Acceptance Letter

Rabastan came over and hugged Virgil with a smile. "Where have you been for the last two years? You disappeared after my brother's wedding."

Virgil showed a wry smile and shook his head. "Shafiq's condition is no secret, I've had my head buried in books to try and find something my ancestors missed."

Rodolphus' eyes flickered when he heard Virgil complain. "Don't give up hope, you may be able to seek aid from a great wizard in the future."

Virgil looked at Rodolphus with a questioning look. "Great wizard? You don't mean Dumbledore do you?"

"Dumbledore?" Rodolphus scoffed. "Study well at Hogwarts, you'll know later." He placed his hand on his brother's shoulder and walked out of the shop.

Virgil watched them leave before the corners of his lips curled. Of course, he knew who Rodolphus was talking about.

He turned his head to Ollivander who was straightening up his wands and walked over with a smile. "Hello, Mr. Ollivander."

The old man looked Virgil up and down with his light blue eyes. "Silver hair, blue eyes, and a dagger at his waist, must be a Shafiq."

"Is it that obvious?" Virgil raised his brow and played along with the old man.

Ollivander nodded. "I remember when your father and grandfather came in for their wands with that dagger."

While he was talking he went to a shelf and pulled out a box. He walked in front of Virgil and opened it to reveal a light brown wand. "12 inches long, made of yew wood with a dragon heartstring core."

Ollivander looked Virgil in the eyes before he could grab the wand. "Every Shafiq is matched with a yew wand."

"I've seen the graves behind the castle, I buried my father there when I was three with his wand." Virgil grabbed the wand from the box and tried to run his magic through it.

He didn't deliberately control it and felt his magic surge. A strong wind jetted from the tip of the wand and blasted a few wands from the shelves.

Ollivander ignored the damage and shook his head. "Not for you."

He placed the wand back in the box and placed it aside. "Try this, 11 inches with a phoenix core."

Virgil grabbed the wand and repeated the process. This time, a pillar of fire shot out and scorched the ceiling.

Ollivander quickly snatched the wand and placed it out of reach of Virgil. "Then try this one."

He paused before opening the box. "Be careful."

Ollivander opened the box and held it in front of Virgil. "13 inches long with a unicorn hair core."

Virgil grabbed the wand and injected magic. A bright silver light shone at the tip of the wand and filled the shop. He could feel this wand wasn't as tyrannical as the first or wild as the second.

"Good, good, another wand has found his wizard." Ollivander clapped his hands with a look of joy.

Virgil ran his finger along the wand and could feel the unicorn hair actually had a bit of resistance to his magic. He's practiced the dark arts for years and his magic had long been tainted.

The dark arts weren't just a category of magic. It was something that affected your magic, mind, and very soul. A weak-willed person could easily fall and become a slave to it.

Knockturn Alley was full of witches and wizards with grotesque skin and battered looks. The muggle's depiction of a witch was inspired by crazy black magic practitioners during the witch hunts.

"How much for the wand?" Virgil placed the wand in his pocket and decided to alter it later.

"7 Galleons." Ollivander walked behind the counter with a smile still on his face.

Virgil nodded when he heard the price. "Jippy."

A young house elf wearing a toga appeared next to Virgil with a pop. "How can I help you, Master?"

"Pay the man 7 Galleons." Virgil motioned towards Ollivander.

"Of course Master, thanks for calling Jippy!" The house elf beamed with excitement as he pulled 7 galleons from the pouch at his waist.

Ollivander stared wide-eyed as the house elf paid. "I think you're the first person I've seen who allows their house elf to carry their money."

Virgil shrugged and didn't care. Why carry money when house elves could bring it whenever you wanted? "Goodby Mr. Ollivander."

He placed one hand on Jippy's shoulder and waved with the other. "Jippy, go home."

Virgil felt a hand placed on his shoulder before Jippy disapparated.

The next moment they appeared in front of the castle. Jippy looked at Virgil with his big eyes. "Is there anything else you need, master?"

"That would be all, Jippy, you can go."

Jippy disapparated again to go back to his work.

Virgil walked into the castle and back up to the study. When he sat down Hassan walked out of invisibility with a few wands in her hand. "I grabbed these while Ollivander was distracted."

She placed them on the desk and vanished again.

Virgil inspected each of the five wands. Three with dragon cores, one unicorn, and one phoenix. "The Phoenix wand is useful, I can collect cells from the core and culture them to make a puppet."

A smile appeared on Virgil's face as he opened his book and sent all five wands to his workshop.

"A little more than a month before school starts, let's continue analyzing the vampire curse." Virgil flipped to the page where the blood was being analyzed. 

The drop of blood was still in the middle of the magic circle, protected by magic. "Tell Amber and Ruby to collect blood from the Sisters, I don't want my vampires to starve to death."

Virgil knew Hassan would send one of her clones and got to work.

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A few days after Virgil acquired his wand, an unsuspecting guest visited the town. A slightly older woman with brown hair in an updo and dark green robes stopped out front of Kiara's new house.

Her thin lips were pursed together and a resting look of disapproval was plastered on her face. She held an envelope in one hand and knocked on the door with the other.

A few seconds later Rebeca opened the door with a look of confusion on her face. "Hello, can I help you?"

"You must be Mrs. Budha, I'm here to talk about your daughter's Education." The woman spoke very properly with a slightly solemn tone.

Rebeca's eyes lit up when she heard the words. "For Kiara? Please, come in."

She led the woman into the living room where Kiara was watching TV with a look of enjoyment on her face. She had a bowl of popcorn to her left, a bowl of sweets to her right, and bottles of coke on the end table.

"Kiara, this." Rebeca looked back at the woman. "I'm sorry, I didn't get your name?"

"You can call me Professor Mcgonagall." Minerva replied politely. 

 Rebeca turned back to Kiara who was looking this way. "Professor Mcgonagall is here to talk about school."

Kiara's eyes lit up and she knew it was time for her to act. "Why don't I remember applying for any school?"

Rebeca looked a little confused and turned back to Professor Mcgonagall. "Which school are you from?"

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, The finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world." A faint look of pride appeared on her emotionless face when she spoke of Hogwarts. 

Both Rebeca and Kiara looked at her with their mouths open. Finally, Rebeca turned towards Kiara with a bit of anger in her eyes. "Did you invite someone over to prank me? Magic? You at least come up with a better lie!"

"Mom!" Kiara looked flabbergasted. "I have no idea who this woman is!"

Minerva glanced at the quite curious-looking girl with her pink hair and strange fashion accessories before pulling out her wand. "I know it might come as a shock, but I assure you, magic is quite real."

Minerva was adept at dealing with muggle families, this isn't even the first house she had been to today. She turned her wand to the bowl of popcorn and transfigured them into butterflies.

The butterflies danced around the room before flying back into the bowl and turning back into popcorn.

"Magic is real?" Rebeca stared forward with godless eyes and kept repeating the same sentence over and over.

"I knew it!" Kiara jumped from the couch with excitement and brought Rebeca back to her senses. "All those strange things that happened were due to magic, I thought I had superpowers."

Rebeca ignored Kiara and looked at Professor Mcgonagall with a bit of fear in her eyes. "You're here to invite my daughter to your magic school? To become a witch?"

Minerva shook her head slightly. "Your daughter is already a witch. Hogwarts is a school to help students learn to control their gifts. She doesn't have to attend, but her magic may get out of control and endanger her life."

She put a bit more emphasis on the word life.

Rebeca glanced at Kiara who was looking at her with longing eyes. "Please Mom, I want to go."

"Is it dangerous?" Rebeca looked back at Minerva.

"There is no safer place than Hogwarts." The corners of Minerva's lips curled and she held out the envelope to Rebeca.

"There are certain factors that require children to be escorted to buy their school supplies in groups. At 12:37 tomorrow a bus will stop outside your house to pick you up."

Rebeca grabbed the letter and saw that it was addressed to Kiara. When she passed it over she turned around to find that Professor Mcgonagall was gone.

The playful look disappeared from Kiara's face, replaced by a mature charm that didn't fit her age. "I think that went well, what do you think Rebeca?"

"Yes, Mistress." Rebecca bowed her head. "Learning how to act these past few days from the television was a success."

Kiara tore open the envelope and read the letter. She had never seen it and wanted to know what was on it.