Sabrina never wanted to go to Beauxbatons Academy, but her aunts insisted. Mostly, it was Zelda who worried that at Hogwarts and Durmstrang she’d be at greater risk of being hurt. All they ever heard about Hogwarts was about wizards disappearing or being discovered doing dark magic. “Voldemort has been to Europe, auntie,” Sabrina would plead with her, “if he is going to find me, he can find me anywhere.” This didn’t seem to reassure her much, and in fact it seemed to alarm the usually more mild-mannered Hilda to the point where she started to take Zelda’s side. None of them considered the Bulgarian school Durmstrang because it seemed so dreary and dark, there were so many rough-looking boys here. Hilda and Zelda had a low tolerance for men of all kinds. And Sabrina’s father, who rarely had an opinion about such matters as Sabrina’s upbringing, had declared that sending Sabrina to Ilvermorny, the American school of witchcraft, was out of the question without any discussion. As Sabrina’s father rarely spoke up about anything, when he did decide to make a bold proclamation or decision, his aunts deferred to him without question.
Sabrina had wanted to go to Hogwarts because her best friend in the world, Luna Lovegood, was going there. She’d met her in the British Museum and they’d visited each others’ houses via Floo Powder. Luna had been so amused by the quaintness of Greendale, how close it was to the Muggle village of Riverdale, and especially the fact that some of the boys and girls in Riverdale seemed to know and not freak out about Greendale’s existence. Sabrina had been amazed by the space between other houses and towns around Luna’s home. Hills upon rolling hills, with cows and goats and very few roads. And both of them were amazed to have found another teenage witch who was into traveling by side-along apparition to the British Museum on random Saturdays, just to wander amongst the Egyptian mummies. Once they met each other, they also visited the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum of Art together.
But Sabrina had gotten used to Beauxbatons by now. She was comfortable here. It was her home, at times she felt guilty feeling more at home here than she did with her aunties. They didn’t ever talk about it, but she knew taking her in had been a burden for them. She knew they hadn’t planned or wanted to have a child.
It was this fact that most unsettled Sabrina, and she had nowhere to go with it. She loved her aunts dearly and she didn’t want to hurt them. She was so grateful to them for taking her in. Her father had not been able to raise her on his own and her mother was nowhere to be found. But where was she, and who was she? Deep down, Sabrina wanted to know.
She was sitting in the boat to go back to Beauxbatons for her third year, thinking about this, when a strange girl she’d never seen before sat down next to her. She looked so tiny, Sabrina figured she had to be a first year. Had she ever been that tiny? Sabrina could hardly remember.
“You’re Sabrina Spellman, right?” the girl asked. She had frizzy dark hair and skin the color of coffee with just the right amount of milk in it.
“Yes…” Sabrina said, eyeing her suspiciously. “Who are you? How did you know?”
“I think I’m your sister,” the girl blurted out.
“I don’t have any sisters,” Sabrina waved her off, looking back down at the copy of The Quibbler Luna had sent her via owl, so she could see what a snarglepuff was.
“I think you’re wrong,” the girl said. “Your mother is named Diane, right?”
Sabrina stared at her for a few seconds. “I – I don’t know my mother’s name. I never knew who she was. I think you have the wrong person.”
“I’m not wrong. I’m Jules,” the girl smiled at her. “You’re my sister.”
“Look, I’m kind of busy right now,” Sabrina was starting to get irritated now. She pulled out her cell phone.
“Oh, you have a phone too?” the girl said brightly. “Not many wizarding folk have one. People at Hogwarts think they don’t work in the magical world.”
“Plenty of people of Beauxbatons have cell phones,” Sabrina tossed her long almost white hair around her shoulder to block out as much of this girl’s face from view as she could. This was, strictly speaking, a lie. Sabrina knew of exactly three other people who had cell phones at Beauxbatons, all of whom knew because she’d told them about the technology, so they could talk with her sometimes without always having to come visit her. Most of the rest of the students at Beauxbatons also believed cell phones didn’t work in the muggle world. It was true they didn’t work in school – too much magical energy interfering – but they worked outside of wizarding schools and villages. But Sabrina also didn’t know any other witches who had friends in Muggle villages they wanted to talk to, which was the main reason Sabrina had a cell phone.
“Oh,” was all the girl said. She seemed confused. Sabrina couldn’t tell if she believed her or not. But she sat back in her chair and stared off into the sea. She was quiet, but she also seemed to be settling in to stay for awhile.
“I hope I’m in Trefle-Picques house,” Jules said, “I hear it’s the best house.”
“It’s not so great,” Sabrina mumbled, because that was her house.
“Oh, are you in Millefeuille house? I figured you’d be in Trefle-Picques,” Jules said.
“Why would you assume that?” Sabrina asked, trying to glare at her. Jules didn’t seem to notice or to be deterred.
“I don’t know…I always imagined you’d be really assertive and outgoing. And… good. Kind. Like Fleur. She was really something, wasn’t she, in the TriWizard tournament last year?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t follow sports,” Sabrina tossed her hair again. This too, was a lie. She’d heard all about the tournament, and the kid who’d died, and about Harry Potter from Luna. She’d mostly tried to ignore it because everyone at Beauxbatons talked nonstop about how great Fleur was it was exhausting and annoying. But Luna had been really disturbed by the whole tournament and was convinced something bad was going to happen even before the kid died. Her aunts had heard all about it too, and it just reinforced their belief that it had been safer for her to go to Beauxbatons.
“Haven’t all the dark wizards come from Millefeuille?” Jules asked idly, as though she were talking about something uncontroversial and unremarkable.
“That’s a myth,” Sabrina said curtly. “Anyway, I’m an American. You can’t be my sister. How would that even happen?”
“I don’t know,” Jules shrugged dreamily.
“You’re also…” Sabrina pressed on, touching her own pale, freckled arm.
“Black?” Jules asked. She was starting to remind her of Luna, because of how direct and straightforward she was. She found it much less endearing than she did when it was Luna doing it.
“Are you?” Sabrina asked.
“My dad is black,” Jules said, “He’s a muggle too. I don’t know where my magic came from, but I guess that happens sometimes. That’s what people have told me, anyway. Our mother was a muggle, you know that, right?”
“We don’t have the same mother,” Sabrina snarled. “I told you, I don’t have a sister.”
“Oh? Do you know who your mother was?” Jules asked.
“I have some idea,” Sabrina lied, suddenly becoming very interested in the stitching on the seat she was in.
“I think you’re lying,” Jules said, “Why don’t you want a sister?”
“It’s not that I don’t want one,” Sabrina said. “But I don’t have one.”
The boat was crawling into the dock and slowing down. Sabrina peered out into the black waters and tried to glimpse the castle. She could only vaguely make out one turret in the darkness.
“You’ll see,” Jules said. She picked up the purple satin bag she’d come in with and stashed beneath their seats where the life jackets were. Sabrina decided not to mention that purple was also her favorite color. Or point out the large purple suitcase in the rack outside.
* * *
The grounds of Beauxbatons Academy sprawled along the French coast but remained hidden from view of any muggles. The turrets were elegant and delicate, less clunky and imposing than Hogwarts seemed to be. When her aunts had taken her to visit Ilvermorny – her father had gone there and they tried to convince him it was worth considering – she and her aunts all agreed it was too modern and pedestrian looking. A magical castle should look like something out of a fairy tale, and in her mind there was no more beautiful castle than the stately marble of Beauxbatons.
Only the first years had to report for sorting, so Sabrina had been allowed to go directly up to her dormitory, which she shared with the twenty other third year girls. She was playing Exploding Snaps with Regina Lusebrink, a mousy girl from Germany, when in walked the annoying girl from the train with about fifteen new first years who had been sorted into their house this year.
“Hi sis!” Jules grinned and sat down next to Sabrina on the couch.
Regina looked at Sabrina for an explanation.
“She’s not my sister,” Sabrina scowled. “She’s just an annoying first year student who seems to think there’s some family relation. Ridiculous, don’t you think?”
“Actually, magical blood dilutes the influence of other phenotypical traits like melanin and hair and such,” Regina rattled off, sounding like a computer. “Didn’t you say you don’t know anything about your mother? So your father’s magical blood could have overpowered the other DNA, resulting in you two being sisters without actually looking alike.”
Sabrina just glared at her.
“I’m going to bed,” Sabrina said, without looking at Jules. She could see out of the corner of one eye that she was looking pleased with herself.
“I was just providing some scientific background!” Regina called after her.
“She’s just grumpy,” she could hear Jules telling her.
* * *
Back in her dorm room, Sabrina received Luna’s owl, responding to Sabrina asking her if she could come visit her. Hogwarts had stricter security than Beauxbatons, so Sabrina couldn’t figure out a way to visit her there, but Beauxbatons had adopted a more laissez-faire attitude toward security. One of the two most famous wizards who had ever attended, Vincent Duc de Trefle-Picques, had fought in the resistance to the Terror a century ago and had come out a big proponent of ending the decree for magical secrecy and for open borders between muggle and wizarding towns. Even though the rest of the magical world wasn’t convinced of this idea, it meant that at Beauxbatons Academy there was an open courtyard in the center of the Academy where anyone could apparate in, and then pass through a series of questions by the statue of France’s most famous witch, Marie Beauxbatons, in order to be allowed to leave the courtyard and roam the grounds. Since muggles had to know a wizard or witch in order to side-apparate this kept the number of muggles down anyway, but Sabrina had brought Archie and Betty, her friends from Riverdale, on at least one occasion. They hadn’t been very impressed, but they also were used to Sabrina and the magical town of Greendale.
Luna had just informed Sabrina that she’d passed the statue’s test this evening and she was headed up to her dorm. Luna knew where it was because she’d visited once last year to tell her all about her new friend, the famous Harry Potter.
“Luna!” She cried out when Luna entered their room. One of her roommates, a heavyset girl named Miranda, grunted at her from her bed. Apparently she’d already fallen asleep. Sabrina’s black cat, Salem, also squawked because of how suddenly Sabrina had gotten up off the bed and run to greet her.
“Oh Sabrina I’m so happy to see you! How was your summer? ‘
“Boring,” Sabrina said. “Greendale is so dull. Way more happens in Riverdale. I’m telling you, Muggles have way more fun in America.”
“That’s weird,” Luna said bluntly. “But they don’t know any magic.”
“I know but it’s true. Or maybe all the wizards in America are just more boring than here. That boy I told you about, Archie – he broke up with his girlfriend again. And now she’s dating that mean boy, the one I cursed and then had to do a memory charm on to reverse it.”
“Is that when you got grounded?” Luna asked.
“Yeah,” Sabrina said, “My aunties don’t understand that in America no one cares if you use magic, there’s no statute against it. Or at least it’s not enforced. I think it’s because my aunts grew up in France.”
“Yeah, in England people are getting in trouble for that all the time,” Luna said. “What about Russell? Have you seen him this year?”
Russell was a sixth year boy who Luna claimed to have a crush on, but Sabrina was pretty sure Luna really had a crush on his girlfriend Ramona, but she hadn’t admitted this to Sabrina yet.
“Not yet,” was all Sabrina said. She wondered when Luna would decide to tell her she liked girls. She’d been waiting, because then Sabrina figured she’d tell Luna she liked girls as well. She liked boys too, but she hadn’t found any other witches who liked girls like she did.
Luna had also lost her mother, just like Sabrina had. In Luna’s case, her mother had died a few years back, so she wasn’t lost per se. Still, she was the only other person Sabrina knew who didn’t have a mother. It seemed like everyone at Beauxbatons came from happy two parent families, which made her feel really lonely a lot of the time.
“I should probably get back,” Luna said. “There’s a curfew at Hogwarts this year. Things are really strict.”
“How will you get back in?” Sabrina asked curiously.
“I have ways,” was all Luna said, and with that she kissed Sabrina on the cheek and headed back out the dorm. “Talk to you later, I love you!”
“I love you too!” Sabrina called back. Her roommate grunted at her again. Sabrina muttered back at her. She really wished she was at Hogwarts with Luna. She just knew they’d have so much fun together.
* * *
Salem was no ordinary cat, of course. Sabrina hadn’t known this when she was a child, but it made so much sense when she found out. As her aunties Hilda and Zelda told it, they had a third sister or maybe she was just a friend (the story seemed to shift and change) named Lorelei, who kept trying to run off and do dark magic. She would have become a Death Eater, they said, except that Zelda had discovered her plans to do so and had turned her into a cat to keep her safe. As they reasoned it, there was only so much damage she could do as a cat, though many days Sabrina thought they’d been awfully naïve to doubt the damage a cat can do.
Salem did not trust Jules. Jules was relentless about trying spend time with Sabrina, and Salem was just as relentless about not letting her out of her sight. Sabrina felt conflicted about this. On the one hand. If Salem didn’t like her, that actually probably meant she had something positive to offer. Salem didn’t like too much happiness or positivity in the world. On the other hand. Sabrina didn’t like Jules or want to hear her talk over and over again about how they should go out and try and find their mother together.
One Sunday afternoon while Sabrina was studying her Transfiguration homework, Jules came into the common room and plopped a photograph in front of Sabrina. It was a picture of a suspicious looking black woman playing the piano.
“What’s this?”
“Our mother,” Jules said. “At least I think it is. She’s a famous singer. She was an American but she moved to France.”
“Nina Simone?” Sabrina peered closer at the picture. “Yes, that’s a picture of Nina Simone!” She laughed out loud, she couldn’t help it. Jules looked hurt. “Nina Simone is not our mother!”
“How do you know?” Jules demanded.
“I just do,” Sabrina said. “Nina Simone is not our mother. Your mother.”
“My father always used to tell me how my mother sang in bars when she was younger,” Jules said. “What about you?”
“Nothing,” Sabrina lied, “He didn’t tell me anything. I don’t think he knows anything.”
Jules just stared at her. Sabrina got the impression that Jules could already read minds. It was unsettling. Sabrina didn’t feel like telling Jules that one thing her father did tell her about her mother was how much she always loved to sing.
* * *
About a month into school, Luna reappeared in her dorm room again. This time, she looked very serious and worried.
“Terrible things are happening at Hogwarts,” Luna said, “A terrible woman has taken over Defense against the Dark Arts, and she’s instituting all these new rules.”
Beauxbatons didn’t have a Defense Against the Dark Arts course. Instead, they taught Proper Rules and Regulations of the Use of Magic. They learned some defensive spells, but it was mostly about the Ministry rules for witches and wizards.
“I’m sorry,” Sabrina said, because she didn’t know what else to say.
“I might not be able to come here for awhile,” Luna said. “They’re really cracking down now.”
“Oh no! Will you still be able to visit me in Greendale?” Sabrina asked.
“As long as daddy lets me come,” Luna said. She stared intently at Sabrina as though she were waiting for Sabrina to make an important announcement of her own.
“I think I want to go to Paris,” Luna said. “Will you come? Just for the night.”
“They’re cracking down and you expect to be able to go to Paris and back and be re-admitted into Hogwarts?” Sabrina stared at her.
“Well.” Luna said, and then paused.
Sabrina started intently at Luna. She was hiding something.
“What did you do, Luna?” Sabrina asked.
“I told Flitwick I was sick,” Luna said. Flitwick was her Head of House. He didn’t seem to be very strict about most things, as Luna described him.
“What does that mean?” Sabrina asked.
“I was allowed to go home. So technically, I’m supposed to be at my house right now. But my dad thinks I’m still at Hogwarts.”
“How did you arrange that? Didn’t Flitwick contact your dad before letting you leave?” Sabrina asked. Luna was quiet and smart and didn’t seem to be the kind of kid who got in trouble, but she was often sneaky like this. It surprised Sabrina every time she heard about it.
“I told Flitwick I’d take the muggle train home. He doesn’t know there’s no train to my house. I told him I’d probably be back in a day or so.”
“And he just let you go?” Sabrina repeated. What happened to Hogwarts great security? It was baffling. Or maybe Luna was just really, really clever.
“He trusts me,” Luna shrugged. “I don’t think he’d let most students go. But he knows I get lonely there. I don’t really have many friends.”
Sabrina considered this. She could imagine other students probably thought Luna was weird, but it was mostly because she was different. Even in a community of witches and wizards where everyone was “weird” compared to the muggle world, it was depressing how easily most people slid to the center and tried to be like everyone else. That was what Sabrina liked so much about Luna.
“So I want you to come to Paris with me,” Luna said. “You can come and go.”
“I have a lot of homework to do,” Sabrina said, glancing at her textbooks and papers on her desk. She had been playing a game in which she made a tiny ball of light appear and disappear in order to make Salem chase it when Luna appeared, but it was true – she really should be doing homework.
“It’s just one night,” Luna said.
“Oh all right,” Sabrina said. It would be fun to do something interesting, something new for a change. “Let me grab my coat.”
* * *
Paris, as it turns out, was cold and gray and depressing in October and in the evening. They had no place to stay, so they were huddled in a muggle metro station to stay warm and discuss what they should do now that they had arrived. Luna had been able to make her own portkey which landed them just behind the Louvre Museum, but the museum had closed a half an hour before their arrival.
“We should go hear some music,” Luna said. “I hear there’s great music in Paris.”
“We won’t be able to get in any place,” Sabrina predicted. “Muggle clubs don’t usually let underage people in. And if we go to a wizarding club we risk getting caught. A lot of my teachers at Beauxbatons come to Paris regularly.”
“I don’t know where my teachers go when they’re not teaching,” Luna said. “I kind of wish I did.”
“I’ve been to most of my teachers’ homes for dinner,” Sabrina said. Beauxbatons Academy prided itself on having a very close relationship between its teachers and its students. At Ilvorney the teachers didn’t even live on campus – they all commuted in every day from the small towns in Massachusetts that surrounded it. At Hogwarts they lived there but none of the students seemed to know exactly where most of them lived. At Durmstrang the teachers lived on campus too, but they had a strict policy against the teachers fraternizing with the students.
“That’s nice,” Luna said dreamily. “Let’s go here.” She pulled Sabrina by the hand down the street about a hundred feet and stopped at a doorway that seemed to go into a dull gray stairwell.
“What is this place?” Sabrina said, pulling her hand away. “This feels like a magical place. We can’t go here.”
“We can,” Luna said. “It’s not magical. It’s a woman who thinks she’s magical but she’s really not. She thinks she can read people’s futures but she can’t. It’s fun.”
Sabrina tentatively followed Luna up the staircase and watched as Luna knocked on the door. An older black woman with her hair in braids answered the door.
“Hi Madame Leona,” Luna said. Sabrina was confused. Luna knew this woman? Had she been here before? She had thought Luna had never been to Paris before this evening. How did she know her?
“Hello, my dear,” Madame Leona smiled warmly. She touched Sabrina’s cheek as she ushered them in. Sabrina eyed her suspiciously. She did not like people touching her without permission.
“We’d like our fortunes read,” Luna said seriously.
“First things first. Some hot tea? You are very cold,” Madame Leona was already in the kitchen, putting a kettle on the stove and rummaging around a big bin of tea bags.
Sabrina could see quickly what Luna liked about Madame Leona. As someone who also did not have a mother. Madame Leona seemed to gravitate toward them both in a very mothering sort of way. Sabrina often tired of hearing people tell her how grateful she should be that even though her mother had died she was so lucky to have two aunts and a father to take care of her. Her father barely counted in her mind. He was home so little and her aunts were…not exactly the mothering types.
“So, you want to know the future?” Madame Leona said, encouraging them to sit on the couch in her main room. It was a very small apartment. It seemed to be only two rooms. And there was very little furniture in it.
“What can you tell us about the future of our schools?” Luna asked. “They seem to be in trouble.”
“Yours…”Madame Leona closed her eyes, tilted her head back, and held her forehead in deep concentration. She pointed at Luna, “…yours is going to face some dark times. Yours…” she pointed at Sabrina now, “…yours is going to be OK. It is not in as much danger.”
Sabrina scoffed. She couldn’t help it.
“You do not believe in the inner eye?” Madame Leona said.
“I just know that prediction was something you could probably have told from how we seemed to be talking about things. Luna’s all worked up and worried, I’ve told her she’ll probably be fine.”
“And you are OK with probably?” Madame Leona said sharply.
“I mean, she’ll be fine. She’ll be fine.” Sabrina repeated, trying to sound more sure of herself.
“You have a sister,” Madame Leona said abruptly.
“You do?” Luna asked, turning to Sabrina in shock. “I never knew that!”
Sabrina stared at Madame Leona with a mixture of disgust and anger. She couldn’t figure out how to respond to her, so instead she turned to Luna. “I don’t! Of course I don’t. You’ve been to my house, you’ve seen for yourself.”
“But your sister. She doesn’t live with you,” Madame Leona said serenely.
“I don’t have a sister!” Sabrina yelled at Madame Leona, much louder than she’d intended. “Luna, I’m going now. She got up, stomped out of the apartment, and once on the landing couldn’t figure out where else she should go, so without thinking she apparated back to Greendale. Unfortunately, she specifically apparated into her front yard, where Hilda was staring through a telescope at the moon. She tracked the moon closely because she believed her magic was most powerful during the full moon, but it had to be completely and 100% full. Sabrina had tried to tell her muggles have made books about the moon’s phases but Hilda was not convinced that muggles knew anything she didn’t, so she continued to track it herself, every night.
“Sabrina Mae!” Hilda snapped. “Good heavens! What are you doing here? You gave me a fright!”
“Um,” Sabrina said, trying to think what the best way to answer this question would be. But before she could say more, Luna apparated into the same spot as her. Literally. She landed on the same spot and made Sabrina stumble and fall backwards.
“Luna!” Hilda said, “How nice to see you. But what are you doing here? And how did you learn to apparate? I didn’t think you learned to apparate until your fifth year at Hogwarts.”
This was strictly speaking true, but Sabrina had taught Luna how to apparate several years ago. At Beauxbatons Academy they believed wizards and witches should be taught to apparate as soon as possible, because it was the safest way to travel. Incidents of splinching in small children were vanishing small, as they often pointed out when professors at Hogwarts chided them about this practice. Beauxbatons Academy professors were often very haughty as they cited research about wizarding children being more malleable and flexible and therefore LESS prone to splinching than older teens.
“Sabrina taught me,” Luna said, apparently forgetting that Sabrina had expressly told her never to tell her aunts she had done so.
“Sabrina Mae. What am I going to do with you?” Hilda asked, folding up her telescope and starting to head back into the house. “Come on. Both of you.”
Without saying anything, Luna and Sabrina followed Sabrina’s aunt into the house. Sabrina breathed a sigh of relief to see that Zelda was not inside, because her chances of getting out of this without a punishment were slightly higher if her other aunt was not here.
“Luna, you know I’d love to see you, but now is not the time. You must get back to Hogwarts immediately. I’ve been in touch with Professor McGonagall who seemed quite concerned that Professor Flitwick had let one of his students leave the grounds.”
“You know Professor McGonagall?” Luna asked.
“Of course. We attended Beauxbatons Academy together, along with Zelda. She is a very fine witch, she has always been extremely talented.”
“Do they know it’s me who’s gone?” Luna asked.
“I don’t think so. But they will find out soon. You must go back directly into your dorm and I know just the way,” Hilda said briskly, futzing around her cluttered kitchen table for something.
“Do you know about the floating portkey, too?” Luna asked eagerly.
“The what?” Sabrina asked.
“Of course,” Hilda said. “Where is the summoning powder, anyway?”
“What are you two talking about?” Sabrina demanded. She hated feeling like everyone else knew more than she did.
“Oh here it is,” Hilda ignored Sabrina’s questions and pulled a coffee can out from under a pile of fabric and peacock quills. “Now Luna, do you know what to do?”
“Of course,” Luna said. She sprinkled a little of what looked like orange ash in her left hand and instantly a frying pan appeared in it. She held onto the frying pan turned to Sabrina. “I’ll explain later, Sabrina. See you soon.”
Luna took a deep break, held the frying pan up a little higher and said “Forbidden Forest!” and in an instant she was gone.
“Auntie. What is going on?” Sabrina rounded on her aunt and crossed her arms at her.
“Sabrina Mae. Don’t give me that look. I don’t owe you any explanations. What you owe me is an answer – why are you here?”
“It was Luna’s fault,” Sabrina said defensively.
“It’s always someone else’s fault,” Hilda said.
“No really!” Sabrina protested. “She showed up with some crazy plan about going to Paris. But when we got there, we went to some muggle lady’s apartment who thinks she can tell the future. And she made me mad, so I left. I didn’t mean to come here. I guess I was thinking about you, though. Maybe I missed you?”
Sabrina tried to go to her aunt and give her a hug, thinking this might soften her story. Instead, her aunt moved away from her so she couldn’t hug her. Sabrina sighed. Part of the reason she loved Luna so much was that she was the first person Sabrina knew who liked to hug as much as she did. Neither of her aunts were very huggy people.
“I’ll go back to school,” Sabrina said. “I’ll apparate now, ok.” She started to head out the back door, since like most witches and wizards her aunts had a defensive spell that prevented apparating directly into or out of the house.
“Wait,” Hilda followed her.
“What?”
“What was it that the old woman said?” Hilda asked. “Paris, you said?”
“Why?” Sabrina asked. “She was just an old muggle crackpot.”
“What was it she said?” Hilda repeated.
“She said I had a sister, “Sabrina said irritably. “It mostly pissed me off because there’s this first year who’s been annoying me – “
“I think that was your mother, Sabrina,” Hilda said darkly. “I always wondered when this day would come.”
“What?” Sabrina yelled. “What are you talking about?”
“Sabrina. You must go back to Beauxbatons Academy right now. I will talk to Zelda and your father and we will decide what to do. You will be safer at school. Go.”
Sabrina hesitated. She’d never seen her aunt look so serious, and maybe even a little scared? She’d never known her aunts to be scared of anything in her whole life.
“Go!” Hilda yelled. Then she softened a little, “I promise I won’t tell Zelda how I found out. You won’t be punished. But you must go!”
Without another word. Sabrina turned back to the door, walked outside, and in an instant apparated back into the circle at Beauxbatons Academy.
* * *
“Hello, Sabrina Spellman,” the statue of Marie Beauxbaton drawled in her French accent. “Back so soon?”
“Yes madam,” Sabrina said. She bowed without really thinking about it. It was just what you did. “What’s my question?”
“Je suis un minuscule rocher qui tombe dans une mer noire. Je suis un minuscule rocher qui tombe dans une mer noire. Il y a une spirale et je disparais. Qui suis je?” The statue asked her.
Sabrina paused for a second and considered. “You are a rock falling into a black sea. There is a silver…hot tub?...and you disappear?”
“More of a silvery whirlpool,” the statue sounded irritable with her for having to speak English. “It sounds better in French.”
“Sorry,” Sabrina said, “Oh! You’re a sugar cube, of course.”
The statue always asked in French. Almost all the students here knew French regardless of where they grew up, but Sabrina, being an American, wasn’t confident in her ability to speak it. She understood it just fine though.
“Oui.” The statue dissolved the magical protection that allowed Sabrina to pass into the main campus. But Sabrina did not move right away. She suddenly had questions.
“How come we even have this protection if Trefle-Picques believed in open borders with the muggle world, anyway?”
“Best not to ask questions,” the statue said sharply, “Move along.”
Sabrina still did not move.
“How did Luna get through here anyway?” she asked. “She doesn’t speak French.”
“Ms. Lovegood speaks better French than you do,” the statue said haughtily. “Perhaps she just doesn’t speak it with YOU.”
Sabrina, feeling mortified, slunk out of the circle and the magical protection sealed itself back up. Luna spoke French? How could she have not known this? Sabrina’s rudimentary French skills were a part of why she constantly felt alienated at this school, she could understand her classes but not really talk to most of her classmates unless they knew English as well. But she never complained about this at home. Not after she’d pushed so hard to go here rather than Ilvorney. Her aunts hadn’t really understood why her father declared that school off limits. Sabrina didn’t really understand either. But she believed the darkness that came over her father’s face whenever he talked about it.
Her owl fluttered over to her as she was walking toward her dormitory, and Sabrina took out the roll of parchment with the series of notes she and Luna sent back and forth to one another and wrote:
Did you make it home safe? My aunts are being really weird.
Luna only sent back a simple “made it home safe” one day later. It wasn’t like her to be so brief. And Sabrina had never seen her aunt so agitated. What were they not telling her? And then her aunt’s voice came back to her, in the blur of activity she’d almost forgotten. “I think that’s your mother, Sabrina.” Her mother? The old muggle crackpot that Luna had taken her to in Paris was her mother? How could that be possible? And why was her aunt so scared of her? After all, if she was a muggle, surely she couldn’t harm them, right?
* * *
Days passed and Sabrina didn’t hear from Luna again. This wasn’t unusual, of course. They both had school work and could get busy. But given the abruptness of their last encounter Sabrina did wonder whether Luna had gotten in trouble – either with her aunts or Hogwarts, or someone else. And she missed her. Her aunts sent her a very brief letter via owl post the next morning, in aunt Zelda’s untidy scrawl.
Please don’t go looking.
Sabrina assumed she meant to not go looking for her mother, which seemed like a strange thing to say, especially without further elaboration. And as much as Sabrina longed to know more about her mother, she had no interest in looking more into the muggle woman in Paris who might be that person. She didn’t think she wanted to know, if that’s what she was to find out. So she went about her business.
However, the silence from Luna and her aunts after that must have been getting to her, because she found herself not objecting when Jules, the annoying first year, sat down at her table two weeks after her strange trip to Paris.
“How’s your year going so far?” Jules said.
Sabrina shrugged at her and picked at her crème brulee.
“I have a note for you,” Jules whispered, sliding a piece of parchment over toward her.
Sabrina looked up at Jules and studied her.
“What’s this?” she demanded.
“Just read it,” Jules said. “I hope to see you again.”
With that, Jules picked her tray back up and took it over to another table. Apparently she thought that this made her look less conspicuous or suspicious – a fact about which Sabrina emphatically disagreed.
Sabrina unfolded the note. It seemed to be Zelda’s handwriting again. Sabrina thought, before reading the message itself, that it seemed strange to have a note from her aunt sent to her via a random first year girl she didn’t think they even knew existed.
It’s time to tell you some things. Come to the house tonight at 9 PM. Jules isn’t invited.
Sabrina stared at the note, not sure what to think. Why would Jules be invited? How did her aunts even know her, or her name? What things were they planning to tell her? She had a sinking feeling they were going to be things she didn’t want to know.
* * *
Sabrina was sick to death of American muggle politics. Every two years her muggle friends and their parents got all worked up over choosing between two equally boring people. Her aunts were of mixed minds about this. They could both vote, like her father, because they were all American citizens. But Zelda felt that wizards were above muggle politics and shouldn’t get involved. Hilda often said she thought Zelda was being naïve about the dynamics of the country, after all wizards and witches were very much outnumbered, it’s just that muggles generally didn’t know they existed she they didn’t know they outnumbered them. Her father would just sigh and disappear into the shed, where he spent a lot of time banging things with his hammer and listening to wizard ham radio.
Sabrina appreciated being away at Beauxbatons Academy during muggle election season because she didn’t see any of the endless political ads while she was there. She didn’t know how wizards and witches decided who would lead their Ministry of Magic, which seemed to be the only real governing body, but mostly it didn’t bother her much. Of course, lately there had been more rumblings in her own family and at Beauxbatons about how the Ministry was almost entirely made up of Hogwarts people who seemed to be compromised and Voldemort seemed to be still alive, somehow, maybe they should stop letting British people make all their decisions for them.
But that was nothing compared to muggle political season. As soon as Sabrina apparated to the edge of Greendale, she saw political signs along the road that went into Riverdale. Sabrina had apparated on the edge of town rather than closer to her home because she was hoping to run into some of her Riverdale friends, but no one seemed to be around. So she started the walk into town. A bus roared passed her with a VOTE NO ON 2 sign. Sabrina didn’t know what 2 was, but apparently people on both sides had strong opinions about it. She made a mental note to try and remember to ask her muggle friends next time she saw them, if only to ease her curiosity.
“Sabrina,” Hilda was standing on the porch waiting for her when she arrived at her home. She had an apron on, she’d been baking apparently. Were they expecting company other than her?
“What’s wrong, aunt Hilda?” Sabrina asked.
“Come inside,” Hilda said briskly. Sabrina did so and Hilda closed and locked the door behind her. She never locked the door, that was more Zelda’s thing.
“Is that Sabrina?” Zelda called from the kitchen.
“Hi aunt Zelda!” Sabrina called back. “What smells so good?”
“I’m making banana bread!” Zelda said. “Come in and give me a kiss, will you?”
“Is that my little girl?” Sabrina’s father, Edward, came inside as well. Sabrina went into the kitchen and kissed them both on the cheek.
“Hi daddy,” Sabrina said. He was home, and he was out of his shed. Something must really by going on.
“Sit down, Sabrina,” Edward asked.
“Daddy, what’s wrong?” Sabrina studied his face. She’d never seen him look so worried. Or seen him spend so much time in the house with other people around.
“I need to tell you about your mother, Sabrina,” Edward said. “It’s time you know.”
“What’s to know, daddy? Aunt Hilda? Zelda? She was just some muggle right?”
“Not exactly,” Zelda’s lips narrowed in the middle of her face. It almost looked like she didn’t have lips.
“Her name was Diana,” Edward began, letting out a heavy sigh. “At least, that’s what her name was when I met her.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know,” Sabrina shrugged him off. Truthfully, she’d forgotten what her mother’s name was. What did it matter, after all? She had no relationship with her. And clearly her mother had no desire to have a relationship with her.
In her head, she also recalled bits of the conversation she’d had with Jules on the boat. Had Jules asked it her mother’s name was Diana?
“She was a muggle,” Edward said, sighing again.
“Was?” Sabrina asked.
“Yes,” Edward said, sighing for a third time. He didn’t seem to want to continue.
“Oh Edward. Edward. Just spit it out. Unless you want me too,” Zelda said exasperatedly.
“No, no. I can. I can do it.”
Sabrina and both her aunts sat and stared expectantly at Edward.
“She was a muggle,” Edward said again. “But then I – um – I tried to give her magical powers. Some of mine.”
“You can do that?” Sabrina asked curiously.
“Well, technically you can do it,” Edward said. “But I don’t advise it. It’s not a good idea.
“What happened?” Sabrina asked.
“That’s the thing,” Edward said, avoiding eye contact with his sisters, who looked ready to explode at him. “I don’t know exactly. I left.”
“Oh Edward,” Hilda snapped impatiently.
“Fine, fine, you tell her the rest,” Edward said.
“Your father fled. And you aunt and I went and met with her your mother. Cleaning up his messes, just like we always do.”
“What happened to her?” Sabrina asked. “What did you do to my mother?” She instantly thought of Salem, and wondered if she’d remembered to feed him before she left. He’d be OK. He was an excellent mouser. Better than any other cat Sabrina had ever known come to think of it.
“We had to modify her memory,” Hilda said. “Which is why she thinks she’s named Leona. We couldn’t remove the magic your father had given to her, not entirely. So we tried to contain it to one small portion of her brain. We figured that maybe she’d just grow up to be a little eccentric, with a lot of luck.”
“Leona?” Sabrina crowed. “That old crackpot in Paris is really my mother? She doesn’t have any magical powers!”
“She has more magic than you can ever imagine,” Zelda leaned in and stared darkly at Sabrina, “That’s what happens when a wizard gifts their magic. It’s one of the greatest gifts they can ever give, because it reduces their own magic. Your father became little more than a Squib, and your mother, imbued with magic intertwined with love, could change the face of the magical world if she ever knew her own power. Which is why she can never know.”
“I didn’t know all this!” Sabrina’s father said mournfully as he looked at Sabrina’s face, seemingly begging for forgiveness.
“You’ve paid a high enough price, Edward,” Hilda said soothingly.
“You mustn’t have any more contact with her,” Zelda said to Sabrina seriously. “She mustn’t ever learn what she is.”
“Is it true that she has another daughter at Beauxbatons?” Sabrina asked.
Zelda and Hilda looked at each other with worried looks in their eyes. Her father was starting to tear up, and he looked from one sister to another.
“Yes,” Hilda said, “It is true. And we think it is best you stay away from Jules as well. Her father does not see things our way. I don’t think you should trust her.”
Sabrina looked at her aunts, and her father, though he was now staring out the window. She got the feeling there was still more they weren’t telling her, but she waited a few minutes and more didn’t seem to be coming.
“OK” Sabrina said. “Should I go back now? I’ve got Transfiguration homework to do.”
Zelda stared at her hard.
“What?” Sabrina stared back at her, defiantly. “Next you’re going to tell me Luna’s up to no good too, right?”
“Luna should be fine. She has a good head on her shoulders.” Hilda smiled at Sabrina in a somewhat forced way. “I’ve always liked that girl. Reminds me of your father.”
Sabrina tried to stifle the laugh that instinctively came up inside her, and it came out like a little squeaky noise. Hilda and Zelda cocked their heads at her, unsure what to make of this noise. But the idea that her father either had a ‘good head on his shoulders’ or resembled Luna in any way…that was too much for Sabrina. She turned and left the back door and in a flash apparated back to Beauxbatons.
* * *
I really wish I’d gone to Beauxbatons. I knew Sabrina always tells me she doesn’t feel like she belongs there, and wishes she had gone to Hogwarts instead, but I think we’d both be happier at Beauxbatons if we were there together. Hogwarts is so cliquey. No one really talks to anyone outside of their house, whereas Sabrina told me once that at Beauxbatons they often forget there’s two houses. Maybe it’s because there’s only two. I’ve sometimes had fantasies about there being no Slytherin AND no Gryffindor. Only Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, and everyone has to fit into one of those two houses or go elsewhere. In my fantasy this would weed out a lot of the Slytherin, and we’d get to keep a lot of the very nice folks in Harry Potter’s house. Sigh. Harry Potter. I’m still stuck on him, diary. I still mostly only think about girls, especially Ginny Weasley, but there’s something so compelling about Harry Potter. And it’s not because he’s famous. In fact when I think about how famous he is – or watch him play Quidditch – he becomes much less attractive and interesting to me. It’s that night in the carriages when he noticed the thestrals for the first time, that’s when I felt it. He was so sad and lost and I just wanted to take him home and cuddle with him. I guess that’s not really what one is looking for in a boyfriend, is it? It’s certainly not what I fantasize about when I remember that kiss with Ginny Weasley or that night in the Muggle bar with Parvati Patil. I guess maybe it’s girls I fancy after all. I wonder how father will react when he finds out. I wonder how Sabrina would react if I told her. I’m quite terrified she’ll freak out and never want to talk to me again but I’m not sure how much longer I can keep it inside. Maybe it’s good that we don’t go to the same school after all. But I’m so lonely at Hogwarts. There have to be some other witches in the wizarding world like me right? I can’t be the only one. I used the think that Neville Longbottom was like me – or rather that he fancied boys – but one evening with him changed that. He’s more stuck on Ginny Weasley than I am. I guess Ginny is that kind of girl – the kind that everyone fancies.
I wonder if Parvati will call me. I wonder if she’ll talk to me after that night. I don’t really like her that much – she doesn’t seem that bright, quite frankly – but it would be nice to know it’s possible for someone to fancy me. Don’t that sound terrible and mean? I would be mortified if anyone ever read these thoughts. In fact, I think I shall make sure no one ever does.
Luna sat up, held her wand out at her journal where she had been writing, and said “incendio!” The journal instantly burst into flames.
“Aguamente!” Luna said and her wand became a fire hose, extinguishing the flames and drenching her desk, the journal, and her clothes at the same time.
* * *
Weeks went by and Sabrina didn’t hear any more from her aunts, or Luna, or run into Jules. She was simultaneously starting to feel lonely and invisible – and not for the first time – while also feeling relieved. Maybe she’d had a chance meeting with her mother and it had blown over. She didn’t need to go looking, her mother didn’t know it had been her, end of story. Nothing more too it.
It was December 5th when all the students were starting to talk about going home for the winter holidays and what they hoped to get for Winter Solstice. No one at Beauxbatons celebrated Christmas, another way in which it was different from Hogwarts and Ilvorney. Her aunts subscribed to the view that wizards and witches should not be celebrating the religious holidays of the very people who burned them at the stake and threw them into prison. Apparently all the other families who sent their kids to Beauxbatons felt the same way, because here the norm was the celebrate the winter solstice with all sorts of candles and other lights in the darkness, as well and hot beverages but nothing about God or Santa Claus or anything of that sort. Sabrina always felt so uncomfortable as all her muggle friends in Riverdale were all about Christmas. She spent a lot of the time hanging out at Ethel Muggs’ family home because they were Jewish and could relate to how Sabrina felt.
“Are you going home for the holidays?” Jules came up from behind her and caught her by surprise. Sabrina hadn’t seen her for weeks and had half-hoped she transferred to a different school.
“Where did you come from,” Sabrina muttered irritably.
“My father is taking me to America,” Jules said. “He says he has a business conference but he’s going to take me along and let me explore on my own during the day. While he’s working.”
“Oh,” was all Sabrina said, nodding encouragingly.
“I also confirmed who our mother is, and where,” Jules said casually.
“And who is that?” Sabrina asked, figuring it would be good to know what she knew. Jules stared right at her and could tell she knew Sabrina was lying. Sabrina could lie to her muggle friends but she could never lie to wizards or witches. They always saw right through her.
“I think you know,” was all Jules said, and she flipped her hair over one shoulder and walked away.
“Why doesn’t it matter, anyway?” Sabrina blurted out, and then as Jules paused, and slowly turned around she regretted having said anything.
“I thought you know,” Jules said.
“Knew what?” Sabrina snapped back at her.
“She’s powerful. The wizarding world fears her, she’s so powerful. She doesn’t seem to know how much magic she has, and no one can figure out where it came from. She’s from a long line of muggles.
Sabrina stared at her feet and squirmed a little, remembering her father’s words. She can never know. If only there was a way to give the magic back to her father, maybe he would stop being so sad.
“You know something, don’t you?” Jules stepped closer to her again.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sabrina stepped back, avoiding eye contact. Jules was too young to be a legilmens, right? She couldn’t possible have that power at just 14, right? Still, she wasn’t taking any chances. That girl was…weird.