Dear Anastacia,

We are pleased to offer you a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...

Stacia was so angry her eyes filled with tears. Sven and Christoff had gone too far. Ever since they had met Fred and George Weasley at the Triwizard Tournament their pranks had gotten worse. Except unlike what she had heard about the infamous Weasley twins, these twins were mean, cruel, and her brothers.

Before Durmstrang they had been mischievous, but now instead of fun and games it was curses and dark magic. 

The owl who had delivered the letter was beautiful and soft. She wondered where her brothers had managed to find it. A soft knock at her door startled her out of her misery.

A beautiful woman glided into the room. Her deep purple robes brought out her green eyes, which were made even more stunning by her pitch black hair and pale skin. Stacia wanted to hate the woman who her parents had hired to tutor her. She was everything Stacia wanted to be and wasn't. Except it was impossible to hate Myleena.

"Ahhh tsk, tsk dragotsennaya, my precious child, what have those boys done now?" She reached out and took the letter from Stacia's hand before she could object.

"This, how did you get the Anastacia?" Myleena's normally beautifully musical voice was sharp and a little strained.

Stacia sniffed and took a deep breath before she could answer.

"An owl brought it, with this." She showed Myleena the book and school supply list.

"I do not understand little Stacia, but I do not think this is a joke. Can you not feel the magic in the paper? Your brothers could not do this."

"But, how could I be accepted into Hogwarts? I mean, after all I'm... I can't..."

"Ach dragotsennaya I do not know. They say Albus Dumbledore is a brilliant wizard. Maht met him once when she went to England. She said he was very kind with the humor of a young boy, and not a devil child like your brothers. You could learn much at his school."

"Mother and father will never let me go. Especially after last year." Stacia's voice grew quiet as she remembered the horrifying events at Hogwarts last year. The rumors claimed Harry Potter killed another student, another said that he had dueled He Who Must Not Be Named and won, and others more ridiculous still had all flown about as soon as the students had returned from Hogwarts without Master Karkarov.

"I will take care of it Stacia, I do not know how this has happened, but you must go, I can feel it."

Stacia threw her arms around the tall woman. She could not speak, but as Myleena stroked her hair she knew she understood.

"Now get tidied up for dinner. Do not say a word of this, and hide these letters where no one can see them."

Stacia tucked the letters into the bottom drawer of the magical box Uncle Demitri got her last Christmas. It was magically sealed so no one but she could open it, he had showed her the secret before he had left.

It was hard to keep quiet during dinner. Her brothers sat on either side of her and loudly talked about all the things they expected to learn at Durmstrang that term. Ever since her letter had not come they had been even more bold in their insults.

Finally, as the dessert was being served Myleena spoke up.

"Master Alexandrov, I wish to take Anastacia with me to Magadan for the school term. Many of my old teachers are there and I feel the education would be most beneficial for her."

Before Stacia's father could reply her mother spoke up.

"Myleena that is a wonderful suggestion! Mikhail and I wish to travel the western provinces. When Anastacia was not... well, when we realized we would need to take her with us, we did not think we could go."

Stacia looked down at her plate before her brothers could see the tears in her eyes. Her mother had clung onto hope that her only daughter was not a squib until all of her friends' children had received their letters for Durmstrang and none had arrived for her. Irina had barely spoken to her daughter since.

"When would you leave?" Her father's voice sounded heavy with resignation.

"Tomorrow morning, I have already begun the preparations for our accommodations as I knew you would see the importance of this opportunity for Anastacia's education.

"Anastacia if you are finished you should go to bed early. We will leave by floo powder after breakfast." Myleena smiled at her and dismissed her from the table.

Stacia lay in bed with the precious letter in her hands, reading it over and over again. She was excited, and terrified.

Students must have a wand.

What would happen when they found out she couldn't do magic?

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Author Guidance for This Story

My first attempt at fan fic.

This will probably not be an AU/AR and I will try and stick to the canon as closely as I can. If anyone notices any inconsistencies in my story please let me know!

We begin at the start of the 5th book, Order of the Phoenix.

All Harry Potter characters and references are copyright by JK Rowling. No infringement is intended.

**The riddle used as the Ravenclaw password came from an Amazon.com forum post. I didn't create it but I assume it's fair use as it's just a riddle**

**The second riddle was from a Ravenclaw message forum**

updated Jul 17, 2009 by Asheyna