Elissa rolled out of bed and dropped onto the floor. She laughed when she looked in the mirror. Her hair was unruly and looked frighteningly like a hedgehog. She concentrated very hard, and it began to slowly de-frizz.
She changed quickly into some Muggle jeans and her faded Chudley Cannons t-shirt. Closing the door to her room behind her, she rocketed down the stairs.
Her mom was in the kitchen making breakfast. "Morning," said Elissa, and she continued out through the door.
The early sunlight was just beginning to light up the surrounding fields. Elissa raced to the shed.
She opened the door quietly, making sure her mom didn't hear. She tiptoed inside, reaching around on the nearby counter for her father's old wand. When she found it, she muttered, "Lumos."
She knew her parents wouldn't be happy if they ever found out what she really did in the shed. They were convinced she just liked to explore.
Just a few days earlier, she'd received her Hogwarts acceptance letter. She'd known for years that she'd be going; once she had managed to make her pet cat, normally black, turn a bright shade of green. Since then, she'd been doing small amounts of magic behind her parents' backs (besides her normal manner of changing her appearance). She didn't think the Ministry noticed if young witches and wizards performed magic at home before they went to school…
She rummaged around in the shed for a moment until she came upon her mom's old broom.
It was old. The twigs on the tail were starting to shed, but she'd been able to swipe a copy of a broomstick care manual from the family room. After she trimmed the bushy tail and polished it up a bit, it was as handsome as it would ever be.
She carried the old broom out of the shed very carefully. Stowing her father's old wand in her back pocket for safe-keeping, she wandered around the house and into the cluster of trees nearest to her home.
Elissa mounted the broomstick and kicked off from a large rock. It wobbled for a moment at a foot off the ground, and started to rise slowly.
"Come on," she murmured when the broom shuddered and threatened to stall. "Don't give out on me!"
Elissa leaned forward, and the broom slowly started to move again. Gritting her teeth, she egged it on through the trees. When she was sure no one in her house could see her, she started to gather more speed. Her stomach did a summersault as she did a small dive. She was tempted to give a shout of joy, but she conquered the impulse.
The trees zoomed by as she urged the broom forward. She hoped she wouldn't be late…
A small clearing came into view. She slowed the broom down and landed. No one was there.
"He better not forget," she grumbled.
"Forget what?"
Elissa wheeled around. "You made it!" she exclaimed.
A boy was standing at the edge of the trees, clutching a broom of his own. It was slightly shabbier than hers.
"Duh," he said, laughing. "Did you think I'd get caught or something?"
Elissa grinned. "It's good to see you, Mac."
"You, too, Liss."
Mac had reddish-blond hair and a strong jaw. He beamed at her.
"Now what do you want to do?" asked Elissa.
"I don't know. Let's go for a ride in the woods."
She and Mac had planned this for a long time. They had last seen each other at a party thrown by Mac's parents. They knew they wouldn't be seeing each other until probably the start of term at Hogwarts.
Elissa nodded and mounted her broom. She kicked off. This time, the broom didn't shudder at all as she rose.
She turned to watch Mac. He sped by her, his hair flying everywhere.
"Hey!" said Elissa. She shot forward, gaining on him quickly. "What are you doing?"
"Racing you!" said Mac, laughing. He leaned forward, making his broom go even faster. Elissa laughed and urged her broom to burst toward him.
The gap was closed quickly. "What broom are you riding?" asked Mac as Elissa pulled up beside him.
"It's an old Cleansweep, nothing like the new brooms out," said Elissa. "What about you?"
"Mine is a Shooting Star! Piece of rubbish, if you ask me… They should have named them 'Stupid Stars'."
Elissa laughed.
They rode through the woods for a while longer, dodging trees.
"So…how's life?"
"I got my Hogwarts acceptance letter a few days ago," said Elissa.
"Me too!" exclaimed Mac. "I hope I'm in Gryffindor…I suppose Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff would be okay, too."
"I bet I'm in Ravenclaw," sighed Elissa. "But it would be great to be in Gryffindor since my parents were."
"Well, I just don't want to be in Slytherin," growled Mac. "I think I'd die."
"Slytherins aren't all bad," defended Elissa. "They have a bad reputation with a lot of people, but some of my parents' closest friends were Slytherins."
Mac shrugged. "Still, some of the Slytherins that I know look like a motley crew. I don't know if I would want that kind of reputation...no offense to them or anything."
"True," added Elissa.
"It would be fun to be a Hufflepuff because they're a friendly bunch. I'm sure I would get along with them all really easily."
Elissa shrugged. Truthfully, she thought it would be awesome to be in any of the four houses. Even Slytherin would be great. All had produced outstanding witches and wizards.
"I'm going to try out for the Quidditch team," she said.
"Yeah, I want to try out, too. I just wish we were allowed to bring our own broom."
Elissa shrugged. "I've been flying my entire life. I know that first years rarely make the team, but still..." Her voice trailed off into nothingness.
"I think you would be able to make the team," said Mac in a hushed voice.
Elissa beamed. "Really?"
"Yeah," said Mac, smiling at Elissa. "You're a great flier."
"I hope we're in the same house," she said with a sigh. "And on the same team and everything..." She looked at Mac desperately.
"We will be," he said with confidence. He didn't look at her when he said it, but she knew that he meant what he said.
There was silence. Coldness and fear seemed to envelop them. She wanted so badly to be with her best friend when they finally attended Hogwarts...
Then she realized...
That cold wasn't just in her imagination...
"Dementors!" she gasped.
They stopped their brooms. Mac glanced at Elissa worriedly. "What do we do? We can't do magic yet! They'll crush us like flobberworms..."
Elissa drew her father's old wand and looked around wildly. "We should land. But keep your broomstick by you in case we need to make a quick escape." She descended and touched down with an inaudible thump.
There were noises from behind tall undergrowth. Someone was speaking...
Elissa crept closer, peering through the bushes.
"Come back here!" hissed Mac.
Wielding her wand like a dagger, she could barely make out a tall man speaking with two Dementors...
"You have served them long enough... The wizards have forced you to guard that awful prison... It is time to rebel..."
But before she could hear more, Elissa's breath seemed to freeze in her throat. Cold and despair washed over her, and she turned slowly.
One Dementor was closing in on her and Mac. She pointed her wand at it, her hand shaking madly. "I'm warning you," she said in a small voice. "Don't come closer..."
Her voice caught. It was hopeless, all was hopeless... She was going to die, no, she was going to suffer something worse than death... The Dementor was drawing near... Her vision was fuzzing around the edges, her body going limp.
No.
She clenched her fist around her wand, forcing herself to stay upright.
"Help... Help..." She couldn't make her voice work, it was a feeble little sound, no louder than a gentle summer breeze...
Mac was going to fall to the forest floor, he was slipping, slipping, slipping, the Dementor advancing, gliding toward him...
"Help me..." It was a whisper, no one could hear, no one would come, they would die here...
"Lumos!"
WHOOSH.
Light erupted before Elissa's eyes. It blinded the Dementor, keeping it away just long enough. She grabbed Mac and his broom and shoved him onto the Cleansweep behind her. She leaped from the ground, and the forest fell away. Speeding through the canopy, the air was becoming warmer. The sun was shining through the leaves, she savored the heat, they would be okay, they were going to live...
Finally, it was the forest clearing where they had met. She landed with a crash, and Mac tumbled unceremoniously to the ground. Elissa was sprawled on all fours, vomiting onto the clean grass. Mac was stirring.
"You saved us both..."
Elissa sputtered uselessly. "But how... No..."
"You held it off... saved my life..."
They were crying, sobbing into each other. Finally, they wiped away their tears.
"That was the bravest thing anyone has ever done for me," said Mac quietly. "Elissa... I... Thank you."
Elissa nodded curtly. She didn't know what to say. After all, she had just barely managed that one bit of magic. It had been a simple accident, a simple, lucky, accident.
"Who was that man?" asked Elissa. "Hanging out with Dementors..."
"I dunno," answered Mac. "But if they're the only friends he could find, he must have a depressing life..."
Elissa giggled feebly. It wasn't so scary now that they were away from the cold.
"I'll need to get going," said she said, still smiling. She pushed off from the ground on her Cleansweep and soared toward the trees. "I'll send you an owl as soon as I can. If we don't see each other before September first..." She grinned. "Then I'll see you at Hogwarts."
She shot forward, weaving through the trees with increasing confidence. Her adventure with Mac was replaying through her mind, but she couldn't stop thinking about how she had done that magic to hold off the Dementor... It was thrilling to remember, and surely her mother hadn't noted her absence yet...
The house came into view, and she hopped onto the ground, landing in a sprint for the shed. And she almost made it, too.
"Elissa?"
Elissa stopped in her tracks. She attempted to hide the Cleansweep behind her back. "Yes, Mother?"
"What are you doing with that broomstick?"
Elissa shifted uncomfortably, not daring to look at her mother, silhouetted in the kitchen window. "Well, er, I don't suppose you've ridden it recently, have you? It's quite a good broom, seems a shame it should gather dust in the shed…"
"Have you been flying on it?!" cried her mother, outraged.
"I suppose you could say that, but it was more of a short excursion."
"ELISSA MARIETTA BRADSHAW!"
Elissa flinched. It could never mean something good when her parents used her full name. "Yes?" she said rather hesitantly.
"You should never use magical items without my or your father's—IS THAT YOUR FATHER'S OLD WAND?!"
Elissa shuffled her feet awkwardly. "Well, he never uses it. And it's not like I'd break it or something."
"Have you been doing magic? LOOK AT ME WHEN I AM SPEAKING TO YOU!"
Elissa looked up slowly at her mother. "Mom, all I can do is the Lumos thingy—"
"I don't care if you can do a Confundus Charm, you—"
"What's a—"
"Don't interrupt! You have just broken the Restriction for Underage Wizardry! You could be thrown out of Hogwarts!"
"But I haven't even been there yet!"
"You did magic!"
"Mom! I don't think they notice if magic is done by someone who hasn't started school yet, I've been doing it for ages!"
Her mother looked as if she was about to faint. "Ages? But I thought that time—with Hobgob's fur—that was the only time…You turned him green! And then there's the... the... change-y thing that you do..."
At any other time, Elissa would have laughed. "Well…yeah. I figured it would be okay if I did a little more…I mean…you know…I read some of your old school text books…It looked fun."
Her mother shook her head, her face as pale as a ghost. "Liss…"
Elissa sighed. When her mother called her by her nickname, it usually meant the yelling was over. "Sorry," she said quietly.
"I don't think you realize how serious this is," said her smother sadly. "I'm so disappointed in you."
Elissa felt her spirits drop. "I'm sorry, I really am."
Apparently unable to speak, her mother only shook her head and withdrew farther into the house, shutting the window behind her.
Elissa walked slowly to the shed and stowed the Cleansweep. She took out her father's old wand and stared at it for a moment, and then put it back in her pocket. "What she doesn't know won't hurt her…"
She stalked back into the house, avoiding the kitchen, and dragged herself onto her bed.
She took out the wand and admired it. It was like an old friend. Even though she couldn't do substantial magic with it, she felt stronger having it with her. It made her feel like she could do things...
She kneeled on the floor and stashed it under her bed. Smiling to herself mischievously, she crouched down and crawled to one of the corners of her room.
Her house had been old when they first moved in eight years ago. They had done many renovations, but it still had some of its old charm.
Elissa put her hand onto a particularly worn plank of wood and pushed. A small hole, just big enough for someone to crawl through, swung open.
She shot a furtive look over her shoulder, hoping her mother wouldn't need her for a while, and squeezed through it.
The passage was small and dark, but she'd learned not to be afraid. She followed it along until it opened up into a very small room, hardly the size of her twin-sized bed. She scooted to the middle and made herself comfortable.
The events from several minutes earlier seemed to dissolve in the engulfing quiet. She found herself letting her mind wander…
Mac's family was pure-blooded, but they never mentioned it. They were kind, decent people. He had two younger sisters and a younger brother, just a toddler. They had known the Bradshaws for what seemed like forever…
She was back in the forest clearing, the Cleansweep clutched tightly in one hand, her father's wand in the other. She walked forward, glancing from side to side warily. Something was watching her…
She wandered slowly farther into the woods, occasionally glancing over her shoulder.
Something moved in the bushes. She whipped around, holding out the wand in a threatening way. She searched the underbrush curiously.
She turned away, but suddenly, there it was: a pair of big, yellow eyes, staring at her from the shadows…
"Elissa! Elissa!"
Elissa stirred. She blinked.
"ELISSA!" called her mother.
The world came crashing down on her. She scrambled to a sitting position and dragged herself through the passage. "Coming!" she said.
She emerged into her bedroom and quickly sealed off the hole, touching the worn wooden plank.
Her mother banged on the door. "We're going to Diagon Alley."
Elissa could tell her mom was still unhappy about the broom incident, but the thought of visiting her favorite place (besides the woods near her house) made her stomach jump. "'Kay, I'm getting ready!"
She rummaged in her closet for something slightly less casual than her fraying old Chudley Canons shirt. She found several shirts that she'd forgotten she had, including one that had "RODERICK PLUMPTON" written in all caps and one that had a moving picture of a wand shooting out different colored sparks.
She decided on a green shirt with a large Golden Snitch pictured on the front, and she slipped into her best traveling robes. She rocketed out the door and down the stairs, nearly running into her younger sister, Fedora.
"Sorry," she muttered, and slipped around her. She ambled into the kitchen.
Her father was sitting at the table, sipping a mug of butterbeer.
"Hi, Dad," she said.
"Sit down," he said, gesturing to the empty seats. "It'll be a while before we leave."
Elissa chose a seat on the opposite side of the table. She didn't know if he was angry at her for using his old wand…
"I heard you rode your mother's Cleansweep into the woods," he said casually.
"Er," said Elissa.
"How'd it go?" asked her father, lowering his voice. "It used to ride well, but it might have warped over time."
Elissa searched her fathers face for some sort of resentment, but she saw none. There was a playful glint in his eyes.
"It was great! I love to fly, it's amazing!"
"And my old wand?" he continued. "Did it work for you?"
"Yeah," whispered Elissa, grinning. "I can't wait to get my own…will we get it today?"
"As far as I know." Her father set down his mug. "Don't say anything to her yet, I'm sure your mom wouldn't mind if you wanted to take that old Cleansweep to school…"
Elissa laughed. "First years aren't allowed a broom! And besides, I really want a Firebolt…"
"A Firebolt?" said her dad, looking at her. He knitted his brow. "Those are really expensive." He lost himself in thought, mumbling occasionally.
Seeing that her father had finished talking, Elissa rose and walked out of the kitchen and into the washroom. She shut the door and gazed into the mirror.
She smiled, and her eyes flashed blue for a moment. Her hair, naturally golden brown, lightened slightly into a reddish tint.
The one thing that made Elissa most proud was the fact that she was a Metamorphmagus.
She walked back out into the side hallway. "I'm ready."
Her mom emerged from the kitchen. She looked slightly rumpled and still angry about earlier. "Alright, let me get Fedora and we can leave."
All four of them gathered around the fireplace after several minutes, and Elissa's father stepped into the hearth. "Diagon Alley!" he said, throwing Floo Powder downward. A flash of emerald flames engulfed him, and he was gone.
Elissa went next. She took a fistful of Floo Powder and stepped onto the place her father had stood on just a moment before. "Diagon Alley!"