Witchcraft Sunrise

By Miss Juniper Dryad

Chapter One: Graduations, Celebrations, and Explanations

When I got my letter, I had finished fifth grade just hours before. My huge family of ten strolled into the house after a small celebration for my elementary school graduation.

I was speaking with my sister when my mother tapped me on the shoulder. "Excuse me? Miss Middle School? Could you maybe find time in your busy schedule to go get the mail?"

I smiled and bounded out the door to our mail box a few minutes away.

We live on a farm and we have to walk pretty much everywhere. My mother believes that we need the exercise and the world was already warm enough without our car polluting the air.

Mother was confused at first. She had figured that I would be off to Salem in the fall. But there it was, sitting in our little mailbox.

Not knowing what it was or what I was getting into, I ran back unto the house and handed my mother the mail.

"Hold it," Mother said. I couldn't tell if she was angry or excited. "This one's for you."

She sat one of the letters in my hand. 'Emilea Sunrise, the upstairs bedroom, Sunrise Farm, Alberta, Canada' it had said. I turned it over and there was a small crest. It said 'Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus'. I gave myself a mental note to look up what that meant.

I opened the letter, ruining the wax seal, and ripped out the letter. 'Ms. Sunrise, we are please to announce that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.'

I turned to Mother. She was grinning like an absolute idiot. "What is this?" I asked her. I was genuinely confused.

"Just what it says," she smiled. "You've been accepted."

"At…" I looked down at the paper in my hands. "Hog…warts?" I read. "What is that?"

"It's a school. For witches and wizards," she said with a goofy smile.

"I'm a wizard!" I asked, shocked.

My grandmother on my father's side suddenly appeared beside me with a popping sound. "A witch, my dear. You just said you were a boy."

I remember feeling confused at first. Then rather angry at Mother for making me go to school for all these years for no reason. Then confused again.

"Okay so explain again about Father?" I said.

My grandmother told me that my father was a powerful wizard and died just after my youngest sister, Juniper, was born.

"But I was six when Junie was born. Why don't I remember him?" I asked. I was even more confused than before.

"Well, sweetheart, your father was always at work at the Ministry or in hiding because of Voldemort," my mother told me. Grandma gasped. "Oh relax, he's dead." Mother said.

"So since father was magic, I'm magic?" I asked. Then I thought of something else. "Are you magic?" I pointed my attention to my grandmother.

"I was Head Girl. A Ravenclaw Prefect," Grandma said proudly.

"I have no idea what that means," I said.

Let me explain. My name is Emilea Mae Sunrise. I have seven sisters and one brother. It's extremely hard being the oldest but there's no way of getting out of it so I have to cope.

I am eleven years old right now and I have shoulder-length blonde hair with side bangs. Also, I have just been informed that my mother is a "muggle". Am I supposed to understand?

My sister, Celeste, who is ten, is the worst part of my life. But now that I'm able to rub in her freckled face that I'm a wizard, maybe she'll be less of an annoyance. WITCH! I'm a witch. Not a wizard… must… remember!

Annabeth and Jessabelle, my dear twin sisters are in their princess phase. They're just a little over, what we call, clinically obsessed. They're nine years old and Annie is blonde while Jessie s brunette. Otherwise they're absolutely identical. It's rather confusing at times.

Next in the family comes eight-year-old Persephone. She's absolutely in love with flowers, bugs, grass, or anything to do with the outdoors. Although she's named after the Greek goddess of springtime, she can be a real thorn in your side. See what I did there? She prefers her long white-blonde hair in a pony-tail so it's out of her eyes and out of the dirt.

Loghan is next. Yes, she's a girl, and yes, she hates it when people think she's a boy because of her name, and yes, I call her a boy anyway. She has her hair short and black and she likes it that way. I don't think she realizes that her hair adds to her boyishness.

Jennessy is six. Her hair is red, like Celeste's and she pretty much tries to be exactly like me in every way. Sometimes it's annoying but sometimes it's rather flattering. Right now she's downstairs leafing through the mail. I suppose she's looking for her Pigwarts letter. HOGWARTS! HOG! REMEMBER!

Then there is my one and only brother. His name is Castor and he's starting first grade in the fall. There's not much to say about him. He's only five. He hasn't yet realized the problems with having eight sisters.

Lastly, there's four-year-old Junie. I love this kid with all my heart. She's adorable and says the cutest things. She's just learned to say her full name. Juniper Rose Sunrise. But it doesn't always come out sounding like that.

Think you can remember them all? Sometimes even I can't. It's a little difficult but you'll get used to it.