the inventor ➝ fantastic beasts

1917

DECEMBER, 1917
DETROIT, MICHIGAN

-

The young girl sat on her bed in the centre of her grandparent's guest room. Rain pattered on the window, and the sky was darkening. A small, skeletal Christmas tree stood on her wobbly nightstand. 

Her short hair was frizzy and coarse, and hung around her skinny shoulders. Her skin was dark, clear of imperfection. Her brown eyes sparkled with the light that had illuminated her wand's tip. 

Lumos. It was the first spell she had learnt at her new school, and it was still the most enchanting.

She had been going to Ilvermorny for four months, and she adored it. She loved the blue and cranberry robes, the food, the beautiful statues of the founders Isolt and James flanking the front doors, the lessons - but what she had loved most was being sorted.

Herself and the new students had been lead into a grand round hall, where the rest of the students in the school were watching from the balcony overhead, which encirled the entire room. There were four enormous wooden carvings representing each house right in the centre - Pukwudgie, Horned Serpent, Wampus and Thunderbird. The new students had been stood around the walls. One by one, they had been called to stand on the Gordian Knot in the middle, and the statues would choose them. 

Each of the statues reacted in a different way if they wanted the student in their house. The crystal set into the Horned Serpent's forehead would light up; the Wampus roared; the Thunderbird beat its wings, and the Pukwudgie rose it's arrow into the air.

She had been sorted into Pukwudgie - the same house her mother had been placed in. It was the house that favoured healers, and represented the heart of the witch or wizard. When the statue had risen it's arrow to choose her, she had let out a scream of joy and waved her arms in the air as the other students applauded. Some even cheered.

The girl looked up from her wand, and saw that the room had grown even darker. She frowned, and muttered, "Nox." 

The light on the end of her wand faded away, and she jumped off the bed, flicking the lightswitch. Her room was instantly filled with light. Her gaze wandered to the Christmas tree, and she wondered why her parents still weren't home.

She could hear grandparents banging pots and pans downstairs, but everything else was suddenly quiet. 

While she had been at school, her parents had been away. All she had been told of it was that the no-maj world was in trouble, and they needed to save it. 

But she had overheard from older students at Ilvermorny that there was a war, and the no-maj and maj Americans had joined it. According to them, even some majs were fighting. She knew that was where her mother and father were - fighting for peace. They promised they would be home for Christmas, and be home for Christmas they would be.

*

On Christmas Day, her grandmother and grandfather begrudgingly exchanged presents, and presented her with some heavy textbooks for school. A forced smile on her face, she thanked them. 

But all she could do was stare at the empty seats were her parents were supposed to be, and think about the worst thing that could have possibly happened to them.

*

They received the telegram the next day.