Hello! I hope you enjoy this chapter. Though this isn't the first time I've written OC-centric fanfics, I'm hoping that I'm doing this justice in the HP fandom. Any feedback would be very much appreciated (and I try to respond as soon as possible)! I would like to hear what you think, and if there are any improvements you recommend.

Just to put this out there: For the majority of this story, there isn't much involvement at all with the original cast. There will be no Mary Sues (like any other reader, I hate reading fanfics with them). There will be no romance between OCs and any of JK Rowling's characters. If there is romance, it isn't coming until 6th year and it will not dominate the story. This story will progress as a documentation of Reina's rise to power from 2002 to 2018 (I'm thinking longer, but I'm still getting the plot in order).

EDIT: I removed the prologue because it seemed a bit incongruous.

July 20th, 2002

Los Angeles, California

When the letter came in with their weekly post to their quiet abode on a hot Californian summer day, the Mao family was not sure what to expect.

The only child, a 10 year old named Reina, sat quietly at the dining table as her parents studied the official-looking letter intensely. Her mother, a short woman with permed black hair, squinted at the text on the letter through old-fashioned spectacles and sounded out carefully in her thick Taiwanese accent, "Ilvermorny…" Mrs. Mao looked to Reina's father and spoke in their native language, "What school is this? Why have I never heard of it?"

"I don't know." Mr. Mao spoke, taking the letter from his wife's manicured hands to examine it himself. "It looks professional. Look at the quality of this paper. Must be a very rich school. After what happened last year, America's economy is down and almost no one can afford this."

Both parents looked to Reina expectantly. "Translate for us, daughter."

"Yes." Reina quietly nodded, taking the letter that her parents slid to her. She read it silently to the herself first, but immediately set it back down on table with a rather unimpressed expression. "It's a joke."

"Hah?" Her mother stared incredulously at Reina. "How can this be a joke? This letter looks expensive."

Her father nodded in agreement, speaking in English. "Too expensive to be a joke."

Reina replied, "It says that Ilvermorny is a school for magical students. Magic doesn't exist."

"Are you sure?" Her father took the letter again to examine it.

"What if it is typo?" Reina's mother wondered in English, her accent distorting her words. "Do typo not happen a lot?"

Reina let out a breath, speaking in Taiwanese, "Ma, official schools don't have typos in their letters. I don't think anyone can type 'magical' but mean something else."

"But this is the first school that has contacted us. We should reply and see what happens." Reina's father reasoned.

"Exactly!" Her mother readily agreed.

Their daughter, not wanting to get on her parent's bad side in sake of filial piety, reluctantly agreed and helped them write a coherent response in English to ask for more information on Ilvermorny. The letter was mailed to the return address in the afternoon.

The next day, instead of Ilvermorny's response, a knock sounded at the front door of the Mao household. It was Mrs. Mao who answered the door, checking the eyehole before slowly opening the door to a middle-aged dark-skinned woman donned in long blue coat.

"Hallo." Mrs. Mao greeted the woman with a polite smile in her heavy accent.

"Good morning." The woman smiled cheerfully at Mrs. Mao, her voice reminiscent of a Midwest accent. "I'm Adriana Pen. I'm a representative of Ilvermorny."

At that, Mrs. Mao's stiff posture immediately relaxed and her eyes became bright. "Oh! Very good. Nice to meet you. I am Christine Mao."

"It is nice to meet you too, Mrs. Mao."

"Come in, come in." Mrs. Mao opened the door wide for Adriana to enter. As the representative entered their home, she yelled in Taiwanese excitedly, "Yuang, Reina, come to the living room! We have a guest!"

Mrs. Mao ushered Adriana to sit on their plastic-covered sofa (which Reina highly despised during sweaty summer days) and spoke, "I will make tea."

"Ah, thank you." Adriana smiled at the matriarch of the household. As Mrs. Mao disappeared into the kitchen, Reina and her father entered the living room.

Mr. Mao greeted Adriana with a heavily accented "Hello" while Reina shyly, but suspiciously, nodded her head in greetings to the woman.

Adriana stood to greet the two and extended her hand to Reina's father. "Hello. It's nice to meet you, Mr. Mao."

Mr. Mao shook her hand, "Nice to meet you, nice to meet you."

Adriana looked to Reina and bent slightly to meet Reina's short height. She smiled at Reina and extended her hand to Reina as well. "And you must be Reina. I'm Adriana Pen."

Reina stared at the foreign appendage with a startled expression before hesitantly shaking her hand. "It's nice to meet you, Miss Pen."

Adriana straightened and spoke, "I'm a representative of Ilvermorny. We received your letter. You might think it's a bit weird for me to show up like this instead of just sending a letter, but it's school policy to send a staff member to explain everything to no-maj families."

Mr. Mao turned to Reina and asked in their native tongue, "What did she just say?"

Reina quickly translated for her father before turning to Adriana. "Sorry, my parents don't know much English. My mom knows more English than my dad, but that's because she owns a nail shop around here."

Adriana nodded in understanding. "Of course."

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Anything, dear."

"What does Ilvermorny teach exactly? I'm not sure if the letter had a typo or not, but it said that it is a magical school."

Adriana raised an eyebrow, not quite expecting Reina to be so blunt. She replied, "Oh no, that was not a typo at all. We teach students with magical capabilities to become future witches and wizards."

Reina scrutinized Adriana for a long moment, her eyes almost calculating. "I don't think I follow."

Before Adriana could respond, Mrs. Mao reentered the living room with a tray with a teapot and four cups for each of them. The matriarch announced as she set the tray down on the coffee table, "Tea is done! Sit, sit."

The family and the guest sat down at the sofa and the armchair. Reina carefully avoided sitting on the plastic-covered sofa, lest she gets uncomfortable in her summer shorts.

Adriana lightly sipped at her tea, and smiled at Mrs. Mao. "It's very good, Thank you."

Once everyone was settled, Adriana said, "This will come as a shock to you. Your daughter is a witch."

The Mao parents were silent for a long moment, letting the words sink in.

"A witch?" Mr. Mao questioned incredulously, recognizing the English word. "How?"

"We are not witches." Mrs. Mao pointed out, gesturing to herself and her husband.

"No, you're not. But, sometimes a child in a non-magical family can be born with a magical core, either through a genetic mutation or a wizard or witch in their ancestry."

Again, Reina translated for her father and explained certain words to her mother.

"Can you show us?" Mrs. Mao asked.

"Magic?"

"Yes."

Adriana nodded, and slid out her wand from her wrist holster hidden under her sleeve. She murmured a strange phrase, Latin-sounding to Reina's ears, and the teapot levitated high into the air. Adriana gently waved her wand, and the teapot lazily moved through the air, following the wand's directed path.

Mrs. Mao's jaw slackened in shock and Mr. Mao exclaimed loudly, "Wah!"

Reina watched with intrigue, looking up at the ceiling in search of any wires that suspended the teapot, but found none.

Adriana gently levitated the teapot back down onto the tray and released the spell.

Reina commented, "So that's magic…"

"Great, isn't it?" Adriana grinned.

"So, you are saying that my daughter has magic?" Mrs. Mao asked for clarification. At Adriana's nod, she wondered, "How do you know?"

"We monitor households for any accidental magic by any children. A child younger than 11 will have these small magical bursts, powered by a strong emotional stimulus. These magical bursts might be weird incidents such as levitating objects and randomly appearing objects."

Mrs. Mao slowly processed this, struggling slightly with her limited English. Reina translated again for her father, to which he smiled and commented, "That explains that one time in the science museum when you somehow went into that space display and started playing with that model satellite…"

His daughter immediately blushed in embarrassment even though Adriana couldn't understand Taiwanese. "Ba!"

"Alright, alright, I won't tease you anymore." Mr. Mao chuckled.

Reina asked Adriana this time, "How many more witches and wizards are there?"

"Oh, a lot. We have at least five thousand in America alone."

"So there are others in other countries?"

"Of course."

"Is Ilvermorny the only wizard school?" Mrs. Mao inquired, excited by the prospect of a whole wizarding society. Adriana's cheerful disposition faded slightly at the mention of other schools.

"Um, no. There are many other schools." Adriana began listing off, "There's Salem Witches' Institute in Massachusetts, Mahoutokoro in Japan,"

Mrs. Mao's nose scrunched slightly at the mention of Japan.

"Hogwarts in Scotland, Beauxbatons in France, and Durmstrang in Norway. Just to name a few."

"Could you tell us more about the other schools?"

"Of course. I can mail a pamphlet for each of them to you." Adriana nodded. She questioned, "Is Ilvermorny not to your liking?"

Mrs. Mao spoke in Taiwanese to Reina this time, not confident in her ability to articulate her answer. Reina translated for Adriana, "We just like to take everything into consideration first to determine the best school. We would also like a pamphlet from Ilvermorny."

"Great!"

"Also," Reina added, "Is there someplace in America where we can go to buy the books on the curriculum list?"

"Yes." Adriana replied. "Since you're in California, which has a hefty wizarding population, there's Dragon Avenue. You can access it by going to the Union Bank on Main Street and Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. Just go to the staff only restroom and twist the middle knob on the sink. The wall should open and you can get to Dragon Avenue from there."

The wizarding world might be even stranger than Reina thought.

Several pamphlets and a couple books on wizarding society and its schools lay scattered on the coffee table as Mrs. Mao and Mr. Mao scoured through them after dinner. Reina curiously read a pamphlet on Mahoutokoro.

Mrs. Mao temporarily looked up from her reading at Reina. Her gaze zeroed in on Reina's choice of reading. She snatched her reading glasses off her face to frown at Reina. "Ai ya, Reina! Why are you reading that?"

"Japanese schools are known to be very good." Reina replied nonchalantly. "And Miss Pen didn't send us any schools in China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan."

"I won't let you go to a Japanese school."

Reina stared incredulously at her mother. "Why?"

"Ai ya, think about your grandparents! Your grandfather fought to protect China in the Japanese-Chinese War."

Reina let out a breath. Right, her mother's family originated in the Canton province in China where Japanese forces attempted to conquer during the Sino-Japanese War. Her family was still rather salty toward Japanese.

"Okay. I won't go to Mahoutokoro."

Earlier, the Mao household quickly ruled out Ilvermorny as an option, considering that the school was likely to lack the accelerated education needed to challenge Reina (to which Reina thought to herself, "How would we know if Ilvermorny will challenge me if I haven't attended a magic school before?"). In fact, Reina's parents have completely ignored all schools in the American continents.

Mr. Mao suggested, "What about Beauxbatons? Its education is very good."

Reina commented, "The scenery is good too. And many students from notable families attend."

The Mao parents didn't seem to hear her.

"Haah?" Mrs. Mao frowned at her husband. "Such a liberal country! We can't expose Reina to flirty French boys and unconservative French girls! Bad influence."

And so, Beauxbatons was crossed off the list.

"Durmstrang is too far away."

That was crossed off too.

"What about Hogwarts?" Mr. Mao suggested this time. Mrs. Mao looked at the pamphlet thoughtfully.

"Scotland is the countryside, yes?"

"I think so."

Reina butted in, "Hogwarts is away from the city. And Britain is less liberal than France. Its curriculum is more accelerated than Ilvermorny too. It's comparable to Beauxbatons."

"We'll consider it."

Reina sunk back in her seat, deflating at the lack of excited response from her parents. When will they come to a decision already?

Within the week, the Mao's sent a letter to Hogwarts asking for information on its international enrollment policies and how to apply, and another letter to Adriana Pen in thanks for her help and Reina's request to maintain contact even though she will not be attending Ilvermorny.

As August came about, Reina's enrollment forms to Hogwarts have been completed and sent. Within a few days, Hogwarts sent back a letter announcing her acceptance. The Mao family excitedly crowded around the parchment with black ink written delicately upon it as Reina read aloud, skipping over less relevant information,

Dear Miss Mao,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted and enrolled into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins 1 September 2002. We look forward to your attendance.

Yours sincerely,

Pomona Sprout

Deputy Headmistress

Mrs. Mao smiled and patted her daughter on her shoulder. "I'm proud of you, Reina. Now, let's look at that list."

The next month was all rather rushed for Reina. She and her parents went to Dragon Avenue again to purchase all required books and other supplies, which was a rather intriguing experience.

It was a somewhat cool morning when they decided to go shopping. Mr. Mao was busy for the day and had to stay home to meet a deadline to finish some articles for the editors in the Chinese Daily News, so Mrs. Mao ended up taking some time off work at her nail salon to take Reina to Dragon Avenue.

When the two stepped through the bathroom wall into the alleyway leading into Dragon Avenue, the place still had yet to lose its luster to the Maos' new eyes. For the most part, Dragon Avenue looked rather modern and mundane, with the smooth concrete sidewalks and gravelly concrete road for strange-looking cars, strange-looking motorcycles, and an unusual amount of bicycles. The place was inundated with people, all with clearly diverse backgrounds and personalities.

Over half of the people, Reina guessed, were dressed in long flowing robes, the majority dark colors and a few more eccentric witches and wizards donned in brighter colors such as pastels and the occasional pink. The other hefty portion of wizarding folk were dressed in no-maj clothing, mostly casual and occasionally sloppy while others were in business casual or even business formal suits and ties.

The passerbys of Dragon Avenue were all extremely fascinating to Reina's eyes, and the mundane-born was curious as to how the wizarding society functioned not only in the Americas, but in the other continents. In particular, Wizarding Britain, given that no-maj America and no-maj Britain were already so different from each other in both colloquial language and culture.

However, that was some research Reina had to do another day, she thought as her mother pulled her hand and led her to the bookstore across the street, a relatively small unit with a sign labelling it as Unbound Tales Bookstore. Its exterior was rather bland, however the amount of wizards seen inside it through the clean windows said otherwise about its interior.

The second Reina and her mother entered, they were met with gentle air conditioning to battle the increasing heat outside. What they witnessed next was shocking to their eyes: the small unit was actually three stories tall and circular in shape. Where they had stepped in, they were on the second floor near the cash registers.

Taking a moment to recover from their shock, Reina and her mother observed their new surroundings with intrigue.

"Are these the expansion charms you've told me about?" Mrs. Mao looked curiously to her daughter.

Reina nodded. "I think so."

"Amazing." Mrs. Mao had a strange gleeful glint in her eye, her interest in the Wizarding World increasing tenfold. "Now, let's go find your books."

"Yes, ma." Reina nodded again before tentatively venturing further into the bookstore. She looked around for a moment, eyes slightly narrowed as she searched for any signs hanging from the ceiling, like in no-maj bookstores where they at least indicate the different book sections.

Irritatingly, there were none. How did the owner/manager of the bookstore expect people to waltz right in and know exactly where everything is? With a huff, Reina walked up to the counter where a thin, young-looking cashier in a green apron over a grey t shirt and jeans sat reading a novel- The shop owners and workers seem relatively integrated into no-maj society, with how normal they appeared, Reina thought- and cleared her throat, tiptoeing slightly to increase her height and catch his attention. The Mao, like the rest of her family- The ones hailing from Hong Kong aside- was cursed with her genetic predisposition to be short. Reina could only pray that she will grow significantly beyond her current stature of 4'9".

The cashier looked up from his novel, and immediately sent a prize-winning smile her way. "Good morning. New student, I'm guessing?"

Reina nodded in affirmation silently, her dark eyes determined.

"Great! I'm a 3rd year student at Ilvermorny, so I can definitely help you with your books. Here, I'll lead you to the section. Is this your mom?" The cashier looked behind Reina at Mrs. Mao. Mrs. Mao smiled at him politely.

"Yes." Reina replied. She added, "I'm actually not attending Ilvermorny, but I'm going to Hogwarts."

The cashier's eyes widened slightly in surprise. "Hogwarts? Nice. Well, the book list is probably gonna be different for you, but I can still help."

"Thank you." Mrs. Mao thanked the cashier as he stood to leave his not-busy post.

When the brunet cashier took them down to the first floor to the textbook section, they thanked him again.

The second he left with a "Just let me know if you need any more help!" And gave them a book bag spelled with what was called a 'featherlight charm', Reina immediately dove into the shelves with intense vehemence, to which her mother looked on in mild amusement before glancing at the interesting titles on the shelves. Mrs. Mao squinted slightly at some of the titles, not recognizing several words.

It did not take long for Reina to find her books, as she methodically searched the shelves for the required material. After spending a few minutes to skim the material of each book, Reina decided that that she rather looks forward to Transfiguration and Potions. When she voiced this to her mother, her mother only smiled and said, "If you want extra books, we will have to get them in all subjects. I'll get you the second year Transfiguration and Potions books for now."

Reina, delighted, gestured at two books named The Complete Table of Potion Ingredients and Their Properties: The Visual Edition and The Principles of Transfiguration and the Science Behind It. Mrs. Mao let Reina drop it into the book bag with faint exasperated amusement.

Several minutes of more browsing later, Hogwarts: A History and The Shark Tank: In-and-Outs of Wizarding Culture were added to the stack of books.

When the cashier rang up the books, the total came to 25 dragots and 9 half dragots- Which Reina calculated silently to be about $73.75 USD. Interestingly enough, there are $2.50 USD to a dragot. She wondered briefly how this could be, given the recent blow to the American economy after the terrorist attacks the year before. Wouldn't the economic depression affect the American wizarding economy, and decrease the value of the dragot? Unless, the American wizarding government and community have no relations whatsoever with the no-maj government- Unlikely since the two communities live on the same continent in the same states, in the same cities- and have their own independent trade and stock market. If it was so, Reina couldn't help but feel rather derisive of such a system. Wholly inefficient with little income (it is within her knowledge that there haven't been much significant innovative companies like Apple within the wizarding world), if she were asked.

Reina was struck out of her pondering thoughts when her mother handed her the white plastic bag full of books with the dark green logo of the store printed on its front to hold. Surprisingly, upon holding the bag while her mother neatly folded the receipt to place in her wallet, Reina realized that the bag also had a featherlight charm.

As they walked out, the cashier smiled, "Have a great day!"

"You too!" The Maos returned the pleasantry.

Their next stop only took about 10 minutes to get Reina measured for her robes- Thankfully, the middle-aged shop owner, Marie Ann, had copies of the patterns for the Hogwarts uniforms and was more than willing to help them out.

"I'm always happy to see another international student. I had one customer that last few years- She's going to Mahoutokoro- and I loved hearing her stories. She doesn't live around here anymore, so I hope I see you again when you need size readjustments next year or so!"

Marie Ann was rather chatty, and Reina, though curious about the witch's experiences in the wizarding world, couldn't help but feel a little drained by the time they paid for her new robes (which, thankfully, were spelled to be sewn together in just a few minutes so she wouldn't have a wait a week or so).

Reina made sure to get a business card, though. The total only came to 36 dragots ($90.00 USD) for the shirt, tie, skirt, trousers, protective gloves, summer robe, and winter robe compared to the 60 dragots at that pricier store further down the street.

After leaving the clothing store, they were swift in getting the pewter cauldron, crystal phials, brass scales, and telescope (Reina wished to stay in the store longer to explore, but Mrs. Mao stared at her sternly and she conceded to her mother's wishes to move on to the next store quickly).

The two stopped in front of a small storefront with two chandeliers lighting the inside with soft yellow light. Hanging above the door was a wooden sign with calligraphy carved into it- "Wolfe Wandcrafting est. 1899."

Just like that, no marketing statement to add flourish to the store's reputation. Only a title.

Reina supposed that this store must have established its reputation enough to not require any flourish. It looked nice enough, though a bit cozy.

The bell attached to the door let out a piercing tinkle into the quiet store as they entered. Glancing around, Reina observed the interior.

Shelves upon shelves of wands lined up against the ivory walls, all of the wand boxes stacked neatly atop each other from behind the locked glass display. A long wooden table stood in the center of the store on a linen-weaved rug.

Reina moved closer to the table, looking at the display cases on them with vases of pale yellow roses posed beside them neatly. In each of the display cases, intricately carved wands rested on the black velvet lining the bottom of the cases. One display case in the center of the table stood taller than the others, with one silver wand with jewel embellishments on display with a glass stand propping it up.

Behind the counter, a woman in her 40s stepped out from a room in the back, pushing aside the beaded curtain hanging for the doorway as she did so. Upon seeing her new customers, she brightened immediately.

"Hello! Welcome to Wolfe Wandcrafting. I'm Andrea Wolfe. How may I help you?" The woman, Andrea, strode over, a long black braid swishing from behind her with every step.

"Hello." Mrs. Mao smiled at Andrea. "My daughter needs a wand for Hogwarts."

"Hogwarts? Interesting. I don't see a lot of Hogwarts student's around here." Andrea smiled before turning to Reina. "Hi there! What's your name?"

"Reina Mao."

"It's nice to meet you, Reina." Andrea said. She glanced at the display base beside Reina, which the young girl had been eyeing earlier. "I see one of my mother's wands caught your eye."

"You didn't craft all of these?"

Andrea shook her head. "Of course not. I haven't been alive that long." She lightly tapped the display case, "10 inches California redwood with dragon heartstring, flexible. My mother, who founded this business, liked to experiment with different styles of crafting. This one was slightly inspired from Ollivander's crafting technique, and this was one of the last five she crafted before dragon pox hit her."

"It's beautiful." Reina complimented.

"Oh, this isn't her best wand actually. We have better ones crafted with better technique. My mother was the one and only master in America who crafted perfectly with Thunderbird tailfeather, so some of our best ones are with that core. Thankfully she taught me her techniques."

Curious, Reina inquired, "What makes the Thunderbird tailfeather so unique?"

An excited glint appeared in Andrea's eyes, "Well, the Thunderbird is a very freespirited and independent creature, so naturally the core will find its owner with a like temperament. Then, it's probably one of the cores most suited for Transfiguration. The power from Transfiguration spells casted by this core is astounding."

Reina wanted to learn more, but Andrea asked, "Now, what is your wand hand?"

Reina blinked slightly. Wand hand must refer to her dominant hand. "Um, right hand."

"Great." Andrea unlocked one of the shelved and slide open the glass to reach inside. She took out six rectangular boxes, each of them with a gold outline of a wolf howling at the moon- How befitting, Reina thought- printed on the black wood of the boxes. She took them to an empty table off the the side and set them on the surface. Reina followed Andrea.

Andrea handed her a light colored wand. "Give that a swish."

Reina did so, and nothing happened. Andrea handed her another one, taking the first one back.

Reina swished this one, and the roses in the vase wilted. Another wand was handed to her.

Four wands later, there were still not good results. Andrea added more boxes to the growing pile. More were switched for another one.

Just as Reina began to visibly deflate, Andrea reassured, "It's okay. I encounter a few troublesome customers here and there. It just shows that you have high standards, and you need a wand that also has high standards."

Ten wands later, Reina found herself with a black ebony wand with a graceful, yet robust carved handle. Rolling it between her fingers, she admired the shine of the ebony before finally giving it a wave.

Silver sparks shot from the tip.

Andrea, seeing this, looked immensely pleased. "Ah, ebony with thunderbird tailfeather. 12 inches and unrelenting. I remember that my mother crafted this when I was a little girl. It's capable of powerful things, but it yielded catastrophic results every time someone came in to try it out. It's a very stubborn wand. I'm glad to finally see it find someone who matches it."

Reina looked down back at her wand, fingers tracing the carvings in the wood with intrigue.

She couldn't wait until September 1st.