Chapter One

"Elle!"

"Coming," I called in the general direction of my bedroom door. I stuck my bookmark in my well-worn copy of Kissed By An Angel, got off of my bed and went downstairs. My mother and father were standing in the middle of the living room. Dad's arm was around Mum's shoulders, and they both had frightened expressions on their faces.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Elle," said Mum, "why is there an owl at the window?"

I looked at the window, and sure enough there was a brown barn owl sitting on the window-ledge, clutching a large envelope in its beak.

"How should I know?" I asked, crossing to the window and opening it. The owl fluttered in and landed on the coffee table. I stepped towards the owl, and it hopped towards me. I got the feeling it wanted me to take the envelope.

I reached out, very slowly, and my fingers closed around the envelope. The owl's beak opened, and I looked at the front of the envelope.

"It's for me," I said, glancing at my parents.

"What do you mean, 'it's for you'?" asked Mum worriedly. I just shrugged and opened the envelope, pulling out a folded letter.

Miss Elle V Taylor,

We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find an enclosed list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on 1 September. Please be at Platform 9 3/4 at 11:00 AM on 1 September at King's Cross.

Sincerely,

Filius Flitwick, Deputy Headmaster

I looked up. "Are we moving or something?"

Dad frowned. "What do you mean?" He took the letter from me and scanned it as I unfolded the supplies list, a small crease between his eyebrows.

First Year students will require:

-Three sets of plain work robes (black)

-One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear

-One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)

-One winter cloak (black with silver fastenings)

Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags.

All students should have a copy of each of the following:

-The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1 (by Miranda Goshawk)

-A History of Magic (by Bathilda Bagshot)

-Magical Theory (by Adalbert Waffling)

-A Beginners' Guide To Transfiguration (by Emeric Switch)

-One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi (by Phyllida Spore)

-Magical Drafts and Potions (by Arsenius Jigger)

-Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (by Newt Scamander)

-The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection (by Quentin Trimble)

Other Equipment:

-1 wand

-1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)

-1 set of glass/crystal phials

-1 telescope

-1 set of brass scales

Students may also bring an owl, cat or toad.

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST-YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS.

I looked at my parents, who were frowning over the first letter, their heads bent down to read it better.

"How am I supposed to get all this stuff?" I asked.

"Elle, honey, are you really taking this seriously?" asked my mother.

I didn't answer her.

"This is some kind of prank, Elle," said Mum.

"I don't think it is," I replied. "You know, this is pretty creative stuff. I mean, if it were a prank, how would someone have come up with this?"

Mum stared at me.

"Listen, Mum," I pleaded. "Let's just see if we can get this stuff, all right?"

"Exactly," said Mum triumphantly. "Where are you going to get it?"

I frowned. "I'm not sure." On an impulse, I glanced into the envelope again. A single slip of paper was still in the envelope. I pulled it out.

Miss Elle V Taylor,

As a Muggleborn, you will need directions to Diagon Alley, where you can get your school supplies. Go to Charing Cross Road. You will be able to see a pub called the Leaky Cauldron, invisible to Muggles (non-magical persons). It is located in between a record shop and a bookshop. Go through the Leaky Cauldron into the rear courtyard and tap a certain brick (you will know which one to tap) three times, thus entering Diagon Alley.

You should visit Gringott's Bank first. You have a vault there, as do most wizards and witches, into which has been deposited a small amount of wizard money, enough to buy your school supplies and have a little leftover.

Sincerely,

Filius Flitwick, Deputy Headmaster

"Well," I said, "I know a way to tell if this is a joke or not."

Mum and Dad looked at me, startled. "How?"

"Well, obviously, if this Diagon Alley exists, then I'll be able to see it, according to the letter, and if we can get in, it's not a joke."

Dad sighed. "All right, Elle. We'll go."

Mum looked at him in shock.

"Margaret," he said softly, "she won't let it drop until she's tried it."

Mum sighed and reluctantly agreed. "When should we go?"

"Now!" I suggested. I couldn't wait to see if this was real or not. If it wasn't, I would be very disappointed.

***

When we arrived at Charing Cross Road, I walked ahead of Mum and Dad until I reached the record store. Directly beside it was a building with a sign shaped like some sort of big pot, labeled "The Leaky Cauldron." There was a chimney with smoke puffing merrily out of it, and a big wooden door standing open. Through it I could hear merry voices and the clinking of glass upon glass.

"Here it is, Mum!" I said. "See? It's not a joke!"

I grabbed her hand and dragged her along the sidewalk. Dad followed, seemingly in a daze. I wove through the many passersby who seemed utterly ignorant of the pub. They didn't even spare it a sideways glance as they walked past. I remembered what the letter had said: It was invisible to non-magical people. What was the word that the letter had used? Migfuls?

Inside, the pub was lit by dim lanterns hanging on the walls. The lighting was a little better near the windows and over at the bar, where a smiling lady was cleaning glasses. I led my parents to a door in the back, guessing that it led to the rear courtyard that the letter had described. I was right. The courtyard was empty except for a garbage bin and a tabby cat reaching a paw under a pile of firewood. From the firewood I heard little squeaking noises.

The courtyard was enclosed on all sides. Three walls were wooden, but one was brick. One brick seemed to glow, just slightly. I supposed this was what the letter had meant about me knowing what brick to tap. I reached out a shaking finger and tapped the brick one, two, three times.

At first, nothing happened. Then there was a grinding noise as the bricks began to move all at once. They folded over themselves and slid out of the way for their fellow bricks, rearranging the wall into a large archway. Beyond the archway lay a long, wide alley bustling with people. On both sides were brightly-lit shops with posters in the windows. Stalls dotted down the center of the alleyway were surrounded with people. At the end of the alley was a large marble building with wide steps up to it. A sign over the big doors claimed that the building was Gringott's Bank.

"Come on, Elle," said my father, and boldly led me into the mob of people.

I glanced into the windows of the stores as we made our way towards the bank. Inside the bank, I saw several small creatures with wrinkled skin at the counters and waddling around muttering to themselves. We got into a line at the counters behind an old lady carrying a fat bag. When she reached the front of the line, the creature behind the counter, which I realized was a goblin, took the bag, opened it, looked inside it, and nodded.

"Would you like to deposit all of these?"

"Yes," said the old lady firmly.

The goblin nodded again, reached below the counter, and emerged with a large scale. Plunging his stubby fingers into the bag, he began to pull out shining rubies and pile them onto the scale.

Half an hour later, I emerged from the bank with a heavy moneybag in my left hand and my parents hurrying along behind me.

"All right, where to first?" asked Dad.

I pulled my supplies list out of my pocket. "Wand, I would guess," I said. "Seems like a pretty important thing to get."

We wandered along the alley until we found a shabby-looking shop with a wooden door. Over the door, peeling gold letters read Ollivander's: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC. A single window displayed a dull purple cushion with a stick of wood lying upon it. When I opened the door, a bell tinkled quietly above me. My parents and I entered the shop in silence. It appeared empty. A single wooden desk sat in the middle of the room, and two old chairs in one corner. The walls were occupied by floor-to-ceiling shelves holding hundreds of narrow boxes piled on top of one another in stacks.

A middle-aged lady with dark brown hair and green eyes poked her head around the corner of a hall I hadn't realized was there and smiled brightly.

"Greetings!" she said, coming out into the open. "My name is Cassandra Ollivander. Have you come to buy a wand?"

Why else would we come to a wand shop? I caught myself wondering, but I just nodded.

Cassandra Ollivander pulled open a drawer in the desk and withdrew a long string with lines across it. She ordered me to come over by the desk and began to measure various body parts -- the length of my arms, the space between my nostrils, the length around my thigh. Then she held up a skinny finger and scampered up a ladder, bringing down six narrow boxes. She opened the first and pulled out a strip of wood. She carefully held it out to me.

"Twelve and three-quarters inches, cherry wood and phoenix feather," she informed me. "Wand arm?"

I frowned.

"Dominant arm," she said impatiently.

I held out my left hand, and she placed the wand in my hand, curling my fingers around it.

Nothing happened.

She frowned and got out a different wand. "Ten and seven-eighths inches, mahogany and unicorn hair."

Still nothing.

"Thirteen inches on the dot, elder and Veela hair."

"Nine and a half inches, rosewood and dragon heartstring."

"Nine and seven-eighths inches, yew and unicorn hair."

"Twelve and a quarter inches, beech and phoenix feather."

This time, the wand in my hand shot off green sparks. I jumped in shock, but Cassandra Ollivander was nodding enthusiastically.

"This is the one!" she cried triumphantly. "The wand has chosen the wizard!"

Five minutes later, I left the shop clutching the box with my new wand in it.

A few hours later, I returned to my house with bags full of my schoolbooks, robes, a cauldron, quills, ink, parchment, scales, Potions ingredients, a telescope, and a variety of random objects that I had convinced my parents to let me buy from a joke shop called Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. I also carried two cages, one large and one small. The small one held a tiny green fluffball -- a "Pygmy Puff," I had been told by the redheaded man who owned the joke shop. The large one held a snowy owl with darker flecks on her wings. My father carried a large trunk that I had been assured it was necessary to buy.

I raced up to my room and put my things on the bed. Dad followed me up the stairs and put the trunk in the middle of the floor.

"Do you want help packing your things?" he asked.

"No, thanks," I replied brightly.

"All right," he said, and closed the door behind him. I put my iPod in its speakers and played some music as I started to pack.

As I packed, I thought about names for my new pets. The owl ended up with the name Storm, and the Pygmy Puff I named Monique.

It took me several days to pack. On August 31, I finished packing and checked through my trunk just to make sure I had everything.

Just in case, I had packed my regular clothes as well, and several random things that I wanted to take with me, including my laptop, my favourite stuffed animals, some of my favourite books, and some random souvenirs from my travels.

"Elle! You're going to be late for your train!" called Mum.

"Coming," I called back.

As a last impulse, I put my iPod and speakers in the trunk as well. I shut and locked the trunk and Dad came upstairs so he could carry it to the car for me.

When we arrived at the station, I loaded my trunk and the two cages onto a luggage trolley. A family of five passed us as we wheeled the trolley around, looking for Platform 9 3/4. The father had inky black hair and glasses. He had his arm around a lady with dark red hair and brown eyes. Three children trailed along behind them; two boys and a girl. Each boy pushed a trolley, and they were arguing fiercely about something. They each looked absolutely identical to their father. The girl had her mother's red hair but green eyes like her father's, and she was complaining to her parents.

"But I want to go to Hogwarts now!" she sobbed.

"In a couple of years you can go to Hogwarts, Lily," smiled the father.

I glanced at my parents and began to push the trolley after the other family.

They stopped in front of a blank brick wall. The father looked around. "All right, James, go," he said, and the older of the boys stepped forward. He pushed his trolley at the brick wall, and I watched carefully. Instead of running smack into the wall, the boy -- James -- went straight through it. I gaped at where he had been only a moment before.

"Al, Ginny, your turn," said the father as if his son hadn't just disappeared into a solid brick wall. The mother took the other boy's arm and walked him towards the wall. They, too, disappeared. The father took the little girl's hand and they also went through the wall.

"All right," I said. "This is it. Let's all go together." I glanced at the large clock -- 10:48 AM. Then I started pushing my trolley forwards. My parents each grabbed one of my arms, and I got the most curious sensation as I walked into the wall -- as though I were walking through a sheet of cold water.

Then I emerged on the other side into a crowd of trolley-pushing young people holding cats, owls and toads, hugging their parents goodbye. Beside the platform was a big red train with words along one side. The Hogwarts Express.

Ahead of me I caught sight of the family that had gone through the wall before us. They seemed to be looking for somebody. I pushed my trolley in that direction, curious. When I stopped near the family, they were talking to another four people. The oldest son had disappeared.

"So that's little Scorpius," muttered a redheaded man who belonged to the new family. "Make sure you beat him in every test, Rosie. Thank God you inherited your mother's brains."

"Ron, for heaven's sake," said a lady with bushy brown hair. "Don't try to turn them against each other before they've even started school!"

"You're right, sorry," said the man -- Ron, I think the other lady had said. "But don't get too friendly with him, Rosie. Granddad Weasley would never forgive you if you married a pure-blood."

"Hey!" The older son from the first family had reappeared. "Teddy's back there. Just seen him! And guess what he's doing? Snogging Victoire! Our Teddy! Teddy Lupin! Snogging our Victoire! Our cousin! And I asked Teddy what he was doing..."

"It's nearly eleven, you'd better get on board," said the black-haired father after a minute.

"Don't forget to give Neville our love!" called the redheaded mother.

"Mum! I can't give a Professor love!" said James, as though it were obvious.

"But you know Neville," began his mother, but her son interrupted her.

"Outside, yeah, but at school he's Professor Longbottom, isn't he? I can't just walk into Herbology and give him love..." Shaking his head, he aimed a kick at his brother, which was neatly dodged. "See you later, Al. Watch out for Thestrals!"

"I thought you said they were invisible?" Al said in a panicked voice. "You said they were invisible!"

But James only laughed, hugged his father, received a kiss from his mother, and leapt onto the train. The father calmed down the younger boy, reminding him that, as a first-year, he'd be riding up to the school in a boat, not carriages.

"Bye, Al," said his father. "Don't forget Hagrid's invited you to tea next Friday. Don't mess with Peeves, don't duel anyone until you've learned how. And don't let James wind you up."

Al whispered something to his father as I said goodbye to my parents.

"Bye, honey," Mum said tearfully, hugging me.

"I'll write you guys," I promised, hugging them both. "If Storm shows up at the window, let her in, okay? Don't just stand there staring at her."

"Love you, Elle," said Dad, and helped me get my stuff on the train. I found myself in a packed corridor next to a redheaded girl, the one who had to beat somebody in every test.

For some reason, everybody seemed to be staring at the black-haired father.

"Why are they all staring?" Al put words to what I was thinking. He stood on the other side of the redheaded girl, waving out the window to his parents.

"Don't let it worry you," said the redheaded man. "It's me. I'm extremely famous."

Al's parents laughed.

The train began to move, and I waved to my parents.

"Goodbye," I whispered, as they disappeared.

***

Author's Note: So what do you think? I have never really thought about the perspective of a Muggleborn before, and I got the name from a Sim that I made. :) Review and tell me what you think, please! Not that I'm begging for reviews or anything. I'm not one of those people that goes all "REVIEW OR I WILL DELETE THIS STORY! I NEED EIGHT REVIEWS THIS CHAPTER!" and stuff. I write for fun, not for praise.