Saturday
morning, Virginia’s parents sits sternly to face what is going to happen. The
family gobbles down their breakfast quickly and sees Dad standing beside the
door. He keeps looking out of the windows on the door, but nothing is
happening.

Virginia thinks
it was all amusing but didn’t dare to laugh under in such serious environment.
At once, the doorbell rings. A women with strange clothes was standing outside.
How did she came here? Dad was confused. He just turned back his head for a few
seconds and she appeared, as though out of thin air, and rings the doorbell of
his family.

He reached the
doorknob, hesitated, and opened it.

“Good morning.
You must be Mr. Winchester. I am Minerva Mcgonagall, professor at Hogwarts. I
mentioned in the previous letter that I would be coming.”

Dad is furthur
confused. Obviously the woman in front of him is in her fifties, and judging from
her look, she must be a serious woman. He thought of those stern old British
women of noble families. But this one dresses quirkly. She is very tall, and
wears a green cloak and a pointed black hat. She says she was the one who wrote
the letter.

Dad tried to
push away the amusement and leaned slightly and said, “Well, let’s come in and
chat.” He thought it was no good standing there.

Virginia sees
her dad going to the other side, and a tall witch walking in. Mum goes to
welcome her.

Soon enough, everyone
sat down. Mum is a bit restricted, and Dad seems lost for words. Professor Mcgonagall
breaks the silence.

“As to Hogwarts
School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, I quite understand about your confusion.
Hogwarts was built a thousand years ago and grants invitations to children who
are eleven years old and has special talent – magic. Professors at Hogwarts
teaches them how to use and control their power.” Coming to this, she sees
Virginia’s Dad has something to say, so she stopped.

“I think I’ve
never known such a school.” Dad spoke.

“Yeah, I think
so. If it wasn’t for Virginia’s magical talent, you might not even hear of
Hogwarts for your entire life.” Mcgonagall explained.

“Sorry, but I
think all these stuff are ridiculous in themselves, and Virginia never showed
any magical talent. She is a normal child.” Dad wasn’t convinced, and seems getting
a bit angry.

Professor Mcgonagall
is clearly unaffected by the change of attitude. Again she speaks calmly and
sternly, “As to this point, I think we can have a small test.”

The parents
suddenly sits bolt upright as though wishing to prevent her from taking their
daughter away.

“Ms. Winchester,
please get focused and follow me in saying, ‘Accio Cup!’” The cup in front of Mcgonagall
suddenly flew into the air and landed in her hand. No water was spilled. Then
she looked at Virginia encouragingly.

Virginia looks
petrified. Seeing it for herself is completely different from seeing it on TV.
When the cup actually flew, she felt every cell in her body got excited. She
completely ignored the astonished parents beside her.

But when she did
as Mcgonagall told her to, the cup didn’t flew into her hand like Mcgonagall’s
just did. The cup just shaked a little. But it was obvious, so obvious that the
parents saw it clear enough. Not reviving from the scene, they heard Virginia
shouting again, “Accio Cup!”

This time, the
cup really moved, but it spilled out the tea and broke into pieces.

“Excellent, very
good! Now I think we can confirm that Ms. Winchester is truly a little witch.”
Mcgonagall said excitedly and took out her wand. She pointed it at the cup and
said, “Scourgify! Reparo!”

When Mcgonagall
was praising their daughter, the parents revived a little, and at the instance
they were going to help Virginia get rid of the spilled water, they saw
Mcgonagall taking out her wand. Dad reacted naturally to shield his daughter
away from it, but he was again driven into astonishment by the following
events. Firstly all spilled tea was gone; secondly the broken pieces were repaired
tracelessly, and a “new” cup stood in front of him on the table. It was as
though they had gone back in time.

Was this a
dream?

“Mr. And Ms.
Winchester,” Mcgonagall spoke, looking at the parents, who were still in
surprise, “Ms winchester certainly is a little witch. As for why she didn’t
show her talent before, I think it may be an accident, because almost every
witch and wizard shows uncontrolled magic during their growth, before coming to
Hiogwarts. This was often caused by sudden burst of emotions. I have to say
that this is something you would be proud of, because it proves that Ms.
Winchester either has natural abilities to control her magic or she never has
experienced extreme emotional bursts.”

She stopped for
a while and continued, “Usually, after getting to know about Hogwarts, if you
still decide not to let her go, we couldn’t force you to attend Hogwarts. But
firstly, as she ages, her magical power grows as well. Although she seems able
to control her power well now, if she does not attend Hogwarts, then we cannot
guarantee no sudden burst of power happens in the future. Also,….”

She suddenly
stopped as though not wishing to go on, but obviously she had to, so she
continued, “Also, the current condition of the magic word was not pleasant.
There is an evil force that exists in our word, and it is also persecuting the
Muggles, you know, non-magic people like you. Well, we call guys like you
Muggles, and guys like Ms. Winchester muggle-borns, which means little witches
and wizards with Muggle parents. Now this force has taken control of the
Ministry of Magic, the ministry of the magic world, you know, who also control
over all young witches and wizards. Well, if Ms. Winchester does not attend
Hogwarts, in fact we cannot guarantee her safety. Only of she decides to go can
we professors take care of her safety. And, although the ministry is currently
persecuting muggle-borns, but now, every young student who is now going to
school will not be inquired if they can provide any prove that they have magic
relatives. As to this, I think we can come up with some prove for Ms.
Winchester.”

“So I wish,
sincerely, that Mr. And Ms. Winchester, if you would want to keep your daughter
safe, please let her go to Hogwarts.” She paused, taking her hat off and continued,
“I feel sorry indeed for this.”

The countenance
of the parents experienced a long process of change. They are getting
increasingly nervous and sits alongside Ms. Winchester at last as though
wishing to protect her in this way.

Virginia just recovered
from using magic when Mcgonagall mentioned all these. Although she was prepared
for some disturbances, she didn’t think things would go this way. She finds it
hard to accept all these. Not mentioning whether her parents can accept the
fact that she is a witch, now her safety is in question, she knows that
naturally, her parents would feel very concerned.

She speaks in a
serious tone, “I decide to attend Hogwarts.”

Dad watched her
in a complicated manner and turned to Mcgonagall, “I think we need some time
for consideration. If it is OK, shall we perhaps arrange another time to meet
and then we could give you our answer.”

“OK. If you are
available, maybe I shall go back a week later. If you decide to let her go, I
think I have to take her to purchase necessary equipments.”

“No problem.”
Dad agreed.

Mcgonagall was
gone. Dad seems to be in a constantly nervous state. He keeps working around in
circles in the living room and throws occasional glances to his wife and
daughter. Virginia has nothing to say. She guesses that her parents must be
confused; even herself is. This comes so suddenly that she doesn’t know what to
do.

If she didn’t
take this matter so lightly in the beginning, not thinking that she could avoid
all these by not going to Hogwarts so she could get herself away from such dark
periods; if she tried hard to convince her parents that all these things about
magic is real and so does Hogwarts, things may not be so bad like now.

If she didn’t
send the letter, will Mcgonagall come to her home to talk about all these?
Virginia thought she was cheating herself by thinking this way. Even if her
family all agreed that she can go, Professor Mcgonagall would still come her
for herself and explain everything.

She cannot guess
about what is going to happen or what would have happened instead. All she can
do now is to let her parents accept all these and not to get them worried.