Chapter Text
The harsh rustling of leaves awoke her, a white noise accompanying her ceiling fan, rough in the still morning air. Rain fell against her window, a bright flash let her know of the thunderstorm outside. She loved storms just as much as the next person, but when they interrupted her sleep, they became more of an irritant than anything else. Cold seeped through the window from a sliver beneath it that had never fully sealed. Her cat, Fisher, poked his head out from her blanket before going back to sleep, his messy black fur blending in with her bed.
Rhea sat up slowly, throwing the thick blanket draped over her bed to the ground, startling Fisher awake. She glared out the window as she rubbed at her eyes, a headache blooming just behind them. Her room was a mess, as it always was. Books were strewn across the floor, and clothing sat in a pile in front of her door. Above her desk, rickety and beaten down, was a calendar still reading ‘April’ two months after it had passed. Posters peeled the paint off of her wall, their adhesive gone after years of fixed placement, cracking it to reveal the white beneath.
After a moment, Rhea glanced out the window again before standing up. She barely made it a few feet away before something crashed into her window. She turned back and blinked at the white lines spreading through the glass, and eyed Fisher, who hissed at the space behind the window. Curiosity got the best of Rhea, and she headed down the stairs, tripping over the pile of clothes as she left her room.
"Hey, sweetheart," David, her dad, spoke as she stopped behind him. "Any idea what that was? Do we have a suspect?"
"Nope." Rhea shook her head.
David opened the door cautiously and looked outside into the icy rain. Rhea’s window was almost directly above the front door so, to no one’s surprise, something flew over their heads into the house. Janet, Rhea's mother, followed the thing with her eyes as she spoke. "I think it’s an owl."
"An owl?" David raised an eyebrow. "In this weather?"
Janet shrugged and walked up to it. Sure enough, it was an owl, disgruntled and shaking out its feathers on their steps. A letter was attached to its leg which, unlike the bird, was completely dry.
Rhea carefully untied the letter and looked at the stamp sealing it. She walked after Janet, who carried the owl into their kitchen. "It’s my Hogwarts letter."
David stood near his wife, ready to help if the barn owl suddenly decided its wings worked again. He smirked at her in disbelief. "How would they have known you were here? We live in a muggle neighbourhood. I doubt Dumbledore sent the letters personally."
"He probably does," Janet said as she cautiously dried the owl.
"Could be. I’m surprised I even got one." Rhea said absentmindedly as she squinted at the owl again. It suddenly sat up, startling her parents. Rhea raised an eyebrow at them, a habit she picked up from David when she was little.
After a moment, she laughed quietly and went to the cupboard under their sink, where she kept owl treats for the rare occasion she got mail.
Rhea tossed the owl a few and quickly scribbled a letter back, saying she'd be attending. The owl prepared itself as Rhea tied it to the owl's leg and flew out the open window as soon as she was done.
"Now that the owl is off our table, let’s open the letter." David smiled and clapped his hands together.
Rhea sat down and carefully tore it open. Inside were two pieces of paper, which she skimmed before looking back up at her parents.
"This is exciting, don’t you think? You’ll finally be able to do magic." David remarked. Rhea never understood his excitement regarding the magical world. Being a muggle held much fewer complications for her.
"I can only do magic in school," Rhea said as she put a hand on his shoulder. "Only after I turn 17 is magic allowed outside of school."
Rhea turned around, ready to go to her room, catching a quick glimpse of David giving his wife an excited smile. Rhea smiled slightly in return, hiding the upturned corners of her lips.
She dragged herself back up to her room and closed the door before she fell face-down onto her bed, almost missing it completely.
On tomorrow's agenda: go to Diagon Alley and prepare for her first year at Hogwarts.
Rhea awoke a few hours later, disgruntled and exhausted, to find David freaking out in the next room. "What do I wear? How do I look? Should I brush my teeth? Of course, I should; what a dumb question! Janet, do I look sexy in this shirt?"
Rhea took a moment to collect her thoughts and shake off the grogginess. She rolled her eyes at her father’s frantic yelling. She dragged herself out of bed and grabbed the closest clean clothes she could find before going to shower. The warm water helped clear her head, but it did nothing for the exhaustion creeping steadily through her body.
"Not much sleep again?" Janet asked as Rhea stumbled into the kitchen with a yawn.
Rhea shook her head, grabbing the cup of tea Janet handed her. "Nope."
"Why don’t you take sleeping pills?"
"Because she's not weak, she’s strong like me," David said as he walked in with a smirk. Janet glared at him as he kissed her cheek. He chuckled at his wife and took a bite out of the muffin in her hand, looking at Rhea smugly.
She wrinkled her nose back before standing up and walking to the front door. She kicked the pile of junk mail aside and pulled the door open roughly. She lingered in the driveway, complaining to David about his tardiness as he scrambled to find his things scattered around the house. By Ten, she had to just drag him to the car.
The drive was horrible.
The music on the radio sucked more than usual, and David kept singing along in notes Rhea didn't think she had ever heard before. They were stuck in traffic for twenty minutes before they were even near the Leaky Cauldron, where a group of people were crowding around someone she recognised as Harry Potter.
To say she had a headache would be an understatement, and that paired with perpetual nausea and exhaustion made for a particularly bad day. She ran a hand through her hair and looked off at Gringotts as she stepped through the shifting archway to Diagon Alley. She gestured to it vaguely and started walking towards the building, her parents following behind.
"Hello?" Rhea called up to a Goblin, sat at a platform that was almost twice her size.
He didn't look at her as he spoke. "Vault and name?"
"Rhea Thorn, Vault 705."
He glanced up, and recognition flashed across his face as he saw her. "Ms. Thorn, welcome back. Go with Griphook."
Janet and David frowned and glanced at Rhea as she followed Griphook with Janet’s wrist in hand. They shakily make their way down through the bank, in a rickety cart that hadn’t been replaced since Gringotts’ founding. Vault 705 was deep underground, down where keys didn't open the vaults. Her biological parents never liked having low security for anything, and their possessions were some of the most important things in their lives. After going to Azkaban, they left Rhea the vault, since neither were in a state to use it. They trusted that their daughter would use the money well. Of course, they couldn’t have predicted that she would spend it on ice cream, but she was seven. What was she supposed to do with millions of galleons?
The vault opened slowly with Griphook’s touch and was filled with rows of neatly stacked gold, silver, and bronze coins. In a corner was a small box with muggle money, only used for special occasions. The walls were lined with artefacts in the possession of the Thorn family. One that always stood out to Rhea was a locket hanging from a hook. It was gold with an ‘S’ embedded in green stone on the front. David touched it as he passed and Rgea saw a vacant expression cross his face.
Rhea grabbed his wrist and tore it away. "Don’t touch that thing. It’s dangerous."
“Alright, alright.” David held his hands up. He glanced over at Janet. “Can we leave? This place is creepy.”
“Yeah, I’ve got all we need,” Rhea replied as she pushed past Griphook.
Leaving Gringotts was always better than entering.
A bell rang through Flourish and Blotts as they entered, echoing through the tall shelves of books. The cashier smiled at them from behind the counter before going back to reading.
"Ok. Here’s the list." Rhea said, handing a piece of paper over to them. "Can you guys go search for some of them? I just want to go check on something."
Rhea's parents nodded, and David took the list, walking farther off into the shop with Janet gripping his sleeve. Rhea walked in the opposite direction and went through to the back, a dusty old storage room that didn’t have any visibility. She squinted through the darkness at light streaking down from the window highlighting the dust that drifted about.
"Erin?" She called out.
A figure jumped down from a shelf behind her and smiled. Their teeth shone in the dark, a bit too white, the canines a bit too sharp. Curly red hair spilt into their eyes, and they pushed it away before speaking. "Hey, Rhea. You’ve grown."
Rhea snorted out a laugh. "Yes. Four years do that to some people. You, however, haven’t changed a bit."
"Being Amortal has its benefits." They gave a small smirk back.
Erin was an unknown type of Amortal and like poltergeists, he’s never truly lived, so he cannot die. They live the life of a normal wizard, not showing their Amortality for the most part. They have worked in different parts of Diagon Alley since they moved there with Rhea as a child, so is well known in the wizarding community.
"You’re going to Hogwarts this year, right?" He spun around and walked away. "You’re finally able to be the person you were destined to be."
Rhea stumbled after them through the dark. "... A witch?"
"Not quite what I was thinking, but sure," Erin smirked back at Rhea.
Rhea shook her head and smirked back as they continued deeper into the shop. Erin stopped at a desk shoved into a corner and rummaged about in a drawer. He took out a book and gave it to her. "As promised. A book about every tip and trick, every spell and curse, every potion, and every artefact I know of, written by yours truly."
"Such an incredible introduction for something so underwhelming," Rhea smirked, holding the book up to the light.
"Decades of adventure and injury, wasted on you." Erin shook their head. "Tragic."
Rhea stuck out her tongue as she left him behind with a greeting, meeting back up with her parents. She strolled through the shop, skimming a few of the titles of books as she passed before paying. Getting the rest of Rhea’s equipment bored her, and she ran through the motions as quickly as she could.
"Ok," Rhea spoke as they approached a run-down shop near Diagon Alley’s entrance. "I don't need to get a pet; I already have one. I’m going to get my wand. Here are a few galleons; go get something at Honeydukes, maybe."
Janet raised her eyebrows before smirking at David. The two wandered off into Diagon Alley as Rhea walked into Ollivander’s. *This* was the part she was most excited about. She stepped inside the shop, watching as the dust shifted around her. The front room was dimly lit, and rows upon rows of wands lined the back of it.
"Miss Thorn." Someone spoke suddenly. Rhea turned to the voice, unamused. "How wonderful to see you here."
Rhea raised an eyebrow in response as Ollivander smiled at her and said, "You are just like your mother; no reaction to anything."
"Do you *try* to startle the people that come in here? Because scaring me doesn’t come that easy."
"Yes, yes. Your wand arm?" Ollivander waved dismissively as he disappeared into the store.
"Uhm, left is more comfortable." She called after him.
A measuring tape zoomed up to her at her answer, and it started moving around her arm. She heard the wandmaker mutter something about being just like her father, and she grimaced at the remark. After a few moments of measuring, the tape disappeared, and Ollivander came back with a wand, sleek and light. He ripped it out of her hand after she waved it around and almost smashed his windows. She smiled ruefully and apologised. He just looked at her with a grimace.
A few scrapes and bruises later, Ollivander made his way to her with a smile and a new wand. Black, fading to a rusty brown, and thin with runes carved into the lighter wood. "This is a very dangerous wand. I like to experiment with different types of wand cores, and mixing two powerful ones is never a good idea, but with the help of strong wood, it worked well. Blackthorn wood, the wood of warriors. The core is exceptional in this case. Both dragon heartstring and phoenix feather. The pairing was strange, and I'm surprised it worked. Phoenix Feather has a very wide range of magic, I think this one will do you good. 33cm, rigid."
Rhea reached out and grabbed it, feeling the grooves beneath her fingers. She smiled slowly and waved it through the air. A warm glow surrounded them, and she looked up at Ollivander, who was smiling back at her.
She was so excited.