The Flower and the Badger

Chapter 5

Anna's heartbeat quicken as her eyes scanned over the yellow parchment:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL of  WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chief Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. Of Wizards
Dear Miss Potter,
we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress

Millions of questions ran through and his head. Awaiting her owl? She was about to ask Hagrid what that meant when Harry beat her to it.
"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me." Said Hagrid. From yet another pocket he pulled out an owl. An actual, live owl! It was rather ruffled looking, but Anna thought it was beautiful all the same. She watched as Hagrid wrote a letter, presumably to that Dumbledore fellow, attached the letter to the owl's leg, and toss the owl out into the storm. And I'll look as Uncle Vernon came back into the fire light.
"They aren't going, neither one of them."
"We are too!" And I shouted, surprising everyone, but especially herself. "You've been lying to us our whole lives, and I'm not putting up with it anymore."
Hagrid started to laugh. "Way to tell that Muggle."
"A what?" Harry asked.
"A muggle. It's what we call non magic folk."
"We swore when we took them in that we'd put a stop to that rubbish!" Vernon shouted, and Harry and Anna looked at him in shock. "You knew?"
"Knew?!" Shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that- that school- and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawns, and- and turning teacups into rats! I was the only one who saw her for what she was! A freak! Then she meant that Potter at school and they left and got married, and have you too, and I know you be the same, just as abnormal, and then she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"
Blown up? Anna had always been told that they had died in a car crash. "B-But you said they had died in a car crash-"
"CAR CRASH?" Hagrid shouted, causing the Dursleys to scurry back into their corner. "How could a car crash killed Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry an' Anna Potter not knowing their own stories when every kid in our world knows Harry's name!"
"Hagrid..." Anna's lower lip started to quiver. "H-how did they die?"
Hagrid's look of anger turned to one of anxiety. "I never expected this. I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know." and Hagrid begin to tell them what had really happened, how their parents had been killed by a powerful dark wizard called Voldemort, how Voldemort had tried to kill Harry and failed.
"Right before he came into yer house, James hid Anna in the coat closet, otherwise she mighta  died too.  The house was all turned to rubble when I got there, so it's amazing she even survived anyway."
Anna tuned everyone else out. Her parents...murdered. She wiped away a few tears that had fallen down her face. Once more Uncle Vernon try to intervene.
"I AM NOT PAYING SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH THEM MAGIC TRICKS!"
this was the final straw for Hagrid. He grabbed his umbrella, waving it over his head. "NEVER INSULT ALBUS DUMBLEDORE IN FRONT OF ME!" he brought the umbrella down and pointed it at Dudley. There was a flash of light, a cracking sound, then Anna burst out laughing as she saw a pig's tail spring out of Dudley's fat bottom. Uncle Vernon grab Dudley and Aunt Petunia, dashing into the bedroom and slamming the door shut.
"Shouldn't have done that." Hagrid said ruefully. "Be grateful if yer didn't mention that to anyone at Hogwarts, I'm not supposed ter use magic."
"Don't worry." Anna said. "We won't tell a soul."
"Anyways, it's late and we got lots to do tomorrow. Get yer books and all that." hacker took off his coat and he gave it to the twins to use as a blanket. It easily covered both of them. They laid down, and Anna quickly drifted off into Dreamland.