disclaimer: not mine, not even Kevin, who is a miniscule minor character in the canon.

a/n: I think I have to change the genre. this sunds more like humour/general or humour/angst, now...or do I only have a weird sense of humour? Many thanks to my reviewers! Please tell me your honest opinion on this chapter!

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Pink Hats and Plain Refusals

"C'mon, Kev, we should have a plan!"

Kevin sighed, half amused, half irritated. Who else had a father like an over-anxious adolescent? Patiently, he assured his parent:  "Dad, we don't need a plan. At half past four, I'll go outside to wait for this person. I'll come to tell you when he or she comes, and we'll go someplace to talk."

"Where? We can't bring him here!"

"Him or her. No, we can't. But we can go to the park, or to the library. If someone is coming."

"Yeah. If." His father paused for a moment, but then his natural enthusiasm bounced back: "I'm certain it's real, the letter. I mean, even if you can't go, it'll be exciting to see this magical chap."

"I guess." His voice didn't sound convincing even to his own ears. Kevin really didn't want to meet this person that was possibly coming to see him. If he in any case couldn't go, what use it was to even talk about it? It would only be embarrassing to explain their situation. And if they could truly offer some intriguing possibilities, it wouldn't just be an embarrassing and awkward meeting, but it would also unnecessarily make Kevin bitter when he couldn't accept what he was offered.

"It's quarter past four, already! Go on, Kev! "

Sometimes Dad  was just endearing, really. Kevin grinned at him and decided to obey. He stepped out of the door and walked a few steps along the road, placing himself in a spot from where he could easily see the whole street. The person would probably be coming by train which meant from the right, but they could come by car, as well, and that made either direction possible. Well, Kevin was ready. And he had over a half an hour still to wait.

Kevin didn't normally like waiting. He had done it too many times for nothing. He detested the way people always thought that kids had all the time in the world and wouldn't mind being held off. This time, waiting didn't feel so awful, though. He had so much in his mind. What was this whole letter-business about? School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...yeah, right!

The first thought he had got when reading the letter had been all the strange coincidences that had happened to him – the sprinkler being only one of them. Now it seemed so stupid to even have imagined the letter could have something to do with those weird...incidents. It couldn't be about real magic, it just couldn't! There wasn't such a thing! It was probably only some sort of an advertisement; maybe there was a new privately governed boarding school that had an advanced programme on performing arts and it had launched this kind of campaign to get students to apply. Or then someone just wanted to sell something and instead of anyone coming over, there would only be a new letter listing school supplies or magic trick equipments available by postal order.

It was only a marketing campaign. Pretty glamourous marketing campaign, though. The parchment was expensive and the imprint loudly spoke of money – it almost looked like a piece of hand-made calligraphy. A classy campaign, and certainly meant to somewhere else and to reach some other folks. The Summers weren't very classy people.

Kevin glanced at his watch. Five to. Yeah, it was just some junk-mail. Nobody was coming. He didn't know whether he should feel relieved or disappointed. Well, he didn't know how he should feel, but he did feel disappointed. He set his mind on being cranky for the rest of the day and could almost sense his face settling on a scowl. It made him feel better.

Kevin was just turning around to get back to his house, when something caught his eye. Someone was approaching, not along the road, but through the park. There was nothing behind the park, only a dead-end, so people seldom had any reason to walk through it. Maybe the person had gotten lost. Maybe it was the one that was supposed to come over. Maybe it was the magical chap.

Immediately, Kevin forgot his determination about the letter being a hoax. He would have wanted to stay calm, but against his will, his heart started to pound violently and his mouth got dry. The person was drawing nearer. It was a she and one that most certainly was heading somewhere.

She was heading somewhere alright, and the somewhere seemed to be Kevin's house, but she didn't look like a witch – or like a magician. She didn't have a pointed hat or moles on her nose, and neither did she wear a fancy dress like the ladies with David Copperfield on television. She looked normal. Well, normal in an old-and-little-odd-lady kind of way. Like the ones that live next door and always wear the same hat. Which the lady in question was apparently wearing now, too. 

The hat was very small and pink, it had a delicate swash of veil attached to it and the whole splendour of head wear was dangerously swaying on her head, ready to fall off any moment. Even though Kevin wasn't any specialist on women's fashion, he could see the hat wasn't of the latest style. It didn't suit the woman, either, nor did it suit with her two-piece suit, which was a bit old fashioned, but very severely cut and navy blue. Yes, Kevin was definitely reminded of the odd lady next door. She most probably wasn't the person he had been waiting for. No school would send the-odd-lady-next-door-type to enroll their students. He was turning away anew, when the woman addressed him.

"Mr. Summers! I thought we had agreed on meeting in your house? What are you doing outside and where are your parents?"

"You are from..." he hurriedly checked the school's name from the letter, "Hogwarts?" How had she recognized him?

"Yes, certainly," the woman said briskly, "Poppy Pomfrey. I'm the school nurse and I'm making these introductory visits this year as my grandfather was a Muggle."

Kevin didn't know what to answer. He didn't know what importance did it have if her grandfather had been mugged and why she thought it made her better suited to visit his house. Maybe she had learnt some self-defence after her grandad's accident and was going to use it on Kevin if he didn't agree to enroll? Maybe judo or karate were the less conventional ways the letter had mentioned.

"So, Mr. Summers, would you, please, lead the way?" Poppy Pomfrey suddenly felt very conscious about her hat. It was a pretty hat, one her grandad had bought her back in the 1950' when she had been seventeen years old and visiting her grandparents in London. It had made her feel confident at the time and now, being back in the Muggle world for the first time in...fifteen years, she had chosen to wear it in hope of it having the same effect. It didn't. When only quickly passing through the King's Cross Station or the Leaky Cauldron she hadn't felt awkward in these only fitting Muggle clothes she owned, standing in front of this oddly serious little boy made her self-conscious. Why was the boy here, alone, and why was he just staring at her? Madame Pomfrey found herself fidgeting, which was something she hadn't done since...well, at least since the You-Know-Whose fall!

"Mr. Summers?!" she exclaimed, a little more sternly than she had intended.

Kevin was baffled. The lady talked like she was used to have some authority, but she looked just ridiculous. Anyhow, now she seemed almost dangerous, so he decided it was better to answer her and get his Dad there.

"Eh...we can't really go inside...my Mum's...sick. I'll go to get my Dad."

Sick? The healer in Poppy Pomfrey jumped into attention at hearing the word. She almost rolled up her sleeves and was already reaching for her wand, when she remembered she couldn't heal Muggles – at least without a rather long and tedious correspondence with the Ministry. She huffed indignantly at the thought of some bureaucrats telling her who she could heal or not, but resigned from action at the time being.

"Well, we can look at your Mother, later. Go get your Father now, young man."

Look at Mum? What was this possibly kick-boxing witch-magician-odd-lady with the pink hat going to do to his Mum? Kevin decided the woman was not going to get to look at his mother, but he bolted for his house in order to get Dad. Maybe he would understand the woman better, and even if he couldn't, Kevin could use some back-up when dealing with crazy old ladies.

Poppy Pomfrey watched the boy running towards a slightly run-down semidetached house with pots of withered flowers in front of its door. Before he even had time to knock on or open the door, a man hurried through it. Watching the man, Madame Pomfrey realized what had confused her about the boy: his father was behaving like she had expected the child to do, being visibly excited and nervous. His son was doing the parent's job trying to gently calm him down. Poppy Pomfrey gathered herself and waited for the odd pair to come to greet her. When they did, she was pleased to hear her own voice talking calmly and with no disturbance from her hat.

"Mr. Summers? Poppy Pomfrey, pleased to meet you."

"Brian Summers, Kevin's dad."

"We could go to the park or the library," Kevin suggested bluntly, having got back his confidence. His father couldn't be trusted to manoeuvre these kinds of meetings all by himself, that was always Kevin's duty. The odd lady in the pink hat frowned almost unnoticeably at Kevin's intrusion into the adult's conversation, but he didn't let it bother him. It wasn't the time to lose one's nerve, now. Thankfully, he could always trust his father to support his ideas – at least always when Dad was able to do so. Now he was.

"Yes, let's! I suggest the park, it's such a great weather!" Brian Summers was nervous, but he was also excited. The minute they reached the park, he couldn't restrain himself anymore, but asked right away: "So, you are a witch, then? And you can do magic?"

"Yes," Poppy Pomfrey felt a smile tugging at her lips and she let it spread on her face. "I am a witch. I'm the school nurse at the Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where your son has been reserved a place."

"I'm not going." Kevin didn't feel like small-talk.

"Kev!" his father whined, "You could've at least waited until she had shown us some magic!"

"Yes, Kevin," Madame Pomfrey offered, now feeling secure, as she saw what was the problem with the child, "there's no need to be afraid. Hogwarts is a wonderful place."

The child chuckled in a sarcastic manner and his face looked much older than his age indicated. "I'm not afraid." Then he sobered and his voice was nonchalant when he spoke again: "I can't go. We don't have the money and I'm needed here. I don't have time for some foolish tricks."

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a/n: hmm...the plot isn't really getting anywhere, yet. I'm just creating the atmosphere and getting to know the characters. The questions are still mostly unanswered: what is Kevin's mother's condition? Why is his father sometimes unable? Who is Laura? What will Madame Pomfrey do now? What will happen to the pink hat? (which just appered out of nowhere on her head...) Can Madame P. kick-box?

I'm not very confident about this story. It's fun to write, but I don't know whether it's fun to read, as well. I'm in need of some very honest reviews, here! Please, tell me about the problems in my writing! It won't break me, it'll just make the nice reviews to feel nicer still as I can belive in them better.