A/N- This is chapter 3! Hope your enjoying Twins. Please read, review, favorite and follow! Thanks to everyone who has followed already!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
I battle my insomnia all night long. I hardly ever sleep, I am too afraid of what I'll see when I close my eyes. I read book after book after book. Science-fiction, romance, mystery it doesn't matter, I just absorb it all, forgetting my own troubles for a brief moment. I read travel guides, fact books and cookery books. Nobody knows but me, and perhaps the librarian, whom I think has gotten suspicious of my daily visits.
I wake at dawn the next morning, my face pressed into a copy of 'Greece: The Trip of a Lifetime' and tiptoe down the stairs. It's too late to try and go back to sleep, yet too early for my parents to be up. In my hand I carry the letter, I think I'm brave enough to open it now – I've dealt with enough bad news and false hope this year, it could hardly make me feel any worse….
I slide a knife across the top, opening it neatly. Rowan would have torn it open right away, the moment he found it on the window ledge… But I'm not Rowan. I'm weaker, I'm afraid. Slowly, carefully, my hands trembling, I slide the thick parchment out of the envelope.
It reads as follows:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF
WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Ms. Granger,
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,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
At first I'm stunned, I read it again and again and yet again. I think it's a joke, a trick, a prank, it's exactly the kind of thing that Rowan would do. I turn, half expecting him to pop out from behind the sofa. With an ache in my heart I am forced to remember that Rowan isn't here, not anymore. No one else would do something like this to me. My parents are too wrapped up in their own grief and the dental surgery. My friends I've stopped talking to, their silly chatter completely irrelevant to me now. I don't know our neighbours, the serious old couple that live to the left or the Polish family that live to the right. I rack my brains but can't think of anyone else.
It can't be real a school, for witchcraft and wizardry? It just can't. Can it? Words like Mugwump and Merlin…they're not in the dictionary. Magic isn't real, it's just made up, simply fairytales and myths. There are no sorcerers, witches or wizards. Hogwarts? There can't be a school for witchcraft or wizardry. What do they mean anyway "we await your owl".
"I knew you'd open it eventually" says a soft voice. I scream and drop the envelope. Standing in my kitchen, is what I can only describe as a wizard. He has an impossibly long silver beard, which is tucked into a large leather belt. His emerald robes are embroidered with moons and stars. His blue eyes twinkle kindly behind half-moon shaped spectacles. Those eyes…they are staring at me with such intent, it's almost as if he's x-raying me, staring straight into my mind, my soul. He's old, so impossibly old, he could be Santa Clause or perhaps Father Time. His face is so wizened and wrinkled it's almost like elephant skin.
He speaks gently "I'm so sorry for your loss Ms. Granger, your brother was a fine young man, such a shame, such a terrible shame..."
"How do…how do you know my name? How did you find out about Rowan…I think I'll just….MU-" Then all of a sudden it's as if a pillow has been clamped over my mouth. I can't speak, I can't scream.
"Now, now we don't want to alarm your mother". His voice is soft and calming. "I am Professor Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You, Ms. Granger are indeed a witch."
"But Sir," I protest, "magic and all that is made up, it's nonsense…."
He nods and rests his head on his hands, then "I think I'll make a mug of tea, I've always enjoyed the Muggle drink"
He pulls out what looks like a polished stick from his robes and flicks it through the air. The kettle rises up and fills itself. The teacup and saucer spin themselves through the air into his outstretched hand. The tea caddy unscrews its lid and a teabag flies into the cup.
I stand, watching carefully, my mouth settled in a perfect O shape.
"I'll think you'll find magic is quite real, my dear" He says, "and you are most certainly a witch. How else do you explain your, as you and your brother put it, powers?"
I shrug, but inside of me, it's as if a light as been switched on where darkness was before, illuminating my body, for the first time since Rowan, I feel alive.
"At Hogwarts, you will be trained in the art of witchcraft, you will learn to control your talent and perform magic. You belong the world of magic, Ms. Granger. Now I shall tell your parents the good news and meanwhile you can enjoy your breakfast."
"Their bedroom is the second on the left upstairs." I say faintly.
"I know Ms. Granger, I know" he says, winking as he disappears.
