Chapter One
Bored. Bored. So, so bored. I sat at the breakfast bar between the kitchen and dining areas, swinging my legs back and forth, staring aimlessly at the clock. It was the summer holidays, so I had no work to do. However, the same couldn't be said for papa. He was holed up in his study, working on his newest idea for his company, Tohomiko Electronics. I pouted at the clock as it remained unmoved from the morning before burying my head in my arms with a groan, wishing for something, anything, to happen to spice up my day. Little did I know just what I was in for.
At the sound of the doorbell, I shot up off my seat and practically sprinted towards the front door of my mansion and wrenched it open, gleeful about the break in the monotony of my day. When I did so, it took everything I had, from the endless etiquette lessons I had been learning since I was about four, for my jaw not to drop and to refrain from staring at the strangest sight I had seen in my (almost) 11 years of life. On my doorstep stood a large, bearded man. Larger than anyone I had ever seen in my life, despite the fact that everyone looked taller to me due to my exceedingly short stature, but the reason for that is something I didn't fully understand until later.
The large man smiled at me, his brown eyes twinkling behind his unruly hair. "Hello there, Kimiko," he said, winking amicably at me. "It's been almost ten years since I last saw you. I don't suppose you'd recognise me." Looking at him, an image of a view of the countryside from the seat of a motorbike, flying through the air flashed through my minds eye. He seemed to understand what I was thinking for he chuckled.
"I suppose you're here to see papa?" I asked, stepping aside so he could enter the house. He looked even taller inside, only prevented from having to stoop by the high ceilings of my large home.
"Actually, the two of you, you particularly." I was rather shocked at this, I never got visitors. Ever. I didn't even have any friends as there wasn't anyone in the snobby private school I had gone to who was willing to look past the fact that I was rich to see the real me; no one who was a genuine friend. I showed him to the sitting room and scrambled up the stairs to fetch papa.
"Papa!" I called out upon entering his study and seeing him pouring over something on his desk. "There's a rather…uh…" I trailed off as I reached him, searching for the appropriate word to describe the man downstairs. "…wild looking man downstairs asking for us." I thought I saw a flicker of sadness in his eyes before they cleared, becoming his usual, playful hazel colour and he stood up, leading me out the door and downstairs to where the strange man was.
When we entered the room, papa's smile grew wider as he approached the strange man, whose own grin widened and they shook hands, beaming.
"It's good to see you again, Toshiro." The hairy man greeted.
"You haven't changed a bit, Hagrid." He beckoned me forward and I approached, curious. We sat around the small coffee table, papa and me each in an armchair and the man whose name I now learnt to be Hagrid, sat on the sofa. Papa glanced at me with an unreadable look in his eyes before turning back to Hagrid.
"You haven't told her yet, have you." Hagrid observed. It was more of a statement than a question but papa answered anyway, shaking his head.
"I hadn't the heart to. Especially after what happened when she was nine." I inwardly winced at the memory. I had found out the reason for mama's death, she died of a pre-natal illness and I had to be born four and a half months prematurely via C-section. I had blamed myself, rationalising it by saying that if she hadn't been pregnant with me, she would still be alive. I ran away from home, intending to commit suicide, again justified by 'I don't deserve to live'. I went to the busiest street in Tokyo but before I could go through with it, I saw papa, frantically asking anyone he saw if they had seen me. I realised that I was all papa had left and it would be selfish of me to leave him alone, but, ironically, I was knocked down by a drunk driver, spending months in the hospital. And it wasn't the first time I spent extended periods of time in the hospital. Due to my premature birth, I had to stay in an incubator in the ICU for the first year of my life and the first time papa was ever able to hold me was my first birthday. My health is also pretty fragile due to the premature birth as well as my short stature and so I was in and out of the hospital for many infections and what would be insignificant illnesses in a 'normal' child. I had also been kidnapped once, when I was five, and held for ransom for papa's money and ended up in the hospital with a gunshot wound to the abdomen. But that is another story.
Hagrid nodded in understanding before turning to me, producing a letter with my name written on the front of the thick envelope in a spidery hand and green ink.
"This will explain the basics and if you have any questions…" he trailed off, eyes shifting to papa and mine followed but they both simply nodded to the letter which I took apprehensively.
I opened it to find more sheets of the same heavy paper written in the same spidery green ink. "Dear Miss Tohomiko, We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry…" I trailed off in wonder, gawking at the writing in front of me. A school of magic? I was accepted? "I-is this a joke?"
"No, Kimiko," papa smiled reassuringly at me, eyes crinkling the way they used to when he would talk to me about mama and her family when I was little. "You're a witch, as was your mother and her parents came from wizarding families themselves. They all attended Hogwarts and now it's your turn." I looked to Hagrid for confirmation and he nodded again, eyes twinkling merrily.
"It's true. I'm Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." He offered his huge hand and I shook it, well, he engulfed my hand in his and shook it. A smile slowly spread its way across my face as I realised the implications of what they had just said. I was a witch. And, in September (which was really only tomorrow), I'd be going to a school for young witches and wizards. I looked through the rest of the papers in the envelope and found a book list and a list of equipment.
"Uh…where can we buy all this?" I looked from one to the other, raising an eyebrow disbelievingly at the two. "I highly doubt I can just walk into any shop on the high street and buy wizarding school supplies."
"Well, there is a street called Diagon Alley which we can go to." Papa answered, now looking slightly disheartened. "But it, like the school is in England." I nearly choked on my own spit at this. England! All the way on the other side of the world, England! Yeah, sure I've travelled around the world before and I'm sure I've been to England at some point but that was with papa when he was travelling for business. I've never been away on my own before, mostly due to papa's overprotective nature after my not-so-innocent childhood. "I know, Kimiko, it's very far but it's a boarding school and it will mean that you won't be left alone while I work and you can choose to visit during the holidays if you'd like." I nodded.
"Right, well, we'd best get going if we're going to get to Diagon Alley today." Hagrid stood up, his head almost reaching the ceiling and I ran to grab a coat and shoes before we headed out to our private jet.
I just couldn't replace Hagrid - he's irreplacable!
