Snakewood

Chapter One: Planes and Buses

You could say Ilovia Brekker is an abnormal child – what, with her untamable corn silk hair and her luminous chocolate eyes and the way abnormal occurrences seem to happen in her presence quite often, abnormal could be the only accurate description of her. In some circles, however, Ilovia is the epitome of ordinary (save for the fact that her mother is one of the most prominent political figures in the American wizarding world). After all, in a community of peculiar witches and wizards, another oddity would only fit in, and Ilovia Brekker – being both a relative oddity and a witch – is more than a little excited to be headed to a place without non-magical people (No-Majs). Today is the day that Ilovia is to begin her first year at the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

And at the rate she's going, she's bound to be late.

"Hurry up! If we don't leave soon, you'll miss the plane!" Ilovia's mom, President Delilah Brekker of the Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA) impatiently taps the tip of her ash wand on the palm of her left hand, waiting for her daughter by the wide open front door.

Upstairs, where Ilovia is scurrying around in a frenzied bout of last minute packing, her phone starts vibrating. Ignoring the call, the rushing girl finishes jamming the last of her belongings into a large black suitcase. Slipping a backpack over one shoulder and settling a purse over the other, Ilovia careens out of her bedroom, kicking her suitcase down the carpeted stairs and straight out the open front door.

"Hurry, hurry," Delilah says, waiting for her flustered daughter to fly out the front door before following her, closing the door with a wave of her wand. Already, Ilovia is desperately tossing her bags into the trunk of their black Subaru Forester. Delilah slips into the driver's seat and – once Ilovia has slammed the trunk closed, hopped in the passenger seat, and buckled her seatbelt – stomps on the gas.

On the way to the airport, Ilovia's phone starts vibrating again. With nothing else to do (not counting the books she brought with her), she answers, bringing the Android to her ear. "Speak and thy shall be heard."

"Hey, Via," Ilovia's best friend from her No-Maj boarding school in Charlottesville says.

"Oh. Hey Agnes." Ilovia tilts her head staring out the window. "Wassup?"

"So I know you're not coming back to Filletsburg's this year," Agnes says, "but I just wanted to, like, Idk, know if you'll call or something? I don't wanna totally lose touch with you." Ilovia blinks, catching the clog-y sound of tears in Agnes's voice.

"Aggie, don't cry. It's not like I'm going totally off the map." Ilovia bites her lip, wincing at the semi-truth. It's true that she's going somewhere that's generally on every physical map of America – Mount Greylock in Adams, Massachusetts – but it's very much likely that communication with her No-Maj friend will be very limited indeed.

"Will you call?"

Ilovia catches sight of the airport and lets out a stressed breath. "Maybe, but I'll definitely write, okay?" A sniffle on the line confirms this. "Okay, but Aggie, I'm rolling up to the airport now. I have to go."

"I'll miss you!"

"Ditto." Ilovia hangs up and catches sight of her mom's teary grey eyes. "I'll be fine Mom, and I'll write to you too."

"You'd better." As they pull up to the entrance, Delilah gives her daughter a suffocating hug before sending her off. "Have fun at school! And send me a letter as soon as you get sorted!"

Ilovia gathers up her bags as dashes into the airport, barely even remembering to wave goodbye to her teary-eyed mom.

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