The first sign was not an owl, but the vibrating excitement on the other end of the phone.
"Bob. Don't freak out," Talora Livanthos' voice was a breathless, controlled whisper. "But a giant eagle-owl just tried to peck through our double-paned kitchen window. It dropped a letter. On parchment."
Shya Gill, who had been meticulously sketching a raven's wing in her private studio, didn't drop her charcoal. She set it down with deliberate calm. "Read it."
The sound of cracking wax echoed down the line. Talora read the words aloud, her voice shifting from disbelief to awe. "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry… We are pleased to inform you…"
There was a beat of profound silence, broken by Shya's analytical tone. "Hypothesis: Magic is real. We are witches. This is real"
"Obviously," Talora replied, her mind already racing ahead with the strategic implications.
" Oh my god!! Does this mean we can do magic, and form a coven like we've always wanted" Shya shouted excitedly ,
" BOB we should try and do some magic" Talora replied. Their planning was interrupted by the discrete chime of the Gill mansion's front door.
A moment later, Shya's mother called up the grand staircase, her voice a blend of bewilderment and amusement. "Shya, sweetheart? There's a Professor Flitwick here to see you. He says it's about… a school?"
The plot had officially thickened.
An hour later, they both sat in the Gill's impeccably decorated living room. Professor Flitwick, perched on a stack of cushions, explained the situation to their assembled parents. Shya's father, a tall, athletic man in an understated but exquisitely expensive polo, listened with a calm, analytical focus. Her mother, a vision of elegant high fashion and beauty, looked intrigued. Talora's parents, her father solid and broad-shouldered in luxury casual wear, her mother petite and diamond-adorned and chic, wore similar expressions of stunned acceptance.
"It is not uncommon for Children to gain magic suddenly in an otherwise non-magical family" The short Professor explained " It is quite an fortunate occurrence, your girls have a gift"
"Fortunate is one word for it," Talora's mother said, her sharp eyes already calculating the logistical nightmare of sourcing wizarding textbooks.
Later, after Flitwick had left, the girls raced up to Shya's room, the heavy door clicking shut behind them. The composure they'd held in front of their parents and the Professor vanished, replaced by giddy, disbelieving energy.
"Witches," Talora whispered, her eyes wide.
"Witches," Shya confirmed, a brilliant, unguarded smile breaking through her usual analytical calm.
Talora grabbed her hands, and they did a little, spinning dance in the middle of the room, a secret celebration just for them. " Go witches go witches go witches!" Talora chanted in a hushed, excited whisper, and Shya laughed, the soft chime of Shya's gold anklet accompanying their movement. In this private space, they were just two eleven-year-olds who had just learned the world was infinitely more magical than they'd dreamed.