Serpent's Embrace | A Sebastian Sallow Story

Chapter Two: An Unexpected Eighteenth Birthday Present

     If you'd asked Madeline Nott five years ago if she'd be happy to wake up on her eighteenth birthday, she would have laughed in your face. She hadn't been pleased about her birthday since her Hogwarts letter failed to arrive and her family stopped talking to her the same way they used to. The fresh air of a spring morning in May hit her face and she blinked, confused as to why her window was open this early in the morning.

     The brown barn owl blinking at her with a letter clamped in its beak was her answer. It was several seconds of staring at the bird before she realized there were two letters brought by this owl. A small scroll attached to its leg, and the much fatter envelope trapped in the birds beak.

     Madeline stared at the owl. The owl stared rather reproachfully back at her. Clearly, this owl thought it had better things to do than wake up some sleeping teenage girl who's black curly hair was wild around her, and who seemed ungrateful for its hard work. The owl ruffled its feathers at her, as if telling her to hurry up.

     "There's no need to look at me like that, I didn't send you." The owl shook its feathers again, disgruntled by these words. "I'm coming."

     Climbing out of her bed, she crossed her small room and removed the letters. By the time Madeline slipped the scroll from its leg, the owl was leaning out the window. She watched as it took flight as though it couldn't get away from her fast enough. She scoffed and rolled her eyes. Any time she received an owl, they would take off as though they couldn't get away from her fast enough. As though they were worried if they stayed in her vicinity long enough, that her utter lack of magic would rub off on them.

     Unfurling the letter she was sure was from Anne without paying much attention, she moved away from her window and sat in the small chair in the corner of her room, tucking her feet up under her as she did so.

     The scroll was not from Anne however.

     No, it was a letter from someone named Professor Eleazar Fig.

     Her heart stopped beating in her chest, and she sat up straight, fully awake now and her eyes roamed over the words he had scrawled on the parchment.

Madeline Nott,

I am sure you are surprised to be hearing from us. To be fair, we are just as surprised to be writing to you, given that you are not eleven years old. The Headmaster has tasked me with coming to your place of residence to talk over your admission to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and discover the nature of your magical abilities. I shall be calling on your place of residence tonight at eight o'clock, escorted by friends of yours, Miss Anne Sallow and Mister Sebastian Sallow. We shall see you this evening.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Eleazar Fig

     This had to be a joke. It had to be. Sebastian had to be behind this, he wasn't her friend, and never had been. She couldn't imagine why he would be joining Professor Fig at the house this evening. Madeline could not understand any of it. She hadn't shown so much as an inkling of magic in her life, and that hadn't changed at all recently. No outbursts of random uncontrollable magic, no rush of feeling when she picked up her mothers wand longingly on her darkest days. Nothing.

     This has to be a cruel joke, she thought, as she raced back over to the window and picked up the fat letter she'd taken from the owls beak and dropped without looking at it. Sallow had found a new way to taunt her for her lack of magic. Made up some fake teacher and given her false hope that she would get to join their world after all. The second letter would surely be filled with undiluted bouber tuber puss and she'd have to have her mother mend her hands. That had to be it.