Chapter Text
The Huenings were a quiet lot. They quietly moved into 6th Barton Road, they quietly took out the bins, and they quietly went on with their day. They could never disturb any of their neighbours because they just couldn’t comprehend being so bothersome!
Mr Huening held a managerial position at a local homeware factory. Every day he’d kiss Mrs Huening and leave the house just before the eight a.m. news broadcasted, prim and proper in one of his eight pairs of brown trousers and his usual striped button-down that perfectly fit his strong figure. Then Mrs Huening would walk their two daughters, Cassa and Leah, to the primary school past the stream around their neighbourhood. After waving them off, she would return home and make sure to keep to herself, only giving a polite smile and a subtle flip of her hair to shield her skinny face if any of the neighbours greeted her. Overall, the family was perfectly ordinary aside from their being highly private.
If the neighbours were to whisper about them, it would only be about how wonderful they were. Mr Huening was kind, Mrs Huening gorgeous, and their daughters were positively cherubic. At worst, they would comment about how the family did their best to opt-out of any communal gatherings and how their lights were out before the clock struck eight p.m., but each family had their eccentricities. They would never understand the true reason behind the family’s silence, a secret that could cost them their lives. For once every curtain in the house was drawn, a flurry of magic exploded within those four walls.
Mr and Mrs Huening loved all their children equally, but there was one they paid particularly close attention to (one their neighbours didn’t even know to exist.) Their eldest son, Kai, who turned fifteen a few weeks ago, could command magic with only his fingers. Looking back, the two parents had come a long way from when Kai was just a toddler sparking the dinner table on fire every five minutes. They still kept him under strong supervision though, which meant homeschooling and limiting out-of-house trips as much as possible. Despite this, the Huenings were proud of how well they had raised him. Kai turned out to be a smart, fine young man who knew the difference between the Wizarding World and the Muggle World and the dangers of those two mixing. If you asked Kai, he could only thank one person for his upbringing, his mother.
Huening Woojin was the smartest witch in her year, and despite her family’s strict pureblooded ideology, chose to marry an American muggle she fell in love with while training overseas with the Magical Congress of the United States of America (also known as MACUSA). Together they had Kai, who turned out to be as magical as a hippogriff, and two daughters just as ordinary as their father. For a while, they settled in the States and let Kai be enrolled in public school. This soon proved to be a bigger challenge than originally expected as Kai hadn’t learned to control his magic, which meant accidentally cursing one of his classmates after Kai had been picked on. Which, Woojin would like to point out, was a fair trade, but the principal hadn’t seemed to share the sentiment. They withdrew him from school and Mr and Mrs Huening took turns educating him on both muggle and wizarding matters.
When he was old enough, he received the invitation to Ilvermony, the prestigious school for young wizards and witches of the Americas. Kai had hoped that this would be it, no more homeschooling and finally friends of his kind, of his age. What a disappointment it was to learn that not only was he rejected by humans, but it seemed as though he was even more unwanted by the wizards his age. Because you’re a half-blood , they spat at him. Because you’re too muggle-like. He would spend days in a full-body binding curse and be made fun of by his peers for not knowing their lexicon and all the hip hang out spots. Kai was only eleven years old when he decided he no longer wanted to be part of the Wizarding World
As tears streaked down his face, he ran home after an unforgiving Friday afternoon spent trapped by a drowning charm. His mother was there to soften his sobs. Without another word, she quit her job at MACUSA, called her husband home and the two of them began to pack up their house and left without a word to their friends in Arizona or a single speck of magical trace.
They spent a few years on the road, endlessly moving in and out, never settling in one place to make sure MACUSA couldn’t track them down. If they were found, Kai knew he would be forced to enrol in a wizarding school and his mother would face some form of grave punishment he couldn’t even begin to understand as a child. As soon as they became too comfortable and one of their neighbours took notice of Kai, they were up and out of town. Now they lived discreetly, but they slept soundly every night knowing that their son was safe and no longer under the watch of any magicked body of government.
Only having been in the country for a few months, Kai had grown accustomed to the English weather and the slow but sure passage every day seemed to sustain. He’d wake, hear his father’s car engine roar to life, get ready, spend a few hours on arithmetics, science, and language then have his lunch break. If the sky was kind enough to stop the afternoon showers, he’d go into the kitchen to find his mother.
Luckily, today was one of those days.
“Can I go skate?” Kai asked.
Woojin paused her carrot-chopping to look at him. “Have you finished your schoolwork?”
“Yeah. I’ve got a few questions I’m stuck on, but I can ask dad later?”
“Fine. Don’t be out for too long. And remember to keep--”
“Keep off the main roads, yes. I know, Ma,” Kai cut her off. She gave him a pointed look and waved him away.
Giddiness pumped through him as he dashed up to grab his skateboard, the rickety thing from when they first moved all those years ago. It was a bit worn down, but he made it work.
Kai cruised down his street, the green hedges passing him by in a flurry. He shifted his weight to his left leg as he came to a crossing. After he made sure both ways were clear, he skated across and gave a big final push to continue on the gravelly pathway.
In his head, he counted the number of months he had left until he would be allowed to apply for a job. He’d do anything to get him out of the house. A few weeks ago he entertained the idea of attending university. How nice it would be to be accepted on his merit and be free of prejudice, in an institute where everyone joined for the sole purpose of learning.
The thing Kai realised was even though all his recollections of schooling were associated with bullying and torment, he still unconditionally loved learning and the idea of acquiring knowledge. He was addicted to the feeling of progression, of going from being helpless in a subject to self-sufficiency. He knew that all he wanted in life was to understand, to know with certainty. He couldn’t care less if that meant he would be shunned from the world of magic forever. After all, the mundane world had progressed beyond their time without magic and so could he.
Kai turned to the right to complete the round back to his street and that was when he saw it. A quick flash of brown wings ducked low to his house. At first, he thought it was a crow, which was normal. Usually, he’d cast a charm to ward them off from his room, but as he wheeled in his eyes caught sight of the thick envelope christened with a ruby seal.
Kai hopped off his board, pushed down with his right leg to flip the board up before he caught it with his hand. He stalked to his house, eyed the skies for that bird then picked the dirty-white envelope. On its front, written in fine print as though someone had broken out their quill and ink to write it out, were the words:
K Huening
6th Barton Street
Chiswick
London
He had never gotten a letter before. Never lived in a place long enough to receive one randomly nor did he sign up for anything. With one last look around, he entered the house and called for his mother only to be drowned out by another voice.
“Are you sure you saw an owl?” his mother’s voice rang out, strained.
There was a pause. Kai inched closer towards the TV room.
“There’s nothing else like it,” his dad answered. “Woojin, there were five of them perched on my car. They left these. Look.”
Left what --Kai wanted to ask, but he knew if he so much as squeaked his cover would be blown and he’d never know what they were talking about. There was a tug deep in his stomach but he did his best to ignore it. Instead, he lifted one foot after the other as slow as he could until he could just peer behind the arch that led into their TV room. He saw his father, fresh home from work. His usually pressed dress shirt now crinkled. His mother paced around, one stiff arm on her hip just above the hem of her overwashed jeans. In her hand, five envelopes with identical seals as the one he picked up from their porch.
Kai squeezed the thick envelope in his hand before he flipped it over. On the back was the wax ruby seal bearing a coat of arms; an eagle, a lion, a snake, and a badger around the letter ‘H’.
“How could they find us here? We’re not English, he’s not even registered under MACUSA. They couldn’t have known!”
Kai turned his gaze to his parents in the TV room. His father had an arm snaked around his mother’s shoulders that trembled vigorously. She was so disconcerted she could hardly speak. She managed the words “Tried so hard -- keep -- safe” and nothing more before she crumpled into his father’s arms.
Kai had to viscerally stop himself before he ran over to help calm her down, it was an urge so strong he could not normally resist it but the need to know of the envelope’s contents and why it caused such hysteria in his mother--the woman who would put on a stoic face every time they had to move--was far greater than anything he has ever felt before.
Soundlessly, he crept up the stairs, stepping only on the boards he knew wouldn’t creak. Once he made it up to the first floor, he carefully avoided his sisters’ room. Those two, bless them, could not keep a secret to save their lives. Not yet, at least.
With the door to his room behind him, Kai quietly pushed back so that the hinge would lock. After he was sure the door wouldn’t open, he faced his room and found his stomach drop.
Across the wooden floor were tens of envelopes crafted of the same material and the same wax seal emblazoned on it. Kai’s breath stuttered out of him and he dropped to his knees, examined each one and saw no difference in them. It was as though they were perfect replicas.
But that couldn’t be true! Each had the same print that no printer could create. It had bumps that Kai knew could only be formed by drying ink. There was a loud squawk and as he looked up Kai met the eyes of a striking amber owl. Its purple eyes gazed into him and held him steady as though it were waiting for Kai. The boy couldn’t tear his eyes away. It was only when the owl nodded at him did he realise this was no ordinary owl.
He made no move to near it, but no move to ignore it either. Kai snatched the nearest envelope.
“You want me to open it?” he asked, voice minute.
The owl blinked, gave a flutter of its wings, and nodded. Kai gasped. Dumbstruck, he let his fingers pry open the envelope, the seal crest shattering into tiny blocks of wax. Inside was a yellowish parchment. Kai pulled it out and met the owl’s stare. It ducked its head down as if to say “go on.”
With a gulp, Kai swallowed down his hesitance and unfolded the parchment only to be greeted by more fine print. It read:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Headmistress: Minerva McGonagall
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., International Confed. Of Wizards and Witches)
Dr Mr Huening,
We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find the enclosed list of all necessary books and equipment.
We understand that you will not be enrolled in the first year as the other students have been and move on straight to your fifth year, for this reason, we have enrolled you in a separate class to aid your understanding of the first four years of Magical Education that all students of Hogwarts have passed thus far. We await your owl no later than the twentieth of August.
Yours sincerely,
Anghus Brown
Deputy Headmaster
Questions shot through him like gunshots. Await his owl? Skip straight to the fifth year? He felt groggy as he tried to catch up with his train of thoughts. He almost didn’t notice the owl had made its way towards him and perched on his lap, its talons slightly digging into his thin jeans.
He met its purple eyes, wide and all-knowing. The owl carried a certain gravitas that Kai could not resist and even though he knew it couldn’t speak, he didn’t stop himself from asking away.
“What does this mean? I haven’t even got an owl. Please, tell me what I need to do.”
The owl stared back at him. It cocked its head to the side but before he could follow it, his name was called out from downstairs. Kai knew if he didn’t reply his parents would immediately barge in and see the mess in his room. If he judged by the way his mother reacted to five of these envelopes, Kai didn’t think she could handle ten of them scattered around his room. He petted the owl’s round head.
“I must go down,” he said. “If I don’t they might not even let me keep these letters. Will you get off me, please?”
As if it understood, the owl bowed its head and stretched its wings before it flew back to his window sill.
Kai nodded. “Wait here.”
He skipped downstairs, an underlying excitement brewing within him. He couldn’t quite tell if it was anxiety or actual joy, or if it was a mix in between. He was ecstatic to have a reason to leave the house and to be able to jump straight into the fifth year. He’d spent countless hours his own daydreaming of friends and passed-on notes mid-class. He wanted to go to dances, he wanted to have a crush, he wanted what all normal teenagers got to have. But there was also the stress of the thought that he might have to relive the torture he endured back in Ilvermorny, of frozen charms and fire spells cast on him. The word half-blood rang in his ears.
His parents were still in the TV room before he stepped in, extra conscious of the way he stood. He needed them to not know. For once, Kai wanted to be in charge of his life. He was tired of moving on his parents’ will. A part of him, deep down, hated this feeling for he knew they did all this for his protection. Still, he couldn’t help it.
“Yes?” he quipped.
His mother spared him a glance and upon further inspection, he realised she must have been crying. It felt like a blow to his gut, and Kai had to stiffen his resolve before he crumpled in front of her.
“When did you get back?” mother asked as she rubbed her temple. His father sat in the armchair across her, his actions mirroring hers. Kai looked around before he replied.
“A few minutes ago. I went through the back,” he quickly lied and brushed his jeans. “Why?”
His father grunted, “We thought that was you we heard. Come, sit. We need to talk about something.”
Kai had a strong inkling he knew what this topic would be about. He has heard it multiple times over the past few years. His parents would give him the comforting talk about how lovely England had been but then ask if he had ever considered moving to place X and before he could reply the house would be packed and empty. But, Kai realised as he felt a shard in his chest, for the first time in his life he felt a sliver of disappointment in moving. As if…
As if he wanted to stay.
“Kai, you’ve grown into such a bright young wizard. And ever since Ilvermorny,” mother recalled with a cringe, “we’ve tried to keep you safe and still let you learn everything a wizard or witch at your age should learn.”
“Right…”
Mother patted the armrest of their beige couch, the ratty old thing that had come with the house, and sighed. “Do you remember when I used to tell you tales of wizarding schools? Right before you went off to sleep?”
He did remember. Vaguely he recalled the mighty Castelbruxo, the charming Beauxbatons, mystical Mahoukatorou, and the most famous and prestigious of them all… Hogwarts.
Hogwarts. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As in the school, he received a letter from today… Oh shit.
Kai collected his posture and cleared his throat. “Yes, ma, what’s the… what are you getting at?”
“And I’ve tried to make sure no one in the wizarding world would know that you’re here because you said you didn’t want to be associated with them anymore. Not after… that. But somehow they’ve found you and these owls… we’ve never had owls, not even when you went to Ilvermorny, but they’re the primary delivery service for postage.”
“Like in the medieval days with pigeons and stuff.”
“Not like the medieval...” mother sputtered. “You know what I mean! And somehow Hogwarts has found you here. Even without your biological data recorded on any of the wizarding world’s international archives. And that only means your powers are manifesting faster than they ever were. They’ve detected your magic here. So, for your sake, your father and I’ve decided to reject these letters.”
What?
“What?”
Kai couldn’t recognise his voice, it felt as though he were drowning and everything became muffled around him. His mother was still talking, her mouth moving a mile a minute while his father just sat there. He knew full well his father couldn’t add his two cents mainly because he married into the wizarding world and had no interest in assimilating to the supernatural culture, but that wasn’t Kai anymore!
Kai wanted to grow, he wanted to so badly understand the prestige surrounding the elite wizards and how they had passed that on to their children who enforce it on others. His heart was thunderous in his chest and his ribs hurt from having to contain it within him. He wanted to be normal!
For once in his life, Kai was chosen. His name did not exist in their database or whatever those people used to sift through their citizen’s data, but he was chosen anyway. By his own merit. By his own… powers. Boredom and isolation had made those wizarding tomes his best friends. He made sure to master two spells a week and it seemed as though it had paid off. His metaphorical wizard arm was jacked and the most prestigious school of them all had asked for him to join them this coming fall. Or autumn, as he should start to say.
No way. No way in hell would Kai reject this. He knew that there was always the offset chance that he’d be met with the same fate in Hogwarts as he did in Ilvermorny, but at this point, he was slowly going mad being locked up in his house the whole time and he has nearly reread each of the seven wizarding tomes his mother gave him twice! Knowledge was scarce in the household, he needed to leave.
Sure, he had said --rather boldly-- a few years ago that he hadn’t wanted to do anything with the wizarding world but he was eleven for heaven’s sake! What sort of eleven-year-old would know how to navigate the world around him? No one!
He would be fine, he knew, without magic. He was plenty smart in his studies and he was aiming rather ambitiously for his academia preferences for university, but he couldn’t ignore it. Some part of him would always be a wizard and even after those powers grew weak as his human self took over, there would always be that lingering regret. That knowledge that he knew he had the chance of a lifetime to learn from people who have titled themselves the best in their world. He wanted it. He wanted their skills as his own, to enhance his perception of this mystical world hidden in plain sight. He yearned to answer questions no human could ever even dream of even asking. What else is there in this world?
And if he was going to be bullied for it, might as well learn how to fight back with magic, right?
Kai couldn’t wait for a second longer and he scurried upstairs, his parents’ call a muted shriek in his ears. He locked his room and still that purple-eyed owl gazed up at him and greeted him with a lethargic head roll.
“How do I say yes?” begged Kai, his breaths came out in harsh pants. “I don’t have an owl to respond and I haven’t got any parchment. Or a quill. Or ink.”
The owl locked eyes with him and blinked. Kai swore he could hear it call him stupid. Then the owl blinked once more as the wind picked up outside. The English clouds grew darker by the second and as the first thunder ripped, the owl tilted its head to the side. Kai followed it and saw one envelope sneakily hidden under his bed. It was a dark heavy thing, tea-stained was the only colour that popped to his mind, but instead of the red seal, it had a brazen emerald. He reached out for it, hand brushing against the rigid wax. The stamp this time was no crest, instead, it was a handsome sword with an “A” engraved in it encircled by a band reading: viri artorius.
Carefully, he opened the envelope and a modernised quill fell out. The oddity seemed like a normal ballpoint pen he could get easily in Tesco, but the detailing in gold told him it was of much greater value. Enclosed in the envelope were fresh sheets of parchment and upon one unrolling Kai gasped. Letters, handwritten ones, started to crawl on the page. Appearing one by one as though it was written by himself. It responded to the school’s letter with acceptance then stopped momentarily after it wrote “Yours kindly,” and Kai supposed that was where he meant to sign.
He placed the tip of the quill onto the parchment, steadied his hand. A knock then two, and soon his ears were no longer ringing. He could perfectly hear his parents’ harsh pleas to open his door. Without an inch of doubt, Kai dragged the quill downwards then up again in a letter ‘K’. With haste, he folded the parchment into a square and slipped it with the quill inside the envelope. He didn’t know what else to do and it didn’t seem like he could reseal the broken blue wax but once he closed the flap he saw it magically melt back together like brand new. The owl looked at him expectantly and Kai knew what he had to do next.
He surged forwards, envelope in hand, and thrust the envelope to the owl.
“I know you can understand me. Please. I want to learn. I can’t be in this house anymore,” Kai whispered. The owl blinked then inched forward until it could open its beak and close it around the envelope. “Deliver this for me, please. I’m sorry I can’t pay you for anything. I’ll find a way to find you there. I promise.”
In the next beat, the owl took off just as his parents managed to break down the locks and barge into his room.
“Kai Kamal Huening! How many times did I have to tell you to not lock your door?” his father screamed. His arms rested on his chest which rose and fell in a staccato rhythm. He opened his mouth once more only to take a look around and register the tens of unopened envelopes in his room. “Kai…”
“You didn’t read any of these did you?” his mother questioned, a finger pointed at him to hold him in place. Kai backed himself against the wall. “Did you!”
“No, ma.”
His mother exhaled roughly, hands flew to her hair to fix the tangled mess. “Good,” she told him, “good. I… don’t open these. They can’t know. Alright?”
Kai pursed his lips into a straight line and nodded. His mother stroked her chest then left the room, his father tailed after her.
He couldn’t tell them. He had to lie. There was no other solution. If they knew what he had done he wouldn’t be let outside. He loved his parents, he knew they were doing this for his good. He wasn’t normal enough to join either world completely, but he had to decide for himself now. With how his mother reacted, it made him want to join the school even more. Why was he kept hidden all this time if it was just a bullying problem? Who are they and why can’t they know? Just what can’t they know?
If that owl was as intelligent as Kai made him out to be, he was sure he could be attending school soon enough. Now, it was just a waiting game.