the DragonBard wrote:

	The school librarian, Mr Caufmann, loaned Harry an old paperback copy of 
the Hobbit.  Harry had to be careful about letting the Durselys see it, as 
they would have likely thrown the book away.  Fortunately, Harry had figured 
out how to make objects invisible for a time, though Harry discovered that 
he could still see them.  It made borrowing 'un-Dursley' books (though Harry 
doubted that there was really such thing as a book that 'was' Dursley) 

Mrs Dursley doubtless has cookbooks and gardening books.

	It was something that Harry called the Jedi Mind Trick, which allowed him 
to manipulate people's minds and actions, to a certain extent.  From what he 
could tell, the effects were rather short.  You could give a person orders, 
especially if they were weak-willed, and they would obey.  Unfortunately, 
strong emotions tended to degrade the effectiveness, and orders couldn't be 
long term.  You could tell a person to do something, but except for altering 
recent memories, anything that lasted more than a few moments, needed 
constant reinforcement.

The Ministry of Magic would lock him up if they knew what he was up to.

	When he was first developing his newly discovered skills and powers, Harry 
had tried to make Vernon and Petunia treat him nicely.  It was a failure.  
The pair had reverted to their normal behavior within the hour.  The best 
Harry had been able to do, was prevent them from going to excess in 
punishing him (which he admitted he sometimes deserved) and to protect the 
little kids from Dudley's bullying ways.

	Harry figured that there were probably ways to permanently alter a person's 
behavior, but he didn't want to really try them.  Mind altering spells, 
especially ones that altered long-term behavior were too much like bullying 
someone, in Harry's opinion.  However, he understood that there were times 
when it needed to be done, such as when he used it to stop Dudley's gang
from beatting up some kids.  He was still reluctant to use it, though.

beating up

	'Hope this letter is as important as I think it is,' Harry thought to 
himself.  'Otherwise, I just screwed around with Uncle Vernon and Aunt 
Petunia's mind for no reason.*

	Harry opened the letter, and his eyes widened in surprise.

	"Jackpot!"  He whispered.

	HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

		Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, 
International Confed. of Wizards)

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 necesary 
books and equipment.
	Term begins on September 1.  We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress

	If there had been enough room in the closet, Harry would have started to 
jump around screaming at the top of his lungs in joy.  He was going to magic 
school!

What does he need magic school for?  He can already do anything he can 
imagine.  Given that you've made magic into something that only requires 
concentration and visualisation...why does anyone need a magic school?

	Suddenly, Harry frowned.
	"How in the world am I supposed to contact them?"  He asked himself.  "What 
do they mean, 'we await your owl?'"

	Harry started grumbling to himself, as he began to search through his 
books, and spellbooks, for any spell that might allow him to communicate 
with either 'Albus Dumbledore' or 'Minerva McGonagall.'  Unfortunately, 
long-range communication spells didn't seem to be a high priority in most 
magical worlds.  There were a few, but most of them seemed to requiring 
actually having met the person, or had too short a range.

	Harry stopped in his search, as a thought suddenly occured to him.

	"Wait a second.  They got scared after reading the letter.  I don't think 
they even noticed it was addressed to my closet, so why would they be 
scared?"  He asked himself.

	That instant, several things that had confused Harry, suddenly clicked.

	"They knew."  He whispered.  "THEY KNEW!  All this time I wondered how they 
could blame me for all those 'freaky things' when they didn't believe in 
magic, but they knew!"

	For a minute, Harry considered using some of his untested and experimental 
spells on the Dursleys.

	"Polymorph Other, yeah, that would be good, turn them into frogs, or maybe 
rats.  Maybe Fireball... no, that would blow up the house.  How about 
Levitation?  I could trap them on the ceiling."

	Harry continued ranting for a while, but finally calmed down, though he was 
still furious at the Dursleys.  He idily considered working out a Charm 
spell, and using it on his aunt and uncle to find out the truth, but decided 
against it, much for the same reasons that he never developed one to make 
them treat him like Dudley.  If they weren't willing to do it of their own 
free will, then it wasn't worth it.

	"However, a Divination spell to find out what's going on... 'that' is 
another kettle of fish entirely."  Harry said with a smile.

	Unfortunately, Harry was unable to put his plan of working out a Divination 
spell into motion, as that evening, when Vernon came home, he called Harry 
out of his closet.

	Vernon grinned at Harry, though it looked rather painful.

	"Boy, er, Harry, I've been thinking, and this closet is getting a bit small 
for you.  So, your Aunt Petunia and I, have decided to move you into 
Dudley's second bedroom."

	"WHAT?"  Dudley wailed.  "But I 'need' that room!  You can't give it to 

The scare quotes around "need" aren't appropriate.  Dudley isn't 
speaking with any irony when he says he needs that room even though it 
isn't true.

him!"

	Harry mentally shrugged, and gathered together his things to move them to 
his new room.  Thankfully, there was so much junk that Dudley had broken in 
there, that Harry would be able to hide his magical stuff much more easily.  
However, he still kept most of it under a concealment spell, so that the 
Dursleys wouldn't notice.

	Vernon had bought a bunch of second-hand furniture for the room.  It was 
pretty obvious that it was the cheapest the man could buy.

	With Harry settled into his new room, the Dursleys seemed to relax a 
little.

	*Maybe they think that whoever wrote my letter is keeping an eye on them, 
and will think that they're treating me right.*  Harry thought to himself, 
rolling his eyes a their stupidity.

at



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