Starbeam - A Wizarding World Story - ON HIATUS

Chapter 1

I'm American, Duh

"Mom," I whispered, the boringly-grey stone that marked her grave standing upright before me. "I'm sorry." My hand trailed from the top of the grave marker, the sun annoyingly glaring down at me. It was the anniversary of her death, two years later, so I was visiting her grave. I read the words on her stone again: 

                                                  "Elizabeth Lily Foster 

                                                                    --- 

                                      Loving mother, wife, and daughter 

                                                                    --- 

                                           June 18, 1976 - July 9, 2017

                                                                    ---

              I soar with the angels and sing with the Heavenly choir"

I cried when we buried her, my siblings and I, a rarity in and of itself. It had been sunny that day too, the weather refusing to let us cry in vain. Only days later, we had to bury Dad too. She died of sickness. He died of grief. My siblings and I haven't died yet, but there were some close calls. Too close, in my opinion. Especially Paige's almost death. She's the youngest at 6, and used to annoy me more than anything but ever since our parents left, we put up with each other enough to see that what sparked arguments when we were younger was helping us cope, so we left each other be. Of course, being the middle child and 11 makes things a little harder. 

Graeme stood behind me while I cried to our mother. He's the oldest at 19, and seems to think that because he's the only man in the family now, he can't show any emotion. 

"Claire," He said, his voice thick with the emotions he wasn't letting out. " Let's go. You're going to get sunburnt if you stay out here too long." I sighed. 

"You know, I never realized Mom's initials spelled ELF until we were making this grave." I told him as I stood up from my previous kneeling position in front of the grave. Paige let out a watery chuckle. 

"Yeah, I wonder if Grams and Gramps knew what they were doing. Maybe they knew that Mom would marry Daddy. Maybe they conspired with Grandma and Grandpa Foster to get their kids married so that her initials would spell ELF." Paige said. I shrugged. 

"At least her initials spell an actual word, instead of PEF or CRF or GAF." I told her. 

"Hey, I think PEF is an actual word. Same is GAF. It's only your initials that don't spell anything real." She replied. 

"If they're real words, P, then what is a pef or a gaf?" I challenged. 

"Well, a pef is a passionate easygoing friend and a gaf is a gently adaptable friend." She replied simply. 

"Then a crf is a captivatingly radiant friend. That's what I am."  I shot back. 

"What are you, a thesaurus? Honestly, you're trying too hard, C." Paige said. Immediately, Graeme stood between us. 

"Calm down you two, we don't need another fight." He told us. We huffed in unison. 

"Let's just go back home." I muttered. Graeme sighed but unlocked his car for us to get it. 

The drive home was longer than it usually seemed. As soon as the car was parked, I bolted out of the vehicle and up into my room. Grabbing my earbuds and plugging them into my Iphone 5S, I slumped down onto my bed and pulled "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" from my bookshelf that sat right next to my bed. I opened the book, and something fell out of the pages. A letter. Addressed to me. I opened it and started reading. 

"Dear Miss Claire Foster,

Due to event happening currently, this letter has been entrusted to your parents so that you might find it when you're ready, or of age, to start at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. 

Miss Foster, we trust that you keep this a secret from your siblings, as time travel is never an easy thing.

Sincerely, 

Albus Dumbledore"

With the letter was included a whole list of supplies needed for my first year at... Hogwarts? Is this just a cruel joke? However, what confused me most out of the whole letter was the mention of time travel. That was when I felt the apparently characteristic tug of disapparation. 

"Whoa!" I exclaimed as I landed on a random street. I didn't know where I was, nor what time I was in, considering the whole "time-travel" thing in the letter. Then I saw a large man with a much smaller boy hurrying past me. The man looked to be at least 12 feet tall, with large bushy hair. The boy, on the other hand, was scrawny with dark hair and glasses. I knew it was Harry Potter and Hagrid so I raced after them. 

"Excuse me! Excuse me, sir! Can you help me please?" I called. Hagrid slowed down and came to a stop. I gave him a hesitant smile. 

"You see, sir, I-I'm starting at this boarding school in Scotland this year, but I'm a... special kind of student there, and I don't know very much about how to get all my school supplies here in London." I said in a rush. 

"Well, what school? What kind of special student? What kind of supplies?" He asked gruffly. 

"Er... Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I'm a muggle-born student." I said, handing him my supply list.

"Yer goin' ta 'Ogwarts? 'Arry 'ere is too!" Hagrid said enthusiastically. I grinned. 

"My name is Claire Foster, by the way." I said. 

"Oh, I'm 'Agrid. And this 'ere is 'Arry Potter!" Hagrid introduced. 

"Ye sure are lucky that I know 'bout 'Ogwarts, Missy. Otherwise, ye'd be seen as crazy!" He said with a laugh. I laughed with him. 

"I know. I guess my gut feeling was right, though. Because you did know about it." I told him. Harry looked at me strangely. 

"Where are you from? Your accent..." He trailed off. 

"Oh, I'm from America. My parents finally let me come here, finally, because I got my acceptance letter from Hogwarts." I told him, the lie easily slipping from my mouth. He shrugged. 

"Interesting. Never met an American before." I looked at Hagrid, who looked like he needed to hurry. 

"Com'on 'Arry and Claire. We gotta go." Hagrid said. Harry and I exchanged a look but followed Hagrid deeper into London. 

(a/n and this is where the scene in which Harry and Hagrid are getting Harry's school supplies comes in... I didn't want to write the whole scene so here's a summary: Harry and Claire get all their school supplies. Harry gets Hedwig, Claire gets a cat named Aspen. Harry gets his wand (i forget what kind of wand it was). Claire gets a Rowan wood wand with a phoenix core feather that's 12 1/2" and surprisingly swishy flexibility. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera)