On Eagles Wings

Just to make sure I have the disclaimer info I need!

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.

Ships: No one you care about besides they’re all first years it would be odd!

Main character: Sorry not Harry, Ron etc but Mark a new character I created for all of this!


Mark stared at the wall as he had been for the last half hour. To look at him you would see a mousey haired eleven year old with freckles and obviously the runt of the litter. He was small scrawny and his feet were not touching the floor as he sat on the sofa. He was staring at the wall the same expression he’d been wearing since he read the letter, that sort of expression you get when you see a monkey fly past your window wearing a bright green lycra dingy as a waistcoat. It was the letter that had of course done it, and as his brain suddenly re-whirled into gear he looked down to see the letter again and he read it,

Dear Mr M Simmons (yep that was definitely his name he thought)

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. (This was the bit that stumped him) Term will begin at the beginning of September we await your reply by owl, as we are aware you have Muggle parents please use the school owl waiting outside, we await your reply no later then august the 19^th.

Yours Sincerely M McGonagall (Dept head).

Yup, he thought again to himself, that was what the letter read. ‘Was it true?’ was the question that was really, really annoying him, was he a wizard? Could he do magic? Or was it all just a hoax from his brothers?

Yes he had brothers two of them to be precise and they liked nothing more then to play more and more elaborate practical jokes on him to see if he would fall for them, which of course often he did. But this seemed somehow different, for a start there was the owl waiting patiently outside the living room window…in the middle of the day (which was what really worried him). He didn’t think that his brothers had the time, skill or ingenuity to train an owl to collect a letter from him during the middle of the day. Still he thought, he had never believed wizards were real, they had always been stories and he had never been able to do magic-What about your 10^th birthday-said a voice in his head. It was true his tenth birthday had been interesting indeed, for a start there was the issue of the cake exploding over his brothers when they had been teasing him over his new jumper…but then he thought he had always thought they did something stupid like place a firework in it or something. Then of course he had managed to somehow get exactly what he had wanted for his birthday (a nice green sweater) but not one person in his family remembered buying it, and his mother had even sworn loudly when the present she had bought him had been replaced by it.

The more he thought about it the more the idea seemed to appeal, but he thought he had better not get his hopes up…and he would see what his parents thought about it all.

He had to wait a couple of hours before his parents came back from work, he had spent a large part of it reading and re-reading the letter as well as making himself ridiculous amounts of cups of tea. Eventually his father strode in through the door, a tall balding man in a business suit. Mark waited until his father sat himself with a heavy sigh, into the armchair by the fire and fumbled for the television remote.

“Erm, Dad?” said Mark timidly, the letter clutched in his hand. “Read this!”

His father eyed it suspiciously as though it was a bad report card or something.

“What is it?” he questioned still glaring uneasily at the letter.

“Its an acceptance letter!” His father raised an eyebrow.

“Oh? To where?”

“Read it!” said Mark impatiently and thrust it into his father’s hands. He watched as his dad carefully took the letter then read it. Then burst out laughing.

“Oh very funny!” but Mark wasn’t laughing. His dad looked at him. “You didn’t think it was real did you?”

It had seemed a bit silly and he began to twiddle his fingers as he started to feel like a prat. Then the owl outside hooted. Mark turned to look at it and laughed as his dad leapt a foot off the chair and spun round to look at it as well.

“But it’s the middle of the day!” he said staring at the owl, and then he read the last bit of the letter again. “Out of curiosity you understand! Shall we send a reply?” His father had that look of immense curiosity that fathers get when they find something to play with.

Mark could think of nothing he liked the sound of more and nodded excitedly. His father took a pen and wrote on the reply slip that Mark would like to come, but would like some more information before they committed themselves. Then carefully he opened the window and the owl flew in, it landed by his father’s side and held out its leg. Looking up at Mark and grinning his father attached the letter to the owl’s leg and it flew away. Knowing that they would have to wait a while the pair set back to watching television until the rest of the family came back.

An hour later Mrs Simmons who had been taking Mark’s brothers out shopping, entered the house with two massive bags of shopping and two disgruntled teenage boys in new school blazers. Mark had not gone with them as his mother was waiting for the sale on first year size blazers at the local department store. His brothers John and Andrew slumped down on the sofa and threw the blazers over the back of it. John was the oldest being 15 and his face was dutifully covered in spots, his hair was brown and gelled into spikes at the front. Andrew 13 lacked the pimples but also lacked the hair care, his hair being a mound of unkempt mess. Both were looking miserable, as young boys tend to do when being forced to go shopping for school stuff. His mother on the other hand (a blonde slightly dumpy woman) seemed immensely impressed with herself.

“Got these on sale!” hhe said smiling. “Meant I had some money to buy John some new trousers!” Foolishly John had destroyed his favourite jeans during a skateboard competition, and now his mother had decided that corduroy was the way to go, John didn’t.

“But they’re horrible!” he said stupidly. His mother simply glared at him.

“If you want to buy your own feel free!” She turned her attention back to a completely separate bag, which seemed to be full of other clothes. “This dress was on sale!” She pulled a large green thing from her bag, followed by a sweater, then some trousers, then a blouse…it was after the 2^nd pair of shoes that Mark nodded off.

He was however awoken a few minutes later by a loud knock coming from the front door, which was odd as most people used the doorbell. He opened his eyes to see who it was as his father opened the door and was amazed to see that there was no one there. Then the squeals from his mother as a tabby cat scurried into the room. But then as his mother began to try and shoo it out of the room, she screamed once more.

Mark looked up to see what all the commotion was about, but was shocked to notice that the cat was no longer a cat, it was a woman. A woman with a very stern face, glasses, hair tied into a bun and then the clincher the large black witches hat.

“Good afternoon!” she said with a Scottish accent. “I am Professor McGonagall!” She held out her hand to Mrs Simmons, who fainted. Mark’s brothers screamed and ran from the room and Mr Simmons collapsed into the armchair. Mark thought it was impolite to leave her standing there, and cautiously walked up to her and shook her hand.

“M-Mark S-Simmons!” he said unable to withhold the stutter. The woman smiled.

“Hello Mark, I apologize for scaring you and your family I sometimes forget that Muggles don’t expect someone to be able to turn into a cat!”

“Muggles?” Said Mark unable to hold back the question.

“There I go again, Muggles is what we in the wizarding world call people without any magic!”

“Oh!”

“Erm nice to meet you, Professor!” said Mr Simmons finally able to remove himself from the safety of the armchair. “Sorry about being rude, but you erm , somewhat shocked us!”

“I do apologize, erm shall we get down to business?”

“Business?” Continued Mr Simmons.

“Well we’re here to discuss about the school are we not? You asked for more information and I am here to provide it!”

“Oh right! Would you like a cup of tea before we do?” he continued cautiously.

“Oh yes that would be lovely, milk but no sugar if you don’t mind” She smiled as Mr Simmons walked out the room, and then turned her attention to Mark. “Well since its you who will be going to the school is there anything you want to ask me?”

“Is it real?” He couldn’t help it, it was the first thing that forced its way out of his mouth. The woman seemed shocked then realized that from a Muggle perspective this was a perfectly reasonable question to ask.

“Yes Hogwarts is real, as I’m sure my display earlier indicates that magic is indeed real!” Mark nodded, that was a fact he was not going to dispute now.

“We’ve seen that you yourself display some magic ability and we would like you to come to Hogwarts to develop it!” She continued.

“Me magical!” He couldn’t help but grin; his brothers would be so annoyed and jealous.

“Indeed! The school offers first years the basics in charms, astronomy, history of magic, defence against the dark arts (Mark’s ears picked up at this), potions, transfiguration and flying.”

“FLYING!” Mark blurted out an enormous grin taking over his face. “You mean...on brooms I guess!”

“Of course, first years can’t bring their own brooms of course, but in later years you will be able to try out for the school Quidditch team, before you ask Quidditch is a game played on broomsticks but we will not discuss that here!”

They were interrupted by his father walking back into the room carrying three mugs of tea precariously one he handed to Professor McGonagall, one he put on the table besides the armchair and the other he thrust into the hands of Mrs Simmons who was now slowly coming round.

“So Mr and Mrs Simmons do you have any questions about the school?”

“Erm is it a boarding school?” Said Mr Simmons, whilst wafting air into the face of his wife.

“Yes, but students can come home over the Christmas period as well as the summer period! You can keep in contact with your son through mail by owl!”

“Owl?”

“Yes all mail in the wizarding world is carried by owl!” Continued the professor as though this was completely normal. “ I suggest when you go to Diagon Alley to buy your school equipment that you think about buying a small owl to carry mail for you, students are able to bring one pet of either a cat, or an owl, or a toad though certain animals have also been allowed assuring that we have a contract of liability from the family!”

“Diagon Alley?” Continued Mr Simmons beating Mark to it.

“Yes it’s a street in London where you can purchase all of your stuff, we will send a prefect to come by here in the near future so that you can purchase all your books and things in advance, which reminds me!” She took out a letter from her bag and handed it to Mark. “Here is the list of things you will need for school! I presume that you will be joining us for next term will you?” She looked up at Mr Simmons.

“Oh yes, it might be great to have a wizard in the family!”

“Very well then I will be going I have more families to see!” And with that she vanished.

Mark looked up at his dad, then down at his mother and grinned.

“I’m going to be a wizard!” He said smiling manically.