The Phoenix came to Cameron in a dream. He knew they existed long before he met one of course. For Cam was a wizard. Long before he got his letter to Hogwarts, one the best wizarding schools in the world, Cam had a dream. A dream of fire and life. Of death and rebirth. Of happiness and sorrow. And pain especially pain. These emotions washed over young Cam accompanied by a beautiful crimson bird in flight. Tears streaming from its eyes. Though he could not here words he knew instinctively it was singing. Cam remembered it all. Right up to the point when his mother woke him up prematurely in Cam's opinion. He kept replaying this sequence of events in his head all morning. He hadn't thought about it in years until the night before he had dreamt a similar dream. This one was filled with happiness and joy. A voice suddenly splintered his thoughts.
"Cameron get your head out of the clouds!"
His mum had apparently called him to breakfast.
"One minute!" he shouted back.
Walking over to the mirror on his wall Cam inspected himself. Same dirty blond hair. Same bright green eyes. Same black eyelashes which made him look like he was wearing mascara. Satisfied he pulled on a tee shirt and shorts. Stumbling into the kitchen. He was met by a familiar sight. His mother was directing a frying pan to pour fresh pancakes onto plates which then zoomed through the air and onto the table. All by magic of course. His muggle father was just sitting down to the table with the daily prophet and the Muggle newspaper. Like always he was comparing how wizards covered news stories and how Muggles covered magical happenings. He chortled at the ridicules explanations nonmagic people came up with.
"New bird species flying over London," he muttered
"Must have been magical or something."
His older sister, Mikaela, was shooting sparks out of her wand for their younger sister, Jennifer, who was laughing as the fell onto her face.
There was a sudden hooting from the window and the family owl, Rakner a great horned owl, landed on the window sill.
"Oh the posts here," said Cam's mom
She walked over to Rakner and took the post out of his talons. Rakner swooped to the table and helped himself to a pancake which he half dragged half flew back to the window and began to eat. "Cam you have a letter and... Oh, it's from Hogwarts!"
At these words, everyone in the room looked up.
