Chapter One: The Acceptance Letter

AN: This story is going to be co-written by my friend Raphaelle and myself. The chapters that I (Colby) write will be from the perspective of Baby Tooth and the chapters written by Raphie will be narrated by Tooth. Both of us are on Tumblr if you wish to follow us! My Tumblr is: frostbiterainbowsnowcone. Raphie's Tumblrs are: catslovebooks and secondfandomtotheright. We hope you enjoy the story!

Dānta groaned as her alarm rang off next to her, the sunlight was streaming in through her bedroom window and her curtains were swaying in the warm July breeze. She yawned widely and stretched out her limbs before forcing herself into a sitting position. Realizing what day it was, she brushed her hair back behind her ears and gave a sleepy smile. She shut off the alarm and allowed herself one final good stretch before sliding off the bed. Today was her eleventh birthday and if she was lucky, she would receive a very special gift in the mail just like her older sister had five years ago on her own eleventh birthday.

Closing the curtains to keep from being seen, she quickly ran a brush through her dark tangled hair and tied it back. Wanting to look nice for the occasion she grabbed a golden hair ribbon from her vanity table and tied a bow onto the top of her pony tail. Smiling at herself in the mirror, she donned her gold feathered earrings and the locket her sister had given her as a present the year that she had gotten her own acceptance letter in the mail.

To say the least the family had been shocked by the owl dropping a letter at Toothiana's feet during breakfast. They had never seen such strange behavior from an animal before, flying in through the kitchen window and flying back out like that! They were even more shocked to find that the letter was actually addressed to Tooth in great detail.

Toothiana Thạntphæthy

306 Hampstead St.

Burgess, Pennsylvania, USA

19067

The Second Bedroom to the Left on the Second floor

Tooth had looked back after the owl but it had already flown beyond sight. Warily she had broken the seal on the envelope and dumped the contents onto the kitchen table. Out had come a letter written to Tooth's parents explaining her powers and how truly special it would be for them to have Tooth as a first-born witch in the family. With that letter was also a letter to Tooth telling about the school she was to go to and all the supplies she would need for a year of learning there.

Thinking it all a grand joke, the family had at first set the letters aside and gone about their day, but Dānta had believed in them and had spent the entire morning trying to convince Tooth to show her her powers. Tooth had of course been patient with her, but never the less had grown frustrated with her younger sister's relentless badgering and had given her a long lecture on how rude it was to do so.

So it only made sense that Dānta had smiled the widest when a strange man had shown up in a blast of green flame in their fireplace. The man turned out to be the Headmaster from the school that had sent Toothiana the letter. After he had assured the family he meant no harm, he had calmly explained and shown the family the truth of Tooth's magical essence. Then he had gone to leave the same way as he had come, but just as he was about to throw down the dusty gray powder, he had turned and winked at Dānta with a slight little smile on his lips.

And so in September Tooth had gone to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the first time. The family had all gone together to retrieve her supplies and marveled at the world that Diagon Alley immersed them in and had also joined Tooth at the train station for departure. That moment, as Tooth had said her goodbyes, was when Tooth had surprised Dānta with the locket.

"They say it was made by fairies," Tooth had told her sister as she fastened the locket around her neck. "It's supposed to protect you from ill willed spells." The locket was nothing too fancy, just a simple golden heart with shards of opal making the forms of wings on either side of the shape. Inside her sister had placed a picture of the two of them together. However, no matter the condition of the locket, Dānta would have admired it coming from her older sister.

And now; now it was Dānta's eleventh birthday and if luck and hope had won through for her, she would join Tooth at school this year and finally meet all of her friends that she had so often written home about. Smiling at herself in the mirror, Dānta placed a hand over the locket before moving on to her closet. She took the outfit hanging off the back of the door and laid it out on her bed before disrobing from her pajamas. Grabbing the first item from her bed, she pulled the dress over her head and straightened it out; sitting to pull on her tights and shoes. When she had become fully dressed, she went over to the full length mirror hanging on her wall and smiled in satisfaction.

There she was, eleven years old and dressed to the nines to receive her acceptance letter. In place of her usual t-shirt and shorts with no shoes at all unless they were going out, she wore an aquamarine summer dress and a pair of white opaque tights. The dress was the best she owned. It went down to just above her knees and had two underskirts attached to it. The sleeves had a slit in them so that they flowed back from her arms and showed her cinnamon brown skin before narrowing in at her elbows. Then down at her feet, was her favorite part of the ensemble. In place of the usual dressy shoe a girl might wear with such an outfit, she wore her gavorite pair of red worn high-top converse.

"Baby Tooth, come downstairs, honey! Breakfast is ready!" Her mother shouted from the bottom of the stairs. Dānta smiled at her nickname. There was no one in the world she more admired than her older sister and the two were unmistakabely similar. They both had the jet black hair and tanned skin of their heritage, as well as the same heart-shaped face and defined features. So from the time she was little, most people in the family had taken to calling her "Baby Tooth." Baby had even become the shorter nickname her friends used at school. After all, the only discernable difference between the two girls that most people could see at first (other than their five year age difference) were their eyes.

Tooth had beautiful violet eyes that not even doctors could explain and Dānta had been born with her right eye colored like Tooth's and her left eye a light shade of icy blue. No one had known where the eye abnormalities had come from, but their parents were never aversed to it. They enjoyed that their daughters had a unique feature all their own instead of their common chocolate browns.

Snapping out of her thoughts, Baby Tooth rushed down the stairs and into the kitchen where the smell of fresh made pancakes and maple syrup greeted her.

"Happy birthday, sweetheart," Her father, Haroom, greeted as she entered the room. "Have you thought about where or what you'd like to do today to celebrate?"

"I think we all know the answer to that," Tooth smiled as she sat next to her sister and poured herself a glass of orange juice. "You want to come to Diagon Alley with me to get my school supplies, don't you?"

"No, I want to go to Diagon Alley to get my school supplies," Baby Tooth stated as her mother placed a plate in front of her with two pancakes on it. Rashmi gave a small laugh at her daughter's fiesty certainty as she sat across the table from her children.

"Soon, Dānta, you can't hope too much. You know what the Headmaster told us when he talked to us about Tooth. It's very rare for a second witch or wizard to be born in a non-magical family. Don't put all your eggs in one basket."

Dānta sighed as she cut her pancakes. "Amma, I already told you guys. I know I'm a witch. Headmaster Moon winked at me! Directly at me."

"Amma's right, darling. You shouldn't put all of your hope into following Tooth to Hogwarts this year," Haroom agreed. "You never know anyways, you might enjoy Burgess Middle School. It's no magical castle in Scotland, but it's still filled with children your own age you've never met and adventures waiting for you to start."

At that particular moment an owl came fluttering in through the open window and dropped four letters into Tooth's lap before dashing back out. Dānta immediately lost interest in both her pancakes and her intended retaliation towards her father's words and stared at the letters. Dabbing her mouth with a napkin first, Tooth picked up the letters and verbally sorted through them.

"My school supply list, a letter from Bunnymund, a letter from North, one from Sandy, and another one from Hermione. Sorry, Baby Tooth. No letters for you." Toothiana's voice was genuinely sad for her sister as she saw her small face fall.

"It's okay. We'll just go see a movie or something." Pushing away from the table, Dānta stood. "May I please be excused?" Rashmi gave a sympathetic nod and watched as Dānta cleared her plate away and left the kitchen.

Baby Tooth sighed heavily as she left the house and wandered off towards the woods. She had been so certain since the moment that it had happened, the moment that Moon had looked back at her and gave that all-knowing wink, that she had to be a witch. She just knew it deep down to her core. Frustrated and upset she made her way out to the lake in the center of the wood.

Sitting by the edge of the lake she dipped a finger in the warm water and watched the ripples fan out against the smooth surface. "It's not fair," she mumbled to herself. Just then, reflected on the surface of the water, was the rippling image of an owl. "Huh?" Dānta stood and turned, looking for the bird. It took her a moment to spot it, the owl had fit in so discreetly in the trees that it had at first been indescernable from the tree itself. Her eyes quickly scanned down to the owls feet and dropped when she noticed it was just an ordinary owl late to get to bed.

Huffing, she turned back to the lake and nearly fell in from shock at the sight that waited for her. There, landing on the perfectly still surface was a second owl, completely white with golden eyes. The water rippled at the touch of the owls claws but did not give to the weight of the bird. Instead, it sat perched on the center of the water, staring back at her with, of all things, a letter in it's beak.

Baby Tooth's heart raced and her breath stopped. Swallowing down her sudden shock and the small amount fear rising through her, she took a tentative step onto the water of the lake. Expecting her foot to sink in, she was amazed to see it land as if she were walking across a bed. There was a little give, but it wouldn't sink her. Taking a deep breath, she followed with her other foot and slowly made her way towards the center of the lake, arms outsretched for balance as the further in she went, the more give the water gave. When she reached the center, she was noticeable standing on the water about a foot lower than she had been at the shore.

The owl however, did not seem fazed and instead chirped a greeting towards her. Her hands shook a little, but she gently took the letter from the bird and immediately it flew off. It didn't take Dānta long to learn why. Right after the bird took flight, the water became, well, water again and Dānta was immediately immersed in the lake. Instinct immediately kicked in and she began to swim towards the edge of the lake and up to the surface.

Sputtering and breathing heavily, she pulled herself from the water and laughed looking at the letter. It was completely dry and addressed accordlingly:

Dānta Thạntphæthy

306 Hampstead St.

Burgess, Pennsylvania, USA

19067

First Bedroom to the Right on the Second Floor