'Wake up! Potter! Wake up!' came the familiar shrill voice of Aunt Claudia and bangings- or in a more pleasant way, knocking on the doors.

Clarie yawned and mumbled 'dumb-headed doofus' under her breath and got out of her bed.

Not a day has been a nice one for her, since eight years ago. She couldn't remember much, but only she remembered that Sirius took her to a dark, strange, scary old house and left her there. He never returned, and bunches and groups of cloaked people came round and on the very next day, she settled herself with the Chambers and yes - eight years passed by spending her days with the Chambers.

Worse still, she had nightmares - occasionally. Just like the one she had last night, her dreams are filled with green lights, explosions, a frightening snake-like white face, her mother's last screams and Harry's cryings.

She yawned and stretched herself, and once again the 'knockings' came and Aunt Claudia Chambers yelled, 'POTTER! GET OUT OF THIS ROOM AT ONCE!'

'Coming, coming…'

To be honest, the Chambers had been treating her fairly well – only that Mrs. Chambers, a tall, bony woman was strict about rules and made Clarie do all the chores, as she herself has to work all day. Uncle Casper, a paunchy man with black hair, who runs a business on car firm, never really approved the existence of Clarie in his house – at least he gave this expression to Clarie. He was reading his Daily Telegraph when Clarie entered the hall.

'Make the breakfast, girl,' barked Uncle Casper. 'And don't burn my sausages. And comb your hair before you let me see you next time.' He added, looking at Clarie's hair with great disapproval.

'Yes, sir. Bullocks.'

He paused with his reading. 'What did you just call me, sweetie?' Uncle Casper whispered and leaned towards Clarie, his beady eyes glinted. Usually this is a sign of danger ahead if he did this.

'Nothing. Bul-'

'Now that's quite enough, girl,' Aunt Claudia cut in and Clarie scowled. 'Control your manners, girl. I don't want you get kicked out of college with your unpleasant manners. We've got you a place in Stafford – '

'I told you I hate it,' scoffed Clarie. 'Pleasant school for pleasant students learning to have pleasant manners plus pleasant academic, and try to pretend I'm a lovely amity…'

'It's for your own good, girl,' said Aunt Claudia. 'And try not to start up any chaos before term starts.' She added with a slight smile.

This is something Clarie was proud of – blurring troubles and chaos. She's got warning letters and even got kicked out of school once when she was 8, for she grabbed a poor 7-year-old to guard her while she went off putting pins on teachers' chairs and sneaking nuts and chewing gums she found into students' lunch, and ran for her life with that little girl but found themselves ended up on the school roof (she couldn't explain why) after a great jump over the trash cans.

And things ended up even worse when once, she sneaked into a school laboratory for fun with all sorts of chemicals. A teacher passed by and she got caught, and she threw the little flask of chemical marked with 'irritant' towards the teacher but somehow, she couldn't explained either, it exploded by the teacher's leg. Of course, she was alive, just, and she resigned on the next day, and Clarie got expelled too.

After breakfast Clarie went to the door to collect post as usual – but what was unusual was that she got a post also. Her eyes almost popped out of her face. She re-read the address and recipient over and over again and undoubtedly this was hers.

No one's ever written her anything. She didn't even know what happened to her little brother after her parents' death, ignoring the fact this was from Harry. She even had no idea of where Sirius had gone, but clearly, in green ink it wrote:

Miss C. Potter

Dining room

5 Park View Road

Woldingham

Surrey

She returned to the dining room and found Uncle Casper and Aunt Claudia working on their computers. She handed them their post and opened her own on the coach.

'No post stealing, Potter,' said Uncle Casper. 'Hand it over, now.'

'It's my letter.'

'Your letter?' Aunt Claudia said, with an expression of disbelief. 'No one has ever sent you any letter. Now hand it over.'

With a peeved face, she handed her letter over. The Chambers stared at the address and recipient. 'Cas?' Claudia said tentatively. Uncle Casper looked deadpan, and said,' Back to your room, Potter.'

'I want my letter back.'

'You heard me.'

'I want my letter back!'

'GO BACK TO YOUR ROOM NOW, POTTER!'

She glowered at him, and stormed back into her room.

She was above herself with anger. She started to throw things around and she started to swear and shouting slangs that possibly can give a heart attack to anyone hearing. Then suddenly she heard a tap-tapping noise on the window. She saw a brown cat-like creature with wings at her window.

It was an owl, with something attached to its leg.

Why on earth would an owl appear at this time? She couldn't help wondering. It even seemed ridiculous to have a… what was that? A letter attached to its leg. Clarie opened the window and the owl, a barn owl hopped in and raised it post-attached leg to her. She untied the string and got the letter in her hand. The address read:

Miss C. Potter

Smallest bedroom

5 Park View Road

Woldingham

Surrey

Quite astounded, she ripped open her letter with trembling hands. The letter read:

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 Potter,

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

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

Yours sincerely

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

Clarie froze in her place for a while. Questions were bounding in her mind. School of witchcraft and wizardry? Wait for your owl? What kind of school is this anyway?

She sat on her bed with questions coming like cannon shots. Just then came a softer, gentler knock on the door than she had in the morning. 'Come in.'

Aunt Claudia opened the door, and with a slightly trembling voice she said, 'Cas is downstairs. We have something to tell you.'

They went down and see Uncle Casper sitting on the coach, with Clarie's letter in his hands. He said,' Sit down, girl.' Clarie raised her eyebrow. Anger sparked in his eyes and he unwillingly added,' Please.'

Clarie sat down, and Uncle Casper started, 'You know why you're here, girl?'

Clarie thought for a while. No one's ever told her anything why she's here, but she figured out a few things. 'I only know that I was brought here after my parents died.'

Uncle Casper waved his hands impatiently and said, 'Yes, but that's not the main point. As you see, girl, you are 11 now and people will come – maybe later this afternoon you'll be fetched back to your own place.'

'What do you mean, "my own place"?'

'You'll figure out. And yes - 'he handed Clarie back her letter,' you can take it back now.'

'I've got one upstairs.'

'Blimey, these ruddy wizards are fast, aren't they?' Uncle Casper said gruffly. 'I bet they are spying on us even now.'

'What wizard?' Clarie asked eagerly, wanting to know what she doesn't know.

'BACK TO YOUR ROOM, POTTER!' Uncle Casper roared. 'AND I WANT YOU TO GET DRESSED BEFORE YOU SEE ANYONE!'

Clarie ran back to her room with a big grin. Sometimes she has a strange interest of being ecstatic to see people annoyed by her.

She went back to her room and saw the clock still showing 7:26am. She braided her hair as usual and changed her pyjamas to a sky blue blouse and a pair of jeans. Then she took a book from her shelve randomly, and started reading carelessly, as she peered through the windows once or twice a minute, hoping to see the image of a stranger coming to the house.

Hours passed and she almost gave up hope. She threw the book back into her shelve and at 9:00am, and wondered why nobody in the house has called her to finish the chores. By 9:30 she started to have questions that were bursting her head, like does it mean that I'm a witch? How come I am... impossible!

One hour passed... two hours passed... she started dozing off, no longer interested in any questions appearing to her.

When it was almost twelve noon, she got fed up of waiting by the window and snuggled into her bed for a nap. Just as she were about to droll, she was woken up to full alarm with a loud bang on the front door. She almost thought she was dreaming about those horrific explosions, but she pinched herself hard and was sure it's real.

She ran downstairs enthusiastically, hoping to see something great. But she was wrong. Uncle Casper and Aunt Claudia were clutching each other's arm tightly at the corridor, staring at the door in fear. With another bang the door blast off, and a gigantic figure appeared. To Clarie's horror, she knew that face.

'ARRAGHHHH! NO!NO!'

She screamed in pure fear and ran off, but bumped right into Uncle Casper. 'What the-' he spluttered, and pushed the poor kid to his wife, as he see the giant entered the house. This giant has his face almost covered in long, shaggy mane of hair completely and a wild, tangled beard, and the only thing you can make out was almost only his beetle-black eyes and nose.

'Sorry for the door, Chambers,' the giant grumbled and he took up the door on the floor easily like holding a clipboard, and forced it back to the doorpost.

Clarie, still in shock and was trembling in Aunt Claudia's embrace by then. 'Yeh've grown up a lot, Claire. Last time I saw yeh, yeh were still just a tiny little tot, yeh were.' The giant said. 'An' yeh resembles yer mother so much, Claire, except fer yer eyes.'

'Don't talk to me, you monster!' Clarie shouted, in a mixture of rage and fear. 'Where is my brother now?'

'Identify yourself, sir!' Uncle Casper shouted with rage. 'Or you will be accused of breaking and entering!'

'Yeh've got a point, Chambers. Right, I'm Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts,' the giant said.

'Hogwarts, eh?' Aunt Claudia said, comforting Clarie. 'I thought they'd find someone with better manners and not scaring children before sending them to this school!'

The giant Hagrid ignored her words, and went straight to the living room. He sat on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, took a pink umbrella out of his pocket and lit a fire just by pointing it to the fireplace. The Chambers stared with bewilderment while Clarie, though, was rather surprised at the act. 'I've seen this before!' she exclaimed. 'I saw it - my mom used to wave a stick and conjures flames out of nowhere. How did you manage to do that?'

Hagrid chuckled. 'That's because yeh mother, like yer, was a witch, of course she could do it, though it was a wand, not stick. In fact, your whole family are all wizards. You probably can do it later, when yeh've learned magic properly.'

'I'm a what?'

'A witch, Claire, a witch. Haven't yeh noticed yeh've done something extraordinary but couldn't explain why?'

Of course she did. She jumped over a trash can but found herself on school's rooftop. She once made another girl accusing her of bullying grew some strange poxes (definitely not chicken pox) on her face, without knowing how.

'Then, can you conjure orange smoke?' She said hopefully, as she started to recall what her parents used to do with their – well, wands.

Hagrid waved his pink umbrella and sent out orange smoke. He said nervously when the smoke faded, 'Just don' tell anyone I did that; I'm not supposed to do so.'

She didn't care. She knew it – memories and flashbacks of her early childhood, and she remembered what her parents had done with their wands to work, or amuse her.

'Where's my brother, um – sir?' she said abruptly, as she suddenly remembered he was the one who took Harry away.

'Call me Hagrid,' he said, and he went slightly pink at the next sentence. 'Can't tell yeh,' he said, with an air of mysterious. 'Yeh'll see him, two years later, I guess. He'll start school by then.'

Clarie sat down on the sofa with disappointment, but she knew her brother was somehow safe – at least she believed what Hagrid said.

'So,' he stood up, with a bump on the ceiling. 'Yeh've got yer letter?'

'Yes,' she said, taking out the parchment envelope in her pocket.

'Good,' he said, and rubbed his trash can cover sized hands. 'Put it back into yer pocket and let's go, Claire. We've got loads to do today!'

'Um, it's Clarie, actually, not Claire. Cla-rie.'

He was about to take Clarie's hand, who was over the moon and eager to go when Uncle Casper shouted, 'Wait! You can't go!'

Hagrid squinted his eyes at Uncle Casper and said, 'Why can't I go, yeh big Muggle?'

'Muggle?' Clarie said with an edge of interest.

'Meaning non-magic fellas, like the two o' 'em,' he said, and he pointed the Chambers with his umbrella, which they stared at with fear, as if Hagrid was pointing a highly dangerous cannon at them.

'So,' Hagrid said. 'As I was saying, we've got loads to pick up fer yer new school year! C'mon Clarie, let's go.'

Clarie took his hand and they strode towards the door. 'We'll not be paying this girl to this whatever crazy school.' Aunt Claudia called with a trembling voice. 'She can go if she can afford the fees herself. We'll never pay for her.'

Hagrid opened the damaged door, which fell down onto the floor. 'Yeh mark my word, Chambers,' Hagrid said. 'If she's goin' it'd do yeh more good than bad.'

And he stepped out of the house with Clarie and slammed the door back to the doorpost.

'So...' Clarie started. 'Where will we pick up my stuff?'

'London, of course.'