At this exact moment, they heard the click of the letter-box and flop of letters on the doormat.
"Get the post, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper.
"Make Alexandra get it," groaned Dudley, as he began to eat his breakfast with the enthusiasm and the manners of a pig.
"Get the post, Alexandra!" Was predictably the next sentence uttered by Vernon.
"Make Dudley get it," she groaned.
"Poke her with your Smeltings stick, Dudley," grunted Vernon, which seemed to be the only answer her uncle had this last week when he wanted her to do something.
She dodged the Smeltings stick as usual (Dudley was so slow it wasn't even a challenge) and went to get the post. Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge ( a person even stupider and crazier than Vernon and Petunia combined if it were possible) who was holidaying on the Isle of Wight, a white envelope that looked like a bank report or something like that and – a letter for Alexandra.
She picked it up, wondering who in hell would send her a letter on this day. The only letters she received came from school, and it had been only after the teachers realised giving her school reports would ensure the Dursleys would never see it (copying Vernon's signature had been one the first things she had learnt there) and stared at it with incredulity. She had no friends (something Dudley was quite guilty for,) no other relatives – and while it was possible it was a letter from the local library she hadn't borrowed a book there the last month (coming back home with a book was tantamount to acknowledging its destruction at the hands of Dudley). Yet here it was, a letter, addressed with an accuracy that was disturbing to say the least:
Miss A. Potter
The Smallest Bedroom
4 Privet Drive
Little Whinging
Surrey
The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellow-white parchment like the ones used to write letters three centuries ago, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp, which posed the interesting question as to how the letter had arrived there.
Turning the envelope over, Alexandra saw the mysterious letter was sealed with purple wax bearing a coat of arms; which looked like a lion, an eagle, a badger and a snake surrounding a large letter 'H'.
"Hurry up, girl!" shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. "What are you doing, checking for letter-bombs?" He chuckled at his own joke.
Ignoring her uncle with the practise of someone having heard this pathetic joke a hundred of times, Alexandra opened the envelope and began to read.
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorcerer, Chief Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confederation of Wizards)
Dear Miss Potter,
We are pleased to inform you that you have a place 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.
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
It explained everything she supposed. Normal girls weren't supposed to have powers. Normal girls didn't teleport when they were in danger. What she did, what allowed her to escape Dudley's gang and steal everything she needed to survive, was magic.
"Hurry up, girl!" shouted Vernon.
Alexandra went back into the kitchen with a very unpleasant smile on her face, throwing down onto the table the two other letters.
"So Aunt Petunia," she said with a tone so sarcastic it could have dried the Thames in an instant. "At which point of my life were you planning to tell me I'm a witch?"
The Dursleys reaction went over all her expectations. Petunia emitted a moan of agony, becoming completely livid and falling onto a chair before almost fainting. Vernon turned to a violet-red colour like she had just insulted him a dozen times to his face. Dudley just stared open-mouthed like a goldfish.
"You knew," Alexandra said, as she turned to look Petunia in the eyes.
"Knew?" shrieked Aunt Petunia, regaining some colour as she threw a tantrum. "Knew! 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 holiday with her pockets full of frog-spawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was – a freak! But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"
She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had wanted to say all this for years.
"Then she met that Potter boy at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as – as – abnormal – and then she went and got herself murdered and we got landed with you!"
"So it wasn't a car crash, then?" Alexandra stated and emitting a sound of disgust when her aunt nodded.
Profiting from the fact the whole family seemed to be in a state of shock, she took the time to reread the letter.
"We await your owl." Alexandra read again, out loud this second time. She looked up at Petunia and asked "Do you know how to get money and school supplies?"
"Yes, I know that place where my sister went to buy her things," she drawled. No matter what had happened there, it was evidently not her aunt's fondest memories.
"Then you will give me the directions I need," said Alexandra. "In return..."
"NO!" Shouted Vernon. "YOU WON'T GO TO THIS SCHOOL! YOU WON'T CAUSE FURTHER FREAKINESS! I WON'T LET YOU GO SOMEWHERE WHEN..."
All this rant caused Alexandra a huge headache, and her only wish was to stop. Which, with her powers, became a reality soon enough, as Vernon roars didn't make any sound anymore.