Whoa, a new chapter. This time, it isn't taking me a year to update though ;D

Also, I am going to try to make my chapters longer now. However, it may be longer between updates then, because of that. -shrug-

Thank you to all those who reviewed! Surprisingly, there are still a few readers of this story left ;o Well, anyways, enjoy the chapter XD

"How could you, Daphne?" Harry hissed under his breath to his best friend as he effectively tuned out Mr. Well's rant about "troublemaking miscreants" ("miscreants" seemed to be his favorite word) and "ungrateful little brats." Daphne continued staring guiltily at the floor, only pausing in that particular activity to shriek as one of the small black spiders began crawling up her leg. She shook her foot for a moment and the spider went skittering off.

It was then that Harry noticed someone else standing behind Mr. Well. It was not, however, one of the many "maids" or cooks, or anything, that worked at the orphanage. Rather, it was a woman, probably almost as old as Mr. Well, but she gave off a different air, one of confidence and authority, rather than grumpiness like the esteemed orphanage owner did. Her greying hair was tied in a tight bun, and she was wearing glasses. Strangest was her attire - she was swathed in bottle green robes, rather than an old-lady dress that Harry would have expected someone of her age to wear. Then again, she did look rather stern. Perhaps she was a teacher. Or perhaps...

"Look, Daphne!" Harry snickered under his breath. "Old Well's got a girlfriend!"

He quickly adopted an innocent expression as "Old Well" himself turned to him at the sound of the young voice. "And you!" he barked angrily. "Always causing trouble! The two of you are nothing but trouble. Trouble, trouble, trouble. Why, I oughta - "

The supposed girlfriend of Mr. Well interrupted. Harry felt that he was right about her - she did sound stern, judging from just her voice. "Mr. Well, the two children that are to attend the school I talked to you about are, if I'm not mistaken, the two you are speaking to right now."

There was a long, astonished pause as everyone's brains processed the new information that had just spouted from what's-her-face's mouth. Daphne had heard "children," "school," and "mistaken" and was wondering what the hell the lady in weird clothes was talking about, and whether or not it concerned Arianna and Luja being sent off to some faraway school where they would hopefully be eaten by a giant octopus who would then barf them into outer space where they could drink poisonous tea with aliens and then... why yes, Daphne Greengrass did happen to have an overactive imagination.

Mr. Well's thoughts were something more along the lines of shock that the two children that had been picked for this exclusive private boarding school were these two miscreants, and glee at the thought that perhaps he would be able to get rid of said miscreants for a whole year, at the very least. He was already imagining much more time to himself, in which he could perhaps finally finish knitting that pair of socks for his elderly mother. Granted, he had started knitting the said pair of socks when he was still in his teens (which seemed so long ago), and his elderly mother was almost 100 years old and bedridden and had absolutely no use for a new pair of socks, but it was the thought that counted, right?

And Harry himself was rather surprised. What? Mr. Well's going to send us off to school somewhere? Really? There were a few tutors at the orphanage who taught the children basic skills like easy arithmetic (one plus three equals four) and how to read and write, as well as the most basic concepts of grammar and spelling, but school? One where he would have to sit around in maybe a uniform and pen essays about the great kings and queens of England or something? Even if there was no Mr. Well there and Daphne would be going too, the horror of the thought of sitting around in a uniform penning essays was too frightening to even think about. No thank you!

There was a long pause before the strange lady spoke again. This time, the comments were directed at no one in particular. "I would like to speak to Daphne Greengrass and...Harry Potter in private," she said, her voice curiously strained.

Daphne and Harry exchanged looks before exchanging glasses. "Bye, Mr. Well!" they chorused in unison. Harry gave a large and rather fake grin at the orphanage owner and waved merrily at him to leave. Daphne gave him a bright smile and then mouthed, "Go away, you foul old cretin!" Only Harry noticed, and nearly choked trying to hold in laughter. Well, perhaps the strange woman who the friends had thought was Mr. Well's girlfriend at first noticed too - after all, she suddenly looked amused. And Mr. Well seemed to have noticed too - his scowl got considerably darker. Okay, so everyone noticed, and not just only Harry.

The moment Mr. Well was out of sight, the woman walked back into the visitors' room and gestured at the two children to follow. The small cardboard box, now empty of spiders (they had all gone scuttling off someplace), lay forgotten on the floor.

Minerva McGonagall was still rather breathless as she swept back into the visitor's room of the orphange in which Harry Potter had been dumped. And this was a big thing, because rarely anything left Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, breathless. But honestly. This was Harry Potter behind her! Harry Potter, son of Lily (Evans) and James Potter, two of the best students to ever grace Hogwarts with their presences. And two of Minerva's favorite students. She had never really gotten over their sudden, terribly tragic deaths.

And Harry Potter not only looked so much like his father, he acted like him too. Just meeting the boy for a few minutes had convinced her of this fact. The box of spiders his female companion had dropped was a definite sign that the boy loved playing pranks. And the way he acted - confident, at ease, and smirking and whispering conspiratorially to his friend as Mr. Well (very much like Filch, Hogwarts' caretaker, now that Minerva thought about it) yelled at them, reminded her of James Potter. Every bit of it all.

Minerva waited until the two children had stepped into the room to close the door. She uttered a quiet locking charm, and then a silencing charm that would ensure nobody would hear the conversation between them that was about to take place. Luckily, Daphne and Harry were too busy gawking at the luxuriously elegant visitors' room they had clearly never seen the inside of before to notice.

Minerva took a seat and gestured for the two children to do the same. They sat uncomfortably, shifting their weights from one side of the seat to the other, while continuing to stare about the room. Then, suddenly, the girl - Daphne Greengrass - turned to Minerva.

"I have a question, ma'am," she piped up.

Minerva eyed the girl warily. "Yes?"

Daphne sent a smug look in Harry Potter's direction. "Are you Mr. Well's girlfriend?"

Whatever Minerva had expected the girl to say, it certainly was not that. Even though she was a bit miffed at the question - who honestly would think she was romantically involved with something like that? - she couldn't help feeling a bit nostalgic as she watched the two friends snort with laughter at the question, and her reaction. She could just picture James Potter asking the same question, about that age, only with her and Dumbledore, a fake innocent look plastered on his features...

Minerva quickly shook her head, imperceptibly so Daphne and Harry didn't notice and question it. Now was not the time to dwell on the past. She had Hogwarts letters to deliver.

However, Harry, who was unnaturally sharp-eyed for his age, noticed the way she shook her head quickly and grinned, and mistook it for the answer to Daphne's question (it was, but it wasn't the reason she had shook her head). "Yeah, I know, who'd be romantically involved with something like that?" This set Daphne off into giggles once again.

Minerva blinked as the boy unknowingly echoed her previous thoughts.

She waited until the two had stopped laughing (which only took a good five minutes or so - just when she thought they'd died down with the laughter, one of them would start again, sending the other into fresh peals), before she spoke again. "The reason I am speaking to you two today is that you two have been invited to attend a private - "

"Boarding school, I know," Harry finished, cutting across her sentence. "And, er, do we get a choice? 'Cause I don't really, er, want to go."

Minerva was, needless to say, shocked. Harry Potter didn't want to go to Hogwarts? Sudden fury rose in her like a quickly inflating balloon. What had those despicable Muggles told him about Hogwarts that made him hesitate at the thought of attending? She saw the boy look at her, looking slightly alarmed, and realized that her fury must have shown on her face.

"Why not?" she finally calmed down enough to ask. Harry looked more subdued now. He shifted a sideways glance at Daphne before shrugging.

"I dunno, it just seems more fun to stay here and pra - I mean, just, um, stay here than have to go to some stuffy boarding school - no offense, ma'am," he added, "and wear a uniform, probably, 'cause you said it's private, and it's a boarding school, which costs money, and I don't have money, and I bet Daphne doesn't either, and I don't want to write essays on Queen Elizabeth the - "

Minerva was slightly startled at the speed at which Harry Potter was babbling. She quickly interrupted his continuous stream of chatter. "First off, your parents have left you money to be able to attend and pay the fees," she told him (and the girl, too). "Miss Greengrass, Hogwarts has a fund for students who cannot afford tuition to be able to go." She briefly wondered how much the Muggles had told Harry Potter about Hogwarts - they definitely hadn't been fond of him, but surely they would have told him at least a little bit about the school itself, so he would get a basic gist of the classes there? The only class in which students might have to write an essay about any of the Queen Elizabeths would be that short period in fifth or sixth year in which students studied the history of Muggles in Muggle Studies class. And Muggle Studies was optional, anyway.

She was interrupted from her musing by Harry Potter's slightly curious voice. "Er, what's Hogwarts?" he asked, one of his eyebrows raised, clearly questioning the name of the school.

Minerva suddenly felt faintly angry. "You don't know what Hogwarts is?"

"Er, no." Harry Potter shared a glance with Daphne Greengrass, a confused look, one that clearly said something along the lines of What the bloody hell is she babbling on about?

"Hogwarts is a boarding school that teaches magic - Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

Minerva waited for the flicker of recognition to pass over the boy's face as he thought back to his life before the orphanage, with those atrocious Dursleys, and the familiar mention of the school he should have been told about.

It never came.

"Wait. Witchcraft and Wizardry?" This time it was the girl who spoke. "Magic? You mean magic is real?"

"Magic? Really?" The boy looked shocked, and then excited. "Magic is real?"

Minerva felt her lips purse together until they were a thin, almost invisible line (she knew this because she knew how other students claimed her to be frightening when she did this, which only happened one someone misbehaved badly) and her knuckles whiten as she clenched her wand inside her robes tighter. Despite the letter Albus Dumbledore had left with baby Harry on the Dursleys' doorstep, the Dursleys had obviously never explained about Harry's true heritage. Minerva wouldn't put it past them to have lied to the boy and told him that his parents had died in some sort of accident or something as well.

"Yes," she managed to get out between her almost-invisble lips. "It is. And Hogwarts is where you can learn it." Deciding to inform Albus about the new development later, as well as Harry, she reached into the pockets of her robes and pulled out the two Hogwarts letters, and handed them to their respective receivers.

She watched as the two children ripped open the envelopes and then silently scanned their letters. Then, Harry squinted suspiciously up from his (letter) at Minerva. "This isn't an elaborate joke or something, is it?" he asked, frowning slightly.

Minerva had to stifle the urge to smile slightly, despite everything. "No... it's not."

"Really?" Daphne asked, looking up from her own letter as well. She seemed to be reading slower than Harry. "Wicked."

"Show us some magic!" Harry demanded. He thought a moment and added, "Please."

Polite, too, despite his prankster ways. Minerva pulled out her wand and pointed at a vase of flowers sitting on a mahogany desk nearby and uttered a quick incantation. Then the flowers in the vase drifted up in the air and began whirling around happily in what was unmistakably a can-can.

Harry's and Daphne's jaws dropped open. "Wicked," Daphne repeated. "Is that a wand?" she added, pointing at Minerva's wand.

Minerva nodded and waved her wand again. The flowers stopped dancing and settled back down into the vase.

"Someone will be collecting you from the orphanage in approximately two weeks from now," Minerva told them. "You will go to Diagon Alley in London - it's like a shopping center, you could say, for magical items - to buy your school supplies, robes, and your own wands. You will be given more information on how to get to Hogwarts then. It is appreciated if you do not inform anyone else, not even the esteemed owner of the orphanage, of the magic part of the boarding school equation. Do you have any questions, before I leave to inform, ah, Mr. Well?"

There was a pause before Harry mumbled, suddenly quieter than he had before, "You said my parents wanted me to go to, er, Hogwarts? Did that mean they were magic too, and you knew them?"

This time, Minerva could not resist the urge to smile - just the tiniest bit - at the boy, sadly. "Yes, they were, and yes, I did know them. And you will meet plenty more people who did." She then removed the charms on the door to the visitor's room of the orphanage and left to seek out Mr. Wells.

Daphne and Harry glanced at each other, and suddenly the somber mood was broken as Harry grinned widely.

"It's going to be so much more fun pranking people with magic."

See? Told you this chapter was going to be longer!

Hopefully it's long… enough? I was going to add Diagon Alley in this chapter, but I think that would be TOO long, because I tend to be rather descriptive (I think; I hope?) and I just want to post this chapter now.

Anyways, if you think I missed something important I forgot to cover, or thought McGonagall was OOC (sorry, I'm not really good at writing her), or whatever, or you spot any spelling/grammar errors, or would just like to comment on the story, drop me a review!

-xAndromedaBlackx-

(October 6th, 2008: This chapter has been edited.)