AN: This is only my second try a a fanfic so tell me what you think. If you check my profile you'll find info on the stories characters personality as they show up in the story, and stuff you need to know about the story but don't, so check often! I'll also have the class bell system there for the first two school years, and the money exchange rate.
Lily Evans is one of the main characters for the story. she still gets with james, but for now she is lily rant continues at bottom.
I don't do accents I already suck at spelling, no need to make it worse so pretend everyone has a great english accent, it'll be fine.
I only own the plot and anything thats not owned by J.K Rowling in this story.
enjoy!
The grass is greener
CH1 The hope.
Looking into the mirror as she brushed her auburn hair, Ashlin wondered if she was dreaming. The past two months had been the most surreal she had ever had. When she had opened that letter on the twelfth of July she had thought it was a hoax sent by some crazy person. She was about to rip it up when she saw the extra sheet that contained a list of what she would need to buy. After she re-read everything she looked to the light grey owl that had been sitting in her open window contently watching her, to the letter and back to the owl. Figuring that she had nothing to lose she went over to her desk , grabbed her yellow tablet and a pen and wrote her response.
I don't know if this is real or not, if it is not please don't write to me if it is could you please send me some proof before i accept. Also where would i find the stuff on my supply list.
Ashlin Thigby
Signing off on her note she folded it and stuffed it into the envelope her came in. she gave it to the owl telling it to take it back. Watching the owl swiftly fly away ashlin couldn't help hoping it was real, that there was really a place called Hogwarts and she really could do magic. If it was real she would go off to learn everything she could, she would get to meet other people who could do magic like her and would be her friends. She could go on adventures and slay monsters, dance with fairies and meet unicorns. she really hoped it was genuine.
Ashlin had to wait two days before she even saw one of her parents. She carried both the letter and the list with her those two days in hopes that she would meet one of them. She had caught her father as he was leaving his study that Tuesday. Sebastian Thigby was a hard working fellow. He worked around the clock the keep his company running smoothly. He was 5'6 broad shouldered with dark brown hair streaked with grey and tired light Brown eyes. He was almost never home in the daytime, only coming home late at night and leaving first thing in the morning, and when he was home he was hold up in his study.
"Daddy, Daddy I need to show you something!" ashlin shouted as she nearly flew to him running." Its really important and I want to tell you". she continued when he showed he wasn't really listening.
"Not now sweetie I'm tired. Go play in your room or something." her father responded. When he turned to leave Ashlin grabbed his arm to get his attention.
"Please, please. please, it'll only take a few minutes, I swear." She pleaded."Alright ash I'm listening, tell me." he sighed giving her his undivided attention.
"When I got it I thought it was fake, but I hoped it was real. Now I don't know what to think and I've been waiting for a response to see if its real or not. But I don't want to get my hope up only to Be crushed in the end, so I-" Ash rambled and her father cut her off mid sentence."Ash , honey stop and breath. Start from the beginning, what response are you waiting on, and who is it from."
" I got a letter from some school called Hogwarts that says that I can attend and you'll never guess what they say they teach daddy ,guess,guess,come on just try and guess. It says that I'll learn magic, magic daddy, isn't that that just the bees knees daddy. hear read it,it just about blows my mind thinking about it." she trails off with a dreamy look on her face as she hands him the letter and list.
As her father reads the letter and list he couldn't help the surprised and disbelieving look the came over his face. " honey I don't think you should take this seriously. I mean wizards and cauldrons and wands and all that stuff are not real. Thats all just pretend sweety, this letters is not even real. " seeing that he was upsetting his daughter by not believing it he continued " I really wish it was real, and you could really do magic and go to a magic school , but honey you know you cant. Its just not possible.
" It could be true, it was delivered by owl and everything." she insisted, upset he was dismissing it so quickly."I'm still waiting for a response to my note I wrote so it could be real."
" Of course sweetie, I hope its real too." he sighed seeing that he wasn't going to win this one. He really wanted that nap." Why don't you go see if its here now." He suggested hopeing to be able to get her to go do something else.
It worked, she shot off like an arrow back to her room with a quick ok out of sight. Her father sighed, boy was he knackered, it had been a long day he thought as he headed to his room.
It wasn't until that Friday that shes got any kind of reply, and by then she had convinced herself the the letter had been a joke. Ash and her father were both in the lounge room, her father sitting in his high backed chair reading the paper while ash was sitting on the floor humming along to the old song Get Back by the Beatles, while putting together a jigsaw puzzle. The only one who had been more surprised than her was her father when the butler had announced that there was a professor Herbert Beery there to see him and Ash about a school scholarship that she had gotten. both exchanged gormless looks as the professor was escorted in.
Herbert Beery was a short balding man. he was thin and broad shouldered, his hair looked to have once a nice vibrant red was more a grey peppered with red. he had deep blue eyes set into a serious face, thin pale lips with a scar that ran from his chin down his neck and down below his dark brown jumper. He paused as he saw them, as if deciding something he took the seat across from Sebastian but angled at ashlin.
"Thank you for agreeing to see me Mr. Thigby, Miss Thigby." The professor greeted them both." I'm Herbert Beery and I'm hear to talk to you about Ashlin's scholarship and acceptance letter to Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry. Now I know you might think I'm daft and crazy but I assure you I'm not and that magic is real. " he continued in a professional tone as if he had already had this conversation before. " it was quite the surprise when we received miss Thigby's note. we usually don't get anything from muggle-borns the first time we send out letters. We normally have to bring a another acceptance letter with us when we do the house visits." he said with an amused air as he took the yellow note from the folds of his coat and set it on the table." As for proof" he went on taking out a long polished wooden stick"this is my wand I use it to direct my magic", waved it over the small glass table making a beautiful baby blue vase with a bundle of yellow roses appear on it. ashlin gasped eyes wide as the professor continued on. he waved his wand again murmuring something under his breath and each rose began alternating colors at different speeds in a cycle. Quick reds blended into slow blues, greens, pinks, only to speed into greens, purples, orange and back to yellow.
Ashlin's father tried to say something , anything but kept having to close his mouth. With his eyes locked onto the roses he seemed to zone out. " COR!" Ash crowed" that has to be the most brill thing I ever saw." snapping her dad out of his daze.
" Why should ashlin attend your school Mr. Beery, as far as i know ash has never been able to do anything remotely like that. Have you ash? "Sebastian started off looking at Mr. Beery but ended up speeding a questioning glance at ashlin.
" Umm... Once when i was playing in the hall by the den I accidently broke the ...err... crystal sculpture mum got from Japan." ash started only to stop when her father started glaring bloody murder at her. She continued quickly when it looked like he was about start off on her. When I went to get one of the maids to clean it up but when we came back it looked like I hadn't even knocked it over." Her father looked at her hard as if to say 'your so lucky', and chose to say nothing.
" That my dear, would be what we call accidental magic."professor Beery said dramatically bringing the focus back to him." It's when a witch or wizard's magic act of its own accord without warning. In most cases the more extreme acts of accidental magic happen when underage wizards are emotionally upset over something and their magic tries to help in some ways, though not always helpful but it makes itself known."
"Now Miss Thigby if you decide to attend Hogwarts the teachers that would teach you are masters in their chosen fields. School starts on September 1st, but classes don't start until the 2ed. Because you are eleven you'll be starting as a first year with the others, the classes you will be taking are Potions, Transfiguration, Herbology, Charms, Defense against the Dark Arts and is 6:00-7:40, you'll have 15 minutes to get to classes. You will only attend about four classes a day, maybe five depending on when you have astronomy, you'll have a 45 min. lunch break. Dinner is 7:30-9:00, you don't have to stay the full time at meals, we just make sure that everyone has time to eat. Curfew for anyone under Fourth year is 10:00 with the exception for the astronomy class that is from 11:00-1:00. There is a forest at the school the all students are prohibited from going into without teacher supervision or permission or for attending class. The forest holds many fantastic and extraordinary creatures and plants, but they also hold very dangerous creatures that are harmful to us if approached wrong or at all, so best just stay out of there. So any questions?"Professor Beery finished after going over the general information for them. he gave them time to go over all of the information while he waved his wand and made a tea set appear out of nowhere, poured three cups, one for each of them and began to take sips out of his.
" What will she learn in these classes and how will they help her." Sebastian started after a pause to collect himself.
" To start leaving muggle-borns alone in the muggle world puts every magical in UK at risk. muggle-Borns, any magically powerful person really, left alone without any training on there magic runs a great risk of losing control of it whether they know they have it or not . "
"In Transfiguration Miss Thigby will learn how to turn one object into another. It helps with concentration,memory,and helps build power. The concentration part is simple to understand, if you don't concentrate something might go wrong and you would never know where or how it happened. The better your memory the better and more realistic the details are in transfiguration. This class also helps you learn how to draw on your magic and by drawing on your magic it helps you build up your magic reserves. The more you practice, the more powerful magic you can do."
"The Charms class teaches us how to enchant things, like making feathers float or making suits of armor move, even making the ceiling look like the sky outside. It helps with with pronunciation and enunciation. Most times if you enunciate or pronounce something wrong when doing magic it has an unwanted effect, like mispronouncing the cheering charm, which like the name makes you cheerful, will make you queasy until the effects are lifted. Its important to both enunciate and pronunciation especially for the fact that all of the spells we teach are in Latin, which Miss Thigby will learn."
"Defense against the Dark Arts teaches students how to defend themselves against all types of magical threats and it gives them background knowledge agents dark curses, objects and creatures. Thats why its one of the mandatory classes, even though were in peaceful times it always pays to be prepared. There maybe no threat now but that won't always be the case."
"Potions is the one of the most versatile classes we teach at Hogwarts. Potions help in healing, combat, transfiguration, herbology, they even can make potions so harmful that they're illegal and making them will get you sent to potions that we teach first years to make will range from useful like the pimple cure potion that help get rid of pimples to the mildly harmful itch drench potion that makes whatever skin it comes inconstant with gain a very mild rash that wont stop itching until you apply the counter potion."
"Herbology is the study of magical plants. I'm the Herbology teacher, I'll teach Miss Thigby all about the different kinds of magical plants, how they differ from normal plants and their uses, and how to care for them. Herbology in the magical goes right alongside potions, every potion contains some type of magical plant and you learn about them in my class. On its own Herbology has many unique plants that can help defend its self and others. For instance if you plant some Modrat mood orchids around your house they help keep people in good moods by siphoning off the bad feelings as you pass."
"Astronomy is one of our regular classes,its the study of the stars and how they affect us and the things around us. There is some magic that require precise conditions to perform, so precise that they require some of the other planets in our solar system to be arranged a certain way before they will work." Professor Beery finished off his classes explanation with the least magical subject.
"What are muggles and muggle-borns?" asked a curious ashlin.
"Muggles is a term used for non-magical people. Muggle-born is a term for witches and wizards born from non-magical parents. It is a grave insult to any muggle-born to be called a mudblood, anyone who calls you that doesn't have enough class to be around you, it means dirty blood and you should not have to listen to that kind of prejudice. We are all the equal and have magic but some will not see it that way, it'll always be black and white with some people. There is also the term Half-blood that refers to witches and wizards born from one magical parent and one non-magical parent. Then there is purebloods, this classifies the really old magical families, its witches and wizards that have both magical parents and grandparents. The last class is fairly new and that the new bloods, there witches and wizards with both magical parents but one of the parents were muggle born. its a fairly new term, we used to classify them with the half-bloods but thats changed." there was a moment of silence as his words sunk in.
"How do i get my school supplies, where do i go?" ashlin asked after assimilating the new information.
" Now thats easy, on August 5th-9th there will be a muggle-born introduction week. You will meet at the corner of Charing Cross Road at 10:30 a.m. During that time we take muggle borns and their families through diagon alley and let them familiarize themselves with it , its the shopping center for magical London, and show them how to shop and where to go to exchange their muggle money for wizard money. You'll want to bring pounds , the wizard bank doesn't exchange checks. There will tell you about the history of the alley and the things you'll need to know while you're there." he answers pleasantly.
"Hogwarts is a boarding school right, a magical one? When will she be able to come home ? How will I get progress reports? how often and what is the grading scale? " Sebastian fired off after a short pause.
" Yes, Hogwarts is a boarding school. Miss Thigby will be able to come home for two weeks for the winter hols. Parents get monthly progress reports, while we give the students weekly grading scale from highest grade to lowest is O for outstanding E for exceeds expectations A for acceptable T for troll that means failing acceptable is barely passing." after another moment of silence professor Beery began to wrap up.
" well the only thing we haven't covered is weather you accept and the tuition fees. With the scholarship helps cover half the costs which is medical and food fees, you only have to pay the room and teaching fees, as well as the school supplies you get in diagon alley. you only have to pay 250 gallons a semester thats 500 gallons a year for all seven years."
" Well I thank you for your time and for talking with me , if you have any more questions that weren't answered today or in these pamphlets please feel free to ask when you go to the introduction week. It was nice meeting you , I'll show myself out." the Professor finished , standing up handing a stack of pamphlets to Ashes father, shaking his hand and walking out the room. For about three minutes father and daughter just stared at each other.
"I WAS RIGHT, I WAS RIGHT I CAN DO MAGIC, I CAN, AND YOU DIDN'T BELIEVE ME, I TOLD YOU" Ashlin was up like a shot hopping around the lounge screaming at the top of her lungs. Her father just shook his head and walked out the room leaving her in the room she would be in for the next thirty minutes dancing, to go to his office to go over the pamphlets.
AN:I always felt that harry got the short end of the stick with how he got introduced to the wizarding world. they never tell you the how much information the muggle-borns got befor starting Hogwarts, or how the teachers explained it to the parents.
We never hear about muggle-borns coming from families just as rich as the old pureblood families. they just come from middle class and below.
Lily is always made out to be this perfect never does wrong always nice,treat everyone equal, why can't we just get along, sunshine and rainbows girl. I don't for a second believe it thats crap and everyone knows it. With a sister brought up like Petunia she can't be like that, not really, it's got to be a act. She's friends with Snape people, even Petunia said he was a horrid boy and not in the way she says it for harry . Im just saying, I call BS.
Next chapter is the muggle-born introduction week through getting to Hogwarts!
Tell me what you think, help me make it better. plz leave a review i'll try to update in a couple days.
