A Strange Letter

A Strange Letter

Charles returned to the Gryffindor Common Room with a silly grin, then got to work on something very important.

"Where have you been these past few days?" Harry asked expectantly. "Do you want me to help? Same price as before."

Hermione put down the book in her hands. She glanced at Harry, then at Charles, who was writing furiously, and said to Harry, "Harry, I'll check your homework for you."

Harry was naturally delighted and immediately handed over his homework.

"Charles!"

A furious roar startled every student in the Common Room.

"Harry used to do all your holiday homework for you?!"

Hermione stared at Charles in disbelief. Her shock was no less than if someone had told her that everything related to magic she had experienced from summer until now had actually been a hallucination, that her mental condition had recently improved, and that she should now say goodbye to Hogwarts.

Charles answered calmly, "What if I told you I was imitating Harry's handwriting?"

"I knew it!" Hermione said through gritted teeth. "No wonder I always thought the handwriting was different!"

Charles could not understand why she was so angry. He let out a deep sigh and said solemnly, "You don't know how hard Harry's life used to be. It's not like he was starving or freezing, but unlike us, he couldn't attend a good school. He was stupid all day long. Even Tom was smarter than him."

(At this point, Ron asked curiously, "Who's Tom?" Dean Thomas then gave him a brief lesson on televisions and cartoons.)

Charles continued, "I couldn't just stand by and watch him stay like that. I had to make him smarter, or he'd never grow tall."

"So I came up with a brilliant idea. Didn't someone say that doing homework counted as studying? So I had Harry attend remedial classes during the holidays."

Hermione glared at the innocent-looking scoundrel for a long while. Then she glanced at the somewhat moved Harry and sat down angrily, circling every mistake in his homework with the meticulous intensity of someone picking eggshells out of a bone.

Charles ignored her and continued rushing through his homework. By the time he finished, everyone around him had already returned to their dormitories. Even the twins had finished wandering around outside and had brought him a late-night snack.

He finished his homework at around midnight. Stretching, Charles returned to his dormitory, wondering whether he should get some Truth Serum from Percy and pry the password to the Prefects' Bathroom out of him.

A letter lay beside his bed, together with an unread copy of the Daily Prophet. It had probably arrived sometime over the past couple of days.

The envelope bore no sender's name. Inside was another envelope, and the name written on it made Charles frown. He wasn't that familiar with Mrs. Dursley, was he?

He drew the curtains around his bed and opened the letter, reading it carefully.

The letter sounded very much like an adult soothing a child. Petunia mentioned the Old Man's recent condition, then asked Charles how he was doing at Hogwarts—whether he was eating enough and whether he was cold. She also said that she had once heard her sister describe Hogwarts, and asked whether students really took a steam train to school.

After reading it once, Charles grew serious and began reading it a second time, because Petunia's questions were far too pointed.

For instance, she had asked in a roundabout way about the scenery along the route to school. She had even mentioned what things looked like outside the train windows at noon and at dusk.

Then she asked whether there was a lake right after they got off the train, and whether the lake was really as large as Lily had said.

After that, she rambled on about the weather around Privet Drive, then asked whether Hogwarts was cold.

Taken together, the answers could be used to infer the train's route. It might even be possible to locate the train station.

Later in the letter, Petunia said that she wanted to learn more about how Lily had lived at Hogwarts. She asked whether Charles could inquire with the professors about her.

If that question were answered honestly, Petunia would learn how many professors there were at Hogwarts, what they taught, and how the staff had changed over the years.

After finishing the letter, Charles began thinking seriously. His instincts told him that Petunia had done this deliberately. She wanted to learn about Hogwarts.

The question was why. Did she simply want to understand what her sister had gone through all those years ago, or did she have some deeper purpose?

Charles thought of how she had asked Dumbledore about the details of Lily's death when they met that day. Could it be that she was planning to avenge her sister?

Why?

Was she planning to ask him for help?

If she had a daughter who looked like Mackenna Grace, he might have considered it.

Charles thought about it from every angle but could not come up with a clue. In the end, he decided to stop thinking about it and go to sleep. He would write to the Old Man tomorrow about the Centaurs and reply to Petunia at the same time. He would answer whatever she asked honestly.

Besides, he was only selling her information about Hogwarts. If she had the guts, she could drive straight into Hogwarts, keep her foot on the accelerator, and ram Quirrell in the back of the head.

Before Herbology class on Monday, Professor Sprout specifically came to ask Charles, "Did you prepare all those plant cuttings outside the greenhouse?"

Charles immediately replied, "Yes. Friends from the Centaur tribe helped me prepare them. I'm planning to plant them in that patch of land."

Professor Sprout had heard McGonagall tell her about Charles and the Centaurs over breakfast that morning. Looking as though she had already seen through everything, she smiled and asked him, "Did you deliberately find plants that glow at night so you could trick the girls into coming out to play after dark?"

Charles froze, looking as though he had discovered a whole new world. He could not help nodding. "So that's another possibility. Professor, you really have experience... Ow!"

Professor Sprout instinctively tapped him on the head with her wand, then said, "If you have time, prepare the soil while the weather is still warm. Once it gets cold, the ground will freeze and it'll be difficult to work. You can plant those cuttings you brought back in the empty flowerpots in Greenhouse Two. It'll be warm enough there for them to sprout during winter, and next spring you can plant them in the ground."

The professor then took out a key and handed it to Charles. "This is the key to Greenhouse Two. Keep it with you. You can move the cuttings inside for now."

After thanking the professor, Charles immediately put the large bag of plant cuttings into his Bag of Holding for the time being, then went with the professor to open the door to Greenhouse Two.

The moment the door opened, a wave of warm, humid air rushed out, carrying the smell of compost.

This was a greenhouse specifically for raising seedlings. Many of the flowerpots on the tables seemed to contain nothing but soil, while a few had tiny shoots growing in them.

Professor Sprout told him which empty flowerpots he could use and which piles of soil were suitable for growing cuttings. She also summoned a dipper from the corner with an Accio Charm and explained how much compost fertilizer to dissolve in each dipperful of water for watering.

Charles memorized everything one by one. The cuttings could not be left out for too long, so after obtaining the professor's permission, he planned to come back and work overtime that evening.