The mont Anne blurted out those words, she instantly regretted it. If this letter really was authentic, then that ant this was the mysterious wizarding world, and who knew if there were wizards secretly monitoring this place?
After taking a couple of deep breaths, Anne cald herself. Clutching the parchnt letter, she scanned the desk with her eyes in search of the second yellowed envelope.
She pulled it out from under a stack of papers and books and tore it open. Inside was another thick sheet of parchnt, but this one was far shorter. In elegant calligraphy, it read:
Dear Miss Anne Reeve,
Please remain at ho at 8 p.m. on July 24, 1990.
Departnt of Magical Law Enforcent
⚡︎━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ❖ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⚡︎
Anne quickly read through the contents, then flipped the page over and checked the envelope, finding no other items. She tilted her head thoughtfully. Perhaps this body’s identity wasn’t as simple as it seed.
Just as she was deep in thought, a knock sounded at the door, followed by Ida’s cheerful voice:
“Oh, poor Anne, co down, it’s dinnerti!”
“Coming, Mrs. Ida!” Anne called back, stuffing the letter into its envelope and stacking all three letters neatly on her desk before heading downstairs.
Dinner passed in a blur. She barely tasted the food and only gave half-hearted responses when Headmistress Odette asked about her letter from London Kelford School. Afterward, as she made her way toward the stairs, she stopped halfway and turned abruptly toward a grandfather clock. It read 7:50.
“What’s today’s date, Mrs. Odette?” she asked.
Odette, busy directing the cleanup of dinnerware, turned and smiled warmly. “Why, it’s July 24th, dear.”
Anne gave a polite thank-you and hurried up the stairs. Back in her room, she picked up the second yellow envelope again and reread the contents of the parchnt.
She glanced at the ti, then peered out the window.
The Ministry of Magic. It had been so long since she’d heard that na. She’d only ever watched the Harry Potter movies, multiple tis, yes, but the details had faded over the years. Regardless of whether she would actually attend Hogwarts, she knew one thing for certain: she needed to write down every plot point she could rember as soon as possible.
Knowing the future was a massive advantage, especially since the wizarding and Muggle worlds had both suffered when Voldemort returned.
What would the wizarding world be like? Was it really like the movies? Part of her was excited. This was Hogwarts, after all, a magical world completely different from the world of physics and reason!
Anne paced between her desk and the door, trying to recall as much of the plot as possible. She adjusted her clothes nervously, smoothed down her shirt, and wandered back and forth a few more tis. Then she stopped by the window and chuckled softly, pulling up a chair to open the window.
A cool breeze blew in, carrying the scent of sumr grass. It helped calm her down. She leaned out, letting the silver moonlight wash over her face. Below, the orphanage lawn stretched wide and empty. A few scattered pine and birch trees stood in the distance. She could hear Odette’s voice drifting up from the floor below, along with the occasional bark and the soft chorus of insects.
Shaking her head, she pulled back inside. Her behavior since receiving the Hogwarts letter now seed a little ridiculous. Maybe she was just overwheld by too many surprises in one day.
Jumping down from the chair, she grabbed a book and sat upright at her desk.
“No matter what happens, I’ll face it head-on,” she thought. “When I ca to this world, I didn’t panic. I observed and adapted. I’ll do the sa now. Whatever this magical world holds, I’ll go see it, but I won’t forget to stay grounded in the human world.”
She nodded to herself.
Downstairs, the second hand of the large wooden clock in the orphanage ticked closer to the 12.
Tick. It hit the top.
Tick. It moved past.
⚡︎━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ❖ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⚡︎
Upstairs in Anne’s room.
A flash of white light shimred in the small space between the bed, the desk, and the door. A figure took form from thin air.
Anne turned sharply at the soft poof behind her.
Standing there was a man wearing a gray wool coat over a rumpled, filthy plaid shirt with two buttons undone. He wore dark jeans and had ssy, curly light-brown hair. His face was scruffy and unshaven, and he was grinning at her with barely contained excitent.
Anne stepped down from her chair and frowned slightly. She rubbed her nose. The man slled… odd. Like a blend of barnyard animals, cows, sheep, maybe even goats.
“You’re a wizard?” she asked skeptically.
Her tone was justified. If this man hadn’t just appeared out of thin air, she’d have assud he was a vagrant or a burglar.
The man nodded eagerly, stepping forward with open arms as if he ant to hug her.
Anne pinched her nose and backed away until she was against her desk. “Um… you kind of… sll.”
The man froze mid-step, visibly embarrassed. He mumbled sothing under his breath, “Magical Creatures Departnt... ridiculous…”, and then suddenly pulled out a black wand.
So that’s a wand, Anne thought, her curiosity piqued.
“Scourgify!” he said.
A flash of silver light shimred at the tip of the wand. His clothes instantly beca neat and spotless, and the strange odor vanished.
Anne let go of her nose. This man was indeed a wizard, and by the looks of it, soone who’d known her parents.
“Hello, I’m Anne Reeve,” she said, tilting her head slightly and pointing to the letter on her desk. “I’ve read the letter.”
The man tucked his wand into his sleeve and crouched down. He started to reach out to pat her head but hesitated when he saw her wary eyes. Instead, he shifted his hand lower to offer a handshake.
Anne touched his hand briefly. His was large, twice the size of hers, and slightly trembling.
After the handshake, she gave him a curious look.
“You really do look like your parents,” the man said softly. “Hello, Anne. I’m Aaron Hall, your parents’ dearest friend.”
“My parents?” Anne feigned surprise. Though she had already guessed the truth, that Anne’s parents had likely been wizards, possibly victims of Voldemort’s rise to power. The Ministry must’ve hidden Anne away in the Muggle world to protect her.
But her current body was only eleven years old. She had no mory of her parents or their past. Since waking in this body at eight years old, she had inherited none of the real Anne’s mories. In the past three years, the only contact had been one birthday card from her uncle Garnett, telling her her birthday was on May 17, making her a Taurus.
After that, nothing. Not a word.
Sotis, when Anne rembered her own parents from her previous life, a deep sorrow would well up inside her, stronger than her own grief. It made her sympathize with this little girl even more. She silently vowed to live her best life for both herself and Anne.
“But… my parents died in a car crash. If you were their best friend, why didn’t you ever co to see ?” she asked coldly.
Aaron’s expression fell. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly, staring at the young girl who looked so much like his lost friends. “It was Ministry policy. Wizards aren’t allowed to be exposed to Muggles... and you were so young…”
Seeing Anne’s expression grow colder, Aaron quickly added, “But I did check on you. I ca every year on your birthday. Last year you spent it at your friend Jill’s house, didn’t you?”
Anne’s heart skipped a beat. So they had been watching. Good thing she hadn’t done anything too out of the ordinary… like, say, being a soul from another world.
But what exactly did this man co here for?
“Then why can you visit now?”
“Oh!” Aaron smacked his forehead like he’d just rembered. “Today’s your big day, Anne! Co on, I’m taking you sowhere special. I’ll explain everything on the way.”
He stood up and firmly took her right hand in his left, wand in his right. He gave her a reassuring smile.
“Don’t be afraid. What happens next will be… magical.”
He swished his wand in a practiced arc.
“Apparate.”
Darkness.
Anne felt like she’d been sucked into a black hole. Her whole body was squeezed, like being underwater. A large hand held hers tightly.
This man really did care for Anne, didn’t he? Maybe she wouldn’t be so alone in the wizarding world after all. Especially if he worked in the Ministry’s Departnt for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.
She vaguely rembered sothing from Harry Potter, wasn’t Hagrid involved with magical creatures too?
She needed to write all of this down later. mory fades, but notes last forever.
Just then, light returned. Her feet hit solid ground.
She looked around. They were standing near a street with an old car parked not far away and a streetlamp nearby. In front of her stood a black wooden door, completely out of place with the rest of the cityscape.
“We’re here!” Aaron bead down at her. He gave her hand a tug and pushed open the door. “Welco to the Leaky Cauldron. Rember this place, you’ll co here a lot. Your dad and I t here for the first ti! He was such a short little guy back then.”
As the door opened, the heavy sll of butter and alcohol rushed out, followed by a chorus of voices. The pub was dimly lit by a few oil lamps. A large square table in the center was crowded with people playing cards, while the smaller tables were packed with oddly dressed individuals.
At least, they seed odd to Anne, who ca from the Muggle world. Who wore a scarf in sumr? Then again, it was a little chilly here. She tugged at her short sleeves.
Aaron led her through the bustling crowd. Just as they were passing the bar, a raspy voice called out:
“Hey! Aaron! Been a while, hasn’t it?”
Anne turned toward the source of the voice.
A bald, wrinkled man in his fifties squinted at Aaron from behind the bar.
“Hey, Tom,” Aaron greeted him. “Been busy lately. But I’ve got sothing important to do today.” He gestured to Anne. “I’m taking Anne to Diagon Alley.”
“rlin’s beard, is this… Lambert’s daughter?” Tom squinted harder.
Aaron pulled Anne a little closer and nodded. “Yes. This is Anne Reeve, Lambert’s girl.”
Anne offered a polite smile. “Nice to et you. I am.”
“Well, I won’t keep you then,” Tom said, turning back to the bar. “Next ti, co have a drink.” Discover more novels at novｅlfire
Aaron led Anne past the bar and into a small courtyard behind it.
“That was Tom, the Leaky Cauldron’s owner,” he said. “Your dad and I knew him when we were students.”
They stopped in front of a brick wall with a trash bin nearby.
“Watch carefully, Anne. This is how you get into Diagon Alley. It’s where you’ll buy everything for school. You count up three bricks, then two across, and tap it three tis with your wand…”
As Aaron demonstrated, Anne’s eyes widened in awe. A small hole appeared in the wall, growing rapidly until it ford an arched passage tall enough for a person to walk through.
“Welco to Diagon Alley. Welco to the wizarding world,” Aaron said with a smile. “Hold on tight, there’s a lot of people in there.”
Still holding hands, they stepped through the passage together.
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