Minnie [#Wattys2017]

The Owl and the Letter

The Owl and the Letter

Isobel McGonagall woke on 4 October, 1946 with excitement coursing through her veins. It was Minerva's eleventh birthday.

Isobel dressed, threw her hair into a braid, pausing on the loose floorboard in the bedroom, her heart pounding. She glanced in the mirror over the dresser, at her husband, who was laying in bed still, his glasses on his nose, face etched in concentration as he read his daily Bible passage. Robert barely noticed when Isobel slipped out the door.

In her bedroom, Minerva was just waking up, the cat, Puddy, licking her cheek.

Happy Birthday, Minerva, Puddy was saying, his whiskers tickling her nose as she stretched and yawned widely, one of her shoulders from having leaned against it all night. There were a chorus of meowed well wishes from the cats and Minnie smiled, unable to think of a better way to wake up than the sound of a clowder of cats wishing her happy birthday.

She sat up and looked around at them - and to her surprise, it was not only cats in the room. But there, perched on the high back of her desk chair, clutching a weathered envelope in his beak, sat an owl. The owl ruffled it's feathers and fluttered his wings menacingly at one of the cats - a light orange one she'd named Honey - as it tried to bat the bird down.

Minnie stared at the owl in disbelief.

What in the world was an owl doing in her bedroom? What in the world was an owl doing... holding an envelope?

Carefully, Minnie crawled across her bed and instantly at least three of the cats curled up in the warm hollow space that her body had made in the sheets. She studied the owl as she neared it, kneeling at the end of her bed and clutching one of the four posters to balance herself. The owl hooted around the letter in it's mouth, it's eyes wide and staring at her.

The bedroom door opened then and several of the cats hissed, expecting Robert McGonagall, but it was not the minister, it was his wife, Minerva's mother, who they all liked and they went back to looking hungrily at the owl, who would make a grand feast for them all if only he could be conquered.

Isobel paused in the doorway when she saw the bird and she gasped and hurried through, glancing back into the hallway, then pushing the door shut. "I knew it," she whispered, "I knew it all along. Oh blessed day!" she hurried across the room. "Go on, Minerva," she whispered, breathlessly standing just a few steps away. "Go on and take the letter from his beak. It'll be for you, dear." The excitement in Isobel's voice was unlike any Minerva had ever heard.

Carefully, Minnie reached for the letter. The moment her fingers took hold upon it, the owl let go and fluttered to the window, slipping through the gap onto the roof, and flying away. The cats were disappointed. They all groaned and complained, though only Minnie could hear their complaints. Isobel quickly came over, sitting on the edge of the desk chair, looking eager and tremulously excited at exactly the same time. She stared over Minnie's shoulder as she looked the envelope over.

Minerva McGonagall
Her Bedroom, The Minister's Farm
Faere Dhu Village, The Highlands, Scotland

What a funny way to address an envelope! Minnie stared at the green ink in a slanting, cursive hand. Whoever would send such a letter?

"Open it," begged Isobel.

Minerva turned the envelope over. On the back was a red wax seal bearing a coat of arms - a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake. Across the back flap read the title Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Minerva's eyes grew wide and she looked up at Isobel with fear. "W-witchcraft?" she whispered, her voice trembling with terror.