Chapter 2: Unexpected
Claira Donovan rolled onto her back and stretched before climbing out of bed. Since it was summer vacation and she had no place to be, she skipped dressing for now and went to the kitchen to find breakfast. Her parents started work early, so she and her siblings made their own breakfast. Pouring herself a bowl of cereal, she sat down on the couch in the living room and flipped on the t.v.
She lazily ate her cereal as she waited for her little brother Derek to get up. He was only 13 months younger than her so they were really close. In contrast, her older sister Penelope was sixteen, popular and had way better things to do than hang out with her geeky eleven year old sister or ten year old brother.
It wasn't long before she heard a rustling in the kitchen and knew Derek was up, just as she expected. What she wasn't expecting was the loud clang of a spoon hitting the floor and Derek's shouts of "Come quick, Claira, come quick!"
She jumped up and ran to the kitchen, her bowl upended on the floor.
"I've never seen an owl do that before!" Derek exclaimed as he pointed at the kitchen window. Sure enough, there was an owl sitting on the window sill calm as can be. Stranger yet, it seemed to be holding a letter.
"Weird! I wonder how long it took to train him to do that?" Claira wondered. "I mean, it has to be trained like a carrier pigeon right?"
"I guess," Derek said, "I've just never seen any kind of bird carry a letter like that."
Claira took a couple of hesitant steps forward to get a closer look and noticed that the letter was addressed to her in neat purple script.
"What on earth, it has my name on it!" She said. "Should I try to take it?"
"Don't see why not." Derek said.
Claira cautiously closed the distance to the window and slowly slid it open. As if the owl had been waiting for this, it swooped in, dropped the letter in front of Claira and helped itself to some of Derek's cereal.
Claira screeched and jumped back as soon as the owl got close. Derek chuckled at Claira's clear over reaction to the bird. She retaliated by sticking her tongue out at him. Her family often teased her for being hyper-reactive, as they called it, to being surprised, scared or especially anything that resembled a snake.
Claira retrieved the letter as Derek debated if he was going to try to rescue his cereal or not. The owl must have decided it was full because it suddenly flew back out the window and was gone.
"Well, aren't you going to open it?" Derek asked as he poured out his cereal and made himself another bowl.
Claira shrugged, studying the strange seal on the back. Without seeing a reason not to, she carefully opened the envelope and pulled out the letter. She quickly read through the short note and burst out laughing.
"Ok, I don't know who's behind this but they went through an awful lot of trouble for this practical joke. Perhaps we should reward them or something?" Claira said disbelievingly.
"What do ya mean?" Derek said taking the letter from her. He read out loud:
"Dear Miss Claira Donovan,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all
necessary books and equipment.
Term begins September 1st. We await your owl by no later than July 31st.
Sincerely,
Neville Longbottom, Deputy Headmaster"
Derek too laughed at the note. "Well that was a good one. I wonder if they have cameras posted to catch our expressions, your reaction to the owl was fantastic!"
"Oh shut up!" Claira said as she grabbed some paper towels to clean up her cereal off the living room floor. Just as the siblings got to the living room the doorbell rang.
"I bet we're going to find out who our mysterious prankster is." Claira stated as she pulled open the door.
Standing on the doorstep was a tall, middle-aged man with kind eyes. "Good morning! Sorry to disturb you so early in the day," he began enthusiastically, "but I am hoping to beat…well that." He finished as he laid eyes on the letter still in Derek's hand.
"Drat it! Sorry about all this, it must seem very strange to you. You see, the letters are mailed automatically and we don't always make it to the homes of the muggleborns before their letters arrive."
"The what-borns?!" Claira exclaimed slightly worriedly. "Ok, the owl and the letter were all good fun but I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Claira tried to sound as threatening as possible, but a small eleven year old girl could only be so threatening.
"Please Miss Donovan, I only need a few minutes to explain and this will all make sense."
"How do you know my name?" Claira's voice pitched a little as she couldn't keep the fear out of her voice. "Look, I'm going to close the door and you're going to leave or I'm calling the cops." Claira said slowly. She was going to call the cops either way, but this strange man didn't need to know that. Behind her Derek had quietly slipped over to the fireplace and had the poker in hand ready to use.
Before either of them knew what was happening, the strange man muttered something about a 'statue of secrecy' and pulled out a stick. He waved it at the paper towels in Claira's hand and suddenly she was holding a pure white dove.
For the second time that morning, Claira shrieked and jumped back waving her arms in the air. Derek was already on edge and that was all he needed to propel him into action. He charged forward swinging the fire poker at the man's head.
The man waved his stick a second time and the fire poker smacked into seemingly thin air. Two more swipes and Derek was utterly confused. Not knowing what else to do, he placed himself between Claira and the man, holding the fire poker ready to strike again.
"Alright, let's all take a deep breath." The man said, trying to sound soothing. "I know I've completely botched this so just give me a moment to explain. My name if Professor Neville Longbottom." He paused as recognition crossed both children's face. This was the name signed at the bottom of the strange letter. "I am here to discuss both Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and the wizarding world in general with you and your family."
"That's absurd," Derek began weakly then stopped as he realized that he couldn't explain the dove or his inability to hit the man. Claira, behind him, had only opened and closed her mouth several times struggling with the same thoughts as her brother.
"I know it seems that way but if I could come in for a few minutes perhaps we can get this sorted. We're not really supposed to do magic in front of muggles or in a muggle neighborhood." The professor continued.
"There's that word again, muggle, what is that?" Claira asked curiously.
"Sorry, it's what we call non-magical people such as your parents or neighbors." Professor Longbottom replied.
"So why can't you use magic in front of them?" Claira asked.
"Perhaps we can continue this inside?" Professor Longbottom asked. "I can assume your parents aren't home so we'll have to reschedule for later when they are, but I can at least cover the basics with you now."
The siblings exchanged a glance with eachother. Normally they didn't let strangers come in, but there was nothing normal about this morning. Anyway, Claira was pretty good about judging whether people's intentions were good or bad and she wasn't picking up on any bad intentions from this Professor Longbottom. She shrugged and Derek backed up to let him in.
"Our mum is a nurse and our dad works at an advertising firm. They both leave for work pretty early but they'll be home this evening," Claira replied.
Professor Longbottom seated himself on the recliner while Derek sat on the couch. Claira made to join them but stopped short when she realized the cereal still needed to be cleaned up. She turned to go to the kitchen to fetch some paper towels that weren't currently a dove when Professor Longbottom stopped her.
"Wait, let me clean that. It's the perfect opportunity for some less…startling magic." He explained.
Claira shrugged and seated herself next to her brother. Professor Longbottom held his stick up for the siblings to look at. "This is called a wand, we use it to cast spells like this." He waved the wand and said reparo and scourgify loud enough for the children to hear clearly. Amazingly, the bowl righted itself and the crack that had been in it for years vanished. On top of that, all the spilled milk and cereal were gone and the carpet was clean.
"Wow." Claira managed.
"Awesome!" Derek exclaimed. "So you can do all kinds of things with a wand and a weird word?"
Professor Longbottom couldn't help but chuckle especially when he saw Claira roll her eyes at her brother.
"Well, yes I suppose so. There are other kinds of magic Claira will learn at Hogwarts as well such as potions, astronomy, and herbology, which I teach." He answered.
"So I can really do this kind of stuff?" Claira asked.
"Yes, you can. You wouldn't have been accepted to Hogwarts otherwise. Has something strange or unexplainable ever happened when you were upset or scared?"
Claira couldn't think of anything for a moment until she remembered her first day of school in first grade. Penelope was starting secondary school and wanted to look absolutely perfect for school pictures. She was hogging the bathroom and Claira hadn't been able to get in to get her headband so her mother could do her hair for her. Claira had gotten mad because she was afraid that she wouldn't get to wear her headband if Penelope didn't let her in. Next thing she knew, Penelope screamed and pushed past her with bright orange skin. Penelope swore Claira must have put something in her lotion the night before, though their parents never believed it. Still, Penelope bullied Claira for weeks after that.
"So you're saying I can learn to do stuff like that?" Claira asked.
"Well, more useful and less damaging for you sister perhaps." Professor Longbottom replied. However, Claira saw no reason to make it less "damaging" for her sister, Penelope was self-centered and mean and could use taking down a few pegs.
"Now don't you be getting any ideas," said Professor Longbottom, who recognized the look on Claira's face from some of his mischievous students. "You can't do magic outside of Hogwarts until you're seventeen."
"Aw, come on." Claira whined.
"It's the law and you'll get in trouble if you do."
Claira was still pouting slightly when her dad burst through the front door.
"Hey kids, forgot my lunch on the fridge…" He stopped short as he took in the scene before him. His kids were sitting in the living room still in their pajamas with a strange man in the recliner. Derek had the fire poker still in his hand and he could have sworn he heard a dove.
"Hey dad. So we have something to tell you. Apparently I'm a witch and can go learn magic at a school called Hogwarts…"
Neville got the sudden feeling that this was going to be a long day.
