It had been well over a century since Harry Potter defeated the Dark Lord. Well over a century since people have feared saying the name Voldemort aloud. Although the name registers a sense of fear in those witches and wizards, who for one reason or another was very long-lived. The group of people who had called themselves the Death Eaters were no longer in existence. Almost, if not all of them, were dead. The story of the young boy who had killed the most evil wizard alive had been told from parent to child for generations. The legend was a gripping one; of murder and betrayal, heartache and the worst sort of loss a man could ever hope to endure. Parents had even taken to naming their sons "Harry" in honor of Harry Potter.
When he had died, a statue of him had been erected in the newly rebuilt Ministry of Magic. A solid reminder that one who was pure of heart and had no desire other than to make the world a safer place, no matter what the cost, could change the world for the better. For the greater good. Of course when Harry Potter died, not only had Voldemort died with him, but the need for a champion of the people had as well.
The world was safe again for not only the Wizarding world, but for the non-magical as well. The Muggles who had been tortured and killed for the simple fact of being Muggles, or for being in the area, were now safe from evils that they could not even imagine. All thanks to the sacrifice of a seventeen-year-old boy and his two best friends.
Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ronal Weasly all played a part in the destruction of Voldemort and after his death had gone on to live normal lives and have families of their own. However, those who had been close to them had suffered great losses. Remus Lupin, a dear friend and ex-teacher of theirs had died shortly after his young wife; Nyphadora Tonks had given birth to their son Teddy. Not only had the boy grown up without parents but without a grandfather as well. Nymphadora's father, Ted Tonks, had been killed while on the run, for he was a muggle born and in the new regime that Voldemort had set into place muggle borns were considered dirt and hunted. The now corrupt Ministry thought that Muggle born witches and wizards were not truly capable of doing magic on their own. That they had stolen magical secrets from real witches and wizards, stolen their wands. This of course was completely untrue and idiotic but when a witch or wizard was found to have not magical heritage, they were considered thieves and wiped out. Unfortunately those who happened to be close to Harry, Ron, and Hermione were the first to be hunted.
Also the ones who had been close to Albus Dumbledore suffered a great price. Those who were a part of the Order of The Phoenix were targeted as well. They were seen as enemies of the Ministry of Magic and they openly opposed Voldemort. They lost their lives or had their families destroyed as well. The Weasly family lost a son and had another who had been maimed while trying to protect Harry.
But all of this sadness and bloodshed had, in the end, been worth it in the aspect that thanks to their sacrifices and help, Harry had been able to hunt down the horrible objects, the Horcruxes that Voldemort had created, making him mortal once more and able to be killed. After his death the world returned to a happy and normal peace and for many, many decades was safe.
But peace cannot last forever as history tells us. After the death of Harry Potter, his friends, and generations later after their families had died out, a new evil arose. One who, although this was thought at first to be impossible, was more evil and disturbed than Voldemort. This new evil had been born to a happy family, a loving family, by all accounts, a normal family. And he rose to power quickly.
At the age of seventeen, he had killed more people than he could even count. His name was so feared that his name wasn't even whispered by the brave as Voldemort's had been. He was simply too fearsome for anyone to attempt to speak about him. He had no followers, those would seek to ally were quickly shot down. He was the type who didn't want to share his glory with anyone. And he saw to it that after a few years, no one would try to steal his thunder ever again.
But just because there is a new generation of evil does not mean that there is not a new generation of good. There were hundreds of children born, before this new evil arose, after this new evil arose, while he was in power. And quite a few of these children went to Hogwarts School.
And it was a letter from Hogwarts that was atop the pile of mail that had come through the mail slot of a small house in the British countryside. A letter that the young girl had been excited to received for over a year. When she walked down the stairs to retrieve the mail, she saw the letter on top and let out an excited shriek of a squeal and jumped up and down in the hallway. She took the letter and ran into the sitting room where her mother and father were sitting, her father reading the Daily Prophet and her mother listening to a small radio, both had a relaxed air about them.
"Mum, Dad," she squealed, setting herself between them on the couch and pushing the paper out of her father's hands. "Look, look! It's finally come! It's here, my letter came!" she was bouncing up and down on the couch, almost knocking her father off of the couch. Both of her parents laugh and smiled.
"Delinda, sweetie calm down," her father said putting his hands on his small daughters shoulder and holding her down onto the couch. "Let me see," he took the letter from her and read the front, and made a face. "Hmmm," he opened his mouth to say something but his daughter snatched it back and tore it open.
"Don't say you think it was sent to the wrong address or they're going to put me into wizard kindergarten," she said, mimicking the joke her father was always saying to her. Her mother gave her father a disapproving look and he smiled sheepishly. Delinda poked him in the shoulder and her mother laughed and let Delinda read through the letter and then finally relinquished the paper that had the list of her schoolbooks and robes that she would need.
"Well I guess we'll have to make a trip to Diagon Alley," Delinda squealed happily and continued her bouncing on the couch. Within that hour her mother and father were dressed in their Wizarding best, her father in classy black robes that were crisp and her mother in forest green robes that set her eyes off nicely. Her mother had bought her robes a few months ago when they went to Diagon Ally, other Wizarding houses or went to visit her father at his job at the Ministry.
Delinda's mother walked over to the fireplace, where next to it in a little holder was a small flowerpot that was full of what looked to be gray ashes. Delinda had painted little flowers and houses all over the little flower pot that as full of floo powder. Her mother grabbed a handful and threw it into the fireplace and emerald green flames erupted into the fireplace. Her father was the first person to step into the fire.
"Diagon Alley," he said in a clear voice and his body swirled and vanished in the flames. Her mother ushered Delinda in next.
"Speak clearly ok sweetie," she said as her daughter cleared her throat.
"Diagon Alley," she said in a voice just as clear as her father's was. She felt her body spin like a top and she closed her eyes as fireplace after fireplace swirled past. She was starting to get nauseas when her feet finally hit the ground. She fumbled out of the fireplace and into her father. With a wave of his wand he cleaned the ash and dirt off of his daughter's robes and face and they were only waiting a few seconds before her mother erupted out of the fireplace and cleaned herself with her wand.
It was a quiet few hours as they went from store to store, buying books and robes, and then a pet. Delinda had wanted a cat for years but she fell in love with a barn owl that she saw in the window. She walked into the pet store and the owl flew down and perched itself on her shoulder and there was no doubt that she was going to leave with that owl. Its bright white moon shaped face vanished in her hair as it began to preen her and she giggled. The last thing they had to do was buy a wand.
But it was no longer Olivander whom everyone got their wands from. Having died some time ago and leaving behind no family it was a different wand maker who had a small shop in a corner in Diagon Alley. The wand maker was one of merit if not the blind praise that had been given to Olivander for his masterpieces of magic. But all the same, the wands were of great detail and with care and had never failed anyone who had purchased them.
When the small family walked into the slightly stuffy shop, they were greeted by the sight of hundreds if not thousands of wands in boxes that lined the walls from floor to ceiling and there were no doubt countless more in the room behind the counter. Delinda started to wander the store, looking at all of the boxes of varying lengths and wondered which one would be hers. Which wand would choose her for its own?
There was a shuffling of feet and behind the counter appeared a man who was barely five feet tall. With wispy white hair and a slightly frazzled expression on his smiling face the wand maker by the name of Selkin greeted the family.
"Here for your first wand?" Delinda nodded. Mr. Selkin smiled. "Eleven is a very exciting age, the day you get your wand will be a day, that I hope you will always remember," and with another smile he turned on his heel and started looking through the boxes that were stacked behind him. He trailed his fingers over each of them, looking at the number on the outside of it. He would pull one box from its space causing the row to sink a little lower, open the box and after studying it for a minute or so, would replace the lid on the box and put it back in its original column. He looked around the store for a few minutes before bringing five wands to Delinda.
She walked up and drew one box from the small pile and opened it. The wand inside was a soft brown color, flecked with gold.
"Chestnut and unicorn hair, eleven and a half inches," said Mr. Selkin. "Go ahead dear give it a wave," and she did so. A nearby lamp exploded and Delinda squeaked and immediately began apologizing but the wand maker simply smiled and told her to try another wand. It wasn't long before she had gone through all five of the wands before her and the lamp that he been repaired multiple times was once again standing in hesitant safety. Mr. Selkin disappeared into the back room.
He was gone for a quite a bit of time now, and multiple crashing could be heard before her reappeared covered in dust and a fresh bruise under his eye.
"Here, try this one," he said with a confident smile.
Delinda took the wand and smiled. It felt like an old friend in her hand and when she waved it, nothing exploded. The air simply picked up and swirled around her and ash she waved it she was moving box after box and lifting the lamp up and down. The wand was a pale brown that was darker at the handle and lightest at the very tip.
"Holly, and dragon heartstring, almost fourteen inches," he was smiling. Delinda's mother and father paid for the wand and tried to talk her into putting it back into the box until they got home but she could not be persuaded to let go of it.
When it was finally time to leave Diagon Alley her father chose to Disapperate instead of using the floo network as his arms were laden with the spoils of the days shopping trip. Delinda's mother took her daughter's hand and took her home by Side-Along-Appareation. Once home Delinda found that her father had dug out his old Hogwarts trunk and had put it in her room, her packages set on her bed.
Her parents left her to packing her trunk and setting her owl up in her room while they went into the kitchen and started dinner.
"Do you think it's safe for her to go?" her father Marcus asked. Karen, his wife, simply shrugged her shoulders.
"Hogwarts has always been the safest place for anyone really. Safer than the Ministry and safer than this house. I say we let her go and if anything too terrible starts to happen then we bring her home. I don't want to be the one to tell her she can't go to Hogwarts. She's been looking forward to it for so long," she had a pot full of boiling soup that she was stirring as she spoke and levitated it off of the stove and had it pour itself into bowls on the table as a loaf of bread set itself on the cutting board and a knife began to cut it.
"On September first we'll take her to the train station and hope that Hogwarts is still the safest place on Earth. If anything at least she'll get to see the train," and with that she called her daughter down for dinner.