Chapter One - Letters & Memories
In the smallest bedroom of the house at 4 Privet Drive, Harry Potter was doing his Divination homework in the middle of the night again because of his uncle Vernon Dursley, aunt Petunia Dursley and their son Dudley Dursley. He could have done it in broad daylight, but his teachers from his rather unusual school Hogwarts had given him and his classmates an alarming pile of homework (each teacher gave them three essays to do, Professor Snape gave them six), which he had no prospect of finishing them when his aunt and uncle kept making him do the cooking, washing, and cleaning. His neighbour, Mrs Figg, was badgering him whenever she gets the chance, which made all the work even harder to finish.

Harry checked his watch and realized that it was already one o' clock. He decided that he would do his Divination homework tomorrow instead and walked past the tightly shut window (it was raining heavily) and an empty bird cage towards his calendar to check off '26 July'. It was exactly two weeks since the start of the holiday, and Harry was already longing to go back to school, which, in his opinion, was home.

As he was very tired, Harry gathered his parchment of homework, inkbottle, eagle-feathered quill and 'Unfogging the Future' and toppled them into his trunk full of spellbooks, his prized broomstick and potion ingredients. Then he heard something rattling. Harry turned and looked outside to find his wet snowy owl Hedwig perched on the windowsill, with a letter tied on her leg.

Quickly, he rushed to the window and opened it to led Hedwig fly in. She stuck her leg out and Harry untied the letter. "Thanks," Harry said, before the owl nipped his finger affectionately and flew into her cage for some food, water and sleep.

Harry opened the soaked letter. He was quite happy to see that it was from his godfather Sirius, and read it.

Dear Harry,

Thank you for your last letter. I told you not to use Hedwig.
Anyway, I have to meet you in person for something important. I can't let Hedwig take it alone, it would be a disaster if someone else took it, especially if they took it for doing evil things. Also, KEEP THIS LETTER WITH YOU AT ALL TIMES.
I've written to someone else, and she'll tell you where to meet me.

Hope you have a really great summer,
Snuffles

Harry wondered what that important (and probably also unusual) thing was. Harry had a lot of unusual things too. The Invisibility Cloak, which made the person wearing it become invisible, and the Marauder's Map, which showed the campus and secret passages of his school, were just some of them. Harry was also a wizard, and an unusual one indeed. He was the only person to face Lord Voldemort, who was an evil wizard and feared by almost everyone who was a wizard, and live to tell the tale.

Finally, Harry switched off the lamp. He looked outside the window, thinking about the letter Sirius had sent him, and saw that Mrs Figg's bedroom light was still switched on, which was quite strange, because Mrs Figg usually slept early, and not until this summer did she change her sleeping time.

Harry lay in bed and remembered the time when he was in Mrs Figg's for the weekend while the Dursleys went to a trip to Paris. It was horrible, as the whole place smelt of cat food, and the lights always went out at nine. "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise," she always said before switching off the lights and leaving Harry quite miserable with the piles of cat food tins inside the guest bedroom of Mrs Figg's. With a reassuring thought that he didn't need to live there anymore, he fell asleep.