Chapter 1

23rd August 2014

12:37pm

Slosh-thwack! Slosh- thwack! Slosh- thwack!

The rain splattered against the window before trailing down the glass and splashing hard into the drainpipe amongst all the other drops. Beyond, the sun was also bleating through and lit up the entire room apart one corner of it that basked in the darkness of shadows.

Caitlin rubbed her forehead. Another headache. Probably due to the sun, of which its rays were directly hitting her for the last hour as she had been sat on her bed, blazing away through the glass window next to her. Or from the shouting that was directly coming from beneath her, downstairs, from her Parents, they never stopped. There was definitely no other reason for her headache. Ok she'd been having them almost every day since the incident last term but that was no reason to seek medical care, despite what her mum said.

Caitlin felt a flush of anger. Her mum should be with her right now, or at least she should be doing something even the slightest bit entertaining that prevented keeping her daughter hunched up in her room all summer. She was always arguing now, and that was the excuse. Caitlin didn't even know what they were always fighting about, but they never stopped fighting – it worried her.

Slosh-thwack! Slosh- thwack! Slosh- thwack!

She placed a bookmark in her copy of The Dark Arts: A Legal Companion, her headache couldn't make her bare to read the final 30 pages. It didn't matter, Caitlin already knew what the next pages were about, she had been studying the book over the last 6 weeks over and over, just for good measure, after all she wanted to succeed in the subject this year, and especially this was the year everyone would be preparing for their OWLs which would be the following year. And Caitlin was desperate for a good grade in every subject.

Today, alongside the book she had only just put down, she had resorted to studying the book Hogwarts: A History, the updated version, of course, she had a hunch that the battle of Hogwarts held 15 years earlier would somehow crop up in her history exam, her Brother had mentioned that a whole section of the Battle had turned up in his last year, so she had to be prepared if the eventuality rose. Then again, Alvan could be lying, he often does, and Caitlin was never sure if she could believe him. She could barely trust anyone as it was, mind about someone who would lie to her the majority of the time. She would often compare her brother to The Boy Who Cried Wolf a muggle fable that she had also read this past holiday, she studied muggle fairytales too.

Slosh-thwack! Slosh- thwack! Slosh- thwack!

She picked up the book off her lap and placed it on a pile of books she had been studying from all summer, and then stared at the other 16 books that were underneath her current reading one. Maybe her headache will lay off in the next few minutes to allow her study another book for a little longer. Caitlin pulled a face and sat back on her bed, maybe she'd studied a little too much today, she could do with a break. Regardless she still picked up the book that was on her bedside table, Blood Brothers: My Life Amongst the Vampires, she often enjoyed reading books like that one, stories based off true ones, and it opened up her eyes that maybe someday she could lead a life that was like ones in a storybook.

Slosh-thwack! Slosh- thwack! Slosh- thwack!

A knocking sound came from the window beside Caitlin, a sound clear to anyone that it wasn't the sound of water hitting the glass. She looked to her right to see the blurred image of an owl pecking quite ferociously at the window, in an act to be let in. Caitlin grinned as she recognized the figure of the bird, threw her book to one side and unlocked her window to allow it to hop onto the inside window. It ruffled its feathers vigorously to shake off any excess water that was dripping from him. Caitlin turned around to shield her face from the rain drops before turning back and smiling at the owl, grinning at its presence. Before doing anything else, she quickly tried to pull the window back shut against the gailing wind that accompanied the rain and sun. The owl softly hooted as a thank you before walking sideways and more closely to Caitlin, before offering its right talon out to her, a letter tied onto it.

The letter slid off from the string that bound it to the leg of the bird and Caitlin unraveled it.

'Thanks Sage,' she patted the owl gently on the head before starting to read the letter that was written for her, the page and ink had been slightly drenched by the rain, yet it was still fairly illegible. Sage, the owl, had found its way to her own owl's cage, that was open, and had perched itself inside, beside her own owl.

Hey Caitlin,

I know it's all a bit out of the blue but do you fancy meeting up somewhere? Like maybe London? Diagon Ally? I mean we promised to stay in touch over the summer but we haven't and I hope we can get together before the new terms start. I gather you'll be too indulged in work at school to hang around too much so I thought we could now, well that is if you're not already found a book that's better than my company. Write back anyway, I'd like to meet up; really, it'd be nice to have a good catch up.

Nat

It was about time Caitlin had met up with someone, she'd stayed up in her room all summer to avoid everything that was going off downstairs. She knew if she did ask her parents if she could go out for a little while, they'd be too angry to say yes, even though London wasn't far at all from her house, especially not on a broom anyway. She was sure no one would notice her if she did leave for a couple hours or so, no one would ever miss her. Quickly, she rummages through a drawer on her bed side table to find some parchment, and scrawls a reply down onto it.

Sage was called onto Caitlin's bed as she untied the string that was still attached to him and reused it for her own message. Before opening the window to allow the bird return out into the rain and back to his own owner, she scoops up some bird treats from her own owls' cage and allows Sage to pick some of the treats from her hand. The owl carefully pecks some nuts bit by bit as Caitlin forcefully opens the window again with the one free hand she had left. The owl gave a final hoot towards Caitlin before spreading its wings and taking off out the window carrying her message back to her friend.

Caitlin shut the window again to avoid the rain getting her room anymore wet than the owl had made it. Her headache had gone now. She wasn't sure whether this was because seeing Sage and being in contact with her friend had eased some of the stress that both the studying and her parents had forced upon her. Or whether it was plainly because the sun had gone behind some black raincloud now.

She watched the owl soar of into the distance, talons stretched out and wings spread wide. Owls are so beautiful, Caitlin thought, and she stared at it until it became a speck in the distance. Smaller and smaller and then gone.

1:04pm

Natalie Methraden was an easy girl to like. She often had sweeping red hair, brown eyes and a wide smile, and a calm midlands accent. She would never fight; she was a patient girl and tried so hard in everything she did.

'We wanna finish above 5 of these wands by today, love. We wanna have a good stock of 50 wands at least before the school term. Here,' Natalie's father passed to her a wand on the table in front of them both. He was a self-employed wand maker and he only needed help from his daughter now and again to speed up the making of each wand, especially when the demand for them would rise rapidly in the coming weeks.

Natalie smiled and started carving patterns into the wand, she enjoyed helping out when he needed it, and she found it nice she could put her artistic talent into something other than drawing. She also took it on a lot more often in the summer months to prevent being bored – she didn't really hang out with many people out of school. It didn't help how her family lived in a small house outside London in the middle of nowhere, and it was all they could afford in the area. Her mother still disagreed with the move 4 years on but everyone knew it was to benefit the wand making business, and really, in recent years they had made more money than they had in smaller cities such as Lincoln or Nottingham. But Natalie helping also made her dad happy too and it gave him someone to talk gibberish about each type of wand and its unique personality to, Natalie was too happy and too kind to reject such thing.

'Look Dad, nevertheless, I promise we'll get enough done, it's just, I thought, maybe, me and Caitlin could meet up today, y'know, in London somewhere. I mean we haven't seen each other since we left school and we need to catch up somehow.' Said Natalie 'I promise that when I get back I'll finish what you want me to do. Like don't bother carving any patterns on them, I can do that afterwards.'

Her father nodded, 'Yes, fine. I do think you deserve a break a least. Have you got a reply from her then?"

'Well, not exactly. I sent Sage out about half an hour ago when I was having dinner and I haven't had a reply yet. But Sage won't return without one, you know what he's like, so when he comes back, if he comes back, I'm sure she'll have answered me. And besides, surely she'll want to meet up."

'I see," Natalie's dad replied bluntly. He used his sleeve to wipe some sweat from his brow, it was quite hot and stuffy inside the working shed and the muggy weather outside made matters no better, 'Well you can take a break anyway, and if you do go out, tell me or your mother first. And do be careful, it's windy out, anyone could be knocked off their broom.' He turned to her and gave her a concerned look, then out of the small window in the shed. Grey clouds filled the gloomy sky; the sun was only slightly visible through one in the distance. It was getting unusually dark for this time of year.

'I will, don't you worry about me, I'll be fine.'

'I know, it's just the weather is looking bad, you hear things y'know, in the Daily Prophet, stories about people getting chucked off their broom in storms and being sent to St. Mungo's for the rest of their life.'

'Look I want you to be happy, don't use the weather as an excuse to be miserable.'

'An excuse?' He had more of a confused yet annoyed expression painted across his face now, rather than concerned.

'Maybe you too could do with a break from wand making. Go out, meet some friends in London. It'll take your mind off all the stress. Proper people. Living people.'

'Is this about Kingsley?' A week or two ago, Natalie's father had met up with a guy interested a little in investing in his business, only they met up to get to know each other first, before Kingsley could make any assumptions and Natalie thought this was a perfect opportunity for him to make a friend rather than being so self-indulged in work. Kingsley was a stoat middle-ages man who would spend most of his evenings down in a pub, and whose idea of a good night out sadly didn't extend to listening to a three hour lecture on different types of wood and how they affect magic in a small wine bar, and, as Natalie's dad had assumed by Kinsley's attitude with him at the end of the night, he was never offered an investment.

'Not necessarily. I just think you shouldn't let your work lead your life. Anyway, I'm gonna go, see you later.' She waved as she turned on her heals and left the shed. Her dad was right; the weather was kicking up a nasty storm. Natalie put her arms in front of her face to stop rain drops flying from left right and centre into her eyes.

She ran quite quickly up into her room so she could change into something a little more appropriate for a meet up besides some hoodie and jeans that were covered quite literally head to toe in sawdust. In front of her was her window, that was almost completely filled with rain drops streaming down it from the storm yet there, pecking rapidly and quite angrily at the glass was Sage completely dripping with water.

'Shit…' Natalie mumbled to herself seeing her pet so unhappy outside as it kept squawking seemingly as a plea for help. In a hurry so opened the latch of her window to let her owl jump inside, still making a recognisable cry for help in various high pitched sounds. 'I swear to Merlin I am so sorry I wasn't here for you to let you in.' She was very annoyed also that she had only taught the bird to fly back to her bedroom when returning a letter, but she knew if she had taught Sage to come to her wherever she was, whoever was around her would simply ask her what the letter was about, in some ways she still stuck by her original decision, even if her bird did have to face being locked out sometimes – she was fairly torn over how annoyed she felt, actually.

Sage shook off the rain dripping from his feathers and Nat had to look slightly away to avoid the rain, she giggled to herself though as he did. He comfortably hopped closer towards Natalie and held out his right talon to present a letter tied to it. She confidently took the letter from her owl and read the letter, ink bleeding out from the water, yet she still managed to read it – just.

Hey Nat!

I'd love to meet up, seriously! I really would have written to you before but, you know, things have been going on and it's been quite tough for us all, really. I'll definitely meet up with you today, I'm getting ready to leave now, so don't bother writing back, I know you'll turn up whenever, just arrive in your own time. You see right now my parents or Alvan and Pandora won't see me leave so I may as well go right now rather than wait for you to reply only for me to reply again back and so forth. Look, I'll meet you in, let's say, Diagon Ally, outside Flourish and Blotts. I'm on my way now as you're reading this so I'll be there when you arrive. I'll see you later then.

Caitlin

Natalie smiled, Caitlin was always thinking in front of herself and this letter proved it quite simply. There was a small chunk of writing just after 'it's been quite tough for us all really.' But the majority of it had been too badly smudged apart from select few words that really wouldn't help in deciphering it. She could just simply ask her anyway when they see each other.

Sage was put away in his cage soon after, and locked in so he couldn't create any mess in Natalie's room, and she got dressed into some better clothes to meet up in, it was nothing to fancy, just some jeans, and shirt and hoodie, but it was comfortable, and she could put her hood up in the rain on the way there.

Before she left she had gotten permission from her mother for use of the family broom, The Yajirushi, which was her brother's prized possession after receiving it in the early summer months in time for the Quidditch World Cup.

With quite a rough take off in the wind, Natalie rose higher than her house and flew steadily towards Diagon Alley at a reasonable slow speed, before speeding up, faster and faster, and then she was out of sight.