Arianna huffed and puffed as she carried a heavy bag of chicken feed from the barn, to the chicken coop. Finally getting there, she put the bag down, and spread the feed out over the ground, carefully avoiding her sleeping area.

Arianna was not much liked by the Winters. They reminded her daily of how much they loathed her, (the bruises proved that) and how she came to be at the farm, they told her that her parents hated her and so the dumped her here, "and that's how we got stuck with you!" Mrs. Winters would always say. The only time that they 'liked' her and treated her as their daughter was when they had company over, or when they were going out.

The rest of the time, she wore a ratty old dress, wasn't allowed in the house, and took care of all the animals on the farm. She slept in the chicken coop, and bathed in the creek in the woods next to the property.

After feeding the chickens, she continued with the rest of her chores. She always made good time, and was normally done her chores by one o'clock if she started at five o'clock. She had to feed the animals, exercise the horses, clean the pens, move the grazing animals to a different field, and on top of that, she had school work to complete.

She didn't attend school like the other kids in the village did, but one day when she was in town picking up the groceries, a teacher at the elementary school, Mrs. Hutchenson had talked to her, and questioned her on why she hadn't seen her at the school. Arianna had shyly replied that she wasn't allowed to go to school, because she had to take care of the animals.

Mrs. Hutchenson was shocked, but she agreed to meet Arianna in town every week and eat lunch with her and teach her some things briefly over lunch. She had taught Arianna to read, to write, to do math, along with many other things. Each week Mrs. Hutchenson would bring Arianna a stack of worksheets to do during the week, and they would take them up together when they met in town.

This had been going on since Arianna was 6, and now she was 10, soon to be 11. In a little over a month Arianna was going to be 11, and then she was going to ask the Winters if she could attend school like the other kids. But she wasn't thinking about that now. Now she stood in front of the dog cages, a bucket of meat, in her tiny hands. Her dark hair pulled back into a pony tail, she just stood, and watched as the dogs growled and barked at her. She gulped as she moved towards the gate.

Opening the gate, she went in and quickly grabbed a piece of meat and threw it away from her, the dogs ran towards it, but soon came back to her. She went to grab another piece of meat, but she wasn't fast enough, and one of the dogs bit her ankle. She gasped and tried to shake the guard dog off her, but it held on, so grabbed a piece of meat, hit it in the head, the dog let go and she threw the rest of the meat out quickly and limped out of the pen, her ankle bleeding some.

She was going to clean it, when Mr. Winters came around, holding papers in his hands. He had found Arianna's school work. She looked up in fear at him as he came angirly towards her. He smacked her, the force sent her flying to the ground, her hand went up to her face, she was going to have a black eye later, she was sure.

"What is this!?" Mr. Winters demanded.

"It's school work." Arianna replied weakly.

"You don't go to school! Where did you get it?" He yelled, Arianna coward, and told him about Mrs. Hutchenson, hoping he would just finish getting angry with her. He hit her again, and while she was on the ground he gave her a few good kicks. Suddenly the bucket flew out of her hands and hit in the face, she gasped tears streaming down her face, he threw her school work at her to assess his face, and while he was distracted Arianna ran, the best she could.

Sniffling she quickly limped to the creek in the woods. Her safe haven. She sat on a rock, splashing water on her face. She gently touched her face where Mr. Winters had hit her, and quickly drew back her hand at the pain. Looking at her other injuries she decided that she would bruise and no more. She also decided that she had to stop seeing Mrs. Hutchenson. It killed her to do that but she knew she had to.

She looked at her ankle, and sighed. It was a bad bite, she started to rince it off in the cool water, and bit her lip as she felt it sting. She ripped a piece of her dress, and lifted her ankle out of the water. She wrapped it up in the rag, and then put her old ballet flat back on. She was just about to get up and go back to finish her chores when an owl swooped down and landed beside her.

Arianna jumped, and then she noticed what looked like a letter attached to the bird's leg. The owl stuck out its leg, and made an impatient noise. Looking at the owl, Arianna slowly untied the letter from its leg. When the owl saw the letter was free from it, it flew off into the forest. Arianna watched it leave and then looked at the letter in front of her.

Arianna Winters

Little creak in the woods

Arianna was shocked. How did the sender of the letter know that she was at her creak? Flipping the envelope over she saw a wax seal with a crest of some sort on it. Carefully breaking the seal, she opened the letter and read it over.

Hogwats School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc. Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Arianna Winters,

We are pleased to inform you, that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl no later than 31 July.

Yours Sincerely

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

Arianna re-read the letter several times. Was she really a witch? It would explain the odd things that kept happening to her. Like the bucket hitting Mr. Winters that morning. She wanted to go to this school, but she knew that she would never be allowed to go. So she put the letter back in the envelope and put into a deep pocket of her dress, and went back to the farm to continue her chores.

Minerva went over the list of those students who had yet to accept the letter from the school, sighing, she began to go and prove to those students that the letter wasn't a joke. Finally she came to the last student, Arianna Winters.

She apparated inside a forest next to the property the Winters lived on. Minerva began to walk up to the property, but stopped when she heard a soft singing. She turned towards the voice, and saw a small girl, with long, dark, wavy hair, much like Minerva's. The girl's hair was down, and she was bent over a small creak, wearing a ratty old dress, and shoes.

Minerva crept forwards, using her feline abilities to be unheard, that is until she stepped on a twig, which snapped under her foot. The girl gasped and spun around. Minerva looked up from the twig, and gasped herself. Looking at her was the little girl, with blue eyes that she had only ever seen on two people; her husband and her daughter.

Maybe, just maybe it could be her daughter. Minerva thought for a moment and then tried to brush the idea away.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you." Minerva said after regaining her composure. She walked a little closer to the girl, who seemed to be frozen with fear.

"Do you know where I could find a Miss Arianna Winters?" She asked and watched as the girls eyes grew.

"I- I'm Arianna Winters." The girl said sheepishly.

"Oh! Miss Winters, my name is Professor McGonagall, I'm here on behalf of your reluctance to reply to your acceptance letter to Hogwarts." Minerva explained and Arianna's eyes grew even bigger.

"Y-your Professor McGonagall? The Deputy Headmistress?" Arianna asked.

"Yes, now would you bring me to your parents, so I can assure them that the letter is no joke?" Minerva responded, but Arianna didn't move.

"Mr. and Mrs. Winters don't know about the letter. And they can't know." Arianna piped up.

"And why not?" The professor asked sternly.

"Because they would never allow me to go." Arianna said quietly.

"Well if you let me explain to them, I'm sure they would be more than willing to let you come to the school." Minerva tried to say but Arianna shook her head.

"I'm not allowed to go to school. I have to take care of the animals." Arianna said looking at the ground. She reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear, revealing a badly bruised side of her face from a few days earlier.

At the slight gasp of the Professor, Arianna had remembered that her face was bruised, and she quickly untucked her hair, covering the bruises back up.

"Where did you get those!?" Minerva asked kneeling down to the girls level. Arianna turned away from her.

"I got kicked by a horse." She lied, hoping the professor would just leave it at that. Minerva was deeply concerned. She gently lifted a hand and turned the girl's head towards her, moving her hair, and looking more closely at the bruises that had a resemblance to a hand.

"Have you seen a doctor?" Minerva asked, "these look serious."

"No, it's fine, honest." Arianna tried to reassure her, not looking at Minerva. Minerva knew there was nothing she could do to change the girl's mind, but she felt an immense anger towards the girls parents. She knew they had hit her.

"Come, I'm going to take you somewhere safe." Minerva said standing and extending a hand towards the girl. At the girl's reluctance she continued.

"Don't worry about your parents, I will take care of them." She said firmly, but the girl shook her head.

"No, I can't. I, I have to take care of the animals." She said unsteadily and quickly, as if trying to convince herself that was the reason. Minerva knew that she was afraid to leave, because her 'parents' would beat her, and she understood her reluctance, and knelt back down in front of her.

"Arianna," She said gently, "I know you are afraid, but if you stay here any longer than you already have, you could get seriously injured. I do not agree with abusing a child, which I know is what your parents are doing to you." She said and Arianna slowly looked up to meet her gaze.

"So, you will come with me, where we will get those bruises checked out, and if your parents disagree, then they can deal with my Scottish temper, which I assure you, you do not want to see." Minerva continued giving the child a small smile.

Taking a deep shaky breath Arianna stood up and took her hand. As they walked along in the woods, Minerva noticed Arianna had a bit of a limp; she stopped and turned to her.

"Miss Winters, you're limping! Did your parents do this to you as well!?" She demanded, her temper starting to rise, seeing her wrapped ankle.

"Oh, no, they aren't my parents, and I was bit by one of the dogs, it's not a big deal, it happens a lot." She said as if it were nothing.

"Not your parents?" Minerva asked.

Arianna shook her head, "No, they are quick to remind me, they always tell me how my parents hated me, so much in fact that they left me on their door step." She said with a shrug. Minerva was shocked! How could someone say that to a child!? And being bitten by dogs happened a lot!? Minerva was in utter shock, at what and how Arianna said what she did.

"Professor, where are we going?" Arianna asked turning around, pulling Minerva out of her daze. Minerva smiled at her and walked up to where she was standing.

"Away from here." She said holding out her hand, Arianna, looked confused but took her hand. Suddenly she felt her self being pulled, as if through a tube. But just as fast as it had started, it had ended.

When Arianna could stand again, she looked up, her jaw dropping, in front of her, behind a set of large iron gates, was the biggest castle Arianna had ever seen.

And, here it is, the next chapter! My updates have been quite fast! But this may be the last update for a while, as tomorrow I go to LONDON! :D I have to get up at O'Dark Stupid, but it's worth it! Hope you like it, not sure how I feel about this chapter but.. yeah. Already working on the next chapter so hopefully when I get back from London I can finish and put it up for you :)