I woke up to the familiar rapping of my dad knocking against my door.
I jumped at it at first, as I often do, but then I opened my eyes and smiled a wicked smile.
I got up and dressed, much in the way the muggle 'Cinderella' cartoon does, with the help of various enchanted objects and then skipped off to breakfast.
Father was dishing out the porridge.
"Sandrays' law?" He prompted, suggesting a place to start.
"Hogwarts," I battled with a triumphant smile.
Father sighed.
"Hogwarts."
He waited for me to begin.
"Opportunity... experience, umm, knowledge and new perspective and... socialising."
Father shut his eyes for a second before battling each comment.
"Death... death. Death, death and... death."
I sighed.
That was dad's main argument.
It seems that almost every year, at least one student is placed in a life threatening situation, usually with the famous Harry Potter making the headlines over the summer.
"But dad..."
"'But' doesn't belong in an argument." I scowled at him. I needed a new angle.
"Magic and learning." I began. "Why do we practice?"
"To prepare incase of emergency." dad replied, sighing. That was one of his favourite sayings.
"I will be fine, even if I get into one of those situations, me out of thousands, I can look after myself."
"You think you can, and in a way that's worse. I'm worried about you putting yourself in those situations, testing yourself or something. You get bored very easily."
This went on, back and forth for an hour or so, then we got to work.
The next day it began again.
And again.
I wasn't going to win.
So, I did something I had never done before, I went behind his back. I applied for a place myself. I got in contact with a 'Professor McGonagall' and got my name in the school system.
Before long, I was all but enlisted.
Of course they had to check with my father before I actually left for school, but he wasn't going to force me not to go, he couldn't anyway, it was mildly illegal. This just... kickstarted the process.
So, in early august, during the summer holidays, me and my father were invited to the castle and I am so glad I made a fuss. I belonged here.
The towering walls, the curling stones, spiraling up into turrets and towers, statues, gargoyles, artistry at a scale I had never seen before. It was beautiful.
We were escorted through the main hall, which was huge, and along several corridors, which were also huge, and through to a secret door. An actual secret door. You needed a password- I- I love this place.
Father didn't. He went here as a kid so he knew it very well. I caught him looking fondly at uninteresting classrooms or benches, probably full of ghosts of happy memories- but the castle! I was gonna live here!
Oh, it was too much.
We were escorted through the secret entrance and up a golden spiraling staircase, like an escalator but with more fizz.
At the top was a door and behind the door was an office and in the office was Albus Dumbledore, the great wizard, the one who beat Grindelwald and many other incredible things.
"Ahh, Nailus, Pandora, come in, come in,"
Oh, that's me by the way, I'm Pandora. Or Dora, or Pan- Panda's a good one, Andor? Whatever you want.
We were guesgured into the office and into seats in front of the messy desk. Dumbledore sat behind it and McGonagall sat beside him with a big envelope of forms and papers.
"So, let's begin. I am Professor Dumbledore, I am the headmaster of this school and I believe you've been corresponding with Professor McGonagall here?"
I nodded.
Dumbledore smiled.
"Wonderful, well, how about we begin with hearing what subjects you've covered so far, in your homeschooling." I decided to leave this one to my father who nodded and began listing a few of the projects we'd done over the past year or so.
"So you can see we have covered many subjects on your criteria and many not on the curriculum but..." He looked at me for a second, "But she has yet to use a wand."
McGonagall's eyebrows raised slightly and even Dumbledore seemed... sceptical.
"She- she has not performed any magic?" Dumbledore asked.
"I have, yes," I assured them. Dumbledore gave me a curious look.
"But, without a wand?"
"Yes," I answered, looking to my dad for reassurance.
He didn't seem to have any to give me.
I began to see why he didn't really want me sent into this world where they had no concept of my personal learning and our family philosophy.
They questioned us for an hour or so and then I gave a simple demonstration, summoning a flower into my hands from the grounds.
They were very impressed.
Father argued with them for a while, making very clear that I wasn't to be exploited or experimented with and the professors seemed horrified at the thought that we would be suspicious of them doing such a thing, which filled me with a bit of confidence at least.
We came to the decision that I would be taught as the other students were taught, with a wand - which would be tricky.
Because of this they were suggesting I could be dropped down a year or two but we managed to stop that from happening.
My father, however, wanted to make sure my previous studies would not be forgotten so a private lesson with Dumbledore was arranged. Once a week.
It was all very exciting.
After papers were signed and trust was formed we were given a tour of the castle and the grounds. I was very lost but at least it was scenic.
I went home full of a giddy excitement that made me feel like a bubble.
Now all I needed was a wand.
A/n
What do we think about pandora? (It's an anagram for snapdragon)
