Life at the Lake Superior School of Wizardry

TAP. TAP. TAP. Troy groaned. " Go 'way," he muttered. " 's too early."

TAP, TAP, TAP, the noise persisted. He cracked an eye open. What in the world was tapping his window at this unearthly hour? He yawned and stretched. As he did, he caught sight of his alarm clock. Nine AM. Okay, not quite 'an unearthly hour', but that was close enough for a lazy August morning.

He blinked sleepily out the window. Instantly, what he saw there jolted him wide awake. An owl! A snowy owl, to be precise. But what would an owl be doing. . .

With another jolt, he realized its significance. This had to be one of those messenger owls, the kind used only by wizards. Though he technically wasn't supposed know about the magical world, he did, from relatives on both sides. However, his immediate family had no magic whatsoever. His wizard relatives would never owl to their Muggle neighborhood. . .

. . . unless it was an emergency! Troy caught his breath. This was bad, this had to be bad. He scrambled out of his bed and turned to face the bunk.

"Lee?" he asked. The lump under the covers gave no response.

"Lee!" he snapped, quite a bit louder. There was still no response. Immensely irritated, he marched forward, grabbed his brother's blanket with both hands, and yanked it clean off the bed.

He decided immediately after that it might not have been one of his more brilliant ideas. Troy, who thought that nine o'clock was an ungodly hour, was the morning person of the pair. Lee thought it a federal offence to get up before two in the afternoon, and had a temper like a dragon when awakened rudely.

Lee propped himself up with his elbow and glared at his twin. Troy continued quickly, before his brother could get going.

"Lee, there's an owl outside our window." Troy remained silent for several seconds, watching his brother coming to the same conclusion that he had.

Lee gaped at the window. "Well," he spluttered "Let it in already!"

Mentally kicking himself for not doing so right away, Troy leaned over and began cranking open the window. He puzzled over the screen for a few seconds, then realized how to pull it out.

The owl flew in, dropped the letter, no, the letters, to the ground and flew back out. The twins exchanged confused looks. If there were some sort of emergency, wouldn't their relatives want a reply? And why would they send two separate letters?

Curiosity driving out the desire to slay his brother, Lee jumped off the top bunk and grabbed the letters. To his surprise, he saw they were not addressed to the whole family, but to him and Troy.

A sneaking suspicion forming in the back of his mind, he ripped his letter open. As he read, a demented smile formed on his lips.

"Troy? It looks like we're more magical than we thought. . ."

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Matthias frowned in concentration, examining the Jenga tower he had been building for the past twenty minutes. He was nearly to the record height, he just needed to pull out a few more blocks to put on top. . .

Slowly, he reached out and expertly began to work at one of the offending pieces. Jiggle it this way, put pressure there, pull it out very, very, slowly, then. . .

CRASH! A white owl had hurtled, seemingly out of nowhere, into his hard-built tower. Matthias started, lost his balance, and fell over, slamming his head on the coffee table.

"G-reat, " he muttered, waiting for the little flecks of colored light to leave his vision. "I finally get my school letter, and they send it with the clumsiest owl they could find, right when I'm the farthest I've ever gotten playing Jenga. That's just great. Fits RIGHT in with my type of luck."

He sat back up. There were Jenga bricks splattered into every corner of the room, and many were jammed into the most unlikely places, including the light fixture, and sticking halfway into the VCR. For a few seconds, he sat in silence. Then the owl hooted (in what he could almost swear was a sheepish manner), and bowed its head, dropping the letter.

Matthias flashed a grin. The situation was actually rather funny. He picked up the letter and slit the top of the envelope open. It read:

Mr. Matthias Argon,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into the Lake Superior School of Wizardry. The school year begins on Monday, September the third. We will arrange a Portkey for you at that time. You have been enrolled in the Epsilon facet, please buy your robes accordingly. Enclosed is a list of the other supplies you will need. We look forward to seeing you!

Sincerely,

K.R.Tedia, Director of Admissions

He finished reading it and grinned again. "Dad! Dad! The letter finally came!" he called gleefully.

"Really?" His father appeared at the top of the stairwell. "Come and show me!"

Matthias nodded and charged up the stairs, taking them three steps at a time.

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"Ew, ew, ew! GRAYSTRIPE, PLEASE!" Ro glared at her cat, very much disgusted.

The handsome gray-striped tom placed the dead mole on the ground. 'Meow?" he inquired, giving her a puzzled look.

Ro wrinkled her nose. She knew it was a sign of affection, but it still made her feel nauseated when her cats presented her with dead rodents.

Shuddering, she bent down to pick up the mole by the tail. With her arm extended as far away from her body as it could be, she headed around the corner to the front of her house.

What she saw shocked her so much she dropped the mole. A snowy owl was sitting on top of the trash bin!

She held her breath, not sure if she should get closer or not. Ro had never seen an owl outside of educational displays. It would be cool to see one up close, but she didn't know whether it would be scared away if she tried.

The owl answered her question itself. It swiftly flew over to her, and dropped a letter into her hand

She blinked. Oh. It was a messenger bird. Who in the world would send her a message by carrier owl? Shrugging, she turned the letter over. It was addressed

Miss Rosemary Eagams

The messiest bedroom

1492 Red Oak Drive NE

Pinedale, MN 55231

A small shiver ran down her spine. How would they know about my bedroom? she asked herself. Her room was famously full of junk. As her-nine-year-old sister put it 'It would take a year to clean out, even if the entire population of New York was working on it!'

She laughed at herself, trying to shake off the weird feeling the letter gave her. She was being silly. It didn't mean anything that they knew her room was a disaster area. That was common knowledge

Turning her attention back to the letter, she opened the flap of the envelope very cautiously, as if it might contain anthrax. Ro scanned the letter, then finally broke into a relieved smile. This was just a practical joke by one of her friends, making a jibe at her fascination with nd the paranormal, which was also common knowledge.

She read it again, this time paying special attention to one paragraph.

Because you have lived as a Muggle (Non-magical person), a liaison will be sent to your home to give more detailed explanations, and to answer any questions you or your family may have. Please immediately reply by return owl with an appropriate time for them to come, preferably within the next forty-eight hours.

Hmm. What was up with that? Probably means whoever-it-is wants to know when they can come hang out, and that they're promising to explain the joke then, she told herself.

After thinking a little, she dug into her pockets and pulled out a pencil stub. She turned the letter over and scribbled on the back

Great prank! You almost had me fooled. You can drop by around five-thirty, I'll tell Mom to set an extra place at the table. Be sure to explain how you trained an owl!

-Ro

Satisfied, she handed it back to the owl. To her confusion, it didn't take off with the letter. What the heck!? she thought, trying to figure out why it wasn't doing anything. Then she noticed that it was staring wistfully at the dead mole.

"Take it!" Ro exclaimed. "I don't want it!"

The owl hooted gratefully, gripped the mole in its talons, and flew off at last. Just as it did, Ro's second cat, Fireheart, stole around the corner with a rat in his mouth.

"Oh, no," she groaned. "Not again!"