A New Dawn at Hogwarts

Chapter One: Acceptance

Dark thunderheads crept through the sky over Spinner's End, casting a pall over the already dreary street and its surrounding buildings. To the rare motorist who traversed the main road through the desolate factory town, the derelict houses with their unkempt gardens and rotting siding would seem the last place any person would want to call home. But for one small girl watching the approaching storm with her round hazel eyes through the grimy window of a particularly dismal house at the end of a long row, Spinner's End and the isolated town around it was home. It was where her father had brought her to live after her mother had died, and where she had remained, with her father's brother and her godfather to watch over her.

Aurora sighed; she was bored. The summer holiday was always touch and go, the weeks from late June until the end of August souring the normally jovial atmosphere of the house. She glanced over at the source of the change: her father. He sat in his armchair beside the fire, his face hidden behind the latest edition of The Daily Prophet.

Most of the year he was away, teaching Potions at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Now, although he was on holiday, his posture as he sat was stiff and formal, as though he weren't at all comfortable in his surroundings. She knew exactly how he felt. Whenever he arrived, she felt on edge, careful not to do anything that might set off his notoriously nasty temper. Usually she stayed close to her uncle, Steven, or her godfather, Malichi, but they had both left on mysterious errands. No amount of her begging convinced them to allow her to tag along, and so she sat alone with the father she didn't really know, watching the clouds.

In her eleven-year-old mind, it made perfect sense that should she sit there long enough, he would be bound to notice, and possibly even speak to her. The reality, however, was that she had been in the same room with him all morning, and he hadn't once looked up from the paper.

Aurora turned her attention back to the overcast day, sighing again. This is pointless. As she stood, intending on retreating to her room with a book, she spotted an owl in the distance. There were no other wizarding families—or Muggle ones, for that matter—within miles, which meant whatever the owl carried was for one of the four inhabitants of her house. Her eyes followed the bird's progress as it headed toward the windowsill at which she sat. Larger than Kenoa, the family owl, the approaching messenger had feathers blacker than the curtain of stringy hair that framed her father's face. She'd never seen it before.

Her father looked up as the owl landed on the windowsill and pecked at the glass. Aurora looked to him for approval, and with his curt nod, she spun the lock and allowed the mysterious guest to enter. It didn't fly over to her father, as she'd expected, but instead dropped a letter onto her lap before again taking flight. She blinked, staring at the envelope.

Who'd be writing to me? Every person she knew lived in the house. Aurora picked up the letter and examined the looped handwriting on the envelope. It sparked a glint of recognition, and when she turned the envelope over, a soft 'oh' of surprise left her lips. The seal was unmistakable—it appeared on every letter to her father from Hogwarts. But this was addressed to her. She glanced up again, but her father had already turned back to his paper, seemingly disinterested in the letter's contents.

Aurora had interest enough for both of them. She tore into the envelope, taking in only the first few words before leaping from her chair and crossing the room to where her father sat. When he didn't acknowledge her, she cleared her throat.

"What is it?" he asked, still buried in the paper.

"This letter just arrived, Father—it's from Hogwarts."

"Your point?"

"It was addressed to me."

"Then you would do well to open it." His tone was sharp, his irritation clear.