Hello, thanks for stopping by! So basically i wrote some Harry Pottery stuff during the holidays to help me improve my writing, and i figured that i could post the first couple of parts so that anyone who finds themselves able to suffer through it without falling asleep can give me some tips/opinions :)

Its set in the 19 years later time of Harry Potter, so if i post any more it will feature second gen characters.

It started on a Thursday morning, two days after Dani's eleventh birthday. She was sitting idily at the kitchen table, twirling a strand of her curly brown hair around her finger, while half listening to Elinor, her mother, complain about one of her coworkers- again.

"I mean that woman!" Dani heard between mouthfuls of toast, "I work ten times harder than she does,- what did i ever get"

Dani rolled her eyes and stared behind her mother's frustrated face at the front door, which her eight year old sister Rose, still in her dressing gown, had emerged from, holding a pile of letters in her hand.

"He even let her leave early, she's not married, no, nothing like that. Couldn't be more obvious though! They are both scumbags. I've stressed about that promotion for how long? If she ends up getting it!"

"Morning everyone!" Rose interrupted her mother's complaints by shoving a pile of letters down beside her, which was greeted with a, "oh great, what now"

"Sorry Mum," Rose replied with a smile, "I'd love to hear more about that another time" She then turned to Dani who was stifling a giggle, "theres something here for you too," and she thrust a strange-looking envelope on Dani's empty plate.

"What?" Dani said, looking down at her plate. She didnt have any pen pals, and she was pretty sure she had received all the birthday cards she was going to get(Elinor had pissed off most of her side of the family a few years ago, and they still weren't speaking to any of them)

Dani picked the letter up curiously. It was definitely strange, it was made of a thick, old-looking material, and it even had an old fashioned seal holding it together, something she had only seen in school textbooks. She turned it over again, examining the green writing on the front.

Danielle Jane Ellwood

The downstairs bedroom

Hampton Hill

London

Well, it was definitely addressed to her, but it didn't provide her with any clues as to where it might have come from.

"Someone sent something to me," Dani said, looking over at Elinor, who was staring at the bill in her hand with a look of utter loathing, as if it had just offended her.

"What"

Dani passed the unopened envelope to her mother, who raised an eyebrow when she examined it, before handing it back and saying, "advertisers sure are getting creative these days"

"Let me see!"

Before Dani had a chance to react, Rose had snatched the letter from Dani's hand, and was reading the green address on the front.

"The downstairs bedroom?" She asked, turning to Dani

"Dont ask me."

"Weird," Rose remarked, and passed it back..

Dani sighed, and turned back to the strange envelope. Slowly, she broke the seal, and pulled out the sheet of..parchment?...out of the envelope, and started to read.

Dear Miss Ellwood

After that day, things got a lot more peculiar. For starters, her father, Markus, had actually bothered to drive up from his apartment in midtown, although her mother was doing her best to pretend he wasn't there. Her parents had been divorced ever since Dani was seven, and to be perfectly honest, she didn't know why they ever got married in the first place. Markus was from italy, and was a bit too carefree for his own good. Elinor was business like and hard-working, even though she caused most of the stress that she was always telling anyone who was listen about. Dani didn't look much like either of them. She was small and skinny, with long curly brown hair, slightly tanned skin, and pale green eyes. She was glad of this, as Dani had never felt that she was like either of them.

Then, a woman dressed in strange clothes showed up at the door, although there was no car, and Dani had not seen her come down the street. Although old, she carried herself with a natural grace, and her stare made Dani feel as though she had done something wrong, despite the fact that all she had done was sit on the edge of the living room sofa and shake hands, through her warm smile made her feel a little better. The woman, Minerva McGonagall, talked to her parents, and to her, saying some very strange things, most of which seemed to concern Dani.

"Hogwarts is a school for magic, which lets young witches and wizards such as Danielle learn to control their abilities, and put it to good use. I believe she has already received her acceptance letter?"

"Um, yeah" Dani replied, unsure of what else she was supposed to say.

"School starts in september," McGonagall continued, "Someone from the ministry of magic can come to help Danielle get what she needs. Part of the agreement Hogwarts has with the ministry for cases like this is that you much agree not to disclose this to other members of the non magical community,"

She continued on like this for a while, though Dani started to lose track of what she was saying, as Mcgonagall was talking very fast, and Dani was having trouble keeping up with it all. After a while however, she heard McGonagall say, "Now, i would like to talk to Danielle alone, if that is alright."

Dani watched her very bewildered looking parents leave the room. They seemed to have forgotten their problems with one another for the moment, as they were muttering to each other furiously.

"So, Miss Ellwood"

Dani turned her head away from the door to look into McGonagall's face.

"I understand this might be a little sudden to you. If you have any questions, now is the time to ask them"

A little sudden was an understatement, and though Dani was bursting with things she didn't understand, she had no idea where to begin. Eventually she stammered, "I-Im a witch?"

"Yes," McGonagall answered shortly, "As am I, and many others. The magical community is very large and widespread"

"But," Dani burst out, "How can I be a witch? What does that even mean? And Hogwar-um, the school, I didn't apply for it!"

"Your name has been down for Hogwarts ever since you were born. And a witch or wizard is the name given to people who have magical abilities"

"Magical abilities!?"

About an hour later, after the strange woman had left, Dani went downstairs to her bedroom, her head spinning. She still wasn't entirely convinced any of it was real. She only realized it once she had stared out the window at the gradually darkening sky that any of it started to make any kind of sense to her. Magic was detected in children early, McGonagall had told her, usually when they are particularly scared or angry. Although Dani never really thought about it, she had been able to do strange things. Move objects without touching them, make things she had broken fix themselves right before the angry owner came. She smiled to herself as she remembered the day that the horrible pink hat that Elinor had tried to make her wear for a wedding had spontaneously burst into flames in the kitchen(Elinor wrote a strongly worded complaint to the hat company.)
There were others like her, people who would attend the school too. Dani had friends at her school, but only a few, and none of them were planning on going to Eastern Springs, the local school that Dani was enrolled in. She thought about it for a while, and read her letter over and over.

Witches and wizards, she thought, shaking her head, Hogwarts, a school to learn magic. Magic wands and flying broomsticks. What's next-dragons?

Her parents were very nice about the ordeal the next morning, although Elinor had gone back to her usual habit of pretending Markus didn't exist.

"You dont have to go," They reminded her a few times, "She was very clear on that. You can go to East Springs if you want Dani."

They looked at Dani expectantly, and Dani pretended to think about it. Truthfully though, she had thought about it all night, and her going to East Springs seemed very far away. For the first time in a long time, Dani actually felt excited about something.

"No," Dani said eventually, looking her parents in the face, "I want to go."

And that was it.