CHAPTER 1
"Ouch!" Hester exclaimed. "Darling, are you okay?" her mother's voice echoed from downstairs. "Yeah," she lied. Her gerbils (Dew and Skylar), had escaped out of their cage, again, while she was trying to feed them, and of course, the cage had to fall right atop her foot. She cradled her foot, and soon got up.
"Get back here," she calmed down, they never liked their cage, but what could she do? Hester soon spotted them, hiding behind her huge stack of books. She swiftly scooped them up, and stuffed them back into their cage. "I'm no longer opening the cage to feed you," she grinned and picked up some seeds to feed them, placing her small hand in between the bars. Dew and Skylar took them out of her palm, and munched on them. "Wait," she realized, and continued, "isn't my birthday, today?" she said aloud, a smile forming on her face. She scurried downstairs, knowing she would get her Hogwarts letter. Her mother was a muggle-born, but her father was a pureblood, making her a half-blood. She ran into the kitchen, where they were icing her cake. "MY LETTER, MY LETTER!" she howled, which was unusual for her to be so loud, but this was the most excited she had ever been, in a long time. "I almost forgot!" her father said, smiling. She rushed out the door, opened the mailbox, and retrieved all the letters out of it. "Something for mom, something else for mom, something for dad, and something fancily addressed, for me!" she said enthusiastically. She sat at the kitchen table, and placed all the letters down, except for the Hogwarts Letter. She opened it up, and read it in her head.
"Dad, mom, I need to go to Diagon Alley, the train leaves tomorrow," she looked up from reading the letter. "We'll get everything you need tomorrow, hun," he replied. "Okay, but what about my cake?" she smiled. "We'll get back to that," her mother kissed her on the forehead. Hester found it annoying when her mother kissed her, it was always sticky and slobber infested.