Lumos/Nox

The Letter

Dan sprinted downstairs at the sound of the hollering. "What is it, dad?" He hollered back.

"An owl seems to have landed on our dining table. Would you come and see what it wants?" The mild concern in his voice was a stark contrast to the volume of his speech.

At the bottom of the staircase, Dan looked into the kitchen that also functioned as a dining room. His father was engaged in a particularly intense staring contest with a large speckled owl, whose spread wings took up the entire length of the table. An envelope embossed with neat inky cursive was clutched in its beak. Whenever his dad tried to reach for the letter, the owl jerked back ever so slightly. "Looks like the letter's for you, son."

Dan had to resist the urge to laugh as he strode forward and took the envelope from the owl's beak. It ruffled its feathers, self-satisfied, and sped quickly out the window. It must have had other errands to attend to. 

"Any idea as to why the normal delivery man couldn't make it to the mailbox today?" Dan's father crossed his arms, grinning a bit. He'd never been a man who could resist a joke, be it a pun, a prank, or an owl delivery-person. "I mean, don't get me wrong, Daniel. I've always been one for equal rights – for humans and birds of prey alike – but it's rather curious, you must admit."

Shaking his head, Dan only looked down to examine the letter. He had his suspicions for what it might be, but he had to be sure. It was too good to be true. The envelope was closed with a red wax seal, and a black coat of arms was printed directly above it. A banner reading HOGWARTS  fluttered magically in an impossible breeze across the paper, and the the heading of the letter said HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY  in a fancy font. So, it wasn't a joke, some made up story that Eve had been using to play him all along. It was real. 

It said that he was accepted to Hogwarts, a school of magic for wizards and witches, where he would learn to use his magic. Listed inside were numerous school materials he'd have to buy at the legendary Diagon Alley. He'd need a school uniform and a wand. Could this be real? His hands were shaking slightly as he dashed out the door to Eve's house, letter clutched between clenched fingers and bewildered dad left in the dust. 

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The brick wall stared him in the face, and he slowly poked a finger through it, still astounded that the red concrete did nothing to stop him from pushing through. It was really quite the illusion. Dan wondered about the mechanics of it, based upon the books on magic he'd managed to finish in the short time between buying them and packing them. 

"Well, son? What are you waiting for?" Dan's father tapped his foot on the tiled floor of the train station, not because he was impatient but because it was a stress reliever. His own son was going off to some magic school. Hogwarts, it was called. Sure, Dan had always had strange talents, but he never could've imagined that it would amount to this. Beside him, Eve's mother and father had come to see her off. They held hands and smiled at their daughter with rosy cheeks and bared teeth. Eve was too busy standing behind Dan, waiting for him to go through the boundary while she stared at the lone curl in his hair that had escaped the merciless straightener this rushed morning, to notice her parents' agonised expressions. 

"I'm not waiting for anything. It's just not 11:00 yet, so we don't have to rush. The train will be there on the other side when we pass. We arrived so early." Dan looked down at his plastic watch – it read 10:11. Far too early, of course, to even think of leaving. Now that they had arrived at platform 9 and three quarters, he was loathe to leave his father and the little house they shared in the drowsier part of London. What if the witches and wizards at Hogwarts didn't like him?