July the Twenty-Fourth by The_Real_Hermione
Summary: Jane Creevey's world completely changes the day her eldest brother receives a letter from Hogwarts. After that, there is no other school but Hogwarts for her. After all, magic runs in the family, doesn't it?
Categories: General Fics Characters: None
Warnings: Alternate Universe
Challenges:
Series: None
Chapters: 1 Completed: Yes Word count: 1421 Read: 1622 Published: 08/12/10 Updated: 08/14/10
Story Notes:
AU warning is because Colin Creevey lives post DH.

1. July the Twenty-Fourth by The_Real_Hermione

July the Twenty-Fourth by The_Real_Hermione
~

24 July 1992 had undoubtedly been the most exciting day of her life. She had been downstairs, just behind her mother, when a woman clad in a long green garment of some sort had appeared at the door, announcing that Jane’s eldest brother was a wizard and would shortly be attending a strange school named Hogwarts.

She had only been seven years old at the time, and in her childlike mind the revelation that magic existed was simply magnificent. Unlike her ‘I’ll-believe-it-when-I-see-it’ mother, Jane had no trouble at all accepting that magic existed.

However, by the time the woman had pulled a pencil out of her pocket and turned it into a cushion, picked up her slightly crooked glasses and realigned them and turned herself completely into a cat, even her mother was convinced.

So off Colin went, gallivanting around Hogwarts castle and sending back photos that moved of all that he was up to. In his letters, he talked a lot about an apparently famous boy called Harry Potter who saved him from being killed by a Basilisk (although he was Petrified for a while), all his interesting classes (her favourite was Herbology) and a lot about the amazing Hogwarts castle.

Two years passed and Dennis’ letter arrived, and soon he too was attending Hogwarts. With every passing year, their stories became crazier and more fascinating. This year, there was something about a Triwizard Tournament, and more about Harry Potter, and then about some Dark Lord and how he had got his body back (although she never quite understood this one). Then after summer they went back and joined a secret club run by Harry Potter himself so they could learn defensive spells. Jane wondered if it would still be running next year, and if they’d let her join even though she would only be a first-year.

Christmas came and went, and so did Jane’s eleventh birthday in March. Four months to go... then one month... then weeks... days...

Although 24 July four years ago had been the most exciting day of her life, Jane was sure that sometime in late July this year would easily surpass it... after all, magic runs in the family, doesn’t it?

July came and went. There was no letter. No parchment with green ink. No owls.

Every day she scanned the horizon as soon as she got up. She would be jumpy all day, continuously looking out the windows just in case, just maybe, there was an owl. Her attention span shrunk dramatically, and frequently she would have no idea what her mother had told her to do.

Yet she was an eleven-year-old child, and her spirit was unquenchable. But eventually, as September the first came and she tearfully saw her brothers off on the Hogwarts Express, she had to concede what, deep down, she had always suspected: she wasn’t a witch.

The thing was, unlike both her brothers, Jane had never shown any signs of magic. The curtain was never burnt down accidentally; she never received top marks in a test she was sure she’d done badly in, never made food she really hated disappear...

But she had still hoped.

Starting at the local comprehensive school was terrible. Everything about her normal Muggle school was nothing like Hogwarts. It was made of several small buildings, not a castle. It wasn’t a boarding school. The roof of her school hall didn’t show the sky outside and she had to do all her usual classes like Maths and English.

It was little consolation that she now went to school with her friends from primary school. It tortured her parents to see her so upset, but nothing could pull her out of it.

Christmas came around again. Her brothers came home.

“-You won’t believe this, I turned a frog into a toad!“”

“-I had detention with Slughorn and he made me clean up these horrible things “”

“-The food at the Halloween Feast was so good“”

It drove her mad.

“Just stop showing off about Hogwarts, just ‘cos you two can go and I can’t. I don’t want to hear it. Just go away. I hate you!”

She ran up to her room and sobbed until her tears ran dry. She knew she shouldn’t have said it. She knew it would have hurt them: her brothers, though older, were the two most innocent boys she’d ever met.

But she stayed angry, for the whole holidays, for the whole next year. Her parents were stuck again, this was even worse than the depression. She snapped at everyone all the time, she became moody and disobedient and nothing would make her happy. Eventually the passing of time dampened her feelings and she moved on with her life.

Two years passed by. Fear festered inside them, poking its anxious head to the surface every time they received a letter from Colin about Muggle killings.

Suddenly Colin was fighting in a great battle, although he was told not to. Jane’s mother ended up travelling to Hogwarts via Portkey to see her nearly dying son. Whilst her mother was gone, and her brother’s life uncertain, all she could think of was how she had behaved at Christmas two years before and ever since. Now Colin might not make it... well, it definitely put things in perspective.

Colin survived, though when he came home there was a marked difference. He was quiet, subdued. Suddenly older. Even when she apologised for her selfishness he only smiled sadly.

“But everything’s okay now, isn’t it?” she asked. “Now that that Harry Potter killed You-Know-Who?”

“Yes Jane, everything’s okay,” he replied, but still he wouldn’t smile.

~

Jane was nearing the end of her third year at school, and Colin the end of his time at Hogwarts, when an unexpected owl arrived at the Creevey house. She quickly relieved the bird of its burden (her parents were still a little scared of wizards’ chosen methods of post). Upon seeing the Hogwarts seal, she couldn’t stop the excitement rising in her chest. Maybe it was just three years late...?

Dear Mr and Mrs Creevey,
You are cordially invited to your son Colin’s Leaving Feast, to be held at 6.30pm on 27 June on the front lawn outside Hogwarts Castle. The Hogwarts Express will leave Platform 9 ¾, King’s Cross Station, at 10am sharp in order to transport all parents and families to the Castle. Accommodation will be provided for you and your family at the castle. The Hogwarts Express will depart Hogsmeade for London at 11am on 28 June.

Please send your reply with this owl.

Kind regards,
William Weasley, acting Head of Gryffindor


Jane could hardly believe it. She was going to see Hogwarts! Properly, not just in her imagination or in Colin’s photos. After what happened to Colin the previous year in some way Hogwarts didn’t matter as much to her, but she still wouldn’t miss an opportunity to see it. 27 July couldn’t come fast enough, and when it finally did she ushered her parents out of the house well ahead of the time they needed to leave.

That first visit to Hogwarts printed itself on her memory like a permanent photo. She ate under the stars in the Great Hall and went all around the castle. She saw the small and excitable Headmaster, Professor Flitwick, making a speech at dinner. Colin even took her to see the Greenhouses. But the best bit was that her excitable older brother was back; she was certain he hardly breathed on their entire tour of the castle he had so much to say.

~

It is many years later now, and Jane has finally found her balance between the Wizarding and Muggle worlds. She married a wizard and most of her closest friends are wizards. Two of her children are also wizards, the other not; but to them it doesn’t matter. Her husband has even taught her some basic Herbology, and she tends to the plants in their garden as well as she can.

She has never been able to be particularly close to Muggles because she hates lying about her brothers, about her husband, about the hidden world she knows all about. And finally she understood why 24 July 1992 was the most exciting day of her life.

It wasn’t just Colin’s or Dennis’ secret, it was hers too.
End Notes:
I hope you enjoyed this. Bill Weasley is Acting Head of Gryffindor because I realised that McGonagall retired and I couldn't think of anyone else... so I put him there on the proviso that he was doing it just as a favour for one year (hence the "acting" part). Please review!
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