Chapter One
Sarah Maxwell

It was the middle of summer, and New Mexico seemed less humid than usual. The lizards and horned toads could still be seen out in the mesas or scurrying across the backyard. Afternoon was approaching, and a nineteen-year-old boy was seen mounting a broom on the roof of a two storied house. The house sat on a side of the mountain where the Muggle people in the city couldn't see. It was very extensive too; white plastered, and had no fence marking where their backyard ended. The boy took off into the sky to join his cousins, and went off to play a game of Quidditch in the desert mesa.
A younger girl was sitting on her bed watching her brother fly off into the distance through the balcony window.
Sarah Maxwell got up, and looked in the full-length mirror to see her twin image looking back at her with gray thoughtful eyes. She brushed her blondish, brown hair into a messy half-bun using a rubber band. Measuring herself in the mirror again, she thought about how normal she looked- fifteen, five foot four, and with an average build.
"Maybe if I gave myself a second nose..." thought Sarah out loud with a grin.
"I wouldn't try it," said her reflection back to her. She sighed as she heard a sudden outbreak of laughing from downstairs from her relatives.
Sarah was the fifth youngest relative of a very large wizard family, consisting of nine uncles, and aunts on both sides of her parents, and more cousins than she could count. Sarah, herself, only had one older brother, Joe. The only grandparents she ever saw were on her dad's side; her mother claimed that her parents were mentally ill.
She opened the door to a loud clamor of voices and her cousins running up and down the staircase and through the hallways, either using their wands to jinx each other for laughs or playing some game of hide-and-go-seek. Already she almost tripped over three of her youngest cousins trying to reach the staircase.
The fourth youngest cousin, Alex, who was only a year younger than she, also went to the same school as she did, lived in the same city she did, and seemed to be the most likable guy in the city, was like Sarah's other brother that was a total opposite of her real one. He always was willing to help Sarah and Kelly Anne with their homework when they needed it, and was there to help out with work in town, especially at the stables for the winged horses.
"Oh- hi, Alex," she said when she looked up.
"Hello, Sarah," he said, "your mom told me you were in your room."
"Uh- yeah. Just doing some reading," she said. "I promised my friends I would come over, but if you want to do something later, that's cool with me."
"Oh," said Alex, looking a little disappointed. "No, that's alright. I guess I'll see you later then."
"Yeah, later," she said, and walked away with a smile and a wave. Until just now, he had seemed strangely distant from her since relatives started showing up. She thought about why that must be as she approached a crowd of her uncles circled around with drinks in their hands, and in a hearty conversation. Some of them came from Ireland or Great Britain, and had accents just like her dad's, who was born in London himself. She stopped while trying to find another way around the group, but everyone was blocking her way to the front door. As her uncles continued their conversation, she was distracted from her thoughts when somehting caught her ear.
"How'd she transferred to a place like that anyways?"
"Michelle, of course! Her mom, after hearing about that little end-of-the-year-prank, wrote straight to Dumbledore to transfer her there, you know, to maybe straighten her out-"
Sarah averted her eyes and walked towards the circle of uncles, her face set and determined. She tried to pass without them noticing, but one uncle spotted her and said aloud while placing a hand on her shoulder before she took another step. "Well, speaking of the devil, here's the little honor student now!" They chuckled, and Sarah reluctantly turned around.
"Hello, Uncle Dave," said Sarah.
"So, I hear you've been transferred to Hogwarts. Congratulations!" he said. "All the way out in Britain, right?"
"Yes," answered Sarah.
"You going to try out for any Quidditch teams there? I've seen what a great Chaser you are," said her Uncle Steve.
"I dunno- I guess so..." answered Sarah, inching towards the front door with Uncle Dave's hand still tight on her shoulder, and many more questions followed, without giving Sarah a chance to answer.
"Have you decided what courses you're going to pick?"
"Considered what house you'd want to be in?"
"What thing's to take with you?"
"What you'll get in Hogsmead when you go?"
"Which boy's dormitory to tee-pee this time?" There was more chuckling, and Sarah smiled feebly.
"Well, good luck, young lady. Do good now, you hear?" said Uncle Dave, and released her.
Sarah nodded turned halfway on her heal. "Well, see ya later," she said, and opened the front door and walked out. She let out an even deeper breath of relief and gave a sudden shiver even though it was pretty warm outside.
"Family reunions," she muttered, and walked towards the garage. She took out her wand and tapped the second smaller garage door, and it opened. There it was, on a shelf above a small workbench. Protecting it from dust, and being scratched in its leather case was her most favorite possession: her broom, the Infinity.
Unzipping the case, she looked at it, smiled fondly at it, and then picked it up. She carried it outside, tapped the garage door again, and then mounted the broom, kicked off from the ground and soared into the sky. She had only one intention for being on her broom right now; the lie she told Alex about her friends expecting her, gave her an idea, and now she was going to go and see what they were up to.
Kelly Anne and Mike's houses were only a few blocks away, which only took a minute to reach on a broom. She landed on the sidewalk before a two storied brick house and ran up the paved steps to ring the doorbell. Kelly Anne's mom answered.
"Hello, Sarah," she said in her kindly voice.
"Hi, Mrs. Johnson," said Sarah, "is Kelly Anne home?" but before Mrs. Johnson could answer, Kelly Anne had come bounding down the steps to the door.
"Sarah!" said Kelly Anne enthusiastically, and bumped her mom as she stepped out the door to give Sarah a ridiculous hug. "I haven't seen you in so long! It seems like it was only yesterday we were racing Mike on our brooms.." she trailed off in false sobs.
"It was yesterday, you freak," laughed Sarah, as Kelly Anne released her.
"Let me go and get my broom- that's all right with you, mom, isn't it?" said Kelly Anne as she glanced at her.
"Oh, I suppose," her mom sighed.
"Thanks," she said over her shoulder as she went upstairs quickly. A moment later she returned with her own broom, and ran right out the door, closing it with an unexpected slam. Kelly Anne, broom slung over her shoulder, looked at Sarah with a curious glance.
"What now, oh great one?"
"To Mike's house," said Sarah, posing as if she were a king, and pointing down the street where Mike's house was. They marched off down the sidewalk glancing around at the houses on either side of the street. Many of the one and two storied houses were either brick, adobe, or white plastered, the lawn's were all nice and cut, gardens were blossoming beautiful flowers and strange cacti, and gnomes were frequently seen running from lawn to lawn, bush to bush.
Mike's house was also a brick house, only it was one storied; he had no brothers or sisters like Sarah and Kelly Anne. He answered the door in his baggy casual clothes, like a Muggle skater kid, only with robes. "What's up?"
"The sky," answered Kelly Anne with a grin.
"And your cholesterol level," said Sarah with an identical grin. Mike frowned.
"What'd you want?" he asked.
"Pizza, some coke, fried chicken- what'd you think, you lazy bum? Get your broom, and come on!" said Sarah. Mike frowned again, turned leaving the door open, and returned just like Kelly Anne a moment later with his broom slung over his shoulder, shutting the door behind him.
"How's the family reunion going?" Mike asked.
"I can't walk two inches in my house without running into one of my cousins, and I have to get past at least a thousand questions from my aunts and uncles before I reach the front door," said Sarah. "I even stubbed my toe trying to avoid my cousin's pet frog. And my other cousin, Alex-"
"He's always helping us with our homework, right? That cousin? I keep on mistaking him for your brother," said Kelly Anne, scratching her head. "He's always helping us pass our Defense Against the Dark Arts classes?"
Sarah nodded. "He was waiting for me before I reached downstairs," she said. "He's been pretty distant from me until then."
"Sounds fun," muttered Mike. They mounted and took off. "What about your dad? Did he come back from Mexico or wherever the heck he is, yet?"
"Argentina, smart one. He won't be back for a while. He just visited a few days ago when the reunion began, but he had to go back the next day," said Sarah.
"What'd you wanna do?"
"Let's go and check out that cave we found on the mountain yesterday," suggested Kelly Anne.
"I guess we could do that- we've got nothing else to do. My brother and my cousins already have the mesa," said Sarah. Mike shrugged, as they mounted their brooms and took off into the sky, heading towards the mountains, the wind whipping in their faces.
"You know, Sarah," said Mike with a sudden grin. Sarah turned her head to look at him. "You owe me a couple of Galleons."
"FOR WHAT?" cried Sarah incredulously.
"That broom race I beat you in," said Mike, winking at Kelly Anne whose face brightened suddenly.
"That's right, you owe me a couple or two, too," said Kelly Anne. Sarah stared at her.
"Something's not right. There's no way in heck that you guys could beat me!" said Sarah. Kelly and Mike both grinned.
"You mean, not even now? With-" said Kelly Anne starting to speed ahead, "a head start!" and with that she and Mike took off flying ahead of her with great speed. Sarah stared a moment, and then sped towards them, trying to gain on them.

"That was so uncool," said Sarah with a frown as she finally reached them on the other side of the mountain.
"Yeah it was," said Kelly Anne laughing.
"Hey! Is this it?" asked Mike, as they flew closer to a fissure on a hillside. It wasn't exactly on the mountain, but on the hills that rolled next to it.
"Well, gee, I don't know, Mike. How many caves in the mountain have we found so far that look a lot like this one?" said Sarah with a note of sarcasm. She rolled her eyes and looked sideways at Kelly Anne.
"Do you think bears might, you know-"
"What? Be in there? I don't think they couldn't fit into that," said Sarah as they landed on huge rock bulging out of the side. They were on one of the particularly largest hill that sat right next to the side of the mountain, with huge jagged rocks that had fallen on it. Kelly Anne and Mike landed cautiously next to her, and stumbled up into the crevice. As they walked inside, they felt the cool of the cavern settle on them. It was dim, and the only light was from the entrance they had just walked through.
"Lumos," said Sarah, taking out her wand and lighting it. Kelly Anne and Mike looked at her uncertainly. "I'm not officially a Hogwarts student yet you know. I can still do magic."
"I guess, lumos," said Kelly Anne, her voice echoing against the wall. Mike did the same.
"Plus, if they did send you some kind of warning, you could always use another one of your excuses," said Mike. "I bet you could make a book by now..."
The crevice turned out to be a lot bigger than they thought it would be. Further away in, they could see stalagmites and stalactites hanging from the ceiling and protruding from the ground. Faint dripping sounds echoed eerily through the cavern.
"So these hills are limestone. I would never've guessed," said Sarah.
"I hope there aren't any bats," said Kelly Anne, giving a sudden shiver. "I hate bats, and bears. Not to mention bats."
"And I hate snakes," said Sarah with a grimace.
"I don't like Jackalope too much.." said Mike, making Kelly Anne and Sarah laugh. "Well, you'd be pretty scared too if a rabbit with antlers came across you're path during that nature hike at night..." after a while, Mike laughed at himself too.
Deeper into the cavern they walked, avoiding deep cracks, and stalagmites. It seemed that this cavern had been used before at one time, as Sarah, Kelly Anne and Mike discovered a path that had started up a slope on the wall of the cavern where a fissure once was, but now was caved in with huge rocks.
"Kind of reminds you of Carlsbad Caverns, doesn't it?" said Mike. Almost suddenly, their path ended, leading up to a wall that had a rope ladder hanging from it, and leading up to a hole at the very top. Sarah walked up to it, and tested it.
"I think it's pretty safe. Do you guys wanna keep on going?" she asked.
"Why not?" said Kelly Anne, and they climbed up it, noticing many old Indian paintings as they ascended and reached the top. Their wand lights revealed a very large room with what looked like old rusty cauldrons, and instruments that were used for Dark Arts all covered in cobwebs. But some, Sarah had noticed as she, Mike and Kelly looked around, weren't even dirty, and looked as though someone had just recently picked them up to have a look at.
Kelly Anne gave a sudden gasp of terror, and Sarah turned, seeing her gaze up at something on the wall. Above her in green paint was a skull with a snake protruding from the mouth.