-chapter one-
PREPARATIONS

Aislin woke the next morning from a restless two hours of sleep. For a long time, she had tossed and turned in her bed, thinking of the dream – whether she wanted to or not – unwilling to switch off the light, afraid of the darkness that might come crashing down around her again. Sleep had finally claimed her once again, but only for a couple of hours before the alarm clock on her bedside table beeped her awake.

As a soft, golden sunlight streamed in through the gap in the curtains and cast a warm glow across the room, Ash realised with a shock that today was the last day she spent at home; tomorrow, she would be waking up and heading off to King's Cross station, where the Hogwarts express would take her to school. Just thinking about it sent a shiver of excitement and anticipation down her spine. Part of her wished that she could fall back into sleep – a dreamless sleep – so that her last day would fly by faster. But the other part of her felt guilty for even thinking that, of wishing to leaving her father alone again while she went off to school. Granted, she could come back for the Christmas Holiday, and even the Easter Holiday, but all the same. The guilt she harboured inside of her whenever she went off to Hogwarts was something she had learnt to live with.

With a sigh, Aislin pushed the bed covers off of her and – with the greatest reluctance – pulled herself out of her warm bed, then padded a little unsteadily across the room. She stopped in front of the large calendar nailed to the back of her door, which was marked with large red crosses as Aislin had ticked off the days leading up to September 1st – the day she would be returning.

"Not long now," she whispered to herself as a small smile crept across her face.

Five moments passed, and Aislin dressed quickly, her stomach grumbling with hunger. She pulled a red t-shirt over her head and slipped on a pair of dark-blue jeans, a faded pattern on the knees and by the pockets. Standing in front of the mirror, she peered close at the dark circles under her warm-brown eyes, and groan of dissatisfaction escaped her lips. Then took a brush from the table and pulled it through the tangles of her hair, which was the colour of bitter chocolate; she pulled it back off of her face and into a loose ponytail at the nape of her neck, exposing her delicate features which she sometimes despised.

Happy, she headed out of her room and down the creaking stairs.

Aislin's Dad was already awake and seated when she reached the kitchen. Jared was a tall man with a thick mane of fair hair, which was beginning to grey at the roots; he had small, sea-blue eyes which always seemed to be smiling, and a wide grin – all things which made Aislin think she must have taken after her mother. He was currently sat in his favourite chair at the kitchen table, reading yesterday's newspaper as it was too early for him to have been out to buy the latest one. In his hand, he held a mug of steaming tea – a personal favourite – which had Dad written on the side in large, bold letters: a present Aislin had given him three years ago for Father's Day.

"Hey, Dad," said Aislin as merrily as possible, barely suppressing a yawn.

"Morning, hon," he greeted, taking a moment before looking up from the newspaper. "Sleep well?"

Lie, she had to remind herself on time before revealing all about the dream. After all, her father was still under the impression that those had stopped years ago – or at least, she hoped he was. "Yeah. Yeah, it was fine."

Perhaps Jared noticed the false tone in her voice, or the dark shadows under his daughter's eyes, because he narrowed his own at her suspiciously; in response, she tried to keep her face as impassive as possible. After a moment, Jared placed a smile onto his lips and dismissed it. Aislin let out a deep breath of relief: if he had asked again, she knew she wouldn't have been able to lie to him, but she didn't want to have to admit the truth to him, either. Hurriedly, she crossed the room and placed two slices of bread in the toaster – remembering how differently she ate breakfast at Hogwarts – while her father hummed a familiar tune under his breath; it was a tune from her childhood.

When the toast popped up a couple of minutes later, Ash quickly placed the slices on a plate and buttered them before they could get cold. Then she took the seat opposite her father, with the feeling that he was about to say something to her, or at least wanting to, simply by the way he kept opening his mouth, and then closing it again.

"You OK, Dad?" Aislin asked, raising her eyebrows enquiringly.

"What? Yeah, fine!" her father responded, maybe a little too quickly.

Aislin was dubious, but she bit into her toast and said nothing else – if her father wanted to tell her something, he would say it in his own time. But all the same, she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something wrong, and all she could think was that perhaps her father was unhappy about her going off to Hogwarts the next day.

Six years previously, when Aislin had first received her acceptance letter to Hogwarts school, Jared had been twice as shocked as she was; he was a practical man, who liked to live in the real world, and the thought of sending his daughter off to a strange, magical school had sent conflicting emotions through him: on the one hand, he had been happy for his daughter, and hoped that she would fit in better at this new school than she ever had at her old one; but on the other hand, he worried about her being so far away from home – and for so long – in a place he didn't know and likely never would.

Ever since, Ash's father had been extremely supportive of her – especially when she'd returned home at the end of each year and explained to him how much she had loved it: how much she loved the castle, and the lessons, and how many new friends she had made, even though she missed them like mad over the Summer Holidays. But all the same, he did not like her being so far away from home, from him.

It was strange for Aislin, coming back to this small house during the holidays, away from the place she lived her life for the rest of the year. At home, she could not use magic, and had to revert back to her old ways; she could no longer watch Quidditch, and nor could she subscribe to the Daily Prophet to keep up with the latest news in the Wizarding World; what would people think if they saw owls flying backwards and forth to her house every day? Sometimes, she longed to be in the castle again so much that she dreamed of it – well, when she wasn't dreaming about anything else, that is …

"All right, Dad, out with it!" Aislin snapped suddenly – and a little more harshly than she had intended – when she saw him look up in her peripheral vision and open his mouth once more to speak.

Jared hesitated momentarily, looking a little taken aback by his daughter's outburst. He wasn't the best of talkers, and it was clear to Aislin that something was troubling him.

"I just …" he started, then trailed off. When he began to speak again, he seemed to have decided against continuing down that road and had changed course. "Aislin, are you sure you're … happy – at Hogwarts, that is?" Even though it had been six years now, Jared still had trouble repeating the name of her school out loud, as if it still hadn't sunk in yet: that his daughter was a Witch, and went off to a school – or a castle, to be more precise – for almost an entire year, and to learn magic.

To her embarrassment, Aislin felt a blush creeping up to her cheeks. She ducked her head and quickly mumbled out the reply, "Yes, of course. W-why do you ask?" Ugh, even to my ears that sounded pathetic.

"It's just that sometimes you seem – well, unhappy … as if you don't want to leave," her father observed, carefully avoiding her eyes and taking another sip from the mug of tea in his hand.

Sometimes I don't, Ash thought sadly; instead, she said, "I just don't like leaving you here on your own, Dad, that's all. I just … feel guilty sometimes." She was happy to see the muscles in her father's face relax a little.

"You don't have to worry about me!" he told her, a broad grin stretching across his face. "No, I'm fine here – and I still see you in the holidays, don't I?"

"That's true," Aislin mumbled, but her voice was drained out by the sound of Jared's as he continued to speak.

"I was worried for a while, y'know. I thought … perhaps you were being bullied or something like that. I mean, I hoped you weren't of course, but I did wonder. You know you can talk to me though, don't you, Pip?" He smiled. "If there's anything trouble you – anything – you let me know straight away. All right?"

Fixing a false smile onto her face, Aislin nodded. "OK. Thanks, Dad."


Throughout the rest of the day, Ash's complex of emotions made her head hurt. Sometimes – when she was eager to be back at Hogwarts, no matter what took place while she was there – the time seemed to crawl by at the pace of a snail, teasing her. At other times – when she wished to make the most of the last hours with her father in the Muggle World – time seemed to whiz by in blur of black and white. In her excitement and agitation, Aislin became restless, pacing about the house to make sure she had everything packed, and sometimes even hoping she had lost something so that she would have to look for it.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Jared asked later that day – for the umpteenth time; he popped his feet up on the coffee table and switched on the television and proceeded to flick through each and every channel, mumbling curses to himself when he saw that nothing decent was showing.

"Yes, Dad, I'm fine," Aislin assured him – for the umpteenth time. But was she? Aislin didn't know any more. "I just … get nervous when I have to go back, that's all. Y'know, getting into that routine again, after being lazy over the holiday. It's strange." Of course, this wasn't entirely true, and Aislin hated lying to her father, but she couldn't bear the thought of him worrying about her while he was here at home and could do nothing to help. After all, there was no other choice but to go to Hogwarts: she had to learn to control her 'powers', and she had to learn about the Wizarding World, with its many creatures and spells, rules and regulations. She didn't see the harm in temporarily blindfolding her father, concealing him from the full truth – especially when that truth would do more harm than good.

Besides, it wasn't as if Ash hated going to Hogwarts. In fact, most of the time, she loved being there, with all its secrets to uncover, unexpected twists and turns, the spells and wonder … The only thing that dampened her spirits were the people in it.

"As long as you're sure," Jared muttered, having found that there was indeed a football match on this evening, and having found that he was already engrossed in it.

When Aislin came downstairs a little under an hour later, the match was at half-time and the adverts were still rolling. She traipsed into the living room, biting her fingernails and all the while sure that she had forgotten something.

Jared set down the remote and turned to look at her. "Do you have everything packed, ready for tomorrow?"

"Pretty sure – I double checked this time!" Aislin told him, remembering the incident the last year where she had managed to forget her wand; racing back home had not been fun.

The previous weekend, Aislin and her father had taken a trip to Diagon Alley, where Aislin had managed to find all of the school supplies that she would need for her sixth year at Hogwarts: new school robes – as her others were now too small – and new books, and a trip to Gringotts bank among many other things. As usual, her father had gawked at all the magical things around him, fascinated and intimidated at the same time. He had pointed to the latest broomstick that had been released in Quality Quidditch Supplies, andhe had whistled in amazement as he looked through the window of Flourish and Blotts; his eyes had fallen open wide when he saw Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, which – out of all the shops – the latter had been the one that Aislin was most anxious to see this time around. Once or twice, they had almost bumped into some Slytherins that Ash knew from school, and had carefully directed her dad around them and away, careful that he did not stare too long at the shops that had been boarded up and closed down, such as Olivander's.

"Is this what your life is like?" her father had asked as they were heading back to The Leaky Cauldron.

Aislin had shrugged in reply. "Pretty much."

At the end of the day, both father and daughter had been sad to leave the jovial hustling and bustling of Diagon Alley.

"You're like your mother, y'know," Jared mused, his blue eyes taking on a glazed look, as if he were deep in thought, his mind somewhere far away. "She was always so well organised, without even trying. Me? Well, let's just say that I'm surprised I've been able to manage this house for so many years."

"Me too!" Aislin joked, playfully punching his shoulder.

"Cheeky."

When nine o'clock rolled around, Aislin was exhausted. The lack of sleep the night before and the appearance of the dream had left her drained. She gave her father a good-night kiss on the cheek, then made her way up to bed, noticing how quickly the sky had grown dark as she shut her curtains.

As she went through all the motions of getting ready for bed, Aislin's mind wandered to the events of the next day, contrasting thoughts bouncing off the wall of her brain. For an entire two months now, Aislin had been looking forward to this day, and dreading it at the same time; now that it was almost upon her, nerves were beginning to set in, harder than ever. It made her jittery. On the one hand, she would be off to Hogwarts again, to the place that had accepted her – in one way, if not the other. On the other hand, there was those that attended the school, student and teacher alike. Even after five whole years attending the school, Aislin still managed to be as unpopular as when she had arrived, scared and alone, in her first year.

Maybe this year, for the first time, Ash could change that …


A/N: The much anticipated first chapter. Haha.
OK, so I know it's a little slow at the moment, but I wanted to squeeze in a little character history and the relationshop with her father.
It'll become pretty important later, I promise!
The pace will pick up soon - another promise!
So join me again soon, for chapter two: Aislin's worst nightmare will be realised!