❝ One day, everyone will realize that it's not about being perfect; it's about being happy. ❞

I woke up at the sunlight shining in through the window and blinding my vision. I squirmed my eyes open, stretching as I took an observing look around.

   Wait, this wasn't my usual small bedroom in the tent that consisted of nothing but a wide bed, a night table and a closet. This was the girls' dormitory in the Gryffindor Tower. I was at freaking Hogwarts!

   I swung my legs over the side of the bed sprightly and approached the large window, which was bathed in the warm morning sunlight. The sight of the Forbidden Forest captured my attention almost immediately. Its trees were so dense and rough-looking that I was surprised they still existed after all these years.

   Hagrid's Hut could be spotted quite easily as well, mostly because of the large bright orange pumpkins that consumed the biggest part of his garden. His Hippogriff, Buckbeak, was peacefully sleeping there.

   After getting up from my bed and having a quick shower, I changed into my Gryffindor robes, slinging the strap of my book bag across my shoulder. Then I took a look at myself in the long mirror, my lips stretching out in a wide smile.

   Hair pulled back in a ponytail, clad in black wizard robes with the Gryffindor emblem on them, wand in pocket — I looked like a real witch. My emerald green eyes also seemed to be sparkling more brightly than ever as a golden ray of sunlight shone down on them.

   No, I hadn't changed. I had just found out where I belonged.

   Regardless of how early it was, I tiptoed out of the girls' dorm quietly so that I didn't wake anyone up, deciding to explore the castle a little bit. I made my way out of the portrait hole and went up a flight of stairs; then took a turn on the left. A sudden idea popped into my head and I made up my mind to go to the Owlery and send a letter to mum back home.

   No matter how badly she had hurt me, I was aware that I had hurt her too, so since we were even now, I decided to forgive her. Maybe she was dying to hear from me, so I thought it was better to drop a line.

   It took me about half an hour to get to the Owlery (with the help of a few portraits and Hogwarts ghosts) and the first few times I got lost. But eventually, I found out where the place where owls were confined was.

   When I pushed the door of the Owlery open, I was greeted by a mishmash of hoots and utters from the variety of owls that filled the place. Tawny or snowy owls, screech owls and barn ones like Greg.

   Some of them were pecking on some Owl Treats, rotten vegetables or dead mice. Some were flying frantically around the Owlery, begging to be let out. Others were sleeping, or observing mutely, or spontaneously uttering some high-pitched hoots, but my Greg was just sitting peacefully by the windowsill, gazing at me with his big and somewhat intimidating eyes.

   I walked over to him, running a hand through his milky white feathers.

   "Hey, Greg," I said, tickling under his chin. "I'm sure you're liking it here."

   Greg let out a loud hoot and I couldn't help but smile to myself.

   "I'm glad. I'm liking it too," I responded.

   Slowly unzipping my schoolbag, I took out a piece of parchment paper and a quill and began writing a letter to mum.

Dear mom, I wrote.

I feel like I need to apologize for running away from home on my birthday. Although I shortly explained to you through that note that I wanted to leave since I felt out of place, I know you probably got very shocked and distraught.

I'm sorry, mom.

But you should know that what you did to me was not fair either. You insisted that magic wasn't real and told me to stop whenever I began talking about it. You raised me in a muggle neighborhood where everybody either secretly feared or hated me.

At school, things weren't better. I got frequently bullied or picked on. So I just had to get out of that place and go somewhere with people like myself.

Anyway, now that I'm at Hogwarts, I'm ready to leave the past behind and start a new chapter in my life. Besides, you are my mother. I can't be mad at you forever. Will you forgive me too?

Things will change drastically from now on in my life — in our lives — but I just want you to accept me for who I am. Over the summer holidays, I have become a very independent girl.

I'm not telling you what I've done, where I've been and with whom, because I know I've probably broken tons of rules and I don't want you to start with one of your lectures (I love you, but your reproaches truly annoy me to hell and back).

But I've seen a lot, mom, trust me — and now I'm not that small town girl anymore.

I have one last thing to ask you, mom. Why haven't you ever said a word to me about my father? Why is he considered a dangerous man? Are there any other secrets that you are keeping from me?

Hope to hear from you soon.

Lots of love,
Polly

PS. Don't be surprised when this letter arrives with an owl. It's my owl, Greg, so please feed him some biscuits, because the flight from the UK to the US isn't a short one. Also, don't be afraid to tie your reply letter around Greg's leg.

After I was done writing the letter, I skimmed through it a few times. Nodding to myself in contentment, I tied it neatly around Greg's left leg.

   "Give this letter to mum back home in California," I ordered him. "Just . . . please be careful, Greg."

He uttered another hoot, his big beetle-black eyes glowing with a possible spark of excitement, since this would be his first delivery. Then, the barn owl opened his wings and flew away. I stared at his retreating form as he soared across the sky like a feather being carried by the wind and when he was too far to be spotted anymore, I picked up my bag and left the Owlery.

I entered the castle once more and walked up to the Great Hall, feeling relieved and even proud of myself that I didn't get lost or ask for help this time. The Great Hall looked dazzlingly bright and cheerful, the soft sunlight pouring into the room through the large windows, the bewitched ceiling showing a cerulean blue sky. Only a few people filled the place since it was still a bit early.

Having nothing better to do, I decided to open one of my textbooks and skim through it while waiting for my friends to wake up. I didn't know for how long I kept reading. I had a tendency to completely lose track of time when I was wholly engrossed in a book.

I loved books, always had. They were an escape from reality. Even though I didn't really need an escape this time — because my reality was finally better than any dream I'd ever had — my love for books hadn't died down.

The sound of Sibi's voice was the only thing that finally snapped me back to reality and made me look up from the book I held in my hands.

"Good morning, Polly." Her lips curled up in a warm smile.

"Oh, morning." I smiled back, slowly closing the book and putting it down. "When did you get here?"

"Just now. What about you?"

"Um . . . I don't actually know."

Come to think of it, when did I get there? It must have been pretty early, because there were only a few people in the hall. A quick scan of the place made me realize that the number of people had duplicated by now and the sunlight had grown sharper and brighter.

This only served as a more concrete proof that whenever I got engrossed in a book, I could quite literally lose track of time.

"Well, you sure have woken up early," Sibi noted, glancing at her wristwatch. "Lessons start in half an hour."

   "Really?" I exclaimed.

   A message of excitement travelled through me, my heart bouncing a little with joy. I couldn't help it, really, seeing as this was my first day of school as a witch and I would get to meet the new professors, see the classrooms and start learning from wizards' textbooks.

"Oh, look. Professor McBon is handing out the new schedules," Sibi said, pointing to the Hufflepuff table, where the students were eagerly grabbing their new timetables, curious eyes skimming over the lines.

When Breeze finally reached the Gryffindor table, I barely prevented myself from letting out hysterical giggles. I could seriously get so un-Pollylike when I was enthusiastic.

"Good morning," Breeze greeted every student formally while passing them their new schedules.

As Sibi and I grabbed our own schedules, I caught a whiff of Breeze's flowery perfume. She leaned close to me and I felt her aquamarine blue locks brushing against my ear as she whispered, "Good luck."

I gave her a grin, followed by a soft smile of hers before she walked swiftly toward the Slytherin table.

"What did she say?" asked Sibi curiously.

"Just wished me luck on my first day," I said, my eyes scanning the new schedule. "Hey, our first class is Transfiguration."

"Damn it," Sibi muttered under her breath, wrinkling her eyebrows.

   "Anything wrong?"

"Well, to put it simply, Transfiguration sucks. Not the subject itself but the professor actually, Rollick," said Sibi. "He's austere and bad-tempered. You wouldn't wanna get in his bad side."

   "Oh, um . . . I'll try not to," I responded, my voice queasy.

   What a great way to start off the first day of school. I was just hoping that maybe he would be more tolerant today, since this was the first day and all.

   "Morning girls," Mike's voice sounded from behind me.

   I turned around with a smile, feeling glad that I was finally getting to see my friend in his neat school uniform instead of his usual shaggy clothes.

   "Morning Mike," I said.

   "You're late," Sibi pointed out, sounding more surprised than accusing. "Here, McBon just passed out the schedules."

   After sitting down next to me and taking a good look at the schedule, Mike put it down with the same annoyed look as Sibi when she first saw it.

   "Darn it, we have to see that gorilla's face in a few minutes," he groaned.

   "Well, look on the bright side. Our second class is Herbology with professor Umphassen," Sibi responded cheerily.

   Oh right, professor Umphassen. Sibi told me about her that day at the library when we were buying the textbooks. She and her interesting teaching methods. Well, I could only hope that I'd take the same liking to her as Sibi had.

   No longer than a minute later, the food magically appeared on the table and we all tucked in. I started eating hungrily, trying to finish my delicious breakfast before the bell chimed. Luckily, I managed to. At 8.55, all students started getting up from their seats and heading out of the Great Hall to get to their first classes.

   I followed Sibi and Mike down a long corridor and we entered our Transiguration classroom. A man was standing in front of the class, waiting for all of the students to enter and sit down. He was bald, with large-lobed ears and a short black beard, his cold forest green eyes framed by rectangular glasses.

   Let's just say that based on his looks and Sibi's and Mike's opinions, my first impression of the professor wasn't quite a positive one.

   The hour thankfully passed by quietly. I was right — since it was the first day, he was nicer to us than what my friends told me he usually was like. We were taught how to turn small objects into canaries. It wasn't that hard, and I successfully managed to turn a button, an eraser and a pebble into three cute little canaries.

   But when it came to slightly bigger objects, like water bottles, I was having some serious trouble. Sending a nervous glance at Sibi, I noticed that she had turned her bottle into a floating feathery object (quite a funny-looking one, might I add, and I barely suppressed a snicker), whereas Mike couldn't get his to even transform into something.

   We were dismissed forty-five minutes later and were assigned to write an essay about the advantages of turning objects into poultry.

   "That went well," I told Sibi when we left the classroom. "I mean, it didn't go half as bad as I'd expected."

   "Oh, it's the first day, Polly. Just give it a week and you'll see how it usually goes," Sibi replied, rolling her eyes.

   We exited the castle and walked into the greenhouse, where our Herbology lesson would take place. Taking a seat next to Sibi and Mike on the large table that was positioned in the middle of the greenhouse, I noticed that we would be sharing this class with the Ravenclaws.

   I looked around the place and caught sight of the Ravenclaw twins I had met on the train, Rena and Ralph Richards. As soon as they noticed me staring at them, I offered them a smile. Ralph returned the gesture politely, whereas Rena's lips stretched to her ears and she started waving jubilantly at me.

   A rounded woman waddled into the greenhouse with a white apron tied around her belly and black gloves in both hands. So this was professor Umphassen that Sibi had been talking about.

   It was true, though — she really was a lovely teacher and made the lesson quite easy for us to understand. We talked about healing plants in general and some kids showed professor Umphassen their collection of leaves and seeds that they had gathered during summertime, which earned them a few house points. Most of them happened to be Ravenclaws, but our house gained a few points as well.

   Rena and Ralph did something foolish, by picking a few leaves and seeds from the plants of the greenhouse and showing them to professor Umphassen, having supposedly collected them during summer. But the teacher didn't buy it and she warned them that she'd be taking points off if they didn't behave. Though from the way she sighed and shook her head when they handed in their so-called collection, I could tell it wasn't the first time they were making mischief in her lessons.

   The rest of the day went smoothly. After Herbology, we had History of Magic, which was surprisingly interesting and not as boring as I had expected it to be. Well, we learned about vampires, after all.

   Then, we headed back to the Great Hall for lunch break and afterwards walked up to the Astronomy Tower for our first Astronomy lesson of the year. The cool thing was that our teacher, professor Yahir, was actually a vampire.

   Though I realized that Mike didn't consider this cool at all, but horrifying instead. His prejudgement for the professor made Sibi very angry for some incomprehensible reason. Maybe she just found it ridiculous of him to judge people without knowing them. Although I had to admit, this professor sort of spooked me too.

   I parted ways with Sibi and Mike for our last lesson of the day, since they had Ancient Runes and I Arithmancy. A sense of awkwardness washed over me when I walked into the class, which was full of unfamiliar faces, and the old Polly surfaced at that point — the shy, antisocial one, who preferred to sit at the back of the class rather than the front and attract as little attention as possible.

   So I followed my old self's advice and took a seat at the very last desk, where I was inconspicuous and partially hidden from the others' sight by the taller fellows in front of me.

   Seconds later, while my gaze was outside the window, the sound of the empty chair next to me scraping the floor dragged me out of my thoughts.

   "May I sit?" came the all too familiar, all too smug voice that made me bury my face in my hands and scream internally. "I've already sat now, but anyway."

   I pried my fingers apart, my eyes meeting two gorgeous bluish-grey ones that belonged to an even more gorgeous face. Perfectly symmetrical, with an angular jaw, sun-kissed skin, mussed chocolate brown hair, full lips curled into a playful smirk — the kind of face that had the ability to make a person stop in their tracks.

   The kind that belonged to none other than Alex Forster, who was miles away from inconspicuous.

   "Did you just quote my words from that day we met at Florean Fortescue's?" I asked him, one eyebrow raised.

   Alex's smirk turned into a grin, his teeth so perfectly aligned and pearly white that he seemed like some guy from a muggle TV commercial for toothpaste.

   "You've got a great memory," he responded, needlessly running a hand through his lustrous hair, as if wanting to make it even messier than it already was.

   "As a matter of fact, I'm one of the most forgetful people you'll ever come across." Goddamnit, why were those girls over there glaring? So much for trying not to attract attention. "Besides, why aren't you sitting with one of your friends?"

   "None of them are intelligent enough to join me in this class," Alex responded. His voice was laced with so much conceit I couldn't not roll my eyes at him.

   "Are you always this stuck-up?" I asked, irritated.

   "No," he responded calmly, then quickly turned around and winked at the group of girls who had been glaring at me all along. Their faces blushed a deep red and the hysterical squeals that followed made me want to bang my head against the desk so hard I'd pass out. Alex turned to face me once again, a self-satisfied smirk hovering on his lips. "I'm even more."

   I let out an exasperated sigh, face-palming. God, why me?

   When the very horrible hour was finally over, I stuffed my things inside my schoolbag as nonchalantly as possible and hurried out of the classroom before one of Alex's admirers would come and murder me.

   I mean, damn, what the hell? I thought I'd spend this hour being attentive in the lesson and taking down notes, instead of trying to avoid all the death stares, along with Alex's attempts at being a humorist. Okay, I had to admit that he was pretty funny, but the last thing I felt like doing was laughing at his jokes. All those girls drooling over him so openly were enough boost to his sun-sized ego.

   Besides, I didn't even tell him to come and sit with me. When our Arithmancy professor told us that these would be our permanent seats, I wanted to throw myself out of the window.

   The school day eventually came to an end when the fading rays of sunset warmed my skin as I walked at a leisurely pace along the lakeshore with Sibi and Mike. The color spectrum of the sky changed from an endless cerulean blue to rosy and fiery red hues, the distant rays of sunlight speckling through the leaves of the spruce trees.

   "So, Polly, how did you like your first day of school?" Mike asked all of a sudden, interrupting the heavenly silence that till then was only broken by the soft chirping of nightingales.

   I breathed in deeply, the fresh evening air filling my lungs.

   "I loved it," I said honestly. "I never thought I'd enjoy a school day quite this much."

   "Oh, Polly. You're new here and this is just your first day," Sibi sighed, shaking her head. "Just give it a month and you'll see. Hogwarts isn't as perfect as you may think."

   "Is anything ever perfect?" I replied, giving her a pointed look.

   Though deep down, I thought to myself that for the time being, my life really was. For the moment, everything was perfect.

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before someone tries to correct me: yes, i know that neville is supposed to be the herbology teacher at this time but i wrote this a while back & now it's too late to change it, so pls just accept the fact that this is fanfiction and some changed details aren't the end of the world.