Into the Trash Bin
Our story takes place in London, where a quite normal eleven-year-old girl named Ruby and her quite normal mother lived. The quite normal mother's husband (and quite normal eleven-year-old girl named Ruby's father, as you might have inferred) was away quite a bit on business (in Egypt, he mentioned, though neither the mother nor the daughter remembered exactly where he was at any point in time)—though the quite normal mother (her name was Elise) never actually knew what her husband was up to, and, quite frankly, she didn't care much, as long as he paid for expenses.
One normal July afternoon, a letter came through the post. It was unlike any other letter the quite normal flat had received in a while. Ever, actually. It was addressed to a Miss Ruby Gillett, who lived in the room across from the kitchen.
"How queer," thought Ruby, wondering how on earth they knew that her room was the room opposite of the kitchen? She turned the letter over, and broke open the crimson wax seal (which Ruby also thought queer, as no one used wax seals at all nowadays, except perhaps the Queen).
The contents of the letter made no sense at all to Ruby, who was convinced that she was quite normal. The letter seemed to be trying to convince her that she was, in fact, a witch with magical capabilities and wanted her to attend to a boarding school called Hogwarts (Ruby envisioned a school contained within the wart of a hog), the Headmaster of which was someone named Albus Dumbledore, who was (apparently) Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards (Ruby wondered what exactly a Supreme Mugwump was). Near the bottom of the letter, it stated something about the so-called school expecting her owl (right about here, Ruby was convinced that this was a prank letter) no later than July 31st.
Ruby glanced at the attached supply list and quickly proceeded to stuff the letter back into the envelope.
"A wand, a cauldron, dragon-hide gloves?" thought Ruby, remembering some of the items that the list had upon it. Ruby was quite taken aback the letter (now almost convinced that it was indeed a prank letter). She was nothing special, she assured herself. She was Ruby Gillett, brown-haired and grey-eyed Ruby Gillett, and aspiring attorney with high marks in school. No, she assured herself happily, she was quite normal and the letter was simply prank mail that people sent out to make people excited on hidden camera shows that her normal mother occasionally watched.
And then, Ruby proceeded to do what she did to all letters that were deemed junk mail: she tossed it without a second glance into the trash bin.