Chapter One: The Post Owl

Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter world (of course). Just playing around a bit.
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It had been four years since her father’s funeral, and thanks to her mother’s remarriage and her stepfather adopting her, Gwen was still getting used to her new last name, Fischer. David Fischer was a very nice man, although Gwen still remembered that he was not really her father.

All she had of her father was a photo album and a few gifts he’d given her when she was little. And a few visits from her ‘Uncle Harry’, who’d come to check in on the family a couple times a year since her father’s death. They’d met at her father’s funeral, and Harry had explained that he was an orphan that her father’s family had taken in, and that he was somehow related to her grandmother, but had never gone into details. He was a skinny, somewhat pale man with glasses and messy black hair and an odd scar that Gwen always imagined had been caused by the lightning it looked like, although her mother insisted that if that were true, Harry would be most certainly dead. As it was, he was – however distantly he was related – the only known survivor amongst her father’s family.

These were the thoughts that were running through Gwen’s eleven-year-old mind when she heard a rustling noise at her window screen. The warm summer night had led Gwen to leave her window open for air… and suddenly she heard a ripping sound as the window screen parted.

Gwen shot across the room, trailing a thin sheet and nearly tripping as she went for the light switch. A flicker of light filled the room as the compact fluorescent bulb caught, and her eyes slowly adjusted to the brightness.

She turned, staring at the ripped window screen as a rather large brown owl forced its way through, and dropped a parchment envelope from its beak onto her writing desk.

Owls simply did not behave like this.

Gwen backed up against the closed bedroom door and fought the urge to scream – she did not wish to awaken her mother and Mr. Fischer – and the owl looked around, seemingly hopefully, then hopped across the desk to a half-forgotten glass of water, which it summarily stuck its head into and began to drink.

Gwen calmed herself and hesitantly approached the desk, reaching the full reach of her arm to grab the parchment envelope. It was lettered in large green calligraphy on the front, Miss Gwenivere Elizabeth Dursley-Fischer, The Front Upstairs Bedroom, 24 Hackett Circle, Oxford. She blinked at the specificness and the absence of a postal stamp, then flipped the envelope over to find a heavy wax seal and a drawn coat-of-arms on the flap. The coat-of-arms depicted a snake, badger, eagle and lion in quarters, surrounding a block letter H. She supposed she should know who this was from, but the exterior of the envelope provided no other clues.

She slipped a half-step closer to the desk, and tentatively opened a drawer, not wanting to alarm the owl. Slipping a short metal ruler from the drawer, she used it to slip under the wax and separate flap from envelope.

Inside the envelope were three sheets of similar parchment, one of which was blank. The second appeared to be some sort of crazy-quilt shopping list for some sort of fantasy character, listing items like dragon-hide gloves and cauldrons and spellbooks, which Gwen laughed at and sat aside. The laughter drew the attention of the owl, which popped its head out of the water glass and stared at her.

Gwen stepped back hastily, but the owl made no further moves. Satisfied that it was not about to disembowel her with its talons, Gwen returned her attention to the parchment, opening the third sheet and reading it.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Minerva McGonagall, Headmistress, Co-Chair of the Order of the Phoenix

Dear Ms. Dursley-Fischer,

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 September 1; transportation from London is provided. Details will be forthcoming. We await your letter of acceptance by return owl.

As you are not the child of a previous student, we understand that you may be unfamiliar with our institution. A visit by a faculty liaison to your family can be arranged if necessary.

Minerva McGonagall

Return owl? Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? And a school supply list that included cauldrons and spellbooks and dragon-hide gloves?

Gwen started to hyperventilate, and the light flickered slightly. The owl ripped the hole in the window screen a bit wider with a talon, then looked at her pointedly. Scrambling for a pen atop her dresser – she did not dare approach the desk quite yet – she took the blank sheet and began writing.

Ms. McGonagall –

I have received your letter, and am quite confused. Your school seems a bit unusual. As is the method of delivery of your letter.

I would like to know more before I commit to anything; perhaps the faculty liaison you mentioned could be arranged?

Also, I prefer to be called Gwen Fischer. “Dursley” always seemed quite a boring name to me anyway.

- Gwen Fischer

Gwen folded up the letter, then approached the owl, who helpfully reached out and took it from her with its beak. It then turned and struggled through the screen, then flew off into the night.