From a Cradle to a Grave

Chapter 5

Hope's Pov

Three months later.

I wake up in the small bedroom that I share with my younger sister. My eyes drift over to the mirror standing on the far end of our room. I look into it, and see a fourteen year old girl with blue eyes, fair skin, and of course, flaming red hair.

I glance at my sister, who's still fast asleep. On our bedside table is a picture of our entire family. My mum, my dad, my six brothers, my younger sister, and me. All of us with the same shade of signature red hair.

Even though I look, talk, and act like them, I've always felt different from my family. My suspicions were confirmed the year I turned eleven, which is when I began attending school.

The school I attend isn't an ordinary one. It's a special school for people like us. People with magic. Young witches and wizards from all across the country come to be taught lessons in enchantments, potions, and the history of our world.

Starting from the first day, I immediately realized something wasn't right. The brand of magic that I possessed... It seemed to be different from what the others wielded. I don't exactly know how to explain it. It's not as if I'm more powerful than the other students, but...

I stare at the palm of my hands, and begin to focus. A flicker of flames appears at my fingertips, before dispersing into smoke.

I can do magic without using a wand.

The professors at my school taught us that only the most skilled and advanced beings can perform magic without a wand. Yet I've been capable of wielding magic without a wand for as long as I can remember. In fact, a wand is just about useless to me. I hold it in my hand whenever I perform magic at school, but the truth is, I only use it as a prop.

My mum and dad know this, but they're the only ones who do.

"Hope! Wake your sister up, and come down for breakfast!" my mum's voice hollers throughout the house.

"Coming, mum!" I shout back.

As I move towards my sister's bed, the small engraving on the wall catches my eye. It's my family name, which was singed into the wall when my older twin brothers were fooling around with magic when they were kids.

'Weasley,' it reads.

"Ginny, wake up," I shake my younger sister's shoulders violently.

Ginny slaps my hands away, and gets up with a groan.

"They're arriving today, you know," I tell her. "Harry and Hermione. They'll be here by noon, and tomorrow, we're all going to go and see-"

"The Quidditch World Cup. I know, Hope," Ginny groans. "It's all you've been talking about. It's rather annoying, you know that? Last year, you couldn't care less about Quidditch, but now, it's all you ever talk about."

There's a reason for that. Four months ago, a series of unbelievable events unraveled inside the Whomping Willow at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This involved an encounter with Sirius Black, a wrongfully imprisoned fugitive of Azkaban, and Peter Pettigrew, who was the one responsible for the crime that Sirius was convicted for.

With the help of our werewolf professor, me and my brother, Ron, along with our two best friends, Harry and Hermione, managed to capture Pettigrew. But we had completely forgotten about the fact that it was a full moon that night, meaning our professor began to turn into a wolf almost immediately after we tied Pettigrew up.

Pettigrew made an attempt to escape by turning himself into a rat. I shot a Stunning Spell at him. It was only supposed to knock him out, but, being a rat and all, Pettigrew died.