Katherine Greenwood: The Hidden World #2

Instructions

Katherine's POV: It had been three days since the letter arrived, and I still hadn't decided whether I believed it. Mum and Dad had spent most of the first day trying to figure out who could have sent it, but neither of them could come up with an answer. They had even asked me if I had told anyone at school that I wanted to go to a strange boarding school, which I hadn't. By the second day, the letter was still sitting on the kitchen table, and I had read it so many times that I almost knew the words by heart, even though most of them still made no sense to me. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I couldn't understand why someone would send me a letter saying I was a witch. I wasn't a witch. At least, I didn't think I was. Nothing strange had ever happened to me that I could remember. I had never made anything float, never turned anything into anything else, and never done anything that couldn't be explained normally. I was just Katherine Greenwood, an eleven-year-old girl who liked reading and spending time with my family. That morning, I was sitting in the living room with a book in my lap while Lucy sat on the floor drawing, Walter was building something with his toy blocks, and Mum was sitting nearby. Ava and Cecilia were arguing upstairs about whose turn it was to use the bathroom. Dad was in the kitchen, and everything felt normal again. Almost normal. Then there was a knock at the front door. I looked up from my book. "I'll get it," Dad called from the kitchen. I heard him walk toward the door, and then there was a pause. "Hello?" I heard him say. A deep voice answered, but I couldn't make out what it said. A moment later, Dad called, "Angela?" Mum stood up. "What is it?" I didn't hear his answer, but then I heard him say, "I think you should come here." Mum walked toward the front hall, and I followed without really thinking about it. I stopped when I saw the person standing outside. He was enormous. At least, he seemed enormous to me. He was a very large man with a huge beard and a coat that looked like it belonged outdoors rather than on our doorstep. He was carrying a pink umbrella in one hand, and he looked almost as surprised to see all of us as we were to see him. I moved slightly behind Mum. "Can I help you?" Dad asked. The man looked at him. "Name's Rubeus Hagrid," he said in a deep voice. "I'm here about Katherine." My stomach dropped. I immediately looked at Mum. "Me?" Hagrid nodded. "That's right." Dad stepped slightly in front of me. "Who are you?" Hagrid introduced himself again and explained that he worked at Hogwarts. I didn't understand how he knew about the letter, and I didn't understand why he was standing on our doorstep, but I was too nervous to ask. Dad wasn't. "Are you the person who sent that letter?" he asked. Hagrid shook his head. "No. The school sent it." "And you expect us to believe that my daughter is a witch?" Dad asked. Hagrid looked at me. "Well, she is." I felt my face get warm. Everyone was looking at me again. I wished they would stop. "I don't know if I am," I said quietly. Hagrid gave me a kind smile. "That's understandable. Bit of a surprise, isn't it?" I nodded. "Very." He explained that Hogwarts was a school where children who could do magic learned how to control it. I listened carefully, but the more he explained, the more confused I became. He told us about things that sounded impossible, including people using objects to perform magic and traveling in ways that I didn't understand. Then Hagrid looked at me and said something that made my stomach twist. "You'll be needing school supplies." I looked at him. "I have to go?" "If you want to attend Hogwarts, yes." I looked at Mum and Dad. Neither of them said anything for a moment. I suddenly realized that this wasn't just about a strange letter anymore. If Hagrid was telling the truth, I would be leaving home. I'd be leaving Mum and Dad, Ava, Cecilia, Lucy, and Walter. I'd be going somewhere I'd never heard of, with people I had never met, to learn things I didn't even believe were possible. I looked down at my hands. "What if I don't know how to do any of it?" I asked. Hagrid smiled. "That's what the school's for." I didn't know why, but hearing him say that made me feel a little better. I still didn't understand what was happening, and I was still scared, but for the first time since the letter had arrived, I started to think that maybe it wasn't a mistake. Maybe I really was different. And if I was, I was going to have to learn what that meant.