Dante's Letter

It was a chilly day in the small caldasack where the Marius Family resided. It was a surprise how few Wizards and Witches lived here in Salem and how many Muggles there were despite the fact that there was a Wizarding school there, Salem Academy.

The wind blew coldly on the back of a small boy who sat on the tree mounted swing in his backyard. He was small dispite him being a teenager already. He was sketching the birds on the near by bird bath and wondered just what it would feel like to fly. He remained silent for quite some time, the scratch of his pencil against the paper being drowned out ever so slightly by the breeze.

He perked his head, hearing something that he had heard many times, only this time it grew loud and close. He turned his eyes just in time to see a speckled horned owl land on a nearby stump. He turned his attention to it fully now, it was clutching an envelope in its talons ever so lightly.

He got up off the swing and pulled his scarf around his neck tighter. The owl flapped just a bit and urged him to take the envelope from his claws. This is as close to an owl he had ever been and curiously he took the letter in his fingers peering down at it and then back at the bird. Without any hesitation the bird flapped and took air once more leaving the boy alone once again in the yard.

He looked back at the birdbath, the finches and nuthatches were already gone and he simply turned to go in the house. Showing the letter to his mother she calmly told him she was busy, so he went into his father's den where he stood before his desk. "Father..." he quietly spoke.

His father, a tall man with long black hair, peered over his desk at the boy. "Yes, Dante, what is it?" he leaned on the desk and smiled down at his son.

"An owl brought me this letter, father." He held up the envelope for his father to see. "I was drawing the birds, and an owl came to land on my stump... it gave this to me."

His father's eyes grew wide and then he stood, snatching the boy up in his arms. "My boy, you are very lucky to have received a letter from an owl." The boy was puzzled and wondered what i tall meant. "Well then," the man began again, "open it up and let’s see."

Dante turned the letter over and pulled open the wax seal. Pulling the letter out, he began to read it aloud to his father.

Dear, Dante Alaster Marius

You have hereby been accepted to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Due the inability for our Owlry to find your location when you were of age, we could not send this to you any sooner, please accept our apology. You are to report to Platform 9 3/4 and board the Hogwarts express. Many years of Magick lie ahead of you and it is now for you to choose what to do about it.

Sincerely, Headmaster
When he finished, his father was filled with joy. "So then i've been accepted to Hogwarts? Where's that at?" He wondered for a moment as his father sat him down on his knee.

"Its in England, you'll be going to one of the best Wizarding schools in the world. And do you know why you are lucky my boy?" His father smiled and Dante just shook his head puzzled. "You will be the first in our family to go here."

Dante thought about this long and hard and then smiled at his accomplishment. He had never been a first before and he didn't mind at all. He quickly hopped off his dad's lap and into his room where he found his cat Toro. "Toro, we're going away, I think it will be fun!" The cat Mewed at his words and leapt up to his shoulder to sit. He and his parents would soon go to England together.

He also thought about how he would be treated, he hoped better than at Salem Academy where he had been attending now for a small while. He didn’t care much for the time he spend in this small school and dispised the other students for picking on him for being small, quiet, and artistic. He wanted to leave there but never expected something quite this drastic.

He soon watched the small community fade from the back of his parent’s car, his trunk nestled next to him in the seat and Toro sitting atop it in her carrier. He sat down in the seat, his mind racing over the things he would miss. He would miss spending six months out of the year living in Cainland, so that his grandparents wouldn’t miss the festivities in their grandsons life. He would miss the times he would spend alone sitting in his secluded hiding place in the swamp that one other boy knew. He missed the other boy, the one who saved him from the swamp when the bullies were done with him. Would Zachary become nothing more than a memory? He didn’t want that to happen.

The car zoomed down the road, from his home to the airport. He and his parent’s were flying to England so that he could catch his train in time.