Chapter 9: Hogwarts Letters
I wake up early on my eleventh birthday and grin. I get up and race to the bathroom to take a quick shower. Once I'm done with that I put on my favorite outfit, a pair of black jeans and a red t-shirt with a black vest, after that I race down the stairs and into the kitchen, humming happily as I grab a chair and step on it to reach my coco pebbles from where they are on the top shelf.
Over the last three years I have created several vehicles and droids from Star Wars, figured out how to make them run in heavily magical areas, and made it so they can shrink. I currently carry three different spaceships, all minus the guns, in my pocket constantly. I also have several droids that I keep in my toy box when they aren't in use. Esme still hasn't found Shadowsong yet, but ma convinced me not to go to the lab to get answers and to just be patient.
After I have the cereal down I pour myself a bowl before putting it back and pulling the stuff I need to make omelets out. I begin making them for everyone in the mansion. After a few minutes other people begin coming in so I call out, "Anyone want omelets?" Immediately after I say that everyone who just entered calls out that they want some. I am only aloud to cook unsupervised on my birthday but the others love my cooking. I nod before seeing ma' enter and smiling at her, "Hey ma."
"Good morning, Shock. Happy birthday." she says.
"Thanks." I say as I set an omelet on the counter and start making more. After a while of cooking while eating my cereal I finish up, grab the omelet I made for myself and go sit at the table. About half way through my meal, an owl comes crashing through the window, smashing into the table and looking like it just flew around the world non-stop for several days. It has thirteen letters in its talons so I'm pretty sure I know where its from. I frown a bit, before saying, "Poor owl, you look so tired." I gently pet it on the head before getting up and moving to where ma had been putting away the breakfast ingredients before the owl came in; I grab a few strips of leftover bacon and return to my seat. "Here you go, a bit of bacon for your troubles."
As the owl eats the food I gently take the letters from the owl's talons. I look at the first one and see that it's addressed to Draco Malfoy, 31st room, Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, Bayville, New York. I frown a bit before passing the letter to Apollo. I pass my siblings all of their letters before looking at the last four, one for me, one for Rogue, one for Raine, who knows she has magic but never received a letter to one of the schools, and one for ma. I pass Rogue, Raine, and ma theirs, causing ma to frown at hers, a confused expression on her face.
"Give me a minute, I'm going to go get a camera before you open them." she says and I nod. She leaves, coming back a minute later with her wand and a camera. She casts some sort of spell on the letters and all of them except for hers glows a sickly green color, hers glows blue. She casts another spell and the glow on ours turns blue, "Ok, they are safe to open now."
"Why did Raine and I get one?" Rogue asks in a confused tone, "We aren't eleven and I don't think I have magic."
"Maybe you do have magic but you didn't know." I suggest, "Yours is probably late because of how often you moved around before...or maybe someone just didn't want you there until this year for some reason." I then open my letter, ma snapping a picture of all of us as we do. I pull my letter out but pause when I realize what Rogues letter is addressed, "Rogue, isn't your letter addressed to someone named Andromeda Lestrange? Your human name is in parenthesizes, right?"
"Yeah." she says in a confused tone.
"And Raine's is addressed to Jasmine Potter with her human name parenthesizes?" I ask and Raine nods so I turn to my confused mother and say, "Ma I think we need to check their heritages at some point when we get our supplies."
"Ok. I was planning on getting inheritance tests for all of you; I can get one for Rogue and Raine too." ma tells me so I grin.
"Cool." I say before turning back to my letter and reading it as ma inspects the owl.
"Horus?" ma asks and I look up at her. The owl looks at her curiously before seeming to recognize ma. It happily hops over to her, nuzzling his head into her hand. Ma pets him as she looks over at me and says, "Shock, this is my owl. I got him when I was eleven; he was pretty much my only friend before I pulled a prank on your father and his friends and they decided I was cool enough to hang out with them. I thought he died, apparently he's just been at Hogwarts all this time."
"Hi. I'm one of her daughters." I say as I reach over and gently pet him. In response he gently nips at my finger.
"He seems to like you." she tells me with a gentle smile before asking the owl, "Why are you delivering letters, Horus?" the owl hoots softly and ruffles his feathers, "Do you want a ride back to England? We're going later today."
The owl bobs its head as if nodding. I smile before looking at the notebook and pen that was just sat down in front of me. I thank Rogue, who got the notebooks and pens, before writing my response, channeling a bit of magic into it as I do.
Dear Professor McGonagall, while it would be an absolute honor to accept a position at Hogwarts I formally request to be called by the name Shock'n'awe, Shock for short if needed, as I have not used my birth name in years and would much rather be called by my chosen name. I will also require permission to leave school grounds as I am a member of the X-Men and need to be able to go on missions and errands for them. If this is not acceptable I request that you please notify me by August fifteenth so I can make alternate schooling arrangements. Thank you for your time, sincerest regards from, Shock'n'awe
I show my response to ma and she tells me that its a good response. I then write out another copy of it and we all get ready to go to England. Once we're ready Aeolus and I fly into the air while ma takes off in the X-Jet.
Time Skip; Two Hours Later
London, England
London is a large city with large buildings and a sort of sooty smell in the air. Ma has taken us here on several missions before today and I absolutely adore it. It helps that for the most part they are very accepting of mutants. A few mutant hater groups here and there but most of the time the people here actually treat us like people. I land next to the X-Jet as soon as it powers down and look at the group of civilians that are gathered around us, seeing a few people that I saved last time I was here. I smile and wave at them before looking at ma, who just exited the jet, and excitedly asking, "Where are we going from here, ma?"
"Just follow me, I'll show you all where to go." she says and we walk towards the crowd. I walk next to ma as she leads us to a tiny rundown pub. She leads us inside and we move silently through the area into a back ally.
"Why are we in the back ally, ma?" Apollo asks as ma pulls out two wands, hers and my dad's, she hands me my dad's and I put it in one of the pockets I have, before ma taps a pattern on the wall in front of us with her wand. The wall moves and opens to reveal an entire shopping area full of people.
Ma points to a large, lopsided white marble building at the end of the street and says, "That's Gringotts, the wizard bank. It's our first stop." she leads us through the crowds of people in cloaks and to the bank. Once inside she walks us up to a goblin looking thing, "These are goblins," she whispers to us. "if you be respectful to them, they will be respectful to you." she turns to the goblin in front of her and respectfully says, "Honored goblin, I request eleven inheritance tests for my children."
The goblin looks at us before turning to a younger goblin that is standing nearby and calling out in a voice that kinda sounds like he's both growling and speaking at the same time, "Griphook! Get over here and take these eleven children to get inheritance tests."
"Yes Ripfang sir." the younger goblin says respectfully in a similar growling voice. He leads us into some tunnels and up to a door. "Wait here."
He goes though the door and I notice that his voice doesn't hold the same growling tone as before and I tilt my head slightly, confused as to why his voice changed. I sit down and begin contemplating why that happened.