The Hogwarts Orphan

The Letter

It was a chilly night. Marissa huddled up near her makeshift fire, watching the shadows dance across the surrounding trees. Despite it being July 30th, a bit past the middle of summer, each breath she took created a small little cloud that disappeared in seconds.

She looked up at the night sky. The stars shimmered brightly, the crickets chirped, the wind gently blew the tree branches. Her eyes started to become heavy. She rested her head against a tree stump, the comfiest thing she could find.

I've had a long day today, she thought, all I need is a goods night sl-. Her thoughts where put on hold when a owl landed on her knee.

"What the heck?!" She shouted. The owl simply fluttered it's wings and dropped a letter on her lap. Marissa bit her lip nervously, gingerly picking up the envelope. The envelope had a blood red wax seal, and was specifically addressed to her. She ripped the letter open and read the contents over and over.

Hogwarts? Witchcraft and wizardry? How was she supposed to get supplies? How would she even get there? Ho-

CRACK!

"GAH!" Marissa screamed. Just in front her fire, a man wearing a long black robe had appeared.

The man stuck what looked like a piece of wood to his lips "Shhh! You'll wake up the muggles!"

"Sorry, I'm not used to people appearing out of nowhere. Anyways, what's a 'muggle', some type of mysterious wizard animal?" She asked looking back at the letter.

"What? Oh, a it's what us wizards call non-magic folk." He chuckled. He took a step backwards, not realizing a there was a fire.

"Watch o-!" Marissa began, but it was too late. The bottom of the mans robes where already aflame.

"MERLINS BEARD!" The man screamed.

He hastily pointed his piece of wood at his flaming robes and yelled,

"Aguamenti!"

A stream of water came from the tip of his piece of wood and extinguished the flames. Marissa stood up abruptly and gaped at the now soaked ground.

"How did you-?"

"Magic." The man answered quickly, obviously expecting the question.

"How do you do ma-?"

"A wand." The man said as he showed her the piece of wood he had been holding.

"Ho-," Marissa began, but thought better than to waste time asking stupid questions,"So, I'm guessing you're here to tell me about this 'Hogwarts', am I correct?"

"Quite. I'll take you to Diagon Alley, give you a couple of galleons to buy your supplies and of course a wand, and the you can hop on the Hogwarts Express and head off to your first year at Hogwarts! We are going to need to go on a muggle train first, to get to The Leaky Cauldron, but-." Marissa cut him off.

"I'm sorry sir," she began,"but you lost me at 'Diagon Alley'"

"Oh we'll get to that later, We've got a train to catch!"