Dudley’s fat jiggled three times.
He slid off the barrier like a wild boar hitting glass.
The kid was thick-skinned.
A little bump like that didn’t even hurt him.
He bounced right back up, wiped his nose on instinct, saw the bright red blood on his palm, and started bawling.
“Aaaah!
You dared to dodge!” Harry covered his ears and stared at the crying lump with pure disbelief.
This idiot was actually dumber than he looked.
Did he seriously think he’d run into a wall?
Dudley might not have seen it clearly, but Vernon and Petunia had watched the whole thing.
They’d seen the blue barrier snap into existence right in front of Harry and fling their precious son backward.
“Boy!
Look what you’ve done!
You hurt our precious Dudley!” Vernon was still reeling from the ghost-of-the-Potters theory, so Petunia got there first.
She came at Harry like an enraged mother bear, ready to tear him apart.
Harry had spent all day practicing spells.
His hand came up on pure instinct.
A blue flash shot from his fingertip and hit Petunia square in the chest.
The blue light flared once.
Petunia vanished.
In her place sat an angry, chattering chipmunk.
She actually looked cuter this way, Harry thought.
Vernon took one look and screamed again.
“Petunia!
My Petunia!” He lost it and charged.
Ten minutes later, Harry walked downstairs carrying a cage.
Inside sat one furious chipmunk and two fat, chubby hamsters—one big, one small.
He’d considered turning them into a wild boar and a bear, but with his skinny arms and the risk of waking the whole neighborhood at this hour, smaller rodents felt smarter.
He’d found the cage in the spare room.
Couldn’t remember which of Dudley’s birthdays it came from.
While digging it out, he’d scraped the back of his hand on a sharp corner.
Downstairs, Harry grabbed the first-aid kit and cleaned the cut, eyes flicking to the cage every few seconds while he tried to figure out his next move.
Scare them?
Or just hit them with the Soul-Stealing Curse and be done with it?
A weird knocking sound broke his thoughts.
Not the postman.
It sounded more like claws scratching the front door.
Harry glanced at the cage.
The Dursleys were behaving—mostly.
The smaller hamster was chewing on the bigger one’s head while the chipmunk tried to break it up.
Basically business as usual for Dudley.
Satisfied, Harry went to the door and opened it.
No postman.
The doorstep looked empty until he looked down.
An owl stared up at him with huge eyes, a letter clamped in its beak.
Harry recognized the envelope immediately.
It was the same one Vernon had burned the day before.
The one he’d never gotten to read.
“This letter for me?” Harry asked without thinking.
To his surprise, the owl nodded, then dropped the letter at his feet.
Harry snatched it up and tore it open.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore (President of the International Confederation of Wizards, Order of Merlin, First Class) Dear Mr.
Potter, We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on 1 September.
We await your owl by no later than 31 July.
Yours sincerely, Minerva McGonagall Deputy Headmistress (female) Same Hogwarts.
Different headmaster.
No Tom Lestrange anywhere.
Instead it was some guy named Dumbledore.
“Minerva McGonagall’s the deputy now, not the head.
Tom Lestrange is gone… and Dumbledore?
That name feels familiar.” Harry flipped to the second page—the supply list.
Looked almost identical to the stuff Mr.
Hodge had delivered at Potter Manor.
He set it aside.
Something tugged at his pant leg.
Harry looked down.
The owl was still there, pulling at the fabric.
“You waiting for my reply?” Harry asked.
He didn’t have any wizard money.
Worst case he could offer the Dursleys as payment—the owl would probably love that.
But he wasn’t that much of a monster.
The owl nodded and hooted once.
“Give me a second.” Harry ran inside, scribbled a quick note on a plain piece of paper, and handed it over.
No stamp.
The owl grabbed it, spread its wings, and flew off into the morning light.
Harry watched it disappear, mind racing.
Reply by July 31st.
That must be how you confirm you’re going.
This world’s Hogwarts felt different.
The letter said “your application has been approved.” Sounded like a higher bar than the other world.
And here he had no wizard parents to buy supplies.
How the hell was a basically Muggle-raised wizard supposed to manage that?
He glanced back at the cage.
The Dursleys stared up at him with beady little eyes.
Right.
He was an idiot for even wondering if they’d help.
They knew about Hogwarts.
That’s exactly why they’d hidden the letter from him.
They didn’t want him to be a wizard.
Any last shred of guilt Harry might have felt about turning them into rodents vanished.
He made his decision.
“It’s just the Soul-Stealing Curse.
I won’t make them do anything dangerous.
Just enough to make them face reality and stop blocking me from Hogwarts.” If he had a choice, he’d rather stay as far from this family as possible.
Hogwarts in this world was looking like his best ticket out.
Long term, his life was going to split into two separate worlds.
If he wanted to keep his head straight, he couldn’t let the gap between them get too wide.