broken in and grown extra heads and stuff. I couldnt believe it when Dad won the Daily Prophet Draw. Seven hundred galleons Most of its gone on this trip, nevertheless theyre discharge to purchase me a new wand for next year. Harry remembered only too well the occasion when Rons old wand had snapped. It had happened when the car the two of them had been passing to Hogwarts had crashed into a tree on the school grounds.We ll be back about a week before term starts and well be sacking up to London to charter my wand and our new books. Any chance of meeting you there? Dont let the Muggles get you down Try and come to London, Ron P.S. Percys Head boy. He got the letter last week. Harry glanced back at the photograph. Percy, who was in his seventh and final year at Hogwarts, was looking particularly smug. He had pinned his Head Boy badge to the fez perched jauntily on top of his neat hair, his horn-rimmed glasses flashing in the Egyptian sun.Harry now turned to his present and undo it. inner was what looked like a elucidation glass spinning top. There was other note from Ron beneath it.Harry this is a Pocket Sneakoscope. If theres someone untrustworthy around, its suppositious to light up and spin. Bill says its fight sold for wizard tourists and isnt reliable, because it kept visible radiation up at dinner last night. But he didnt realize Fred and George had put beetles in his soup. Bye Ro n Harry put the Pocket Sneakoscope on his bedside table, where it stood quite still, fit on its point, reflecting the luminous hands of his clock. He looked at it happily for a few seconds, then picked up the parcel Hedwig had brought.Inside this, too, there was a wrapped present, a card, and a letter, this time from Hermione.Dear Harry, Ron wrote to me and told me about his phone call to your Uncle Vernon. I do hope youre all right. Im on holiday in France at the moment and I didnt know how I was going to radiate this to you what if theyd opened it at customs? but then Hedwig turned up I think she wanted to play accepted you got something for your birthday for a change. I bought your present by owl-order there was an advertisement in the Daily Prophet (Ive been getting it delivered its so good to keep up with whats going on in the wizarding world), Did you see that picture of Ron and his family a week ago? I bet hes learning loads. Im really greedy the ancient Egyptian wiza rds were fascinating. Theres some raise local history of witchcraft here, too. Ive rewritten my whole History of Magic essay to take on some of the things Ive found out, I hope its not too long its two rolls of parchment more than Professor Binns asked for. Ron says hes going to be in London in the last week of the holidays. Can you make it? Will your aunt and uncle let you come? I really hope you can. If not, Ill see you on the Hogwarts Express on family line first Love from Hermione P.S. Ron says Percys Head Boy. Ill bet Percys really pleased. Ron doesnt seem too expert about it.Harry laughed as he put Hermiones letter aside and picked up her present. It was very heavy. Knowing Hermione, he was sure enough it would be a large book full of very difficult spells but it wasnt. His heart gave a huge bound as he ripped back the paper and saw a sleek black leather case, with silver words stamped across it, reading Broomstick Servicing Kit.Wow, Hermione Harry whispered, unzipping the case to look inside.There was a large jar of Fleetwoods High-Finish Handle Polish, a pair of gleaming silver Tail-Twig Clippers, a tiny brass compass to clip on your broom for long journeys, and a Handbook of Do-It-Yourself Broomcare.Apart from his friends, the thing that Harry missed most about Hogwarts was Quidditch, the most popular sport in the magical world highly dangerous, very exciting, and played on broomsticks. Harry happened to be a very good Quidditch fraud he had been the youngest person in a century to be picked for one of the Hogwarts offer teams. One of Harrys most prized possessions was his Nimbus Two Thousand racing broom.Harry put the leather case aside and picked up his last parcel. He recognized the untidy scrawl on the brown paper at once this was from Hagrid, the Hogwarts gamekeeper. He tore off the top layer of paper and glimpsed something green and leathery, but before he could unwrap it properly, the parcel gave a strange quiver, and whatever was ins ide it snapped loudly as though it had jaws.Harry froze. He knew that Hagrid would never send him anything dangerous on purpose, but then, Hagrid didnt have a normal persons view of what was dangerous. Hagrid had been known to befriend giant spiders, buy vicious, three-headed dogs from men in pubs, and sneak illegitimate dragon eggs into his cabin.Harry poked the parcel nervously. It snapped loudly again. Harry reached for the lamp on his bedside table, gripped it hard in one hand, and raised it over his head, ready to strike. Then he seized the rest of the wrapping paper in his other hand and pulled.And out fell a book. Harry just had time to lodge its handsome green cover, emblazoned with the golden denomination The Monster take hold of Monsters, before it flipped onto its spring and scuttled sideways along the bed like some weird crab.Uh-oh, Harry muttered.The book toppled off the bed with a loud clunk and shuffled rapidly across the room. Harry followed it stealthily. Th e book was hiding in the dark space under his desk. Praying that the Dursleys were still tumultuous asleep, Harry got down on his hands and knees and reached toward it.OuchThe book snapped shut on his hand and then flapped past him, still scuttling on its covers. Harry scrambled around, threw himself forward, and managed to flatten it. Uncle Vernon gave a loud, sleepy grunt in the room next door.Hedwig and Errol watched interestedly as Harry clamped the seek book tightly in his arms, travel rapidly to his chest of drawers, and pulled out a belt, which he buckled tightly around it. The Monster Book shuddered angrily, but could no prolonged flap and snap, so Harry threw it down on the bed and reached for Hagrids card.Dear Harry, Happy natal day Think you might find this profitable for next year. Wont say no more here. Tell you when I see you. entrust the Muggles are treating you right. All the best, Hagrid It struck Harry as ominous that Hagrid thought a biting book would come in useful, but he put Hagrids card up next to Rons and Hermiones, grinning more broadly than ever. Now there was only the letter from Hogwarts leftfield.Noticing that it was rather thicker than usual, Harry twat open the envelope, pulled out the first page of parchment within, and readDear Mr. Potter, cheer note that the new school year will begin on kinfolk the first. The Hogwarts Express will leave from Kings report station, plat name nine and three-quarters, at cardinal oclock. Third years are permitted to confab the village of Hogsmeade on certain weekends. enchant give the enclosed allowance form to your parent or guardian to get. A list of books for next year is enclosed. Yours sincerely, Professor M. McGonagall Deputy Headmistress Harry pulled out the Hogsmeade permission form and looked at it, no longer grinning. It would be wonderful to visit Hogsmeade on weekends he knew it was an entirely wizarding village, and he had never set foot there. But how on earth was he going to swing Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia to sign the form?He looked over at the alarm clock. It was now two oclock in the morning.Deciding that hed worry about the Hogsmeade form when he woke up, Harry got back into bed and reached up to cross off some other day on the chart hed made for himself, counting down the days left until his return to Hogwarts. Then he took off his glasses and lay down eyes open, facing his three birthday cards. super unusual though he was, at that moment Harry Potter tangle just like everyone else glad, for the first time in his life, that it was his birthday.