Chapter 4 Aunt Joan's arrival

Felicity stood at the water's edge letting the wind blow her hair wildly about behind her. The late afternoon sun blazed orange in the western sky. Little waves rippled up onto the shandy shore, making the sound of a sink whose faucet had been left dripping. It was nearly supper-time.

As she turned to climb up the low dune that separated the edge of the water from the cottage, something in the western sky caught her attention. At first she thought it was a bird or a small airplane, but, as it came closer, she could tell it was a person.

Then, at once, it came into view. It was her Aunt Joan riding an old-fashioned broom, the kind Felicity had only seen in picture books. It had a wooden handle and straw out the back.

"Hellooo..." Aunt Joan waved as she came in over the cottage. She landed gently in front of Felicity, kicking up a bit of sand as her feet touched the ground.

Aunt Joan was a bit older than Felicity's father, perhaps 50 or so. She wore her dark brown hair pulled back and had the Stockwell green eyes. She wore a dark purple dress, which complimented her figure. Felicity guessed her aunt had not changed much since girlhood. Joan was a pleasant, if somewhat chatty, woman with a quick smile and an independent spirit about her. She was Felicity's favorite relative and Joan returned the favor.

Attached to the handle of the broom, by means of string, were a number of parcels, all carefully wrapped in brown craft paper.

"Hello, Felicity," Aunt Joan said, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. "I must say it is nice to be able to fly to see you now. I never did care for the train, you know. And flying is so much more pleasant a way to travel, except, of course, when it's raining."

Felicity now realized why so few members of the Stockwell family ever drove anywhere or, for that matter, even owned a car.

They started walking towards the cottage. Behind them followed the broom, like a flying dog, floating along about three feet off the ground.

"So, Felicity," her aunt said, "have you tried flying yet?"

"No." Felicity said. "I didn't know I could."

"Well!" replied Aunt Joan in a cheery voice. "I'll just have to teach you then. It is ever so nice and this is the perfect place to learn, with the wind and the beach and all. In fact, this is where Mother taught me when I was a girl." She winked at Felicity, "Of course, I'm still a girl at heart, you know."

Felicity giggled and so did Aunt Joan.

After supper, Aunt Joan brought out the boxes that she had brought with her.

"Every young witch needs a few things to start school with" she announced.

The idea of being called a witch struck Felicity funny, for while she now knew she was a witch, no one had yet called her that.

"Here you go." Her aunt passed her a small slender box. "I picked this up in England a couple of years ago. I knew you would be needing one soon."

Felicity opened the box; inside was a wand made of wood, about 10 inches long. She held it up and gave it a swish in front of her. At once, all of the sheet music on the piano across the room fell off onto the floor.

"Oops," Felicity said, blushing.

"Careful with that thing," her mother warned.

The next box contained a rather heavy black wool cape. It had belonged to her great-grandmother, according to Joan. "I had it cleaned and fixed up for you, dear," she said, clearly proud at having found and restored the old cape to usable condition.

"You'll want it when it comes winter up in Salem," her aunt continued. "Those old school buildings can get cold in the winter and, besides that, you may find the cape is able to do some useful things," she said with a smile.

Her father then appeared with a box. Inside was clothing. "There are several other sets of these for you," he said.

It was a Salem Academy uniform.

Salem Academy still used a very traditional school uniform. It was a light-blue oxford shirt with a charcoal-grey pleated skirt and dark-blue knee-length socks. In addition, there was either a grey sweater vest with dark-blue trim or a dark-blue blazer with the school's crest on the left-hand breast.

The school crest was shaped like a shield. At the top were clouds with lightning bolts coming from them; under that was the stump of an oak tree with a single new shoot holding two oak leave and an acorn. Above the crest, the school motto was inscribed in Latin: "Novus Vita" or "New Life."

Also in the box was a light-yellow tie. Felicity held it up.

"It's your class year tie," her father said. "Each class at Salem is identified by the color of its tie. Yellow is for the Entered class."

The classes, Felicity's father then explained, each had a name and color attached. The Entered or Freshman class was yellow; The Apprentice or Sophomore class wore green ties; the Fellowcraft or Junior class wore blue; and, finally, the Master or Senior class wore red.

"Let's see you in your uniform," her mother urged.

Felicity went upstairs to change and came down a few minutes.

"The skirt's too long," Joan said immediately. "Just because you have to wear a uniform all the time doesn't mean you need to look dowdy."

"Dowdy?" Felicity asked.

"It means old-fashioned," her mother said.

Her grandfather then stood up. He handed her a small flat box. "This is for you," he said.

Felicity took out another tie. This one was gold with red diagonal stripes. She looked puzzled. After all, hadn't her father just said that each of the classes had ties that matched their class colors?

"Most of the time," Grandpa said, "you have to wear you class color tie; but on Sundays at church and on some other special occasions, you may wear one of your own choosing."

"I can assure you, Felicity, you will see some very unusual ties," her aunt grinned.

Her grandfather continued in a more serious tone. "But it is supposed to be special tie; one that means something special to you. This tie belonged to your great-grandfather in England, Adieus Weasly. It is a Gryffindor tie from Hogwarts School. Treat it well; there are not many of them in this country."

Felicity looked down at the tie. The gold thread seemed to give off a slight glow as she ran her fingers over it.

"Gryffindor," Felicity said in a whisper.