In A Different Order

2

>September 1st 2015<

I woke up that morning ecstatic. I was completely elated, just hours later I'd be on my way to Hogwarts.

Hogwarts. I was still trying to piece together how, at 11, I was suddenly a wizard. I'm sure I had been before I was 11, of course. I didnt just suddenly have magic. Right? But it seemed so sudden.

The clock beside my bed said that it was 6:22am. The alarm would sound in 8 minutes. I might as well get up.

But I didn't. I turned onto my back and stared up at the pointy spackled ceiling. Not 2 months ago, I'd been just a boy. A regular teenage boy. I would've started school today at the Saint Francis Parish, where Cyrus wanted Octavia and myself to go. But no, I was magic. I was a wizard instead, and I'd go to a school for wizardry. Like my mother... like my father as well. Would I really be already going to Hogwarts if they were alive? I suppose so. But still it was a very strange thought. There still seemed to be no way I could be a wizard--and yet I knew in my heart this was right. It felt right.

I'd already been studying for weeks, from the day we went to Diagon Alley and bought my books to just last night. I'd been studying them, trying to remember and devour every single word. I read them all, front to back.

Dont give me that look. I had nothing else to do!

The alarm on my clock went off and I immediately hit the top of it, but of course the broken thing didnt like that and simply got louder. I hit it again, making it finally shut up.

"I heard your alarm!" Octavia yelled through the door. "Get up, lazy bones. Mummy made breakfast already!"

"Be down in a sec!" I shouted back. I heard her footsteps as they scampered back down the hall, down the stairs, and I moved to dress myself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"My boy, all grown up. Now, you'll write to me every single day, yea?"

"Yea."

"And I'll send your presents every week. And care packages! And I'll make sure you have enough money for food-"

"Wizards use different money."

"I don't care, I want you taken care of! And you make sure you know, I'll be in contact with all of your teachers every day, and-"

"Zelda." Cyrus said sternly. "He has to go if he wants to make his train. It leaves at 9."

"I love you all. Ockie, Zelda... Cyrus." I nodded to him even though he was always cruel to me. Better to have your enemies think you're friends, I suppose, although I wasn't so sure he qualified as an enemy. "Well, we have to go now. Its 8:12."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I can't follow you through the barrier, of course."

I knew this. Zelda had explained to me all about her Squib status a few days ago. She couldn't cross the barrier because she was non-magical, almost the same as a muggle.

"Its here. You have fifteen minutes to cross and board the train, so I'd get to it if I were you." She smiled at me sadly and I turned away to avoid feeling the grief of losing her for a year. "I love you, Silas Matthew. Don't ever forget that."

"I won't, I promise." I said to the wall. I turned back around, "I lo-" But she was gone.

I stared at the brick pillar in front of me. She hadn't explained how to get through, likely because she didn't know.

"Hello, dear." A lady's sweet voice wandered to my ear from behind me. I turned and was greeted by a beautiful woman with long brown hair and very fair skin. "Are you on your way to Platform Nine and Three Quarters?"