Chapter 13 - The Hogwarts Letter and Introduction

Today was the day I was preparing for, the day my Hogwarts letter would come and my worry free life would be over. There were no birthday celebrations in the orphanage so I was in my room reading some books. At around noon there was a knock on the door of my room. I spent all my free time alone coped up in my room and did not play with any of my fellow orphans so normally no one comes to look for me in my room. Therefore, I was excited since I knew it meant that the moment I was waiting for had come and it was time for Hogwarts shopping. I used all my occlumency to control myself and opened the door. The person who came was the Orphanage matron.

Her face was full of joy and she said, "Charles, you have been invited to attend a special boarding school for gifted students. I am so happy for you. Now that you have completed high school, I expected this to happen and I think you will get many more invites from a lot of famous universities. This looks like this school is for people like you from what I could understand. The deputy headmistress has come to personally invite you. Good Luck. I will be in my office if you need me for anything."

I thanked her and she left. When she left a woman wearing strange robes with a pointed hat greeted me. I quickly recognized her as the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts, Professor Minerva McGonagall. I was happy she came instead of an owl with a letter as it would be very hard to explain an owl coming to deliver a letter to me to a building full of non-magical people who will certainly notice it. It's just asking for trouble and all my previous efforts to fit in as a non-freak will be all in vain.

I activated my mage sight and looked at her. She had strength greater than all the wizards I have seen on the streets till now. She did not have any black spots in her magic core so she was purely light wizard. I knew she was blindly loyal to Dumbledore and I would have to be careful around her. All the happenings during this afternoon will be relayed to the Headmaster and I did not want to make him suspect my strength.

I invited her to come in and sit on the chair and asked "Hello, I am Charles Falken. Which school are you coming from? I was not expecting to receive an invitation from any school at this point in my education (I was already past that but I kept the information a secret for now)."

She shut the door behind her and asked, "Before we began, have you ever noticed anything strange happening while you were in an emotionally distressed state?"

To tell the truth, I haven't experienced it as I started controlling my magic from a very young age. This cannot be done by anyone else as I could do it due to being an ȧduŀt and having the patience to sit down and meditate all the time. So there was no chance of accidental magic and I was never in any case of emotional distress for me to use magic. I decided to tell the truth as it was the most possible scenario for an orphan who would not gain anything while throwing tantrums in an orphanage.

So I said, "No. I don't remember anything strange happening around me. It could be because of the fact that I was never in an emotionally distressed state in my life. But why does it matter here?"

"So you have not performed any accidental magic in your life. It is not a rare case but still uncommon." She said but seeing my confused face she continued, "Perhaps a demonstration is in order to convince you about magic" And then she went on to turn my table into a pig and then turned it back.

I stood there doing my best to act surprised with wide eyes and open jaws while internally I was laughing and thinking of all the animals in the world a Pig? I think I would have enjoyed a tiger more.

I asked, "How did you do that?"

She replied, "That Mr.Falken is magic. There are many people who have this gift and they reside in a hidden world of magic. You are one of them."

I nodded and asked, "But how are you sure that I have this gift since I have never done any magic?"

She replied, "Your name and address were given by an enchanted quill which is designed to find magical children born in Britain so that we can introduce them to the wizarding world. So I am sure that you are a wizard."

After that was done she quickly briefed me on the wizarding world and Hogwarts. She then gave me my Hogwarts letter. I made the appropriate joyful expression on my face and read its contents. Well it was the standard issue first-year Hogwarts letter, same as the books.

Going over the letter, I asked the professor, "But professor, how am I going to buy all the supplies. I am an orphan with not much money on me." I did my best to show a sad agonizing look on my face.

"Well, you see Mr.Falken, you don't have to worry about that as your parents were magical too. So they have a vault in the wizarding bank which can provide for all your needs. You don't need to worry about money as you have more than enough." She said.

I showed a shocked and earnest expression on my face and asked, "My parents were magical? Did you know them? Do you know if I have any godparents or relatives alive who could tell me about my parents?"

She replied, "Yes I taught your parents at Hogwarts. They were two very bright students. They did not belong to my house so I do not know much about them. As far as I know your parent's closest friends are dead and you don't have any relatives alive. There was a war a decade back and many people died in it. We did not know of your existence until we saw your letter. No one even knew that your mother was pregnant with you."

She then hurriedly stood up and said, "I am in a hurry, so let's go and buy your supplies."

I think she did not want me to ask more questions about my family. I noticed that she did not say anything about my political status or me being rich. So I can confirm my hypothesis that Dumbledore were trying to rip me off and she was a part of the scheme. Well they could try all they want. This confirmed to me that she was not a good witch as portrayed in the books. I already suspected it as otherwise most of the things that took place in Hogwarts would not have happened.