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Brianna Goes to Hogwarts

Summary:

On her eleventh birthday, Brianna Randall receives a letter that will change her life. Entering the magical world of Hogwarts, she will need to find answers to many burning questions, but will also find true friends, adventure and mischief.

Notes:

Hello everyone! I'm very excited to start this story with you. I will update whenever I finish a new chapter.
English isn't my first language and one of the reasons I'm writing this fic is to improve. I encourage you to point out my mistakes and correct me! Thank you.

Chapter Text

Birthday at the Randall family wasn't a grand affair, but Brianna always looked forward to it. Usually there would be a special breakfast - full English breakfast for any of her parents, pancakes or waffles with a milkshake for her - and a send-off to work or school with a little gift and birthday card, only for the real gift to be given at dinner in a restaurant. Brianna expected her eleventh birthday to be very much the same, and spent most of the night awake, waiting for her parents to burst into her room with balloons and songs. Instead, she heard them fight. Again.
They were in the kitchen, and although Brianna knew better by now, she crept to the top of the stairs to hear them better. She kept a tab on her parent's fighting - she and her friends would analyze them later at school. Gale, Bree's best friend, said the frequent mention of a woman named Sandy was a sure sign of an impending divorce, because her dad was cheating for sure. Brianna didn't want to believe it, but she spent a few hours organising her clothes and toys in two neat piles, just in case she needed to pack and move quickly.
And so, for the sake of her and Gale's morbid interest in the crumbling relationship between Claire and Frank Randall, Bree situated herself by the stairs and listened.
"I took you in, pregnant, and you gave me one promise. One promise, Claire! To leave all of that… idiotic bullshit behind us!" Brianna heard the sound of glass breaking. Then, Frank's voice continued. "We came all the way to Boston to raise her to be normal!"
Brianna's ears perked up at the mention of raising. When Courtney's parents got a divorce, they said it wasn't her fault; could the same thing be said about Brianna?
"I tried, Frank! You can't tell me I didn't do absolutely everything in my power to become your normal wife! I learned to be a Muggle healer, for Christ's sake. This isn't about you or me. Magical children need to learn magic or they will die, it's as simple as that."
Magical?
She must've misheard.
Curiosity ignited, Brianna took another careful step down the stairs. In her concentration she misstepped and before she knew it, she was in her father's arms.
"Careful there, birthday girl," he said. The transformation was spectacular. Gone was the anger and distress. The only sign Brianna could see to his previous aggression was a small cut on the inside of his palm. He noticed her eyes straying there and hurried to explain. "Oh, I tried my hand at the milkshake. Better leave that to your mother." He smiled, but Claire's eyebrows were scrunched together with animosity.
"Happy birthday, my baby!" Said her mama, stepping closer to take Bree from Frank's grip and envelope her in a hug.
"I'm not a baby," Brianna said, pushing her mother back. "I heard you fight. You broke a glass on Daddy. I didn't hear a blender, so I know there's no milkshake."
With that, she ran up to her room, getting dressed with tears threatening to fall from her eyes. She would not cry on her birthday, Brianna decided. She picked her outfit the day before, so within seven minutes she was by the door.
Her mind was heavy with thoughts, and they kept her ears from hearing the hushed argument around her. She was lucky - it would've taken more than a fellow eleven year old's advice to unpack that.
"You ruined her birthday!"
"I don't want to raise a witch. I will not do it."
"Well, hurry up with the divorce papers then, because we're going to England."
"To follow that ghost of yours? You'll not kidnap my daughter - "
"Well, you said it yourself, you don't want to raise a witch. That's what she is, and the school in England is better, the one here doesn't accept native Americans, if you can imagine - "
And the sound of a slap.
Then once again Claire's voice.
"I hope you and Sandy will have a great life here."
She was by the door when Brianna made her hasty way downstairs.
"Come on Bree, I'm taking you to school."
Brianna's eyes darted between her parents and she decided not to argue.

 

Brianna didn't notice where they were going until they stopped next to her favourite diner.
"I'm sorry about your birthday breakfast, dear," her mother started. "Let's get inside? You can order anything you want."
Brianna, while still very upset, was not one to refuse a good milkshake.
It was only when her mother started browsing through the menu that she spoke.
"Shouldn't we wait for daddy?"
Claire didn't look up. Instead, she was looking through her purse.
"Well, I thought that since you are eleven years old now, we should have a little ladies chat," Claire stated.
"Ew! I know about periods already, let's not talk about that please," Brianna immediately dropped the menu from her hands.
"Really? You do? No point in ordering the red berry milkshake then?" Her mother teased.
"I think there's another reason daddy's not here," Brianna stated. "You were talking about… magical children?" She finished her sentence almost silently, unaware if it were a subject to be discussed in public or not.
Finally, Claire lifted her hand out of her purse. She was holding a stick, which Brianna found very odd because Tiffany, the first girl who got her period, didn't mention anything about a stick. Claire waved it discreetly under the table and suddenly all the noises that filled the diner - utensils and plates clanking, people speaking, the obnoxious song playing in the background - disappeared. Brianna noticed that the people were still eating, so there must have been noises. When she stared at the people, she noticed no one returning her look. It was as if they were invisible.
"You really are a witch, then?" She asked. Claire, who seemed content to watch her daughter analyze the world around her, nodded.
"Are we invisible?"
Claire shook her head. "Simply harder to notice. If you were to wave a waitress over, I suppose she would come."
Brianna stared at her, her eyes wide as saucers.
"Will I die?"
Her mother lifted an eyebrow in confusion.
"I suppose, yes, eventually. Why do you ask?"
"You said if magical kids don't learn magic they die, and I don't know any," Brianna explained.
Claire rubbed her forehead. "You heard me and your father?"
Brianna nodded. She was now sitting as far away from Claire as she could be within the booth. Deep in her mind, she was disappointed - if she had to share a magical world with one of her parents, couldn't it be daddy? She quickly silenced that thought.
"Look, dear," Claire started. "Magic… It's very much like puberty, except often a year or two earlier. You only started displaying the traits this year. You are not in danger, all right? You will learn everything you need to know."
Brianna didn't even nod, the next question already on her lips.
"Displaying the traits?"
Claire smiled. "Remember when you were sent to the principal's office for dying your teacher's hair blue?"
"I didn't do it!" Brianna protested.
Claire continued in a calm voice. "Didn't she upset you before that?"
"She asked if daddy doesn't mind that you dabble with silly medicine - that doesn't have anything to do with it!"
Claire seemed touched by the explanation, but resumed her own. "Well, when you feel strong emotions, sometimes odd things happen, don't they?"
Brianna thought back to the time a boy dared her to climb a tree faster than him and she didn't even remember touching the branches, or the time Courtney came to school with a bruise on her neck and it faded when Brianna touched it.
"Say that they do," she agreed. "What does it mean? If I'm a witch? Does daddy know?"
"Well, both of us didn't really know until a letter came in today from the American school for witchcraft and wizardry, announcing you are to attend next year."
"Didn't you say we're going to London?"
Claire nodded. "You do have sharp hearing. Yes, I'll sort it all with the ministry of magic, don't worry."
"Daddy said he doesn't want to raise a magical child."
Claire placed her hand on Brianna's, her lips pressed together. "I know, baby. I'm so sorry. But it will be his loss, not yours, I promise."
Holding to her resolve not to cry on her birthday, Brianna bit her lower lip.
"I think I need a stiff drink," she said.
"Will you stop calling milkshakes that?"
Claire sighed. "Peanut butter and banana?"

 

Brianna hated the new cottage in the middle of nowhere, across the ocean from her friends. She hated having no one to spend her summer vacation with but her mother. She hated that she couldn't tell her friends the truth about why she was leaving. She hated her dad - or Frank, as she resolved to now call him - for not being there.
Mostly, she hated magic.