Chapter Text
A/N: Before reading this chapter, please comment on this part: FTR, date and time, Hogwarts house. Thanks!
Magic exists in all different forms around the world. Some are merely illusions, others exist as ink on a page.
But true magic is something a person should seek out for themselves.
Claudette's brows furrowed as her eyes scanned word after word.
There it was, the battle between the good and bad, swords clashing, flames burning - the damsel turned out to not be the damsel in distress, but the one who could save the day.
"Claudette?" Her mother's voice called from the door of her personal library, immediately pulling her out of the scene.
"Yeah?" The girl asked, looking up from her novel.
"Someone's here to see you." Her mother said, trying to give her an encouraging smile.
Claudette furrowed her brows. It can't be Lily Evans, her best friend, her mum would've already let her in.
Placing the bookmark on the page she was currently on, she left the book on the table beside the chair she was sitting on.
Heading into the living room, she saw that her parents were sitting on the couch and a woman was standing opposite them.
The woman had a slightly stern look, her black hair was tied into a tight bun and she wore a long emerald green robe.
"Hello Ms. Moonbeam, you must be Claudette?" The woman asked, her stern smile softening a bit.
She nodded, a confused look overcoming her features as she glanced at her parents, "I am. Not to be rude, but who are you?"
"My name is Minerva McGonagall and I am here to offer you the opportunity of a lifetime."
Having said that, she handed Claudette an envelope with an insignia containing a lion, an eagle, a snake and a badge with a big letter H in the middle.
Giving another glance to her parents, she tore open the wax seal of the envelope and took out the letter inside.
Dear Ms. Claudette Moonbeam,
We are pleased to inform you have been accepted at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...
Her eyes scanned over the whole of the letter, before going back to the top and rereading the whole thing just to make sure she wasn't dreaming.
"Magic?" She asked, looking up at the emerald clad woman, "I'm invited to learn magic?"
McGonagall nodded, "Precisely, Ms. Moonbeam."
"But, isn't magic just an illusion? A couple of clever tricks just to entertain an audience?" She asked.
"Yeah," her father then spoke up, "how are we sure that this isn't a hoax?"
"Honey," her mother said, "I told you, my great grandmother received a letter exactly like that."
"Let me demonstrate." McGonagall said, pulling out a long stick, a wand, from her robes.
"Accio." She pointed her wand to the tea set that sat on the kitchen counter.
It suddenly hovered into the air before slowly floating towards the room and setting itself down on the coffee table.
Silence filled the room as the three just stared in shock at the tea set.
"I can assure you, Mr. Moonbeam, that your daughter will be in good hands and this is most certainly not a hoax." McGonagall said with a small smile.
Claudette looked at her parents, "Can I?"
Her parents shared a glance at each other before giving her a smile. "Sure, why not?"
McGonagall gave the beaming girl a smile, "Everything you will be needing is disclosed within the letter, just give me a date as to when I could accompany you to get your school materials."
"Not to be rude," She piped up, "but, why do you need to accompany me?"
"Because, Diagon Alley or any place that is magical can't be visited by muggles who are people that are non-magical." McGonagall patiently explained.
"Okay," Claudette looked back down at the letter, "I guess next week would be fine, if term starts on September first."
"Brilliant, I'll come by next week then." the emerald-clad woman smiled.
--
Once McGonagall had left, Claudette had confirmed with her parents that they were completely fine with her attending Hogwarts as long as she wanted to.
A knock came from the door, when the girl had stood up to open it, she saw her red-headed friend, Lily Evans, standing there.
"Hey Claud." Lily smiled, "Can we take a walk? I need to talk to you about something."
The brunette nodded, "Sure."
Telling her parents that she'll be out with Lily, the two then started walking to the park where they would usually hang out.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" Claudette asked.
Lily took a deep breath, twirling a piece of her hair around her finger - a telltale sign that she was nervous.
"Well, there's something I should've told you for months now but it's really something...unusual. And I might sound crazy while telling you and all but I promise it's all true."
"What is it?" Her best friend asked, urging her to continue.
"So," She continued, "there's this kind of boarding school that sent me a letter of acceptance even though I didn't apply - I didn't even know about it in the first place. This woman in an emerald robe just showed up and all. But, I did agree to go and all. The thing is this school teaches magic, I promise I'm not going crazy, so that kind of makes me a witch."
"Does the school's name happen to be Hogwarts?" the brunette asked, cutting off her best friend's ramble.
Lily blinked, gaping at her in shock, "How did you know?"
"Well," Claudette said, trying to contain her excitement, "I may or may not have been accepted too."
"What? Oh my gosh, that's amazing!" Lily squealed, hugging Claudette in the midst of her excitement.
"I know right!" Claudette grinned, "We're going to have an amazing time."
"Did Petunia also get a letter?" She then asked.
Lily shook her head, "She didn't. I think she tried to write to the headmaster and all but she still wasn't accepted."
"That's a pity." She noted before changing the subject, "What do you think we'll find at Hogwarts?"
The redhead shrugged, "Surely we'll need wands and according to the letter they use cauldrons as well."
"We could also levitate objects like how McGonagall did." The girl adjacent to her added excitedly.
"Oh my gosh, do you think there'll be dragons?"
"And mermaids and fairies?"
"Also, when are you heading to Diagon Alley?" Claudette asked.
Lily tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, "Next week. You?"
She smiled, "Same."
--
"Bye," Claudette said, hugging both of parents, "I'll see you in the summer."
"Have fun dear and be careful." Her parents reminded her before sending her off.
"Claud." Lily said, a hint of nerves embracing her tone, "I don't see a platform 9 and 3/4."
Looking around between Platforms 9 and 10, where supposedly a 3/4 would stand, she soon realized that it was missing.
"We can't be at the wrong station." Claudette said, checking her watch to see that they have 20 minutes to figure out the whole thing, "The ticket stated King's Cross and this is King's Cross."
Before she and Lily could launch into a full-blown panic mode, they overheard a couple of loud voices from the family that just entered the station.
"It's really packing with muggles this time of year."
The two girls immediately exchange a look. Muggles, McGonagall had made mention of them.
"What should we do?" Lily asked in a hushed whisper.
Claudette shrugged, glancing over towards the group, "I don't know. Follow them I guess?"
The two watched as the group walked towards the space between Platforms 9 and 10, breaking into a run towards Platform 9 and promptly disappearing before they could literally run into the wall.
They exchanged a look once again, both thinking that they didn't exactly have anything to lose (well, maybe sustain a few injuries) so they followed the suit.
"I think I'll go first." Lily breathed out, gripping tight the handle of the cart that carried her trunk.
"Good luck." Claudette said quietly, watching the redhead break out into a run and disappearing before she rammed herself into the wall.
"Lily?" She called out, but no answer came.
Checking her watch again, she saw that she had 5 minutes before the train supposedly departed for Hogwarts.
She took a deep breath, held on tight to her own cart as she hoped for the best and ran through the wall.
She braced herself for the impact at any given moment, but a brief shiver just ran through her as the bustling noise reached her ears.
Looking around, she marveled at the red train in front of her as a sign to her right clearly read: Platform 9 3/4.
"Claud c'mon!" Lily called, waving at her, "Let's go find a compartment."
The girl smiled, following her best friend to where they would be stowing their luggage.
In Lily's excitement at seeing Snape, another one of her close friends, she immediately ran up to him - forgetting that Claudette was still securing the door of her trunk.
"Finally! You would've thought with magic, the handles would be-" Claudette turned around to see that she was now practically alone in the train. She knew how Lily was when she was excited, so she wasn't too upset with the notion that she had abruptly left her.
Claudette started looking through the compartments, trying to find the one that Lily was in. When that had started to seem impossible, she opted to find a compartment that wasn't occupied.
She had found a compartment that only had one occupant, gently knocking on the door, she slid it open once the boy looked up.
"Hi." Claudette said shyly, "Is it okay if I stay in this compartment? I couldn't find my friend and everywhere else is full."
The boy had slightly messy chocolate brown hair and soft eyes of the same color, there were some faint scars on his face and if Claudette was being honest, he was really good-looking.
He gave her a small smile, nodding to the bench seat opposite of his, "Sure. Go ahead."
"Thanks." She returned the smile, sliding the compartment door closed as she stepped in and took a seat.
"I'm Claudette, by the way." The girl introduced herself, "Claudette Moonbeam."
"Remus." The boy countered, "Remus Lupin."
--
The train ride to Hogwarts wasn't that bad without Lily's company. Mainly because Claudette and Remus immediately hit it off, the moment of tension and awkwardness fading away as the laughter coming from their compartment seemed to grow louder and louder.
Mid-way through the journey, another knock came to their compartment door as a mousse-haired boy stood there. The two had took pity on him and let him into their compartment as the boy introduced himself as Peter Pettigrew.
Riding the small boats that would bring them to the castle, Claudette managed to spot her redheaded friend in the midst of the crowd, waving to her and noticing the annoyed expression on her face she mouthed,
Everything okay?
Lily's glare briefly snapped towards the direction of a dark-haired boy wearing glasses whose laughter seemed to boom towards the other side of the lake before she mouthed back, I'll tell you later.
Now, McGonagall had just explained the sorting ceremony and they would have to wait for her to come back before the ceremony officially begins.
"What do you think will we do to be sorted?" Claudette lowered her voice to a whisper, directing her question to Remus.
He simply shrugged, "Dunno. Hopefully it's not some sort of exam."
"Hopefully. I don't think it would be nice fail in something on my first day here." She joked as the two of them started to laugh.
The doors were then opened, revealing the large hall along with hundreds of eyes that awaited them.
At the far end, there was a small stool and a worn-out sorcerer's hat that seemed ordinary at first before it started to sing.
Names were then called one by one. Amos Diggory was sorted into Hufflepuff, James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew into Gryffindor, Severus Snape into Slytherin and Asper McQuincy into Ravenclaw.
"Remus Lupin!" McGonagall then called.
Remus sat down on the stool as the sorting hat was placed on his head, without a beat it shouted, "Gryffindor!"
Remus stood up, seemingly letting out a sigh of relief as he headed towards the red and gold table.
"Claudette Moonbeam!" Her name was then called, nerves starting to creep up to her as she sat down on the stool and the hat was placed on her head.
Curious. Very curious indeed. A voice spoke in her head.
You're smart, very smart. You would fit very well into Ravenclaw. But loyal too, maybe Hufflepuff is a better fit to you. Oh, what's this I see? Ambition. Maybe Slytherin won't be so bad. Courage, loads of courage and you tend to seek adventure huh? I know, better be GRYFFINDOR!
The hat was then yanked from Claudette's head, a smile gracing her lips as she walked towards the same table that Remus headed to earlier and sat down beside the boy.
Lily was soon sorted into Gryffindor too, a huff coming from her lips as she sat down next to her best friend,
"Finally." Lily breathed out.
"What happened to you?" Claudette asked, "You look so annoyed when we got off the train."
"Oh, it's that arrogant toe-rag." Lily spat, nodding in the direction of James Potter, the same boy who she shot a glare at earlier, "Can you believe how much of a bully he is? Talks about himself as if he is heaven's gift to everyone."
Lily huffs again, pushing the stray strands of red-hair out of her eyes, "Anyway. Sorry about that, I saw Snape and took off - should've waited for you. And my karma came in the form of that toe-rag."
"Who's this?" She then asked, nodding towards Remus who gave her a small wave.
"Remus Lupin." He said.
"My new friend." You smiled, "Aside from you of course."