Chapter One: Fear of the Squib

I woke up to a sound of running down the hall, and the site of my maroon comforter shoved off the bed. It’s too humid in July for such thick bedding, but my mom didn’t agree, she still thought I could miraculously catch a cold in the middle of summer. I sat up after a few groggy moments and slipped on my badger head house slippers. My uncle Dan had given them to me for Christmas, but I’m pretty sure it was just regifted. It seemed that my family had an obsession with badgers; everything from our carpet, to our soap dispenser in some way resembled a badger.

“There is nothing wrong with being a proud Hufflepuff!” shouted my mom when I questioned it at the family Thanksgiving luncheon.

I walked down the wooden flight of stairs to the kitchen where I could smell something reminiscent of bacon oil and old pancake mix. I could tell my dad tried cooking today. I saw my mom and dad out the side window jumping up and down holding something in their hand. I grabbed a piece of undercooked bacon and headed out the door to the vegetable patch to stop them before the neighbors started staring. As I headed down there, I could see my mom was nearly in tears, but they were happy tears, and my father looked as though I had won the Quidditch World Cup.

“Umm…what’s the matter?” I asked trying to look at the parchment in my dad’s hand.

“You’ve been accepted son…” tears now stream down my mom’s face.

“accep…”, I started but my dad cut me off

“to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!”.

This was my parents’ dream you see, for me to get into Hogwarts, and I was starting to worry that I wouldn’t get in.

The only bit of magic I had ever done was that I made a pumpkin in the vegetable patch grow a few inches. I was starting to think that I was just another Squib in a house full of Purebloods. My brother Nathan would only address me as that actually.

“Hey, Squib pass the toast. What’s up Squib, did you get shorter? You need to just shut the Squib up.”,

I could see this made my parents uncomfortable, as if his taunts would become true. But I had made it, and now the pressure was on to get into Hufflepuff. I haven’t even heard of any other houses, all I knew was that Hufflepuff was the place to be.

“I’m so proud of you Taylor”, my mom said as she rubbed the remaining tears off of her face.

I pointed to the letter, and my mom handed me it. I just skimmed over the introduction and went straight to the supply list. My dad had given me his broom from when he was the Hufflepuff Quidditch Keeper at school, and I wanted to try it out this year. “Aha,” I as I found the list. It read,


Uniform:
1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)
2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear
3. One winter cloak (black with silver fastenings)
Please note that all pupil's clothes should carry name tags.
Course Books
A students should have a copy of each of the following:
Hogwarts: A History
A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot
How Not To Blow Off Your Fingers On The First Day by Julius Gummidge
Unexpurgated Copy of the Brother's Grimm
The Art of Potion Making by S. Snape
Introduction to Plants and Herbology by B. Mullohsa
Thurston Candlewick's Complete and Extremely Useful Field Guide to Dark Creatures
Defensive Spells and Theory by Virgil Vigilante
Hilary Stargazer's Guide to the Galaxy
A Changing Subject: Transfiguration Basics by Dawnie Iris

Other Equipment:
1 wand
1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)
1 set glass or crystal phials
1 telescope
1 set brass scales
1 basic potions ingredients kit
1 set of gloves

Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad (optional)


PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST-YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS

“No brooms for first years?! Why not?!” I asked my dad, but he didn’t seem to hear me.

My mom grabbed back the list and said that we needed to go to Diagon Alley.

“It’s just this quaint little shopping strip where we can get all of your school supplies and more!”,

I knew perfectly well what it was, I had to go shopping there when Nathan got accepted three years ago.

“I can’t really remember where the Leaky Cauldron is but I know the general area. How about we go in a few hours? We can just use one of those Muggle ‘cars’ that we keep in our drive way to get there. Let me just finish cleaning up that mess your father made in the kitchen and then we can go.” she gave a faint smile and strode off to the house.

A few seconds later, I went back up to the kitchen where I saw Nathan standing directly in front of the door so I couldn’t get in.

“What’s that smell mom? It’s pungent yet untalented and a hint of disgrace, ah, it’s just the Squib”, he smirked and moved aside so I could walk in.

“I swear it’s like he thinks he’s the Boy Who Lived or something”, I mumbled to myself as I walked back to my room to get dressed.

“Ah, fantastic”, I thought staring at my open closet, my brother had turned my entire wardrobe paisley.

I heard footsteps down the hall and caught my dad just in time before he walked into the bathroom.

“Hey, could you fix this?” I asked apathetically.

My dad walked into my room and looked pleased to my disappointment,

“Oh! He’s so talented your brother, good sense of humor, he’s going to make a great Hufflepuff prefect one day”, said my dad as he flicked his wand and all of my clothes became soft monochromatic shades yet again.

I was at least hoping for some sort of punishment, but no, not today. I pulled on my grey hoodie with the Hollyhead Harpies on it, and some brown wash jeans I had worn yesterday. I let out a great sigh and fell back on my bed staring at the ceiling.

“Argh! It’s too hot in here!” I quickly sat back up and looked in the mirror.

What stared back at me was a pale boy with flippy chocolate brown hair and rather unkempt eyebrows.

“Taylor! Come down here, Ernie’s here!” my mom yelled from the bottom of the stair case.

I got up and ran down the stairs, Ernie Macmillan was and has been my best friend since I can remember and I hadn’t seen him all summer due to the fact he was in Dublin staying with is grandparents. I ran to the kitchen and saw a tall, slender boy, with dirty blonde wavy hair talking to my mom.

“Ernie my man, my man, what are you doing here?” he smiled and said,

“We just got back from Ireland a few hours ago, heard the good news, your mom wrote my mom a letter as soon as she found out,”

I shook my head a little in embarrassment and he laughed.

“Oh don’t feel bad mate, my mom tried putting it in the Daily Prophet that I got in! Since we’re both needing our supplies, our mom’s thought we should go to Diagon Alley together.”

“Are you boys ready to head out? I just have to find those keys. Accio Keys”,

and like magic I don’t think I could ever conjure, the keys flew out of the farthest cupboard above the fridge and fell into my mom’s hand.

“Is dad coming? He said he’d take me to look at the sweets store down from Ollivander’s.” I asked.

“No dear, he was called into work, some problem with Ms. Longbottom not taking enough medicine”, replied my mom.

My dad worked at St. Mungos Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries as a Healer and often had to go help patients after hours and on weekends. I was used to it. We headed out the door through the kitchen, around the garden, and up to the cobalt blue 1998 Honda Accord my dad received as a gift from a Ministry worker he had cured. We got inside the car, and it reeked of leather. It had only been driven once, and that was from its previous owner. With another flick of the wrist, a murmured incantation, and a vroom from the engine, the car started backing up by itself. After about thirty minutes of catching up with Ernie, and echoed shouts from passing drivers, we pulled into the Leaky Cauldron. We walked around to the entrance of the Cauldron, and we walked inside. I don’t believe that I have had to go to the bathroom that bad in a long time. I had held it all the way there and now I couldn’t wait any longer. I ran into the stingy two stall bathroom and did my business. When I went to wash my hands, there was a feeble looking man in his thirties trying to fix his turban around his head, I could have sworn that I saw what looked like a shriveled fetus’s face on the back of his head, but I’m sure it was just my imagination. I rubbed my eyes, and headed back out to the misty lounge.

There I found my mom chatting away with the bartender, which I know my dad wouldn’t like at all. So I tugged on her indigo sleeve and she said her goodbyes. We walked through the pub and into a small room. It was as I remembered, nothing but plain brick walls surrounding us. My mom walked up to the wall we were facing, pulled out her wand, and tapped a few of the rustic bricks. The wall magically opened up, and there faced Diagon Alley. As I walked through, I could hear gasps of what sounded like “Hairy Bladder!?” and “It’s the toy who fibbed”, I guess someone just drank too much Fire Whiskey. Ernie tugged my sleeve and I proceeded into the warm light that was Diagon Alley. It was crowded, but that was to be expected. At least mum had her gold with her so we wouldn’t have to go to Gringotts. She didn’t believe in keeping one’s money so far away. The first shop we came to was Ollivander’s. This was apparently the best place to buy your wand in all of Britain. As we walked inside, an old man with glasses who I assumed was Mr. Ollivander greeted us.

“Ah yes, hello, 1st year I’m assuming? Be needing a wand? Come on up here, I’ll see what I can do.”

He pulled out a brown box from the top shelf and brought it down to me.

“…..12.5” Holly with Veela Hair, the only one in the shop. This feels about right for you young man.”

I picked up the wand, after a few seconds there was a luminous glow coming out of the tip. “Ah yes, that’s the one”, said Mr. Ollivander. After Ernie got his wand (11" Ash, Hippogriff Talon) we headed toward the door when a girl with what looked like her dad came in. She was obviously a first year like us. She had big blue eyes and wavy ash blonde hair all the way down to her stomach. Mrs. MacMillan ran to the girl’s father and hugged him. Noticing the confused look on my face, Ernie nudged me and whispered,

“That’s my cousin Addeline, and my uncle Drew.”