Seeing their daughter came down stairs, Dad
and Mum stopped whispering. They are actually more tense than Viginia is at the
moment. Although they both feel that any oddity of their daughter occurred from
just now, they still reckoned that perhaps they disregarded something before.
Maybe their daughter has long hid something in her heart, but she certainly
pretended very well indeed, so well that until just now they haven’t got a
single clue.

It seems now clear to them that they had
such a clever daughter that it is reasonable they haven’t found out before. Dad
and Mum are very proud indeed at the moment, because such evident truth is
irrefutable.

They sent away Auntie Annie, and had a
short discussion. They thought of the possibility of their daughter falling in
love. Or maybe some kind of boy is in love with her secretly. Oh yes, their
daughter is so clever and premature, but she is still a little girl, so she is
bound to feel confused encountering love.

They have decided to be tolerant and let
Virginia make her own decision. Their lovely little princess surely will not
let them down. Although it is true that in his heart, Dad has already beaten
the little boy to a thousand pieces for hundreds of times, saying indigenently
that this is my little princess, he still appears smiling inadvertently, despite
it was a rather stiff smile.

However, when it comes to that they have to
discuss with their daughter this problem, they become really nervous indeed.
They now counsciously feel how well they have been free from worrying about
their little princess. They have never consumed too much energy on Virginia
like other parents do. This sudden occurrence certainly has thrown them into a
muddle.

But reality proves to be quite contrary to
their imagination. Compare to the parents, Virginia is rather relaxed at the moment.
Her adaptation process has passed. At least such a striking bolt has passed
that what she now worried is how she should talk to her parents about this. How
should she say so that her parents can quickly grasp hold of what is happening.
Or should she maybe hand in her letter directly? Or…. Maybe…. no, because
surely her parents would regard it as a ridiculous hoax.

That result may be better actually because
so that she has more reason not to go.

Having reached her decision, she grinned
broadly and handed in the letter, saying, “I found this letter in front of my
room just now. Maybe you should have a look at it.” Then she gave it to Daddy.

The development of the affair seems to go
in the same direction as Virginia had anticipated. Both parents reckon it
ridiculous and must be a hoax – well, a high-leveled hoax then. After carefully
examining the paper and the writing on it, Dad came to the conclusion that the
writer of this letter is truly imaginative, in that the writer came up with
ideas such as using an owl to send letters, and all these magic books, and
archaic styles of letter-writing, along with the act of using wax to seal the
letter – only British royal household and nobilities do such things nowadays.

Then the parents begins to feel extremely
worried that it is possible their little princess has been tailed by some
unknown guy so that the letter was sent here. Virginia tried to offer solace by
pointing out that there’s no stamp on the letter, meaning that the letter
surely isn’t sent here by normal post. Dad and Mum recognized this point
quickly, but they now think that the bad guy is somewhere near the house. They
decided to alter their journey to leave here immediately. Still having to
celebrate their little princess’ birthday, they canceled the plan to stay for a
day and headed straightaway to Spain.

Virginia here holds a different viewpoint.
She is thinking about what the letter said, the part requiring that she return
replies at the end of this month. She thinks that if they just wait till the
end of the mount, maybe something will come out. But seeing the worried faces
of her parents, Virginia simply cannot bring herself to say that these are not
at all hoaxed; they are real. Then, how would she explain why she thinks they
are real? Surely she can never say that she had read a storybook in her last
life?

….She has decided to remain taciturn and
say no word.

Then the whole family, taking on an
innocently unwitting Aunt Annie, is now hurring toward the port of Plymouth to
get on the ferry that heads for Spain.

Virginia sits on the board, watching her
dad talking to the captain, and signs slightly. It is only too unnecessary to
have so much trouble; the original plan is so comfortable that there’s no need
to change it…. Then she turns her head and goes back to enjoying the seawind.

When they finally landed on the port of
SanSebastian in Spain, the sky has grown quite dark. Arriving in the cottage on
the shore, all of them are exhausted. So they all went to bed seperately.

Virginia lies in her bed; listening to the
sound of sea wave outside the window, she now comes to think about the magic
world, which she now feels truly unreal, even absurd indeed. Perhaps it was
really a hoax, thought Virginia. Then she fell to sleep and became unconscious.

The birthday week in Spain leaves Virginia
a really comfortable mood. SanSebestian has the most romantic beach in Europe.
And the seafood here is quite brilliant. Virginia lies lackadaisically in
armchairs near the sea all day, relishing lobster while enjoying the hot
seawind. It was an excellent ecperience.

Hogwarts? She now completely forgets it.

Back to London, Virginia is suddenly pulled
back to reality. She realizes that she has to make some preparations in case,
so she wrote a solicitous reply with formal handwriting, with content stated
like below:

She is surprised and pleased indeed to
receive the invitation letter, but it is a pity that she really does not have
the ability to perform magic, and she does not wish to stay away from her
parents, least of all leaving in a completely unknown place. So she cannot
attend the magic school, and she does feel sorry indeed.

After she finishes her writing, she folds
the letter in two halfs and puts it into an envelope. She seals it with glue
and writes directly on the envelop:

To
Minerva Macgonagall

And she threw the letter away in her
drawer.

The parents haven’t changed their atitude
towards this affair, but they seem to pay much more attention to the security
problem of Virginia. They stop letting her take the scholl bus every day.
Instead, Dad takes his time to personally pick her up. Not wishing to let them
worry, Virginia took no issue with this.

Time fleets and the end of the month comes.
Today is Wednesday, July 31th, 1996. In fact, as it approaches July 31th,
Virginia grows more curious. So when the day comes at last, Virginia gets up as
early as the sky grows pale. It is just five o’clock, but she cannot go back to
sleep. So she runs to prepare food in the kitchen.

After about half an hour, she hears sudden
knocks on the window in her room. The knocks follow a distinctive rythem, and
sounds clear in the tranquility of morning.

She has correctly guessed that it is an
owl. She reaches for a piece of cheese and trots to her room. As she had
expected, and owl is hovering outside her window. Virginia does not dare to
allow it in, so she quickly picks up her letter from the drawer and opens the
window just wide enough to thrust the letter out. She first breaks the cheese
and gives a small piece to the owl.

The owl unceremoniously takes the cheese
and lifts on of its legs. The small pouch on its leg doesn’t seem able to take
the letter. It seems that the owl is instructing Virginia to put the rest of
the cheese in the pouch.

Virginia thinks it interesting indeed.
Laughing heartily, she thrusts the cheese inside the pouch. The owl appears
satisfied and takes back its leg. Virginia now takes out the letter and shows
it to the owl – well, after loading its dice against her, it has to do its duty
at last.

Obviously, the owl has realized this as
well. It quickly picks the letter up in its mouth. Virginia does not loose her
grip because she is a bit worried whether the owl can withstand the heavy rain
outside. However, the owl pulls the letter again. Virginia watches it
carefully, and it stares back, seeming to say that if you do not loose your
grip quickly, I shall not serve you anymore. Virginia quickly does so, and the
owl flaps its wings and takes off.

“Gini? You are up so early. Doing something
there at the window?” Daddy said, watching her daughter.

“Just now there were a bird at the window
side. I was wishing that I ccould come up here to have a close look.
Unfortunately, it flew away.” Virginia sounds pity indeed. She didn’t mention
the letter. She believes it best not to mention it at the moment.

“Well, come down and close the window then.
Do me a favor to pick up the newspaper, would you? Daddy shall make breakfast
for my little girl.”

Actually, Daddy woke up at the moment of
the knocks on Virginia’s window. He went to her room to check because he was
constantly worried these days.

But when he sees her daughter at the window
side and heres the sound of a bird flapping its wings, and after the clever
explanation of her daughter, he now completely believes her words.

So, thinking that everything has been
solved, Virginia finishes her breakfast lightheartedly and goes to school in
Daddy’s car, not knowing that the deputy headmistress of Hogwarts, Minerva McGonagall,
upon receiving the letter, has decided to visit the Winchester family
personally.

So at noon next day, another letter appears
in front of the door of Winchester Manor. At this time, Virginia is still at school,
feeling a headache created by the noise made by primary school students at
class intervals.

The letter is picked up by Mum, who, upon
reading it, solemnly calls Dad, who rushes back at the news.

So, when Virginia comes out of her class,
seeing both her parents standing there waiting for her, she feels an ill bode.
But nobody says anything, and there exists a quirk ambience on the way back
home.

Upon arriving home, Virginia has told the
truth of her “crime” in less than two minutes, and has earnestly demonstrated
that she lets the owl take away the letter out of pure curiosity.

Then she cautiously asks to have a look at
the new letter. Exchanging a look between themselves, her parents give her the
letter.

The letter looks exactly like the one
before, except that the adress is their new home here, and recipients are the
Winchester family.

Taking the letter out and unfolding it,
Virginia reckons herself wise for her candidness, which makes her appear less
passive.

The letter says that the deputy
headmistress of Hogwarts Minerva McGonagall says that she has received the
letter and feels pity about it. But she thinks it was because the Winchester
family does not know a lot about Hogwarts School. So she says she is quite
willing to personally pay a visit to their manor and aid them in gaining a
general view of the magic world. After that, if they still holds on to their
decision, she will have no opposition about it. As to the problem mentioned in
Viginia’s letter concerning her showing no magic talent in all the eleven
years, McGonagall says she is as well a little surprised because such condition
is quite rare among students; indeed she has never encounterd such a precedent
before, except for Squibs. But because Virginia is Muggle-born and has been
admitted to Hogwarts, she thinks the problem must have been something else. She
will help to find out at noon in August 3^rd, when she visits them.

Virginia, holding the letter in her hand,
does not know whether she is excited or bemused at this moment. Professor
McGonagall visiting her family? But surely it is the darkest time in the magic
world now? And the Order of the Phoenix is pitting its best against the Dark
Lord? The safety of Hogwarts is threatened, so how can such an important
personage like Professor McGonagall bother about her, a child of Muggles? She
cannot understand it.