Christine Marster had always been "special" or "different", as her teachers had called her through primary school. They had no idea that her oddities were attributed to the fact that she was a witch, something muggles thought only existed within the boundaries of fairytales and myths.
It came as no surprise when a tawny brown owl had flown onto the balcony of their Victorian style home to deliver a letter inviting her to come to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Christine and her mother, December Marster, had been sitting around a glass table covered with fruits and pastries. She was a dignified woman, one who commanded the attention of any room, her red curls framing a creamy pale face. Her husband, William Marster, was away on business in France. Christine had inherited most of his looks; high set cheekbones and a long pointed nose. She had her mother's curls though they were blonde rather than auburn. Like everyone in her family, Christine had piercing blue eyes, ones that looked right through you and sent chills down your spine.
Though she was eleven most people thought she was more around the age of eight, mainly because of her lack of height and the extreme flatness of her chest. Most of her friends were taking trips with their mothers to the mall to buy their first training bra, but Christine had yet been blessed with the attributes required to take that trip.
All worries about self image were diminished though as she opened the letter and read:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL
of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
Headmistress: Hermione Granger
(Order of Merlin, Second Class, Chf. Magi-scientist,
Head of the O.B.T.M.C. Organization for the Better
Treatment of Magical Creatures.)
Dear Ms. Marster,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.
Yours sincerely,
George WilliamsonGeorge Williamson,
Deputy headmaster.
That very day they made their way to Diagon Alley to buy all of her school supplies. No one in the Marster family had attended Hogwarts as they were all from France and thus were schooled in Beauxbatons. Now citizens of Britain it was only right that Christine should attend the closest school.
Christine found excitement building in her as they visited all of the shops buying robes, books and a whole manner of strange but enthralling things. She was particularly fascinated with the shop called Bernard's Magical Pet Emporium.
"Please mother, please can I get a pet? I promise you I'll take the best care of it!" finally she got her mother to take her inside. It was a somewhat dark shop filled with cages of squawking and squeaking forms. One of the cages held a small kitten that was ashy gray and looked to be asleep. When she approached it snapped its eyes open. Its vibrant lilac eyes that showed a kind of Knowing took Christine aback. She new as did the little kitten that they were supposed to be together.
Franklin, as she had dubbed him, sat curled around her neck eyes sleepy and not paying attention to too much of anything going on as they left the store. Her mother had tried to give him a fancy name like Gerald or Francois, but Christine insisted that his name was Franklin and he was ok with it.
They set of to Ollivander's Wand Shop. The inner landing was dim and misty; as if the windows were so caked with dust hardly any light could make its way through. Christine looked around nervously as Mrs. Marster rang a small bell on the front desk. Moments later a small man with large round glasses shuffled out of the back room.
"Ah good day my dears." He said smiling widely. "Here for a wand I presume. Yet another Hogwarts student, best supplier for the students you see. No two wands alike here." He moved rather nimbly for a hunched over old man.
"Is that so?" Mrs. Marster said politely and smiled, "This will be my daughter's first year of course."
"Yes, yes. Stick out your wand hand would you dear?" Christine raised her right arm out in front of her, eying a tape measure suspiciously as it took her measurements.
"I think we will start with this one…" he trailed off as he brought forward a long box and opened it.
"Holly, eleven inches, encased with a phoenix feather. Try it out then." He handed her the wand and she gave it a twirl. Nothing happened and Ollivander snatched the wand back and put it in its box.
"How about this; Yew, thirteen and a half inches, also with a phoenix feather. Good for transfiguration." Again Christine waved the wand and again nothing happened. They went through a number of boxes, Franklin watching lazily from a small spindly chair. A willow unicorn hair as well as a blood wood dragon heartstring were turned down along with at least five others.
Ollivander looked rather grumpy as they tried the sixteenth wand and still had nothing. Christine grew worried and began to wonder is there was any wand that would do.
"I think there is one," the old man said slowly, "Though I'm not sure about it, it's a powerful wand." He shuffled once again to the back room and brought out another long slender box. He opened it and gently lifted out the wand.
"Ebony, fifteen inches with a phoenix feather. A very powerful wand; could go either ways depending on the hands that it's in." Christine stared at the long black piece of wood. It shinned in the dull light and as she took it from the old mans hands she felt a delightful buzz go through her body.
A soft silvery wisp crawled from the end of the wand and twisted up until it disappeared through the ceiling.
"Good, good! Very good." They paid for the wand and, to Christine's relief, left the store. It was nice to breath cool air after spending so much time in a small stuffy place.
Once home all Christine could do was count the days till she would make her way to King's Cross station and a new adventure. A week before she had to go her trunk was already packed and ready. She had made Franklin a little black bowtie collar, insisting to him that he needed to look nice for the first day. He agreed to it, but only because it was Christine.
Finally September first came and Christine, Franklin and Mrs. Marster climbed into the back of a black taxi. They drove to King's Cross and the taxi driver lugged out her trunk and put it on a trolley.
"Now you must remember to behave yourself dear. I don't want any owls coming home about you misbehaving." Mrs. Marster was straitening the collar of her daughters black pinafore-like dress.
"Yes mother." Christine blushed as her mother checked her over, "Stop mom, you're embarrassing me." Mrs. Marster looked around in mock surprise.
"Oh, God forbid a complete stranger see us!" She chuckled and gave her daughter a hug, "I'm just worried about you, going off all by yourself."
"I'll be ok, don't worry. Hogwarts is supposed to be really safe anyway." Christine looked into her mother's eyes. She knew how lonely her mother would be with her daughter gone, alone in a big house. It was common for her father to be gone for weeks at a time.
"I'll write you often, I promise." They hugged again. Mrs. Marster looked at a clock on the wall that read ten to eleven.
"You better hurry, your train leaves soon. You remember how to get on the platform, should I write it down for you?" Christine stopped her mother searching in her purse to find paper.
"I remember, please, don't worry I'll be fine." Her mother smiled and they said their goodbyes.
Christine watched the taxi drive off and turned to find the platform. She pushed her trolley to the point between platform 9 and 10 where she found the pillar where mother said it would be.
She checked to make sure Franklin was in his basket and that the trunk was securely on the trolley before taking a deep breath and charging for the pillar. They emerged into a large crowd surrounding a scarlet train, gray smoke puffing into the air.
People were all around, parents saying goodbye to their children. It was like a sea of pointed hats and fluttering robes. As she made her way to the train she noticed a particularly large group of people. A tall man with round glasses and bushy black hair was hugging his son goodbye and next to him was a red headed woman who was smiling.
Two redheaded men who looked like twins were talking to main throng of people that were all laughing at a particularly funny joke.
Christine rolled past them and moved to the side of the train. With effort she lugged her trunk into the train and found a compartment where she stowed it under a seat and let Franklin out of his basket. He leaped into her lap and continued to nap. She noted in a rather disgruntled manner that her feet didn't even touch to bottom of the compartment.
Staring out the window, she wondered if she could learn a spell that would make her taller, not super tall just tall enough to reach the cabinets in her kitchen.
She was jolted out of her daydream as the compartment door rumbled open to reveal the boy she had seen earlier, only he was a she. Her short hair had caused the mistake. It was brown and spiked up, which allowed plenty of notice for her emerald green eyes.
"Oh, hello. Don't mind if we sit here do you?" she asked.
"Go ahead." Christine smiled weakly and noticed that we also included a tall red headed boy. Her eyes fell on his ear that had what looked like a small talon dangling from it. They pushed their trunks away under a seat and then sat down. The girl studied Christine with curiosity.
"Aren't you a little young to be going to Hogwarts?" she asked bluntly.
"I'm eleven years old."
"No way! I could have sworn you were, like, seven or eight."
"Yeah I get that." She mumbled. She felt her face turning a little red and dodged her eyes back out the window. The girl didn't seem to notice that she had offended her and continued on cheerfully.
"My name is Lily Potter, but you can just call me Lee. This here is my cousin, Chester Weasley."
"Nice to meet you." He said with a smile. Christine paused, and then smiled.
"Hi, my names Christine. Is this your first year here?"
"Yep," Lee started, "First years, I'm so excited. Dad keeps going on about how great Hogwarts is." Chester nodded in accordance.
"You know which house you want to be in?" he asked.
"I'm not sure what the houses are. I don't know much about the school." Christine blushed again, feeling a little out of place.
"Really? You aren't muggle born are you?" Lee asked, "Cause you know there's nothing wrong with that."
"Oh no, I'm from France. We moved here about three years ago."
"One of our aunts is from France. She goes on and on about how great it is." Lee screwed her face up demonstrating what it was like to listen to her.
Christine laughed and slowly became more comfortable.
"What are the houses?" she asked, head cocked to the side.
"Well," began Chester, "There are four houses. Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. We're pretty sure we're going into Gryffindor. All my family has been in it."
"Yeah and you really don't want to get into Slytherin. Their a bad lot." Lee said bitterly, sticking out her tongue.
The train rumbled on through the countryside, passing farms and green hills. The snack trolley went by and they bought an array of treats, eating them while laughing over the funny stories of their summer.
Finally the sun began to set, turning the sky from a hot orange to a deep purple, and finally a dark navy blue. They pulled out their school robes to change before they got there. Franklin was awake for once, his eyes droopily open.
"Wow, you're cats eyes are really purple." Chester moved over to the cat to pet it. He squeaked an incredibly pitiful meow that made them all laugh.
"Cute bowtie. What's his name?" Lee asked while scratching behind his ears.
"His name's Franklin, the laziest cat in the world."
The train came to a slow stop and the three new friends made their way out of the compartment and into the brisk night air.
"Firs' years! Firs' years o'er here!" An enormous man was calling them over the sea of heads.
"Lily, Chester! How are yeh?" he said gruffly from behind a wild beard that was streaked with some gray.
"Hey Hagrid!" Lee waved, smiling wildly.
"Righ' then. Four to a boat, no pushing." Christine, Lee and Chester climbed into a boat. A blonde boy with a pointed face joined them. He didn't look at them or say anything.
The boats lurched foreword and began to glide across the lake, leaving a wake of ripples. Lee was arguing with Chester about a Quidditch match. Never being a big fan of the sport Christine tuned it out and instead she focused on the stranger. He was staring gloomily into the water as if he wished nothing more than to get back on the Hogwarts Express and go home.
"Um, hello." She said awkwardly. He looked up as if just noticing she existed.
"Oh, hullo." He went back to staring at the water, as if hoping it would solve whatever problem he had.
"Is everything alright there?" she asked reproachfully.
"Oh yeah everything's just splendid really." He didn't look up from the water this time and Christine thought it was wise not to pry too much.