The Owl

Owls.

Alisha continued watching out for owls, waiting ever patiently for that letter from Hogwarts to come, all the while dreading every moment of spending more time with her aunt, who was a bore by all accounts. There wasn't anything for them to talk about, given the fact Alisha saw herself as more of a 'not pink' kind of girl, whereas Petunia thought of her as a pink girl.

And then it happened.

Harry got the letter and—

Perhaps she'd expected something more chaotic, something more in line with what happened in the books.

And instead, she got—

She watched as both Harry and Dudley stared at the letter dumbfounded, and Dudley then looked up at Harry and said, "Well, open it."

Which, in turn, resulted in Harry opening the letter up, to which he asked, "Is this some kind of joke?"

"It's not a very funny one," Dudley said, looking at Harry.

And then—

"Aunt Petunia!" It was Harry who brought the letter to his aunt and uncle's attention, his hand holding out the letter to her, his eyes wide in disbelief. "Someone is playing a nasty joke on me."

Aunt Petunia's response to seeing the latter—Alisha found it laughable because she knew Petunia already knew the answer to her question. "Where did you get this?"

"An owl brought it," Alisha blurted out, watching her aunt and uncle's faces suddenly pale.

"That isn't funny, Lily," Harry said, glaring at her.

So she looked at him, glaring back, asking why she was suddenly the bad guy before saying, "By the way. I was watching for owls for weeks now."

And with that, she walked to the window of the front room while her aunt and uncle stared at her, horrified, and she suddenly couldn't help but feel gleeful for catching them off guard like that, yet also slightly dumb as there were certain things that she shouldn't know. She could still hear her brother as he said, "That's not funny."

"Yeah, Lils," Dudley said, turning her head to look at the person who shouldn't be getting along with Harry Potter. "Not funny."

"But it's true, isn't it?" She looked right at Aunt Petunia. "Not only the letter but that it came by owl?"

Vernon's face puffed up, slowly turning red, and then, "Lily Petunia Evans-Dursley, go to your room!"

"It's Potter-Dursley, dear," Petunia said, speaking calmly.

"The letter says it's just Potter," said Harry.

"It should have been Evans-Dursley or just Dursley!" Vernon grumbled.

Alisha turned to look at them. "By the way. The letters will keep coming if you don't send a response. It won't matter where you bloody go." Of so she wanted to say, but she stopped herself, thinking her saying that the letter came by owl was probably too much to say. And Petunia was looking right at her.

"Lily. How did you know about the owls?"

Harry's eyes widened. "Wait? This is real?"

"How come I didn't get a letter?" Dudley said.

And at that moment, Lily felt bad for Dudley.

"Because your mother wasn't a bloody witch!" Vernon roared.

And—

Suddenly Aunt Petunia was yelling at Uncle Vernon. Which, at first, Alisha found surprising, given the fact this was a topic that Petunia didn't like, but then Petunia was yelling at Vernon not to yell at Dudley like that, which was actually in line with the books only for Dudley to start yelling, "Don't talk about Aunt Lily like that!"

"But she was a witch, wasn't she?" Alisha asked, turning to look at her aunt.

Silence followed.

"Aunt Petunia?"

More silence.

"What are we going to do about the letter, Petunia?" Vernon said. "More importantly..." He now looked at her. "How did you know about the owls?"

"A book," Alisha said.

"Where did you find this book, sweetheart?" Aunt Petunia asked.

Which wasn't a good thing, given the fact the books were, in particular books that she'd lost—they were back through the cupboard under the stairs, through the portal to the other world she had no access to, up in her room of her rented house, waiting for her never to return. To which a thought crossed her head. "I don't know. I've not been able to find them again."

"Bloody magic," Uncle Vernon said.

But at least now Alisha felt she had it covered should she accidentally blurt something out about the Wizarding world she shouldn't know, though she did know it wouldn't cover anything.

"So, Harry and Lily can do magic?" Dudley asked. "Like Aunt Lily?"

"Well, Harry can. Lily's not received a letter yet," Petunia muttered.

"Cool! You should go!"

And there it was. Dudley Dursley was the most significant magic supporter in their family, much to the utter shock of both of his parents. Vernon puffed and puffed, trying to control his anger so he wouldn't be yelled at for yelling at Dudley. "It makes him a freak!"

"It makes him cool! I wish I could go!"

"But you're not magical," Petunia swallowed.

"Obviously! I didn't get a letter!" Dudley said a Dudley who in this world wouldn't be someone Alisha would describe in the book as looking like a pig, as Petunia did her job and fed her family in a healthy manner, which meant no scrawny Harry. "That means you can bring me home loads of frogs in your pockets and turn stuff into rats? Right?"

And with that, Petunia let out a squeak, flopping into the chair that was thankfully nearby, saying, "Like your mother."

Alisha turned and looked at her aunt—her aunt in this world. "Mama did?"

Petunia didn't say anything as Dudley and Harry looked at each other.

"So, mama was a tomboy?" Alisha asked, which resulted in another groan from Petunia as she covered her eyes.

"Please don't remind me. And those boys at the school encouraged her. That Severus from the neighborhood and that Reggie boy."

"Wait. Reggie?" That sounded familiar for some reason.

"A little boy she looked after at school who absolutely adored any form of magic she would do for him because his older brother was an absolute beast. And I thought that Severus was bad, but supposedly that boy's brother was worse. Just, could we not talk about it?"

"But, a school for teaching magic?" Harry asked.

"He should go," Dudley said. "Let him go." He turned to look at Harry. "You'd better write Lily and me about all the friends you make."

"By owl," Lily said. She frowned. "I want a snow owl!" That was just in case he didn't get Hedwig. Harry needed to get Hedwig as there was already too much changing.

"Well, we don't have a way of returning the letter, now do we?" Vernon said in a very smug way. "And I bloody don't know where to go shopping for supplies, so I guess he'll just have to go to Smeltings with you, Dudley."

"Boring," Dudley muttered, which drained the color from Vernon's face. "You don't remember, mom? From when Aunt Lily went to school."

"I..." Petunia looked at the ground. "I wasn't involved."

"She doesn't want to admit she was jealous, does she?""

"So, no, I don't know."