In a small town near London, there was a somewhat run-down old house. Having been built in the Victorian era, it was quite large, as was the style of the time. Despite its size, the inhabitants tended to find it… a bit crowded.
The house was an orphanage, you see. It was called "Miss Evermott's Home For Orphaned Children." As you might imagine, it was owned and run by a woman named Gertrude Evermott, or "Miss Evermott" to the twenty-five children living under her roof.
Each bedroom for the children had its own colour, and each of the four children living in each room were given the same surname. The first room was painted a garish green, and housed the four oldest girls: Hannah, Moira, Jessie, and Penny Greene. The next room over was orange, and housed the four oldest boys: Adam, Michael, Thomas, and Walter Ashe. In the blue room lived Lucy, Ivy, Ruby, and Sarah Banks. Next to them, in the red room was Jacob and Henry Blair, and the twins, Daniel and Dominic. Then there was the pink room, with Lizzie, Marie, Grace, and May Brooks, and the yellow room, with Clark, Rory, Edward, and Arthur Chase. If you count, that leaves one more child: Melody Twist, the girl in the attic.
Melody had lived under Miss Evermott's care since she was a baby. You might expect there to be some affection between them in that case, but there was none. Instead, there was only resentment. Miss Evermott got fairly large sums of money when she adopted off one of her orphans, so the seemingly unadoptable Melody Twist was little more than an expense without a purpose. As a result, she became the Cinderella of the house, forced to clean and cook for the rest of orphans, only given a single pair of threadbare clothes, and made to live in the tiny, dusty attic, with only the spiders as companions. She had no friends outside the orphanage, or even inside for that matter. She did have one once, before an unfortunate incident. After being expelled from three schools "causing bodily and mental harm to other students," as her teachers said, Melody was supposed to be home schooled, though she received no instruction. She had to learn on her own after her ever-expanding list of chores was done for the day.
Luckily for Melody, today's list was short. Cook breakfast, check. Wash dishes, check. Clean the oven, check. Laundry, check. Clean everyone's rooms, check, checkity check. All that remained was cleaning the floors and polishing Miss Evermott's beloved silver spoons. The eleven-year-old was crouched on her hands and knees, scrubbing diligently at the hardwood floor of the dining room with a worn-out brush. She loathed this work, and she resented Miss Evermott and most of the other orphans, but she worked herself to the bone anyway, in hopes that they'd leave her alone.
That day had yet to come, however. Someone came and kicked over her bucket of soapy water, spilling it all over the floor and on her. Melody yelped in surprise, and looked up to see Michael, Jessie, and Moira grinning meanly down at her.
"What're you staring' at, Twist?" Michael sneered, "You should be cleaning' up that mess you've made, not looking' at my handsome face." Moira and Jessie snickered, both at Melody and at Michael. He thought he was the most handsome guy in the world, but with his fat, pockmarked cheeks, crooked teeth, and frizzy brown hair, he was far from it.
As much as she wanted to throw the brush at Michael's face, Melody restrained herself. "I'll go get some towels." She stood up and turned around, only to be kicked back down to the ground.
"You don't turn your back to me unless I say you can, you little freak!" The older boy grabbed Melody's long red hair and pulled it. "That's all you are, isn't it? You're nothing but a little freak. Hey, girls, did you hear why this little freak here got expelled from all those schools?"
"No," Moira giggled and played along, "Tell us!"
"I heard she threw a kid out of second-storey window at her first school. The kid almost died, or at least that's how the story goes. And at the second one, didn't you try to strangle three kids to death? And what happened at the last school? Oh, that's right. You made a rabid dog attack an older student." Michael laughed and threw her down. "And who could forget when you lit your friend Annie on fire five years ago? You're just a little psychotic freak, aren't you?"
"Those things were accidents. They weren't my fault. Besides, it's not like you're one to talk," Melody scoffed. She was done with holding back. "I'm not the sixteen-year-old who likes to peep in on seven-year-old girls!"
"Shock and rage showed openly on Michael's ugly face. "Wha- How did you-?!"
"Nothing happens in this house without me knowing about it," Melody smirked, "I know all those little secrets Miss Evermott doesn't know about. Hey, Moira, that man you keep sneaking out to see, who is he again? Mr. Peterson up the street, right? I'll bet his wife really likes you. And Jessie, what would Miss Evermott do if she knew about what you do on the weekends?" Their expressions were absolutely priceless. "If you're nice to me, I won't tell."
"You little brat! Are you blackmailing us?!"
"You could call it that."
"Melody Twist!" a harsh, cold, older voice snapped from the stairs, "Have you finished everything I told you to do today?"
"No, Miss Evermott," Melody replied meekly. There was only one person she couldn't stand up to, and it was the aging broomstick of a woman glaring down at her.
She eyed the spilled water on the floor like it was a dead rat. "What's that?"
"The bucket spilled, Miss."
"And you haven't cleaned it up?"
Melody cringed and was suddenly very interested in the backs of her hands. "I was just about to get a towel, Miss."
"Then get to it, Twist!" Miss Evermott kicked Melody towards the kitchen and walked away surely attending to some "critical business" of some sort.
Melody scrambled up and rushed off through the kitchen into the laundry room. She opened up a cupboard and reached for a worn-out old cleaning rag. She froze upon spotting the tiny brown spider perched on the towel. "Oh, I'm sorry! I almost crushed you! I didn't see you there," she apologised to the brown recluse.
"It's quite alright, dear," the spider said back, "The old nag has you cleaning again, has she?"
"I had to clean all the floors and Michael knocked over the bucket."
"I hate how that little beast of a boy treats you. Would you like me to bite him for you?"
Melody shook her head, "No thanks, Felicity. He may be a brat, but I don't want to hurt anybody. You're a brown recluse. Your bite can be deadly, you know that."
"Ever the saint, aren't you?" the little spider mused, "They treat you terribly, yet you never seem to want to hurt them back."
"If I did, that would make me just like them."
"You never cease to amaze me, sweet girl. Come here, let me ride on your shoulder."
Melody held her hand out for her arachnid friend to climb up. The little spider crawled up by Melody's neck, the same spot she always sat in when Melody carried her. Melody pulled out a manky old towel and returned to the dining room to clean up the spilled water. To her relief, nobody was waiting for her. It didn't take very long and she moved on to polishing the silver in just a few minutes.
It was one of the few chores Melody enjoyed somewhat, since she was allowed to work up in the attic. She sat on her threadbare blanket tediously rubbing bluish paste against Miss Evermott's silverware. "I want to see my face in every spoon!" she quietly mimicked Miss Evermott's harsh, nasal voice. Felicity snickered and hummed a tune for Melody while she worked. Some of the other spiders in the attic joined in, creating an almost magical ambiance for their favourite human. She rubbed the polish on, then rubbed it off, on, then off, on, off, on, off. Over and over again until she was interrupted by a sharp tapping sound. It took a moment, but Melody realised it was coming from the tiny round window at the end of the attic right above where she slept. She turned around, and to her surprise, she saw a small brown owl knocking on the glass with its talons and carrying an envelope in its beak. Melody unlatched the window and swung it open, and the owl fluttered in.
The plump little bird set down the envelope in front of Melody and spoke, "Ah, thank you very much, Miss. I was worried I'd have to enter through the chimney. Horribly unpleasant those things, absolutely covered with coal dust most of the time! Nightmare on the lungs."
"You can talk?" Melody asked in surprise, having never talked to anything other than spiders.
"Of course I can talk!" the owl replied as if it were common knowledge. "It's more surprising that you can understand me."
"Right... If you don't mind, why are you here?"
"Oh!" the owl ruffled its feathers, "Pardon me! I'm here to deliver this letter to Miss Melody Twist, living at miss Evermott's Home for Orphaned Children, The Attic," it read off the address written in emerald ink on the envelope. "Oh! We're in the attic! Are you Miss Twist, then?" Melody just nodded slowly in confusion. "Then take it, take it!" The owl nudged to envelope to Melody, who picked it up hesitantly.
"But... I'm not allowed to open mail."
"This letter is yours. Open it! Open it!"
Felicity piped in, "I agree with the bird. You should open it, Melody."
"Alright, if you say so, Felicity." Melody broke the seal on the other side of the envelope and pulled out the piece of dry parchment inside. She unfolded it and read it out loud, "Dear Miss Twist, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at... Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? What's that?"
"Only the finest school of magic in the world!" the owl fluffed its feathers up again, "Haven't you heard of it?"
"There's no way it exists," Melody denied, "There's no such thing as magic."
The owl sputtered, "No such thing-?! But Miss Twist, you can talk to owls!"
"And spiders," Felicity added.
"Right, and spiders. And haven't you made 'things' happen that nobody could explain? 'Things' that you just wished into happening?"
Melody thought about it, and the incidents in her past fit the owl's description perfectly. "So that's what was happening all those times."
"See? You're a witch, Miss Twist!"
In truth, Melody liked the idea of going off to a far-away school and learning to use magic, but it was outrageous! Even if this place really existed and was magically hidden away somewhere, she had no way to get there or buy school supplies, or even the slightest clue where to go. And if she did, Miss Evermott would never let her leave. "I don't think I can go," Melody apologised, "Sorry. I'm not allowed to go to school, or even to leave the orphanage. So-"
The trapdoor into the attic suddenly flew open with a loud bang. To Melody's terror, an angry Miss Evermott stormed in. "Melody Twist!" The girl quickly hid her Hogwarts letter under her blanket and tried to look as submissive as possible "I just was in the kitchen, and-" She gasped in abhorrence and pointed at the owl. "What is that little beast doing in here?!"
"I'm sorry, Miss Evermott! I let it in," Melody apologised, cowering in fear.
"You brought vermin into my house?!"
"No! It flew in through the window! I was just about to send it out, I swear!" Melody was silenced with a sharp slap across her cheek. She fell to the wooden floorboards with a loud thud, clutching her red, stinging cheek. Miss Evermott's long nails left three particularly painful lines in her skin, making her eyes water in pain.
Miss Evermott started kicking the girl, jabbing her pin heels between Melody's ribs. "You filthy, disgusting brat! I take you in and you repay me by bringing foul beasts into my house!"
The owl was fluttering around in a panic. "Oh! Oh! I must alert the Professors! I must alert the Professors!" The little bird scrambled to the window and leaped out, flapping its wings frantically in an effort to fly as fast as it could.
Miss Evermott kept kicking Melody, driving her high heels into her tiny body while Melody cried and begged for her to stop. By the time the cruel woman left, Melody was bruised and bleeding, crying quietly on the floor. "Melody?" Felicity cooed, "Oh, you poor thing. look what she's done to you this time. You need to get out of here!"
"But... I have nowhere... to go," Melody sobbed.
"Go to that 'Hogwarts' place!" Felicity urged, "You'll be safe there, and free to do the things everyone else does!"
"I don't know how to get there, Felicity!" She cried into her blanket, "I'm trapped here."
Author's Note: I realised there were MAJOR formatting errors with this due to having copied from Google Docs (thanks, Google). It popped up after I made the chapter, so I didn't notice, but I saw it and fixed it. Major sorries on my part!