If Blood Weren't Thicker Than Water...

Chapter 1: Unconventional Methods

Chapter 1: Unconventional Methods

Caia Bowen was in the playground at the local school all alone.  Her solitude was not her choice but she did not see the point in forcing people to spend time with her when they did not want to...they would not be real friends.  Anyway, she would be going to the secondary school at the start of the new academic year, and a new school was always brimming with new opportunities for new friends...yes, she could definitely hold on that long.

Until recently, she had had one friend, but now she feared that she had lost them forever.  She had not meant, of course, to set a snake on him, but he had been making fun of her parents over whom she had always been very protective.  She did wonder, at times, why her parents seemed to be so much older than everyone else's but she didn't much care, for they were kind and caring, and a child could never ask for better.

She was watching the other children play, sadly wishing she could join in, when a gigantic European Eagle owl landed lightly on her shoulder and stuck its leg firmly out in front of her nose.  Attached to its leg was a letter, and when Caia took the letter off and turned it over, she noticed an emblem above the seal that looked like the crest of a school.  The seal itself was pretty unusual to be seen also as it was a proper, old fashioned, red, wax seal.  She slipped a finger under one of the folds of the envelope and was surprised at how easily it opened.  Inside was a letter that read:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Miss. Bowen,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

Caia stared at the letter in front of her.  This was completely impossible...wasn't it?  It was completely insane anyhow and had she herself not done even more absurd things in the past, she would not have believed her eyes.  But she had done more absurd things and, even though it was definitely an unconventional method of communication, it fascinated her and she knew immediately that she wanted to enter into this new and exciting world and see what it had to offer her and also, what she had to offer back.

A scream interrupted her thoughts and she looked up to see everyone staring at her, particularly one girl who was pointing at her, a horrified look on her face and seemed to be the one who had sent everyone's attention her way.

"The freak's holding an owl, the freak's holding an owl," she shrieked, a look of mock horror on her face.  But the girl was right to look scared because at the use of the word freak to describe her, something in Caia snapped and an invisible hand seemed to fly around the playground, pushing everyone in it to the floor.