The Letter
Wednesday July 28, 1971
Marlene sat on the grass, observing Danny as he rode back and forth on his broom, hitting the bludgers effortlessly as he was darting all around the pitch. She picked at the grass below her, blowing it into the air in boredom. She had wanted to play with Danny, to get more practice in, but he had refused.
“I don’t want to play with my ten-year-old sister!” Danny had said. “I actually need to practice! Season starts soon.”
Marlene groaned loudly, standing up and going to sit on the picnic table they had outside. She continued to gaze at Danny in awe and slight jealousy. It was incredibly hot and muggy outside, Danny must’ve been sweating buckets. He zoomed through the air so fast he looked like a blur in the air. He was a flash in the hot summer air, and Marlene found herself wanting to be him.
She wanted to go inside and watch the telly, but neither her mum nor her step-dad were home. She wasn’t allowed to watch anything if there was no adult present. There had been many protests from Marlene’s account stating that Danny was now legally an adult, but it was to no use. It was evident Danny gave no regard to what was on the television while Marlene was watching it.
Her mum and step-dad were in town looking at new furniture they know they’ll never buy. They had enough furniture as it is, and they’d never be able to afford more anyways. Marlene didn’t mind, she fancied the couch they had.
However, she rued not attending her mum in the lengthy, dull activity of furniture shopping. Instead, she was stuck watching Danny fly around the backyard without her. She wished to get a broom and play with him. Unfortunately, he had locked them in the shed with a spell, and Marlene didn’t even have a wand yet. It was almost as if he knew how this would make her suffer, and he decided to give her a personal form of suffering.
She dragged herself out of her seat at the table and made her trek inside to the family room. She picked up a magazine from beside her and flipped through it mindlessly. There were Quidditch articles, statements about the new school year, moving pictures of scholar students, and all of the same rubbish. Marlene wasn’t in the mood to read about Hogwarts.
Her whole life, Marlene had been overjoyed with the news that she was magical. She was ecstatic to go to Hogwarts, and Quidditch was her one passion that she’s had for as long as she could walk. She had only known magic her whole life.
Except for one thing; her father.
Her father was a muggle, or someone without any magic. After he found out his wife was a witch, he had packed his things and left. While Danny had been ten years old at the time, Marlene had just been reaching her first official year of living. He remembered much more of their father than she did, and Marlene could tell that haunted him everyday. For some odd reason, it seemed to have that effect on Marlene, too.
She barely knew her father, but he couldn’t have been that bad. He sent her birthday and Christmas cards every year, after all. She knew how he looked just from the pictures he sent over. He would send postcards of him in Jerusalem or Venice. She admired him greatly. He seemed to have been quite wealthy, which was the complete contrast of Marlene’s situation. They were barely scraping enough money to get by, and they were lucky they had magic to help them.
The life that she could’ve lived was taunting her, trailing behind her like a ghost. It haunted her just the same as it haunted Danny. Instead of sitting at home on the couch, flipping through some boring wizarding magazines, she could’ve been travelling the world with her family. The McKinnons; world travellers. Her father and mother would’ve gotten along, she wouldn’t have to deal with her awful stepfather Robert, and Danny wouldn’t always be away. As she thought about it, the idea laughed in her face.
Marlene and Danny dealt with the absence of their father in completely different ways. While Marlene clutched onto the memories and items that were remnants of her father tightly, grasping at anything remotely related to him, Danny discarded any of these things as much as possible. He refused to acknowledge the life he would’ve had if his father wouldn’t have left. He refused to acknowledge his father, period.
Danny filled the ache of their father with Quidditch; the team, the games, the practice, everything. It was a lifestyle that entirely took up his way of living. Everything he did revolves around Quidditch, and it seemed that was the sole thing that made him feel as though there were no other worries. This wasn’t the case for Marlene.
Her whole life, Marlene had breathed Quidditch as though it were her one life source. She read every book, every article, studied every athlete, and practiced as much as possible to perfect this talent of hers. She had been told she was a natural- prodigy, if she’s pushing it-, and she refused to let this go to waste. Unfortunately, Quidditch didn’t fill her ache like it did for Danny. Sure, it distracted her for a while, and it was a source of happiness, but Quidditch didn’t complete her. She supposed that was okay, though; she wasn’t even eleven years old yet, anyways, and she still had a long time before she needed to figure out what completed her. She was way too young to have a midlife crisis.
“Marlene,” her brother breathed out, trudging inside and dragging his broom alongside him, “come back out. Mum said I’m supposed to be watching you.”
“Since when have you cared what Mum said?” Marlene replied, resting her arm on her forehead.
“Since I needed a place to stay for the summer,” he replied irritably, his heavy breathing making his words hard to make out. When Marlene refused to budge from her spot, Danny sighed, setting his broom on the wall next to him and striding inside. “Fine, stay here then. I’ve practiced enough for now anyways. I’m going to go wash myself off, so don’t go outside.”
“Just hurry and shower, please, you smell horrid.” Marlene said, pinching her nose with her fingers. Danny poured a cup of water from the tap and chugged half. Marlene scoffed, and he poured the rest on her. She yelped out, and he cackled, zooming up the stairs before she had time to grab at him.
Marlene groaned, looking down at herself. Now she was soaked. As she made a move to get up and change her clothes, there was a tapping on the back door. Marlene ignored it, knowing the rule of ‘no answering the door when I’m not home’, set by her mother. However, the perpetrator proceeded to tap, clearly not taking the hint. Marlene considered, but knew the trouble she’d be in if she answered, and decided against opening the door.
She rushed up to her room, taking off her clothes and replacing them with clean, dry pajamas. While it was only four in the afternoon, Marlene knew she wouldn’t be going out that day. She tied her hair in a plait and sat on her bed.
Then she heard a tapping on her window.
Startled, Marlene slowly turned towards the window, and spotted an owl. Oh. Her mother’s rule technically didn’t apply to animals. With a rush, she scrambled to the window and opened it, grinning.
“What’s that you’ve got?” Marlene asked the owl. She didn’t mind that it was unresponsive. It entered her room, its wings flapping loudly as it set itself on her dresser. There was an envelope placed between the owl’s beak.
Carefully, Marlene advanced towards the animal and slowly took the envelope from its hand. She read the cover of it.
Miss M. McKinnon,
Hollyhock House
Eagerly, Marlene tore the envelope open after seeing it was addressed to her. It was her letter, after all, not like she was invading anybody’s business.
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF
WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Miss McKinnon,
We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Marlene shrieked.
Her Hogwarts letter. She’d been awaiting this ever since she found out she had magic blood coursing through her veins. After spending all these summer months doubting that she was magical, suspecting that she had taken after her true father, she was finally relieved to see what she had been anticipating her entire life.
No longer would she worry that, if she weren’t magical, her life would be officially titled the most ‘uneventful life of all’. She could no longer dwell over her lack of accomplishments. It was a satisfaction that she knew she wouldn’t be missing out on what her life could’ve been as a traveller and now could live the life of a witch.
“What’s happened?!” Danny said urgently, rushing into the room frantically. The owl accompanying Marlene let out a hoot and soared out of the room quickly, leaving Marlene alone with Danny. She looked at him with a grin. “Is something wrong? Are you hurt?”
“No, why would I be hurt?” Marlene asked, but couldn’t bring herself to use a rude tone. She was just too excited.
“I heard a shout and-“ his eyes fell upon the letter in Marlene’s hands and his mood of worry was flushed away. “Your letter! Oh, Marlene, you’ve gotten your letter!”
Marlene giggled, and Danny was beaming. He reached out to her and wrapped his arms around her torso, picking her up and spinning her. She only laughed more. As he set her down, he snatched the letter from her hands, reading it over plenty before he looked up.
“This is excellent, Marlene!” He announced, running a hand through his blonde hair. “I mean, me and Mum were talking and- well, we were saying your letter should’ve been here- we were a bit worried and-“
“No need to fret now,” Marlene told him, her smile still on her face. It was a bit worn away though. Him and her mother were… suspicious, per se, of the assumption Marlene was a witch. They never verbally said she might not have been, but Marlene now knew they were having their doubts. She knew they never had their doubts when Danny was her age. “It’s here, finally. Just a few days before my birthday, too. Makes it all that more special.”
“Yeah, it does,” Danny agreed. Marlene didn’t want to overthink their uncertainty in her. She also didn’t want to compare herself to Danny, because then that would result in even more sadness. “Mum is going to be thrilled. We’ll go out to town and celebrate, and on your birthday we’ll go to Diagon Alley. You’ll have a blast!”
Danny practically skipped out of the room, nearly bringing the letter along with him before leaving it on her dresser. Marlene closed the door behind him.
She was glad Danny was proud. She knew Mum would be too. But as she clutched the letter in her hand, she wondered what her dad would’ve thought when she told him there was a spot at Hogwarts waiting for her.