Author's Notes: Kicking off Alice's second year at Hogwarts by starting with a look into her summer. I started writing this intending for it to be chapter one, but it ended up feeling a lot more like a prologue - it's not entirely vital to the rest of the story but it gives some nice insight into some of the changes in her life and sort-of-introduces-sort-of-continues a bit of mystery with the twins...

The envelope simply wasn't cooperating, but Alice didn't have another stamp. She couldn't choose among all the awesome pictures they had taken at the Grand Canyon, so she was attempting to send all of them with her letter to Emily. That was proving an impossible task though. Well, it could be possible… with a bit of magic…

"No." Jason stated.

Alice gaped at him.

"What are you talking about? I didn't say anything!"

"You don't have to, I know you. You were thinking about using magic to fit all the pictures in the envelope. No. You'll get in trouble, it's forbidden," Jason explained.

"You know this is why people think twins are telepathic," Alice retorted.

"Well, maybe we are," Jason shrugged.

"No, if I had super powers I would know! And then I'd have to design my costume so I could achieve my dream of becoming a super hero!" Alice declared, striking a powerful pose. She wasn't quite sure if it was just the wind or some intuitive magic of hers that blew her hair back, but whatever it was it made the moment so much more awesome and dramatic. Jason meanwhile just quirked a brow at her.

"Alice. You're a witch. You have magic," he deadpanned.

"Yeah but it's not the same!" she whined. Jason stared at her. "It's not like I can fly or—"

"You can on a broom," Jason interrupted.

"I don't want to fly on a broom!" Alice retorted.

"Well, if you want to fly—"

"I don't want to fly!"

"But you just said you did!"

"No! I said I could not that I wanted to!"

Jason groaned.

"You know what, whatever. Do magic on the envelope. Get in trouble. I don't care," he said, waving off the topic.

Alice glared at the envelope. She could do magic to make the pictures fit in the envelope… but she didn't want to get in trouble. I mean, breaking some rules at school was one thing but this was the magical government! They could take away her wand and then forget super heroism, she wouldn't even be a witch anymore!

She hated when Jason was right.

She grumbled as she pulled all the pictures out of the envelope and spread them out on the floor in front of her. Alice had been in some tough spots, but she couldn't think of any as trying as having to choose which pictures to send to Emily! I mean, sure, there were a few where Alice didn't look so hot in the picture, but those all had great shots of the canyon in the background!

"What about the one with your finger on the lens?" Jason offered, never looking up from his book. The nerd was already doing his summer homework. They still had like a month before they went back to school. Alice scoffed – at his nerd-ness and the suggestion about the picture. She practically thrust the aforementioned picture into his face.

"I have to send this one to Emily because I mentioned it in my letter. I mean come on! The bird attacked you right after I took the picture! Aunt K had to Stupefy the thing! How awesome is that?" Alice exclaimed and stuffed the picture into the envelope.

"Yeah, real awesome," Jason grumbled. "The claw marks have healed fine, thanks for asking."

"You're welcome," Alice replied. Jason scoffed. Alice narrowed her eyes at the pictures arranged before her and only just noticed Preston entering the room.

"What about this one?" he asked, kneeling down on the floor next to Alice and pointing to a picture. Alice picked it up and squinted at it. "There are a couple others like this one but they have better background shots," Preston offered.

Alice tilted her head and then glanced down at the similar photos. She then turned to give Preston an appraising look.

"You're right. Thanks, Preston," Alice beamed a smile at him. Preston sort of grimaced. Alice then turned over to Jason. "At least somebody's helpful!" she said pointedly. Jason just rolled his eyes.

Preston sat down in a chair to read one of his comics, but after a few minutes of Alice's annoying agonizing over photos he sighed and sat down on the floor to go through the pictures with her. He was a lot less unbearable this summer than last. His annoying friends didn't come around as much anymore and Jason had eavesdropped—

"I was not eavesdropping! I was going down to get a juicebox—"

"A juicebox? What are you? Five?" Alice teased.

"Says the girl who's already finished off half the pack!" Jason shot right back. Alice mumbled something about how they were perfectly portioned fruity drinks and she shouldn't be judged for enjoying them. Jason rolled his eyes and continued, "Anyway, I got to the door and heard Margo talking to Mrs. Hayworth and I didn't want to interrupt-"

"So you eavesdropped," Alice concluded matter-of-factly. Jason glared at her but finally just sighed.

"Yes! Alright! I eavesdropped! Are you happy now?" he demanded.

"No. If you're gonna spy on people at least have the decency to be honest about it."

- on Margo talking with a neighbor about how Preston hadn't had a very easy year at school. Turns out the bully was bullied. Mr. Wallace's old prep school managed to knock Preston down a few pegs and teach him how to treat people decently.

The twins also suspected that Margo had talked to him about them, giving him a more in-depth explanation about… well, what they were. This suspicion stemmed from how at the beginning of the summer he had seemed a bit frightened of them before apparently realizing that they weren't going to hex him for taking the last dinner roll. Since then the twins had gotten on rather well with Preston… not too well, mind, he was still pretty dull, but a less arrogant dull that might get frustrated when Alice continually beat him in sports but wouldn't have a hissy fit about it.

With Preston's help, Alice managed to trim down her selection of photos to a manageable size that actually fit in the envelope. Then, the letter didn't fit, so she had to get rid of a few more photos. All in all, it only took about half an hour – a considerable achievement seeing as how Jason had once seen her agonize over which six of her ten stuffed animals could fit on her shelf for an hour (she ended up reorganizing her entire bookshelf so that they could all fit on the same one—which took another hour).

Preston sighed and got up from his seat on the floor.

"Now that that's dealt with, I'll see you later," Preston said as he headed for the door.

"Uh! What, you're abandoning us?" Alice exclaimed in mock hurt. Preston rolled his eyes.

"I'm meeting Edward,"

"Ohhh, you're meeting Edward!" Alice complained, mock insulted. She turned to Jason. "He's meeting Edward!" She turned back to Preston. "Are we not good enough for you anymore?"

"Are we not as cool as Edward?" Jason joined in. Preston rolled his eyes.

"No. You're not," Preston retorted. Alice gasped in mock hurt while Preston went out into the hall.

"You cut deep, Preston!" Jason shouted after him.

"I thought we had something!" Alice exclaimed.

The twins heard the door slam shut in answer. They turned and just grinned at each other.

"You two, I swear," Margo smiled, shaking her head.

Alice and Jason jumped, startled to find Margo leaning against the doorway.

"Lose the guilty expressions," she laughed and Alice and Jason relaxed a bit. "I'm really glad you guys are starting to get along. Reminds me of how my brother and I teased each other," Margo said wistfully and went into the kitchen to start dinner.

Jason went back to his book and Alice closed up the envelope. No going back now. She stuck on the stamp and then set down the envelope. Her eyes were drawn to a picture that Preston and Jason had had to talk her out of including for ten straight minutes. She really liked that picture…

Alice picked it up and looked at it. She then glanced guiltily over at Jason before she set the picture down on top of the envelope, silently willing for it to just slip inside the envelope along with the others. Magically (bad um tss) it did, and most importantly the letter didn't burst. Alice paused, expecting a huge siren to go off any second and wizard cops to break down the door to arrest her for performing unauthorized magic outside of school. But no such thing happened. Not so much as a letter arrived to tell her off.

"Maybe they don't count wand-less magic. I mean that stuff is harder to control, it usually just happens whether you want it to or not," Alice thought to herself. She nodded. Her reasoning seemed pretty sound to her.

Jason looked over at her curiously and then scanned the scattered pictures that were left out of the letter. He looked back up at Alice, his eyes narrowed.

"Where's the picture of you pretending to push me into the Grand Canyon?" he asked suspiciously. Alice internally panicked but struggled to maintain an outward calm.

"I don't know what you mean," she said a bit too quickly as she gathered up all the leftover pictures, and thus effectively hiding from view which ones and how many they were. Jason looked down to the sealed envelope but then glared at her sternly.

"You used magic to put it in the envelope after it was sealed!" he accused. Alice scoffed.

"I did no such thing!"

"You are such a liar!" Jason retorted. Alice stood with her stack of pictures and the envelope.

"Even if you were right, nothing happened. I haven't been arrested, or my magic license revoked—

"We don't have licenses," Jason interrupted but Alice continued as if she didn't hear him.

"- or even gotten a warning letter. So I guess you were wrong about them detecting magic outside of school. Now if you'll excuse me I have a letter to mail!" Alice finished and rushed out of the living room before Jason inevitably realized that she had actually given herself away with that last bit about him being wrong.

Alice hurried out into the hall and turned to race up the stairs, but she caught something out of the corner of her eye. She stopped, and cautiously neared the window by the front door. She pressed herself against the wall, hopefully out of view.

"Jason!" she called.

Jason rolled his eyes and set down his book.

"I'm guessing you got the warning letter," he remarked a bit haughtily as he turned into the hallway. He paused upon seeing her hiding against the wall. Alice hastily gestured towards him to hide too. He glanced out the windows to see what Alice was hiding from. His eyes widened and he hastily hid on the other side.

Outside, across the street, stood a man wearing very strange clothes. He was in a yellow rain coat – strange as it was a bright sunny day – with a distinctly '70s style flowery button-up shirt, water shorts, and oxfords. This insane get-up indicated that he was one of three things: an impractical man with dreadful fashion sense, a crazy person, or a wizard in disguise. Considering their knowledge, the twins were betting on the latter. Plus, he was staring directly at the Wallace house.

"Who is he?" Jason whispered to Alice.

"How the hell would I know?" Alice shot back. Jason glanced out the window once more.

The man was glaring pointedly at their house, as if willing them to walk right out the front door. He also seemed to be waiting for something.

"What do you think he's doing? Is he here for us?" Jason asked, thinking out loud as he often did.

"I don't know. I hope not. He gives me the creeps," Alice remarked somberly.

Jason had to agree. It wasn't the get-up, that was laughable, and it wasn't necessarily his appearance, the guy looked pretty ordinary. It was his eyes. They stared intently, almost angrily, straight ahead. They were flat and dark and hard. His hands were worrying too. The knuckles were big and scarred like he was no stranger to fighting it out Muggle-style. And his fingers flinched every now and then, like he wanted to reach for something but couldn't… not yet… he couldn't bring his wand out in public… not unless they showed themselves… not unless the opportunity arrived, then it wouldn't matter who saw because he would have them, he would have the twins, the ones they were searching for…

Jason blinked. Those thoughts didn't seem like his… they seemed foreign in some way.

"He's waiting for us, he wants to take us," Alice stated nervously. Jason glanced at her curiously. Was she thinking the same thing he was?

Alice looked at him determinedly. Jason knew exactly what she was thinking.

"No." he stated firmly. Alice didn't heed him and stepped out from against the wall, moving to open the front door. Jason grabbed her hand to stop her. She glared up at him, but before either of them could do anything else they heard something strange.

"Oi! What are you doing? Shove off!" Preston bellowed at the man as he and his friend Edward walked down the street with hockey sticks. Alice and Jason watched in horror as Preston charged over towards the grim wizard. Of course Preston was foolish enough to take on a dark wizard!

Now Alice and Jason both reached for the door to go save Preston from what was inevitably an evil wizard prepared to kill their foster brother for his impertinence. They had just managed to open the door when they saw, shockingly, the man hastening off down the street. The twins gaped as Preston nodded smugly, having succeeded in guarding his territory. A faint crack in the distance confirmed to the twins that the man had just disapparated, but neither of the Muggle boys thought anything of it. Instead Preston turned to his friend, only to catch a glimpse of the twins standing in the open doorway.

"What are you two doing?" Preston hollered over at them, a bit irritated.

Jason was left flat-footed, but luckily Alice snapped right back.

"Oh, we were just gonna tell that guy to bugger off, but you beat us to it," she replied. "What are you guys doing?" she asked casually.

Preston held up the hockey sticks.

"We're gonna play," he answered as if that was obvious, which to be fair it kind of was. Edward nudged Preston and Preston sighed and rolled his eyes. "Do you want to join?" he asked reluctantly.

"Sure! Sounds like fun!" Alice exclaimed, dragging Jason along with her though he didn't remember asking to play.

AN: Who's the creepy wizard standing outside their house? Wouldn't you like to know. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this even though it is sort of a short prelude into the sequel. I've got to admit, I'm much more excited for Alice's years from this point out - I always sort of saw first year as an outlier for her career at Hogwarts, and not just because it was her only year without Harry Potter at school. LEAVE REVIEWS! I love hearing from you guys, even if it's just like a running commentary of thoughts during the chapters.

With her best friend gone, Alice is gonna have to make some new ones this year... no problem, right? I mean, it's not like she's being hunted by an evil wizard seeking revenge and everlasting life... yeah, actually she'd probably rather take the evil wizard.