Elemental

The Questioning

I sleep until 8:00. Fortunately, I don't take long to get ready in the morning. Once I'm ready, Beth decides to drive us to the Ministry. She figures that they won't want us using magic. It only half an hour. We enter the building at 10:15. A man whose nametag reads "Chirant" shows us to a waiting room. We arrive just in time. "Anderson, Amelia!" a voice calls. I ignore it. I adamantly refuse to answer to "Amelia." I wait. "Anderson, Amelia!" the same sugary voice shouts. I hear someone heave a sigh. "Anderson, Mia?" I walk through a door. Beth waves, looking stressed. I'm nervous, too. Will I be expelled? Will they take away my wand? I hope not.

I remember what Beth told me in the car-be timid and polite. If she offers me a drink, it's probably truth potion, so only pretend to drink it and dump it on the ground when I'm done, because lying will be the only way to not be sent to Azkaban. I walk in.

The first thing I notice is that it's frigid. I feel really depressed and hopeless, and I can remember clearly some really bad memories-my first monster attack, the time I got a concussion trying to play softball-

Then I see the dementors gliding. I wonder if I could produce a Patronus. Beth told me the incantation, but I'm not even in school yet. I know that the woman dressed in pink will let me try. I'm only eleven, and she'll never believe I can do any magic.

"Sit down, Mia." The woman looks like a toad, now that I think about it-a toad dressed in pink. I sit in a hard wooden chair. The woman sits in a pink, comfortable-looking armchair. "Now please describey your wand. Be honest, and maybe you won't be sent to Azkaban."

"Actually," I mumble, "can I try to...the Dementors..." I trail off nervously.

The woman looks at me in surprise. "Do you mean to say that you wish to attempt a Patronus charm? Why, I ordinarily wouldn't allow it, but the Dementors have a greater effect on the younger ones..."

It is obvious that she thinks I could never produce a Patronus. I'll prove her wrong! Keeping this in mind I yell, "Expecto Patronum!" Almost instantly a silver dolphin bursts out and I feel as though a weight has been lifted off of my chest.

"Well, then," she says to me, sounding disappointed. "Let us continue. Please, have a glass of water. Producing a Patronus can be tiring." She levitates a glass from a nearby table. Suspecting Veritaserum, I only pretend to drink. "Now please describe your wand."

"Cherry and unicorn tail hair, twelve inches." I do my best to make it sound like I'm not even thinking about it, the words are just coming out.

"And could you name the witch or wizard from whom you stole it?"

I gasp. "I swear to you, this wand was sent to me by owl this summer, among other wands, and of those, this is the one that chose me. You see," I add,"Ollivander had already gone out of business by then, so my sister wrote to some foreign wandmakers."

The woman nods. "And your parents? Your father is a Muggle, and your mother ran away shortly after you were born."

"I can't say for my immediate family," I tell her, "But there is a legend that my great-great-great-great-grandfather was burned at the stake at the age of twenty-one, but he hadn't yet married. This was in Ireland, but there is really only one likely explanation for how we got to America."

"America? We are in Britain!"

"Yes, we are. But my sister and I lived in America with our father. We stayed there when she went to Hogwarts, because although there were many choices locally and we'd heard such great things about Hogwarts, so my sister wrote to Hogwarts and an American school. And now, our father is still there. As for my mother--well, we live in Pennsylvania, and she said something about the Empire State Building, which is in New York." Not really a lie, since that's where Mount Olympus is right now.

She nods. "All right then, Mia, you are"--she sighs heavily, clearly disappointed that I most likely have wizarding blood--"Free to go, as is your sister."

"Thank you!" I tell her happily as I dash out the door, just as the woman calls "Austin, Joseph!" and a boy runs in.

"Did you tell her?" asks Beth.

"I made up something about a great-great-great-great-grandfather. She doesn't suspect a thing."

"Good. Let's go then." And we turn and leave.

I can only worry about what will happen on the Hogwarts Express.

Hopefully no clever Slytherins will see me through.

Because Beth and I really are Muggle-borns.

Mudbloods.

Don't worry, I know it's boring right now but it'll get really interesting soon, I promise!

Thanks for reading! ~Sasha