Lady Stardust

Prolouge

It was a quiet night in the streets of Birmingham, the early summer breeze softly brushing against the buildings - along the unpleasant looks of Moseley street stopping only on the steps of an orphanage, which in this night were not left empty.
A little bundle carelessly left without any notice, sleeping peacefully, not being aware of the tragedy that stung her family just hours earlier.

Chapter1: The Falling Owl

It was a normal day in the orphanage: being woken up by the sun, as no one else could possibly be bothered to even wake her up, coming late to breakfast and missing most of it (there was only limited amounts of food, and, not waking her up meant that the others got more food, so naturally she’d always be left to sleep in.) and then trying to find anything to do for the rest of the day.
Spending your summer holidays here must’ve always been the worst punishment, not that it was bad in particular, but calling it good would have been a mile-high overstatement.
Nobody of the rest of the girls wanted to talk to her (they didn’t bully her either, but being so isolated, she sometimes even wished they’d do) all because of some crazy rumor started back in 2nd grade, according to which she had locked another student into the basement until they starved to death.
There was never even a found body, a missing person or any of those likes at her school, so how people came up with that had always been a question for her, but more so how they ended up believing that nonsense.
At some point she just gave up trying to explain herself to them and just appreciated the creativity one must possess to come up with something like this.
Other than that the orphanage was alright, nothing more, nothing less.
She barely had any of her own possessions , not that it mattered much as nobody ever cared enough to give her anything, especially since the entire rest of her family had been killed to her knowledge.
The only things that were really in her possession were a few clothes that she liked and that her favourite caretaker had bought for her and a CD player with a couple of CD’s she managed to snatch here and there.
It was mostly a quite life: going to school, quietly learning, going ‘home’ and doing the same there.
Well, at least that is something that she hoped would change next week as she would start middle school.
She wasn’t really excited or nervous about it, she just begged that that shitty rumor would stop haunting her wherever she went.
She was sitting outside on a swing a couple of streets over from the orphanage looking into the sky boredly – she always loved cloudgazing, it somehow always cured her boredom – when something caught her eye.
There it was, flying in broad daylight as if it was always meant to do so, an owl flying directly into her direction.
She watched it intently, desperatly trying to figure out what it was doing here (it was the most interesting thing that had happened the whole holidays, so naturally she went all in)
As it was nearing her it carelessly set into a nosedive starting from directly above her.
The girl – yet confused - stood up from her swing in an instant and threw herself out of the way to not get hit by that crazed owl.
Seeing the owl catching and composing itself on the swing she had sat on just seconds earlier, she warily approached it, still confused on what exactly was going on, then noticing an envelope poking out of it’s beak
The owl stared at her, as if expecting her to take it.
She stared back, flabbergasted, shakingly gesturing towards herself, trying to communicate with the owl in some way, although failing miserably as it just nonchalantly stared at her.
Taking together her little bits of fright, she approached the owl who harmlessly waited for her to gently take the envelope out of its beak.
She stared at the envelope, slowly reading the back, seeing as it was addressed to her ripping it open with a sense of excitement she thought she’d lost long ago.
The first thing she noticed was the old parchment it was written on instead of the normal white paper they were used to writing on in elementary school.
Skipping past the logo she ran through the text:

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To: (First Name) (Last Name)
Room number 7
Hayat orphanage,
Birmingham

Dear Ms. (L/N),

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Students shall be required to report to the Chamber of Reception upon arrival, the dates for which shall be duly advised.

Please ensure that the utmost attention be made to the list of requirements attached herewith.

We very much look forward to receiving you as part of the new generation of Hogwarts’ heritage.


Draco Dormiens Nunquak Titilandus

Prof. McGonnagall

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT & WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore, D. Wiz, , X.J.(sorc.); S: of Mag. Q.

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Looking at this with an euphoric rush rereading it twice or thrice, she stood there, her face growing into the biggest smile she’d smiled in years.
Finally ripping her eyes of of the letter, something popped into her head, a thought which she had dreaded.
Firstly there was doubt, somebody must’ve pulled a weird prank on her (which although that was very unlikely as that would mean the other girls in the orphanage had to acknowledge her existence) then the running thought: she had to buy her own school supplies.
Of all the things in the world, that was the one she couldn’t do, not at this moment.
She had a total of 15 bucks saved up and she didn’t want to feel like a burden to Aile, her favourite caretaker, as she had already done so much for her.
Secondly, where in the world would she find a wand, cauldrons and all the equipments named on the yellow parchment?
She looked back at the owl panicking, not wanting to miss this opportunity to go to an magical school, she dropped the letter and with panic and adrenaline in her hands searched her pockets for her notebook, the one she always carried around with her to draw whenever she felt inspired.
Finding it she pulled it out and scrunched the pages, desperatly trying to find a blank page and pulling one out.
Taking her pen out of her other side pocket she scribbled a small note on the paper

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Dear Professor (?)

I don’t have the money nor do I know where to get these items, but I wanna go, I don’t know what to do.

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Signing it with her name and neatly folding it together she dashed towards the owl, stretching the note out towards its’ beak and watching it gently bite down on the paper and fly off with a big poof of its’ wings.
Watching the owl leave, she felt all alone again, what if that professor wouldn’t answer in time and she couldn’t go after all?
She looked into the sky again, seeing her only hope to what seemed to be a good school already sink into a tiny dot on the sunny summer sky.
Already deflating from that euphoric rush she bent down to the ground and picked up the letter, clutching onto it as if she were clutching onto her future and reread it just as a way to reserve her excitement.
Giving it one final glance she puffed it into her pocket and made her way back to the orphanage in a bittersweet mood, trying her best to stay composed, telling herself it’ll be best not to tell anyone about this encounter for now.