Chapter 2: Surprise!

"Oh my God..." breathed Saria, hardly daring to believe her luck; "Mom's never going to go for this."

Slowly, almost dream-like, she rolled up the parchment and made to stand. The owl gave a hoot, to remind Saria he was there.

"Oh, right," she said more to herself than the owl. "What are we going to do with you?"

The owl continued to stare at her.

"Well, the letter says I have to 'owl' this Snape person back. I suppose that means I have to use an owl to get this to him?" The owl ruffled it's feathers in response. "Okay, well, I don't have an owl, so would you mind staying with me until I can give you a letter to send back?" The owl scooped its wings down, launching itself onto her shoulder. "I'll take that as a yes."

Slowly, and as gracefully as she could manage, Saria stood up, trying not to ruffle the owl. She pulled aside the sheet of willow branches and squinted out at the setting sun. Saria smiled, she loved sunsets in Colorado. The orange orb was not so bright that it hurt her eyes, and it cast red, orange and golden rays shooting through the sky. The clouds reflected the deep orange of the sun and the mountains stood tall and steady black shadows.

She stepped fully out of the tree and began to walk back to her suburban home.

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The light of the false twilight was fading as Saria turned the last corner onto her street. She looked shortly at the all too familiar houses that ran up and down the street. Sighing, she walked through her green lawn into a two-story white house.

The minute she opened the door a wave of noise swept over her. Two smaller brown haired figures ran past her almost knocking her down, screaming something about a cookie. She walked further into the house and up the stairs toward her room. She passed an open door where a blonde haired figure and a redhead were yelling at the TV, which had its volume turned all the way up. She walked past the second to last door of the hallway, and heard the stereo pounding through the walls.

Saria opened the door to her own room, at the very back of the house, and smiled. The noise was somehow kept out of her room and her headache was starting to clear up. She glances at the posters that covered her black walls.

"Well, I suppose you can use this as a perch" Saria said to the owl as she pointed to her chair. The owl hooted and then flapped over to the chair. "Now, on to bigger problems. What am I going to do about this?" she mumbled, waving the letter around.

She flopped down on her bed sighing. The owl looked curiously at her. "Oh I know!" she exclaimed.

Reaching under her bed, she pulled out a sleek black case. Slowly she unzipped it and pulled out her most prized possession. A laptop complete with Windows XP, 250 KB memory, CD burner, DVD drive and wireless Internet. She had saved for it for three long years and she never let it out of her sight.

She pulled up her word processor and began to type.

Her finished product looked like this:

PATERINA SCHOOL of the ARTS

Headmistress: Minerva McGonagall

Dear Ms. DeThome,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to the Paterina School of the Arts.

We await your acceptance letter by no later than July 31. Upon receiving this letter, we shall send you your list of school supplies and train ticket.

Yours Sincerely,

Severus Snape, Deputy Headmaster

Satisfied, Saria plugged in the connecter cable to the printer and printed out her letter.

"This should fool them nicely," Saria said to the owl as she left her room.

As Saria made her way to the kitchen, she shoved the Hogwarts letter into the pocket of her baggy boy's jeans.

Smiling as she prepared to tell her parents all about the 'Paterina School of the Arts', Saria entered the kitchen and stopped dead in her tracks.

The door swung shut behind her as Saria took in the strange scene the lay before her. There we her parents, sitting quietly at the table with large cups of coffee in the hands. Her fathers are lay on her mothers shoulders as she stared determinedly at the table, where Saria could see what looked like a rolled up piece of paper in her hands.

"Oh, hello Saria." said her dad in a dead sort of voice. "Nice to see you're home."

Saria thought she heard feathers rustling and whipped her head around, fearing the owl had followed her into the kitchen. There was an owl, sitting on the kitchen counter, but it was not the same one that had brought her letter. It was an overly large snowy old that looked very impatient about something. Saria's hear began to beat faster and beads of sweat formed in her hands as comprehension dawned on her.

"Saria, dear," said her mother in a shaky voice, "I believe we need to talk."