The dawn of the day before Celia's first day of Hogwarts was like none she had ever seen before. Well she hadn't really seen many dawns to compare it to, really, but as sunrises go, Celia was sure this one was one of the best.
She lay on her bed watching the darkness slowly dispelled as sunlight warmed through the windows. Unable to go to sleep, Celia thought back on the last week and a half when she got her letter. She and her parents had talked at length and now the family was as close as ever and excited about this new turn of events. They had visited Professor McGonagall and discovered that she had no explanation for the lateness of her letter. Apparently the letters to the first year students were magically generated based on the students receptiveness to all things magical. The best conjectures she had were that, A: there had been a mistake (highly unlikely) or B: that the spell had seen fit to include her this year rather than at the accustomed age. There were no rules specifying the age of incoming students though they generally were the same age.
With this information and after a tour witha less-than-agreeable Filch, Celia and her parents had returned home, thoroughly perplexed. Well her parents, anyway, Celia was still spinning with the floo powder. They decided to get Celia's school things the day before the train left and to stay over night in Diagon Alley. Meanwhile, they spent the rest of the week discussing the magical world, often with Celia and her mother asking questions about her father's heritage and her dad carefully explaining and launching into stories of his own days at Hogwarts.
Most of the time, however, they sat talking about why Celia was being introduced into the world of wizarding so late. Her father thought maybe her letter had gotten lost. But then he reminded himself that no self-respecting owl would fail to deliver a letter he was instructed to deliver. Her mother thought quite rightly that some people just needed a little extra time before coming to terms with their true selves. This thought caused Celia the most trouble and she had therefore made up her mind to wait and see what would happen because she could come up with no explanation on her own. Her parents eventually resigned themselves to this fact as well.
So it was with a light, if somewhat nervous, heart that Celia packed a trunk her father had given her. She couldn't wait to get her school books and "school supplies," though these weren't the school supplies she was used to getting at the end of every summer.
Celia's alarm clock went off and she realized she must have dozed off while deep in thought. She rolled out of bed and pulled on the clothes she had already set out thinking that soon she would be wearing school robes like her the ones her dad had shown her in some oddly active photos of him and his old school chums. She wandered into the kitchen and sat down to the breakfast her mom was preparing. The first day off school breakfast was always a big one and even though it was the day BEFORE the day before school, Celia's mom was cooking today since they'd be in Diagon Alley tomorrow.
Breakfast was largely quiet as Celia was thinking about her new school, her mom was wondering how she was going to let her baby go off to what was essentially a boarding school, merely of the wizarding kind and Celia's dad was thinking about his time at Hogwarts and what all of his old friends were doing now.
Soon they were off, flooing right outside of the Leaky Cauldron. Celia gave a dubious glance at the façade of the building but her father just walked right in. They got a room and put away their things before venturing out into the crowded market atmosphere. Celia offered her father yet another disbelieving glance when he marched purposefully up to a brick wall. She was a little more than amazed when after a few well placed taps, they were shown a bustling street lined closely with wizarding shops.
A.N. I know it's short but I wanted to get this written before I moved on. There's more coming but I think I'll put it in the next chapter rather than adding on to this one. C-ya.