Harry's guess

Was this some classmate's prank?

Harry found it amusing. None of his classmates had ever tried anything like this before. It was rather creative.

The envelope was made of thick parchment, something hardly anyone used these days. After all, it was heavy and awkward to write on. Its only advantage was that it did not tear easily, but the postal service was fairly reliable now. It was not like hundreds of years ago, when letters were stuffed into a large sack and tossed into the back of a carriage to be jolted around.

The amusing address was written in green ink, which was also unusual. What puzzled Harry most, though, was that there was no stamp on the envelope.

He turned it over and found a wax seal on the flap. Harry had never seen anything like it before. There was a design on the seal, featuring a capital H...

After handing Uncle Vernon the newspaper, Harry sat down at the table and cut through the wax seal with a table knife. The envelope was so intricate and interesting that he did not want to damage it.

Harry took out the letter and quickly read through it. An amused look immediately spread across his face. Chuckling, he said to Dudley beside him, "Dudley, I've received a really interesting letter. I wonder who came up with it. It's pretty creative!"

It was, of all things, an acceptance letter claiming to be from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Harry found it very amusing. This sort of thing belonged on April Fools' Day, not during the summer holidays. Still, he had to admit it was a good joke, especially with how beautifully the letter and envelope had been made.

"Hogwarts? What kind of rubbish name is that?" Dudley said, laughing as he looked at the letter.

Harry was about to reply when a sharp crash rang out. The plate Aunt Petunia had been holding had slipped from her hands and fallen to the floor. There was no carpet in the kitchen, and it shattered at once.

"You gave me a fright!" Dudley shouted indignantly.

"Oh, oh, sorry, sorry..." Aunt Petunia looked rather flustered. She did not even call Dudley her little darling as she usually did. She simply hurried to sweep up the broken shards, then pulled Uncle Vernon, who was putting down his newspaper with a strange expression, into their room. They had not even finished breakfast.

Harry watched in confusion as the two went into their room and shut the door behind them. It seemed very odd.

After a little thought, his expression grew strange. Aunt Petunia seemed to have dropped the plate just as Dudley said Hogwarts. Could they have heard of this supposed Magic School?

Harry thought it unlikely. Neither Aunt Petunia nor Uncle Vernon had much of a sense of humor. Jokes like this were not their sort of thing at all.

But...

Harry pondered their reaction. It did not really look as though Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had heard a joke. On the contrary...

An intrigued look came over Harry's face as he connected it with Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon's almost obsessive aversion to every word related to magic. That was quite unusual. Even the stuffy old teachers at school did not mind students exclaiming, "It's practically magic!" when they were surprised.

But Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon did! And they showed an intense aversion and disgust.

Harry had always found that strange. Now that he thought about it, could magic really exist? Was there really a Magic School called Hogwarts, and did Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon know about it?

An ordinary person would never have leaped to such a conclusion, but Harry was an exception, because he genuinely could use magic. Since he could use magic, the idea that other people in this world could do the same did not seem all that hard to accept.

And if there were people who could use magic, then it seemed perfectly reasonable for there to be a Magic School.

Harry took the letter back from Dudley and turned to the second page. It listed a whole series of things he needed to prepare for school, along with a few instructions. The more Harry read, the more he felt his guess might be right.

Turning back to the first page, Harry's eyes fell on the final sentence: We await your owl with your reply by July 31.

"Well, that's awkward. Where am I supposed to catch an owl?" Harry murmured.

Tap, tap! Tap, tap!

A crisp tapping came from the window. Harry looked toward the sound, and his eyes immediately lit up.

A gray-black barn owl was standing on the windowsill, staring at him with round eyes. When it saw him look over, it tapped on the window twice more.

If Harry had only thought there was a slight chance that this Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry actually existed a moment ago, he now put the odds at seventy or eighty percent.

Just as Harry stood up to open the window and let the owl in, Aunt Petunia's bedroom door opened, and she and Uncle Vernon came out. Aunt Petunia spotted the owl by the window and immediately shrieked. She hurried over and banged hard on the glass, driving the owl away.

Harry raised his eyebrows. Once again, he had sensed Aunt Petunia's emotions.

This ability was not very effective, at least not at its current stage. Harry guessed that if his mental strength grew, he would probably find it easier to sense other people's emotions. For now, though, he could only feel them when someone was experiencing an intense emotional surge.

Right now, for instance, Aunt Petunia was extremely angry, and there was also... bitter envy...

That was very strange. Although Aunt Petunia was petty, she rarely felt such bitter envy toward anyone. The only previous occasion Harry had sensed it was when the wealthy wife of a hugely important client of a business partner had visited their home.