The Letter and The Professor

"Hey Al, you gonna get that?" Howard asked from the doorway and pointed at the boy's window. Allen turned and grey eyes spotted the owl on his windowsill. After rubbing his eyes, he also spotted the letter on its leg. Still sleepy, he stumbled towards the window and opened it, taking the letter. The owl seemed to wait a couple of moments before hooting and flying back into the distance.

Allen Walker

Room 308

European Branch

Allen stared at the vague address to the place that nobody should know about. Howard stood in the door, watching to see what he would do. Allen turned the letter over and broke the wax seal.

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?" he read. Howard came into the room and Allen let the man read the letter over his shoulder.

"Are you going to go and meet this professor McGonnogal then?" the blonde asked him. Allen shrugged, rereading the instructions.

"I want to see if anyone else got a letter first and what they want to do," he answered after a moment. Howard nodded,

"Shall we see who is at breakfast then?" he asked and Allen followed him out into the cafeteria.

Once the pair arrived at breakfast, Allen noticed that Lenalee, Timothy and Alma had letters in their hands. Allen grabbed some toast from Jerry and slipped into the seat beside Alma.

"So you guys got letters too? Where's Kanda?" he asked in between bites.

"With Lavi in the library - As soon as he got the letter he ran off to find out about Hogwarts" Alma explained. The others looked at the boy, surprised. Kanda actually actively seeked out information?

"Ah Jerry, let us grab some eggs first! Kanda, you want anything?" Lavi called out as he walked into the hall, Kanda in tow as the samurai mumbled his answer.

"Noodles? Sure - Jerry, noodles too"

"One noodles and one set of eggs coming up!" Jerry sang.

Once the pair had their food, they took their places at the table with the others.

"So what did you find?" Lenalee asked once they had settled.

"Hogwarts is in Scotland and, the funny thing is that they usually don't accept anyone outside of Britain" Lavi informed the group as Kanda started on his breakfast.

Lenalee, Allen and Alma all looked at him in confusion and then back down at their letters. Then why had they been invited?

"Aren't you also too old for school? Except for Tim but even then he would be nearly finished" Howard asked, ruffling Timothy's brown hair. Lavi shrugged,

"It doesn't mention that anything similar has ever happened so I'm not sure what they'll do" he admitted, spooning eggs into his mouth. Alma cocked his head,

"Is deaging a thing? They might plan on making us school age?" he suggested. Allen, Lena and Tim all looked at Lavi. He paused as if remembering every book on magic he'd ever read before opening his eye.

"Deaging potions are a thing so it's a possibility" he answered eventually and Kanda coughed on his noodles slightly,

"They can turn us into kids?" he looked slightly creeped out.

"Would that be such a bad thing? To be kids again" Allen asked, thoughtful. They all turned to look at him and then sat in silence, pondering the question. They all came to the same conclusion that, if allowed to keep their memories of each other, it wouldn't be so bad to be young again.

"Are we going to meet this McGonnogal then?" Lenalee asked the table. After agreeing to meet at the entrance to town, they all left for their respective rooms to get ready for the meeting.

They all exited the Headquarters and headed into the nearby town where they would be meeting their new professor. Howard and Lavi tagged along to keep their friends safe - and out of pure curiosity.

They spotted the woman who they assumed to be the professor stood by the clock tower. She looked to be around 50 years old, dressed in a simple long sleeved brown dress and boots. When she saw the group, she turned to greet them, holding out her hand.

"Apologies for the sudden invitation, I was only informed of this meeting myself yesterday. I am Minerva McGonnogal, deputy headmistress at Hogwarts" she introduced with a smile. The group were taken aback by her admittance but put it to one side.

"So, um, school at 22?" Lenalee started the conversation with what they had all been wondering.

"Try 26" Kanda mumbled and Allen held in his laugh at the statement.

Minerva smiled,

"Yes. Well, we thought that you could pose as Apprentices which are fairly uncommon, as many take the chance to study elsewhere, but Hogwarts apprentices are not unknown. And, since deaging potions become dangerous the more years you wish to rewind, we thought it was the safest option" she set the idea in front of the group. Lavi seemed to mentally note down this information and Allen and Alma hid their smiles from their nerdy friend.

"Why Hogwarts? It's all the way in Scotland and, from what I've read, you only take students from Britain" Kanda butted in. Minerva nodded,

"Yes that is usually true. However, this is not the case for apprenticeships - we accept students from around the globe for those. And, since you are all English speakers, we thought it would be the better option than, say, Beauxbatons of France"

Lenalee grimaced and admitted,

"Yeah my French is pretty rusty"

"Mine's non existent" Alma grimaced, making them laugh.

Timothy kept quiet about his country of origin but when he finally spoke, he asked the thing that had been on everyone's minds.

"Why are you helping us? What are you after?" his tone was veiled with suspicion, partly from the randomness of the invitation, and the other left over from the war. Minerva smiled sadly.

"We - as in the Wizarding community - knew about the war between Exorcists and Akuma. But, sadly, the Vatican forbade us from assisting. And many officials didn't want to. There is still bad blood between Witches and The Church since the hunts. But when we found out that there were survivors - survivors with magic - we wanted to help. To make amends and apologise for our silence in such a bloody battle" by the end of her speech, tears were swimming in the eyes of both sides.

"Oh no. Don't apologise for what you couldn't change. It wouldn't have been safe for those without Innocence anyway" Lenalee ran up and grasped Minerva's hands, tears flowing freely. Alma and Timothy echoed her statement.

Allen looked over at Kanda who, though he hadn't said anything, didn't seem angry. He smiled at that. Kanda had changed the most since the end of the war and, even though they still had their squabbles, they seemed closer to brotherly punch ups rather than straight up rage. And, maybe this invitation was the way to heal them all.

"I. I think that it would be a good chance to adjust to normal life within a structured situation. And I'm guessing that we would actually be learning magic at the same time?" Allen asked and at Minerva's nod, he turned to the rest of the group, "What do you think guys?"

Lavi and Howard stepped forward,

"I think you should go for it" Howard said with a smile.

"Though it will be boring here without you guys here" Lavi added "But definitely think about it" he agreed. Minerva smiled at the two friend who she rightly assumed were muggles who happened to come from the same war.

"Think it over. I will be awaiting your reply by this Saturday. And if you agree, we will leave on Sunday" she explained. That was three days. Just as they were all agreeing to the time constraint, Alma asked an important question,

"So how do we reply?"

Oh yeah, they hadn't thought about that.

"Yeah we don't have birds to deliver mail" Timothy explained. Minerva nodded and removed a box from her robes. And gave it to Kanda.

"Place your written decision within this box and I will receive it" she instructed. Kanda nodded, looking at the box, which was inscribed with owls and envelopes and the word 'express'.

"Well. I will await your decision and, depending on your choice, I will see you on Sunday" and she seemed to blink out of existence making them all stare in shock and look around. Had anyone else seen that? But, after a quick glance, nobody else was around to notice the disappearing woman. Lavi assumed that was the reason she felt comfortable doing so.

"I guess, we head back?" Allen proposed and the group all wandered back to HQ in a stupor, having absorbed a lot of information in a short period of time.