"Dean! Dean!" Eleven year old Sam cried as he ran through the yard up to his older brother.
"My letter finally came!" He tripped over a tree root and nearly fell on his face, and would have, had his older brother not reached out an experienced arm to stop his descent. "Wow, slow down Sammy" he said steadying Sam and taking the proffered document. It was nearly identical to the one that he had received on his eleventh birthday. With Headmaster Zachariah's name in big letters at the top, and the usual formalities, then signed by Professor Naomi, the Deputy Headmaster. On the second sheet of course was the exciting part, with all of the materials that Sam would need to attend this year. He folded it up carefully and handed it back to Sam ruffling his hair as he did so.
"Did you tell Dad?" Sam shook his head and started running back to the house.
"I'll go tell him now!" he shouted as he slammed the screen door behind him.
As Dean began to walk back into the house after Sam, an owl landed on a branch above his head and grumpily dumped a second identical letter on his head. He took it and nodded to the owl in thanks while entering the house. He'd waited four years to be able to go to school with his brother, although he knew that it had been harder for Sam. Sam hadn't had many friends to share the time with, unlike Dean who had made lots of friends at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry.
He looked at the list of items he would need to buy, then took a pencil from the pencil cup on the counter and scribbled underneath the rest of the list 'cauldron'. He'd burnt a hole his old one a couple classes before finals last year and it was unusable as a result. It had happened while trying to impress a girl in class, by adding newts eyes and turning up the heat to try and make the potion turn violet, but of course it had just given him an oddly shaped burn on his arm, and cleaning duty for a week; no magic allowed. The potions master Professor Crowley was quite the buzzkill, and being head of Slytherin didn't help his case much.
As he entered the dining room of their little two bedroom house, Dean saw Sam at the table pouring over his prized letter. In the seat beside him their father John, was putting together his hunting kit. That's what he called it at least. John Winchester was an Auror. Not wonderfully respected, but he got the work done. The Ministry didn't really like to claim Winchester as their own because he didn't always take the ethically and politically correct steps in his work. The only reason they did was because he was one of the best in the business. No one could track a criminal like John Winchester.
"All right Dean, go ahead and start a fire. We're going to need to take a trip to Diagon Alley today." John said glancing at Sam's list. Dean did as he was told piling the wood high enough that the fire would continue until their return journey. Once he was finished Dean, Sam, and their father each in a row stepped into the fire and said precisely "Diagon Alley!" and off they went.