Chapter one
The day had started off okay. It was warm and sunny, a surprising turn for spring in the normally rainy country of England. So naturally, all of the young terrors of children who were still free of the struggles of school were out playing in the parks and streets. As for the adults- some were outside watching their children, others walked along the sidewalks to attend to daily business.
In the less urban area sat a small two-story house with stone exterior and a black roof. A smoke stack billowed out a grey cloud, which vanished from sight before it could reach too far up. Near the back of the house was a lush green yard, and in the middle of it sat a young girl of thirteen years.
Her hair was cut short, much like a boy's. It was wavy and held a rich chestnut color, but it faded to a lighter hue at the tips. The girl's form was small and slight, and she was quite short, but her hazel eyes scanned the book in front of her with a shine that made up for the height she was lacking.
As she read, a range of emotions flickered across her face. It could go from deep sadness to a slight smile within seconds. At one point, she clutched the poor book so hard her knuckles turned white as the suspense drove her insane.
This would go on until the opening of a door could be heard and a voice called, "Thalia! Come inside and get your chores done, sweetie."
The girl's head snapped up to meet the gaze of the woman standing in the house. Her long brown hair was pulled up in a bun and a few wrinkles wore at her kind face. "Alright, Mum." Thalia stood and brushed off her shorts before heading inside.
The house was warm and cozy, if a bit small. The family tortoise, Bill, lifted his head lazily to look at her before turning back to his food. Thalia patted his shell gently then went up to her room. She set her book on a shelf to join all the others by various authors.
Just as she was about to start picking up the clothes strewn about her bedroom floor, the doorbell could be heard from downstairs.
"Thalia, could you get that, dear? I'm in the bathroom." Her mother's muffled voice asked from the other room.
"Yeah, I got it." She called back, opening her door and heading downstairs. She opened their mahogany door to reveal an older man, probably in his mid-forties. He was dressed in strange clothing; deep red robes over a black suit. Several rings with different gemstones adorned his fingers, which clutched at a brown cane that he leaned on heavily. He had long black hair with a few white and gray streaks going through it pulled back in a pony tail.
"Hello, are you Thalia Sudo?" The man asked in a deep, kind voice. When Thalia nodded, he went on. "My name is Aloysius Arachne. I've come to inquire about something with you and your parents, are they home?" She nodded again and ran upstairs to get her mother.
"Mum? The man at the door wants to speak with you."
"Alright sweetie." The two went downstairs, but as soon as her mother saw the figure in the doorway all the color drained from her face and she went stock still.
"Hello, Mrs. Sudo. It's nearly been 3 years, if I recall correctly." Aloysius said curtly. An uncomfortable silence swept over the room for a full ten seconds before Thalia decided to break it.
"You guys know each other?"
Her mother's eyes hardened. "No," she declared firmly. "No, we don't." She attempted to shut the door, but Aloysius caught it with his boot.
"Mrs. Sudo, we had an agreement. I have your signature on it." He pulled out a parchment from a pocket in his robe. "We've been patient with you, but-"
"I won't let you take her!" She shouted with clenched fists. That wasn't good. Thalia's mother never shouted.
The man clenched his teeth, obviously trying to hold in his frustrations. "It's for her own and you know that."
"Hold on." Thalia cut in suddenly. Their heads snapped towards her in surprise, as though they had forgotten that she was there. "What is going on? You both said 'she', are you talking about me?"
The pair glanced at each other, seeming to have a wordless conversation. "She has the right to know." Aloysius murmured gently, and her mother's shoulders' slumped in defeat.
"Fine."
Two hours later, Thalia's mind was reeling from all the information she was given as the man and her mother fell into a heated arguement.
Magic was real.
Aloysius was a wizard.
She was a witch.
There was a school called Hogwarts that was filled with people like her.
She was suppose to go there when she was eleven, but… but her mother held her back. Why? Why would she do that? Thalia didn't understand. Magic sounded amazing- and it explained so much! Sometimes, when she grew too excited while reading outside, the plants around her would grow like crazy and wrap around her ankles. Then one time, when she was angry, it had literally rained in the house. Not too long ago, a boy from class has made fun of her for reading so much, and his hair had suddenly changed to the most revolting color of green.
So many things were finally explained. This power of hers had chased away all of her potential friends- except for Jadyn and Alexa, but they were different too. Not in the same way as her, but they definitely didn't fit in. They both were currently in some sort of cult that dealt with some serious powers from the other side. They were great people, Thalia just never wanted to get into that sort of stuff.
Finally, Thalia's attention was turned back to the fighting adults in front of her as she finally processed everything. Slowly, she stood. "Mum, Mr. Arachne, I believe that I should get a say in this." Their voices quieted and they both looked at her with concerned faces, but they let her speak. "You're arguing about whether or not I should go that magic school, right?" She asked carefully. They both nodded. "Well, I think I… would like to attend."
A smile split the older wizard's face as her mother's fell into one of near-horror. She put a shaking hand on her daughter's shoulder. "Thalia… I want you to listen to me very closely. Magic is dangerous, I don't want you be hurt by it-" She was cut off by the girl wrapping her arms around her.
"Mum, I know you're worried about me, and don't want to let me go, but I want to learn. I need to. I've never really fit in here, or at normal school, and you know that. I really, really want to take this opportunity and meet others like me, okay?"
At this, small droplets of water hit Thalia's neck, and she realized her mother was crying. They held each other for another minute with Aloysius standing awkwardly to the side before they pulled back. Thalia turned to the wizard. "So, what now?"
He smiled brightly. "Excellent question! Since you're three years behind, we're going to spend the rest of the summer giving you special tutoring classes. If you're as bright as your muggle school report card says you are, then you might be able to be caught up by the school year starts- on September first. If not, we'll organize special classes for you." He turned to the bleary-eyed woman. "You'll need to discontinue her enrollment at her current school; our lessons will take up most of the day. Also," He paused thoughtfully. "We need to go shopping. Let's do that now, then we can start classes tomorrow."
"Wait, um," Thalia stammered as the gaze of the wizard fell on her, "this is all happening so suddenly, can we save the shopping for tomorrow so I can sleep on everything?" She wasn't sure why she was putting this off; it was all so exciting and she couldn't wait to see what kind of things a witch would need, but at the same time she was exhausted from all of it for that day.
Aloysius looked a little bit disappointed, but a smile soon found its way onto his face again. "Of course, Miss Sudo."
"Just call me Thalia."
"Very well, Thalia. I'll come by at noon tomorrow to collect you-and your mother if she chooses." He gave them a nod of farewell and headed to the door. Just as his hand started turning the handle, he turned back toward them. "Ah, I almost forgot!" He reached into his robes and pulled out several books that definitely should have made his clothing bulge but hadn't. He offered them to Thalia and she took them gratefully. "I took the liberty to buy you a copy of all of the books you are required to have for your first year. Of course, you'll need many more books for learning more years, but we'll start you out with these. Look over some of them tonight, if you would."
Thalia examined the cover of the one on top, which read "A History of Magic" by Bathilda Bagshot. She looked back up at Mr. Arachne. "Thank you, sir." She smiled widely.
He smiled back and finally left, waving at them without looking back.
After a long talk with her mother about witchcraft and wizardry and why she had been kept in the dark about what she was, Thalia trudged up the stairs to her room with her stack of books, which included A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot, The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1 by Miranda Goshawk, Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling, A Beginner's guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch, One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore (Thalia couldn't help but chuckle at this name), Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander, and The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble.
As soon as she was in her pajamas and nestled under her fluffy red comforter, she picked up A History of Magic and started reading eagerly. Eventually, she fell asleep with the book tucked against her chest, pages down.
Ha, I haven't written anything in so long. I'm going to apologize in advance if this is rushed, I just want you guys to see how gay this is gonna get. So, so very gay. Anyway, the reason I made Thalia not go to Hogwarts until her third year is because I don't want to have to write about 11 y/o lesbians and make so many sequals 'n shit. So yeah. Thalia's lessons will probably go on for a chapter or two more (probably just a chapter because I'm lazy af). Also, updates will be really slow because school is stressful, home is stressful, social life is stressful, and my job is stressful. I'm very sorry.