Falice: From A to Z

Magic

Summary: Alice is not one to let anybody tell her what she can and can not do. Hogwarts AU.

Rating: G

Genre: Fantasy, gen

Notes: Inspired by this tumblr post - http://ink-splotch.tumblr.com/post/104058597984/facts-from-the-2014-uk-editions-of-harry-potter

~~Magic~~

Alice waits eagerly for her 11th birthday and what it would bring. She waits for the owl to perch on her windowsill with a letter confirming her magical gifts just like it had every member of her family for the last few hundred years.

She is ready for her life to change.

Her father tells her that the Sorting Hat better put her in Slytherin, just like it did him and the threat in his words is barely covered by his tight smile and joking facade.

When the day finally comes, Alice runs up to her window as the morning rays fall through the cracks in the blinds. There is nothing waiting for her.

Her parents exchange a worried look.

"Maybe it's late? There is a war going on," her mother says hopefully.

Her parents doesn't know what to do and they disagree about how best to handle it.

Her father blames her mother. There were no squibs in his family. Alice must have gotten it from her since her great-great aunt's third cousin was a squib.

Little Alice watches from the stairs as a glass goes flying across the room and shatters against the wall next to her father's head.

"Next time, I won't miss," her mother says, darkly.

That is the moment Alice decides she's going to Hogwarts, no matter what. Even if her letter never comes.

She stays up half the night forging a letter and the other half crushing some dirt and cookies together to look like owl pellets. Alice he runs down the stairs, waving the parchment enthusiastically in the air. Her parents are so pleased and they're not yelling at each other for the first time in recent memory.

Her father complains about bureaucracy and those unreliable owls. "Mark my words, they'll be hearing from me."

Her mother hugs her, kisses her head and says I knew you wouldn't disappoint me.

They take her shopping at Diagon Alley and Alice's stomach is doing backflips the whole time. She's so relieved when her stingy father refuses to splurge on a new wand from Ollivander's. Apparently the old man is a mudblood-sympathizer and his wands are expensive and overrated.

"You'll do just as well with Great-Aunt Wendy's old wand," her father tells her gruffly.

Somehow she makes it to Platform 9 ¾. She braces herself for impact, but she miraculously manages to make it through the wall. She sits next to a red-headed girl whose nose is buried in a book, discovers her name is Mary and that she's the first in her family to be a witch.

Alice wants to tell her she's the first in her family to not be one. Instead, she answers the ginger's burning questions since the administration's muggle-born transition program needs some serious revamping.

Together, Alice and Mary make it across the lake, up the grand stairs, through the Great Hall doors and onto rickety stools to await the Sorting Hat.

Fred Andrews is the first to be called. Gryffindor.

Clifford Blossom. Slytherin.

Alice holds her breath as the names are called one by one.