Casey stood on the rooftop of her grandfather's small adobe house, looking over at the volcanoes in the distance. She really had not thought that she was going to miss this view, but as she waited for her grandfather to finish breakfast, she started to realize how much she'd miss it now that she knew that tomorrow she would not be back to see it in a very long time.


The Caseys were an Irish wizarding family who prided themselves on their pureblood and their painstaking neutrality. They were among some of the only pureblood wizarding families who did not oppose the Statute of Secrecy, nor have feelings of enmity toward muggles after the statue was enacted. In fact, the Casey family held an entirely indifferent stance on muggles, choosing not to intermarry with them, but willingly befriended and interacted with muggles and muggleborns. Due to their high status in the wizarding world, few other pureblood families incriminated the Casey family and avoided calling them "blood traitors." The Casey family continued to hold their high status in the wizarding world until the rise of Lord Voldemort.

Two young brothers from the Casey family attended Hogwarts around the same time as Tom Riddle, the elder, Pax, being three years older than Riddle and the younger, Atius, being a year younger. Atius Casey befriended Tom Riddle and became one of the very firt Death Eaters, while Pax Casey fled the country upon his graduation from Hogwarts, eager to avoid the upcoming war.

Pax spent nearlyu the rest of his life living in the United States, Mexico, and Guatemala studying ancient magic practiced by indigenous peoples of North America, where he met and fell in love with a Mayan bruja in Guatemala and they raised their only child, Guadelupe, in the mountains of Central America, far from the rising power of Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Guadalupe attended a magical academy in Chiapas, Mexico, but always dreamed of the land where her father grew up.

It was not long after her graduation from her magical academy in Chiapas that Guadalupe traveled to Great Britain against her parents' wishes to explore the land where her father lived. Though she had only intended on staying for a few months, she ended up joining the Order of the Phoenix and staying for several years, getting a job at the Ministry of Magic working with the International Cooperation of Magic office, where she met her husband, Antonin Volkova, a Russian wizard from the Russian Ministry.

The two had two twin daughters, Casey-named after the surname she was so proud of-and Alexia. However, only a year after the birth of their children, both Guadalupe and Antonin were brutally murdered by Death Eaters. Their twin daughters went back to Guatemala to live with their grandparents. They lived in Guatemala with their grandparents for several years until their grandmother died and they moved to the United States to attend school. At age 11, the twins received their letters from Hogwarts and after a lot of begging, their grandfather allowed them to attend Hogwarts with the condition that they must come back and live with him in Guatemala during the summers.


Maybe I could convince grandfather to let me go to Chiapas instead? He'd definitely be in favor... Casey thought, but she immediately dismissed the thought, knowing that August 31 was far too late to change her mind about going to Hogwarts. Her sister Alex seemed to be sharing her anxiety.

"Grandpa, are you sure Floo Powder can get us all the way to England?" Casey heard Alex's voice tremble from the story below.

"Of course, m'ija," Her grandfather chuckled. This coaxed a smile to creep onto Casey's face. Grandpa's Irish accent made Spanish sound far more strange than it did when their grandmother had spoken it. Reluctantly, Casey padded down the cement stairs and stood next to the fireplace where their trunks stood stacked. In cages on top were Casey's quetzal, Fernando, and Alex's cat, Bernabe, both of which seemed more impatient to leave than Casey.

As she stood waiting, she weighed the pros and cons of going to Hogwarts. 'I'll finally fit in,' she thought. Her grey eyes and her pale skin distracted from her jet-black curls that cascaded down her back; she simply had never fit in amongst the Mayan people here in Guatemala. She looked much more like her father than Alex did, who had a little darker skin and brown eyes to match her stick straight black hair. What else did she have to look forward to? She had already been learning some of her grandmother's bruja magic as a child and already knew a lot, but she supposed learning wand magic would be cool, and she'd never gotten to make a potion before.

"Ready?" Her grandfather called as her sauntered out of the kitchen. "Who wants to go first?" Casey and Alex both glanced nervously at each other.

"I guess I can." Casey answered. She shuffled into the cramped old fireplace that hadn't been used for a real fire since her grandmother died. She steadied herself and her trunk as her grandfather handed her a scoop of Floo powder.

"Remember," Her grandfather placed a hand on her shoulder. "Be loud and clear and you'll end up there fine. You've done this before, you know how."

"We've never gone this far before!" Alex chirped uneasily.

"Just be loud and clear!" Their grandfather repeated.

Casey gripped her trunk tightly and sighed to steady her nerves.

"Three Broomsticks, London, England!" She shouted and tossed the green powder into the flames. The familiar feeling of being thrown and stretched down a long, glowing tunnel overwhelmed her. She struggled to breathe as she rushed, faster and faster, until she hit the sooty ground of a fireplace in the Three Broomsticks.

"That was much quicker than I thought..." She muttered as she threw herself forward out of the fireplace. Only seconds later, Alex landed in the fireplace followed quickly by their grandfather.

Casey looked around at the dark pub that was packed with witches and wizards. Their new life had begun.