Nova's POV

I was eating breakfast when the owl flew through the window. It was a majestic snowy owl with a collar that had a sort of shield on it. My father walked over and took the mail, gave the owl a snack and at once it flew off. I knew what the mail was just from the owl. It had come from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, so that meant it was my sister's acceptance letter. My father hid the envelopes once he saw my sister yawning at the top of the stairs. She had her blonde hair tied up in a messy pony tail and she nearly tripped as she fell down the stairs; she did not like mornings. I, however, was always up early to the smell of bacon and eggs cooking in the kitchen.

Once we had all finished our breakfast, and my sister was feeling more awake, the envelope appeared in my father's hands again. He slid the envelope across to my sister who sleepily opened it. I read it over her shoulder; it was the acceptance letter to Hogwarts.

I should probably explain who my family is. My father is Xenophilius Lovegood and my sister's name is Luna. My mother died when I was seven years old - Luna and I saw the accident.

Back at the breakfast table, Luna was jumping around holding the piece of parchment to her chest. I knew she had wanted to go to Hogwarts ever since she first heard about the school in one of Father's magazines. We used to play pretend school and have classes run by a toy cat or a paper cut out of a person.

Luna finally calmed down and sat back down, much more awake than she was before. Suddenly another envelope appeared in front of me. I was confused; I was only ten years old. The envelope looked the same as Luna's. I opened it carefully, thinking it might be some sort of joke, but as I read it, I realised this was no joke.

Miss Nova Lovegood,

You have been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We have decided you should be let in this year, with your sister, as you just make the age requirement.

Those first two sentences made my day and it was only morning.

For the first time in my life I actually squealed. I showed the letter to Luna and soon we were both jumping around and getting really excited about going to magic school, together. The letters arrived one month before my birthday and I always thought that was the cut-off date, 31st of July. Now turning 11 on the 31st August is good enough for me to get to go a year earlier than I thought.

One week later my father took Luna and I to Diagon Alley. I had never been to anywhere so mesmerising in my life. There were witches and wizards walking down the street in robes and hats, with magical items, some of which I had never seen.

There had always been magic in our house, with our parents being a witch and wizard, but we couldn't be too obvious about our magical powers in case any muggles happened to be around. Here everything was magical.

Sparks were whizzing around in every window display, cats mewed at us from their cages, the food was cooking itself and books were turning their own pages. It seemed strange to me that all this magic was being used out in the open, with no fear of muggles. I knew my father had been here before, to pick up some magical supplies, but I never had. It was that moment I realised why he never took me, even though I begged to go. He wanted my first trip to be special; he wanted this whole place to be special to my sister and me.

Our day in Diagon Alley was wonderful! My school robes looked great on me; all the books seemed so interesting, even the cauldron shopping seemed special. The joy in having a wand choose me was nothing like I had ever experienced. It took me a couple of tries to get the perfect one, but it was worth it. My wand was made of oak with a core of dragon heart-strings. It was slightly springy (the wand must have known I had nearly broken delicate things in the past) and 13 inches long.

The highlight of the day for me, was the last shop; Eeylop's Owl Emporium.

The shop was full of every owl; black, snowy, brown, speckled and so many more. I spent longer in there than any other shop there, and trust me; my robe fitting took a while. My father had told me I could get an owl for school and I was so excited. Luna didn't want a pet, she would be allowed to borrow my owl, but she was more interested in magical items than pets. I wanted a friendly owl, not one that would snap at me; the large black ones seemed to be snappy. I wanted an owl that would be recognisable as mine; a lot of kids bought snowy owls, so I didn't want one of those. After a long time I found the perfect owl for me, it had mostly light brown feathers with dark brown and black specks. It looked up at me with her yellow eyes and seemed to coo as a reached out to stroke her feathers.

"This one" I said, still looking at the owl, but my father heard me and understood what I meant. He called the shopkeeper over to our corner of the shop and paid for my pet.

I held the cage she came in close to me all the way home. Some of the muggles we passed looked at me a bit strangely, but mostly ignored me. She was a very quiet owl, so she didn't draw much attention.

When we got home we hung the cage from my ceiling so the cage swung in the middle of my room. I lay on my bed watching her eat and become orientated with her new home. The only trouble I had with her was what to name her. Went through the names of all my friends, but a human name didn't seem to fit her. I went through every other name, from inanimate objects to plants, before laying down on my bed in frustration.

A little brown bird landed on the windowsill of my open window. I looked at it, but it wasn't looking at me, it was looking at my owl. They seemed to be mimicking each other's actions and making sounds towards each other. I laughed, as it looked so funny, two birds, one so much smaller than the other, yet looking so similar. I recognised the bird as a wren, and that was when it hit me.

"Wren!" I shouted, probably to my owl. I made her a little name tag with a bell and hung it around her neck, relieved that she had been named and glad the name suited her so well.

My birthday was spent packing my trunk for school; I didn't want to forget anything. I got to choose my last home-cooked dinner, which was pretty much a buffet of every food I loved. The day after my birthday, the 1st of September, I took my trunk and owl cage down to the station, in plenty of time. I knew the train wouldn't leave for another twenty minutes. Running through the wall barrier was one of the strangest sensations of my life; and I was scared to do it at first, but seeing the scarlet train made it all worth it. Luna and I said good-bye to our father and hurried to the train, constantly talking about what sort of adventures we would have at Hogwarts.