I had never been a normal kid, even for a witch.

Throughout my entire life, whenever something could go wrong, it did. Not only did it go wrong, but it went worse than anyone could ever expect. Mum and I had to move around a lot, because of the strange things that always happened around me. The Obliviators helped, of course, after one of my "incidents" (as my mother called them), but people could still tell that I was different.

I had moved all across the U.K., from big cities like London and Glasgow, to the countryside, to little villages. Mum had put me in public schools, boarding schools, and private schools, but one of my "incidents" would always happen and we would end up leaving. The Obliviators used to come whenever something happened, but after a while, they only came when something was horrible enough that everyone would need to be obliviated or else the Statute of Secrecy would be broken and the whole country (and the whole world) would know of the existence of the wizarding world.

After every single one of my "incidents", my mum always sat me down at our kitchen table and gave me some sort of dessert, always a different one. She would tell me that whichever school I was at, whichever town we were in, wherever we were wasn't right for me. Every time we moved, we always had a calendar on our refrigerator that would count down the days until I would be able to go to Hogwarts. Hogwarts seemed like Heaven to me, a place where I would be almost normal.

But I still wouldn't be normal.

You see, some of my "incidents" couldn't be explained even by wizarding standards.

Most of the witches and wizards my age that I knew had little spurts of accidental magic, and while I had those too, there was more. Sometimes, monsters would try to come after me. I know, I know, being scared of "monsters" makes me sound like a child, but I swear that's what they were. They were never any of the creatures that I had read about from Mum's old Care of Magical Creatures textbook. They were always something... something scarier, something more powerful. It terrified me.

Mum always told me they wouldn't be able to come after me at Hogwarts, but I could always tell that she doubted herself when she told me that.

My mother was a concert pianist and she had put me in music lessons when I was just three years old. She tried teaching me piano, but little three year old me threw multiple tantrums and quickly put a stop to that. I ended up loving stringed instruments, especially the cello.

I inherited my love for music from both her and my father. I didn't know much about him, not even his name. I just knew that my parents met at a school for music in New York and that he was a talented musician ("the best I've ever heard," according to my mother). He had left my mum when I was just a baby and I never knew why. He had never sent me a birthday card, bought me a Christmas present, or come to visit me at any of my cello recitals. I liked to pretend that he didn't exist sometimes, but with Mum that was pretty difficult. "Your father would be so proud of you," she often told me when she walked in on me, engrossed in a difficult piece of music. I always wondered how that made any sense. How would he be proud of me when he never even cared that I existed?

"Echo," my mum whispered from the door of the music room in our house, interrupting Vivaldi's Summer, one of my favorite pieces to practice. Mum held an envelope in her hand and she had a grin on her face.

"Is that it?" I almost squeaked out. "Is that my Hogwarts letter?"

"Yes it is!" Mum exclaimed.

I quickly laid my cello down and ran up to her, nearly ripping the letter out of her hands. I stared at the address for a few seconds, a sense of pride shooting through me.

Miss E. Holt

The Golden Bedroom

67 Kent Street

Bradford

West Yorkshire

Tearing open the thick envelope, I read the letter once, twice, even a third time, trying to understand all of the information written on the sheet of parchment. It was written in an elegant script, which was killer on my dyslexic eyes.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,

Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Miss Holt,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

The second page was written on the same sort of parchment in the same elegant script, which was beginning to give me a migraine.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

UNIFORM

First-year students will require:

1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)

2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear

3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)

4. One winter cloak (black, with silver fastenings)

Please note that all pupil's clothes should carry name tags.

COURSE BOOKS

All students should have a copy of each of the following:

The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk

A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot

Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling

A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch

One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore

Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander

The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble

OTHER EQUIPMENT

1 wand

1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)

1 set glass or crystal phials

1 telescope

1 set brass scales

Students may also bring, if they desire, an owl OR a cat OR a toad.

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS RE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICK

Yours sincerely,

Lucinda Thomsonicle-Pocus

Chief Attendant of Witchcraft Provisions

"Ow," I muttered, rubbing my temples. "That's going to take some getting used to."

"I came prepared," she said, pulling a bottle of Tylenol out of her pocket.

"Thank god," I said, opening the bottle and dry-swallowing two pills. "How on earth am I going to survive this next year without Tylenol?"

Even though Mum and I were both half-blood witches, we lived a predominately muggle lifestyle. Mum always said that wizards were lazy since they used magic for everything, taking the easy way out most of the time. Whenever any wizards or witches visited us, they were always shocked that we lived mostly like muggles. One reason why we lived like this was because Mum worked as a piano instructor with lessons in our home, and many of her clients wouldn't exactly enjoy having lessons in a home where the dishes washed themselves, the laundry laundered itself, and the food cooked itself.

"When can we go to Diagon Alley?" I excitedly asked my mum.

"My 2 o'clock just called in so I don't have a lesson until 6:30 tonight," Mum replied, checking the clock on the wall. "That's not for another six hours."

"Can we go now, Mum?" I begged her.

She nodded and I rushed out of our music room, through the living room, and straight towards our fireplace. Mum grabbed her purse from off the couch and grabbed the container of Floo Powder off the windowsill (we had it disguised as a flower pot with a fake flower inside). We each grabbed a handful of the powder and I stepped into the fireplace first.

"Diagon Alley," I stated dropping the Floo Powder and being engulfed in the green flames.

Moments later, I appeared in one of the fireplaces in the Leaky Cauldron used specifically for the Floo Network. There were families sitting at different tables around the restaurant, with bags from the different shops in Diagon Alley. I just knew that they were shopping for Hogwarts and a burst of excitement surged through me. By now, Mum had also come through the fireplace and I knew we would soon be on our way.

"Merlin, is that you Katherine?" a witch, around my mum's age, asked from a table near the fireplaces.

The woman looked like she was in her early thirties. She was pretty tall and very tan with dark blue eyes. Her light brown hair was waist-length and very curly. Sitting beside her was a boy about my age who was clearly her son. He had the same light brown hair as his mum (but his was nowhere near as curly, it was wavy instead), the same dark blue eyes, and he was just as tan as she was, but he also had freckles all across his tan skin. I wondered if they were vacationing on an island or on the beach or something.

"Lisa Carmichael!" my mum exclaimed, walking up the same witch. "I haven't seen you since... was it Eddie's baptism?"

"It must have been," the woman, Lisa, grinned. "I didn't know you had a daughter. Is it her first year at Hogwarts?"

Everytime Mum and I ventured into the wizarding world, something like this happened. Since we were so distant from the rest of our people, Mum's old friends always made a big deal about seeing her.

"This is my daughter Echo," Mum introduced me to her friend. "She'll be a first year."

"Echo? That's a unique name," the boy spoke up.

"It's Greek," I explained to him.

Every single time I introduced myself to someone, they had something to say about my name. Sometimes they would make echoing sounds, but usually they just had something to about how weird (or in this kid's case, "unique") it was.

"Wow, and this must be Eddie?" Mum asked her newfound (or found again?) friend Lisa. "Is it his first year too?"

"I'm a second-year, in Ravenclaw," he declared, a proud grin on his face. "Which house do you think you'll be in, Echo?"

"I'm hoping for Gryffindor," I told him, "but I wouldn't mind being in Hufflepuff like my Mum."

"Why not Ravenclaw?" Eddie asked me curiously.

"There is absolutely no way that I could be a Ravenclaw," I began explaining to him. "School has always been pretty hard for me since I'm dyslexic. I'm not bright enough to be a Ravenclaw."

My mum and Lisa continued their conversation (which seemed to be dragging on forever), when suddenly I heard Lisa ask if the two of us wanted to go shopping with her and Eddie.

"I don't see why not," Mum said to Lisa. "You don't mind, do you Echo?"

"Uh, I guess not," I said.

Mum, Lisa, Eddie, and I left through the backdoor of the Leaky Cauldron, which led to an empty little courtyard with a brick wall. I knew that if you were to touch a certain brick on the wall with your wand that it would open up and we would end up in Diagon Alley, which was exactly what Eddie did. An archway appeared that led onto a cobbled street with a sign saying 'Welcome to Diagon Alley'.

Every time I went to Diagon Alley, I was amazed. Living a mostly muggle lifestyle made everything in the Wizarding World that much more amazing to me.

"Our first stop is Gringotts, like always," Lisa said to Eddie. "Do you two need to stop at Gringotts too?"

The answer was yes, so the four of us began walking to the snowy white building that I knew was Gringotts Bank. It towered over the other little shops so it was impossible to miss. Next to the bronze doors at the entrance of the bank stood a goblin in a crimson and gold suit. The short little creature bowed to the four of us as we entered the bank.

Once we entered through the doors we were in a vast marble hall. There were a hundred goblins sitting behind the long counter doing various bank things. Eddie and Lisa walked up to one free goblin while Mum and I walked up to another. This one had a nameplate that read 'Rothway'.

"Good morning," Mum said to the little goblin who looked younger than the rest of them. "We've come to visit our vault."

"And which vault is that?" the goblin asked us.

"The Holt Vault," Mum said, handing a small golden key to him.

After looking closely at the key, Rothway asked us to follow him. We followed him through a narrow stone passageway lit with torches. We approached a small cart that the three of us climbed into and then we were off.

The ride through the bank went very quickly and made my mum very dizzy. I, on the other hand, enjoyed it. Once we stopped, Rothway led Mum and I up to a vault. He unlocked the door and we walked inside the vault.

The Holts weren't one of the old rich wizarding families, with mountains of galleons and priceless family heirlooms in our vault. When Mum's parents died, we were left with a lot of money. We had more than enough money to get me through school.

Mum handed me a money bag and we began piling galleons into it. The bag was magical, somehow, because the inside was much bigger than the outside. It was kind of like Mary Poppins' bag. We had more than enough money for all of my school supplies and I could not wait to buy everything.

We rode back up to the ground floor of the bank in the same little cart. The Carmichaels were waiting for us at the door to the bank and we all walked out together.

"Do you two mind doing some of the shopping by yourself?" Lisa asked Eddie and me.

"We need to do some of our own shopping too, you know," Mum said to the two of us.

"We'll be fine, Mum," Eddie said to Lisa.

"Be careful, Echo," Mum said to me, giving me a look that I knew all too well, before she and Lisa walked off.

"Where do you want to go first?" Eddie asked me.

I looked around Diagon Alley at the different shops around us. The closest one was Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. "Let's get my uniform first?"

"Okay," Eddie nodded.

The two of us walked into Madam Malkin's shop, where there were a few other young witches and wizards getting their Hogwarts uniforms. Madam Malkin and multiple employees were rushing around the shop trying to help all of us.

"Do you two need your Hogwarts uniforms?" a witch who looked like she had just graduated the year before asked us. Her nametag read 'Miranda'.

"Just her," Eddie said to the witch. "I don't need new robes this year."

Miranda led Eddie and me to the back of the shop where the rest of the Hogwarts students were. It seemed like all of them already knew each other because they were all talking animatedly like they were best friends. Miranda had me stand on a stool as she slipped a long robe over me and began to pin it.

Eddie began telling me all about Hogwarts. He told me about the feasts in the Great Hall (which I could not wait for), the changing staircases (which were a bit ridiculous in my opinion), the crazy feud that Slytherin had with everybody ("you better watch out for them" Eddie said), the Quidditch games, the Forbidden Forest where he had served plenty of detentions ("Why is it forbidden but you have to serve detentions in there?" I asked), and all of the hilarious pranks that this pair of Gryffindor twins did all of the time. During Eddie's stories, I noticed that a few of the other first years had ended their conversations in order to listen to Eddie. By the time he had finished, my robes were all fitted and we were ready to go.

After we paid for my robes, Eddie and I went into the book shop called Flourish and Blotts. Just walking into the store gave me a headache. There were shelves stacked all the way up to the ceiling with books all around the huge store. Luckily for us and all of the other Hogwarts students, all of our textbooks were in one area of the store and our books weren't stacked all the way to the ceiling. We each grabbed our textbooks from the bookshelf and went up to the front to pay for them.

Eddie continued telling me more and more stories while we continued our shopping trip. I had almost forgotten that my mum and his had disappeared hours ago.

The last shop that we visited was Ollivanders, the place where nearly everyone got their wands. It was a shabby little store, with the letters peeling off the front door. Eddie and I stepped inside the little shop. It was dark and empty inside, only being lit by one single lantern. There were thousands of wand boxes piled up to the ceiling in the store.

"Good afternoon," a soft voice said, causing both Eddie and me to jump in surprise.

An ancient old man, almost as old as I imagined Dumbledore to be, was standing before us.

"Hello," I greeted him slowly.

"Ah yes, I thought I'd be seeing you soon, Miss Holt," Mr. Ollivander said to me. "I think I know just the wand for you."

After he said that, he walked to the back of the store, behind the aisles and aisles of wands.

"That was weird," Eddie muttered.

"Is he usually not this weird?" I asked him.

"No, he's weirder than usual today," Eddie said to me. "When I got my wand, he had a measuring tape and was measuring me everywhere, even between my nostrils, to find the right wand. I wonder why he isn't doing that to you."

Just then, Mr. Ollivander was back up front with a box in his hands. He took the wand out and handed it to me, saying, "I have a very good feeling about this one, Miss Holt. This is a 12 inch Laurel wand with a Hyacinth flower core. This is the only wand I have ever made with this core, but I believe that it is the perfect wand for you."

As soon as I took the wand from him, I felt a sudden warmth in my fingers and I could feel the sun shining down on me. I felt the summer breeze going through my hair and a golden glow came out of my wand.

"Oh yes, indeed," Mr. Ollivander said to me. "Your father would be very proud of you."

I quickly paid seven galleons for my wand and then rushed out with Eddie

"You're right, he is weird," I said to Eddie. "My dad was a muggle, how does Mr. Ollivander know anything about my father?"

"Merlin, that was freaky," Eddie agreed. "Are you sure he was a muggle?"

"Mum always said he was a musician she met in America," I said to him. "I asked her if he was a wizard once and she told me no. How on Earth does Ollivander know anything about my father?"