Disclaimer: I do not own any of J.K. Rowling's wonderful characters. They all came from her brilliant imagination, and I am not trying to steal or make money off of them.

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Dan and Emily Granger were sitting at their kitchen table early in the morning, placidly sipping their steaming coffee and reading the morning newspaper. Emily closed the section of the paper she was reading, which was headed "International." Swiftly, she knotted her thick chestnut hair into a tight bun, then got up and rummaged through the drawers in her counter. Moments later she pulled out a lilac scrunchy, which she skillfully wrapped around the bun to hold it in place. It matched her outfit, which was made up of soft-looking lavender trousers, a white shirt, and lilac jacket. Dan donned the same uniform.

He stood and stretched, folding his own section of the newspaper into quarters. Carelessly, he wandered over to the half-circle of windows behind the table and swatted one of the silk hangings out of the way. The windows looked out into a medium-sized yard. Flower gardens accented each corner of the property, and the lawn was thick and green, though perhaps a little overgrown. At one edge of the yard, there was a very, very small vegetable garden that contained carrots, beans, and cucumbers.

As he let the curtain fall back in its place a bushy-haired girl appeared at the threshold of the kitchen, fully dressed and seemingly alert. "Morning, Mum and Dad," she said before sliding into a seat at the table and happily accepting a cup of tea her mum had pressed into her hands.

"Good morning, Hermione," Dan beamed, and took a seat next to her. Emily, meanwhile, was opening the windows.

"I thought you would be at work by now," Hermione commented, frowning.

"It's Thursday, dear. The office doesn't open until late morning."

"Right." Hermione sighed. "I always get so confused during the summer holidays. Lucky that school starts in a little over a month." She glanced at her identically-dressed parents. "Purple day today?"

"Of course, and tomorrow is yellow," Emily said brightly.

A breakfast of pancakes commenced, and not too much later everyone was bustling around, trying to clean up before both the dentists left. As Hermione and Dan cleared off the table, Emily suddenly let out an ear-piercing scream. Hermione, who was startled, screamed too, and Dan merely jumped and looked around wildly.

There was an owl soaring in circles around the kitchen; apparently, it had come in through the window over the kitchen sink, where Emily had been washing dishes. It was tawny coloured with black tail feathers and large amber eyes. At the moment, no one noticed that there was a thick envelope attached to its leg with a strip of leather. After swooping around the kitchen five or six times, it landed on the table in a clatter of talons. It puffed its chest out and stared at them in a dignified sort of way.

"Sh-should we call Animal Control?" Emily asked shakily as they all stared back at the owl in awe. She had ducked down when the owl had flown in, and was now sitting crouched on the floor, water still flowing steadily from the sink.

Very suddenly, as if the owl had realized that nobody was about to relieve him of his burden, he lowered his head to his right leg and cleanly snipped the leather thong with his beak. He shook it off before glaring at them impressively and taking off again, swerving straight out through the open window.

Cautiously, Hermione approached the table, and her eyes widened in surprise when she saw the address:

Miss Hermione Granger
The Kitchen
437 Lepska Boulevard
Higginsbury
Kidderminster

"Mum---Dad---it's addressed to me!" she gasped, then tore her gaze from the green ink and yellowed parchment. "Can I open it?"

Dan and Emily exchanged worried glances. How could they trust a letter that had arrived on the leg of an owl? For all they knew it was a plot to hurt their daughter.

"Well---" Emily began, but was cut short when Hermione had taken that as a "yes" and slowly tore open the envelope, taking a moment to look at the wax seal on the back. Inside the envelope there seemed to be ten or eleven page of parchment. Hermione looked at the topmost page and her parents grew more nervous as she began to read faster and faster in her excitement.

When she finished with the first page she looked up at her parents. "I don't know what to say," she said quietly.

"What is it?" Emily asked anxiously. Without a word, Hermione handed the piece of parchment to her parents, who both leaned over it and read:

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. Of Wizards)

Dear Miss Granger,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at 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,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress

Hermione was watching them closely, waiting for a reaction. She was still clutching the other pieces of parchment, her brown eyes abnormally bright with curiosity, anticipation, and excitement.

Emily and Dan finished reading the letter and exchanged exasperated looks. Now the problem was not so much of Hermione's safety as explaining that this letter, tantalizing though it was, was only a hoax. "Hermione, dear, do you really believe this letter is - erm - truthful?"

Hermione's eyes sparked and flamed with anger. "Just because you're adults doesn't mean that you have to squash every supernatural notion in the world," she said bitterly.

"But---"

"Wouldn't this explain all the things I've done that didn't have an explanation before? What about the time those books started chasing Karman down the hall when she tried to force me into doing homework for her? What about the time my bag split and all my homework fell into the water because it was raining, and it was completely destroyed; yet, two hours later, I found it all sitting within my desk, repaired, legible, and dry? How do you explain that?" She seethed for a moment before saying quietly, "Isn't is possible that I'm a witch?"

"Hermione, there's no such ---"

"How can you say that when you don't even know?" And with that, she snatched the parchment out of her father's hand, and whisked the entire envelope and its contents upstairs to her room.

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For some reason, Hermione had a very good feeling about the whole business. She had finally gotten an explanation as to why she could do - or had done - all those strange things. She sincerely believed that there was a wizarding world, and that she belonged in it.

Her parents knocked on her door several times, wanting to talk about it, but Hermione politely refused each time. She needed some time to think. Eventually, her parents said their good-byes (which were muffled through the door) and headed off to work. Hermione spent the entire afternoon reading and rereading all of the pages that had come in the envelope.

One was a list of supplies she would need: books, potions ingredients, a cauldron, scales, school uniforms, and - the most exciting prospect of all - a wand, among other things. The other eight pages explained that she was chosen because she had shown magical abilities even though she was Muggle-born, meaning that she had non-magic parents. They told her where to go to buy her school supplies, how to exchange Muggle money for wizard money, how to get onto the magical platform at King's Cross Station, and a manner of other rules or directions. She also understood, now, what it meant to "send a return owl." Luckily, she still had five more days before July 31 arrived, but there could be a problem as far as finding an owl to send her reply.

As she read each page, Hermione was pulled deeper and deeper into the world of magic. She believed it existed, and she would make her parents believe her, too.

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Hermione brought it up at dinner that night again. "I read through the rest of that letter today."

"Oh?"

"Yes, and I have a proposition to make." She turned to her father. "You're going to London this weekend, right?"

Dan looked rather surprised. "Well….yes. For business, though. Only for an hour, if not less. Quite pointless to travel all that way, if you ask me."

"You're taking me." Her parents began to protest, but Hermione cut them off. "Supposedly there is a wizarding shopping center in London. The letter I received explained how to find it. Before you both start scoffing, hear me out, " she added, and both their mouths closed promptly. "We will go investigate it. If it doesn't exist, I will assent to agreeing with you that there is no wizarding world and I am not a witch, and all those strange things that happen to me are just coincidental. If it does exist, you two will consider allowing me to go to this school."

To Hermione's great surprise, they agreed, but they insisted on reading the letter themselves before letting her go to Hogwarts.