Agents of Discord

by KittyrinnAiko

Chapter 7: Letters to Mr H Potter

Professor Minerva McGonagall made a point to check the names in the book of Admittance just as soon as she’d gotten back. Sure enough, there was an Aerie Lilly Potter among the more recent additions. Perfectly normal as most children had their names entered between the ages of seven and eleven. She then decided to go back to the year Harry Potter’s name was allegedly admitted. And truth be told, she’d never actually bothered to look. She just trusted Professor Dumbledore on the matter if for no other reason than the book was huge, and it might slam shut before a person had a chance to find a name. They did at least have ribbons in the book to mark out notable dates, so McGonagall turned back to the year. There on the pages in silvery ink were hundreds of names. Row upon row of names written in silvery ink, and if not for the yellowish color of the parchment, the small fine lettering would be truly hard to see.

Except for one name which stood out from its kin. Harry Potter. There was something off about that name, but she wasn’t quite sure what. The handwriting lacked a certain fluidity, it was a bit tarnished, and the name had been crossed out. The line crossing it out showed no tarnish, There were only two reasons right off hand that Minerva McGonagall could think of for the name to be crossed out. One, the boy had left the United Kingdom, and the other was that he’d passed on, unnoticed and unmourned. The idea that the name might be a forgery placed in the book by the one man capable of doing so never even crossed her mind. It did beg the question, had there been twins? The realization that the ink should not be tarnished wouldn't hit until sometime later.

McGonagal arrived at the Finch-Fletchley home just shy of two weeks later. After all, identifying muggle families, getting out to meet, talk to, and walk them through Diagon Alley took time. Finding the Finch-Fletchley place had been extra difficult on account of the address saying it was on a different street. It was almost as if the place might have been a wizard residence at one time.

She was not expecting to see Miss Aerie open the door.

“Oh, hi.” Aerie offered. “I’m just visiting a friend, I swear.” She then turned and called out, “Mrs Finch-Fletchley, we have a special guest!” Aerie turned back. “She’s in the kitchen. Oh, and I haven't told them anything because I wasn’t one hundred percent sure about Justin.”

“Now Aerie, you know you can just call me Flora,” Offered the woman as she emerged from about halfway down the entry hall.

“Yes, Mam.” Aerie looked downcast for just a moment, and then perked back up. “This is Professor McGonagall and she is from a private academy and has an offer for Justin. Why don’t I keep an eye on dinner while you talk? Oh, and some of what she has to say is going to sound outlandish, even crazy, so have an open mind.”

“Well, that isn’t one bit ominous,” Flora replied as Aerie went back into the kitchen.

That night’s conversation at dinner was very lively, and Aerie did her best to answer questions based on what she believed to be correct. No, Hogwarts was not an accredited school, but it was necessary. Flora wasn’t too sure she liked that idea, but there’d been a bright spot that Justin had discovered while looking at colleges online. The Eques School of Technology would take individuals from Private English Schools with an OWL certificate. They now knew what that was and going to Hogwarts was how to get one.

After Dinner Basil drove Aerie home dropping her off a block down the street.

“You do realize this makes it look really suspicious,” Basil pointed out.

“I’m probably not even supposed to be coming over. Sure it was OK for me going to school because I’d been enrolled over there, but we are probably better off if the Dursleys don’t know where I’ve been. That and a neighbor who likely reports back to the person who got to that judge.”

“That’s not related to this Hogwarts school is it?”

“It is.” Aerie let out a sigh. “Afraid I’m just a pawn in the game of life. Or in this case on somebody’s chess board, but not to worry, I’m playing Shogi,” with that, she got out of the car, closed the door, and vanished into the darkness.

Vernon Dursley had very little to say to Aerie for being out so late. What could he say? What he could do was ground her as she’d no legitimate reasons to even leave the house, and ground her he did. From then on Aerie was up in the morning, making breakfast, getting the mail, and cleaning the house every day. About the only solace Aerie got was the fact that Petunia had to be there to keep an eye on her to keep her from just taking off.

Aerie still had her cell phone which she’d learned was powered by Eques Akkadian technology. Thanks to her phone she was able to call out and let people know how she was doing.

And then it happened, a letter from Hogwarts arrived.

“Mr H Potter?” Aerie pondered looking at it. "It should be an ‘Ӕ’, not a bloody ‘H’ Potter." And certainly not Mister. Apparently, someone hadn't gotten the update. It wasn’t McGonagall’s handwriting either. It was at least addressed correctly. Right down to the bedroom.

The next thing Aerie knew Vernon Dursley had snatched it out of her hands.

“Ang on, why’s it say H?” Vernon asked.

“Someone is an idiot?” Aerie suggested. "Maybe they think I'm Harry? Only that's not me." Not like any of the Dursley would know anything about Harry Potter. Granted there’d been a letter when the baby had been dumped at their doorstep, but they’d burned it, and Harry quickly morphed to Aerie.

“Get this, ‘we await your owl’ well it’s not for you, and we’ve no owls. Might just as well chuck it in the bin.” And so he would. After shredding it. By hand.

“Shouldn't we have maybe sent it back,” Petunia asked. “And it’s addressed to Aerie’s room. Why would it be addressed to Aerie’s room?”

“No, no return address. Can’t.” Mr Dursley seemed quite pleased with himself. "That and they expect us to send an owl which we ain't got."

“Let me see it,” Dudley demanded and was rather taken aback when his Daddy actually said no. Granted that Vernon was presently in the process of tearing it into little bits.

When the mail arrived the next morning it was Dudley who went to retrieve it. “There’s another one of those letters… and Aerie’s got one too.” Vernon Dursley had never moved so fast in all his life.

“By any chance might I have the one with my correct name on it?”

The answer was no. This was followed by such things as recounting a vow to stamp out such nonsense, shortly followed by Aerie and Dudley being sent to their rooms.

“Why do I have the feeling this is all your fault?” Dudley grumbled on his way up the stairs.

“Afraid I can’t deny that,” Aerie replied. “I’m afraid I’ve been mixed up with some rather unsavory people from before I was even born. And yes, I know what the letter is. It’s an invitation to a very exclusive school.”

“So how come you get invited and I didn’t?” Dudley accused. He stopped on the landing at the top of the stairs.

“Because, dear cousin of mine, they only take freaks. Like me.”

Dudley actually smiled, but only for a moment.

“Dudley, pack your camp gear.”

“Why?”

“I have a feeling your father is going to go barmy on us before this is over. No electronics save what has batteries, and stash everything out in the car the first chance you get.”

Sure enough, Aerie found Mr Dursley asleep right in front of the front door the next morning. She went back up and woke up Dudley, who was less than enthusiastic about getting woken from his slumber. He was mildly curious when Aerie said there was something he needed to see.

Dudley went white as a sheet and raced back to his room to start sorting what he could take from what just wasn’t going to be of any use.

As for Aerie, she went out to the kitchen and began making breakfast. The letters arrived, Vernon destroyed them, and all seemed quiet. After breakfast Aerie started making sandwiches.

“Why are you making sandwiches?” Aunt Petunia asked. It sounded more like an accusation.

“I’ve got a hunch we are going to need them.”

“We don’t need any sandwiches.”

“I’m not so sure,” Aerie offered while looking over her shoulder towards Uncle Vernon. Petunia’s eyes followed, saw what Aerie saw, and began wringing her hands in worry.

“That man, the one who caused the death of my parents, no don’t, I already know. He’s not going to take no for an answer. At the same time we don’t really have a way to answer, do we? This isn’t going to end well and you know it.”

Vernon had boarded up the mail slot in a vain effort to stop the letters. The next morning no less than a dozen letters had been shoved under the door. And that wasn’t all. There had been letters shoved through the cracks under every door or window sill available including the small window in the toilet rooms both upstairs as well as downstairs. Vernon answered with more boards. Where he was getting the boards was a bit of a mystery to Aerie.

Mr Vernon began dashing all over the house in an effort to find all the letters, and Dudley attempted to get a small portable Telly out to the car.

He froze about halfway, dropped his telly, and dashed back into the house slamming the door.

Aerie dashed to the front window. Owls, everywhere. And then from the window, she dashed upstairs and into her room.

“Moonie…” the cat appeared. “actually I’m going to need Selena,” Nova said as she took out her phone. “I need photos from outside. Lots of photos.” Moonie looked up with a confused look.

“It’s a breach of the secrecy accords. If I fax pictures to the media that’s going to make it very difficult for Dumbledore to sweep it under the carpet.

Moonie transformed into an olive-skinned woman with jet black hair, and yes, she could be described as exceedingly beautiful. She took the phone and vanished.

Dudley was standing in her doorway hyperventilating.

“Dudley, it’s just more of my weirdness.”

“Never mind that. You can’t send pictures to the media. That’ll destroy father.” Yes, Dudley was actually thinking of the welfare of someone other than himself. Granted that anything happening to Vernon would negatively impact him, perhaps it wasn’t as unselfish as one might think.

“The person behind those birds out there is going to do just that. Sending pictures to the media will actually help because it’s going to cause this little stunt to backfire on them.”

“Ah….” Dudley said, sounding like he got it. “I don’t understand why all the letters say Harry Potter though?”

“I’d think that’d be obvious. They think I’m Harry. I mean, Aerie does kind of sound like how some folks say Harry, does it not? Not that it’d make much of a difference in this case.”

Dudley let out a sigh and then swore because he’d just realized he’d dropped his mini telly.

A news van showed up that afternoon to report on the strange behavior of the owls. After all, owls weren’t exactly known to flock together, and certainly not in groups of mixed species.

The next morning the owls were gone, but the letters were not. They were in the tins, in the milk, and even in the eggs.

“Oh for the love of Harmony, leave my eggs alone!” Nova lamented as she broke one egg after another.

As for Mr Dursley, he was on the phone complaining to everyone he could think of. If Nova hadn’t been so put out about breakfast she might have been delighted by Vernon’s ramblings as he was demonstrating all the signs of a man having a mental breakdown.

On Sunday morning Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table tired, but at ease. *“No post on Sundays,” he reminded everyone.

“Owls don’t care what day of the week it is,” Nova offered as she piled kindling on old newspaper into the fireplace in the next room.

“What?” Vernon asked in shocked horror. He could just see what she was doing through the open door. “What are you doing?”

“Well, this is getting mighty annoying to me too, and as I expect the fireplace may be next, I thought I’d make it so you don’t have to worry about burning the letters.”

Vernon looked at her confused. “I thought you wanted to go to Hogwarts?”

“Oh, but I do. But on my terms. That and all these letters are to Harry. There’s no Harry here. There was one that had my name, but I doubt it would have made a difference if you had given it to me. Not like someone couldn't just come down here in person to talk sense... oh, no… They are doing this for the sake of harassment.”

Having her breakfast spoiled the morning before hadn’t endured her to the letter sender.

Nova lit the fire, stacked in a couple of larger pieces of wood, put the screen in place, and went back to the kitchen oblivious to how wrong she was.

There was a good fire going by the time Nova had her first indication that she might have erred. Vernon Dursley was sitting in front of the fire, a smile on his face, and a poker in his hand. He’d added a couple more sticks of wood and they were burning brightly.

Suddenly letters started raining down out of the stove exhaust chimney. Several of them hit the flames of the gas stove forcing her to snatch them, quick as a wink, and toss them into the sink. She was pouring water on the burning letters in the sink, snatching at more, and shutting off the gas when Uncle Vernon let out a horrified shriek!

Comments

[harts fire]

oh, no… They are doing this for the sake of harassment.

the old fart is just not getting the hint..
wonder what he will do when Harry never shows up..
i am thinking he needs a new reminder from a pissed off Nova and say a fried wand.

[KittyrinnAiko]

11338228
Because she has to bide her time until she has gathered and destroyed all the Horcrux she's just going to turn the thumb screws ever so slowly as Dumbledor's world falls apart.

[Da Fennec]

11338339 While events might not play out exactly as Aerie knows from other universes its likely to play out similarly enough to make turning those screws ease. WE can already see where things have cracked

[KittyrinnAiko]

11338508
I'd imagine it's not too hard to guess what's going to happen with the letters. LOL

[harts fire]

11338339
this is going to be so fun to watch Dumbledore squirm like a worm on a hoke.

[harts fire]

this is a ping to all readers of this amazing story..
the voting is turned on let get the votes rolling in and get this story up on the top 10 / feature list.

[badninja]

Now I am looking forward to the meeting with Hagrid. Poor guy is going to be very confused.

[PonyofEntropy]

Love it so far! Absolutely wonderful.