The Letter and the Owl

The next day started slowly, as all four Kankers wanted to sleep in. As such it wasn't until 10:30 before they sat down for breakfast, a small meal of a few eggs and a strip of bacon each. The lack of food didn't concern the Kankers, as they were just happy to have a meal together as a family. Around 10:55, the familiar sounds of the mail truck was heard rounding the bend towards the trailer park entrance.

"Marie can you get the mail?" "Sure mom." As Marie left the table, she failed to notice the unusual slight nervousness that flashed through her mother's eyes and disappeared as quickly as a flash of lightning. Marie exited the house into the hot morning air, the heat beating down and cooking her as if she had been shoved into a microwave.

'Looks like another heat wave today. Hope the AC unit doesn't break again, I do not want to fix it in this weather.' She continued her trek towards the mailbox, sweat starting to trickle down her face with every step until she reached the beaten down and rusted mailbox. She opened it up and started her usual habit of searching through the mail, a habit she started in order to sort the bills from the market gimmicks, political ads and the occasional late rent notice in order to distinguish the important mail that needed to be seen immediately from the junk that would go straight into the bin. 'If people saw me regularly do this, I would probably be hired as a secretary on the spot.' As Marie finished her diligent work, she was about to walk back to her sanctuary from the attacks of the sun when she heard the sound of wings cutting through the heavy air.

She turned around and saw a very peculiar sight. A Great Grey owl was flying down towards her, veering slightly as it got closer before landing on top of the mailbox. It was a huge bird, standing more than three feet tall with a wingspan of more than five feet. Its gray plumage was clean and well groomed, as if it had been domesticated and its piercing yellow eyes glowed with a dignified and regal gleam. The owl stared at her, making her very uncomfortable, as it made her feel that she was back in the principal's office after being caught playing hooky with her sisters. Frozen in stunned amazement, the girl and the owl locked gazes for several minutes, neither moving a fraction of an inch to either side, not a twitch of the muscle or the nerve, only complete and utter stillness.

After a time, Marie's eyes drifted towards the base of the owls feet and saw a yellow letter tied to a string on its left claw. Slowly and cautiously, she crept towards the owl. When she was within reach of the owl, it cocked its head and extended its leg towards her. Her eyes flickered towards the owl, curious before taking the letter and looking at the envelope. As she read the sending address, her eyes slowly widened in surprise.

Miss M. Kanker

The Second Bedroom, Trailer Unit 19

Park n' Flush Trailer Park, 219 Lemon Brook Highway

Peach Creek, Wisconsin

Marie was unable to speak, the letter shaking in her hand. On the one hand, she was excited. She had never gotten a personal letter before, as she never had a pen pal and she had no immediate relatives, as her maternal grandparents had both died by the time she was five, her mother had no siblings or cousins and she never met her father's family. The only member of her father's family that she knew about had been an uncle that had died shortly before her father left, so she knew it wasn't from him. Still to get a letter for herself was something that some part of her felt that she should treasure. On the other hand, however, she was frightened. The addressing was too specific, too intimate for her liking. For one, what letter included that bedroom in which the recipient slept in. For all she knew the person who sent the letter was stalking her. 'How ironic, a stalker having a stalker.' she thought sardonically before turning her eyes back to the letter, now glaring at it. 'I swear if whoever sent this has pictures of me they're going to be castrated with a rusty apple peeler. Slowly. Over the course of several hours. With no anesthetic.' She turned it over to try to find a return address, as there was none on the front. While there was none on the back, there was a sigal of origin. The envelope had been sealed with a wax seal. Interestingly enough, the seal was multi colored and divided into five segments. The top left of the seal had a red background overlayed by a golden lion, the top right had a yellow background overlayed by a black badger, the bottom left had a blue background overlayed by a bronze eagle and the bottom right had a green background overlayed by a silver serpent. All four of which surrounded a golden H framed by a black square. This only left her even more confused, as this meant that this might be an official document. 'But I don't have a bank account. And I don't have a library membership, so who would have sent this?'

In the end she decided to pocket the letter. 'Mom needs to know about this. This is just too weird for me to figure out on my own, and for all I know this might just be a complicated prank.' As she walked back to the trailer she saw that the great gray had taken off and followed after her, it quickly overtaking her coming to a landing on the porch light. She looked up at it and tried to get it to leave. "Sho, go home." The owl turned its gaze to her, looking at her rather irritably. "I got your note, go home to your owner." The owl screeched at her with annoyance. "What were you told to wait here until I sent back a reply?" Marie asked irritably, now glaring at the owl. The owl hooted in confirmation before turning its back to her and nestling its head under its wing. "Persistent little shit." Marie grumbled as she reentered the trailer.

As she entered she saw that her siblings and her mother had moved to the family room and were watching *Ghost Whisperer*. Her mom was sitting on the coach with Lee while May sat on the floor at their feet. Lee looked over and remarked gruffly

"Jeez Marie what took ya so long, it normally doesn't take this long for ya to get the mail." "Yeah," May turned towards her, a smarmy smirk plastered on her face. "What were you doing, checking it for letter bombs." May chuckled a little at her joke but Lee quickly silenced her with conk on the head, May turning to give her a glare while rubbing her head in pain.

"To answer you question Lee, I was held up an owl that wouldn't leave me alone." "Really, an owl?" Ms Kanker asked with barely restrained curiosity. "Yeah, it's currently dozing on the porch light. For some reason it won't leave until I reply to a letter it gave me." She then took the letter out of her pocket and gave it to her mother. "Really Marie, none of the three of us get any mail." Lee said suspiciously. "I don't get it either, but whoever sent it apparently not only knew where I lived and what my name is, but they even knew which room I slept in." May perked up in fright and started to shake a little. "Do you think they might have cameras in our room." Lee and Marie froze in horror. 'Shit I didn't think of that, I don't want some voyeur cleaning his putter while watching me sleep."

"Girls," the three of them jumped in startled surprise before turning and seeing their mother, looking somewhat subdued, holding the letter back out to Marie. "If you want to find out, then open the letter." Marie, now thoroughly puzzled, took the letter from her mother's hand and broke the seal. Upon opening it, she found two pieces of parchment the same color as the envelope. She pulled one of them out and quickly her confusion turned into stunned bewilderment.

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 Kanker,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into 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 August 14th.

Yours Sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress

Confusion and disbelief mounting by the second, Marie quickly looked at the next sheet of paper, her body shaking in with every word that she read.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

UNIFORM

First year students will require:

Three sets of plain work robes (black)

One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear

One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)

One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)

Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags

COURSE BOOKS

All students should have a copy of each of the following:

The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk

A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot

Magical Theory by Adelbert Waffling

A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch

One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore

Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander

The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self -Protection by Quentin Trimble

OTHER EQUIPMENT

1 wand

1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)

1 set of glass or crystal phials

1 telescope set

1 brass scales

Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS

At this point Marie couldn't take anymore and fell over in a fit of hysterical laughter. Tears were streaming down face with mirth and her body shaking with glee as she laughed at the ludicrousness of what she has just read. She kept laughing for the next five minutes, only stopping when her lungs began to ache and she was just as much choking as laughing.

"HAHAHAHA, cough cough cough, HAHAHA, GASP, oh god! Alright, hahaha, great joke, hehehe, absolutely hilarious, I haven't laughed this much since I saw Shortstacks yearbook picture. Hehehe, a school for witchcraft of wizardry, what a lark." She then stood up, smiling a cheshire grin and turned to her sisters. "Alright, which one of you two wrote this, nobody else could've known what room we sleep in and come up with something this ridiculous."

However, her sisters, now reading the letter in mute perplexity, turned to their sister. "Um Marie," May said quietly "we didn't write this."

Marie chuckled, "Oh come on, who else could write something like this? Do you honestly think that I would believe that there's some self respecting person out there that would willing name themselves Phyllida Spore? Or Adelbert Waffling? I mean Arsenius Jigger is little more than a pun."

Lee stared at her sister, annoyed that she would think that they would write something like this for a lame joke. "Marie, our handwriting isn't this good when we write in script, there is no way that we can write cursive this good. What on earth makes you think we can?"

Marie wasn't laughing anymore, in fact she was slowly getting more and more frustrated with her siblings. "Well then maybe you forced my Oven Mitt to write this letter, it sounds as formal as one of his papers even if the details are completely asinine. Most of this stuff sounds like something from a Halloween store or some cult summoning. I mean what idiot would have the name Albus Dumbledore?" "Actually, I found him to be a charming and rather brilliant man."

The three girls turned in shock to their mother, who was now coming down the stairs with a brown leather book under her left arm. They had been so caught up in their argument that they hadn't even noticed her leave the room. "And trust me, that is just an abridged version. His full name is a mouthful that would make most monarchs jealous."

"Wait, wait, wait. Are you saying that this is legit!?" Marie screeched incredulously. "I know it doesn't seem like it is, but that is an official form letter for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Scotland." Ms Kanker looked at her daughters and saw the disbelief painted on each of their faces. Marie's forehead vein was throbbing so hard that it looked like it was going to burst, May's jaw had hit the floor in shock and while she couldn't see her eyes, Lee was looking at her as if she had lost her mind. Sighing, she extended the book towards them. "Look at this, if you don't believe me when you're done looking at it then I won't bring this up again and I'll just send a note back saying that you weren't interested."

Lee, now thoroughly suspicious, cautiously took the book from her hands and opened it up, scoffing as she did so. She flipped through it, slowly going through each page until she froze. She stared at the page for half a minute, then turned the next page, then the next one and the next one until her hands were a blur of page movement, her eyes moving frantically from one page to another until she came to the very end of the book. She then flipped it back, desperately trying to find some sort of explanation that would reveal this entire thing as a lie until she finally couldn't refuse the evidence before her any longer. Numb and completely rattled, the book fell out of her shaking hands onto the floor.

Marie was now really worried. It took a lot for her sister to get even nervous and now it looked like she was on the verge of having an anxiety attack. She grabbed her sister by her shoulders and starting to lightly shake them. "Lee, Lee! Are you alright?" "It's true." Lee murmured, her voice barely higher than a whisper. "What's true?" Marie asked, but all Lee did was point to the book, now lying face down on the ground. Marie let go of her sibling and picked up the book. Frightfully, she turned to a random page, May curiously looking over her shoulder as she did. What they saw caused their eyes to bulge to the size of dinner plates.

The book was a photo album, but the photos weren't still images. Instead, the photos moved, their figures fluttering across black, white and colored landscapes and backgrounds, laughing, joking even getting angry at each other, as though they were characters in a silent film. The photo they were staring at was a picture of their mother and Marie's father at a coffee shop, but instead of just the two figures staring into the camera frozen in time, they were interacting with each other. They watched as Marie's dad told what had to be a joke, as their mother reacted in a fit of giggles. Moving their eyes over to the next page showed the two of them on the coach, their mother's head in his lap sleeping while he played with her hair. They watched as she woke up, smirked and gave a small slap on his arm, causing him to flinch a little bit before smiling at her. Flipping to the next page showed the two of them at a pub drinking mugs and drunkenly supporting each other, their faces redded by the booze they had previously consumed. "I..but..how?" "Simple, wizards have these special chemicals that if developed right cause the images to move." The Kanker sisters jumped, having forgotten that their mother was even there. Marie suddenly felt how dry her lips were and how sick her stomach was. If what her mother said was true, then there really were witches and wizards floating around and that she might be one of them, however insane that sounded.

"Mom," May started to quire, trying desperately to convince herself that she was just hallucinating. "Surely Marie can't be a witch. She hasn't done any magic spells, occult rituals or turned anyone into toads so how could she be a witch?"

"Just because she hadn't done any of these things doesn't mean your sister isn't a witch May. After all, don't you remember anything strange happening whenever she was particularly angry of scared?"

Marie felt the pit of her throat fall into her stomach, her mouth now tasting like copper as her mind began to swim through her memories. She remembered how one time she was four and May was getting on at preschool, she had been so angry that when she punched the bully across the face, her skin from where the punch had connected looked as if it had suffered from second degree burns afterward. She remembered when she was seven and how she angry she was when her mother wouldn't get her hair dye. She went to bed that night with chocolate brown hair and woke up the next morning with blue hair, (something that looked to be permanent as blue hair now grew from her scalp no matter how much dye she used) and hadn't she just a few months ago destroyed Peach Creek Elementary in a fit of jealous rage so vicious that they were still rebuilding it?

Now so nervous that her skin looked at pale as milk, Marie quietly asked, "Mom, Dad, was he…?" "Yes, and a talented one at that." Ms Kanker leaned her head onto her hand, a wistful smile appearing on her face as her as glazed over, as if she were no longer in the room, but far away in a time and place her children could only imagine.

"I actually met your father by accident. I was going home from the supermarket one night when I heard a sound similar to the cracking of a whip coming from an alley I was walking past. Curious, I decided to investigate and I found your father bleeding out in the middle of it with a chunk of his shoulder missing. He was barely older than twenty years old, if that and he had long matted hair glistening with sweat. He was wearing these strange black robes over a white t-shirt and blue jeans and clutching a black stick that I later found out was his wand. I didn't find any license or I.D. on him so I didn't feel I didn't think he would make to the hospital on time so I made a makeshift bandage on his arm from my skirt and took him to the apartment I used to live in that was luckily only two blocks down. I put an actual bandage and some rubbing alcohol on him and spent the next four days taking care of him while he was in a coma." She frowned a little as she returned to reality. "It was touch and go for a while there. I was worried that he might die. But he eventually woke up. He was really panicky at first, as he thought that he had been kidnapped, but I was able to calm him down, though he was utterly stunned when I told him that he had ended up in Chicago." She chuckled a little bit at this, which confused her daughters. "Why was he confused about how he ended up in Chicago?" "Well Lee, Marie's father wasn't American, he was British and he had originally been in Manchester before he accidently apparated to Chicago, that was the reason part of his shoulder was missing."

By this point Marie's head was spinning, the shock of the situation starting to overwhelm her a little. "Apparated?" "Basically he teleported to a place he didn't intend to go to. Any way, I spent the next month nursing him back to health. We told each other stories about our lives, our parents, his friends, my pregnancy with what would be Lee, my financial situation and we became friends. He would pay for my food, help clean up around the house, he even paid for two years worth of rent so that I wouldn't have to worry about it. Eventually he had to leave, he had family and friends back home and I told him that if he ever needed a place to crash then I was always available." She drank from her coffee mug, grimacing as she felt the now cold liquid trickle down her throat and lamenting that they didn't have a microwave silently before continuing.

"I honestly never expected to see him again. I fell back on my routine back then and two months went by without incident. Then one day he turned up on my doorstep. He told me that he wanted to talk. I was worried at first but he just wanted to talk about how stressful his job was. Apparently even though he came from money he worked as an official for the British government and things were getting bad back home and he wanted to just talk about it to an unbiased party. So I listened and afterward we went out for tea. This continued in a similar pattern for about half a year. He'd visit every other month and after I taught him how to use the phone he would call every week to talk about what was going on where he lived. He'd talk about his best friend's wedding, about his surly boss, his obnoxious coworkers and some of the tamer raids he had to take part in, I'd talk about my work, how the pregnancy was going and some of the hopes I had for the future. We got closer to each other, to the point that he was by my bedside when I was giving birth for the first time. Eventually we got too close. We didn't think about what we were doing we just did it." She then started to laugh, "God when we found out I was pregnant again he thought that I was going to kill him. He offered to pay for all your schooling and my living expenses if he could see you twice a month. I was more angry by the thought that he believed that I wanted nothing to do with him any more than for getting pregnant. Gave him a good whack around the head for that."

Ms Kanker chuckled for a little bit before quieting. She ran her hand through her hair as the smile disappeared from her face, replaced by a pained and sorrowful look, her eyes clouded with grief. "He told me that he was a wizard a little less than a week later. At first didn't believe him, but he lievatated a chair and proved it to me. He told me that he was worried about me because of what was happening back where he lived. A terrorist group lead by a dark wizard named Voldemort was trying to overturn the wizard government in Britain. They were notorious muggle haters and they considered any wizard that associated or even sympathized with muggles to be blood traitors. And Marie's father was well known as a dark wizard hater and a muggle lover, so if Voldemort or any of his supporters found out that he was having a child with a muggle they would've gone after me to get to him. He said he was understanding if I wanted to cut him out of my life but he just looked so pathetic that I refused. I told him that I would stay be his side through thick and thin for as long as it takes." She took a few deep breaths, as if she was trying to fight back tears. "I started dating him shortly after that. He introduced me to a few of his friends and some of his former teachers, all of whom were heavily involved in the fight against Voldemort. I was even able to get some of them to help babysit you Lee. There are a few pictures of them in there I'll show you later. And when Marie was born he was so happy. But, the war started to escalate around this time. Several of our friends turned up dead, the raids got more violent, it was difficult to trust anyone after a while. Marie, your dad was gone sometimes for weeks on end doing stuff for the war effort. He still had his moments, like when he offered to give the man who got me pregnant with May a force circumcision, but I felt like I was an outsider to I wider world the more and more time I spent with him. The last time I saw him, he told me that he had found out that there was a traitor in the ranks of the police force and that he was going to go after them, that he would talk to me again when he caught him. Well that traitor was also a very good coward, because I haven't seen him or heard from him since."

As Ms Kanker concluded her tale, Marie couldn't take it anymore and ran. As she yanked open the front door and sprinted from the trailer park, she didn't even hear the cries of her family as she disappeared in the tranquility of the trees.