Elemental

2. Harper Avery: Hogwarts Letter and Diagon Alley

2. Harper Avery: Hogwarts Letter and Diagon Alley

"Quinn, really?" Harper asked the girl that had just bumped into her. "Then I should know you! My father and your father work together at the Ministry, and they went to Hogwarts together, too. I guess we'll be in Slytherin together then."

Harper bent over to pick up her stray books and turn over her black cat's carrier, but the moment she did, Keely Lyrica Quinn bent down to help. The two girls' heads hit each other hard, and they jumped back away. "Sorry, again!" Keely squealed, covering her mouth with her hand. "I'm really sorry!"

"Oh, it's alright," Harper told her. "I'm fine. You might have give Hekate a good scare though when you knocked her cage over."

Harper and Keely gather the scattered supplies and stood up again, brushing off the dirt and dust from being on the ground. Harper's long black cloak was covered in grime from a puddle, so she took it off to reveal an emerald dress and silver shoes. "Why were you covering up such a beautiful dress with that old thing anyway?" Keely asked her.

"Oh, that's because my mum makes us all wear matching Slytherin outfits whenever we come shopping for school. It's ridiculous, all of us wearing the same clothes."

"I think it's cute," Keely told her happily, her eyes sparkling and filling Harper with warmth. She couldn't help but smile back. "So you've done all your shopping?"

"Ah, yes! I've just gotten my wand. Look, isn't it beautiful?" Harper asked, pulling the white wand from it's box. The handle had silver swirls around it that shimmered in the sunlight. "I didn't know such a wand existed! It's 9 1/2 inches, hazel with a siren hair core, unyielding. Have you ever heard of siren hair being used for as a wand core?"

"No," Keely said slowly. "I haven't."

Harper jerked her head around at the sound of her mother calling her name. "Coming!" She yelled back. "Keely, I suppose I'll see you at Hogwarts. We're going to be friends, right? I'll try to find you on the train then!"

Harper turned on her heel and ran towards her family, all dressed in emerald and silver like herself. Her father waved his wand, and all of her packages and her cat came floating after her. Harper turned back to wave at Keely before she left with her family and saw an older woman approaching Keely. I guess it's time for her to leave, too, Harper thought as she turned back to face her mother.

"Who was that girl, dear?"

"That was Keely Quinn, Mum. She's my friend."

"Quinn?" Harper's father asked. "Good to see you getting along with a good family of Slytherins. Those are the kinds of friends you need."

"I know, Dad," Harper said.

Ever since she'd met Keely in Diagon Alley, Harper had been even more excited to get her letter that weekend on her birthday. Finally, her birthday had arrived, and she made sure to stay in one place all day so that the owl could find her when it came.

Harper was in the dining room looking through her new books as her mother packed her school robes in a trunk with Harper's initials printed on it in an elegant silver. Harper thumbed through the pages of Magical Drafts and Potions and wondered if she would be any good with potions. It seemed an interesting enough subject, and Harper was more than excited to learn about it. She couldn't wait to try her hand at the Forgetfullness Potion. How fun would it be to make her older brother, Birch, forget how to use a fork?

She knew that using the potion on her eldest twin brothers, Calix and Calloway, would be fun, too, if they weren't in Azkaban. But her mum and dad were doing what they could to get them out. Harper didn't think it was very fair that they were imprisoned as Death Eaters when they were being controlled by the Imperius curse the whole time. She knew though that her father would straighten things out and bring them home. Maybe they would even be home for Christmas holidays! Harper sure hoped they would.

"Look, Harper," her mum said making Harper look up for her new textbook. "The owl is here."

Harper hopped up and ran to the window to let the white owl fly inside and perch on the chair that she had just been sitting in. The moment she took the letter from it's beak, the owl flew out the window that slammed shut behind it. Anxiously, she ripped the Hogwarts seal and pulled out her letter. She didn't bother reading it. She knew what it would tell her. Instead, she skipped straight to the second page and checked over her supplies list to make sure that she'd gotten everything that was required.

"Mum!" Harper yelled. "I could have gotten a ferret!"

"Well, if that's what you want, we can take the cat back."

"No, I can't do that to Hekate. She's finally gotten used to me."

Just then, Hekate pounced up on the table and sat there like she owned the whole house. Harper laughed, but her mother didn't think it was very funny and made her get Hekate off of the table. After she sat her now angry cat on the ground, Harper turned around and grabbed her Potions book. She closed it and lay it in her trunk on top of her school robes. Then she proceeded to pack her other textbooks that she had neatly stacked beside the trunk. "There," she said. "That's everything."

Her mother sighed. Harper had insisted upon packing everything two weeks in advance, and Mrs. Avery wasn't sure where her daughter had gotten her promptness from. Everyone else in the family waited until the last minute to worry with things.

Harper sat Hekate's carrier on top of the trunk. Everything was ready to go. When Septermber 1st rolled around, all she would have to do is put her pet in her cage, and she would be ready to board the Hogwarts Express.

She couldn't wait. She was going to go to school and make all kinds of friends, friends like Keely.

But Harper thought about it for a moment before she decided to make friends with people different from her and Keely, too. She didn't want just friends from what her father would call "appropriate families." If she were as closed-minded as her parents, then she wouldn't get anywhere in the modern world.

The next couple of weeks would pass so slowly. September 1st was too far away for Harper's taste.