This story was based on the realization that a lot of Voldemort's schemes relied heavily on Harry being the sort of person who would try to thwart them. Thus, this story features a Harry Potter, who, among other things, is not particularly confrontational.

For the Dursley family, it was a badly kept secret that they had a fourth member of the family. Very badly kept, as anyone interested in that person could see him leaving the house for school in the morning and returning in the afternoon. On the other hand, it seemed as if no one in the world would be interested in that person. Indeed, that was how that person preferred it.

That person was named Harry Potter, but he was usually simply called Harry by his adoptive family. Being a child of 'freaks', as Petunia called them, he had originally been mistrusted by the Dursleys, but after they had seen him grow to be a somewhat normal boy, they were content, for the most part, to leave him be. They had been worried that he would manifest something out of the ordinary, but they had never seen him display anything unusual.

That was not to say his life had been perfectly normal. Harry had discovered, over the years, that the world was not quite as normal as it seemed to be. For one, his hair seemed to desire to cover up the scar on his forehead, to the point where it would mysteriously grow back in hours even if it had been trimmed. It also seemed that he would sometimes gain the uncanny ability not to be seen when he did not want to be seen, back in the days when Dudley used to try and bully him. Dudley would stare where he was, in broad daylight, but was unable to find him.

Strangest of all was his ability to talk to snakes.

This was something he had discovered one evening, years ago, when one scaly specimen had found its way into Petunia's yard. Harry, tasked with gardening, had run into the snake, which, instead of hissing, screamed. Or, it may have been that others would have heard it hissing while Harry heard a scream.

It turned out that most snakes were just as afraid of humans as most humans were afraid of snakes. They preferred to avoid the living spaces of humans whenever possible, although they were sometimes tempted there by the prospect of getting an extra juicy mouse. Upon learning of a human who could talk with them, however, many of the neighborhood serpents paid a visit to the curious boy.

After talking with a few snakes, Harry decided he preferred them for company to people. Snakes did not care at all for small talk, and were never keen on wasting his time, just as he was keen on not wasting theirs. It made him wonder if all animals were secretly like that, only separated from humans by the thin barrier of language...

All of this he kept hidden as best as possible from the Dursleys. He had heard enough of his aunt and uncle's snide comments to know that any sort of irregularity in their lives would be bad news for him. Fortunately, they had never caught him disappearing or talking to snakes in front of them, and were willing to chalk up the behavior of his hair to coincidence. Instead, the Dursleys were content to treat Harry as an unwanted son, and Harry was content with being an unwanted son. The Dursleys would have him do his chores, and would rarely speak to him otherwise. Harry would do his chores, and would rarely speak to them. It was an arrangement he was quite okay with.

Which wasn't to say that living with the Dursleys was perfect. Harry would have preferred if he could get something more for his birthday then a couple of pounds, or socks. He also would have liked it if could sleep somewhere that wasn't the cupboard under the stairs. It did offer seclusion, something he quite enjoyed, but there wasn't much room and it was filled with spiders.

On the whole, though, it certainly could have been worse.

Harry was convinced that his life wouldn't change until he went to a university and finally left the Dursleys behind, but a day late one summer changed that.

Something strange happened that day. The strange thing was that Harry got a letter addressed to him. He had never gotten any mail before.

Harry was careful not to let the Dursleys know that someone was corresponding with him. He told them that the extra letter he carried with him after giving them the rest of the day's mail was just some advertisement for window cleaners.

The letter itself was also quite odd. It claimed that he was a wizard, and that he had been accepted to a school for witchcraft and wizardry (was there even a difference between the two?). A school called Hogwarts; what kind of school would be named Hogwarts, of all things? It sounded like a prank letter.

Still... perhaps there might be some truth to it. He could speak to snakes, after all, and he couldn't think of an explanation for that outside of magic. Perhaps he could ask them about it.

He was halfway through writing a letter in response to theirs when he realized that they hadn't left a valid return address. Indeed, Harry doubted the postal service would be able to, or even be interested in delivering mail to any "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." The letter didn't even have any stamps; just how had it ended up in their mailbox?

Harry learned the answer to that question the next day, when he saw an owl delivering another copy of the same letter to their house. After a bit of thought, Harry told the owl to wait while he finished writing his response. The owl hadn't left when he got back outside, but it was quite snippy when he tried to get it to deliver his letter. Harry thought it might be asking for payment, although he had no idea what kind of money it would want. Eventually, it agreed to take the letter he wrote, although not before it bit one of his fingers.

The next day, an owl did not return with a reply. Instead, it seemed that the school had decided to send an emissary, for Harry guessed that the giant man he saw through the window ringing the doorbell must have had something to do with magic.

"Go and answer the door, Harry," Uncle Vernon grumbled, refusing to look up from his newspaper.

Harry was happy to oblige, as he didn't think his uncle and the giant outside would get along very well.

When he opened the door, the large man was ecstatic.

"Hello there, Harry!" he roared. "It's bin so long since I've seen yeh. Of course, you were just a baby then. The name's Hagrid."

Harry frowned. "Are you here about this... magic business?" he asked.

"Why, of course I am!" Hagrid said. "Surely, you must know-"

"Hold on a minute, please," Harry said.

Leaving the door faintly open, he walked back inside to talk to Uncle Vernon.

"A man from Stonewall High wanted to talk to me," Harry said. "He's giving lectures to all the future students about how to avoid delinquent behaviors."

"Well, be sure not to displease him," Vernon said, and returned to reading about the recent exploits of the prime minister and his plate of fried eggs.

Harry went back outside, where Hagrid was impatiently waiting.

"Sorry about that," Harry said. "I just needed to talk to my uncle about something. Now, if this magic stuff really is real-"

"'Course it's real!" Harid interjected.

"-then I'd prefer if the Dursleys didn't hear of it, unless it was absolutely necessary. Is that okay?"

"Magic's nothing to be ashamed of, Harry," Hagrid said.

"Perhaps not, but all the same, it'd be better if they didn't know. Can we keep this a secret?"

Hagrid shrugged. "I guess."

"Great. Now, I'd like to know why I can talk to snakes, and what that has to do with magic..."