❝ Magic ❞

         Aquila stepped into the Scott Manor, It was magnificent and large. The elegance of the Manor made her feel enchanted. Her imagination has always been quite wild and for some weird reason, she almost expected the manor would be covered in dust and spider webs everywhere since it's not been in use for a long time.

The Scott's seniors — her maternal grandparents in other words — had died a few years ago and no one lived in there but, in a world of magic, houselves will take care of the cleaning even if no one is residing. Ellie mentioned that the Scotts owned two houselves.

Where are they?

"Hello?" she called out, for a moment only her voice echoed, suddenly a snap and there were two identical houselves standing in front of her.

"Mistress Aquila Scott?" the house elf on the left asked. It was tiny in size its voice was squeaky. It was wearing an old rag that looked horrible.

"Yes, It's me," She confirmed. The houselves nodded in sync and said,

"We are ourselves,"

At first, Aquila didn't know what they meant, but then she remembered that some of the wizarding families don't name their houselves.

To signify their ignorance towards the little creatures, some pureblood families don't treat the house-elves as if they were real people who had names and wore clothes. Hence, the poor creatures wore nothing but rags. It was also the symbol of slavery.

The Scotts weren't as cruel as other purebloods, from what she has heard they had given their housekeeping elves decent food and enough space to live. Though she didn't know if this fact was real or not, she had not seen a day when the mother or stepfather treat a house-elf rudely.

"So, you have no name," she said. "Can I name you both, if you don't mind?" she asked hesitantly, the houselves exchanged glances.

"Whatever you please Mistress," the other house-elf said.

"Kody and Nasir. Your name is Kody —" she pointed at the house-elf on the left "— And yours' Nasir." she pointed at the other one.

They both nodded "Thank you, Mistress Aquila."

It was uncomfortable for Aquila to have them call her mistress word to word, even though the working staff at Astrelaia address her as mistress, she thought it was unnecessary to give her much respect. After all, it's her birthright which gave her these titles and she felt that she hadn't earned them yet.

Aquila looked around to study the environment, the walls were painted deep blue, and the wooden furniture shone in the faint light emitted from the grand chandelier. The floor was neatly rugged in the velvety carpet. Posh-looking artifacts are all around the drawing room. The ancient-looking pendulum clock hanging on the wall captured her attention a lot more than the rest of the objects.

"Mistress Aquila, Your room is on the second floor, which is the largest room in Scott Manor. It's ready for you to live in Ma'am," Kody said.

"Oh, Thank you." Kody's face turned troubled.

"Oh no, Mistress Aquila shouldn't thank Kody it's wrong," Kody said panicked. "No, no, Mistress Aqualia is not wrong — thanking Kody is wrong Mistress Aqualia is right —" the poor house-elf was confused too much.

"Calm down, it's alright. Thanking someone for help is not wrong," she said, but Kody didn't look much convinced, still, he nodded.

Though it wasn't much of a surprise that houselves are strangely new to basic respect, Aquila genuinely felt that they deserve much more. She couldn't think of anything else to say.

"I'm a little tired let's talk later?"

"Yes Mistress Aquila," they both said. She nodded at them and left.

She took a clearer look at the manor, it was similar to the Johnson manor but Scott Manor was darker which was something she liked. Something all Manors of purebloods in the wizarding world have in common is it's suffocating. You can't literally breathe freely in a house of a pureblood. don't ask her why because nobody really knows. She slowly climbed up the staircase, studying the perfectly framed portraits of her ancestors.

She opened the door which Kody said was the room they had prepared for her.

It was a Victorian-styled room, with dark wooden furniture and dark themed color palette.

These pure-bloods think they are the royalty of the wizarding world. She thought.

The large king-sized bed was covered in silk blue sheets and dark velvet curtains, it had a black headboard. She lay down in bed and stared at the high ceiling and the grand Chandelier which was lit up with cream-white candles.

There was this weird feeling inside herself that she couldn't explain with either words or thoughts. The room that she was now living in once belonged to Ellie Johnson nee Scott. It felt strange to her to think this room had been her birthplace.

And it is now her own, even though she was sure the houselves have changed almost everything in the room, the essence of it wasn't quite gone.

On the other hand, there wasn't much time to waste. It was already the end of August and only a matter of days before she begin her journey at Hogwarts. She didn't expect her letter to come from Hogwarts especially since she was living in America.

Aquila laid there thinking about what this meant for the years to come, she would learn something and to be honest she had high expectations. The thought of the magical school gave her a boost.

She got up and opened the closet. There were hundreds of gowns and skirts and dresses. Barely a few tops which were mostly old-fashioned. The dresses looked new and fresh but she thought that it was way out of fashion. Hell, she didn't even know whose clothes these were.

Fortunately, there were some dresses that didn't look extravagant or old-fashioned. She ended up wearing a pale green dress that had floral patterns on it. She brushed her hair and put it into a ponytail.

Aquila took her Hogwarts letter and the key Ellie gave her and headed out, informing Kody and Nasir about her departure.

She took the knight bus for the first time to reach diagonally, but as soon as she did, she wished it was the last time.

The streets of diagonally were crowded and people were purchasing things with their children. There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, and globes of the moon.

She walked straight ahead and a huge building came into her view. The snowy white building towered over the other little shops. Gringotts. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was a goblin.

The goblin was about a head shorter than her. He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and, she noticed, very long fingers and feet. He bowed as she walked inside. Now she was facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:

Enter, stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed,

For those who take, but do not earn,

Must pay most dearly in their turn.

So if you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there.

Of course, Gringotts isn't a place where you can steal easily. Aquila would like to see the Stoll brothers — sons of the god of thieves — steal from this particular bank. They would certainly try, but Aquila was sure they would never attempt to do that again. Only a madman would ever try to break into Gringotts.

A pair of goblins bowed her through the silver doors and they were in a vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales, and examining precious stones through eyeglasses. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. Aquila reached for the counter.

"Good Afternoon Sir, I would like to make a withdrawal from the Scott family vault," she said to the free goblin.

"Do you have your key, Miss?" The goblin asked.

"Yes, here" she handed him the key Ellie gave her.

"Thank you, Miss, I will have Griphook take you down to the Scott family vault," he said "Griphook!" he called out. Another goblin came and lead her to the door, Griphook held the door open for her. She was in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downward and there were little railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks toward her and Griphook. They climbed in and were off.

At first, they just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. Aquila tried to remember, left, right, right, left, middle fork, right, left, but it was impossible. Maybe if it was a little slower she could have remembered the pattern. Even though she was in a magical world, the question was, what if she gets lost in this underground tunnel?

The rattling cart seemed to know its own way because Griphook wasn't steering. That means it's controlled by magic.

No, I won't get stuck in here.

Her eyes stung as the cold air rushed past them. Once, she thought she saw a burst of fire at the end of a passage and twisted around to see if it was a dragon, but too late — they plunged even deeper, passing an underground lake where huge stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor. The passage continued and it became colder and colder as they go. The cart stopped finally behind a dark large door. Griphook unlocked the door.

They were mountains of galleons, sickles, and knuts. It was expected, the Scotts were a very wealthy pureblooded family. Aquila took her small side bag and stuffed lots of coins as much as she can without delay. The ride back up in the was no better. Aquila always wanted to go on a ride on a rollercoaster, but now she has no love for it. She only hoped she wouldn't vomit after getting off the cart.

Soon they reached the top and the goblin returned the key. She went out of Gringotts and opened the second paper attached to the acceptance letter, it read:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

UNIFORM

First-year students will require:

1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)

2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear

3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)

4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)

Please note that all pupil's clothes should carry name tags

COURSE BOOKS

All students should have a copy of each of the following:

The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk

A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot

Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling

A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch

One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore

Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander

The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble

OTHER EQUIPMENT

1 wand

1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)

1 set of glass or crystal vials

1 telescope set

1 brass scale.

Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS

That was a long list. Aquila hated shopping, it was never her thing. She really wished a daughter of Aphrodite would be here to help her, but where can she search for demigods in the wizarding world?

A long time later, she had almost finished purchasing. Books, robes, parchment and quills, potions supplies, and a cauldron.

I still need a wand and a pet.

She went to the pet shop and there were owls, cats, rats, toads, and some other birds. Her eyes were set on an eagle. She had always loved eagles, not only because of her name.

They're the king of the sky, she wasn't talking about Zeus. She was talking about the king of the sky, Eagles. The eagle had Hazel eyes and chocolate brown feathers. She also set her eyes on a white kitten, it had yellow eyes and pure white fur. She ended up buying both.

Finally, all she needed was a wand.

Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivander's: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window. A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as she stepped inside. She felt strange as though she had entered a very strict library.

"Hello, Mr. Ollivander?" Aquila called out.

"Good afternoon Miss Scott," said a soft voice she turned to see an old man standing before her, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.

"Let's not wait any further. I'm curious which wand would choose you," he said. He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm, Miss Scott?" he asked

"I'm right-handed sir," she said. "Hold out your arm. That's it." He measured me from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit, and round her head. The tape measure, which was measuring between her nostrils, was doing this on its own. Mr. Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes.

She tried like dozens of wands the result was the destruction of the shop, nothing good.

He took another wand and gave to Aquila.

"Ebony wood, Thestral tail hair core, 12' inches," he handed her the wand it felt like it was made for her she flicked it, and suddenly golden embers emitted from the ward and swirled around her.

"Ah, this is the wand, Miss Scott. It chose you" he said. "but remember that Thestral tail hair core wands are rare and extremely dangerous for those who do not have the skill to wield it. Use it well Miss Scott," he warned. She had decided to never take a warning for granted it's not good.

After the tiring day, she returned to the Scott Manor Nasir was cooking and Kody was cleaning she finished her dinner.

"You have a delivery mistress Aquila," kody said. He gestured to three large boxes that lay in the drawing room floor.

Aquila examined it, addressed to her from Ellie. The family heirlooms. Aquila opened the first box which consisted of books, not just any books. Hereditary books of the Scott's, the only exclusively available copy. It was left to her by her grandparents will. The second box had strange artefacts, ranging from weird telescopes to eighteen century decorative wall hangings. Even few watches.

How am I going to put these to use?

She opened the third box, which had a fancy chest box and musical instrument similar to a cello but was played without a bow. No, not a guitar. Only in wizarding world.

The fancy chest, fine crafted in copper, boasted expensive jewels. Aquila spotted a ruby necklace, a pair of matching earrings a emerald bracelet, an opal pendant. And lot other jewels from sapphire brooches, rings, and even a couple tiaras made of red topaz gems and diamonds.

Gods, do the Scott's really have royal blood? it was hard to ignore, her maternal family was richer than she had thought. In less than a day Aquila became a multi-millionare.

The problem was that she had no idea how to put them to use. Aquila was only fond of rings, but these were too extravagant. And tiaras? Not a chance.

​​​"Could you move this to my room?" She asked the little elf.

"Yes mistress,"

"Oh please, just call me Aquila,"

"I can't do that mistress Aquila," the elf squealed.

"Then maybe miss Aquila? Mistress sounds too absurd." She insisted. ​​​The elf nodded timidly.

~ •Author's note • ~

Kody means helpful. Nasir means supporter, helper, a friend in Arabic. Aquila surely knows all the meaningful names.