A brown-and-black flecked barn owl swooped through the open window. It was carrying a pale envelope sealed with a thick spot of maroon wax.
"Congratulations dear! Looks like your letter arrived at last." Beamed a light brown haired woman with slightly wide spaced eyes.
I felt a deep blush creeping across my face. It was true that I had been a tad impatient for my ticket to Hogwarts and the start of a life revolving around magic. What eleven-year-old in their right minds wouldn't eagerly await such a moment? I had been waiting all summer for the satisfaction of ripping through this very seal. A moment later my invitation and supply list sprawled before me on the breakfast table. The plate of half-eaten scrambled eggs was pushed aside and left to its end of slowly losing warmth. Meals come three times daily and are unimportant truly big moments such as this.
Several minutes of scanning the contents of the letter allowed the pounding of my heart to return to normal. It didn't actually tell me anything new. I had Tindra for that, or at least I should have had if the Ministry didn't demand so much of my sister's time. However the letter would give me an excuse to leave the house soon to get school supplies. A jaunt down to Diagon Alley aught to break the summer's monotony and cheer me up a bit!
Just then I remembered something! If I got my letter today, then it was a safe bet that Colin Creevey, the son of the local milkman who lived just across her backyard, would have just gotten his letter too. Colin didn't actually know that he was a wizard, or that the occupation existed at all. I guessed that his reaction to the existence of moving pictures would be priceless. All in all, that surely rated a brisk walk down to see him and assure the Creevey family that their eldest son wasn't at the receiving end of a well-planned prank.
As I stood up I said to my mom, "I'm going over to the Creevey's to show Colin my chocolate card collection. He'll love that now that he has been inducted into the wizarding world and all."
"You do that," my mother call after me. "And be a dear and ask him if he would like a lift this Saturday to get his things. That is when we will go. I'm sorry you sister won't be there. I promise to tell her when she comes back tonight…. I'm sure she'll be pleased."
I jogged through the open terrain that separated my house from the Creevey's. Droplets of early morning dew that sparkled like diamonds had soaked through my sneakers by the time by the time I reached the path leading to Colin's front door. Colin's brother Denis opened the front door after a few moment's pause.
"Oh… Hi Raelynn. Isn't this a bit early for you?" greeted Denis. Raelynn grinned sheapishly. This was definitely the earliest time I had dropped by all summer; usually I wasn't even up and about my own home yet.
"My mom has decided that I will eat breakfast with the whole family, except for Tindra who has to be at work extremely early, even if she has to drag me out of bed herself. It stinks. Believe me, I know." I moaned. Before it hadn't been like my first debut of the day had been at two in the afternoon, it had just been late in the morning.
"Well, sorry about that. You can come in. Don't worry, Collin has just finished breakfast. Although earlier he got the strangest letter. Mom just finished thoroughly abusing what advertising has fallen to these days to attract people's attention, but I think it's a tad too odd to be just an add for magic tricks. I came in this really fancy envelope. It was definitely not your average cheap, colorful slip of paper that usually comes." Denis stopped making small talk as we reached the kitchen.
Mr. Creevey glanced up from his cup of strong herbal tea and nodded a greeting. He had probably just come in from doing his early morning rounds. The kitchen was in a normal just-finished-breakfast disarray with dished of half eaten this or that left on the table. The only thing that really stood out was a letter that was identical to the one that I had gotten earlier that morning.
"Hi Raelynn!" said Colin brightly. "Did you happen to get a letter describing some magic joke shop call Hogwash, or something like that?"
"You mean Hogwarts," I corrected, "And of coarse I got my letter. My mom is not one of the few pure-bloods left for nothing. Although I really don't believe there is anything wrong with muggles, so please don't take offense." I could see this might take a minute and didn't feel like easing into the subject gently; I preferred to dive headfirst into the problem.
"Stop joking around Ray! You don't actually believe in that school of magic gibberish. And what do mean by 'muggles'?" said Colin.
"Muggles are non-magic folk. And how can you ever consider there not being such thing as a school of magic? Where are witches and wizards supposed to learn it all? Although I do admit those tap dancing milk cans you charmed last summer were quite impressive for an amateur," I said sarcastically.
Colin took some time to mull these new concepts around his head for a moment before responding. Then he tilted his head to one side and, with a playful grin, said, "If you are so sure that magic is real, then you can prove it." His expression confirmed the fact that he still didn't believe. It was time for the emergency weapon. I reached into my back pocket and pulled out a handful of my duplicate chocolate cards.
"These are the wizard's versions of trading cards. You can find them in candies called chocolate frogs. Here, take them; I have plenty of copies of these at my house." Colin was still looking at me like I was nuts, so I kept explaining. "Look, this one is Dumbledore. If you look on the back you'll see that he really is the headmaster of Hogwarts."
Colin fingered the card for a moment. The moving faces were certainly undeniable proof that magic existed. I could see the signs of dawning understanding on his face. A glance at Mr. Creevey showed him in deep thought, quite perplexed at the turn of events.
Colin seemed to have made up his mind. "This is so awesome! Do you want to come upstairs with me to help put away these cards in an album?"
"Sure Colin. Just give me a moment." I replied. As Colin dashed upstairs to his room I looked to his dad. "Is it okay if we take Colin to Diagon Alley on Saturday so that he can get his school stuff?" Mr. Creevey nodded his assent; he too had finally accepted that his son might possibly be a wizard.