Mail Call
~*~ 3 years later ~*~
- No one ever got any mail... except for Rachael. -
“Hey, Lupin, get up and get out!” Not again... just five more minutes. “Lupin, are you deaf? Get out! My friends will be here any minute! I don’t want them seeing you!”
10-year-old Rachael Lupin groggily raised herself off her bed, disrupted from her dreams, awoken by the most unpleasant voice on the planet. She rolled onto her stomach and saw her roommate, Becky, staring up at her.
“What time is it?” Rachael asked, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
“11:30, so get up and get out. Go get lunch or something! I don’t want you around!”
“Hey, it’s my room too you know!”
“Just get out!”
Rachael groaned, jumped off her bunk, went over to the closet, grabbed her nearest pair of clothes and went to the bathroom to change. When she emerged, she left to go to the cafeteria. She found the cafeteria half full of kids from the orphanage; she looked around for an empty table and saw one right next to the kitchens. She went to get her lunch (a bologna sandwich, a bag of chips and chocolate milk) and began to eat. She looked around at everyone else. For the three years she had been at the orphanage, she had classified all of them into groups.
The group sitting at the table next to her, they were the oldest there, and the nicest. The group was rather small, only four of them. The first and oldest was Kathleen McDonald; she was a pretty blonde girl with deep blue eyes, pearly white teeth and a beautiful smile. All the boys, young or old, always tried to get at least one chance to talk to her. One time Rachael was being picked on by her roommate’s friends and Kathleen came over and told them off. Next in the group was Greg Lawrence. Rachael liked him because he reminded her so much of her father, he even looked like him and had the same name. He had sandy hair, and green eyes; the only difference was he didn’t wear glasses. He was the one who kept all the younger boys in line.
Then there was Brittany Becker. She was just a plain brunet, brown eyes, but a personality of gold, she always knew the right thing to say. Last there was Adam Finch; he had the same blue eyes and blonde hair that Kathleen had. These four were the ones who felt really bad for Rachael. Rachael was the one who got picked on because she had the most original reason for being in the orphanage. No one there had ever been disowned, it was only Rachael. The four of them waved to Rachael when they saw her sitting there, she waved back.
She turned her attention towards the table in the very back, which was the “geeks” - George Brandy, Michael Fitzgerald, Ella Bryans and Bill Bones. They were all right, although they didn’t like to mix with anyone who wasn’t in their category. Then there were the average kids, which consisted of everyone, except four others. One was Rachael, but she didn’t fit in with any group.
Then there was Becky Beckham, Brandy Culkin, and Brenda Lewis - The Three B’s, as Rachael liked to call them. They thought they were brilliant, beautiful and better than everyone else. They gloried in picking on anyone younger than them or anyone they considered to be “lower” than them. They even got caught picking on some of the older kids. But mostly they loved picking on Rachael, for no reason. For the three years she had been at the orphanage, they had caused her nothing but pain and misery. The first week there, Becky and Rachael got into a, well, let’s say fight? No too civilised a word for it, brawl is more like it. Rachael had stayed in the room when Becky’s friends were there, so Becky told her to leave. Rachael, of course, refused to; it had only been a week since she had been there and Becky was already her arch enemy. So, Becky was in a particularly bad mood that day and didn’t take it that well. First it was just exchanging a few calm words, then foul words, and before anyone could do anything they were beating each other up. Rachael had to admit that Becky was very tough when it came to fighting, her injuries proved it.
They were both sent to Mrs. Ramben’s office, where she took no mercy on them. She had the two cleaning blackboards in the classrooms, polishing the banister in the common room and cleaning every room in the entire orphanage. After they were dealt their punishment they were sent to the infirmary. Rachael had a new black eye, as the one from running into a tree had vanished, a cut lip and she could hardly move her jaw. All Becky suffered from was a bloody nose, but Rachael was happy just to see her whine in pain. Then again, Becky didn’t have to suffer with what Rachael did - Ms. Marshall. She got such a lecture she nearly had to staple her eyelids open, for all she knew she might have fallen asleep with her eyes open and didn’t realise it.
Rachael was brought back to reality by a large splattering sound and the cry of, “food fight!” She turned wildly around to see who started it and, much to her surprise, it was Bill Bones, scary thought. Ducking under all the flying food, dodging a banana peel that flew overhead and nearly tripping on a fruit salad, she ran towards the exit and bumped into Ms. Marshall. Ms. Marshall was looking down at her with stern eyes and immediately Rachael thought she did something.
“Whatever it is, I didn’t do it!” she blurted out.
“No you didn’t do anything...yet. Come with me to the mail room.”
Puzzled, Rachael trudged behind her personal instructor to the mailroom. This was strange; she never got mail. Who would want to mail her anyway? The people at the orphanage almost made it a rule not to let her get mail, but were forced out of it because of the one special letter she would be getting. She walked up a short flight of stairs, turned right down a corridor.
Rachael let her thoughts drift to her birthday - August 31st, a mere four weeks away. She thought of the best birthday she had. It was the year before she and Remus got into the accident in the forest, the year she had turned seven. She and Remus were taken out of the house for the day and went to a movie with their dad, which was a real surprise because their kind never went to the movies, normally. When they got back to the house it was decorated from top to bottom with birthday decorations. Balloons, confetti, everything imaginable and there was a giant banner hanging from the wall in the living room that read Happy 7th Birthday Rachael and Remus! As a special treat the twins were taken to Hogsmeade, where they found an open field and got to fly on a broomstick for the first time in their lives.
Last year, well, it hadn’t been a pleasant at all. There was a thunderstorm raging outside - thunder crashing, lightening flashing. The giant oak tree in the courtyard behind the orphanage had even fallen down, knocked down a telephone pole, and nearly started a fire. Thankfully the rain was falling too hard for a fire to start. But, unfortunately, they were in darkness for the whole day. Now, Rachael isn’t completely superstitious, but she gets frightened very easily. So they were using candles for light (Rachael would’ve preferred if she had a wand and lit it up) and Becky and her two friends decided to have a little fun scaring the life out of Rachael. They put together this elaborate plan where they wrote in red paint over her bed Rachael they’re coming to get you which scared her a little. Then they made a shadow figure the size of a full grown man creep up to her, they added stomping feet, moans for the effect, and Becky let off a high pitched shriek. Rachael jumped off her bed and dashed out of the room.
The worst thing was that the girls didn’t even get a scolding; just Rachael because she crashed into the banister leading to the second floor and almost knocked it over. She could have gotten away with it but, to her misfortune, Michael Fitzgerald was in the room at the time and caught her. In result, Rachael spent the entire next day writing on the blackboard I will not cause destruction one hundred times.
As Rachael was walking down the hall she looked in some of the rooms, watching the students who had summer school. She pitied them; it was ninety degrees out and they purposely made the classrooms without air conditioning. Ms. Marshall brought Rachael into the mailroom. The mailroom was a small room cluttered with file cabinets filled with mail the orphanage gets... such as applications for new kids that were being brought in and their bills and such. No one ever got any mail, except Rachael. She saw a small tawny barn owl perched on the windowsill that looking at her with big yellow eyes. There was a parchment envelope clutched in its beak. Rachael rushed over, took the letter, petted the owl for bringing her letter and tore it open. The letter said:
Dear Ms. R. Lupin,
Congratulations, you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please note that the term begins on September 1st. The train will be leaving at 11:00 from Platform Nine and Three Quarters at Kings Cross Station. Enclosed is a list of the supplies you will need for the coming year.
See you on September 1st
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress.
“Come on!” Ms. Marshall said suddenly. Rachael looked up from the letter. “We are going to Diagon Alley today, so come on!”
A/N: Sorry about the lack of updates :(