Rising

Prologue

Amelia Hale was more than prepared for Hogwarts.

"Mum, Mum, Mum, Mum!" Amelia squealed, dancing around their quaint little kitchen. "It's today!"

"What is today?" Amelia's mother, Giselle asked, in her thick French accent.

"You know what! Can I have some of the bouillabaisse from last night? Please?" The excited girl begged dramatically.

"What's going on?" John, Amelia's father, asked as he walked through the doors.

"I am going to Hogwarts!" Amelia exclaimed. "Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggie Warty Hogwarts..."

She proceeded to chant the song that her father had taught her from memory.

"And I thought she was excited when she got that letter..." Giselle whispered to her husband.

"That letter? 'Elle, I know you went to Beauxbatons and all, but that letter? It is the most important thing to ever have existed! Besides, did you forget the incident when she got the wand?" John whispered back to his wife. Amelia looked up, and sent them an accusing glare.

"You were talking about me!" she accused.

"Don't go all killer-bird on me!" John joked. Neither Giselle nor Amelia found it funny. "What? Because your mother is half Veela? No? Anybody?"

"So Mum, about the bouillabaisse..." Amelia started, grinning mischievously.

Giselle sighed dramatically. "If you insist."

She summoned the large bowl of leftovers from the previous night. Amelia ducked as a large lunch box flew from behind her. Giselle put a lot of the bouillabaisse in the container. Her daughter watched with wide eyes.

"For your new friends also." Gisele said, smiling a sickly sweet grin.

John watched Amelia's reaction, shock, even more shock and fury. Fury that almost made Amelia squawk with anger.

Much to the adults' surprise, Amelia's fury died down uncharacteristically almost immediately. She accepted the container.

"Thank you Mother dearest, for this extra large blessing of bouillabaisse." Amelia said, somewhat graciously. She even took the courtesy of bowing daintily, container still in hand. "I shall make way to my humble abode now, beloved parents."

Just before Amelia made it to her room, her father turned around.

"Sorry to ruffle your feathers Mia, but we ought to be going in ten minutes!"

A loud huff could be heard from down the hall, although peculiar squealing noises followed it.

"Ready!" Amelia panted, standing in the doorframe five minutes later. Her trunk lay on the ground beside her, clothes spilling out of it messily. Her platinum blonde hair was neat, her skirt proper and her jumper tidy.

For a neat-looking, tidy girl, Amelia sure could wreak a lot of havoc.

Her mother tapped the trunk with her wand, the clothes rearranging themselves tidily into the trunk. "Only today." she whispered to her daughter secretively.

Amelia giggled, and grabbed her now-tidy trunk. Hecate, her new barn owl, sat patiently in the cage in her left hand.

Giselle grabbed her daughter's right shoulder, while John took her left. They apparated to Kings Cross Station.

"Don't... Do that... Ever, ever, ever again." Amelia said, leaning against a pillar.

"Next Christmas, presuming you are coming home." John warned teasingly.