The day started much like any other for Harry Potter. He was woken up pretty early in the morning by aunt Petunia and told to his usual chores. Which, among other things, included checking the mailbox and disposing any unwanted commercials... That was when the things started getting strange. Among an assortment of other letters, there was a thick envelop made from some material Harry didn't readily recognize. And, if what was written on this envelop was to be believed, the letter was addressed to him. That was really odd: no one would ever write a letter to a freak like him!
Things only got even more strange when his aunt saw the letter. She became paler than a ghost. Then she practically tore the envelop out of his hands and ordered him back into his room, the cupboard under the stairs. She even threatened him with the most severe punishment she could think up on the spot to make sure he remained in there until she allowed him out... Whatever that letter was, it most definitely was something really abnormal. Alas, to Harry it looked like he would never learn what was so special about that letter.
Meanwhile, the patriarch of the Dursley family – the very epitome of normality as he himself would like to think – waddled down the stairs and found his wife staring in shock at some odd letter.
"What's wrong, Pet?" He asked, not knowing why that thing had such an effect on his lovely wife. His question seemed to break the woman out of her thoughts.
"Not here." Petunia said, before motioning her husband to follow her into the guestroom – a place where their freakish nephew wouldn't be able to overhear them. One there, she tried to explain. "Vernon... They... The freaks promised us that... that we would not hear a word from them until the boy turns eleven... And yet..." She then handed the envelop over to her husband, thus finally allowing him to see that it came from 'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry'.
"Maybe the freaks made a mistake?" The walrus-like man asked as he inspected the letter in vain hope that it was merely some sick joke. Unfortunately, the damn thing seemed to be quite real and authentic. "Maybe if we don't reply, they will leave us alone for another year?"
"No." Petunia cut him. "If I know one thing about the freaks, it's that they are persistent. If we simply ignore this letter, they will send more. Maybe even more than one at a time too. And the people might notice this. Do you really want the rumors about us receiving packs of strange letters start circulating around the neighborhood?" Vernon had to agree with that: the normality of his life was already endangered by the presence of the freak in his house, no need to endanger it even more.
"Than we shall write them we're not interested and tell those freaks to never bother us again!" He boomed. Petunia thought about it for a few long seconds, before giving her answer:
"I actually think we should accept the offer and send the freak to that freakish school." This surprised her husband greatly.
"Why would we do something like that? Didn't we agree to do our best to stomp the freakishness out of the boy?" Vernon asked, still very tempted to tear the accursed letter into tiny bits. And then do the same to whichever freak wrote it.
"And it obviously didn't work." The woman pointed out. Indeed, despite the Dursleys' best attempts, they weren't able to do anything about their nephew's bouts of accidental magic. "But think about it, he'll be considered an adults by the freaks either when he turns seventeen or when he finishes his schooling. By sending him to that freakish school now we will have him out of our house almost a whole year early!" Now that was a good point, Vernon thought.
"But what about?.." Knowing her husband as good as she did, Petunia could predict his question.
"The headmaster of that freak school had assured me in his letter that we won't have to pay a single penny for the boy's education there. I think, he even said that we won't have to spend anything on his school supplies..." She drifted away for a second. "The boy will have to buy his things on his own, though. I'm never going back to that unnatural place ever again."
"Is that really a good idea, Pet? To let him wander around on his own for long, I mean." The Dursley patriarch asked then. "What if he gets lost and starts to ask for direction? People will get curious why a freak like him is on his own. And they then can trace it back to us. Imagine what rumors people will start spreading if they learn we send the boy to shop for school without supervision." Now it was Petunia's turn to nod in agreement.
"I'm still not going back to that place." She insisted. "Perhaps, we can ask one of the freaks that run the school to come and take the boy there? One of them did that for my... sister back when she got accepted. I don't think my mother and father had to pay for that either."
"That could work." Vernon said. Then he made a pause as he studied the envelop. "But how are we going to tell the freaks that we accept their offer? There is no proper return address here."
'Oh damn it!' Petunia thought. Freaks used owls to deliver their mail, and the normal people didn't have any owls as pets or whatever. How was she supposed to send the response letter?
Minerva McGonnagal was a stern, no-nonsense witch that held several important positions within the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was the Transfiguration professor and the head of one of the school's faculties; she was also the deputy headmistress. And thanks to all those jobs she had quite a lot of things to do both during the school year and during the holidays.