Chapter 1: The Girl Who No One Thought Had Lived
A girl with two little poofs of brown pigtails wrote in her notebook, lying on her belly on a slender mahogany support thirty feet above the stone floor. She fought to keep her lower body perfectly still as the lesson went on, although on several occasions she caught herself swinging her feet back and forth in time with the Professor's lecture.
This was not the first time she attempted such risky feats, but it had not been so long ago she had. The girl couldn't help herself. She wanted to learn and discover, bewitch and create like the older children at Hogwarts did, but being only nine she had no wand, no broom, and no friend in the world to tutor her. In fact, swaddled in an invisibility cloak at the highest point in the classroom, no one even knew she existed.
The first years below were turning beetles into shiny red buttons. It wasn't the most interesting she had seen all year, but it beat the activities approved by her guardian. She might have been more interested in the lesson if she didn't feel so dizzy. Her stopped up head tilted the room every few seconds as if she was losing oxygen or suffocating under the cloak. When this occurred she clung to the bolted rafter for her unidentified life. Half the time she had to stare at an unmoving axis in the room until she regained stability. If she fell off, everyone would know for sure she was dead.
"Class is almost over." Professor McGonagall announced. "Transform your last beetle and bring the finished buttons up to my desk."
An unnoticed little mouse, the girl stuffed her notebook into her robes and pulled out the curious map she had found inside the hollow of the large willow tree overhanging the black lake. This parchment folded into an antique black box had been the key to her freedom. She feared no punishment for sneaking out when she knew how much time there was to get back.
Suddenly, a soft mosquito noise stirred in her ear it loudened until it rang from the inside of her head. Her queasiness returned, and her hand slipped off the concealing blanket. She plummeted to the stone floor, and her world went black.