A/N: There's two quick things I'd like to say. Firstly, there is an error in timing in part 1 where I mention it is 'early August' for Cara. That should actually say 'late July'. Secondly, thank you so so much to everyone who has taken their time to read my story, as well as to my first follower and favourite! You have no idea how much it means to me, the only way I can really express it is via more story! So here's chapter two. Enjoy!

Cara didn't feel any better about that answer.

"I'm not going to no school. They'll put me in a Home. Anyway, how'd you even find me?"

"The school I teach at isn't like an ordinary school. We have ways of locating children like you."

"Locating children like me? What does that mean?" Cara asked scowling.

"You're not like these other people, who we call Muggles. You're a witch Cara."

Cara couldn't help it, she laughed, "Is that meant to be an insult?" Then she noticed that the man looked deadly serious, which only made her laugh harder.

"My god, you actually believe what you're saying. Do I look like a green skinned lady to you?" she shook her head in disbelief.

"That's just a Muggle invention. We don't look any different to anyone else, but we are. We have the ability to use magic. I teach at a school called Hogwarts, where we teach you how to use it."

Cara looked at him incredulously. "You're crazy. Muggle? Hogwarts? What kind of made up crap is this? Have you taken something?" she asked shrewdly. Some of the teenagers in the house she squatted in took drugs, and their hallucinations certainly weren't very normal.

The old man didn't answer her. Instead he reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out an envelope, which he held out for her. Cara wasn't quite sure why she didn't just turn around and leave this mad man but something was holding her in place. Perhaps it was the conviction of this man's belief that he was talking sense, he'd even gone to the trouble to provide apparent 'proof'.

She took the envelope, it was heavier than she expected and made out of a weird parchment type material. It wasn't sealed the usual way, but instead had an old fashioned wax seal, with some type of crest in the red. She turned it over, and almost dropped the envelope in shock.

Miss

The Left Corner of the Living Room

65 Angels Close

Brixton

London

"What the hell…" she said slowly, under her breath. How on earth could this random old man know where she lived so precisely? She tore the envelope open, 2 sheets of the same parchment paper as the envelope fell out. One seemed to be some kind of list but Cara ignored that and focused on the one that was addressed to her.

Dear Miss Brock,

We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.

Yours sincerely,

Bruce Bones

Deputy Headmaster

She looked at the other letter, and found it was indeed a list of equipment. But it wasn't anything that could be found on a normal school list and instead listed things such a cauldron, a pointed hat, a book of 'standard' spells and a wand. It wasn't until she looked up at the old man, who had been standing by silently as she read the envelope and its contents, that she realised her mouth was open, and quickly closed it.

"It's detailed I'll give you that," she said, shaking the papers she held in her hand. "And I have no idea how you know so much about who I am and where I live, but there is no way this crap is true. It's some stupid elaborate prank and I'm not falling for it."

The old man looked sad.

"Have you never done things you can't explain? Strange things that have happened to you that seem out of the ordinary?"

Cara's mind immediately went to only a couple of hours earlier, when she had scaled that tall fence with such ease. Then she shook her head. Fluke's happened. It didn't have an explanation as crazy as magic.

"We're done here." Cara said firmly, jumping off the wall. She pulled on her coat and shoved the papers into her pocket. "Go bother someone else. And stay away from me."

"I can't show you proof here, there are too many Muggles around. But I'm not lying Cara. You are a witch and Hogwarts is a real place." He pulled another piece of paper out of his pocket and held it out to her.

"This is a map which leads to a place called Diagon Alley. You'll be able to buy everything on the school list there. I'll send off an owl telling our Headmistress you'll be attending. I hope you do dear."

His sincerity and her own curiosity got the better of her and Cara grabbed the map from him. But she still couldn't believe what he said. It sounded too far-fetched for a person like her, who'd grown up being untrusting and a harsh sceptic. She strode away from him, not bothering to say anything. She walked in the opposite direction to where she lived in case he followed her. She'd only taken a few steps when she realised this was pointless. He already knew exactly where she lived. She turned around to take a last look at him, but to her surprise and disconcertment, he'd vanished. She turned her head left and right but he was nowhere to be seen. Frowning she carried on walking, head down, hands in her pockets, her right one curled around the papers she'd been given.

Cara spent a good half an hour walking before she returned to her squat. The entire time, the only thought that had been in her head was a determination to not believe a single word of what she'd just been told. But his sincerity… he hadn't really seemed mad at all. But then Cara thought about his mismatched clothing, the jacket that was probably stolen, talk of magic and witches. It couldn't be real. It simply couldn't be.

The teenager Cara had been looking for earlier had returned and Cara quickly pulled the phones from her hiding spot and went over to the seventeen year old. The girl looked impressed as she examined each one and passed them to her friends.

"These are in good shape. Don't look like they've been 'andled very much at all. Where'd you get 'em?"

Cara shrugged, best not to give away her sources, other kids were listening in.

"I'll give you £150 for them." Cara snorted.

"No way, that's three iPhones you have there. Worth £400 at least."

"Yeah, but they're also outdated models, £200 then."

"£350." Cara countered and the older girl smiled, but her eyes glittered dangerously.

"You drive a hard bargain kid. "£300 take it or leave it." Cara decided to take it. She didn't want to push the teenager, who had a dangerous temper that Cara had once witnessed her take out on another one of the kids. It hadn't been pretty. The girl nodded to one of her friends who counted out the agreed amount in cash and handed it over to Cara. She watched the other people in the room, who were eyeing her newly acquired money with obvious longing. Cara made eye contact with all of them, as she clutched the cash in her hands, her eyes narrowed and her lips set in a slight scowl. Her message was clear. That money was hers and there would be trouble from anyone who tried to take it. Cara had lived rough for a lot longer than a lot of the kids and teenagers in this place and she knew how to handle herself. She made her way back to her corner. She placed the money in her coat pockets instead of her hiding place because a lot of people were still watching her. As she did her hands brushed past the papers the old man had given her earlier. She had momentarily forgotten about them, and gazed at the acceptance letter without really reading it.

Cara had spent her entire life in relative poverty and squalor. If she was supposedly magical, then all those times terrible things had happened, shouldn't she have been able to get out of them? Conjour food when she was starving, keep warm when she was freezing, take a bath when she was filthy. But of course, she couldn't, because magic didn't exist. It didn't. It just couldn't.