It was a quiet night at the Salt residence. Just last week Mr. Salt's precious angel Veruca found her golden ticket to tour Willy Wonka's mysterious chocolate factory. Well she had a bit of help, but In Mr. Salt's eyes, it was all Veruca.

After finding the ticket, the press went on a frenzy as Veruca became big news. The flashing of cameras, the cries of news reporters. All of this was music to Mr. Salt's ears. Mr. Salt loves publicity. It's like free advertising for his business, Salt's Salty Nuts. Mr. Salt would buy Veruca some of the most extravagant things in order to catch the press' attention (plus some philanthropy here and there, but he'd drop the charities if Veruca wanted him to). When the announcement of the golden tickets went public, Mr. Salt insisted that his little Veruca had one.

The day of the announcement, Mr. Salt went to work as he usually does, but then goes to the nut room for an announcement of his own. "In addition to sorting nuts, you all shall also be unwrapping Wonka Bars. You will work 5 hours overtime every day until someone finds a golden ticket. The one who does find the ticket will get a 50 thousand pound bonus, provided that you hand it over willingly."

This went on for five days without a sign of a golden ticket. A golden ticket was even found by another child within this time (some kid from Germany that reminded Mr. Salt strikingly of a whale). Things were looking hopeless until Mr. Salt heard the excited screams of one of his employees. "I found it! I found it! The second golden ticket!" she said. Mr. Salt got out of his office immediately to retrieve the ticket, which the woman gave almost reluctantly.

However, after the third ticket was found, the press for the Salts died down considerably. Now there were only passing mentions of Veruca in the paper and not a single mention of Salt's Salty Nuts. So much for the free publicity now. Now Mr. Salt would have to resort to buying extravagant things for Veruca again. Perhaps a panda fur coat.

But on this quiet night, all the Salts were watching as a news team was interviewing the fifth golden ticket winner, a young british boy named Charlie Buckets, whose clothing looked as if it was sewn together from rags from a rubbish bin. "So how many Wonka Bars did you have to eat in order to find the ticket, Charlie?" The reporter asked in a falsely sweet voice.

Charlie looked nervous, as if he didn't know what to say. Probably camera shy. "Um, just three ma'am," he finally said. The reporter laughed as if the comment was some sort of joke.

Mr. Salt watched the boy with pity. If you ask him, he should relish the fame. He will only have it for so long as part of the common folk. After the tour, he'll probably go back to his normal life and fade into obscurity.

Veruca saw differently though. The boy was obviously not used to being famous. He looked kind of lonely too, kind of like her. Veruca never had many friends. They were all jealous that she was rich. Maybe she and Charlie could be friends. Heck, maybe all five of them could be friends. That gave Veruca an idea. "Daddy, could you have all the other winners over for a couple of nights before the tour?"

Mr. Salt thought about this for a moment. All of the ticket winners under one roof and the Salts would be hosting. This would be publicity galore. "Of course Veruca dear. Anything for you," He said with a smile.

It was a particularly cold January day in the Bucket household, but the cold did nothing to freeze the spirits of young Charlie Bucket, or of his Grandpa Joe, who Charlie chose to bring with him to Willy Wonka's factory. Charlie's mum and dad noticed this as well, and were glad that Charlie was so happy. Lord knows that if any child deserved to be happy, it was Charlie. The young lad couldn't wait to finally get a peak into the mysterious factory that he always passed during his paper route. The only thing he wished was different was the reporters and photographers that would often follow him around when on his paper route. The instant fame was new to him and he wasn't quite used to it yet; but even all this couldn't ruin Charlie's day. A minor nuisance was all it was.

On TV, the same stories were running. Only a few more days until the ticket winners enter the factory, the bios of the winners, etcetera, etcetera. Charlie stopped paying attention to the TV. He was more interested in the story Grandpa Joe was telling him about Willy Wonka and Prince Pondicherry.

"But Grandpa, if Willy Wonka could make ice cream that would never melt, why couldn't he do the same with the chocolate palace?" Charlie asked after hearing the story again.

"Maybe the formula for making chocolate not melt is different than ice cream," Grandpa Joe suggested. "Or maybe it was because he wanted to teach Prince Pondicherry a lesson in humility. If I recall correctly, Willy Wonka enjoyed a good fable every now and then, and was a firm believer that people get what they deserve."

At that moment there was a knock on the door. Mrs. Bucket went to answer the door. It was a middle-aged man, slightly balding, in a Black suit and a Pea-coat over it. He also had on a glove which he promptly threw away after the door was opened. "Good afternoon, madam. Is Charlie Bucket home?"

Mrs. Bucket narrowed her eyes. When a middle=aged man knocks on a person's door looking for her 11 year old son, it tends to be a rather shady affair. "Yes," she finally said. "Why do you want to know?"

He hands her one of Mr. Salt's business cards. "My name is Andrew Harrison. I am the butler of the Salt family. The reason I am here is because the Salt family is hosting a gathering of the golden ticket winners at their estate for the next couple of days until they are due at the factory on Monday, and were hoping that young Master Charlie would be able to attend. His one guardian may attend as well."

To Charlie, this sounded amazing. He would have time to get to know the other winners a bit better. Maybe they would even become friends. Sure they looked kinda bratty on TV, but maybe they aren't really like that. It could have been the press making them look bad. It was entirely possible. "Can I go, mum? Can i?" Charlie asked.

"I don't know," she said to Mr. Harrison. "I don't really want Charlie to be a burden."

"I assure you Madam Bucket that Master Charlie will not be a burden at all. The Salt family insists that he comes. The gathering was actually Miss Veruca's idea."

"Well," Mrs. Bucket said hesitantly, "as long as it is no trouble, I guess that Charlie can come."

Mr. Harrison smiled. "Splendid. Now who will be joining Master Charlie into the factory?"

"I will," Grandpa said, grabbing his cane.

"Very well. When you both are ready, we can leave. The limo is just out front."

Charlie's eyes went wide at the mention of the word, limo. He had a feeling this was going to be a fun weekend.

A/N: I've been wanting to do a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory fic for a while now. Now that I have a decent story idea, the time is now. As to which version I'm doing, I'll put it this way. If you take elements from the 71' film and the 05' film, you'd have the perfect Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie. So im taking elements from both. So this fic will have the Wilder Wonka, the original Grandpa Joe, and some dialogue from the 1971 film, but will have the Burton children, parents and some other aspects. Of course I added some of my own twists as well. I hope you've enjoyed this first chapter. Reviews are always appreciated.