The Unaddressed Gift
Chapter 2: The Unaddressed Gift
First Year
Metamorphmagus. That's the word that consumed Mikaeyla Dawthorn's mind as she fixed her hair in the mirror. Mikaeyla was a metamorphmagus; but she decided not to tell anyone at Hogwarts and certainly no one in the orphanage.
For her first day, she decided to look like she did when she was found at the orphanage. Her hair was gold-brown in layers. She had straight hair that hung about 15 centimeters past her shoulders. Her hair looked puffy, as if she had teased it. She repeatedly kept pulling her fringe away from her face but it always fell back in front of her grey-green eyes.
Mikaeyla grabbed her backpack and went to the den. She felt no remorse leaving her room, leaving the orphanage. She had no remorse, no regret, no knowledge that someone of magical blood had once, just as she had, lived in her room, years before.
"Bye, Everyone!", Mikaeyla called, waving her hand rapidly, nearly jumping up and down in excitement. A few other kids turned around and waved or smiled. "Bye, Ms. Winning", she said, hugging the nanny, the person who had acted as her mother for 11 years.
"Bye, Mikaeyla. Remember to get your things and be at Gringotts by 10:45."
"Okay, don't worry. I'll miss you bunches."
"Oh and you'll need this", said Ms. Winning, pushing a silver key into Mikaeyla's hand.
"Where did-?"
"Oh quick, quick, hurry, you still have to buy school supplies!", said Ms. Winning as she tossed a pinch of floo powder into the fire and gently nudged her forwards. "Bye!" Mikaeyla had no time to reply; she was engulfed in green flames. "Diagon Alley!"
•••
Mikaeyla, being a metamorphmagus, was not very surprised when a middle-aged witch came to the orphanage, telling her she was a witch. Little did they know, she had been visiting Diagon Alley by floo powder from the time she was about four. Of course none of the other orphans knew. Ms. Winning, the nanny, who also happened to be a squib, helped Mikaeyla in keeping her magic a secret.
Now she dusted her clothes and as she approached shops she needed to visit, it suddenly occurred to her she wouldn't have a way to pay; she didn't have any money. Of course there was the bank, Gringotts, except she didn't have an account as far as she knew. Curious, and desperate for money, she went to Gringotts anyways.
At the counter, a rather grumpy looking, aged goblin sat.
"Uhm, I don't have an account, could I- ?"
"Name?"
"Mikaeyla Dawthorn-"
"Key?"
"I don't- oh!" Mikaeyla set the key the nanny had given her on the desk.
"Nuckorn", the goblin grunted and handed the key to Nuckorn, another goblin who motioned for her to step into a cart.
"First time? Hold on.", he warned. There was a whir of color and Mikaeyla found herself in front of Vault #777. Her long fingers were grasping the cart so hard, her knuckles turned white. Letting go, she stood, hair windblown. The goblin unlocked the door and pressed his wrinkled hand against the stone wall. It melted away like a candle in fast motion.
She stepped inside and noticed it smelled of burnt paper and dust. The left side of the room was filled with a pile of shiny coins. She counted how much she had and gathered some of it in a small sack. She was on her way when she noticed a small, dusty box in the corner. Quickly grabbing it, and eager to open, she told herself to wait until she was alone.
•••
The only thing left to buy was a wand, the thing she knew she would treasure the most. As she pushed open the door to Ollivander's, a bell tinkled above her. She coughed a bit and noticed the dust sitting on small boxes of wands in various places in the room as they hadn't been touched for a long time.
A man she supposed was Ollivander surfaced from the back of the shop. "Hello, I'm Ollivander. Looking for a wand?", he asked, grabbing measuring tape. Mikaeyla nodded. "Can't wait", she said, looking uncertainly at the boxes.
After measuring an odd arrangement of body parts, ranging from her left nostril to her earlobe. He climbed a ladder and pulled down a dusty box. "Redwood and unicorn tail, 9 3/4 inches". Mikaeyla took the wand. "Now what?", she asked. He smiled. "Just give it a wave".
She made a movement in the air. An electric, bright light-blue light shot out of the tip and bounced around the room and off the walls with a clunk every time it collided with something. It stopped at a place on the floor leaving a burn mark where it landed. "Nope- most definitely not", Ollivander muttered, taking the wand away and searching for a different one. "Ah, here we go. Hawthorne and Pheonix feather, 11 1/2 inches." She waved it. A few blue-silver and white sparks shot from the tip. They drifted through the air and vanished with a pop. "Good, that'll be 7 sickles", he said, packaging the wand again.
Noticing it was 10:40, she headed for Gringotts, where she would meet an adult that would side-along apparate her to Platform 9 3/4.
"Mikaeyla, I presume?", asked a rather serious looking wizard. He was a thin man with greasy looking, chin-length, unkept hair. His skin looked almost as if it had a yellow tint to it, but that was possibly because he looked so pale against his black robes and black cloak.
"Yes, will you be apparating to Platform 9 3/4?", she asked. He gave a curt nod before he turned and held up his arm, which she quickly realized she were to grab hold of.
It wasn't fun, but not too terrible either. Apparating was so far Mikaeyla's least favorite way of travel. When she opened her eyes, she found herself at what she assumed was Platform 9 3/4.
Students bustled about, talking to their parents, looking for their friends, or as in Mikaeyla's case, and many other children her age, walking slowly or merely standing in one place, looking frightened. Mikaeyla took a deep breath, hoisting up her backpack and walked toward the Hogwarts Express, ready to take on whatever was about to happen, oblivious that this would affect everything.