CHAPTER ONE

It was blistering hot outside, even in the shadows of the trees. There was no soft breeze, no place where one could cool down and rest a bit. The heath was exhausting. Most people had hidden themselves inside there houses – nobody was really used to this kind of weather. Everyone always complained about the climate in Great Britain and now that is was finally nearly exotic, there were very few souls liking that either.

Tina Kennard was lying down on her bed, the shutters down. Her blonde hair stuck to her front and she had given up trying to wipe it. She was about to doze off when her mother called her. She sighed and sat up too quickly, which made her lose her balance and inflicted one hell of a headache. When she was finally steadied, she yelled back: “I’m coming!”

She stretched and tried to get her neck to relax. She wondered what her mother needed her for – she had sounded very excited. The last couple of days, she had been quite sad as the holidays were already halfway. She was having her usual midsummer depression, where she couldn’t stand the idea that her girl would be away for school in another month and she wouldn’t get to see her for an entire year, as Tina never wanted to come home for Christmas and Easter. It was the end of July, August was luring around the corner. Maybe it was her Hogwarts book list?

She arrived in the kitchen, which was a complete chaos. To her surprise, her mother was beaming as if she had just invented the wheel or hot water. The pride was almost oozing out of her entire attitude. Tina frowned her eyebrows – she hadn’t participated in any competition since she was 12 and her poem was the best in her year. She hadn’t even got a prize then.

“An owl arrived for you, honey,” her mother smiled. “I couldn’t help but open it – I was so curious! I mean, youare going to your fifth year, so…”

The blonde frowned her eyebrows even more if that was possible. She wasn’t exactly mad at her mother for opening a Hogwarts letter, but there was other mail she would rather die than have her mother reading it.