A/N: Is this *gasp* an UPDATE?!?!?! Why yes, yes it is. After something like eight months, I've finally gotten back to this story. And I have no excuse. Other than I really just wasn't in a Harry Potter mood. Last summer I went through a HUGE Star Trek phase after seeing the newest movie. Only recently, I've gotten back into HP. I'M SORRY!!! BLAME SPOCK AND DATA!!!! Yeah well, only five people have even added this story to their alerts, so it's not like I had a billion people on my back about updating. For those who I've kept waiting for so long, I apologize but I did tell you updates would be sporadic. REALLY sporadic. My muse just whacked me about the head a day ago and told me to get cracking, so you can expect more updates within a month.

IMPORTANT: I would go back and re-read if I were you. You probably forgot what the hell this story was about. Plus, I tweaked a few little things, just to make things more believable. Don't worry, nothing major.

Thanks to reviewers: imdeadsothere, BlackBloodRose64, Blue Jewl, and Fishy. You guys are the best!

Enjoy!

Chapter 2
Letters and Meetings

So ever since my tenth birthday I knew of my shady heritage. A few days later, I thanked Lea a little more enthusiastically for the second book. "It proved to be very informative," I had said, flashing her a wide smile.

There were still some mysteries, but I never got anything out of Ophion or my adoptive parents, though I dropped some rather large hints and they never noticed a thing. I supposed I would just have to wait until someone- the 'he' that the snake had mentioned- explained everything in detail. I still hated being left in the dark.

Life went on. Lea, excited about our upcoming first year at Salem ("Jesus, Lea, we're not even eleven yet), dragged me out to Paige and Storry's nearly every day in an attempt to read ahead. By the time we left she would have read all the curriculum up to fourth year, if it weren't for Aiden. He interrupted us in one of our study sessions (which mostly involved Lea reading intently and me hiding a comic book behind Gamp's Laws of Transfiguration and also reading intently, but not really what I was supposed to) and asked if we wanted to play Quidditch. Lea's eyes lit up. If there was one thing she would abandon books for, it was playing Seeker. I nearly threw myself at Aiden's feet for coming to my rescue.

So our days settled into a routine. We would study until two or so, we'd go out to play on the public Quidditch pitch, with its simulated wind and sunlight (which wasn't too bad seeing as how it was underground), and then we would hit Side Way. Mostly we spent our time in Wires, ogling the new Metallica self-titled album, or in AH (American Honeyduke's) a branch famous in the UK, salivating over chocolates and other tooth-rotting candies.

Our routine was filling, and it kept my mind occupied. When my eleventh birthday came, I had nearly forgotten about Harry Potter and was shocked when I offhandedly thought, "Happy birthday, Harry."

That year we went up to the surface, went to a movie theater and watched "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead." It was quite entertaining and I mean that in a Mystery Science Theater 3000 kind of way. The kind of movie you laugh at not because it's funny, but because it's so awful.

We went to my place after the movie, and hung out in the living room, playing Monopoly until six o'clock. Aiden left soon after losing quite fantastically, and Lea followed him, remarking that we should be getting our letters from Salem Witches Institute soon.

The next morning, Marco made waffles and fruit salad. I grinned, helping myself to liberal amounts of maple syrup.

"Good morning, Dad." I still called them mom and dad, but I didn't think of them as such.

Marco smiled distractedly, setting the fresh fruit on the table between Dana and I. I looked at him suspiciously. He looked flustered. "Um, sweetie,"- Did he just say 'um'? He never said 'um.'- "The- the mail's on the coffee table. I think there's something there for you."

My eyes lit up. Of course! My Salem letter! I nearly ran to the living room, snatching the pile of envelopes and shuffling through them. Bill, bill, bill... Aha!

It was a thick yellow envelope addressed to me-

Miss M. Harlnott
The Upstairs Bedroom
237 North Reed Avenue
Las Hadas, CA, USA

I turned it over. There, sealing the envelope, was not the expected pointed crossed wands set against a blue shield, the insignia of Salem Witches Institute. Instead, the wax seal depicted a quartered coat of arms, with an eagle, a lion, a badger, and a snake, circling a bold letter 'H.' I cocked my head to the side and plopped down on the couch.

What was this? With trembling fingers, I broke the seal and slid out the folded letter.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chr. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Ms. Harlnott,

We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

We understand that your case is a strange one, and Headmaster Dumbledore would like to meet with you at the Red Hat café on Side Way. He will be explaining any questions you may have on the subject of your last minute transferring from Salem Witches Institute to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Meet him at the Red Hat on Saturday the third of August, four o'clock on the dot. You may bring your parents, but the headmaster wishes to speak to you in private.

Term begins on 1 September. If you accept the conditions that Headmaster Dumbledore presents you with, we await your owl by no later than 7 August, with a signed permission slip from a legal guardian.

Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress

My heart plummeted into my stomach. "I'm cornfuzzled," I said to no one in particular, without being able to stop myself. It was a rolling joke with my friends. If they were here I'm sure Aiden would have laughed, but Lea would have been just as silent and cornfuzzled as I was.

Slowly, I got up, my eyes still fixed on the parchment, and walked back to the kitchen. I looked up into the worried eyes of Dana and Marco and repeated my earlier statement. Dana smiled, happy to see I could still crack a joke, but Marco just motioned for me to sit down. I did so.

"I don't get it," I said. "Why am I supposed to go to Hogwarts. I thought I was going to Salem?"

Marco sighed. "Something came up, Megan. I'm sorry. Professor Dumbledore will explain on Saturday."

I shook my head silently and stared back at the letter. "But- but what about Lea? It's bad enough Aiden can't go to Salem, now I can't either? We'll all be separated!"

Dana put a hand on my shoulder. "You'll make new friends at Hogwarts."

"I don't want new friends!" I yelled, close to tears. "I've known Lea and Aiden since- since forever!"

"We don't expect you to understand yet, sweetheart, but you will."

I stared at Marco. "I don't get it! Why can't you just tell me what's going on?"

"W-we just can't, Megan," said Dana, and I could see she was on the verge of tears as well. "I wish we could, but we can't."

I glanced from Dana's distraught face, to Marco's hardened resolve. I felt white hot anger bubbling in the pit of my stomach, and I just lost it. "FINE!" I screamed. "FINE, I GUESS WHATEVER IT IS, YOU JUST CAN'T TRUST ME!"

With that, I dropped my fork with a clatter and scrunched up the letter in my fist, stomping out of the room and up the stairs. Slamming the door shut, I threw myself onto my bed. I didn't cry. I just lay there, face-down and motionless, one hand stuffed under my pillow, the other clasping the wrinkled parchment. For a few minutes I didn't think about anything, until I heard a hiss in my ear, and suddenly Ophion was coiled around my arm.

/What was that about?/ he asked, disgruntled. I had probably woken him with my screams.

Feeling slightly ashamed, I mumbled an apology into the pillow. Though I couldn't see it, I knew he shot me a glare.

/Sure. Still, what was the screaming for?/

I rolled over and smoothed out the paper, showing it to him. He looked at it for a while, then sent me another glare. /I can't read. I am a snake, you know./

Embarrassed, I told him what it was and what it said. I saw comprehension dawn in the reptile's eyes. When I asked him what it was about, he said, /I'm not sure./

It was my turn to shoot him a dirty look. Seeing that I was not in a patient mood, he did his sort of snaky sigh and said, /I think it has something to do with your brother. He lives in the UK, you know. Other than that, I have no clue what it's about./

Oh. Yeah. Duh. I should have drawn that parallel too.

/Whatever it is, I'm sure Dumbledore will explain it on Saturday./

/Yeah,/ I grumbled. /Or he'll just feed me more lies./

Ophion said nothing, closing his eyes and dropping off to sleep. Sometimes I wondered how he could fall asleep so quickly or if he was just faking it.

I showed the letter to Aiden and Lea the next day. My female friend was obviously as upset as I was. We had been very hyped to be going to Salem together, and SpellLight Wizarding Academy was only forty or so miles away from there. Sometimes the girls of the Witches Institute would take field trips to visit their brother school, so claimed Lea's older sister. We were going to be together, all three of us, but now that I was headed to Hogwarts... I might not see them again until the summer, or hopefully Christmas break.

"I'll talk to this Dumbledore person," I said. "Maybe there was a mix-up, or something."

"Yeah, or something," whispered Aiden.

Saturday approached rapidly, though I dearly wished it wouldn't. On the morning of my meeting with Albus Dumbledore, I pulled on my sports sweats and a blue Weird Sisters T-shirt. I chose to dress muggle that day, for what reason I had no fathomable clue. Lea came over to say hi in the morning, and began fussing over my hair.

"You can't go see Albus Dumbledore looking like that! He's possibly the greatest wizard of the century!" Adjusting her glasses, she pushed me over to a mirror.

"Lea, I don't care how he sees me," I groaned. "He's hiding something from me and I don't feel like respecting him for it!"

Lea looked at me with a weird expression on her face. "Hiding something? What makes you think that?"

"Well..." I kicked myself mentally. I hadn't told her about Harry, and he was one of the main reasons for my uneasiness about going to Hogwarts. I had a feeling Dumbledore knew something about him. "I don't know. I just have this feeling."

She cocked an eyebrow. "Uh-huh."

I looked away.

"Whatever," she said dismissively, grabbing a hairbrush from the dresser. "You still need to look presentable."

So she french-braided my shoulder-length red hair, and tied it up with a scarlet ribbon. She forced me to change from my T-shirt and sweats to fiery red dress robes. "There," she said, switching my brown sneakers (which at the time of purchase had been a gleaming white) for a pair of black dress shoes. Thank god they weren't high-heels.

"Do I have to wear this all day," I whined. "I'm meeting him at four you know." I pointed to the digital clock by my bed, flashing ten o'clock.

"Yes, you have to wear it all day," she said, and dragged me out the door and down the street to Paige and Storry's.

The rest of the day followed routine, except for much taunting from Aiden ("I love the color, matches your hair and your demon eyes." He pulled the braid rather sharply and I hit him in the stomach) and having to wait it out while the other two played Quidditch with the other neighborhood kids. I hated it, and soon found myself resenting both Lea and Dumbledore.

Three-thirty rolled around and we all went to the Red Hat early to eat a late lunch. I picked at my salad sullenly.

"I don't feel well," I whined to Lea. "Maybe I should go home and lie down."

"Or maybe you should stay here and shut up," commented the other girl. Aiden just smiled, and changed the subject to AQA, the American Quidditch Association.

"I hear the Chicago Chimaeras lost to the Hurricanes last week."

Soon, I forgot my growing dread at the steadily approaching meeting. We three could talk Quidditch until our tongues fell off, and we never got tired of it. My personal favorite team was the San Jose Sphinxes, and my heroine was the star chaser, Saralynn Hortz. They were awesome on offense, but their seeker was absolute crap at the game, so the only way they won was if they were up by 150 points before the snitch was caught, and thanks to Hortz, that actually happened quite often.

Aiden disagreed with me though. His team was the Hawaiian Hurricanes, and he claimed that they could thrash the Sphinxes. Their keeper, a guy named Freed, never let a Quaffle get past him, and although their chasers sucked, their seeker caught the Snitch every time.

Lea smiled as she watched us squabble, occasionally egging on whichever one of us seemed to be winning the argument, until we were at each other's throats.

I relaxed as we slid into our familiar AQA talk. I nearly forgot why I was there until the waitress interrupted our discussion.

"'Scuse me, miss."

I looked up into the twenty-or-so-old server's green eyes.

"The old man in the corner–" she pointed at a table in a secluded corner of the Red Hat –"wants to talk to you."

My heart jumped in my chest and I turned to look at Aiden's encouraging smile. Taking a few deep breaths, I stood and made my way to the table where my educational career would be decided.

My first impression of Albus Dumbledore was that he looked extremely ridiculous. Clad in orange and purple robes, with a flowing white beard and a pointed cap, he looked precisely like the Muggle stereotype of a wizard. I nearly laughed out loud when I took in his half-moon glasses, twinkling blue eyes, and benign smile. It was just too funny. But I kept a straight face and sat down opposite him, folding my hands and biting the inside of my cheek.

"Good afternoon, sir," I said. I didn't look directly at him, so I didn't see him smile as he pushed a tin of candies beneath my nose.

"Care for a lemon drop, Miss Harlnott?"

At once, I knew I could like this guy. Despite the fact that he was ruining my life, I couldn't help but succumb to the sour treats. I grabbed three and shoved them into my mouth, looking up to see his reaction.

"My, my," he said, eyes twinkling merrily. "I do say no one has been quite so eager to accept my offer before. Although perhaps it is the fact that I mention they are Muggle sweets. Some wizards find themselves above Muggle candies."

"The nerve!" I exclaimed, sucking on the lemon drops. "I think lemon drops and Reese's peanut butter cups surpass even the best of Honeyduke's chocolates."

Dumbledore chuckled. "Well I wouldn't know about these Reese's."

"Oh, you must have some, sir. They're absolutely heavenly. And addicting." It took me a few moments to realize that I was joking around with the greatest wizard of the century. Something about him just made me forget why I was mad at him. I decided to steer the conversation back on track. "But sir. I do have some questions."

The man nodded, straightening up and putting on a much more serious face. This was the Albus Dumbledore I imagined. "Yes, of course. Did your parents come with you?"

I shook my head. "Mom and Dad were busy, but they told me to tell you that they send you their regards."

He smiled lightly and nodded. "I do believe you have more than some questions, Miss Harlnott."

"Yes, sir," I said, hesitantly. "Why aren't I going to Salem?"

"Well," he sighed. "There is actually something I need to tell you. Yours is a special case."

"Sir," I said, deciding to avoid any awkward revelations that weren't really revelations, "I already know about Harry."

For what seemed to me like the first time in the man's life, shock spread across Albus Dumbledore's face. He seemed about to choke on his lemon drop. It was only there for a split second and after a moment he regained his composure and settled back. "Oh." This word seemed so foreign on his lips. "Well, that works out several complications. May I ask how you found out?"

"It was rather obvious, no offense sir," I said, sucking on my lemon drops. "You could have glamored my scar. I think that's what really tipped me off. Otherwise I would have taken the shared birthdays as a coincidence."

Dumbledore nodded slowly. "Yes. I suppose that would have been a good idea." He looked at me curiously. "Already know about glamors, do you? You must be very bright. Just like your mother."

I colored slightly. "Thank you," I said quietly. "My friends and I– we like to read together."

He looked to the far table, where Lea and Aiden were whispering to each other, and shooting us nervous glances. "Those are your friends?"

"Aiden Drestly and Lea Juarez."

There was a silence.

"Sir, I do want to know why I can't go to Salem Institute with Lea. Aiden's going to SpellLight. We were going to be together..." I trailed off.

The elderly wizard looked at me seriously. "I thought a family reunion of a sorts might be in order."

My breath caught in my throat and I choked on my lemon drops. "Does Harry know about me?" I blurted out after a lot of coughing.

He shook his head. "No, he does not. And you must not tell him."

I cocked my head to the side. "Why not?"

"All will reveal itself in due time," he said, steepling his fingers. I snorted. What kind of an answer was that? "As I stated before, you are a special case, Miss Harlnott. May I call you Megan?"

I nearly hacked on my candies again. The Albus Dumbledore wanted to address me by my first name? Wait, since when was he the Albus Dumbledore? I thought I hated him for ruining my life. Did he have this effect on everyone? Whatever. "Um, sure thing, sir."

"Just Professor is fine, Megan."

"Okay, professor." My mouth felt dry. I wished I had another lemon drop, but I had swallowed them accidentally in my previous coughing fit.

"You are a special case, Megan," Dumbledore continued. He gestured around at the interior of the Red Hat. "Such a place is not fit for a private conversation. Some of the things I need to tell you are highly confidential. The only place I feel comfortable enough to discuss in would be my office at Hogwarts. Should you accept my offer of a transfer to Hogwarts, then and only then will I tell you everything. Also, I might add, that the tuition is free for the first year, perhaps all the others too."

My jaw dropped. A whole year's worth of classes– free? "Professor, isn't that playing favorites or something?" I didn't look him in the eye. "I mean, does everyone else get to go without paying anything?"

"You're special," he said, and I looked up at him with wide eyes. "Should you accept my first offer, the first year will be free. Should you accept my second, which I will explain to you once you are at Hogwarts, then all the other years will be so as well."

I couldn't help but feel curious. "Second offer?"

"All in due time, all in due time."

Dammit. Another cryptic answer.

I sighed and sat back. This was all so confusing. I felt like having a Marty McFly moment and saying "This is heavy." But I shut up. Maybe I could go for the first year (I mean, hello! Never say no to free stuff!) and if I didn't like it I could get a transfer back to Salem. And I could always refuse his second offer. I asked him if this was possible.

"Of course!" he confirmed, eyes twinkling. "Although I cannot imagine a reason why you wouldn't like it at Hogwarts, save being away from your friends of course."

"Can I talk to my parents about it, then owl you my response?" I asked quietly.

The wizard smiled and nodded. "Yes, you may. But remember, I need an answer by the seventh." He slipped a parchment onto the table in front of me. "And if you say yes, then I will need your parents to fill out this form."

I assented with my head and stood. "Thank you, Professor. Perhaps I will see you on the first of September."

"Think carefully, Megan," he said. "I do hope to see you then. Good-bye."

Eyes fixed on the form, I nodded absently and wandered back to where Aiden and Lea were sitting.

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