Chapter 1: Life Before Hogwarts

In a small, quaint and cozy house set in a field by a forest, a small boy looked longingly at the object his older sister was holding. It sparked a few flares of bright

balls of light, a feeble attempt at casting a spell. The girl, whose name was Bree Williams, was holding a wand, her hand trembling because she knew she wasn't

supposed to be holding it. It belonged to her mother, Evelyn, who was taking a nap on the sofa, unaware that her ten-year-old daughter had snuck it from the table

where it sat. Bree's eight-year-old little brother, Charlie, had tried to stop her from taking it without Mrs. William's permission, but Bree was insistent upon trying out

some real magic with an actual wand. Mrs. Williams had often reminded them how important it was that they never used anyone else's wand without permission,

especially since they were underage and still hadn't gotten their own ones yet. They were also both too young to attend school, so had never been taught any spells.

But now that Bree was holding her mother's wand, Charlie was standing frozen and watched in horrified fascination. His older sister was flicking the wand this way

and that, trying to make something move by itself like they saw their parents do so often. At first, nothing happened. Then quite suddenly, a large bright white spark

erupted from the tip of the wand, sending a vase and two photographs flying off the mantel, shattering to the floor! Bree froze, then without thinking, dropped the

wand where it rolled over to Charlie. Before he could pick it up, Mrs. Williams, who had woken up by the loud racket, ran into the room to see what had

happened. Her mouth fell open at the sight of her two children with guilty looks on their faces, standing in the living room, surrounded by shards of glass and two

broken photographs, and then to her own wand resting at Charlie's feet. "What happened in here?!" She yelled out, and gasping, went over to her wand, quickly

repairing the vase and photographs. "CHARLIE! What have I told you about using my wand! And you, Bree, just letting him use it! She roared, an angry and

frightened look on her face. But before she could say anything else, Charlie cut in with a sob, "It wasn't me! Bree did it and I tried to stop her and then when she

m-made the spell come out of your wand she dropped it and it rolled over to me! I promise I promise!" Charlie stood there whimpering, and Mrs. Williams turned to

Bree and spat, "Bree! Is this true?!" Bree looked over at Charlie, then over to her mother, and surprising even herself, said, "Yes, mum, it was me... I'm sorry, but I

just can't wait until next month when I can use my own wand!" Their mother's angry face faltered a little, but she still looked stern when she told Bree never to do it

again. "It could have been your heads that were shattered! Or the glass could have easily cut you!" She continued to lecture them both for the next thirty minutes

about the dangers underage witches and wizards using wands could lead to, then told them she would be telling their father what she had done when he got home

from work. Charlie finally stopped crying, Bree went to her room and wrote I will not take other people's wands fifty times, while Mrs. Williams made sure to hold

onto her wand so that her children wouldn't take it again. Two hours later, a little brown and white owl named Gwen who was perching in her cage near the window,

hooted at the sight of Mr. Williams walking up the lane towards the front door. He walked quickly, still rather far away from the door, then suddenly turned on the

spot and was gone, disappearing into thin air. A second later, the front door opened and in came Mr. Williams, who had just apparated to the door. "Never gets old."

He said, breathing in the air of the house and adding. "Is that shepherd's pie I smell?" Mrs. Williams took his coat and answered, "How did you know?" Bree and

Charlie ran up to their father to greet him. A few minutes later, the family was seated around the table and ate a delicious meal of shepherd's pie with tea and

crumpets for dessert. After dinner, the family sat together in the living room, and Mrs. Williams pointed her wand towards the table. The dishes all cleared and

started floating in stacks to the kitchen sink, where they then began to wash themselves. "Anything interesting happen at work today, dear?" Mrs. Williams asked

Mr. Williams. "No, not really. I did sell five owls and a cat, though..." Mr. Williams worked at a shop that sold pets and pet supplies and was almost always busy with

something animal related. Mrs. Williams replied, "Good, good... Oh yes! Wait until you hear what Bree did today!" Her face was once again stern with the same look

she had given her children earlier that afternoon. Bree's stomach clenched up, and Mrs. Williams was about to speak again when there was a sharp tap-tap noise at

the window. The family turned to see a large, brown and well-groomed owl standing on the outside edge of the window, a newspaper tied to its leg. Bree jumped

up and went over to get the day's issue of the paper. The owl lifted up its claws and let her take the tied newspaper off its leg. She put a gold coin in the sack

attached to its other leg, and it then stretched out its wings and flew away to its next destination. Bree always loved to get the newspapers from the owls each

day, but this time it had given her an excuse to get up and distract her parents from talking about the trouble she had gotten into earlier in the afternoon. After

handing her father the newspaper, she attempted to escape by saying she wanted to go to her room to play, but her mother snapped her fingers and said: "No, get

back in here, we're still going to talk about what you did!" Bree sighed and sat back down. Mr. Williams pushed his glasses further up his nose, scanning the

newspaper for anything interesting. "There's been an arrest on Wendell Street. A man was trying to break into someone's house, nothing else about it yet..." Mr.

Wendell reported. He sighed and folded up the newspaper, sticking it into the side of the couch cushion. "Now. What happened earlier, today Evelyn?" He asked

Mrs. Williams. Mrs. William made a stern look at Bree and said, "Bree took my wand while I was sleeping on the couch and tried to cast a spell. Thankfully, all she

did was break two photographs and a vase, which I mended, but still! She could have easily hurt herself or Charlie with the spell!" Mr. Williams looked amused, but

still stern, and asked, "Do you know what spell it was?" "Oliver!" Snapped Mrs. Williams, looking over at her husband with a shocked face. "Imagine what the Ministry

would say if they knew that an underage witch used magic outside of school! And they could have really hurt themselves!" Mr. Williams sighed, "Alright, alright...

Bree, don't ever do that again." Bree sighed also and said she would never do it again. The family then continued to sit on the sofas in the living room, listening

to Mrs. Williams talk on and on about how Bree and Charlie could have gotten hurt. An hour later, the two children were sent to bed.

Thanks for reading this! Please let me know if you liked the story, and if there's anything I need to change. I will post chapter 2 soon, where Bree will go to Hogwarts. :)

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