Chapter one
She'd always known that not everything in her life was quite right. That had never been something she would dispute. For the first ten years of her life, her father's gentle comfort was enough to assure her that whilst it wasn't as it should be, it was still okay. The isolation was okay, the lack of people or purpose or explanation, that he would always keep from her, was okay.
Until the day that he left, and didn't come back. She was left alone, with their tiny cottage in the forest and old orange moggy, Bumble. He was always welcome company.
She stayed just like she always had, looking after the plants and cooking like she used to with her father, playing with Bumble and the other forest creatures that lingered around the area happily enough, reading the same collection of books over and over again until she knew each word by word, and -more than she ever had before his disappearance - taking short walks through the forest; never further than the magical boundary he had set up long in the past. She had paced the area enough times to know that her father had done just that, exactly as he had always told her not to. She pushed the rising feeling of helplessness down time after time, but sometimes it was enough to consume her. Especially after enough time passed for her to know that he wouldn't be coming back.
On her 11th birthday, there was an owl. The owl, a tawny little thing with clever amber eyes, had swooped through her open window and landed on the bed in front of her. There was nothing surprising about it at first, she had always got along with the other inhabitants of the forest as if it were the most natural thing in the world, so having creatures come and go from the cottage at will was hardly unusual, but this particular owl had a letter clamped in its beak. That was certainly a first. It invited her to "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry", and she put it on top of the bookshelf, where it stayed collecting dust for the next year, when another one joined it, and then another the next, and another.
In the fifth year, she didn't get a letter. Instead, late in the day, when the sun had almost finished setting and she thought that the fourth letter must simply have been the last, there was a light knock on the door.
Her heart leapt into her throat and she panicked, dropping the wooden spoon she had been using to leap from the kitchen counter and shifting in mid-air, hitting the wooden floor on all four paws and darting into the living room, where she promptly curled up under the sofa with her eyes on the door. Mewling softly, Bumble crouched to join her, brushing his fur against hers reassuringly.
There was another set of knocks.
And soon after, more knocks.
After a few long minutes with no response, a small flash of light lit up the keyhole from outside, and the door swung open. Her ears flattened to her head as a man in lengthy, sweeping grey robes stepped into the house. His eyes glinted merrily, even as she could see the confusion pull his –surprisingly wispy- eyebrows together. She watched tensely as he looked around the room for a few drawn-out moments, before his eyes settled on her, crouched and furrier than a young witch should be at any point in time, under the sofa. He smiled, almost as if he was expecting such a thing.
"Hello dear. I take it you would be Ava?" He paused to nod to himself. "There's no need to be afraid, I'm a friend. That is, after all, how I am able to bypass the enchantments around this place. I promise you I have no ill intentions. May we talk?" His voice was soft and somehow familiar, as if he were just talking to an old friend over a cup of tea.
Hesitantly, Ava crawled out from under the sofa, staring up at the man with soft lavender eyes. He smiled again, taking a seat on the vintage -old- sofa and waiting patiently for her to join him. She leapt effortlessly onto one of the cushions, shifting back into a human form and curling her arms around her knees as she watched him, caution evident in her every movement.
In a gentle tone, he continued. "Where's your father? Is he out?"
Ava shook her head. "No.." She paused for a moment, looking away from him to find the words, "Kind of. I'm not sure where he is."
The man seemed saddened. "Am I to assume that this has been the case for a while now?"
Looking away again, she nodded tentatively. The man sighed. "A terrible shame. Your father was a wonderful person."
Not waiting for him to continue, Ava questioned him in return, still not meeting his eyes. "Who are you?"
"Oh! My apologies. I'm Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwart's school, although I believe you might already know that." She looked up then, as it clicked to her.
"Oh." Was all she said in return.
He nodded as if that made perfect sense. "I'm here today as it's my place as headmaster to ensure that those who should be at my school learning about magic, in fact are doing so. Especially having learnt that you are here all alone. No young witch or wizard should be forced to brave this world entirely alone." Seeing that she was about to protest, he continued. "I understand that you're afraid, after all I know all about the history of your family, but I promise that Hogwarts is a place of safety. Nothing bad will happen to you there. You deserve to experience the same thing as others do."
Lost for words, Ava let the room fall into silence for a minute.
"If I go, will I have to hide what I am?" She asked softly.
"Of course, sadly. But that's no reason to stay hidden here forever. There is danger in the very act of living, and if I may be quite honest, hiding in seclusion like this seems like no life at all." He catches her eyes towards the end of his words, and she can see the truth in his eyes.
"...Okay. But I want to understand what I'll be walking into first." The old wizard's smile seemed brighter than ever.
A/N, I'm really trying to provide as much backstory as I would like to without just info-dropping everything in this chapter. The next and onwards will be more present-time kind of thing.