The first time that Adeline saw real magic, she was just a little girl. She was supposed to have been in bed that night- she was always supposed to be in bed when Dada and Papa had their friends over. They often told her that it was grown-up stuff, and she'd understand it when she was older. But the idea of a late night party sounded exciting, and Adeline wanted to understand it immediately.

Luckily, Nanny was not around that day. The woman who'd basically raised Adeline needed time to herself, and had decided to take the day off to relax and spend time with her own friends and family. She was given two days off every week, but this was the first time that she'd decided to take off on a Thursday.

Adeline's parents didn't have their friends over every Thursday night, but it was pretty close to that. And since Nanny wasn't around, Adeline had no problem throwing back her blankets, and sneaking down the grand staircase. There was no one hanging around in the foyer, and it was almost too easy for Adeline to make her way to the ballroom, where the parties actually took place.

The doors were closed, sealing in whatever noises were being made, and Adeline wasn't tall enough to reach the door handles, which were taller on these doors than on any others in the house.

But Adeline was not ready to give up quite so soon. She knew that there was another entrance to the ballroom, and she hurried towards the kitchen. There was no one in there, which Adeline found a little strange. If it was a party, shouldn't there be wait staff bringing around food?

Maybe grown-ups didn't eat food at parties, and that's why they assumed Adeline wouldn't understand. She ignored the oddity, and made her way down the narrow service hallway, where there was a more normal door. She reached up to grab the knob and gently turn it, and she pushed the door open just a little bit.

It opened in the back of the ballroom, and though there were large curtains draped around so that she couldn't see what was going on, now she was able to hear it all. She wanted to actually see the party, though, so she risked stepping into the room, and drawing aside the curtain just far enough for her to be able to peek through.

Her eyes widened in surprise at the sight of a whole bunch of grown-ups waving around sticks. But what was really strange was that when they waved their sticks, stuff would happen. She watched as glowing blue animals pranced around the room, and people were being flung aside or injured in other ways without ever being touched, and when she tilted her head back, she could see four people on broomsticks flying around, tossing a big red ball back and forth. There was loud music playing over everything, but Adeline couldn't see a band anywhere, and she knew there were no speakers in the ballroom.

There was no doubt in her young mind that she was witnessing magic happen. Only witches rode on broomsticks, and clearly the sticks were magic wands, even if they didn't have the little white caps on them like the magicians in her picture books.

As Adeline looked around the room, trying to take in every sight, she spotted her parents standing a little further down, talking with another couple. She slowly inched her way closer until she was standing right behind them, protected only by the curtain in front of her. She strained to make out their conversation over the loud music.

"-of course, there are spells out there we could've used for one of us to carry, but it just wouldn't feel right to do so when there are already so many children in the world in need of loving homes." That was Papa's voice.

An unfamiliar woman spoke. "But surely there were plenty of magical children in need of homes? So many were displaced or orphaned during the war."

Dada was the one who responded, and he sounded upset. "We don't love her any less for being a muggle."

A different man was quick to say, "Oh, of course not. We weren't implying anything like that. But what are you going to do for her education?"

"Please don't say you're going to send her to a muggle school," the woman added.

Dada still sounded upset when he spoke. "That's the best place for her to go. If we send her to a wizarding starter school, then she'd have to deal with being separated from all her friends once she turns eleven, which wouldn't be fair. And she'd have to go to a muggle school at that point anyways, and being the new kid would only make things harder on her. We've already picked out an primary school for her to start at in the fall."

The woman sighed. "I understand that you want to be kind, but I think that you're only making things harder on yourselves and your child by keeping a muggle around. It would be one thing if you had a squib of your own, but to willingly take in a non-magical child when there are so many magical children in need? It seems rather selfish of you, if you want my honest opinion. There was never even a need for us to have orphanages until a few years ago, and now all of them are full. Are you saying that those children don't deserve a loving home with parents that could potentially understand them? Or are you unwilling to have anything to do with those who have already been broken by horrors far beyond anything you could even imagine?"

Adeline didn't like hearing this stranger be mean to her parents. She knew she'd get in trouble for sneaking into the party, but she needed to defend Dada and Papa. She threw aside the curtain and jumped out in front of them, standing between her parents and the strangers. "Don't be mean! They're not shellfish! They're good!"

The woman seemed startled by Adeline's sudden appearance, and Adeline was just as startled to see the woman. Though she had a pretty voice, her face was ugly, twisted up with so many scars that it was hard to make out any of her features beyond her bright blue eyes. She seemed to relax when she saw that she was only facing a child, and she crouched down. "You must be Adeline. I've heard so much about you." She held out one hand.

Adeline wasn't sure what to do. She knew that the polite thing would be to accept the handshake, but how could she be polite to someone who was just making Dada sound so upset? She crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't like you," she said confidently.

The woman didn't seem offended, strangely enough, and she just stood back up. She looked at Papa. "We'll leave you to take care of this," and then she grabbed her plain looking companion's arm and pulled him away.

Adeline gulped as she prepared herself to face whatever punishment was about to occur. She slowly turned around to face her parents, though they didn't look angry so much as concerned. She wasn't going to be the first to speak, though, and she stubbornly kept her arms crossed as she stared up at them.

Papa rolled his eyes, and he reached down to scoop up Adeline, and he and Dada headed towards the ballroom doors. Dada quietly apologized to the few people who gave them questioning looks, and then the three of them headed back of up to Adeline's room. Papa carefully tucked her into bed, and then he and Dada both sat down on either side of her.

Dada finally broke the silence. "Adeline, what have we told you? Those parties are for grown-ups." He sighed. "I know you probably saw some things that don't make any sense-"

"Are you witches?" Adeline had to know for sure, since she hadn't actually seen her parents waving around any magic wands.

Papa nodded. "Well, we're technically wizards because we're men, but yes. All of our friends are also wizards and witches, and they come here to practice certain types of magic. See, there's a lot of people out there who don't like us, and we want to make sure we're always prepared."

Adeline couldn't imagine anyone not liking her parents. They were the best parents. "Why not?"

"It's complicated, sweetie. A couple of years ago, when you were still just a little baby, there was a big war amongst the people with magic. There were two sides, the dark and the light. But some people, like us and our friends, didn't want to take sides. We knew what the right thing to do was, but we were scared, so we stayed back, and waited to see who the victors would be. After the war was over, people from both sides called us cowards, and we've been afraid of them coming after us ever since then."

"Huh." That was interesting and all, but there was a more important question on Adeline's mind. "Am I a witch too?" She could just imagine all the different things she could do if she had magic.

Her parents exchanged an unreadable look over her head, and then Dada wrapped his arm around her to pull her closer to him. "No," he said softly. "You were adopted. It means that originally you came from a different family, but you needed a new place to go, and me and Papa knew as soon as we looked at you that we loved you more than anything, so we chose to take you home with us. But the people who you were born to were ordinary people- muggles are what we call those without magic. You're the same as them."

Adeline narrowed her eyes. "That's not fair."

Papa scooted closer so that all three of them were pressed together with Adeline sandwiched in the middle. "I know, darling. But whether or not you have magic, we love you so much." He pressed a kiss to Adeline's forehead. "You need to go to sleep now; it's way past your bedtime."

Both men stood up, and made to leave. Adeline furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "I'm not in trouble?"
There was an amused look on Dada's face. "Do you want to be?" She quickly shook her head in response, and he chuckled. "Then no, for now you're not. But don't make a habit out of sneaking out of bed, okay?"

Adeline promised that she wouldn't, and then her parents turned off her light and left the room, presumably to head back to their party. But Adeline couldn't sleep at all. How was she supposed to when suddenly there were so many new ideas floating around in her head? She'd just discovered that not only is magic real, but her own parents could do it! But she'd also discovered that she'd never be able to.

And that was just unacceptable. It wasn't fair for there to be an entire world full of magic, but for it to always dance just outside her reach. She slipped out of bed again, but instead of leaving her room, she went over to the comfy window seat, and curled up on it so that she could look out at the stars. She wondered if the stars were magical too. Well obviously they had to be. How else would they stay up in the sky without falling down?

That got Adeline thinking. If stars were magical, and they weren't people, then there had to be other things out there that were magical too, right? Maybe even something that could give Adeline magic? Maybe she just needed to get her hands on one of those magic wands. Or maybe there was something else useful. Whatever it was, she was determined to find it. Adeline was not going to be left behind in this world. And she was going to get herself some magic. Otherwise, it just wouldn't be fair.