An American at Hogwarts

News From the Homefront

Friday came rather quickly. I awoke early as usual and went down to the common room to practice. The day before I had decided to work on incendio, since I thought being able to control it well may help me with confrigo. I was struggling a bit with the control part. I could use it reliably, but the size of the flame was all but random. Sometimes it was little more than a spark, and other times I nearly set myself on fire. Hermione was having a bit more luck. She could control it a bit better, but her flames seemed less intense. I was telling her about how I figured out that my emotions seemed to be connected to the larger flames in some way when Marie came down from her room.

"You two practicing again?"

I turned to her, smiling. "Yeah. We've kind of got opposite problems with incendio so we're trying to learn from each other I guess."

"Being careful though, right?"

I sighed. "Yes mom."

Marie blushed and punched me in the shoulder. "Oi! I'm just watching out for you! Back me up here, Hermione."

Hermione grinned. "She has a point, Y/N. I'm surprised you haven't burned your eyebrows off yet."

I couldn't hold it anymore and broke out into laughter. "I'm just messing with you Marie! I'm being careful, I promise! And I appreciate you looking out for me. I need someone to."

I turned back to the old bottle we were using to practice. It was slightly deformed from the heat by now. "Alright, I'm gonna try the visualization part of it a bit harder this time. Back up, just in case."

I took a deep breath and aimed my wand at the bottle, imagining a flame just large enough to engulf it completely.

Incendio!

The flames burst briefly around the bottle before going out. Hermione gasped.

"Y/N! That was perfect!"

I smiled back at her, somewhat in disbelief. "Yeah! Just gotta get it consistent now!"

I tried a couple more times. I was able to do it again once or twice, but not consistently. It was a lot better and more controlled than before, though, so I was fairly happy with my progress.

"You two want to head down to eat?"

Hermione and Marie nodded, grabbing their bags. A few minutes later, we were down in the great hall for breakfast.

As I was halfway through a stack of pancakes, I tapped Marie on the shoulder. "Mail is here!"

Dozens of owls flew down from an open window, dropping letters and packages off in front of students.

My mother's blindingly white owl, Sneachta (the Gaelic word for snow), landed in front of me, looking positively exhausted.

"She didn't send you all the way from New York, did she?"

Sneachta hooted softly in affirmation. She made transatlantic trips every so often, but they were hardly common for her, and I could tell how tired she was.

"Head up to the owlery, girl. You need a proper rest. Just come back here tomorrow morning and I'll give you my reply to mom."

Sneachta hooted happily as I took the small parcel and letter off of her leg, and flew off slowly.

Hermione looked at me, her jaw agape. "Did your mum send her all the way over the ocean?"

I nodded. "Yeah. She follows muggle shipping lanes and rests on the boats. It's not impossible or anything, just very tiring for her. I don't think she minds much, though, she always seems rather upbeat after the trips once she gets a rest. My mom thinks she enjoys the sea air or something. Trust me, if she didn't like it, she'd let us know. Terribly temperamental when she wants to be."

I opened the letter first and began to read

Dear Y/N,

Congratulations on the sorting! We got your letter just as we were heading to the airport, so apologies for the delay in our response, we didn't have time to reply before we boarded. I won't lie, I was a bit disappointed you didn't get put in Ravenclaw like me, but Gryffindor is great as well! You're with your friends there, which is probably most important. Give Harry my regards. I knew his parents, it's a terrible shame what happened to them, they were wonderful people. Tell him if he'd like to know anything about them to write me, I wasn't all that close to them, but I'd be happy to tell him what I can. I've sent you something small for now, I have a bigger gift for you, but it's a bit of a faff to get it over there, so just be patient, it should be there in a week or so. Give Hermione and Marie my regards as well, dear! Love you!

Love,
Mom

When I looked up, Marie was inspecting the package I had gotten.

"Hey! That's for me!"

Marie looked at my smile and stuck her tongue out. "Alright, open it then! I want to see what it is!"

She handed the box to me and I began to unwrap it. Inside, within a tight wrapping of packing paper, was a small golden ring. My jaw dropped.

"This... this is a ring of reflection!"

Marie's eyes went wide. "How'd she get one of those? Those are heavily regulated! They're illegal to sell!"

I grinned. "Not in America, and since shes technically just gifting me it, she can send me it while I'm here just fine."

Hermione frowned. "A what?"

I looked at her, somewhat surprised she of all people didn't know what it was. "It's a one time use enchantment, basically a very powerful protego spell, can reflect almost anything that gets cast at you. The production of them was banned centuries ago, and nobody even knows how to make them anymore anyways. There's probably only a few hundred left in existence, at least that still work. I'd show you how it works, but, well, one time use and all."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "If it's so rare, how'd she get it? Family heirloom?"

I shook my head. "No. Don't think so, at least, I've never seen it in our house and we've got a whole room that displays magical items, so I imagine I would have. Like I said, she runs a large magical imports business. Reckon she got it through that somehow. Can't imagine she bought it, though, damn thing is probably worth more money than I've ever seen to the right person. I'll have to ask her, I'm curious as well!"

Marie smiled. "My dad would love that, being an auror and all. I think they've got a few at the office, but they're all locked away. Old Moody's got half a mind to destroy them, at least according to my dad."

Even I had heard of old Mad-eye, and that seemed fairly in character for him. My mother said he was the very definition of paranoid.

"He's welcome to take a look at it if he wants! I doubt I'll have reason to use it, so I can show him it at the end of the year!"

Marie smiled brightly at me.

Hermione tapped us on the shoulder. "Not to interrupt, but I believe it will be time for us to head to class soon."

I looked down at my watch, which had been a gift from my father. "Yeah, you're right Hermione. Harry and Ron here yet?"

She nodded and pointed to them. I walked over to alert them.

"Hey guys, me, Marie, and Hermione are gonna head to class soon. You want to come with us?"

Harry nodded. Ron seemed a bit annoyed about me interrupting their conversation, but Harry glared at him. Not sure what that was about, but he sighed and nodded.

I smiled. "Alright! Let me grab the two of them, and we will be off!"