The way we cruise so quickly through life, making all of those choices we think best, it's no wonder we never seem to have the time to consider a very intriguing question; what if? What if, I wonder, I had chosen a different outfit today—even a different hat? Would my day have played out differently? What if, perhaps pigs flew? Would Hell then freeze over? These questions are of course quite ordinary, but how about this? What if I had chosen not to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? I can answer that, safely saying that my life would have been far less interesting than it is because I did choose to attend Hogwarts. Yes, that is true.
It was almost unbelievable, hearing my dad say it—I nearly heard nothing at all.
"I'm a witch?" I asked incredulously. "Are you—that is completely mental!"
"No, Brianna, it is completely true." I winced upon being called that name. I truly hated it. You see, early on in my life, I had decided my name possessed a less than desirable affect. I had tried everything to fix it. You name it—no pun intended. I had gone with Bree, Bri, Bria, Gray, Rian—every name I could conjure up. Nothing stuck. I was in the midst, later on, of my Rian phase, during which a classmate of mine was boasting about his sprained ankle and the brace supporting it. I had quite an internal laugh, thinking of how interesting the word was in comparison to my name. Brace, I had thought. It sounds an awful lot like what would happen if I mashed Brianna and Grace together. That was the day I mashed my name together into a nickname that stuck. So now, I, Brace Matthews, stood confused and shell-shocked before my father in our living room, holding in my hands a faded yellow envelope—the starter of this conversation.
"If this is true," I replied. "If this is true, why was I never told?" My father sighed sadly and looked away from me.
"Not all wizards are good, Bri—Brace. Some are horribly bad. One of the worst goes by the name Voldemort. Do not go repeating that name to any wizards, though. It is a feared name. It is feared because of his horrible crimes. He saw your mother, along with many others, as a threat or a nuisance. Since the moment they met each other, she was marked for death. She was so good. He was so bad. After he was done with her, he tried to come for you, but she would not tell him where you were. You were only an infant." I gave myself a moment to take all of the statement in, before taking a deep breath and speaking.
"While I highly doubt that this evil wizard has any reason to care about me thirteen years later, I have to go to this place." He looked shocked.
"Bri—" He stopped himself.
"You have to let me," I continued. "If he ever did come back, I've missed two years of training already. I would be defenseless—dead!" I know it was harsh, but I had no choice.
"Fine," was all he said before turning on his heels and going back to bed.