Harry stared at the thick parchment envelope with some shock. He'd gotten a letter from Hogwarts, but why? Did they somehow find out he'd been doing Magic? How? He'd have to read it to find out, he surmised.
"Harry? What's taking so long with the mail?" Vernon questioned from the kitchen where the Dursleys where sitting down to breakfast.
"Coming, Uncle Vernon." Harry responded as he separated his letter from the rest of the stack of mail and walked into the kitchen. Harry passed the mail to his Uncle before going to sit in his chair. Vernon flipped through the stack muttering about junk mail and bills before pulling out a postcard and reading it.
"Seems Marge is feeling unwell, apparently ate some bad tripe on her trip." Vernon commented as he put the postcard off to the side.
"Dad, Harry has a letter." Dudley pointed out as he brought another forkful of food to his mouth.
"What's this?" Vernon questioned as he looked over at his nephew to see him opening a large parchment envelope. His eyes went wide as he recalled Petunia telling him about just such an envelope being sent to her sister when she was turning eleven.
"It's from Hogwarts, apparently I've been accepted to go there starting this school year." Harry replied as he read over the first page of the letter. A heavy sigh from both his Aunt and Uncle caused him to look up at them. "What?"
"You're Lily's son so I guess it was bound to happen." Petunia sighed again as she held out her hand for the letter. Harry handed her the first page and Petunia's eyes skimmed over it. "Just like hers."
"Wait, you both knew I was a Wizard?" Harry asked shocked. He'd hidden his Magical studies from his relatives because both the Charms and Transfiguration textbooks had mentioned the Statute of Secrecy. Harry didn't want to break what seemed to be an important law even if he hadn't met another Wizard or Witch. He'd also been unsure how his relatives would take his Magical displays considering they seemed proud of their successful normal lives.
"Of course we did, Harry, your mother was a Witch so you being a Wizard was very likely. We were simply waiting to see if you actually received the letter before we told you. If it didn't come then we didn't feel it needed to be brought up." Vernon informed his nephew with a sigh while Dudley sat in his chair looking back and forth between his parents and his cousin in shock and confusion. From there it was a conversation about the means to get in contact with Hogwarts and accept his invite to study there. Vernon and Petunia were uncomfortable around Magic and were hoping to have a staff member from Hogwarts take Harry to the Magical shopping center in London.
"It says they 'await my owl' what does that mean?" Harry asked confused as the letter had come through the normal post.
"Once you write your acceptance response there should be an owl perched somewhere near the house. Just hold it out to the bird and it should take it before flying back to them." Petunia informed remembering how Lily had sent her own acceptance letter back. With some help from Vernon and Petunia to make the acceptance letter at least partially formal, Harry sealed it up and headed out to the back yard. After looking around and not seeing an owl Harry got an idea.
"This could be a good time to try out my prototype." Harry mused to himself as he pulled his Magic Quantifier out of the waistband of his pants. "I really need to find a better place to keep this." He muttered before holding it against his head so that he could look through the lens of his trinket. A small bit of mana to the trinket and Harry started looking around the trees and even on rooftops within his line of sight. He didn't get any readings of mana as he looked around but surely an owl that delivered magical letters had to have some mana of its own, right? A sudden blip on the lens and the number '5' appeared causing Harry to stop his searching and notice an owl perched on the edge of the neighbor's fence with a tree branch shading its perch. It was no wonder he hadn't seen the bird. Its darker feathers and the shade it was perched in made it blend in. "Score one for my prototype though." Harry chuckled as he walked towards the owl slowly. 'At least I know I don't have to be aware of a Magical Being to get a reading on their mana.' He thought to himself as he stopped in front of the owl and held out the letter.
"Could you take my response back to Hogwarts?" Harry carefully asked the owl when it looked at him. There was something about the bird's eyes that led Harry to understand that the bird had more intelligence than normal. With a soft hoot the owl held out one of its legs. Harry noticed a piece of string tied around the leg and gently set about rolling his letter up and tying it to the owl's leg. With another hoot the owl took off and started flying in what Harry thought was a northern direction. "Guess I just wait now." He mumbled as he headed back inside. "Since my prototype works maybe I should come up with a name for it now? But what to call it, maybe I should use an acronym?" With a chuckle Harry walked back into the house and went up to his room to ponder names for his Magic Quantifier.