Pandora Malfoy and the Philosopher's Stone

Chapter Nine: Hogwarts Letters

~ 24th July, 1991 ~

There was an overwhelming feeling of impending doom as I silently sat on my bed, staring out of my window as I waited for the owl from Hogwarts. The inky blackness of nighttime was already starting to give way to the royal blue of morning, which I knew meant it was about 5am. Worries had kept me from sleeping all night, and I was still dwelling on them now.

Like pretty much every child in Britain that was born to a wizarding family, I'd been looking forward to going to Hogwarts for as long as I could remember. But although I knew I was magical — my metamorphosis, my wand, and my golden phoenix were all proof of that — I wasn't certain I was magical enough to be accepted.

Draco had been doing fairly frequent accidental magic since he was just two years old. I, on the other hand, hadn't been able to do anything more than change my hair colour until I was nearly eight. Even then, my bursts of accidental magic were few and far between — I was lucky if I had more than two instances of magic happen in a year. What if this counted against me? What if it meant I wouldn't get accepted?

My thoughts were interrupted as someone softly knocked on my bedroom door — one long knock, then two short, then another two long ones. I smiled slightly.

"Come in," I said quietly, knowing it was Draco.

Sure enough, my brother opened the door and walked into the room, a smirk on his face. He carefully closed the door, then sat next to me on my bed.

"We get our Hogwarts letters today!" he said excitedly.

"Good morning to you too," I replied, tensing as he mentioned the Hogwarts letters.

Noticing this, he frowned and said, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing! Nothing's wrong!" I said quickly. "I'm completely fine, Dray!"

I forced a smile, so used to doing this that it looked natural unless you knew me really well. Unfortunately, Draco was one of those few people who did.

"No, something's wrong. Out with it." His words were sharp, but still caring.

I sighed. "What if I don't get into Hogwarts? What if I'm not magical enough to be accepted? Father would be so angry, and mother would be disappointed, and I'd be really upset, and—"

"Dora," Draco cut me off, "why wouldn't you get accepted? You're from one of the oldest and purest wizarding families in Britain, you can change your appearance to be however you want, and the only golden phoenix in existence bonded to you as soon as you touched the wand with its feather in!"

"But — but my accidental magic—"

"Yours is just different to mine," Draco said, leaning back onto my propped up pillows, and getting me to do the same. "You change your hair and your eyes by accident. I can't do that, so my accidental magic is more — more physical, I suppose. And remember, you've taught yourself some spells already! You need to be really good at magic for that!"

I smiled properly now, putting my head on Draco's shoulder.

"Thanks, Dray."

***

We went down to breakfast a couple of hours later, both of us still in our pyjamas. Draco had made sure to clear this with Father the previous night, so I was fairly sure that I wouldn't be punished for it, but I was still anxious as we walked into the dining room.

"Good morning, you two," Mother said as we entered, smiling at the visible excitement on Draco's face.

"Morning!" Draco said happily.