The Letter from Hogwarts
It’s finally here. The day I've been waiting for my entire life. My eleventh birthday, which means I’ll finally be getting my letter to Hogwarts. I normally try to not get too emotional but I think I’m allowed to make an exception for today. I’m genuinely so happy I could–
“Oi, Diomedes! Get down here!”
And there’s my sister, Comaetho. She’s already had the pleasure of attending Hogwarts as a part of Ravenclaw house and this will be her second year there. She had a great time last years and I hope mine will be good as well.
“Diomedes!” I heard her yell again.
“I’m coming!”
“Finally,” I heard her say as I made my way down the stairs. “Given what day it is, I figured you’d want to be ready as soon as possible.”
“Yeah, yeah. Have you heard from Sthenelus? I thought he would be here by now.”
“I’m afraid I haven’t. Not to worry, I’m sure he’s on his way.”
Sthenelus is my best friend, which I’m sure isn’t the hardest thing to accomplish given that I socialize with about eight people in total, but that’s neither here nor there. He’s an old family friend as our fathers used to work together. He’s also a fellow student and going into his fourth year at Hogwarts as a Gryffindor, which is also the house we’re suspecting I’ll get into.
Suddenly there was a knock at the door. That has to be him, I thought. I rushed to the door to open and there he was.
“Hey there, lad,” He said. “Happy birthday.”
We hugged and I let him in. He greeted my sister and now it’s time for us to just hang out.
“So how have things been with you lot?” Sthenelus asked.
“Oh, we’ve been doing just fine,” Comaetho said. “What about your mother? I heard that she wasn’t doing particularly well.”
“She’s…well, things aren’t exactly all that great at the moment. But the anniversary of my father’s death is coming up so I’m sure she’s just getting upset about it. I’m sure everything will be fine once it’s past.”
Sthenelus’ father, along with my own, was killed during an attack caused by a small group of, I guess former, Death Eaters. It, obviously, had an impact on both of our families but was fortunately too young to really remember anything in detail, including what my father was like, but from what I heard Sthenelus’ mother, Evadne, took the loss extremely hard. And by that I mean people had to hold her back from jumping into the grave during the funeral. I believe she even ended up being admitted into a psych ward for at least a solid year.
While Evadne has definitely gotten better over the years, her mental health has a tendency to take a pretty dramatic decline whenever anniversary of his death arrives. Sthenelus is usually able to take care of her but on occasions she'll get bad to the point where Sthenelus has to stay with us for his own safety. It's not the best system but Sthenelus won't accept any more help than that.
“Let’s just change the subject. Diomedes,” he said turning to me, “are you glad you’re finally joining us? Any particular house you want to get in?”
“I think we all know the answer to both of those questions.” That got a little laugh out of him at least. “Also I have been talking to my mother about joining the quidditch team. Do you know anyone on it by any chance?”
“I wouldn’t say I know them, but I have talked to a few of them one or twice during class. None of them are that bad.” He paused for a second before deciding to continue. “Although one of the beaters, I think her name is Claire, is incredibly aggressive from what I’ve gathered so there’s that. Also she's dating the captain and, and if I remember correctly, they were having a few relationship issues last year so that's another thing you should keep in mind if you're planning to join.”
“Ah, well…that’s good to know, I guess.” Just perfect, I thought. Well… at least I’m aware of this going in.
“Maybe you should get into Ravenclaw then.” We both turned to Comaetho. “I know Professor Minerva would rather die than let something like that affect the success of her team.”
Professor Minerva Galanos is both the house head and Quidditch coach of Ravenclaw as well as another family friend we have through our father. From what I’ve heard, while he himself was a Gryffindor, my father and Professor Minerva grew close while he was a student there and remained close even after he graduated. If I remember correctly a big part of why they became so close was do to both of their families being from Greece with allowed her to help him adjust when our family first moved here.
“Yeah, I doubt she—did you hear that?”
“Hear what, Dio?”
“Outside, I think I heard something.”
We all hurried outside and it appeared I was correct. Sitting on the mailbox was an owl and right in front of the door was a letter. This has to be it, I thought. I picked up the letter and we headed back inside.
“Well,” Sthenelus said beside me, “aren’t you gonna open it?”
I thought about it for a moment, and then decided, “I think I’ll wait until mother gets home. She deserves to be here for this and it’s only another hour till she gets off work isn’t it.”
“If that’s what you want.”
So we just sat in the lounge and talked. Unfortunately, It did end up being a little over an hour before mother finally got home.
“Μαμά!” I heard Comaetho yell when our mother walked through the door.
“Κομαιθώ, I trust you've been able to keep a hold on everything.”
“Nαι.”
“Diomedes, my son,” she said as we embraced. “Happy birthday. I trust it’s been good.”
“It has. Look at this.” Then I handed her the letter.
“Is this what I think it is?” She asked. I nodded. She handed it back to me saying, “well open it then.”
I did as she asked and began reading.
“Dear Mr. Tydides, we are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts...”