It was a normal morning in London for Gracelyn Lupin, unlike no other that summer. The sun shone through a break between her black curtains, causing the young girl to wake up from her slumber. Of course, her younger siblings, Hope and James took part in awakening their older sister, screaming at each other from the kitchen. This was most likely caused by James apparently making Hope's belongings disappear from time to time. The twins were a year younger than Gracie, but that didn't make them any less annoying.

Only days ago, July twenty-third to be exact, Gracie had turned eleven years old. Hoping that her letter would arrive this morning, or in the next couple of days, this would be the year she started at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Both her parents and uncle Remus studied at the school, making Gracelyn a half-blood witch, due to her mother's blood status. However, like the rest of her family, she didn't care much for blood status. She was bound to make friends with multiple half-bloods and even muggle borns during her school years, as well as a few purebloods. That was if her letter were to arrive.

Gracie pushed the duvet off of her body and stepped into a pair of reindeer slippers, matching with her Christmas pajama set. Her mum, Lilliana Black-Lupin, and uncle Remus had bought her them last Christmas as one of her gifts. She did enjoy gaining a new set every year to add to her growing collection. The two usually bought gifts together, due to not earning enough for separate gifts from each of them. Sure, it was the middle of summer, but Gracie couldn't care less about wearing the themed clothing months early. After having finally stood up from her messy bed, Gracie picked up the small, navy blue hair brush from her bedside table. Well, it wasn't exactly a bedside table, but more or less a large pile of books. Among Gilderoy Lockhart's complete collection and various other muggle works, sat a signed copy of 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'. It was a family heirloom, seeing as her mother previously owned it. The book, she had received for her ninth birthday, was now one of her most prized possessions. She read it over and over again, almost every single night, having memorized almost all the information and leaving little side notes in the margins. Leaning next to the makeshift table was a burgundy violin case, another of the girl's enjoyments. She had studied the instrument at a young age. She brushed through multiple knots in her dark brown hair, from yet another restless night. Gracie plucked a small, wooden, hand-held mirror from the book pile and brought it up to the height of her face. Her reflection sighed as she noticed heavy bags under her brown eyes. She put the mirror and brush back in their places on the book pile, letting out yet another small sigh, before heading out of her room.

During her time of getting up, the screaming downstairs had only gotten worse. A more feminine, high-pitched voice, most likely Hope Black-Lupin, shouting at her brother, "Get back here you slime ball!". Her twin, James Black-Lupin, yelling back at her, "Maybe if you stopped calling me a slime ball!", and an older voice intervening every now and then. As Gracie reached the landing, the older voice called out that breakfast was ready, causing the twin's shouting to automatically stop, followed by a pounding of feet in the direction of the voice. The staircase was very creaky, although no one knew why. James had once told Hope that it was the ghost of a dark wizard that followed You-Know-Who just to scare her. It involved Hope avoiding the stairs at all costs for an entire week. However, due to the loud noises it created, it was quite obvious when someone was either going up or down them.

At the bottom of the creaky staircase sat a wooden sideboard, and laid out in neat little rows were photo frames and a stack of polaroid's. Of course, the images were moving , just like any other photograph in the wizarding world. A few photos, Gracie could recognize as her moments growing up, but others were completely unfamiliar to her. However, one of the photos stood out to her from the rest, a younger man with longer hair than any man should have normally had. Gracie could only assume that this man was her father, she had never met him but liked to believe the smiling man sat in their hallway was him.

Gracie heaved herself into the kitchen, sitting down in the seat next to James. Her brother had messy black hair and the same chocolate brown eyes as his sisters and their mother. Opposite James sat Hope, every now and then pulling faces at her brother. Her hair, a lighter shade of brown, was tied back into a loose ponytail, yet her fringe continuously fell over her large brown eyes causing her to push it back behind her pointed ears. The two would have been identical if it weren't for their noses, James' being more slender than his sister's. "Morning sis." James gently patted Gracie's back. "Sorry if Hope woke you up, she just doesn't know when to shut up." Hope rolled her eyes at her brother, clenching her fist slightly underneath the table.

"Watch your mouth James, I may be small but I'm willing to break your kneecaps." She shot him an icy glare which resulted in a scoff coming from James. "Are you sure you can reach them?"

"That's enough, you two!" Lilli placed plates full of eggs, bacon and toast in front of the twins, forcing them to both go silent. "Morning darling." Their mother said directly to Gracie, ignoring the other two, before walking back into the kitchen. She brought two more plates into the dining room as she came back in. "Did you sleep alright?" She asked, sitting down in the empty seat next to Hope. With a mouth full of bacon, James nodded before Hope cut him off from speaking, "She wasn't talking to you, pea brain." She tilted her head in the direction of Gracie whilst fiddling with her fork.

"Do I ever sleep well, the night after the full moon?" Gracie questioned. There was an awkward moment of silence before she spoke again. "The answer is no, transformation leaves my sleep schedule wrecked...I know, we have it easier turning into an actual wolf rather than whatever you turn into mum, but still, consider the sleep schedule wrecked."

"I know honey, I know..." Lilli sighed lightly to herself, taking a sip from the purple mug in her hands. Her mother had the same distinctive eyes that Hope had, but with a lighter shade of brown. Her hair, of the same colour, hung loosely against her shoulders, covering three scars across her neck. Claw marks, a little gift from the werewolf known as Fenrir Greyback. Most of the family were unlucky in this area, even their uncle Remus was a werewolf. James, however, was the luckiest out of them all. He was the only human, which Gracie thought was inherited from their dad.

"Sorry..." Gracie mumbled. "Not exactly a morning person." She shot annoyed glances to her siblings before finally eating her breakfast.

Breakfast was almost immediately interrupted as a bird crashed into their window. It was an owl in fact, a snowy owl. "Jesus..." Lilli muttered, going to open the kitchen window. "I swear they either send us the barely trained owls or the close to retirement owls." The owl gathered itself together before flying onto the kitchen counter. In its beak was a single cream envelope, with what seemed to be emerald green inked words on one side, and a burgundy wax seal on the other.

"What's that mum?" James asked, pointing to the letter.

"It's a letter, obviously." Hope replied back, shaking her head at her brother's misfortunes.

"I knew that, I'm not a dimwit." James said as he finished his breakfast quickly. "Who's it for then?" He asked, putting this plate in the sink.

Lilli took the letter from the owl, carefully so she wouldn't rip the envelope, and examined the green ink. Written in the ink was 'Miss Gracelyn Lupin' and the family's address. "Gracie, it's for you." Lilli finally replied to James' question.

"But...But she doesn't have any friends!" James protested as he watched their mother walk away from him.

"You're just jealous because no one writes to you anymore." Hope stated with a shrug of her shoulders, putting her own plate into the sink with James'.

Lilli handed the envelope to Gracie, and took the now empty plate from her. "Go on, open it!" James exclaimed from behind his sister's shoulder.

"Alright, alright." Gracie rolled her eyes at his excitement and peeled the wax seal away. Inside were two folded pieces of parchment, the words written in the same emerald green ink on the envelope. She carefully unfolded the parchment, as to not rip it, and scanned the letter quickly. Her brown eyes widened and she let out a small gasp of excitement as she glanced over the word 'Hogwarts'.

"Mum! Mum! Gracie got her Hogwarts letter!" Hope exclaimed, glancing over her sister's other shoulder.

"Oh really?" Lilli asked, sitting back down at the table with a fresh cup of coffee.

"Yeah!" James snatched the letter from his older sister, ripping one of the corners in the process. "Look! Look!" He shouted, shoving the letter into Lilli's face.

"James!" Gracie moaned in annoyance. "You ripped it, well done dingus!"

"Alright everyone calm down, Gracie, the twins are just excited, can you blame them?" Lilli said whilst looking over the letter herself. "Hogwarts is the best school for Witchcraft and Wizardry, don't believe what they say about Ilvermorny." She let out a sigh and looked over the other piece of parchment. "Ah, here we go. School supplies...well you've already got one of the books, so we can check that off...you just need everything else then I suppose."

"Does this mean-" James started.

"We get to go-" Hope continued.

"To Diagon Alley?!" Gracie finished in a more upbeat tone.

Lilli nodded to the three of them, chuckling to herself. "Well obviously, where else do you think your sister is going to get her first wand? We can go tomorrow, through the Leaky Cauldron of course. Oh, and we'll have to stop at Gringotts first, the family vault. Your-" She hesitated. "I mean, your grandmother gave you all enough money for your school years, as well as a little something extra."

"Can we write to Uncle Remus? Tell him the letter arrived finally?" Gracie questioned, already gathering a piece of parchment and a quill from a side cupboard.

"Yes, yes, of course you can..." Lilli pulled a few bronze coins out of her cardigan pocket, and put them into a small pouch on the owl's leg. "Off you go now." She ushered it back out the window. The owl flew off, well, it crashed into a tree before finally going high enough from the obstacles.

"James what did you do with the ink?" Gracie complained whilst searching through little drawers on a desk.

"Why is it always me?" He moaned. "Hope could have done it!"

"Yeah, because I just happen to make everything disappear...don't I?" She shot another icy glare at him, causing James to shut up.

"Never mind, I found it...sorry James." Gracie quickly apologized, before writing a rather scruffy looking letter to her uncle. "All done!" She handed the letter to her mother.

"We can send it off tomorrow, alright? I suppose you'll want an owl for school? I had a cat, myself, Rover. He died a couple years before you were born unfortunately...poor thing thought he was a dog." Lilli laughed lightly to herself. "Anyway, if you get an owl, you can send the letter with him or her."

Gracie nodded slowly, trying to keep up with what Lilli was saying. "So that's the cat that's always photobombing on the polaroids!" She exclaimed, only just remembering the ginger cat on almost all the polaroids.

"Yes, he did enjoy being an annoyance every now and then." Lilli put the letter into an envelope, before placing it in a drawer. "It should be safe in there...if someone keeps his hands out of it." She glanced over her shoulder at James. "Anyway, everyone get dressed, we're going for a walk."

"Ugh, do we have to go?" Hope complained, the transformation's after effects only just beginning to kick in. "I'm tired."

"Yes, you do have to go, if you want to go to Diagon Alley of course...unless you don't really want to go after all?" She replied, a mischievous smirk on her face.

"Fine." Hope grunted, crossing her arms in annoyance.

"Last one upstairs is a rotten egg!" James yelled, already on his way down the hall.

"Hey! No fair! You got a head start!" Gracie shouted, running after him. Hope followed soon after, the girls almost immediately overtaking their brother.

The next day would be one to remember.