A Year in the Life of a Hogwarts Student - The Letter

Ok, so on the Harry Potter site I'm a member of, we are currently going through a challenge called "The Year in the Life of a Hogwarts Student." Which means I get to go to Hogwarts! Of course, someday I'll go visit the theme park in Florida, but for now, I'm going to share my entries. The way this will work will be I tell you the prompt we were given and then my entry. These are supposed to be anonymous, so for my friends who follow my blog here and are also members of the site, remember you know nothing. ;)

The first task was call the Letter. Here's the prompt we were given.

You have received a letter from Hogwarts. The first challenge you face is to write a story about what your reaction would be. Are you surprised, because as a Muggleborn you have no clue what´s happening? Excited because your whole family has already been at Hogwarts?
Tell us if you are a Muggleborn like Hermione or a member of a magical family like Ron. That’s the only requirement. Oh and no visits to Diagon Alley as of yet please

Requirements

• Number of words: between 850-1050

• Entries should be anonymous, so don't use any identifying elements in your story.

 And here is my entry.

Dear Diary,

Summer. My time to sleep in. At least usually. That so was not the case this morning. What happened? Well, it was like this…

I’d stayed up entirely too late last night reading and so I was tired. I sure wasn’t expecting to be woken up by Mom shrieking. Yes SHRIEKING!  Needless to say, I bolted out of bed and ran down the stairs. Mom was in the corner of the kitchen, near the stove, just pointing at some thing. I looked in the direction she was pointing and there flying around the open window was an OWL. I stood in the doorway for a second and watched it. Anytime it flew near Mom, she screeched and the owl was so startled it flew into the wall opposite of her. I stifled a chuckle while wondering why a nocturnal creature like an owl was in my kitchen in the morning.

“Do something,” Mom begged as it came in her direction again. This time, I noticed something attached to its leg.

“Alright,” I said as I shook myself fully awake and walked into the kitchen. Owls don’t really bug me. Intrigue me yes, but scare me – no. Now if it had been a snake on the other hand, I’d not go within 10 feet of it!

The owl noticed me as I walked into the kitchen. It flew over towards me and held out its leg. I looked at it in confusion. What did it want me to do?

“Poor guy,” I murmured to it as I reached out to untie what I could now tell was some sort of document. “Is this hurting you? There you go. Does that feel better?” I promise the owl looked at me like I was insane as I took untied the document. Once it was free, it flew straight out the open window.

“Well what is it,” Mom asked once it was gone.

“It’s some sort of document,” I replied turning it over in my hands. Then I noticed it. My name written on it in bold letters. Complete with my address and the words “kitchen doorway.”

“I think it’s a letter. It’s addressed to me,” I told her as I looked up.

“That’s a strange way to send a letter,” Mom replied as she placed a platter of chocolate chip pancakes on the table in front of my place.

“Yes, it is,” I agreed while absentmindedly drowning the pancakes in butter. I opened the letter and started to read it out loud.

“Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy… some person and a bunch of what looks like titles…We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy.

What? Mom, it’s telling me that I’ve been asked to go to a school for witchcraft. I don’t understand.”

I looked up at Mom in confusion. “I thought that magic only existed in the books I read and in fairy tales. How is this possible?”

Mom was silent for a few minutes before she looked up. “I’ve never told you about your father. He died long before you were born. In fact, we’d only been married just a short time, a few months really, when he died.”

“Ok,” I said, trying to understand. “What does Dad have to do with why I’ve been accepted into a school of witchcraft?”

“I’ll try to explain what I know,” she replied gently. “I met your father during my last year of college. I was with one of my girlfriends at a club. She dared me to go over and talk to the man at the bar with the t-shirt that had some strange rock band’s name on it. I’d noticed him when he entered the club as there was something about him that stood out, even from across the room. I accepted her dare. He was very charming. And I loved his accent. So I asked him if he was here in the States on vacation or as a student. He told me that it was a bit of both. A vacation before enrolling as an exchange student at the same college I was attending. We talked for hours that night. When it was time to leave, he asked me when he’d see me again. I gave him the name of my dorm and told him he could find me there the next day. I got home from my classes the next day and found a bouquet of roses waiting for me. With a note asking me to join him for dinner. I accepted, and that was the start of a whirlwind romance. Within six weeks we were engaged. He knew everything about me. All I knew about him, other than the fact that I loved him to distraction, was that he was British and his name was Kyle. At times, he’d mention something regarding “the Ministry” or “Muggles.” One evening, a few days before he died, he looked at me in all seriousness, and asked me ‘Do you believe in magic?’ I told him that if it’s magic that caused us to meet, then yes I did. He smiled at my response, and we were interrupted by a knock on the door. Kyle went to answer it, and after a hurried conversation, he came back to me. I’d only caught snatches of the rushed conversation. I’d heard things like “Attack. Aurors. Portkey. Immediately.” Kyle told me he had to go. An emergency. And that’d he be home just as soon as he could. He kissed me and then he left. A few days later, I received a letter telling me that my husband had died in an accident.

I haven’t thought of that night really in years. Not until you opened your letter.”

“So what are you telling me, Mom,” I asked.

“I’m saying that magic is real. And your father was a wizard. I know that now. I also know that had he lived, he’d have told us himself. Then neither of us would have been so shocked when that, that owl arrived. So evidently you’re a witch. And that’s why you received the letter.”

A witch! Diary! I could hardly believe it. The father I’d never known was a wizard and magic was real!

*************

So welcome to my fun world. I plan on sharing the entries as I do them. Well at least after the scoring of them is done. This contest is totally just for fun.