Alyssa Kaitlyn Hawthorne ("Call me Kaity!") was not in the best of moods. It wasn't that her last day of the seventh grade was bad, because it wasn't. In fact, she got to get her yearbook signed by most of her teachers and all of her friends; which wasn't that big of an accomplishment, seeing as she was reclusive, and was that intimidating smart person everyone knows at some point in their lives.

And it wasn't the dishes that were waiting for her when she got home. She actually liked doing the dishes, unless her mother had started them by filling up the water without organizing. In fact, her cousins, Landon and Sebastian Blackburn (Mother's side, both older), were coming over and they always helped her out when she had chores.

No, the reason she was crabby was that she decided to wear high heels and a black dress to school that day. She had to walk home from her school, which was about fifteen minutes from her house on foot, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. To add insult to this injury, she tripped on nothing when she was still on Main Street. This wouldn't have been so bad if there weren't all those people on the streets.

There seemed to be about ten people in all, with only a few looking like they belonged there. Of the strangely dressed ones (Robes?! What were they thinking this morning?), only one seemed to actually know where he was. (Black hair and black robe; goth, perhaps?) When she fell, all of them turned to look at her, but only one tried to help her up.

"Are you alright, my dear? What were you thinking, wearing black with that sky-blue rucksack?" The woman was a little, ahem, stout, but she looked friendly. Though the tattered brown robes seemed really out-of-place in a small town like Providence.

"Fine, ma'am. To put it simply, my actual backpack was a little too big for a yearbook, two granola bars, a watch, and a pen. So I wore this little bag, seeing as it would be awkward to hold all that at once. " The tone was sharp and clipped, but respectful. Kaity may get crabby when she was tired, but she still respected her elders.

"Well that's good. I'm a little lost, so I was wondering if you could tell me how to find the street; oh what was it?" The grey-haired woman started digging through her robe, most likely trying to find something. Her face lit up with glee when she lifted a piece of paper out of her garb. "300 South. That's the street. Could you tell me where or how to find it?" Her voice was eager, and desperate.

"Oh, of course. See this post right here?" Kaity walked up to the post that displayed "MAIN STREET" and "CENTER STREET" on perpendicular metal plates. Her tone was a bit lighter; she loved helping other people, but hated people trying to help her. "So we're on Main Street right now, which also can be called 0 West or East. Center Street is 0 North or South." She crossed the street and pointed to the post there. Now, all of the people in robes seemed to be listening to her, minus the man clothed in black.

"This one reads Main Street and 100 North, in case you couldn't see. The way streets work here are similar to that of a grid. We're currently on Main Street, so only the North or South can change. Had I stayed on Center, only the West or East would've changed. That way is East, by the way." She pointed to her left. "Do y'all get it?" The small crowd consisting of ... (So even the man in black was confused!) eight people nodded, somewhat reluctantly, though. "Okay. Hope you reach your destination safely! Bye!" Kaity started to head back towards 300 South. It was her street, after all.

"Thank you, miss..." The very short man that appeared to be wearing a suit under his robes was speaking. "Hawthorne. Alyssa Kaitlyn Hawthorne, but call me Kaity, please." Kaity was very picky about her name. She started walking again, eager to get home after this small delay.

The stout woman gasped softly, and then looked to her fellow professors. They all glanced down at the slip she was holding. The words were neat and tidy. Written in cursive it read: "475 East, 300 South. The Old Brown House Named Frankie. Alyssa Kaitlyn Hawthorne"

The most noticeable thing about Kaity's appearance was her eyes. They seemed green to anyone looking in passing, but they were actually a blue with yellow rings around the pupils. Sadly, even if one looked long enough to notice the odd color, the thing they commented on was her apparent lack of sleep. Kaity actually got all the sleep she needed, but the "raccoon rings" never did go away. She couldn't even remember a time when she lacked her beloved dark rings. (She cherished them; they made her look scary, and she didn't like random people.)

Her dirty-blonde hair was also a little strange. If one looked for them, one could nearly every shade of blonde under the sun; including platinum-blonde, but that was only in a miniscule patch. Because of her hair and the amount of freckles on her face, one could come to the conclusion that she loved being outside. That person couldn't be farther from the truth. Kaity loathed going outside. She burned way too easily, and sunscreen left a bad feeling on her skin.

She also had a beauty mark. Right under her nose, on her right side. She laughed when someone pointed it out, and followed with "Beautiful, me? Get your eyes checked kid." Kaity didn't have a high opinion of herself, but that was because she had been bullied in elementary school due to her being a little larger than the other kids. She eventually learned to tune those people out, but the scars had been made. Kaity never did anything to try and make herself look pretty; she never put on makeup, never did elaborate hairstyles (She only brushed it in the mornings), never really did anything.

Most importantly, though, Kaity was smart. You could see it in nearly everything she did and how she looked. If you talked to her, she didn't use "for show," she used "for aesthetic appeal." (Not in contempt or anger; she honestly didn't notice until her mother pointed it out.) If you looked in her eyes, you would see wisdom beyond her years, not the natural teenage stupidity her peers possessed. But the thing that truly showed how smart she was was how she spoke. She spoke to everyone like her equal. This created problems, though, as most of her peers didn't know what the word 'aesthetic' meant, let alone how to use it properly.

So she knew something was up when her mother's car was parked in the driveway before 6:30 P.M. Her mother was a paralegal, so she worked longer hours to be able to support her only daughter. Kaity had been in the custody of her mother ever since the divorce went through nine months prior. And she couldn't have been happier. Her father was a complete and utter jackass who had been cheating on his wife. (Kaity didn't have any actual proof of this, but her father and now stepmother had celebrated their anniversary six months after the divorce. Kaity wasn't nearly that naive.)

She could already tell that her cousins were over, hearing shouting coming from the house. Her cousins absolutely loved playing video games, especially fantasy RPGs. She didn't know why they liked them, but she loved to imagine herself as one of those black mages who could stop time or summon monsters. Kaity couldn't really explain the desire to its full extent (She wasn't good with spoken words), but her cousins had just nodded solemnly. And she didn't understand why she just remembered that event.

Keying in the code to unlock the door, Kaity entered her house named Frankie. Her mother had picked out the name, but never gave a real reason for it. Landon (Slim, tall, short brown hair) was in possession of the controller. Sebastian (Somewhat stocky, taller than Kaity, curly brown hair) had his laptop open looking up a walkthrough. Landon had gotten stuck again at a puzzle. (He was smart, but was better in the arts.) "You need to hit the green switch, not the blue or red," Kaity answered the unspoken question. "Oh, hey Kait! Didn't hear you. How do you know I need hit that one?" Landon looked a bit nervous. "The theme's color, not light. Green is last primary of light; yellow's for color. That, and I watched the walkthrough a few weeks ago." The tone came off as sharp, even though it was only supposed to be helpful. "Yeesh, no need to get crabby with me, but thank you. Oh, your mom got back a little while ago, she looked nervous. Did you do anything bad today at school?" "No."

Tatianna Kelsee Devereux Hawthorne was not a nervous woman. But she couldn't help but worry on this day. She could sense her daughter growing stronger. The seal had to be broken for her to sense this amount of power coming from her daughter. And she knew that the spell had worn off because she saw Professor McGonagall (Her old head of House) on the streets with a letter.

She had come home early today to try and talk to her only daughter before someone came by to break the news. Kaity said that today was going to be an incredibly short day today, but Tatianna still got home before her beloved daughter. But, she used this time to formulate answers to any "How?" "Why?" or "What?" she'd be facing at the end of the day.

Tatianna was a witch, (true half-blood, Gryffindor, dropout) and a darn powerful one at that. But her family was a cursed one. Any son born to a witch with MacNeil blood was doomed to be a squib. Her ancestor was a power-hungry woman who'd do anything for her family to have power, but she went too far. Rumor had it that she challenged the owner of the Elder Wand to a duel. Tatianna had nearly cried tears of joy when she knew she was going to have a girl. But she nearly screamed in fury when her husband revealed he was a magic-hater a few weeks later.

She had to seal her own daughter's magic so her father would never realize the truth. It was a difficult task, but she managed to do it. Perhaps today she'd finally be able to wave her wand after these thirteen years of being forced to only brew calming draughts and wolfsbane potions. Her nephew Landon was a werewolf, but as of yet, he hadn't bitten anyone. Sebastian was just a plain old squib.

What she didn't expect was that the messenger would come so soon. Her daughter had barely gotten finished changing into a new outfit and filling up the sink with soapy water when the doorbell rang. Sebastian answered it. "Hello, I'm looking for Miss Alyss- Kaity Hawthorne. Is she home?" It was a somewhat stout woman wearing... brown robes and gloves. Tatianna couldn't recognize her at first, but then it hit her like a ton of bricks. Professor Pomona Sprout. Head of Hufflepuff House and professor of Herbology at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"I am she," Kaity uttered curiously. "Why- hey! You're that woman from before! The one I taught to navigate the streets!" She had only just looked over to see who wanted to speak with her. Her face was alight with surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I am here to deliver this." She pulled an envelope from her robes. Landon, Sebastian, and Tatianna all looked solemnly at the slightly yellowed parchment. "My name is Pomona Sprout, but call me Professor Sprout. I teach Herbology at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We apologize for the inconvenience of not being able to send this to you earlier. Even we aren't sure what happened in transit. I hope we'll see you joining us for the summer course we are offering this year for the students here who show promise-."

"Pull the other one, I think I put bells on it." Even Kaity couldn't believe how rude that was. She hadn't even meant to say it; she couldn't sense that this woman was lying. (She had a "Built-in Bullshit Detector," as her mother put it.) "There is no such thing as magic." Or is there?

"That is where you're wrong, Kaity." It was Tatianna who spoke. She was pulling something out of the desk that was next to the fireplace. It was slim, dark, and- could it be? Kaity's mother stepped back a few paces and pointed the stick (A wand?) towards the wood in the fireplace. "Incendio." The wood lit up like paper. It was a wand; there was no doubt now.

Kaity ripped open the letter frantically, barely believing what she just saw. That strange stuff happened for a reason! The power outages! Things moving randomly! Maybe even-! She didn't finish the thought, as she began to read her letter. She finished promptly. "I'm a- a witch?!"

"Indeed, and probably a powerful one, considering your bloodline. Power runs through your veins, and we can teach you to use that." Professor Sprout's eyes were getting a little teary, as if bad memories were rising to the surface. "I'm sorry, you just- you look just like her! I can only hope you don't share her fate."

"Who do I look like, pray tell?" Kaity looked worried. Whose fate did she not want to share? Why were the memories making the Professor tear up?

"Aunt Kitty. Her full name was Katherine Alyssa Devereux MacNeil. She's dead." It was Landon who spoke up. "Never married, but took on Grandma's maiden name. I've seen the pictures; you do look like her, minus the eyes. Hers were a chocolate brown. She was murdered in the Wizarding War. Burnt at the stake." He seemed apathetic, until that last part. His face took on a look of horror as he said it.

"Wait. If this 'Kitty' person was a witch, why didn't she just cast a spell or something?" Kaity was too confused at this point. As smart as she may be, it was just a little too much.

"My sister was afraid of fire. Even if those Death Eaters hadn't taken her wand, she would have been too afraid to cast." Tatianna's voice was distant, as if she were afraid of getting too close to the subject. Her voice suddenly changed to a chipper tone. "What will she be needing? I've got tomorrow off, so we can go to Diagon Alley to get the supplies."

"The list is inside the envelope. She'll be needing both first and second year supplies. That's as much as we'll be able to cover within the summer, so she will be a year older than her classmates." Sprout still seemed a bit depressed, but was getting happier. "If you need any help with paying for the supplies-"

"That will be unnecessary. I inherited my sister's bank vault when she was declared dead. My sister Gardenia received Kitty's furniture and estate. We should be able to pay for her schooling." Tatianna seemed pleased to say this.

"Then I'll be seeing you at the beginning of the crash course, Miss Kaity. I wonder what your wand will be." Pomona turned to Tatianna. "Is your floo operational?"

"No, sadly. I wish you safe travels, Professor. Enjoy the rest of your free time. Kaity will be a handful, I can guarantee it. "

And then, Pomona Sprout was out the door, unaware of the chain of events that would unfold because of this powerful, young witch.

Hi! Welcome to the Author's Notes! In this little section I'll answer questions of reviewers (if they won't spoil anything), give definitions/explanations for things mentioned in the text above (marked by(A/N#)), and give links to reference drawings for the story (once I have a proper DeviantArt account, that is).

Thanks for reading (and reviewing, please)! See you in the next chapter!