Erin

A flashing light and an insistent paw batting at her face woke Erin that morning. Stretching, she shut off my clock and smiled as a black ball of fur stepped onto her lap, purring.

Picking Tyler up, she hugged him tight and got out of bed. Leaving Ty sitting on the bed, Erin went to get ready for today.

This was Erin's last day at home before starting at her new school. It was an awesome boarding school located in an ancient castle in Scotland. She couldn't wait to get there.

'Tomorrow' she told myself. 'Today is for me and my friends here'. The next hour was spent running around having a shower, getting dressed, doing her hair and making her bed before running downstairs, past her brother Jason, and into the kitchen, where her mom sat reading the paper.

She waved before sticking my head in to the fridge to find some food. When Erin turned, her mom, Dayna, was looking at her daughter.

"Are you spending today with your friends?" She asked. Erin nodded. "At Emmett's?" Erin nodded again. "Ok, have fun and be careful". She kissed her mom on the cheek and ran out the door.

…

Her 4 best friends were already waiting for her at Emmett's when she pulled up on her motorcycle; Emmett Kyle, Kini Nelson and Takoda and Rayn Running Wolf. They all jumped on her, laughing, crying and hugging her. She would miss them all so much..

Sitting on Emmett's bed, she sighed and smiled. Across the room, Takoda signed 'are you excited?' Erin nodded.

'I'll miss you guys though', she signed back, 'so how about one last party for the summer?' Everyone nodded, laughing. Erin pulled out her wand and food appeared on every flat surface in the room.

There are two important things to know about this girl, things that few people really knew:

Erin Talbot was a witch. And she was deaf.

…

A muggle-born witch, Erin had been born deaf through a genetic birth defect. When people heard this, they all had eyes full of pity for Erin but she just shrugged it off; she'd never known any different.

Being deaf hadn't really been a handicap for Erin. A brilliant child, she'd learned to sign fluently by age 3, had taught herself to read lips by the time she was 6, spoke well by age 8 and was doing 7th grade schoolwork when she was only in the 5th grade.

Then she'd gotten her letter from Hogwarts.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was the best magic school in Europe. And on Erin's eleventh birthday, the Headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, came and explained to her family that Erin was actually a witch and there was a place waiting for her at Hogwarts. Dayna wasn't too enthusiastic about it because of Erin's deafness; she's a mom, it's her job to worry.

It was decided that Erin would homeschool for a few years before going to Hogwarts. Normally if a witch was homeschooled, it would be her parents teaching her, but since Dayna wasn't a witch, the plan was that Erin would get her work sent to her by owl and a professor would come to her house twice a week.

But this was Erin's final year of magical education and she was really going to Hogwarts itself. And tomorrow was her first day.