BECOMING PRONGSLET ⟶ Harry Potter

Prologue

Dear Harry,

This is probably the fifteenth letter that I've sent you but-

"Ah, what's the use?" Milo Potter pushed the parchment paper away from him, knocking it off his desk onto the floor, along with his inkwell. The ink spilled all over the floor with a loud clinking sound, leaving him to sigh heavily. Of course, he couldn't use his wand to clean it up, but there was someone in the household who could. Moments later, the door to his bedroom opened, revealing his mother, Minerva McGonagall to stand in the doorway. She seemed confused as to what had caused the crashing noise until she noted the spilled ink on the floor.

Before she could even ask, the tiny bowtruckle that had been sitting on the desk quickly pointed at Milo, ratting the boy out as the Ink-Spiller. Milo tried to force an innocent smile on his face until he peered over and caught sight of Paden.

"Hey!"

"Milo, what were you doing that would cause this mess?" Minerva asked removing her own wand from her sleeve to clean up the ink. With a simple wave of her wand, the ink was cleared and then the inkwell was placed back on the desk. She didn't need an answer as she looked at the beginning of a letter on the desk. "Writing to Harry again?"

"I was, but I don't see the point in doing it anymore," Milo said scratching the top of his head. "He's not going to respond anyway. He hasn't responded to my letters all summer, I think he made it pretty obvious that he doesn't want to talk to me, Mum. So why should I even bother?"

Normally, it would have raised concern for Minerva that Harry wasn't responding but without permission, she had traveled to Privet Drive, incognito in her animagus form. She had seen Harry, she had even seen Hedwig, the Dursleys were their usual brutish and unkind selves, but there didn't seem to be the reason that Harry couldn't answer Milo's letters. She didn't want to say anything to Milo about it, but the boy was so incredibly worried that something had happened to his little brother. To learn that Harry was fine and choosing not to respond to his letters, it hurt him terribly. 

He thought there had to be some sort of mistake but his mother wouldn't lie to him, he knew that very well. Which only caused it to hurt even more. He had made so many plans if they had the chance to spend some time together, but all of them were disregarded as Milo was left disappointed, not to mention, angry.

"Well, how about I offer you a distraction instead of allowing you to mope in your room for the remainder of the summer?"

She held up an envelope in her hand addressed to him but she noticed right away that Milo was squinting to read who it was from. His eyebrows were furrowed together, his forehead slightly creased from where he was straining to see from where he was sitting. Letting her hand drop down to her side, she pursed her lips before Milo looked up at her.

"What's wrong, Mum?" He asked cautiously, wondering why he was getting the look from his mother. He tried to think of every possible thing he had done wrong since waking up that afternoon, but he couldn't think of anything. In a matter of seconds, his heart was racing in his chest believing she remembered something from the past that needed addressing. It would just be his luck.

However, Minerva soothed his nerves in one way and rattled them in another.

"We're getting your eyes checked! I've seen you squinting since school let out, we can't have that, Milo," She said before walking over and placing the letter on the boy's desk before walking out, probably going to make an appointment for him, much to his displeasure. A small whine escaped from him as he looked to the door where she had left.  He never had a problem with his sight before, a little blurriness when it came to distance but nothing that he thought he needed glasses for. He assumed that everyone's vision had to clock out somewhere, but that was only to make himself feel better.

 It seemed the Potter boys were destined to live life behind frames. 

But there were other matters that he had to tend to as he turned his attention to the letter and up close, he was able to see that it was from the Weasley twins. Normally, they would send some sort of package, whether it exploded or not with something, it was always a risk but Milo was curious about the letter. He ripped open the top of the envelope and pulled out the paper to begin reading. 

Paden heard the boy laugh as he read it over and gave a small disgruntled sound as Milo's attention was not on him. The small bowtruckle had become quite spoiled over the summer days, nearly having Milo's attention constantly, sharing it on the occasion. But he wasn't exactly fond of having to share. Now all of Milo's attention was on the letter, bringing him to laugh and smile while Paden waited impatiently. Eventually, too much time had passed for Paden's liking as he crawled over and proceeded to bite down on Milo's finger.

"Ow!" He cried out, jerking his hand back and attempting to shake the pain away. "Paden! What was that for? I was simply reading!"

Paden turned his back to the boy with sharp chirp, leaving Milo to sigh and place the letter down.

"You know, Paden, all this little jealous nature...you might be a bowtruckle but green does not suit you, my friend. If you had been just a little more patient I would have been finished with the letter and you would have heard me tell you that the twins invited me over to the Burrow for a couple of days. They invited you to come along as well but now I'm not so sure..."

Within seconds, Paden was clinging to the boy's shirt, refusing to be left behind. Milo peered down at him and shook his head. "That was a joke, Paden, I wouldn't leave you. Goodness, you ought to know me better than that by now!"

Picking himself up from his chair, Milo made his way out of his room to see his mother re-enter the home.

"Mum, Fred and George invited me over to the Burrow for a couple of days, said they had something to show me," he said, unaware that his mother was well aware. Molly Weasley had contacted her first to extend the invitation. "Can I go please?!"

"Of course you can," Minerva answered, it would be good for the boy to get out of the home, out of Hogsmeade, and enjoy himself for a bit. He already made plans to spend the last two weeks of summer at the Diggory household but that was still a little ways away. 

It seemed to brighten Milo's mood drastically until she threw in the catch.

"After you get your eyes checked."

"Awww, Mum!" He whined with a pouty face until his mother turned to him and gave him a stern look. Immediately, he straightened up and fell silent as he looked right at her. "I mean, yes ma'am."

***

There was a difference in the wizarding world when it came to healing and when it came to basically trying to change someone's natural physical characteristics. As Madam Pomfrey could mend broken bones, heal bruises and cuts in a matter of seconds, eyesight was something completely different. No matter how much money one had, there was no spell that could "heal" someone's eyesight whether they were born with poor eyesight or if it gradually became worse over time. 

His mother explained it from a very young age that not all problems could be solved with magic. Milo learned about Gamp's Laws of Transfiguration. One was being that one could not create food out of anything, which made sense as to why wizards and witches could not solve the issue of world hunger.  A genetic trait could not be changed permanently either, it could alter for some time, but it was never permanent. 

From family pictures that Milo owned, it seemed it was common for the males in the Potter family to wear glasses. Their father, his father, and so on and so forth. Messy hair and frames seemed to be common ground in the male line whether it was a coincidence or not.

Minerva wasn't looking forward to fitting the boy with glasses, she wanted him to keep his vision as perfect as possible. But it didn't seem to be the case as Milo found himself wearing a pair of square frames and looking around the room. Placing her hand over her mouth, Minerva had to look away for a second, he didn't have the same eye color as his father, but as time went on, Milo was shaping to look more and more like his late father.

Little did Minerva know that Milo was set to become more like James Potter that year than she ever anticipated, the hair and glasses were just the beginning.