Hi Guys! This is my mega-project that has been floating in my head for years. It may sound a little slow to begin with, but please, give it a chance and let me know what you think!
I always walked back home from school alone. Mum and Dad trusted me enough to get home – two streets away – safely. I loved the solitude and used to let my imagination run wild during the ten-minute long walk. It was the last day of school, and I realized I would have to find something to do for the next two months. Last year, Belle had bought me a camera, which I still used. Even now, it was tucked into my rucksack, with a bunch of photos I'd taken earlier that day, of my classmates and teacher, Mrs. Jones.
The Cooper family lived near Surrey, in a house which was built by my grandparents after their wedding. My Dad, Samuel Cooper was a detective for the local police, and my Mum, Angela ran her family jewelry shop. My sister, Isabelle, was eighteen, and we were really close. Me? I'm just Ayesha Cooper, year 6, the weird nerdy girl. I was way too short for my age, had clear blue eyes and dark curls which wouldn't even go away when my hair was dripping wet.
I decided to stop by the library on my way home. Entering the old building, I took a second to breathe in the smell of books around me – one of my favourite smells, after Mum's chocolate pudding and freshly fallen leaves. I looked around, smiling at the librarian, Mrs. Reynolds before heading towards the books. As always, I closed my eyes and felt my way around the shelves, before stopping at a random one.
Languages. I'd been meaning to pick up a French book since I saw that cute French couple at the shop a few weeks back. Picking out a beginner's French book, I retraced my steps to the checkout desk and handed over the book to Mrs. Reynolds, the old librarian.
"School over for the summer?" Mrs. Reynolds enquired conversationally. People said she was a bit crazy, but I never thought so. She wore these huge glasses and walked around with a walking stick.
"Yes, I'll be around more often now," I grinned at her. "Lots to read!"
"We're always open for you, dear. And feel free to come by and play with Adeline if you want." Adeline was her eight year old daughter.
"Thanks, Mrs. Reynolds!" I put the book in my rucksack and stepped away from the desk. "Say hi to her for me!"
"Will do!"
I went home after that, jumping over the fence and letting myself in through the back door. Quietly tiptoeing through the house, I put my rucksack on the table before heading towards the front of the house where –
"Is that you, Ayesha?"
"MUM!" I wailed, stomping my foot. "How do you always hear me?"
Mum just smiled at me, like always, her head appearing from between the curtains drawn around her office, with her sparkling green eyes. "There are sandwiches in the fridge, if you're hungry. Try not to make a mess this time," she added, for safety, before retreating back to her office. "I'll be done in about an hour!"
"I never make a mess!"
Later that night, after Dad got home and we finished dinner – Isabelle had warned us she would be late – we were just sitting in the living room. Mum and Dad were chatting about their respective day and I'd just opened up the French book after arranging my photographs when the doorbell rang. Mum went to open it.
"Good evening, Mrs. Cooper. My name is Pomona Sprout. I would like to speak to you and your family, if it's not too much trouble."
I looked up to see Mum inviting in a plump woman. She had a kind face, one which seemed to smile all the time. She was wearing a green sort of dress which went down past her ankles. I saw Dad stand and greet her as she entered the sitting room, and got up myself, hoping to escape with my book.
"Hello, Miss Cooper," the woman said with a kind smile.
"Hello," I said, nervously, trying to smile back. "Umm... I'll be in the kitchen, Mum."
"Actually, would you mind staying here? It'll be so much easier to explain."
So we all sat down and waited for her – I decided to call her Weird Dress lady – to speak.
"I am a Professor at Hogwarts School, where Ayesha has been accepted to study."
I looked nervously at Mum and Dad. Did they put my name up for a new school without even telling me? And what kind of a name was Hogwarts?
"And what school is this, may I ask?" Dad said. "We didn't apply to any new schools for Ayesha. She's already been accepted for her secondary schooling."
"Her name has been down for our school since she was born," she said. "Let me explain."
We waited for her explanation, so she continued.
"I am a professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
Witchcraft? Wizardry? "Pardon?" I asked Weird Dress Lady, trying to be as polite as possible.
She smiled. "Hogwarts is a school for Magic."
Magic. Oh please.
"Magic? That's preposterous!" Dad said.
"Magic isn't real," I informed her. Now her name was Crazy Weird Dress Lady. "That's just in fairy tales."
"I can assure you, magic is real. Tell me, Ayesha, have there been times where you've done something you couldn't explain? When you were feeling happy, or angry, maybe?"
I thought over this. But before I could say anything, Mum answered her question.
"When - when she was a baby, she would just reach out and her toys used to fly to her. I saw it happen twice," Mum whispered. "I thought my mind was playing tricks."
My mouth fell open at this revelation, and soon I thought of another thing.
"When I play hide and seek in school, sometimes I find myself in places I don't know. Like that time, I was running in the playground and then suddenly I was in the cafeteria."
The woman - Sprout, she said? - smiled. "That was you doing magic."
"I can do magic?" I asked in wonder.
"Hold on," Dad shook his head. "I still don't understand you. Magic?"
The woman smiled again as she took out something from her pocket. It was a long stick, and she pointed it to the fireplace. A warm fire blazed in it immediately, and no sooner was it there that she pointed her wand at it again and it was gone. She then pointed at the coffee table, on which a bowl of colourful stones were placed. The stones jumped out the bowl, forming a conga line, covering the entire table before jumping back into the bowl.
"Wow," I whispered.
"So, magic is real?" Dad said, still shocked by what we just saw. "Our daughter can do magic?"
"Yes, she can," the woman said patiently. "She's young, so she can't control it. At Hogwarts, we teach you to how to use your magic, how to be a part of the magical community. By the time you are seventeen, you will have completed seven years of study. Hogwarts is the only Wizarding School in Britain, and one of the best in the world."
"So you're a professor there?" Mum asked warily.
"Yes, I teach Herbology."
There was a small silence.
"Professor?" I asked timidly.
She smiled again, indicating me to continue.
"If I can do magic, why can't Mum and Dad do it? Or Isabelle?"
"You are Muggle-born," she explained, "as in, born to a non-magical family. It's a very common occurrence. Sometimes only one child is magical, but there are families where all the children are magical but muggle parents."
"Does that make a difference?" Mum asked.
She hesitated. "No, it does not," she said finally. "Children born into magical families may know about magic and have been around magic since their childhood, but once you are in school, everyone is treated equally. There have been times when Muggle-borns have been more successful than other children."
Me? Magical? Even though I still didn't completely believe her, I was dying to find out more.
"You will have to decide whether Ayesha will be attending Hogwarts or not," the professor continued, taking out a letter from deep within her dress. "This letter has a list of supplies and books which you will require. Normally, the procedure would be for us to decide a day on which I would have taken you to Wizarding London, but there is a witch living nearby who is willing to help."
My eyes, which were focused entirely on the letter that she had placed on the table, darted back to her. "Really? There's a witch here? Who?"
"Corinne Reynolds. She works at the local library."
"Mrs. Reynolds? She knows about magic? And she knows I'm a - a witch?"
The professor laughed. "Yes, she does. She knows that you are a witch, Ayesha. She turned to my parents. "I would advise you to talk to her. It may be helpful."
She left soon after, with a cheerful goodbye. I opened the letter, which was written by the Deputy Headmistress, Professor M. McGonagall.
Mum and Dad were talking in hushed tones. I could tell they were discussing what had just happened.
"She's barmy..."
"So the stones decided to dance for no reason then?"
"But magic? Be reasonable, Ange..."
"I think we should have a chat with Mrs. Reynolds."
We left for the library in ten minutes. I still had the letter clutched in my hands.
"Ayesha?" Mrs. Reynolds was just leaving the library after locking up for the day.
The only answer I gave was to put the letter in her hand.
"Oh..." she smiled as she saw the envelope. "Well, let's not just stand here and wait for the Nargles to get us."
September the 1st came by quickly. I spent most of the summer trying to get Mrs. Reynolds to tell me about Hogwarts. Whenever I asked, pestered, downright demanded, she would just smile and offer me more cookies. She would tell Mum and Dad, but not me.
"Hogwarts is something which you should experience yourself, Ayesha," she would always say.
After many debates, arguments and discussions, we finally agreed that I would go to Hogwarts. We sent Mrs. Reynolds's owl - owl post? Seriously? - with the confirmation.
Mrs. Reynolds's daughter, Adeline, who was three years younger than me, also knew next to nothing about Hogwarts. Since her mother was the secretive type, and her father wasn't magical - or, as I've been told, was a Muggle - she knew very little about magic.
In the first week of August, we went to Diagon Alley to buy everything I would need. We came back home with books full of moving pictures, black robes and a pointy hat, gold and silver coins, a cauldron, ingredients for potions classes and my favourite, a baby snowy owl. I decided to call her Bonnie, a name I had picked for the baby sister I always imagined I would have one day.
I also got my wand. It took almost two hours to find me the right wand - the owner, Mr. Ollivander was beside himself with joy as he offered me half the wands in his shop. He had narrowed down my wood type to rowan, sycamore and spruce before trying red oak with a unicorn tail core. This wand seemed to cooperate; it produced golden stars when I waved it.
September the 1st came by quickly, but not fast enough for me. By the time we were at King's Cross Station, I had read through all the books in my trunk and learnt Latin as well. I figured it might be useful, since most of the spells in Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1 seemed to use Latin.
"Here we are," Mrs. Reynolds stopped on the platform, in front of a pillar.
"Platform 9 3/4," she pointed at the pillar. "Now, Ayesha, you can go through, but," she turned to my parents, "when you want to go through without Ayesha, or anyone magical accompanying you, you have to meet that man standing behind the pillar."
I waited as the three of them met with the wizard, a jovial man who introduced himself as Dedalus Diggle. While they were talking, I saw a boy, not older than myself, with messy black hair and glasses pushing a trolley with an owl on it. I watched curiously as he and his parents leaned against the pillar. The boy was looking at my owl. Just before disappearing, he caught my eye and grinned.
"Can we go now, please?" I asked impatiently as they kept chatting with Diggle. "It's going to be eleven soon!"
"Go on, then," Mrs. Reynolds said with a smile. "Let's go together."
The four of us leaned against the pillar, like I had seen that boy doing, and suddenly, we were falling across it as if it wasn't there. I had closed my eyes, and when I opened them, the most incredible sight was awaiting me.
"Wonderful, isn't it?" I heard Mrs. Reynolds say behind me.
A whole platform was suddenly in front of me, complete with a steaming red train. People were bustling around everywhere, more crowded than King's Cross was at the moment. There were kids, some like me, some older. Almost all the adults were wearing robes, and those who weren't were looking uncomfortable – either they rarely wore normal clothes or the rarely came to the wizarding world.
"I didn't know a pillar could hold so many people!"
I heard Mrs. Reynolds chuckle.
"Now you be a good girl, Ayesha," Mum hugged me tightly. "Learn lots, make new friends and stay safe."
"Get into trouble. That's more important. And don't get caught!" Dad said from behind her.
"Sam!" Mum let go of me to glare at him.
"Don't worry, Mum, I'll behave," I grinned, stepping forward to give Dad a hug. "Or not," I whispered into his ear.
He chuckled. "Have fun, Princess."
I got onto the train and Dad pushed my trunk in after me. Not wanting to say goodbye immediately, I waited there until the train started chugging away, and all I could do was wave to Mum and Dad, and my old life.
Mrs. Reynolds
I quietly closed the door to the house. I had been invited over for tea after their daughter left, and I accepted, but when they asked me to stay for lunch I made an excuse and left.
Walking down the path to the street, I remembered the first time I saw the child. Barely two weeks old, a tiny little thing. Her parents had brought her out to the park with her sister. Even then, I knew she was magical. She had a strong aura about her that wouldn't go away.
A few months had passed before I realized we never saw more of the child. As a witch, I was able to spot what was wrong. The child was gifted, talented, but she was born to parents who were yet to understand it. I finally had to call in the Ministry of Magic.
As I walked up the street towards my home, I tried again to convince myself that I had done the right thing. They cursed the poor child, they cursed her family to forget, thanked me for bringing the problem to their attention, and left.
Just as I was about to turn left into the alley that would take me home quicker than the main street, my hand, tucked away in my pocket, brushed against a letter.
A letter that I had written over a thousand times in my head, but just once on paper, because that was all it took. I never thought a Hufflepuff like me would have the courage to owl it. But I knew, if I didn't do it today, the letter would never leave my pocket.
So I walked into the alley and disapparated, appearing with a pop in front of the Leaky Cauldron. Making my way across the crowded pub, I finally reached Diagon Alley, where my destination was the post office.
Just as I was about to tie the letter to the barn owl's leg, I hesitated. Even though I didn't need to see it to remember, I opened it.
Professor Dumbledore
My name is Corinne Reynolds. I wanted to confess to something I did a long time ago, concerning a new student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Her name is Ayesha Cooper.
Unable to go on, I resealed the letter, tied it to the owl's leg and sent it off.