With her frazzled magic, it didn't surprise Jo when the following several nights consisted of poor, fitful sleep. Fuelled by sneaky cups of strong tea in the morning, she would constantly squint at green words inked out across beige parchment in swooping, elegant penmanship, ultimately succumbing to her drowsiness.Schoolwork quickly became more irrelevant as Jooften felt the remaining ridges of the broken, purple wax seal bearing the Hogwarts Coat of Arms between her fingers in her pocket. Her magic felt less alarmed, and it made her scratchy uniform bearable. She silently studied it in the playground, unable to the snort derisive and incredulous laughter she usually could or zone out of the painful stream of idle chatter from her classmates impersonating She-Ra.As soon as she and her mam, Elen, returned home after closing the bookshop late that Thursday, she skipped the personally now-ridiculous supply list to watch Hogwarts' gorgeous great grey owl— Strix nebulosa —nesting in the tall oak tree in their grassy, flowering garden.Perhaps that was why Elen had taken the pieces of parchment from her hands as soon as she'd seen her."And the ticket too, cariad."Jo briefly stared down at her fingers pressed into the shiny paper of the ticket, leaving indents when she relaxed her firm grip a moment later.
There was something wrong with her after all, even if her sweet mother still couldn't seem to see it.