Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. Luella, Deanna, Marlie, Rianne, Caitlin, Melissa and most of the Slytherins (with the obvious exceptions of Snape and the Malfoys) are my own characters.

The concept of glamoury (not used much until further parts) is also found in Lori's Paradigm of Uncertainty. But I happen to know she didn't invent it, it's from Irish mythology, so I'm safe. I should also acknowledge Sphinx's excellent Letter From Exile This Merciful Morning and Spydre's Fairies and Wizards, two excellent Snape-fics which gave me a lot of ideas. I can also not recommend too highly Cassandra Claire's Draco Dormiens and Draco Sinister fics, which have given me a fair bit of inspiration for later parts. Finally, there is also a potion called Sleeping Death mentioned in Penny Linsenmayer and Carole Estes's A Sirius Affair. It's got no connection with the one in this fic aside from the name, which I adapted from the Draught of Living Death mentioned in Philosopher's Stone. The effects of this Sleeping Death are entirely my own devising. Although if Penny & Carole fancy using it in ASA or any other related fic, they're more than welcome. The Asclepio Charm comes from Draco Dormiens and Draco Sinister. All fics mentioned above are available on and FictionAlley, and I highly recommend them all.

Author's Note: This fic came about because of two things: firstly, a chance comment by someone on the Harry Potter for Grown-ups list on what might be going through Snape's mind at certain points in the books. Secondly, after an HP personality test put me firmly in Slytherin. Took some getting used to as I always thought I was a Ravenclaw, but I finally came round to the idea. And then it occurred to me just how badly regarded we really were. The word "Slytherin" appears by some to be thought of as a shorter way of saying "Death Eater". And to be honest, this rapidly became annoying. So I decided to do something about it. I decided to write an alternative history of Hogwarts and Harry Potter. One in which, far from being the enemy, Slytherins were valued and an intrinsic part of the plot.

I had three objectives in mind:

1. To give Slytherin house a makeover and prove to the world we are not all Death Eaters.

2. To write in some strong female characters while I was at it. It's been quite a common complaint that there aren't enough, so seeing as I had a few kicking around my brain not doing anything useful, I thought I'd bring them in. Unfortunately, they then started taking the story and running with it, so this fic's going to be rather OC dominated, at least initially. Bear with it.

3. Get inside the mind of my favourite character, Professor Snape. Long have I puzzled over what the hell happened to him to turn him into such a bastard. After much discussion on various mailing lists, much thought and deduction of my own, and a lot of time spent reading Snape-fics, I can finally say I've a fair idea. Not that I'm going to tell you. Yet. : ) However, let's say that this fic is as much a story about the Redemption of Professor Snape as it is about the Redemption of the whole of Slytherin House. Snape-fans, you'll love it.

Finally, I should warn you all that this will be an epic. There'll probably be about eight parts in all. Part One is set two years before Philosopher's Stone, the next five parts will each run in tandem with one of the Harry Potter books, and the last three will be largely of my own devising.

November 2002: Looking back on this two years later, and I'm torn between nostalgic affection and cringing. So I'm doing a rewrite. Watch the mistress at work. :) Also, one point which I feel wasn't fully mentioned earlier. THIS IS AN AU FIC. It's not faithful to canon in the slightest. Well, it is mostly, but not entirely. For example, I've changed Lily's house from Gryffindor to Slytherin. This wasn't arbitrary on my part, but when I started writing the original version, Lily's house was unknown. It wasn't revealed as Gryffindor until after I'd planned the fic and got it underway, by which time it was a little late to change things. So a Slytherin she stays. The fic is also R-rated in parts, although most is PG-13. In fact, if you skip the last scene of chapter four of Enemies of the Heir, it’s practically all PG-13. I can’t say any of it’s really aimed at kids though. But if you’re over 15, you’re probably OK to read it, unless you’re a fundamentalist Christian, a particularly patriotic American unable to laugh at one’s country’s foibles (it’s only fair to warn you that some US readers didn’t find some of the jokes to their taste) or exceptionally narrow-minded. Also there’s unlikely to be any slash, so if you can’t stomach the thought of your favourite characters being (shock! Horror!) heterosexual, this may not be for you. Now read on.

Slytherin Rising Part One: Sleeping Death

by J. L. Matthews

Chapter One

A Mysterious Letter

July, 1989. Somewhere in suburban Surrey.

“Get out,” the eleven year old hissed at her best friend. “Just get out!”

The friend in question, a moderately tall, skinny girl with angular features, jet black hair and deep black eyes, whose name was Deanna Tyler, stared back in shock.

“Lu…” she began, but the other girl was having none of it. Luella Martin, as she was called, was in a fury that easily outmatched Deanna’s own fiery temper.

“I mean it, Deanna,” Luella raged. “You want to go flouncing off to that posh boarding school your mum went to, that’s fine! But if you think for one minute I am going to make it easy for you to up and leave me like this, you have another think coming! I am not going to sit by and smile while my best friend disappears off to the other end of the country! I’m not!” She turned away, wiping a tear away from the corner of one of her blue-grey eyes, dark brown hair hiding her round, normally placid and friendly features.

Deanna never could bear to see her friend cry. It was even worse when she was the cause. “Lu, don’t,” she whispered, taking a step forward. Luella brushed her away.

“Deanna, just go,” Luella whispered. “Unless you’re planning to tell your mum that you don’t want to go to this Hogwash place…”

“Hogwarts,” Deanna automatically corrected.

“Whatever. Unless you tell her you don’t want to go, don’t bother hanging around. It only makes it worse.”

“I don’t think there’s many places left at Tiffin’s any more, are there?” Deanna asked, trying to make light of the situation. “It’s a very popular school, your mum says. It’s very difficult to get into, apparently. You know, your parents are really proud of you for making the grade, plenty of girls don’t…” She broke off on seeing Luella look up, eyes brimming with tears. Oh gods, Lu, don’t look at me like that! You know I can’t bear seeing you hurt. And you know as well as I that there’s not a single thing I can do about this. Don’t make it any harder!

“Do you really think I care,” Luella snarled, advancing on her friend, “about getting into a good school, and getting top marks, when you are not going to be there?? Do you? If so, then you really do not know a thing about me!”

“Not true,” Deanna whispered. But Luella hadn’t heard.

“Go on, get back to your mother,” she said, defeated. “Get ready for your new life away from here. God knows, at least one of us is getting away from this bloody place at last.”

“Lu,” Deanna said softly, reaching out for her friend who was now sitting in her bedroom window, staring out at her back garden. Luella waved her away.

“Just go,” was all she said. With a heavy heart, Deanna too gave in and turned away. No sense talking to Luella when she wasn’t going to listen. However, she did pause as she reached the door.

“I’ll write,” she said softly. Luella did not appear to hear her. Hanging her head, Deanna left. Trying to look nonchalant as she bade Luella’s mother goodbye on her way out, Deanna headed for home, wondering what on earth she was going to do about this. She hadn't expected Luella to take it this badly. Yet on reflection, what had she expected? Luella and Deanna had known each other for years. They lived in the same street and had grown up together. Deanna's mother, bringing up her daughter on her own, had been glad of the support the Martins had offered when she moved in, and the two girls had spent a lot of time together as a result. It could have easily ended up with the two of them hating each other, but for some reason, they hit it off immediately. They discovered they had similar personalities, a shared delight for mischief, and perhaps most significantly, neither of them were like anyone else they knew. For example, things just seemed to happen around them both. Things flew off shelves or fell off walls from time to time. Or disappeared entirely. Then there was that time when both of them managed to get themselves trapped in a locked cupboard at school, without opening the door first. Their teachers were regularly furious with them, and Mr. and Mrs. Martin were always wondering why their daughter couldn't be normal like everyone else. Mrs. Tyler, on the other hand, seemed to tolerate her child's antics with an attitude of amusement. But then, she wasn't exactly normal herself. An eccentric young Welsh widow with a mysterious job in London that occasionally required her to disappear at short notice for days at a time leaving Deanna with the Martins, her house was a regular treasure trove of candles, incense, the family owl Grendel, crystals, weird objects with no apparent purpose, normal objects which did anything but normal things and books with titles like Dancing the Dark: My Life as an Auror by Penelope Moonfalcon, Dark Wizards and Witches of the 20th Century by Burke and O'Reilly (19th ed.), and Counter Curses for all Occasions by Ninianne Paracelsus. The "village witch", she was called behind her back, and Luella at least had often wondered whether it might not be true. Deanna, however, accepted all this as normal. It was the rest of the world she'd always thought was strange. Whereas Luella had only been able to wonder if she really belonged here, Deanna had always known she hadn't. And this was the source of their current disagreement.

Deanna had been down for her mother's old school since she was a child. Luella, needless to say, was attending the local high school. This might not have been an insurmountable problem for two normal girls, but Luella and Deanna were not normal. The other schoolchildren had always picked on them and tormented them, or at best, ignored them. All they'd really had was each other. Not anymore. They were finally going to be separated by events beyond their control. While Deanna hated hurting her friend and would miss her more than anything, there was no way she could turn down Hogwarts. No way.

A few days passed. In their separate homes, Luella spent as much time as possible shut in her room, listlessly going along with her parents' plans for the new school year, while Deanna... actually, Deanna was doing much the same thing, if she had but known it.

Deanna's mother, a slenderly built honey-blonde witch with mischievous brown eyes and a charming smile that concealed most effectively the steely core within, was planning her only child's forthcoming departure with an efficiency bordering on military. Although given that she did actually work for the nearest thing the magical world had to an army, that wasn't entirely unexpected.

"Let me see," Caitlin Tyler murmured, idly tracing the school list in front of her with the end of a rather expensive looking quill pen. "Cauldron, scales set, robes, three sets thereof, telescope, about five textbooks, and of course, a wand. Hecate, this is going to be expensive. What do they think we are, made of money?"

"We are, aren't we?" asked Deanna, her mind elsewhere as she stared out of the window at the Martin's house.

"Well, yes, but that's not the point," said Caitlin. "What about those without much money? The Weasleys for example: Arthur and Molly have got two starting this year, how are they going to manage?"

"Who cares?" shrugged Deanna. "They're not us."

"Deanna!" her mother warned her. "Don't be so selfish."

"I'm not being selfish," Deanna replied. "I just don't know them as well as you, that's all."

"I don't know them that well," Caitlin admitted. "I just see Arthur at work sometimes. But that's hardly the point. You should be nice to those less fortunate."

"Mother, if you really wanted to be nice to them, you'd offer to buy their kids' Hogwarts stuff," Deanna pointed out, not entirely unreasonably.

"They'd never accept it," Caitlin said, returning her attention to the school list.

"Their problem then, isn't it?" Deanna replied, indicating that that was the end of it. Caitlin had to admit that there was a certain logic to that. However, she didn't think it would be a good idea to let her daughter know that. Changing the subject, she asked,

"So how's Luella then? Coping well with everything? All the upheaval of a new school, must be difficult for her. Wonder how her family are taking it."

"Absolutely fine," Deanna replied, stony-faced. "Making plans and buying her uniform right now. That tutor her parents hired got her through the eleven-plus, so off to Tiffin Girls School she goes."

"Tiffins?" Caitlin laid down her quill, a rather perplexed look on her face. "She never mentioned anything about going away to boarding school at all?"

Deanna shook her head. "No. Should she have done?"

Caitlin leaned back in her velveteen dark green armchair, frowning. "That's odd. She should have heard by now..." She sat upright, fixing Deanna with a stare that suddenly filled the girl with an irresistible urge to start fidgeting. "Are you sure she's had no offers from any other school?"

"I think Kingston Grammar were interested too, why?" Deanna asked, her curiosity piqued. Sitting upright, as opposed to lounging vertically on the sofa, she returned her mother's gaze without so much as a blink. "Mum, what's going on, do you know something I don't?"

"Not know exactly," Caitlin said, deep in thought. "Just something I suspected. Maybe I was wrong. I mean, I suppose I could be wrong, but... I'll have to see if I can't check a few records at the Ministry, or maybe hit up Albus for some information, but I always thought..." Her voice trailed off.

"Ministry records??" Deanna asked, now totally confused. "Why would Lu and her family have Ministry records, they're Muggles!" Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "They are Muggles, aren't they?"

"Her parents are, certainly," Caitlin replied. "But about Luella, I am not so sure."

Deanna found herself lost for words as one of the pillars of her reality began to tremble. "But Mum, she can't be, she's just a Muggle kid, where would she have inherited her powers from?"

"I couldn't even begin to tell you," Caitlin said distantly. "But this I do know, magic can appear spontaneously in any Muggle family. You don't need to be pure- or even half-blood to do magic."

And with those words, one of Deanna's main beliefs finally dissolved and came crashing to the ground. Some Muggle kids can do magic. We're not a breed apart. Swiftly followed by if some Muggles can do magic too, then why not Lu?

"You think she's one of us." Deanna shot to her feet. "You think she's one of us, don't you!" She began to pace the floor, becoming increasingly agitated. "Oh my gods, she could be coming to Hogwarts too. Mum, we have to go over there, there's so much she doesn't know, she's probably not even been told yet, Mum, we have got to get over there!" she cried. Overcome with desperation, she headed for the door.

Realising that her daughter was serious, Caitlin leapt from her seat, covered the few feet between her and Deanna with ease and grabbed her arm.

"Deanna, you can't!"

Deanna spun round, jet black eyes flashing in fury.

"Why not? I've got to tell her, she can't go on not knowing!" she demanded.

"Yes," said Caitlin through gritted teeth, "but you can't just go storming over there! These things need time. They need diplomacy. They need to go through the official channels, for a start! We don't even know if it's true yet."

Deanna sagged, the fire going out of her. "Suppose you're right," she muttered. "So when will we know then?"

Releasing her, Caitlin walked over to the mirror hanging on one wall and tapped it with one end of a tapering wand of finest ash wood. "Revelatio!"

The mirror misted up, before clearing to reveal the Martins' front room, in which Luella and her parents appeared to be having the mother and father of all rows, before a vase on the mantelpiece exploded and Luella turned and stormed off. On the table were some rolls of what looked suspiciously like parchment not entirely dissimilar to Deanna's book list.

Caitlin banished the picture with a word and sheathed her wand.

"I think that just answered your question."

Luella was lying upstairs on her bed when her mother knocked on the door.

"Luella! Luella! Come downstairs at once! Your father and I need to talk to you." Muttering, Luella rolled off the bed and followed her mother downstairs. This did not sound promising. Mrs. Martin never referred to Mr. Martin as "your father" unless she was in trouble. A look at her mother's face confirmed it. Mrs. Martin, normally a friendly, attractive woman in her early forties, had a very firm look on her face which clearly indicated that she had a lot of explaining to do. What it could be about, Luella had no idea. She went into the Martin's comfortable middle-class sitting room and sat down on the plush green three-piece suite. Mr. Martin, a balding, slightly overweight man with the same brown hair and blue eyes that all the family had, was holding what looked like a scroll. A couple of letters lay on the table, except that certainly wasn't A4 they were written on. They were rolled up for a start.

"Luella, what exactly is the meaning of this?" Mr. Martin's voice carried a mixture of both irritation and confusion. Luella, apprehensive, took the letter from him and read.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Martin,

We are pleased to inform you that your daughter Luella has been selected to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We appreciate that this may come as a shock to you, however there is no doubt in our minds that Luella has natural magical ability, and is an ideal candidate for Hogwarts. While mindful of the fact that she is your daughter and her education yours to choose, we would like you to consider that if she does not attend Hogwarts, she will never learn how to use her powers appropriately, and they will be liable to erupting at occasions, particularly when your daughter is upset, angry, or otherwise emotionally excited. This tendency will increase as she gets older and her powers grow stronger. We therefore strongly recommend that you allow your daughter to attend Hogwarts, and return the attached reply slip to the address below. We enclose some literature about the school to enable you to make your choice. If you require assistance, please tick the appropriate box on the form and a member of our staff team will be pleased to visit you and answer any questions you may have. We hope to receive a reply by 1st August 1989.

Yours sincerely,

Prof. Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster

Luella looked up, stunned. Hogwarts School? Surely not that place Deanna was going to? Witchcraft and Wizardry? Natural magical powers? But that could only mean...

"I'm a witch?" Luella asked faintly.

Her parents looked at each other. They didn't look happy.

"Luella, is this some kind of a joke?" Mrs. Martin asked. "Witches don't exist, surely you know that? I know you wanted to go to this Hogwarts place that Deanna is going to, but really, writing a letter saying you've been selected? And why add the witchcraft bit?"

"Mum, Dad, I didn't write it! You know my handwriting, that's not it! It's not Deanna's either," she added quickly. It was exactly the sort of thing Deanna would do, but all the same, she didn't think even Deanna would go this far. And witchcraft? Surely not... but the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. All the strange things that she and Deanna had been able to do. The way they'd always felt not only different from everyone else, but somehow as though they were the same. And let's face it, Mrs. Tyler's lifestyle was hardly conventional. It was not difficult to believe she was a witch. Nor was it hard to believe Deanna had inherited her powers. But surely not her? Her family was as conventional as it was possible to get. How could she possibly be a witch?

"I promise you, I don't know anything about it, this is the first I've heard of it." She felt herself trembling. "I know Hogwarts is the name of Deanna's school, but honestly, I didn't know it had anything to do with magic! Really!"

Her parents looked sceptical. Mr. Martin was first to speak. "Well, if you say you don't know anything, then I believe you, but all the same, we're not happy about this."

"Witchcraft and Wizardry, indeed!" Mrs. Martin exclaimed. "What sort of fools do they take us for? Obviously some kind of stunt to lure innocent children away from their parents for Lord only knows what end. Well, they can forget it. You most certainly are not going."

She made to throw the package of documents away.

"No!" cried Luella, making a grab for them. "You can't! You can't not let me go there! Deanna's going, and if she can, why can't I?"

"Mrs. Tyler has the right to educate her daughter however she sees fit," Mr. Martin said stiffly. "And, as that letter reminds us, so do we. And if you think we're letting you disappear off to goodness knows where, you've got another think coming."

"And even if it was real and not a joke..." Mrs. Martin added.

"IT IS REAL!" Luella shouted, "Deanna's going, I keep telling you!"

"And even if it was real," Mrs. Martin continued, "do you really think you're studying witchcraft? It sounds quite dangerous. No, we think you're better off here."

"I don't believe this," Luella said, furious. "My one chance at getting out of this hellhole, of doing something constructive with my life, and you won't let me go! You're always spoiling my fun, always telling me what to do with my life, and I've had enough. You're not stopping me going to Hogwarts!" she shouted. A vase standing on the mantelpiece exploded, sending shards of china everywhere. Mr. and Mrs. Martin looked at its remains, open mouthed. Mr. Martin looked at Luella with a mixture of fear and anger. Luella stared back defiantly. "Go to your room. We'll discuss it later." he said.

Luella turned and left. She was a witch. She had power. She was only eleven years old, and didn't know any spells, but she had the power. "I'm a witch, a witch!" she whispered to herself. Wait until Deanna heard this, she thought. All resentment forgotten, she could only imagine going to Hogwarts, learning magic, casting spells, having fun with Deanna. Mrs. Tyler must be a witch too, she'll understand how important it is. She'll talk them round.

She was halfway up the stairs when the doorbell rang. Turning round, she scrambled down the stairs and went to answer it.

Deanna was first to push inside, although once in, she just stopped and stared at Luella as if seeing her for the first time. "Well?" she asked. "Is it true?"

No need to ask what she meant. Their recent quarrel forgotten, Luella found herself smiling.

"Yeah," she whispered. "It is."

"I thought as much," Caitlin Tyler's voice said dryly as she edged inside. She too was looking at Luella with new eyes, but there was no surprise there. She knows, and has known for a long time, Luella realised. Somehow, the thought cheered her.

"May I take it your parents were a little shocked by the news?" Caitlin asked.

"You could say that," Luella admitted. "Mrs. Tyler, they won't let me go! Please, Mrs. Tyler, you're one too, aren't you? You can tell them it's real and not dangerous, can't you? Please?"

Deanna was shocked. "Not... not go?" She faltered, turning to her mother. "Mum, she can't not go! You said it yourself over breakfast, if Hogwarts wants you, you've got to go. Mum, you've got to make them see sense, you've got to!"

"I'll do my best," Caitlin promised, as Luella's mother arrived. She did not look happy.

"Is this anything to do with you?" she demanded, brandishing Luella's Hogwarts letter. Caitlin groaned inwardly. Time to play innocent.

"Is what anything to do with me?" she asked sweetly.

"This!" snapped Mrs. Martin, thrusting the letter into her hands. "This... witchcraft nonsense!"

Caitlin glanced down at her outfit ruefully. It wasn't exactly her most sorcerous attire, consisting of trainers, jeans, a white vest and a blue hooded top. She never had liked robes much.

"Do I look like a witch to you?" she asked with a laugh.

Mrs. Martin had to admit she didn't. "But Hogwarts is your daughter's school, is it not?" she flung back, not to be put off.

"Yes. It is, or soon will be." Caitlin abandoned the pretence and looked Mrs. Martin straight in the eye. "There is nothing to be afraid of," she said quietly, seeming to Luella to be concentrating unusually hard. And to her surprise, her mother's demeanour seemed to change at once, as the anger drained out of her.

"Caitlin, is it true?" she whispered, shaking all over. "Is she really a witch?"

Caitlin passed the letter back. "If you were sent one of these, then yes she is. But truly, Celia, it is nothing to be afraid of." Caitlin took Mrs. Martin's arm tenderly. "Come on, let's talk." She turned to the two girls. "You two run off and do whatever eleven year olds do. Don't get into mischief, you hear me?" With that, she led Luella's mother into the living room, closing the door behind her.

Luella watched as they left, desperate to know what was going to happen, which way her future was going to turn.

"Do you think she'll convince them?" she asked Deanna anxiously.

Deanna just rolled her eyes. "Duh. She's a witch. Course she'll do it. You saw what she can do. Face it Lu, your parents don't stand a chance."

Mr. Martin looked up as the two women entered, swiftly covering his inner worries with his most officious persona. Yes, he was worried sick about Luella and terrified some maniac was after her, but that didn't mean half the neighbourhood needed to know it.

"Ah, Caitlin. Just the woman we were looking for. I was wondering if you could shed any light on this whole Hogwarts thing. I gather Celia has already told you all about it."

"She has." Caitlin took a seat, gearing up for battle. Even though she didn't doubt the outcome, that didn't mean she was looking forward to it.

"And?" Mr. Martin demanded. "Is there anything to it or not?"

"She says it's true," Mrs. Martin said, close to tears as she almost fell into the seat alongside Caitlin.

"What?" cried Mr. Martin, outraged. "Caitlin, I thought you had more sense. You're not seriously telling me you believe in this witchcraft rubbish?"

Ever so slowly, Caitlin turned to face him dead on. "You don't need to believe in what you use every day, Terry. I couldn't do my job without it. In fact, wouldn't have to do my job without it. That letter's true, every word of it. I know the author personally." She smiled rather sardonically. "Congratulations, Terry, Celia. You've got a witch in the family."

Mr. Martin looked distinctly unimpressed. "Now look here, Caitlin, we were hoping you'd lay this nonsense to rest once and for all. There's no such thing as witches."

Mrs. Tyler's smile faded. "No such thing, is there?" she said softly. Getting up, she reached into her jacket and produced her wand. Somehow, this simple gesture had a way of fixing the attention of both Muggles in a way all the fancy words couldn't, as the physical presence of something that couldn't really have any other purpose than magic made it all utterly, totally, real. Caitlin cast her eye on the remains of the vase Luella had smashed earlier. "Luella's broken an ornament, has she? I used to do that quite a bit too. My mother took to buying things purely for me to break. Relieved she was, when I turned eleven and she could pack me off to school. Allow me." She pointed the wand at the vase's remains and called out "Reparo!" The pieces of the vase gathered from all corners of the room and flew together. The vase glowed for a bit then stopped. Mrs. Martin got up to examine it. "The vase!" she gasped. "It's completely mended!"

"Let me see that." Mr. Martin demanded. He examined it too, then turned on Caitlin. "How did you do that?" he whispered, in a mixture of awe, fear and fury.

Caitlin remained unmoved. "I told you. I'm a witch. I do magic. That is what I do for a living, what I have been trained to do. And is there any explanation for what you have just seen than magic?"

The Martins shook their heads, openmouthed. Smiling grimly, Caitlin got to her feet and began pacing the room, no longer looking anything like the young mother she normally affected to being, but like some ancient and powerful sorceress stepped straight from the annals of myth.

"Magic exists. Witches exist. They can be born into any family, ranging from old magical families stretching back for generations like mine, to the most conventional, unmagical families, like yours. Deanna is a witch, so am I, so were all my mother's family. We all went to Hogwarts; Deanna will attend it this year. Luella is also a witch. And it is in her best interests that she goes also. Look at that vase. You don't think it will stop there? She's reaching adolescence, the time when a witch's power is at its most volatile and uncontrollable. She needs to be in an environment where it can be tamed, and channelled into productive activities. An environment where there are more experienced mages to guide her. Where people are used to strange goings on and where she will not feel isolated and the odd one out. In short, Hogwarts." Caitlin caught her breath and looked at them. "She will not be happy anywhere else. You know that, don't you? She will either repress her power and be unhappy, or express it and be declared insane or worse. The choice is yours, but I hope you'll make the right one."

Mrs. Martin was first to speak. "I don't want her to get hurt..." she faltered. Caitlin nodded, coming to sit next to her again.

"I know," she said softly, taking Mrs. Martin's hand in hers. "I know, I don't like seeing Deanna hurt either. But you won't be able to keep her cocooned in your cosy middle-class home forever. One day, there will come a time when you won't be able to protect her, and she'll get hurt. Studying magic is no different from anything else in that regard. And I think that she will be less unhappy at Hogwarts than out of it."

Mrs. Martin nodded sadly, shooting a knowing glance at her husband. "That's all I want for her, to be happy. Honestly, she's such a strange, fey child at times, as if she's in another world entirely. I don't know how she'll cope with it all."

"Too right," Mr. Martin added with a sigh. "I love her dearly, but I certainly wouldn't say I understand her. I know that's a terrible thing to say about your own daughter but it's true."

"Well, at least now you know why," Caitlin said. "She's a witch, always has been. Your world is not hers, and I know it's painful to accept, but she doesn't really belong here. She should go to Hogwarts. It'll be for the best."

The Martins exchanged glances, coming to the same, mutual decision with heavy hearts. It would be for the best, as Caitlin said. Deep down, they'd always known Luella was different. At least this way she'd be happy.

"Well, if what you say is true, then I suppose we'll have to let her go. You're sure she'll be safe?" Mr. Martin asked, wanting to get that last point settled once and for all.

"Quite safe," Caitlin reassured her. "I would not be sending my own daughter there if I thought there was any danger."

The Martins looked at each other. "Well, if you're sure... we'd better send her then. She'll only complain otherwise." Mrs. Martin sighed. "Where do we get her uniform and things from?"

"More to the point, how much is this going to cost me?" Mr. Martin said, irritably. Now that things were actually settled, his accountant's mind was getting to grips with the practicalities.

"Hogwarts does not charge its students any fees. All you pay for is the cost of school items such as stationery, a uniform, a wand, set textbooks, that sort of thing. I daresay you'll receive a list when you've sent your reply slip back. As for actually buying them," here Caitlin really turned on the charm, "I need to travel to London to get Deanna's things anyway, why don't I take Luella? I'm sure she'd enjoy the trip. Save you the bother." She smiled her best Hollywood smile.

"Well, if you're sure..."

"Awfully good of you, I hope she won't be too much trouble for you."

"Oh, of course not, no trouble at all," Caitlin purred, inwardly relieved that things had gone so well. She'd been fully prepared for a fight, but no, they'd given in quite gracefully. Luella, your parents are a credit to you, she thought. She just hoped that, despite all her earlier confidence, things would turn out as happily as she'd made out.

On the other side of the door, Deanna and Luella gave each other a high five followed by an impulsive hug.

"We're going to Hogwarts together! I don't believe it!" Luella whispered.

"You better believe it, mate," Deanna grinned back. "Welcome, my friend, to the world of magic!"

Now, wasn't that better? :) A big improvement, I think. For reference, Tiffin Girls is a real school, noted for its good academic reputation, requiring the successful completion of an exam called the eleven-plus to get into. Much the same applies to Kingston Grammar. Stay tuned for the redux version of chapter two!