Three dozen owls hooted from the roof of the two-storey, brick house on Privet Drive.

The owls were for Miss Penny Dursley: a promising eleven-year-old witch, who had not confirmed her enrollment to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, despite her emerging magic.

Penny had begged her dad to go, she had even played the 'mum would've said yes' card. Her dad had sent her to play outside, making no other comment about Hogwarts or witches. He didn't like talking about why Mum's dresses were gone from their closet or why she never called them from Italy.

Her Grandpops Vernon didn't want her to go- point blank. Dad said that since 'Grandpops was paying the rent' and 'it was Grandpops' house' and 'the housing market was bad', if he said 'no Hogwarts', then no Hogwarts it would be. It was unfair!

Therefore, Penny spent the last evening of August welcoming dinner guests from her dad's firm, Grunnings. She'd been there once on 'take your child to work day' and watched Dad shake hands with stuffy people all day and drink out of a little tiny flask during his coffee breaks with a sour face. She asked him why he worked there, and he replied that it was the 'respectable thing to do' and 'the money was good'. Penny's dad was not happy selling drills. She hoped to grow up and work somewhere wonderful and fantastical, somewhere magical.

Penny knew she was special and didn't belong in a regular school. Her pigtails sparked like two wires when she was angry, and the ground beneath her feet would get wet and swampy when she was sad. Once, she was so happy about being invited to Mary Gardener's extra special sleepover that she floated into the air and landed on the roof of the garage.

Her Grandpops did not like her 'specialness' one bit. He said that proper girls belonged in Miss Perrigreen's Pensionnat while proper boys belonged in Smeltings. But Penny didn't want to stop being magical and go to a boarding school and wear boring grey skirts and learn maths and manners. She certainly didn't want to grow up and work at Grunnings to pay the rent and support from the housing market.

Penny had done her research - secretly asking her uncle Harry for some books on magic (which he gave her on condition of never telling her Grandpops). She knew the train to Hogwarts would leave from Kings Cross and that she'd have to run through a pillar to get to the platform 9 and 3/4. She knew she'd somehow have to buy magical textbooks and a familiar, but she figured she could do all that once she left Privet Drive- the hardest part of her escape plan.

She really wanted to go to Hogwarts. She had secretly packed her trunk and said goodbye to her brother Vinny, telling him that he could have her room come September (if he didn't rat her out to her Grandpops, that is). By tomorrow morning, only a miracle could get her to King's Cross station aboard the Hogwarts Express.

Penny, who'd been told to 'keep her dress clean' and 'sit pretty' by Grannie Petunia, had her nose pressed to the glass window in keen observation of the flying creatures. She stuck her sweaty palms under her armpits, heart beating with excitement, and called out, "Grandpops, they're back again."

The round old man rolled out of his chaise onto the front lawn with a newspaper in hand. He was dressed in a dated charcoal-grey suit, pressed to the nines, and stretched across his vast belly. A tiny white neckerchief peeped out of his pocket, as though waving its hand 'SOS' to no avail.

The only thing Grandpops hated more than magic was animals near the house. Taking this opportunity, Penny bolted upstairs, grabbed her jumper and trunk from her room.

Now, Penny's brother Vinny was there to watch the commotion. Grandpops Vernon stood in his house slippers in the yard, jumping in the air and waving the itsy-bitsy paper around himself yelling, "Shoo, pests! Scram!"

The owls cooed out of boredom, like they'd seen this show before. Some rocked on the garden swing while others perched on the roof, and the silver Vauxhall Vectra that waited patiently in the lot.

"I know what you're here for. No grandchild of mine is going to that bloody school!" Grandpops Vernon screeched. "Not when the biggest deal of my son's career is about to be made."

The owls gave him the 'winking eye'. Suddenly Vernon tossed the newspaper straight at the largest of the owls, the one that was black as a piece of coal with glittering blue eyes. The owl stumbled and tipped off its perch from the highest branch of the newly planted cherry tree.

This did not sit well with the others. In a moment, they swarmed around Vernon, picked him up by the coat and carried him up into the air.

"Damned vermin," Vernon screeched as the owls hoisted him higher and higher above the tiled roof of the house.

As her stout Grandpops was carried away, Penny bolted with her trunk towards the front door only to run face first into a stout lady with a tight tweed suit – the special guest.

"Child, how quick you are." Mrs Mason, who worked with her dad, squeezed Penny.

"Hello," Penny said curtly, squirming out.

Swiftly, Penny was handed a box wrapped in cellophane, and a peacoat, which replaced the trunk in Penny's hands, and was shoved into the kitchen. Behind Mrs Mason was her husband, a crooked man with lanky arms and a sour expression.

When the guests were out of sight, Penny rid herself of the coat, stuck the box into her pockets for later, grabbed her trunk and ran down the lawn. Grandpops' feet floated past her nose and Mrs Mason, who had probably come to the window to examine Grannie's garden, screamed.

Penny steeled herself away as the owls dropped Grandpops into a nearby rose bush and began to follow her down the empty, dark street. The swarmed around her, pecking her hair and clothes.

The black owl gave her an agressive look and hooted reluctantly, as if to say 'are you on our side?'.

"I need to get to King's Cross station," she said. "So help me-"

The owl cocked its head, squinted and then flew over and bit Penny's nose. She squealed as the creature tore at her red hair.

"Stop!" Penny yelled. "Im sorry!"

The owl did stop but not without grabbing a tuft of her red hair.

Grandpops Vernon, a face full of thorns, ran closer. "Penny. Get in the house-"

"Please owls, please help!" Penny begged the owls. Godfather Harry's books said they were supposed to be wizards' friends.

Suddenly, she had an idea. Taking the smelly tupperware box out of her pocket, she pulled off the cellophane to reveal smoked salmon on little slices of bread. The owls stopped for a moment to sniff at the treat.

"Want this?" Penny picked up the fish and wiggled it in the air. Yes was the resounding answer.

"Bring me to King's Cross."

Suddenly, her feet left the ground and the air tickles her ears as the owls hoist her into the sky. One loose hook and she'd be smudged on the floor like a pancake. As long as it's not back to Privet Drive, up is fine!

Suddenly, a familiar man's hand grabbed her ankles.

"Pen! Pen!" Her dad was out of breath, but he clung to her, dragging her down to the ground.

Penny kicked her feet, shaking him off before they flew up too high.

"-you can't!"

But she could and she was. Penny's mind was made up and she's not going to let her dad hold her back.

"Don't let her get away!" yelled Grandpops.

The swarm of owls struggled to fly higher. One moment more and Penny was going to be spending September in Mrs Perrigreen's.

"I want go," she hollered, not caring one bit that she sounds like a spoiled toddler. "I want to go, I want to-"

"Penny Dursley!"

Then, a weight in the form of Grandpops Vernon pulled the chain of people even lower to the ground.

"Pen are you mad? You're going to fall," dad yelled. "Be sensible-"

"Why can't you trust me with something for once," Penny yelled. "I'll belong in Hogwarts-"

"I do trust you, but-"

"I won't allow it!" Grandpops bellowed. "Silly girl. You'll go to Mrs Perrigreen's and have a swell time. You have your own room, your own uniform, and new patent leather shoes!"

Her dad clutched her ankles tighter.

"You let her go to that blasted school Dudley and mark my words," Grandpops continued. "I swear that I will never have her back under my roof again. I don't need any more witches on Privet Drive."

Dad considered the words and looked up at her. "Penny-"

Penny looked at her dad too and a big angry red bubble burst inside her chest. "I hate you. I HATE you both. I wish I lived with mum. Bet she wouldn't have made me stay at your stupid party for stupid boring people."

Dad looked at her, eyes glistening. Penny'd never seen his eyes look like that- all watery and sad. He let go of her feet. In a mad tumble, both men fell into a shrub. Grandpops Vernon screamed loudly, but her dad didn't say a word. Penny and her trunk disappeared into the moonlit sky.

Her ankles felt light, and sparks flew through every part of her body, urging her excitement on. She had done it!

The ground below was a speck and the people were smaller than ants. Before Penny knew it, she had been swallowed by the clouds. They drifted through the night, sometimes stopping for a break on a rooftop or a park. By sunrise, Penny could see the roof of King's Cross station ahead of her.

The owls lowered her to the ground. Not knowing what to do, she curtsied to the creatures and blew them a little kiss goodbye. The owls flapped up to a rooftop to rest and Penny lugged her trunk in search of a trolley.

She was really here.

Looking around, she bit her lip. All alone in a crowd of unfamiliar faces, she found herself wishing she had someone to guide her to the train to Hogwarts.

Suddenly, a giant emerged from the sea of strangers.

"It seems someone is missing," the giant said, reading a paper that looked miniscule in his giant hands. "Miss Penny Dursley. If it ain't the same Dursley I once zapped a pig's tail on."

"I'm Penny," said the little redhead, hair in a mad frenzy from the flight over and covered with owl feathers.

The giant squinted his eyes before breaking into a broad smile. "Yer really here!"

He grabbed her trunk and motioned for her to walk through the red brick wall between the platforms. Penny took a deep breath, swallowed, and stepped through the wall. She half-expected to end up with a huge bump on her head, but it was as though the wall hadn't even been there! Her mouth fell agape when the real platform was revealled: dozens of strangers kissed their children goodbye, loaded magical pets in cages into the train and chattered about 'Daily Prophets' and 'Quidditch'.

Suddenly, Penny's knees grew weak and she felt as though she might collapse. Giant crocodile tears pool in her eyes and she wiped her nose with the edge of her hand.

"Yeh going to stand there all day missy? Come along now." The giant hands Penny's trunk to a train attendant who makes it float inside the car. "Ey, you wee one…yeh alright?"

Penny shook her head, her sobs getting louder.

"Miss Penny, yeh aint got to be so frightened," the giant said. "Yeh've been real brave to come here all by yerself, yeh have. Not many a girl can boast that."

"I-I've made a really big mistake," Penny said, sniffling. "I shouldn't have come here at all."

The last thing she'd ever said to her dad was that she hated him, and now, she was never going to have a chance to say sorry. For the first time, in a long time, Penny began to really cry. She wished for a moment that she were going to Miss Perrigreen's, if only not to see her dad's wet eyes looking at her.

"M-my dad hates m-me. He's never going to want t-to see me again."

The giant rubbed her back, but it only made her cry harder because she remembered that's what her dad used to do every night after mum left.

"I don't know yer dad all too well, but I can tell yeh it would hurt him more to see his girl crying like yeh are." The giant handed her a handkerchief. "Cheer up now."

Penny wiped her eyes and nose. She did feel a bit better with the backrubs and the friendly man standing by her. Maybe he was right.

"Can I sit with you?" she asked. "I-I don't know anybody here."

"Might be mighty bumpy sitting in the front of the train. Lots of smoke and dirt too by the tender."

"I don't mind bumpy. Don't care about getting my clothes dirty either." Penny watched the last of the kids get on the train, hugging their mums and dads goodbye. She took the giant's hands and boarded the train wondering if she'll make any friends at all here; wondering if she's made the right choice.

Whatever adventure awaited her in Hogwarts, it would be far from ordinary.