Disclaimer: I do not own J K Rowling's world. Nor do I own some characters and locations in this story.
Chapter 1
"Rise and shine sleepy head!" yelled Mum storming into my room and lashing open my navy blue curtains. The annoying stream of sunlight poured through the window, bathing my tidy room with a golden glow. "Make sure you're down in 10 for our palates class," mum said, "You mightn't like it now, but when you're fifteen with a smoking body and all of the boys are chasing after you like dogs, you'll thank me."
I groaned and dragged myself out of bed and over to my small closet. "Mum that's gross, I'm 11. I don't need to hear about boys and their dog like characteristics." Out of the small selection of clothes hanging on the rack in my closet I pulled out a pair of stretchy black tights and my favourite yellow singlet top. Throwing on the clothes, I stood in front of my dressing table.
"Do you need help?" asked mum, still standing in my doorway.
I stuck my nose high in the air. "No I do not mother. I'm not a baby anymore. I just turned eleven a week ago."
"Ok then daughter." Mum rolled her eyes and left the room.
After ripping my brush through my long brown tresses, promptly removing all the knots, I pulled it over one arm in an attempt to plait it.
"There." I peered into my small mirror and admitted defeat. Large kinks and knots stuck out in odd directions from the braid, and my hair appeared to have a… strange twisty thing upon the top of it
"Mum!" I paused for a moment for recognition. "MUM GET HERE RIGHT NOW!" I heard a chair squeak across the floor downstairs and the shrill cry of the stairs bending under weight.
"Honey, are you ok?" Mum burst in my room and scanned it for danger.
Mum laughed, relieved there was nothing wrong.
"Does it look like I am," I cried and tugged the elastic out of my hair, unthreading the braid.
Mum chuckled softly and picked up the brush off my bed. "Now, now, Honey Bee, what's the matter?"
I glared at her. "My stupid hair. I want it cut off!"
Mum began to run the brush through my tussled hair. "Why would you want that? It's lovely and long. I would have loved to have hair like you when I was younger."
"Mum my hair nearly reaches my knees. Plus, a girl in my class has short hair and it looks really pretty. She says mine looks ugly."
The brush slowed its pace. "I'll tell you something Honey Bee, that girl is probably jealous. Inside I bet she wants hair just like you. And you shouldn't listen to nasty things that people say about you. When I became pregnant with you so young, people started saying nasty things about me behind my back. But I didn't care, I had you and that's all I needed. All I still need." Mum gave a last tug and a neat braid was firmly on the back of my head. "Come on Honey Bee, time for breakfast," she said, getting up from bed.
"Hey mum," I asked, "what the people said, did that make you love me less?"
Mum shook her head. "Nope, that made me even more determined to give you all the love I could muster."
I smiled and ran out the door. "Race you down!"
Our laughter was cut back by a harsh smashing sound. One of mums' few ornaments in the house lay on the ground, smashed into pieces. Small rays of light reflected off the shards of crystal and onto the peeling wallpaper in the lounge room.
"I'm so sorry mummy, I didn't mean it, I'll buy you a new one, I promise. Please don't get angry at me" I pleaded.
Mum sighed and shook her head. "I'm not angry, Honey Bee. It was in the road. I've been meaning to move it for weeks now. I should have seen it coming."
"I'll help," I said, scrambling down to the floor and picking up a large piece carefully.
"No, no. It's fine Honey Bee. I'll go get a dust pan and broom. You go see if we have any mail." I knew this was mum needing some space to calm down, so I left willingly. Before I left I asked one last thing.
"Mum, where do I put this?"
_
I ran out the squeaky front door and down our brick path, distress clouding my mind. I think it was that that stopped me from seeing the loose bricks on the path cracked and raised from the constant floods of rain in England. I fell with a dull smack in emotion overload. I was angry with myself for not seeing the brick, I was angry with myself for being the sole reason mum's parents didn't talk to her anymore and I was angry with myself for breaking the only thing mum had left of the bastard who ran out on her so many years ago after being told something that would change his life, in his case for worse. I reached out towards the brick, set on throwing it as far from me as possible, but before I could reach it it…exploded. Squealing and flinching back I took a few calm breaths, just like we do in palates class. With my head out of its haze I convinced myself that I'd imagined the brick.
I hissed and looked down at my hands. A steady stream of blood trickled down my arm and dripped off my elbows. I cringed and wiped my arm across the dewy morning grass.
Ignoring the pain, I stood back up and walked cautiously down the path towards the letter box. I flipped through the letters when I realised I had dripped blood all over them. "Ugh." I attempted to wipe the blood off the thick ivory paper, only succeeding in smearing the blood further over the envelope. I walked back towards the house watching my feet and wishing the stinging on my palms would go away. Long before I opened the screen door, the pain had vanished. "Hey mum we really need to get the path fixed up. I tripped over a loose brick and grazed my hand." I placed the letters on the table and held my palms up to mums' height.
"I don't see any graze Nadia," mum said, taking hold of my hands. My brows furrowed. I looked down at my hands. Mum was right; there wasn't a single scratch on my palm. I looked over at the letters to confirm my short lapse of insanity, but sure enough, there was blood smeared over them.
Strange.
I picked up the letters again and flipped through them. Electricity bill, renting bill, hot water bill and-"Hey mum what's Hogwarts?" I asked looking at the envelope I had smeared blood over. The letter was neatly embossed in green ink and long flowing handwriting. It read; 'Miss Nadia Ann Fallon, 12 Edenburge Street, Fleetwood. I flipped the letter over; a red seal about the size of the pad of my thumb held the letter closed. I wondered why they wouldn't just use the letters you lick to stick down as we did, it was a lot cheaper. Inside the wax circle was the letter 'H' surrounded by tiny detailed pictures of four animals- a lion, snake, badger and then an eagle.
Mum scoffed. "I've been receiving prank letters all week claiming you're enrolled to some magic school. Probably just some kids who don't know when to stop something before it starts getting intolerable
I laughed and chucked the letter in the garbage, unopened.
Mum took out two tubs of yogurt from the fridge. "Hey Honey Bee, mango or strawberry?"
The palates class was hard and strenuous as usual. And as normal, I made that fact known. "Mum, it hurts. I'm tired. I can't do that. We'll need a mop to clean up the pool of sweat under me." Mum cringed at that one.
"Honey Bee," was all she replied, "When you grow up and have the body of a supermodel, you'll thank me for this."
It was around midday when we arrived at the local supermarket.
"Ok, Honey Bee," said mum looking down at the shopping list, "We'll head down to the fruit and veg section first." I groaned and felt sorry for the poor credit card; it was about to get the workout of its life!
When we'd eventually reached the end of the isle I couldn't believe my eyes. Mum really over did herself this time. The whole trolley was nearly full to the brim with fresh produce, with only enough space left for a minimal amount of essentials, such as bread and milk.
I picked up a piece of fruit that I had never seen before. It was brown, spiky and about the size of my head. Little bugs hovered over the fruit; I leant closer to the abnormalcy and had a sniff. Oh, gosh. I think I'm going to vomit. Literally, I was gagging.
"Mum, what on earth is this?" I said holding the fruit in her face.
"It's a durian."
"There is no way I'm going to eat that. Ever. It smells horrid."
"Nonsense! I don't smell anything!" Mum took the fruit out of my hand and took a whiff.
An old man walked past us and gave her a weird look. I laughed and mumbled "told you" under my breath.
Eventually, when mum had another colour in her cheeks other than green, I let out a breath I couldn't remember holding. Good, we don't have to mop up anything from the supermarket's floors today.
Mum held the durian as far from her face as possible and placed it back on a shelf of peanut butter.
"It does smell a little pongy doesn't it?"
After the incident with the fruit, we decided to get the other essentials we needed. Eggs, milk, bread, sugar, porridge, self raising flour, tinned tomatoes, chicken, beef kebabs, pasta and frozen yogurt.
Mum pulled up at a counter with a very annoyed looking woman serving us. She looked like a dog, and not one of those nice looking cuddly dogs you could go up and hug and pet it, she looked more like one of those skeletal dogs the use for racing.
The greyhound looked at us disdainfully up and down.
"So how are you?" she spoke in a high, squeaky voice.
"I'm we-" The greyhound lady cut mum off.
"That's great. You like fruit?"
"Well, ye-" mum was cut off again.
"Sure, I'm having a lovely time today. That will be 84.90 pounds" Mum cringed (we weren't the richest people around), payed for the food and then we steered the trolley to our small faded red car.
"Lovely lady wasn't she Nadia?" mum joked.
"Oh, yeah. I'd love to have her as a relative. Imagine Christmas dinners."
Mum laughed and shook her head at me. "Come on Honey Bee, we better be getting home in time for lunch. I'm thinking of Cesar salad." I opened up the boot of the car manually, twisting the key in the lock, and started to empty the trolley into the car. Fruit, fruit, vegies, fruit, oh, look here's the milk, fruit vegies, vegies and, you guessed it-more fruit.
"Come on Naddy, get a move on" said mum turning the car on.
"I'm coming, I'm coming. Be a bit more patient." I slammed the boot closed, and pushed the trolley into its holding space in the corner of the parking spaces, then opened up the front door of the car.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Nadia, what do you think your doing?" cried mum waving her hands over the car seat so I couldn't sit down.
"I'm getting in the car?"
"Not in the front of the car. No way."
"Why not?"
"Because you're too young. That's why, missy."
"I am NOT too young, thanks. I just turned eleven."
"Yeah, two weeks ago. Scoot," said mum pointing to the back of the car with her thumb. I sighed and reluctantly climbed into the back seat, slamming the car door beside me.
"Humph."
The rest of the car trip was in silence, the only sound was of the old ford's fanbelt squeaking as we pulled up into our drive way.
"Naddy?" mum's voice sounded panicked.
"What?" I huffed, still annoyed at her for not letting me sit in the front seat.
"Naddy, did you leave out front door open when you went out to the car?"
"No. Why?"
"Because either did I." I looked through the car's tinted windows, across the lawn to see that the front door was pushed open. Only slightly, like someone had entered the house in a flurry, but hadn't bothered pushing the door closed hard enough.
"Nadia, stay in the car while I see if anyone is in the house." I would have argued with her over the pounding of my heart, but as my breathing escalated to a frenzy, I was petrified to the spot.
Mum opened the car door hesitantly and lowered herself out of the ford. I saw her hand shaking as she walked over the grass and onto the narrow brick path and pushing our front door open, just enough to slip through. I held my breath. Mum was no longer in sight. I jolted from my seat as I heard a panicked scream erupt from the house. I flung open the car door and ran through the front door. The only thought running through my head was to keep my mother safe.
It wasn't dark inside; in fact, there was a harsh blinding light blurring my vision.
Disorientated, I scrambled over to the light switch, only to find it turned off. I brushed the thought off and resumed my search for mum.
Shielding my eyes I stepped into the small lounge room and the bright light intensified.
There, in the middle of the room was a ball of light suspended in mid air. It just seemed to be hovering only metres from the ground. The only way to describe it was like a small piece of the sun that had been taken from space and placed in the centre of the room. Not unlike the sun, an immense heat was radiating off the light and hitting me in large waves.
When my eyes finally adjusted to the light, I realised that the floating piece of sun wasn't the only thing in the room. There across the room, sitting on my couch, sipping tea out of mum's floral printed tea cup, and petting a cat was a giant.
Under any other circumstance I would have laughed at the sight before me, but with my mother missing the situation seemed humourless. There, in my lounge room was a floating ball of light, a cat, and a giant sipping out of a floral teacup about the size of his nose.
He began smiling and then slowly stood up. The room was filled with dust and debris as hid head smashed a hole in the roof.
"Take what you want, just please don't hurt my mother."
The giant laughed. "Hey Professor, she think we want sumthin' from er!" I was confused. Who was Professor? Perhaps he was talking to the cat.
"Where's mum? What have you done to her?" My voice raised pitch in my panic. "Where is she? Tell me!" I backed away as far as I could until I hit something. The side table. I glanced over my shoulder and found what I was looking for. As quick as I could manage I grabbed the crystal from the desk, I felt its sharp ends slice through my hand like butter. I aimed and threw. Without looking back to see if it had hit its target, I ran. A loud yell erupted from the lounge room, confirming the hit.
I sprinted down the narrow hallway and round the corner leading into the kitchen when I crashed into something.
"Nadia! Oh thank God you're alright!" Tears streaked down mums' cheeks as she embraced me. "I was so worried, I went back to the car but you weren't there! There are strange people in the lounge room. We have to get the police!"
"I know mum, I saw them."
We were nearly out of the door when we heard a feminine voice yell, "Stupefy!"
I fell to the floor, my limbs in the same position as they had been when I was running. I couldn't move. The harder I tried, the more useless it was. I heard another thump as mum hit the floor beside me. Mum wasn't as fortunate as me, and landed face first into the carpet. I heard a crack, followed by a stream of crimson from the side of my vision. I couldn't even move my eyes to see if mum was ok.
I began to hyperventilate as I saw someone stand over my head. Instead of the giant that was sitting in my lounge room previously, there was an ancient looking woman with spectacles and her hair pulled back into a tight bun at the back of her head.
The ancient woman smiled. "Nadia Fallon, you've been quite a catch haven't you?" A shadow was cast over me. There was the Giant, but no cat.
The Giant spoke to me next, "don' worry Nadia Fallon we won' hurt ya!"
My breathing didn't slow its pace.
"Hagrid, quieten down, you'll scare the life out of her!" said the ancient looking woman.
"Sorry Nadia," he whispered, bowing his head.
The woman bent down to her knees and looked into my motionless eyes.
"Nadia, I'm going to let you move now, but your mother will stay stupefied. Listen to what we have to say, after that it will be your decision to do as you please. We will leave, but not until you've heard us out. Understood?"
I would have made a motion to her to say I understood, but as I wasn't able to move it was a little difficult. The woman seemed to realise that too. She brandished a twig from her pocket and stood up from her knees. With a swish of her stick I was able to move again.
"Mum!" I crawled over to where mum was now lying. Blood was pooled around her face. "What have you done to her?" I was now shaking and lifting my singlet top to wipe away the blood from mum's face. So much for it being my lucky top.
"Nadia, are you going to listen to me or not?" The woman's voice was soft but stern.
"You fix mum up first, then I will listen to you."
The woman sighed. "Ok. Hagrid, lift her up."
Hagrid stood up and outstretched his hands ready to pick mum up but I stood in his way.
"Don't touch her!"
"How ar' wi goin' to fix 'er up if I cant roll 'er off 'er face?"
I snarled. "Figure it out yourself."
"Nadia stop being irrational, let us help her. She's loosing a lot of blood." The old woman sounded impatient.
"No thanks to you!"
The woman sighed. "Nadia, just hear me out. I'll fix up your mother, but you have to listen to us."
"Why should I?"
"You're a witch."
"I'm a…a…witch?"
"Yes."
My face turned bright red with anger. "You think that you can just break into my house, put a hot, bright ball of God knows what in the centre of my lounge room, head butt a hole in my roof, bring a cat inside-which, by the way my mother is allergic too, turn my mother and I paralysed and then give my mother a broken nose all because you have some delusion about me being a witch?"
"Well…yeah?" said Hagrid.
"Wrong," my eyes turned to slits.
"You are a witch Nadia, and so am I," said the woman.
"Prove it."
The woman pulled her twig back out from the long cloak she was wearing.
"What are you going to do with that? Poke me?" I asked.
"It's a wand Nadia."
"Oh, how obvious, I should have known. Silly me."
"Nadia," the woman peered over her half moon glasses and shook her head disapprovingly. "Behave." She cleared her throat. "Wingardrium leviosa!" The notebook lying close by was lift into the air.
"Wind current." I convinced myself
"Expecto patronum!" A cat burst from her 'wand', bouncing around the room merrily.
"Weird lighting."
"Enquoa finitus." Her wand was pointed at Hagrid and two pink, pig ears sprouted from his large head of greying hair.
"Abnormal growth."
The old woman looked annoyed. "How about this?-" a knife appeared out of no where and was flung towards my head.
I could see it getting closer to me, but I didn't back down for some stupid reason. It was inches away from my face and all I could think was stop, stop, stop. It stopped. I kept my eyes on it; something told me that if I left my eyes from it would start moving again.
"What's happening?" I asked. I looked over at the woman and Hagrid, loosing eye contact with the knife. It dropped to the floor, narrowly missing my feet.
"You're a witch."