(HOGWARTS MYSTERY) Janelle Morgan -- Year 1: The Forbidden Corridor

Chapter 1: The Story Begins

"Got your letter, Jane?"

I had to admit I was nervous, but I was also incredibly excited. Here I was, being led through the famous wizard pub, only known as the Leaky Cauldron, to the back of the building where the most famous alley in all of Wizard history was located...

Except when my mum led me through the back door, all I saw was a solid brick wall separating us and, presumably, the next building on the other side.

"Yeah, Mum, I've got it here," I told her as I pulled out my acceptance letter that I had received three months ago out of my front pocket.

I about leapt myself right through the ceiling of my room when I finally got my acceptance letter for the first time, and Mum was so proud when I'd run downstairs to tell her the good news. Before that, when my brother first got his, I had been counting down the years—and eventually days—until I received mine. I was so jealous after we had dropped him off at Platform Nine and Three Quarters, where he would be off to school in a majestic castle in the middle of nowhere up North, and I had pleaded with my mum to let me go with him, but she had refused and told me I wasn't old enough yet to attend. I had gotten my letter the day after I'd just turned eleven, and it had become the best birthday present of my life.

And now I was finally to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in just less than four days from today.

"Do I really have to do this by myself?" I asked nervously, feeling my palms slick with sweat and my legs feeling like jelly. "Diagon Alley is so baffling. I don't even know where to start. Why can't you come with me?"

I had remembered the first time I had come to Diagon Alley with Mum when my brother was to start his first year at Hogwarts. I was so overwhelmed when I stepped through the magical barrier that was supposedly the brick wall I was standing in front of now. At the time, school was about to resume, and the Alley was almost completely crowded with witches and wizards doing their last-minute shopping. I swear, I had almost fainted when I realized how busy and how unbelievably amazing it was. I honestly didn't know what to expect this time round—especially after what had happened with my brother—and didn't want a repeat of the last time I was here, but that was before my brother's incident.

"Because this will be a good learning experience for you," Mum answered.

"How so?" I asked, puzzled. How was walking, by myself, through a narrow alley crowded down-and-back with witches and wizards I didn't know—who would know about my brother's incident and might question me about it, and I would be expected to just talk it out like it was not a big deal, even though it was—to be a learning experience? "I don't even know where everything is, and you know Diagon Alley much better than me."

"True. However, you won't know anything unless you learn it for yourself," she explained. "That is what school is all about. When you go to Hogwarts in just three days' time, you won't be expecting me to accompany you. I've already gone and graduated, so you'll be on your own. But you won't be completely alone. There will be many other students there with you, and some of them may even be your age and will most likely be just as nervous as you are. It is perfectly normal to be nervous for your first day of school, especially to one without me there to aid you. I remember how nervous Jacob was during his first week at Hogwarts." She paused, and I could suddenly sense her disappointment towards the terrible choices my brother had made when he was still in school.

"But that's what friends are for," she continued before the tension between us could escalate. "I reckon, after this experience, you'll meet someone who is very knowledgeable and would be willing to help you out if needed, and you'll become the best of friends before you even get to Hogwarts."