Flora and her family spent very pleasant days with the Malfoys experiencing the magical world. The children learned to fly on broomsticks and to play Quidditch with their cousin Scorpius. The events of the former days seemed a collective nightmare, except for the absence of Mr. Malfoy that could be remembered at every moment only by the sad shade on Narcissa’s eyes.

After a few days, Ricardo and Lia, Flora’s eldest children (13 and 11 respectively), were in the backyard, merrily playing Quidditch with Scorpius and Yan, a two against two game, when they saw the arrival of a barn owl that made a loop in midair to follow them up the next goalhoops at the right of the Malfoy Manor. Ricardo immediately left the game and dropped his broom. The owl stretched her leg to offer him the letter.
To his surprised that owl had not been mistaken, because his and Lia's name were there in very ink green. It was a yellow envelope sealed with red wax, and stamped with the Hogwarts crest. He shouted to his sister, who was still on her broom and flew in circles over him with curiosity

"Lia, look here: it is for us!"

Lia flew toward him, but he rode his broom and flew away:

"Try to get it!"

"Ricardo, come on! Let's just see what is written!"

Lia cried, laughing and flying very fast toward him. Yan and Scorpius were nonstop laughing and just watched them. No long after she reach him, which he pretended to be allowed:

"Ricardo, we shall open to see what is it. From who is it?"

"Who, Lia? Hogwarts of course! Look here!"

Ricardo said excitedly, showing the crest of the school while they dismounted, dropping the brooms on the floor in any way, as they were curious to read the letter. Scorpius and Yan came to view it too. The four heads together, almost breathless, due to the emotion as well to the game. Ricardo was trembling a little, then Lia took the letter from his hands and read aloud:

Ricardo and Lia,

With great pleasure we invite you and your family to visit our school.
Get in touch with prof. Longbottom and he will lead you here.
You are expected at 10am on the 13th of August,.
Sincerely,

Professor Minerva McGonagall
Headmistress of
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

They just finished reading it and ran into the house, shouting.

"Mooooooooooooooom!!! Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!"

Narcissa, Flora, Felipe, Draco and Astoria talking in the living room. Astoria was telling them about her work at St. Mungo's when they were surprised by the four children which burst running into the living room. Lia gave the letter to her mother:

"Look, a letter from Hogwarts, mom!"

"Professor McGonagall, Headmistress of Hogwarts, is inviting us to go there to know the school, Aug. 13." Said Flora, smiling, reading and rereading the letter, very happy.

Everyone was very excited about the invitation. Even Draco that hardly ever smiled, Happily he declared that he would try to visit his old school with them. The appointment was scheduled for two days later.

Mrs. Malfoy sent an owl to Neville, telling him about the letter and inviting him for tea. Neville replied that he would not be able to come for tea, because he was busy with the final preparations before the school year started. However, he ensured her he would be there at 9:30 am on the day set by Prof. McGonagall.

Then, as the Hogwarts Express would take too long to get to the school, Neville asked Draco to get a Portkey in order to quickly take everyone to Hogsmeade. And so he did. On the 13th, all of them were very excited. The kids woke early and were ready three hours before Longbottom’s arrival. Draco also met them, as Scorpius and he were going to go with them. "To have a representative of Slytherin there," he said.

After breakfast, everyone went to the front of the house, waiting for Neville, who arrived with his wife not even a minute late. Hannah hugged Flora kindly, even before them doing the introductions and greetings. Neville asked Draco:

"Did you bring the Portkey?"

Draco nodded and handed him a rusty bicycle handlebar, without saying anything. They were not yet accustomed to this sudden approach between them, after years of animosity. Draco gave everyone instructions, before they said farewell to Narcissa and stood around the object. A few seconds after leaving the floor of the Malfoy Manor, they reached Hogsmeade's ground.

In Hogsmeade they were awaited by a carriage without pulling animals. Neville explained to them it was pulled by a Thestral, an animal that could be seen only by those that had already witnessed someone’s death. At that, Flora was glad for not being able to see it. They sat in the carriage, which was quickly and magically resized by Hannah, so that everyone was well accommodated. And so the carriage went towards an unpaved road with a large castle at its end.

When they arrived at Hogwarts, Flora’s family was amazed with the castle. Yan, Flora’s youngest son, stated looking up to the top of the tallest tower:

“The castle is so big it barely fits in my eyes, Mommy!”

They all smiled:

“It's really big, honey.” Flora replied.

They were greeted by an old witch whose totally silver hair was stuck in a bun. She was dressed in green, wore square glasses, and was accompanied by a man a little younger than her. Despite his somewhat wild looks, he was much taller than all the men Flora knew, and his hair and beard were long and grey. He was nice and friendly:

“Good morning, welcome to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, I’m Minerva McGonagall and this is Rubeus Hagrid, our Care of Magical Creatures teacher. Let us come in. The others are waiting.

“Others?” Asked Flora.

“Well, some of Professor Longbottom’s friends. They have all met you recently during the incident in the Malfoy Manor. They insisted on being here now to show their gratitude for your behaviour." Said McGonagall, grinning at her.

Professor McGonagall took them to the school main hall, where they met Ginny, Harry, Hermione, Ron and the other DA members. They all welcomed Flora’s family with a smile. Professor McGonagall invited them to take their places around one of the four long tables that were in the hall.

Lia was walking, staring marvelled at the ceiling bewitched to look like the blue sky outside, when she hit against the table. Embarrassed, she looked around to see if anyone had noticed it, only Professor Minerva looked at her and gave her a smile, like someone saying not to worry about that.

The headmistress did a little speech about the school, its founders and its principles, and then she said to Flora and her husband:

“We cannot offer you a place at the school, once you have already passed the entry age. Nevertheless, we invite you to go through a little ritual common to all of our students that also go through it when they get here to start their lives as true witches and wizards: the sorting of houses.”

Then she invited Felipe to sit on a small stool in front of everyone. He did not quite fit it as it was too small for him. Anyway, she took an old and battered hat and put it on his head. The hat had barely touched his head when it proclaimed aloud:

“Ravenclaw!”

Everyone clapped.

Then it was Flora’s turn. As she was anxious, she was panting a little:

The hat seemed to be pondering in a whisper that only she could hear:

"Difficult, very difficult: you have a great heart, Hufflepuff would be well suited, but I sense strong Slytherin blood in your veins. Your unusual intelligence would take you to Ravenclaw. However, all this courage, my dear, surely takes you to... "

“Gryffindor!”

Everyone clapped. Flora blushed. She did not know what all this meant, but she was happy to be there.

“So, the Slytherin heir belongs to Gryffindor? Perhaps we should stop with this sorting. I think Gryffindor and Slytherin have just called it quits” McGonagall gleefully said.

Everyone laughed. They went back to the table and a wonderful lunch was magically served on it.

Although Flora and Felipe could not attend the school anymore, Professor McGonagall told them that the same did not apply for their children. The kids could attend it from September 1st if their parents agreed, although Ricardo, in spite of his age, would have to start with Lia.

“Please mom! Please dad!” Lia and Ricardo begged their parents in unison.

“I want to come as well!” Said Yan.

Then Draco kindly explained to Yan:

“Yan, wizarding schooling begins at 11. So, you’d have to wait two more years .... If your parents allowed you to come, of course."

They all tuned their pleading eyes to Flora and Felipe, who said:

“I don’t know, to live so far from home ...”

“You could move to Hogsmeade. Next to the house Neville and I bought, there’s an empty one. Besides, as the wizarding people are getting closer to the Muggles, it needs some modernization. So, computer stores and computing courses are more and more necessary. You could open the first ones in our world. What do you think of that?”

“It could be a good idea. We’re going to talk and see what is best for the family.” Felipe pondered.

Flora started thinking about early retirement. How to carry on working as a psychologist knowing that what she’d always done to make her clients happier was to use Legilimency and Confundus Charm, as well as Obbliviate (Memory Charm) to firstly delete their unwanted memories and then print new ones in their minds? Later on, she shared that thought with her husband.

They spent the rest of the day visiting the castle and listening about its marvellous stories. The children and adults also had the opportunity to play in the Quidditch pitch a little more, Harry, Draco and the other were recalling the old days of school, while Felipe and his children had fun experiencing the thrill of playing in an official field for the first time. Meanwhile, Flora stayed with McGonagall, watching them. The two of them talked about the school and Flora told the Scottish professor about life in Brazil. In the evening, they went back to the Malfoy Manor. The children had a sleep full of dreams that seemed to predict what would happen next morning.

During the breakfast, Felipe began to speak:

“Your mother and I talked a lot and decided to ...”

It was when a brown owl came in fluttering into the room and dropped two letters from Hogwarts on the table. Felipe picked them up and delivered them to their receivers:

“Well: Lia and Ricardo, you are going to Hogwarts.”


THE END


...continues in Flora Riddle 2 (with a bit of romance, drama and adventure).