Chapter One: The End of the Tunnel
I do not own any of the characters in Harry Potter and if there is anything else...well, I don't own that either. I do own my own character, Jaclyn - to the best of my knowledge that is...
It was a Saturday morning. Jaclyn walked slowly through the door and into the kitchen. She cast about for a pan to fry eggs on, working around her older sister who was passed out on the table, an empty beer bottle clutched in her hand. There was only one egg left, and she wanted to eat it before her sister woke up and took it. There was a pan in the sink. Jaclyn swiftly grabbed it up and put it on the charred stove. She lit the burner, cracked the egg, and watched as the egg-white slowly bubbled.
Her sister, Mary, snorted in her sleep to the left and Jaclyn rolled her eyes. Things had been different when Mom was around. She had died last year. Mary was twenty, so she was able to work and keep them from the orphanage, but life was difficult. Jaclyn was only fifteen, and she already had to work every day to bring in money to this place. She had only gotten a job as janitor at the nearby train station by lying about her age. Soon she would have to drop out of school. Mary had dropped out of college, since the household had no money to speak of. There was no electricity here, everything was done by candlelight. The phone line had been cut a few months ago. There was a river behind the house for water, since the public water supply was contaminated and cheap and clean water was hard to come by.
The egg was done. She turned off the stove and ate the egg right off the pan. All the dishes were dirty. As she put the pan into the sink again, she looked around at the forlorn kitchen. The tiles were stained by mud and food, the wallpaper curling off the walls because of the leaky roof nobody had the energy to fix. The only table in the room was wobbly, the fourth leg missing a piece at the bottom. The stove was in a corner next to the rusty sink. There were only two stools at the table now. The third, Mom's stool, had been sold. A lone, dusty little window was opened up next to the ceiling, the ragged lacey curtains swaying in a gentle breeze. Jaclyn sighed. There were only three rooms in the house. The kitchen, the living room, and the bedroom upstairs. Jaclyn slept in the living room, Mary in the bedroom, and the kitchen was neutral ground.
Jaclyn flinched as Mary stirred. Sometimes, when Mary was in a bad mood, she would yell and scream at Jaclyn. She thought it was Jaclyn's fault that Mom died. Jaclyn shuddered away from the memory slowly forming in her head, walking out of the kitchen into the sparse front yard. The grass grew in tiny desert islands, surrounded by oceans of dirt. A rotting wood fence enclosed the front yard, and Main Street roared just outside of the yard's boundaries. The only thing separating them was a sidewalk. She looked at her worn leather watch. Everything around here stunk of fatigue and wear. She was going to be late for work if she didn't go now.
She walked out onto the sidewalk. Suddenly, she stopped, staring at the bird perched on the lamppost. Surely that wasn't...an owl? She walked closer. It was a screech owl. Suddenly the owl lifted off and swooped towards her. She shrieked and covered her head. What if it had rabies or something? Owls didn't come out during the day!
The owl rapidly approached, then swooped back up. Jaclyn straightened slowly. Something hit Jaclyn softly on her head as the owl softly winged away, becoming a speck on the horizon. Jaclyn looked around, and saw a square, thick letter drift slowly towards the dirt. She gasped. The letter looked so nice; she didn't want this to be soiled as well. As she straightened, she examined the envelope. It had her name and address on it. "Strange..." she muttered. Nobody mailed her letters anymore. She slowly opened the letter and a packet fell out. She picked it quickly up off of the ground and began to read it. She stared at the heading. It read Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
She read onward, confused. It was an acceptance letter to a magic school. She didn't understand. Magic wasn't even real. Was this some sort of joke? She looked quickly around to see if anybody was watching her, but nobody was. Her sister wouldn't waste her time on a joke as elaborate as this, and Mary didn't have much of a sense of humor anymore. She read onwards. It contained a list of books, which the letter said would arrive at the school for her. She was on scholarship. Jaclyn shook her head. This was probably just a joke. She began to put the packet back in when a ticket fell out of the envelope. It was for a platform called 9 ¾. She snorted, looking at her watch. "Shit!" she muttered. She was late for work again, and Clive, her boss, had threatened to fire her the next time she was late. She stuffed the letter and ticket into her pocket and ran towards the station.
A/N: Hoo-ha, Ho-hum. Boring first chappie is now done! I am really psyched about this story, though. It is soooo good. It just takes a while to start up. And then...well, you'll see.