Reaching for the Stars

The Beginning

It was five a.m. in London and all was quiet in the Green flat. Morgana Green should have been sleeping but she was already wide-awake, trying to put the finishing touches on a four foot Potions essay, an essay that should have been completed weeks ago. Today, being the first of September, was the day she left to start another year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The first always meant the cleaning of her bedroom and packing of her school trunk, two chores she hated and tried to avoid at all costs. But those things, like homework, were unfortunately unavoidable.

A large mug of coffee with a spoon that kept stirring itself stood on her desk next to another mug that contained an assortment of quills, pens and pencils with a couple of rulers thrown in for good measure. A large stack of parchment was stacked next to the mug with all the stationery and books lay all over the floor. A large trunk in the middle of the room in which a few books were thrown in rather carelessly along with some T-shirts and a couple pairs of socks. A number of black robes lay on the bed, waiting to be folded while the open doors of the wardrobe revealed even more clothes waiting to be packed. A large birdcage, half cleaned, stood empty in a corner of the room. The pastel pink walls of Morgana's were adorned with several posters some of which the occupants were asleep complete with snoring and drooling, others where the pictures stayed stationary.

It was almost eight o'clock before Morgana left her room. The room that showed no trace of its former disarray after nearly three hours of organizing, packing and a couple of well placed cleaning charms. All summer assignments were completed and her trunk was packed, waiting to be on its way to Hogwarts. Morgana was almost painfully excited to be on her way, as she always was, but this year the excitement held a trace of sadness. This year, her seventh year, would be the last time she would be on her way to Hogwarts on the first of September.

Morgana lived with her two aunts, both of whom were sitting in the kitchen already having breakfast by the time Morgana left her room. Celeste, who was best described as eccentric, listed her occupation as professional psychic. She spent her days reading palms, tarot cards and tea leaves and gazing into a crystal ball for her clients. Her clients were all people who wanted to know what the future had in store for them and would pay ridiculous amounts of money to find these things out. Celeste looked the part of a psychic with her colourful dresses that usually had matching shawls and headscarves but whether she could really see the future was anyone's guess but her clients apparently thought she was the real thing. Cecilia was her sister's exact opposite, as organized as Celeste was unorganized, as strict as Celeste was lenient. She was a no-nonsense sort of woman whose wardrobe was limited to strictly old-fashioned school teacher clothing in dark colours. She worked in a bookstore and was a harsh disciplinarian, Cecilia looked like she was constantly in mourning and was gloomy enough to please dozens of undertakers.

Morgana looked at the Daily Prophet that had been delivered to her at dawn but she had not gotten around to reading yet. A story on Sirius Black took up the better part of the first five pages and his picture looked up at Morgana in a bored way from each of these pages. Morgana would have read the story but it was more or less same story the Prophet had been running since Black's escape from Azkaban. At the same time, from the radio in the kitchen, the muggle news announced that the escaped convict Sirius Black was still on the loose and that he was considered armed and dangerous. Inwardly Morgana snickered, if only the muggles knew what Black was really capable of. Of course Fudge was taking the heat for telling the muggle Prime Minister about Black. In Morgana's opinion, Fudge was an idiot if there ever was one, how he had gotten to be Minister of Magic was beyond her.

"So this is your last of school," Cecilia remarked interrupting Morgana's thoughts, "You seriously need to think about what you are going to do after school,"

"She's got plenty of time to think about those things," Celeste stated, absent-mindedly stroking her cat, Cleo.

"No she does not have 'plenty of time', she's leaving school next year," Cecilia took a sip of her coffee (black with one lump of sugar)

"Next year, she has lots of time," Celeste dismissed her sister with a wave of her hand. Morgana sat watching the Aunts quietly not wanting to say anything and upset either aunt.

"Well it does not matter, does it Celeste? I do not know why she goes to that damn school. She could have gone to that nice local high school," Cecilia said.

"It's what Morgana wants, I want it and Julia wanted it. Hell..." her voice dropped to a near whisper, "It's what Charles would have wanted,"

Since when do you ca-," Cecilia stopped abruptly and began to sip her coffee through pursed lips. Silence settled about the room and its occupants.

Morgana had lived with the Aunts for a long time, ever since her mother died and there were certain things they did not do. One was talk about the wizarding world. Years ago, in a rare moment of agreement, the Aunts both decided to be muggles and leave their lives as witches behind. Though they willingly allowed Morgana to be part of that world, they hardly ever talked about it and Morgana knew better than mention it. Another thing the Aunts never did was speak about their brother, Charles, Morgana's father. To have both these things mentioned in the same conversation was quite an extraordinary event.

The silence that started with Cecilia's unfinished statement remained quite unbroken until it was time for the Aunts to drop Morgana of and King's Cross to catch the Hogwarts Express.