If I May Be So Bold (A Harry Potter Universe Fanfiction)

3.

August 2034

ELLA

The Hogwarts letters arrived early the next morning, before her mum had even left for work. Juni had come home the night before with three friends and they'd been cackling all night long in the room beside hers so Ella was exhausted, but somehow her body still insisted she wake up at seven AM. She sat at the kitchen table with a cup of tea between her hands. Her mum sat opposite her flipping through the daily prophet.

She was already dressed for work, her ponytail so perfectly shiny and smooth. Ella couldn't have achieved anything like it if she tried. Not with her curly hair.

She looked up when an owl came fluttering through the open window above the sink. It dropped two letters on the kitchen table, let Ella stroke its head with the back of her finger, and then took off again.

She reached for the letter on top, addressed to Miss E Mason.

And right at that moment, her dad appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, a toothbrush sticking out of his mouth. "Was that your letters?" he asked.

Ella looked at her mum with a frown. "Dad's really excited about the booklist," she said. Which made them both start laughing and Ella felt all warm inside, because it was usually Juni who made everyone laugh and it felt good when people recognized that she could be funny, too.

Her dad spit out his toothpaste in the kitchen sink. "Give it a look, then," he said.

So, still smiling to herself, she slit open the envelope and pulled out the contents. "Oh, you'll never believe this," she said. "I need the Standard Book of Spells, Grade Five. Never saw that one c—"

And then she stopped, because something had just fallen out from between the pages in her hand. Something shiny with a large letter P on it.

She looked up at her mum.

"Oh my god," she said. "Ella-Bee! Is that— you're prefect?"

Ella didn't know what to say. She turned to her dad, who was positively beaming.

"I've been keeping it a secret for weeks," he said. "Nearly killed me."

Her mum pushed her chair out and hurried around the table to have a look at the letter, her arm around the back of Ella's shoulders. "Oh my god. Sweetheart, this is so wonderful. I'm so proud of you," she said, turning to kiss Ella on the cheek.

Her dad came and sat beside her. "Professor Osset said you were a given," he said happily. "Put your name down right away. No contest."

Both of them had so much to say, so many comments. They went on and on next to her, but Ella said nothing, because she hadn't even wanted this.

Being a prefect meant being recognized. It meant standing out. It meant having to say things to people she didn't want to be responsible for saying. It meant not being able to follow, which was comfortable, but having to lead, which was not.

Ella did not see herself as a leader. Not one bit. A rule follower, certainly, but not a leader.

"We'll have to celebrate," her mum said. "You pick the place and we'll go out. Or I can make something here if you'd rather. Anything you want."

"I don't know," said Ella.

"Well, think about it. You just let us know."

It wasn't until later that morning, long after her mum had left — Juni and her friends were still asleep after their raucous night — that Ella voiced any of her concerns.