Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything to do with the franchise.
Beth didn't speak for what felt like a lifetime. She just sat there as her eyes furiously scanned the page in her hands, picking out the most absurd words.
Witchcraft and wizardry… What even was that supposed to mean? Magic? But… but that didn't exist. It couldn't. She wasn't some character in a fantasy story where amazing and special things happened in her life. This had to be some kind of weird joke.
She shook her head slightly and pulled back from the letter, as if looking at it from a distance would help make perfect sense of things. She flipped it around and to her surprise found more fancy green writing on the back.
A ministry wizard will be arriving at the address located on the envelope of this letter at 4 o'clock, the day of delivery to inform you of all you need to know. We apologise for inconvenience this may cause, but the ministry is very understaffed at this time.
She didn't understand what any of this meant. What ministry? And a wizard was coming? Still not speaking Beth lifted her head up to look at her two best friends. Emily was standing anxiously by Elaine's wardrobes, biting her lip as the three owls above her head continued to scratch and shuffle around. Elaine was sitting on Emily's camp bed, legs crossed and staring at her with wide, curious eyes. She could tell that they were waiting for her to speak but all of her words were failing her at that moment.
"Beth?" asked Emily tentatively.
"Is this some kind of joke?" She said finally looking between them both.
Emily took a step forward, her letter still clutched in her hands.
"Beth. I swear to you this no joke. It's real." She paused. "Magic is real."
Beth stared back at her as if she was speaking some alien language. It was then there was a soft knock on the door and Elaine's gran put her head around the door.
"Sorry girls, I just thought I heard…" She had started speaking but upon seeing the three girls with anxious faces, holding letters in their hands with owls hooting indignantly above them she stopped and raised an eyebrow in a curious way.
After a long pause she said "Well I don't know what you kids get up to these days, but I'm staying out of it."
"Gran!" Elaine said through gritted teeth as she jumped up from the bed. "We're having a… a situation here."
Elaine whispered a brief summary of what was happening while Beth and Emily just watched, still not really sure what to say. Elaine's gran looked startled once Elaine had finished talking and looked between all the girls and the owls before covering her mouth with her hand.
"No! All three of you?"
"Gran, while this is surprising to all of us, it seems to be especially surprising to Beth…" Elaine told her gran, raising her eyebrows and hoping she'd get the message. "So can you please just let us try to… explain it? Please?"
"I'll call your parents." She nodded. She had just turned to leave when she quickly turned and called out to Beth. "It's okay you know dear. I know it can seem overwhelming now, but once you've experienced it you'll be fine." And then she hurried away, muttering statements of worry under her breath.
Elaine closed the door behind her and turned back to the others. "Sorry about that, now where were we? Okay, so yeah, Beth you're a witch. Now what do you guys want to do today?"
"Elaine!" Emily yelled, clearly annoyed at her friends lack of tack. "Is that your idea of being gentle?"
"Well I didn't kick her!" Elaine rolled her eyes and sat back down on Emily's camp bed.
Beth, who had been watching all of this in silence, stared down at her letter again and chewed on her tongue. She felt… nothing really. Like this was just some elaborate dream. Sure what was going on was weird but there was no proof magic existed, it just couldn't. It didn't make sense.
"Prove it then." She said finally.
"What's that Beth?"
"Prove it." She looked up at them again. "If magic is real like you claim, do some! Turn me into a toad or something…"
Emily frowned. "It doesn't work like that Beth."
"Convenient…"
"We can't do magic outside of school. Unless it's raw magic." At the confused looks on both Beth and Elaine's faces Emily quickly clarified. "That's accidental magic, the stuff we can't control."
Beth shook her head as she ran a hand through her hair. "Well then there's no proof. This is totally crazy!" Her voice rose at the end through frustration and anger. "You guys are just making some kind of weird joke. Or I'm dreaming! Either way this really isn't happening."
"Beth I promise you it is…"
At Beth's shaking head Elaine got up and sat down next to her. She stared at the floor for a moment and then at Beth before speaking. "Think Beth. Have you ever made something weird happen? Something you couldn't explain to your parents, or even yourself?"
This made Beth look up. Elaine had a sad smile on her face as they looked at each other, Beth's mouth half-open though nothing was coming out. Her thoughts were whirring into action, her brain picking out memories she hadn't thought about in years. The first things she remembered involved her brother. Once they'd been arguing about something, Daniel leaning against her door as they had yelled at each other. Beth had had such a surge of rage pass through her, something that was very rare for her, when suddenly her younger brother had fallen backwards, along with the door, and hit his head. It had seemed just an accident at first; an old door that shouldn't have had too much weight applied to it. But when she and her mother had inspected it, they could find neither any loose screws nor the actual hinges that had previously held the door in place. It was as if they had simply vanished. Though that idea had seemed completely illogical at the time, could she have really done it?
There was also the time when spilled her mums nail varnish all over the living room carpet. She was very young but had known as soon as she did it she was going to be in a lot of trouble. She'd been in a state of anxiety for hours, but as soon as her mother had stepped foot in the living room later that day it was like nothing had happened at all. The carpet was clear. Later Beth found the bottles back up in her mum's bedroom, right where she'd taken them from, full to the brim with the same dark red colour that had earlier been splashed across the carpet. She'd been confused sure, but was so relived to not have gotten into trouble that she didn't think too much on it.
Countless other memories resurfaced as well, flying around her head in a giant, confusing jumble. The time the scratches on her arm from her cat had healed themselves within the hour. The time she fell off the climbing frame at school... she'd seem to slow down just before she hit the ground, so she didn't even get hurt from a fall that would have surely left some bruising on anyone else.
Anyone, except her…
Beth open and closed her mouth like a goldfish as her eyes widened at Elaine. Her friend just gave her a look of understanding and gave her a pat on the shoulder.
"I should probably get them some water…"
The owls on Elaine's wardrobe had started to become restless, their scratching and hooting gradually getting louder. Elaine got up and left the room, leaving Emily watching Beth, who had put her head back in her hands, with a very anxious expression.
They did not speak, both caught up in their own thoughts. Elaine returned moments later with a small bowl full of water for the owls. She stood on her bed and pushed the bowl towards the owls that immediately crowded around it and began to drink.
"So Beth…" Elaine said breaking the silence that seemed to keep creeping up on them.
"This is crazy." Beth said in a quiet voice. "And yes, I can name a few weird things that have happened… but it's all circumstantial!" She added after seeing the looks on her friend's faces. "I've still never seen any actual magic done and until I can see some… I'm sorry but I just can't believe any of this."
Emily and Elaine looked at each other as a new silence filled the room. They seemed to be having a telepathic conversation. Emily gave a small nod and left the room, while Elaine opened the draw by her bed. This annoyed Beth more than it should have. They were treating her like she was the crazy one. She said nothing though as Elaine took out the 'stick' she had broken earlier and held them out for her to take.
"Just look at it Beth."
She rolled her eyes but took the two pieces of wood from her friend's hands. It was clear close up they were definitely not parts of a stick that you'd find outside on a tree. It was thicker for one; with dark polished wood that got lighter towards the point. It clearly had a patterned handle, and though in two parts, it was held together by a long silvery hair. It was clear to her what Elaine was implying this was: a wand.
"A stick was a pretty lame cover up." Elaine admitted, smiling slightly.
Just then Emily came back into the room, followed by Elaine's gran. Beth's eye fell straight to what she now assumed to be a wand in the woman's hand and sat up a bit straighter.
"Your parents will be here any minute." Elaine's gran said, nodding at Elaine. "They don't have to exactly hide magic from your friends anymore, so they're coming by floo powder now."
Once she said this she sat on the bed beside Beth, giving her a gentle look.
"Now Beth, dear, I don't think this is the best idea, and I'm not trying to scare you…" She paused. "But the girls say you need to see some proof, so…"
She stood up, just as Beth moved back on the bed so that her back was against the wall. It wasn't accurate but she somehow felt safer with her back against the wall, and she guessed at least some part of her knew what she was about to see.
Elaine's gran cleared her throat and raised the wand in front of her. She spoke no words, but as soon as she had finished waving her wand at a stack of books at the foot of Elaine's bed, they were raised high into the air, rotating around each other a few times before landing neatly on top of Emily's camp bed. Beth didn't even have time to process this before Elaine's gran flicked her wand again, this time crying "Avis!"
A flock of very small blue birds seemed to shoot out of the tip and Beth found herself moving away from the wall, surprising even herself as she slipped off the bed and stood up, watching the birds quickly do a lap of the room before flying out of the rooms open window.
Beth didn't realise her mouth had been open until she tried to speak.
"What – I just… I didn't… That was amazing!"
"What?"
"That was magic! Real magic! You guys weren't joking!" Beth exclaimed. Her smile had grown tenfold since they had begun this conversation, and her friends couldn't help but smile back at her excitement.
"So you believe us now do you?" Elaine smirked.
"You really aren't messing with me?" Beth asked again, sitting back down on the bed again.
"No man! Do I have to get my gran to levitate the TV or something?!"
"Oh no dear, I wouldn't do that. It'd most likely end up broken…"
"But then you could repair it with magic as well!"
Beth was now staring at her hands like it was the first time she'd seen them. There was magic inside of her, real magic. She supposed she should be confused, scared even, but no she wasn't. It was excitement the flowed through her. This was all like something out of a fairy-tale.
It was at that moment a whooshing and crackling noise came from down the hall. Everyone looked towards the door just as Elaine's parents and sister Zoe appeared. Elaine's mum looked between her daughter, Beth and Emily, and the owls before raising her eyebrows.
"Well, I think no one expected these turn of events, did they?"
Zoe, who had been grinning madly behind her mother, bounced over to her little sister and threw an arm around her, making Elaine roll her eyes with annoyance.
"We're gonna have so much fun at Hogwarts Elaine! And I'm so jealous your friends get to go with you as well! I had to leave all of my muggle friends behind…"
"You didn't have any muggle friends." Elaine pointed out as she removed her arm from her shoulders. "Still don't."
"Yeah well, neither do you apparently." She smiled, glancing at Beth and Emily.
"I think I'll go make us all some tea…" Elaine's dad muttered and slowly made his way back into the hall.
"You don't have to do it the muggle way anymore!" Zoe called and followed him out.
Mrs. Daglish took a few more steps into the room and sat on the edge of the bed besides Beth. She looked tired, Beth though, like she had been up since the early hours of the morning. She put her bag down next to her, and instead picked up Beth's Hogwarts letter which she had left next to her.
"Mum, do you mind giving me a few minutes with the girls please?"
Elaine's gran gave her a small nod, grabbed the girl's plates which still had half-eaten toast on them and hurried out of the room. Mrs. Daglish's eyes were scanning quickly over the page. Once she was done she flipped it over and read the back as well. Once she had finished she looked very seriously at Beth, who felt a little intimidated. Elaine's mum was usually very smiley, so seeing her with such a sombre look was quite unsettling to her.
"Beth, I know the girls have probably said this already, and I know this is probably a very scary and unbelievable situation for you to be in…"
"It's okay Mrs. Daglish." Beth said, her voice sounding weaker than she felt. "Elaine's gran's just done some magic. I… I think I believe now."
Mrs. Daglish nodded slowly, but the stern look still stayed on her face. She paused for a minute, and Beth could practically see the cogs in her head turning, trying to decide what to say.
After a minute or so she finally turned back to her and said "Well as long as you believe. Getting your parents to is a completely different matter though."
Her parents! Beth hadn't even though about them. They had definitely never showed any magical ability in their lives or even any interest in things like that. How would they react to seeing Elaine's gran conjure birds from mid-air? She didn't imagine that they'd think it was as cool as she did. And what about her brother? Did this mean Daniel would have magical blood just like she did?
Mrs. Daglish seemed to read her mind and gently patted her on the shoulder. "But we'll deal with that later. There are some things you should know first though Beth…"
She gestured to the others, who had still been standing awkwardly by the open window, to come closer. They did, both taking a seat on Beth's camp bed, their acceptance letters still clutched in their hands.
"First things first: a muggle is a name for a non-magical person." She explained.
That certainly cleared up a lot of confusion in Beth's head.
"You are a muggle-born witch, meaning your family tree consists of a lot of muggles. It's possible that you probably had some wizarding blood in your family a long time ago which died out and has now resurfaced in you. But this is not the moment to be thinking of your family history."
All three girls were watching Elaine's mum with wide eyes, like she was a story teller about to tell them the greatest adventure ever told. Even Elaine, who had clearly grown up around all of this, looked quite interested in what her mum was saying. The owls on Elaine's wardrobe, realising they were going to be there a while, had settled in for the morning by putting their heads under their wings and huddling in the corner together.
"There is a whole magical world that you've never known about Beth, right under your nose. We have a government – The Ministry of Magic – who make the wizarding laws we have to abide by. Elaine's dad works for them. Apparently it's all quite similar to the muggle government. I work for The Society for the Assistance of Muggle-borns, who I guess are part of the ministry as well because we're government funded. It's actually my job, to come to speak to people like you and explain what the wizarding world is all about."
"Oh my gosh, really?" Emily apparently found this news a lot more exciting than the others did.
There was another pause as Mrs. Daglish smiled at her.
"Ah Emily, Elaine's gran says you…"
"It goes back at least 4 generations on my mum's side of the family." Emily explained quickly. "5 if you include me and my sister. My dad's muggle-born."
She nodded. "You get the best of both worlds don't you? Emily is what we call 'half-blood' Beth. Wizards would have died out had they not married muggles or muggle-borns you see, so there isn't a lot of traditional, 'just wizard, no muggle' families anymore. I mean, certainly our family-" She nodded to Elaine. "-have a lot of witches and wizards in them. My grandmother I know traced our family tree back until at least… but I'm getting off topic slightly."
Beth's head was spinning. Wizarding blood seemed to be quite complicated, so maybe it was good she came from muggles. It at least made explaining things a lot easier.
Mrs. Daglish gave a small cough and then continued. "Anyway, I've been off work for a while. Had quite a back-log of paperwork! So when I went into work this morning, you can imagine my surprise when I see 'Beth Robertson' written as my first go-to of the day!"
"Wait, so you're the ministry wizard supposed to be coming to talk to me at 4 o'clock?" Beth was genuinely surprised, as were her friends, judging by the looks on their faces. Mrs. Daglish just smiled in response.
"I guess I'm a bit early?" She laughed. "Well of course I couldn't be sure it was you, but a few moments later Elaine's gran rang saying you'd all received Hogwarts letters and so there had to be no doubt. I quickly explained the situation to my boss before going to the ministry to get Elaine's dad. I ran into Zoe on the way here so brought her along too. I thought she'd be a useful source to tell you all about what Hogwarts is actually like."
As if waiting for a queue Zoe threw open Elaine's bedroom door with two cups of tea in her hands. She took a few steps into the room, and was followed by four more cups floating behind her. Beth moved backwards, her eyes wide at the sight. Mrs. Daglish seemed to notice her discomfort, as she looked from her to her daughter with a disapproving look.
"What? She's gonna have to get used to magic sometime!" Zoe exclaimed, passing one of the cups to Emily who took it from her gratefully.
"Your dad better have done that charm." Mrs. Daglish said warningly. "No magic outside of Hogwarts."
"I know!" She exclaimed at her mother again, before turning to the girls. "I'm going into my fourth year at Hogwarts. And Becca will be going into her fifth. Speaking of which, where are our Hogwarts letters? Shouldn't they all arrive at the same time?"
Her mother shrugged and glanced at her watch. Beth did the same. It wasn't even 12 o'clock yet, but Beth felt like she'd taken in enough information to last her a lifetime. Her mum and dad would be at work by now, Daniel probably at their grans house. She wondered how on earth she would tell them, and how they'd react. She guessed they probably wouldn't believe her, even if she did get Elaine's family to levitate the TV. She could still hardly believe it either…
"Beth?"
She looked up to see Mrs. Daglish staring at her, a smile final appearing on her face which she was relieved to find calmed her down a lot more.
"Sorry?"
"I asked you where your parents would be right now."
"Work." She said simply. "They won't finish until 4."
Mrs. Daglish nodded and patted her on the shoulder briefly before standing up. Seeing Elaine, Zoe and Emily do the same Beth also got up, though she didn't know why. Was her talk over now? Because she felt like there was still a lot more she should have to know.
"Right well, technically I'm not allowed to give you the ministry official talk unless you have a parent or guardian with you. I don't really want to have to go through it twice anyway. So, I'm going to go back to work to sort some stuff out, but I'll ring your parents and be back by we'll all have a nice chat about… this. For now I leave you to bombard the girls here with questions. Is that okay?"
Beth nodded. It was all she could do since her voice seemed to have stopped again. Elaine's mum grabbed her bag, flashed her a quick smile, said goodbye to the girls and left again, leaving Beth wondering if this whole situation was real or in fact her dreams were just getting more and more elaborate.
