Memori Mento
"Remember your mortality"
The Letter
Dear Professor McGonagall
Headmistress of Hogwarts: School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,
It has come to our attention that you are the emergency contact and next of kin for one, Robert McGonagall Jr. It is our deepest regret to inform you that your brother, Robert McGonagall Jr., and his wife are deceased. On Thursday, August 28, 2008, at 2:13 p.m., we were informed that Mr. McGonagall, Mrs. Caudwell, and their daughter, Minerva Breanne Caudwell were in a human motorized vehicle on their way to an event. On their way, their human motorized vehicle collided with another human motorized vehicle, one of much greater magnitude. Mr. McGonagall and Mrs. Caudwell were killed on impact, but their daughter serviced without much harm. She is currently placed in a human hospital for treatment of minor wounds and observation, and will be until Saturday, August 30, 2008.
We have also been informed that you are the sole Godparent of Minerva Breanne Caudwell. We are awaiting your correspondence as to the future welfare of the child.
Our deepest condolences,
The North American Magical Regulation Committee
Minerva took a shaky breath as she looked out the window she was sitting beside as she read the letter that had only arrived moments earlier. She couldn't believe it. Her brother, her baby brother whom she was his senior by almost twenty years, was dead. She couldn't believe it. Her little baby brother; she remembered when he was born, seeing his wiggling little form in a cradle whenever she visited her parents. She remembered when him going to Hogwarts, and starting his work at the Ministry, when he decided to move to America in search for something new, when he found it and her name was Maura Denkins Caudwell, a young witch attracted to an oddly older man.
A tear silently slid down her cheek as she glanced back at the letter. '…the sole Godparent of one Minerva Breanne Caudwell…' There would be time to mourn later that evening, but McGonagall returned to her desk with purpose. She pulled out a fresh sheet of parchment and began writing furiously.
This is happening too quick, the girl thought as she stared out the window of the moving train car. Two days ago she watched her parents die in front of her and now she's having to move from her home in Massachusetts to Europe to live with some aunt she had only heard of a few times. She didn't want this. She wanted to wake up, so see her mother nudging her awake from a long nightmare and have her tell her it was time for her to get ready for school.
But no, that's impossible now. Sighing, she crinkled the letter in her hand which explained that she was going to be transferring from the Salem Witches Institute to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; it also explained that she would be living with her aunt Minerva McGonagall who happened to be the headmistress of the school.
She didn't want to do this. She didn't want this new life. She didn't want to meet new people. She liked how things were in Salem, she liked blending in. That's what she had strived for all of her life ever since her parents enrolled her into the Salem Witches Institute, and now things were different. Minerva tried to breathe but she could feel the tears building up. The glass doors to the compartment she was in slowly started icing over and the air in the room began to chill.
Calm down, she told herself, Don't cry, don't cry! But the first salty droplet had already fallen onto her cheek. She felt like she couldn't breathe, her throat was tightening up. She couldn't hold it in anymore. She remained calm when the doctors told her about her family, she didn't cry when she watched them be buried, she was fine when she was told about her aunt, and the school, and about everything else, but now she couldn't keep it in any longer.
"NOO!" A burst of hot air blew from her mouth as she screamed at the top of her lungs. The glass doors shattered in all directions as paper flew everywhere. She screamed louder than she had ever done before. No one was around to see this, the only other person on the train was the conductor. She let everything out, she didn't care if she was making a mess of things. She wanted her mother, and her father. She wanted to be safe and home.
Slowly the papers floated to the ground and the air began to warm. Minerva slowly caught her breathe and wiped her tears away with the sleeves of her long sleeve shirt. She needed to pull herself together. Reaching into her bag she pulled out her wand and pointed it silently to the glass door. The whole explosion happened in reverse, the glass shards formed the door and fixed itself back to as it was before.