Madness

My black eagle owl Dorchadas squawked at me because of jealousy on my eleventh birthday waking me up from a beautiful dream of a trip I took to Mexico in my first life, and I was annoyed.I felt the summer sun on my face through the early morning sky as I started to open my eyes where I saw my beautiful regal looking owl pecking at my hair.

Knowing it was my birthday, being the wiccan holiday called Litha, I guessed correctly why the owl was there. Seeing the Hogwarts letter on the owl’s foot confirmed my guess.

Litha, also known as midsummer, celebrated the summer solstice and the longest day of the year. I knew I had to be back in time from Diagon Ally, a popular wizard shopping area, for the celebrations so I called for Kreature to help me get ready.

For the first time in a while my heartache lifted and my grief felt lessened, giving me a brief shot of joy.

My hopes lifted as this was the first good news in a long time.

I felt extreme sadness when only five minutes after I received my Hogwarts letter, a small grey owl with the most beautiful yellow eyes came through my window, which had overlooked the beautiful green hills of Ireland.

This owl belonged to a member of the Lestrange family, one of the sacred twenty-eight families. A member of an ancient and noble family, A magical lawyer, from a branch of the family was in charge of suing me for a major cut of the Black inheritance willed to me from Arcturus Black. The letter was printed on crisp yellow tinted parchment with a dark shade of a regal green wax melted into the shape of a snake that I could feel was covered in blood magic through the Black line, making the letter exclusive to the family.

I knew what that meant since I had spent many hours with the tutors left by Arcturus.
Narcissa Black nee Malfoy was the family’s first women who only thought of her own direct family and clearly had no love for me, since she was suing me.

I was crushed. The happiness that I had just felt from the Hogwarts letter was gone, just like that after receiving one letter due to family.

I had learned in this second life that family often disappointed, just as often as they were reliable.

I looked over and saw two of my best friends, who I had made in either life, whether either dead or not at my side.

Gideon and Fabian Prewett brothers of Molly Weasley nee Prewett were twin redheads and were amazing friends even though they were in the realm of the dead.

I looked at Fabian’s sad blue eyes as his smile seem blinding, with only his eyes expressing his feelings for me as he looked over my shoulder at the letter and the beautiful calligraphy. Fabian yelped, “Ouch...it seems like pureblood society has finally decided to bother you.”

I sighed deeply, looking at his ghostly white, orange tinted hair that seemed to flow over Gideon’s shoulder and heard him say into my ear, “I know a guy down in Diagon Ally. He’s on the outs of pureblood society when I was alive, but he was the best.”

Fabian ooohed back, “Borgin? He was dark but seemed like a good guy. What happened again?”
Replying in a sing-song voice, Gideon stated, “He was on the outs with his family for marrying a half-blood when we were alive. She was killed in the war. I heard he was the best lawyer, but he was having a hard time gaining clients, especially the rich type. You should see him today before you go school shopping. Don’t worry Cassi, you’ll be fine.”

I took a deep breath and started to get dressed in a beautiful set of black robes. Kreature snapped his fingers creating a beautiful, braided crown with my white, blonde hair. Grabbing my goblin issued gallons pouch, I attached it to my robe ties. I then let my beautiful familiar Crescent land on my shoulder, which had almost made me trip; but due to the many posture lessons drilled into me by my tutors, I stayed on my feet.

Floing is like second nature in this second life and as I headed down the grey stairs of the rook-shaped house to the antique wood fireplace, I waved goodbye to Luna through the round shaped window. Uncle Xenophilius was not even home, as usual he was on one of his trips to find the flying magical equivalent of the chipmuck.

I stepped into the green fire and threw down some grainy powder that I had grabbed from a colorful bowl by the marble base.

I glided into the busy leaky cauldron from the old brick fireplace and tried to step through the multiple of grey ghosts due to the age of the building that only I could see, to get to the brick alley that exits out to Diagon. The smell of bitter beer from the bar and sweat from the crowd wafted to me as I bumped into kid wizards and their parents, who were out early shopping for Hogwarts.

I asked one of the dead, an older male in a flowing robe, where a lawyer named Borgin was based, and he got this weird look on his face and told me he would walk with me. We talked about our lives as well as why I needed the lawyer as we strolled towards a side street.

I would later discover my new friend was a Longbottom. I did not know it then, but the Longbottom’s proved to be amazing men in my life who had never let me down.

The older opaque wizard shuffled me down the alley to a side street that had a ward line on the cobblestone ground that looked darker than the others. There was an old stone sign with cursive lettering that spelled Knockturn Alley. The street contained ancient looking shops and the strangest people I had met in either life. I could feel the dark magic pulsing with a protective malice as I walked down the street, passing strange people as I sauntered by. Wizard Longbottom told me to bow as I had been taught in my ettitque classes to the residents as I glided by.

I could tell I had more money than most as I travelled down the alley, causing me to huddle closer the ghostly wizard as well as keep my hand in my pocket for the petite gold origami protective talisman.
We stopped in front of a door on the side of a creepy looking bookstore with a sign that read Borgins Law.

I travelled up the rickety stairs into a dusty room with a large bookshelf of crusty old books and a grey, old looking kneazle with strange intelligence in his eyes as well as a chunk missing from his ear. While gazing around, I saw a mean looking wizard, most likely in his forties all the while looking the age of twenties due to the magic slowing aging in wiccan kind.

He looked me up and down with his ocean blue eyes while sneering, “pureblood princess” under his breath in a posh inflection.

I had already exhausted my emotional limit for the day and flashed my Black ring, showing my link to the Black family.

He starred at it for a long moment, recognition flashing in his eyes before sighing and said in a slightly nicer tone, “you’re the mad one isn’t you.”. I could tell by his change in body language that he knew I was basically alone in the world, missing the normal protections usually afforded to someone with my family lines.

I replied clearly and unabashed when stating, “Yes. Merry Met.” I curtsied and then got distracted by the elderly wizard who had followed me into the room turning my attention from the only wizard I had seen in this new life wear a crisp muggle suit.

The elder Longbottom stared at the lawyer for a while before sighing and advised me in a tone that broke no argument, “I can tell he’s one of the rare, good lads left. You need him to be your new personal lawyer to oversee the bulk of your estate as well as to oversee your inherited properties.”.

I turned back to Mr.Borgin to see him looking at me with understanding and sadness in his eyes. I walked over to his desk and dropped the letter I had received this morning.

He levitated it with a nonverbal wave of his wand and carefully read it over before sighing. He gazed at me intensely for a minute before stating he would handle it. I felt immense relief as I knew most wizards were frightened by the Malfoys.

Twenty minutes later and one magical oath later I had gained a lawyer on retainer who would take care of my wealth as well as protect me legally.

I felt blessed by Lady magic to welcome a new figure in my life who would become one of the few rare, good, alive people in my life.

The ghostly Longbottom walked me out of the alley with no incidents except a vampire smelling me a little too closely for my liking. Thankfully my protection talisman activated and took my smell away once the being was less than two feet from me.

Once back into the main portion of Diagon Alley, I was distracted by the ghostly Longbottom telling me that he wanted to see his alive grandchild. He was insistent that I meet the wonderful boy.

Who knew I would meet my best friend for life after the awful day I had?