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Dear Miss Mason,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
Emma's parents are thrilled. Such a good school, so well respected, and those alumni- just look at the battle against the Dark Lord! All that talent!- they're beyond proud. Emma's pleased on their behalf, of course. She wants to make her parents proud. She doesn't ask how badly the school was damaged in the war; she doesn't inquire how many teachers are missing or dead; she doesn't mention wishing she could stay home for a year. Maybe until things are just a little more rebuilt.
(She thinks it, though.)
She smiles and hugs her parents and agrees yes, of course it's wonderful, helping to rebuild the wizarding world is important. She'll start school in the fall, become a better witch.
And, as her mother points out excitedly- now they need to go shopping.
Emma's hardly unfamiliar with Diagon Alley. It's the place to be seen, as far as her parents are concerned, so that's where they've always shopped. But it feels different, somehow, to be shopping for Hogwarts. Her mother is showing every shopkeeper the list, fingers underlining the Hogwarts letterhead. Her father is stopping every friend he sees, talking loudly about "here to shop for Emma's first year, at Hogwarts you know".
Emma wants to scrunch up and hide from the attention, but her parents are so happy. It's only just the once she starts school, she supposes. She plasters on a smile and follows after her mother. Almost done now; all she needs is a wand.
And as everyone knows, there's only one place to get those.
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parental_guidance
parental_guidance
"Only sort of, um, accidentally? I don't really care or anything, but I like to read them, so I would ask for cards to read the backs and people just kind of...assumed."
chanuphis
"I usually throw them out," says Miranda, "unless I get rare-ish ones that I can let Renée take to work for the little kids."
parental_guidance
"I used to, after I'd read them, but then my aunt would save them specially for me and I felt bad throwing them out, so. Collecting by accident."
parental_guidance
"I just have the one. She's nice, but, um, in an easily distracted, kinda forgetful way? Still sweet, though."
metamorphmaga
"Awww, your families are so small! They fit into mine like five times over!"
(Seven, actually.)
(Seven, actually.)
parental_guidance
Emma's card is Dumbledore. She's read his a million times before, so she skips the back, but she stares at the picture sadly for a second before tucking it away in her bag. "What about you, Miranda, what card did you get?"
chanuphis
"I wasn't going to open the other four yet, but I guess I can open one." She takes out a frog and unwraps it and bites its head off and collects the card. "I got Harry Potter."
parental_guidance
"...I wonder if they've updated the back? I mean, he did kinda a lot, kinda recently."
chanuphis
"Let's see -" Miranda turns over the card. "The first and only known wizard to survive the Killing Curse, earning the title "The Boy Who Lived." Youngest Quidditch player in the last century after gaining the spot of Seeker in the Gryffindor Quidditch Team in his first year at Hogwarts in 1991. Also known for having found Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets and defeating the monster within, which was a basilisk, in his second year at Hogwarts. Only known Gryffindor student able to speak Parseltongue. Youngest competitor of the Triwizard Tournament and winner of said Tournament at the age of 14 in 1995. The last master of death for having gained true possession of all three Deathly Hallows. Most famous for the defeat of the most dangerous dark wizard of all time, Lord Voldemort, in 1998. So, yes, they updated it."
metamorphmaga
"Oh, he was in that war you mentioned?" Jenny asks, peering over Miranda to try and see the picture. "He sounds like a biiiig deal. But, er, translations. Like, Killing Curse I can guess, Quidditch you mentioned- Parseltongue? That tournament thing? The Deathly Hollows?"
chanuphis
"Oh, of course - the killing curse is exactly what it sounds like, yeah - Parseltongue is snake language, he can talk to snakes. The tournament is a competition sort of thing between Hogwarts and two other European magic schools, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, there were dragons and a maze and an underwater rescue thing and stuff. The Deathly Hallows - I don't actually know much about those, by the time they were involved in anything we were in Australia."
metamorphmaga
"That is sorta weird! Why snakes, I wonder? Also, boo, I wanted to talk to horses. But I already got my neat born-with-it power, I guess!"
parental_guidance
"Being a metamorphmagus is way better than being a Parselmouth. They're kinda not trusted. At all." Pause. "Except for Harry Potter, obviously."
chanuphis
"Being a metamorphmagus is much better," Miranda agrees. "Even if it weren't for the part where Parselmouths are kind of - oh, has anybody told you about the Houses, Jenny?"
metamorphmaga
"I know that there are Houses! That's, like, a thing for boarding schools, I think. And er, I think someone said the names, but I forget. Is there more?"
chanuphis
"Yeah. Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff are the four of them. In Muggle schools I think you get a random House? Or something like that? It's not like that at Hogwarts. I got Renée to tell me how it worked when it looked like I'd be going to the Owly so it wouldn't matter if it was a surprise, but it would usually be a surprise, do you want to know how the sorting works anyway?"
parental_guidance
"I got the whole speech from my parents already, they're both Ravenclaw, but thanks."
chanuphis
"Renée was Ravenclaw too - they just told you? Renée seemed to think it would be better if it was a surprise but I never saw why. Anyway, Jenny, there's a magic hat, you put it on your head and it figures out what sort of person you are and each sort of person goes to a different house. It's more complicated than this but basically Ravenclaw is for smart kids and Gryffindor is for brave ones and Hufflepuff is for hard-working ones and - Slytherin is supposed to be for ambitious ones, but it was full of all the kids from the evil families in the war, so - if the hat tries to put me there I will just go to the Owly after all, it doesn't start classes for another two weeks."