Bravery | Fred Weasley

01

          SIENNA GRACE. Only child. Curious. C- student at best. Passive football fan. Lover of train rides, midnight walks and a wannabe parkour expert. That only scratched the surface of who Sienna was. But one thing seemed tremendously certain: she was not capable of performing magic. At least that's what she assumed, given that her life has looked exactly like everyone else's.

          She was enrolled in a public school, and while she wasn't an A+ student, she wasn't a bad one either. Simply in between, and she was completely fine being there. She didn't spend a lot of time studying, but instead described herself as simply being adequate. She was intermediate at school, just like she was intermediate at everything else.

          Her relationship with her parents, now divorced, was also somewhere in the grey area. She had never felt they really cared, or even liked her, in all honesty. It was a strange experience: they were supposed to love her unconditionally, but were increasingly starting to ignore her existence. Perhaps they liked the idea of having a child, or being a parent to a child or toddler, more than being parent to a young adult.

Nowadays, her mother was nose down in work most of the time, while her father became more and more distanced, with a new partner and a new family. When that letter from Hogwarts reached her, stating she was to spend the rest of the year at the school, she weirdly felt this wave of relief washing over her. Her parents seemed to feel it too; the relief of having her taken off their hands. At least for a while.

She received two letters that day, both delivered by owls. One inviting her to 'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry', and the other, a lengthy parchment, explaining the peculiarities of the case. Apparently she was supposed to receive said welcome letter at the age of 11. For some reason she had never been sent it, and had instead been living in obliviousness about her supposed magic until now. But hey, better late than never? Besides, she had never felt magical in the slightest.

The letter had also prompted her to reply, something her parents initially forbid. Sienna herself didn't feel particularly driven to reply either; it all initially seemed like a scam to her. Or perhaps a very strange idea for a human trafficking scheme.

That's when a knock was heard on the door, and a disheveled looking man was stood looking at her with a crooked grin. He was lankily built and had a collection of scars covering his face, along with eye-bags under his eyes.

All of a sudden Sienna's human trafficking thought didn't seem that far-fetched.

She had stammered slightly as she spoke with him for the first time, much to her own embarrassment, but was quickly able to get her bearings as their conversation went on. After inviting him in, and getting to know his name was Remus Lupin, she had been offered a piece of chocolate as a form of peace offering, which she gladly accepted. In hindsight it was perhaps not the best idea to eat candy from an unfamiliar man, but then again Sienna didn't remember the last time she was complimented for her wits.

She had been at her mother's at the time, who, upon being told it had to do with the Hogwarts letter, contacted her father so he could hear the news as well.

That afternoon was...interesting, to say the least. A lot of awkward silence as they all sat in the living room, trying to wrap their head around the fact that a real, physical person was saying Sienna was in fact a witch. After showing them a few moving photos which left the three of them mesmerised, they weren't that far from being convinced magic existed after all.

Neither of them had a lot to say after that encounter. Her parents started to eye her warily every time she walked into the room, as if expecting the magic to come oozing out of her out of nowhere. Sienna still didn't feel any more magical.