Two days ago, Mary Sterling learned that her husband had been killed when the bridge collapsed. Shortly after, her mother learned that Mary had killed herself. Her only child, a baby girl, was left sleeping in her crib. Now, Edna stands on a large ship, the sleeping girl in her arms. This may be their only chance to escape the War. The cool ocean breeze brushes her greying hair, and she listens to the moan of mumbled conversations among the passengers. The Americas were safe, they said. There weren't any wizards there. Thats where they were all headed. When the ship left the dock, the black haired baby opened her clear blue eyes and smiled. Six years later Echo pranced through the unpaved streets of her small settlement, humming to herself. Her long black hair fell behind her in ringlets, her ocean blue eyes alive with excitement. She ran to her house, where her grandmother was fiddling with decorations. Upon seeing the little girl, she smiled and put her wand in her pocket. The two met outside in their small herb garden. "Are you ready?" Echo sang, dancing around. Her tennis shoes were untied, and the laces were brown from dragging in the dirt. The old woman smiled. "Of course, sweetie! Come inside and let me brush your hair first, though." "Aaaawww!" she pouted, but followed Edna inside. She sat patiently as her grandmother carefully combed through the black curls and tied the muddy shoelaces. "Are we ready now?" Echo said, jumping up the moment Edna set the hairbrush down. "We're ready now," the woman said, looking at the little girl. Echo squealed for glee and rushed to the door. The two were walking, hand in hand, toward the Building. That was the only name they had for the dingy shack toward the edge of the settlement. Shadow Brook was in the place of a rare magical anomaly: a natural Muggle-protection. One minute you were in a bar in the heart of San Francisco, the next you were standing in the middle of an endless desert. No one could enter except wizards and witches. The community had built a door that led to the bar, making it easier to find exactly where you needed to go to enter back into the real world. The small town was on its way. Echo was bouncing up and down on the way through the streets. News took a while to make its way here, and the town was still abuzz with rumours, worries, and questions. Had Harry Potter really been the chosen one? Was You-Know-Who truly dead, or would he come back again? Was it safe to return home? Did we even want to return home? The small child remained oblivious to the tense feeling that hung through the town. This was her first time going into the Muggle world. It was an exciting time for her- one she'd been looking forward to for a long time. It wasn't long until the two witches were walking through the crowded streets of San Francisco, the girl smiling and pointing at every colourful shop design. They were about to investigate a very nice-looking ice cream shop when it attacked. Edna didn't see it coming at all- it was like it was invisible to her. Echo, however, saw it immediately and screamed. Too late, though- it had attacked her. Someone cried her name, but she couldn't hear who- she was too busy screaming her own lungs out. Flashes of red and green lit the air. Magic, she thought wildly as something thrashed her about. She needed magic. Magic could do anything. There was another shriek and the lights stopped. "Grandma!" Echo shouted as the beast dropped her harshly on the ground and went after the older woman. Her maple-wood wand had dropped to the floor and rolled in Echo's direction. Her chubby fingers grasped the stick and she began to shout random spells that she had heard around Shadow Brook. "LUMOS! EXPELLIARMUS! ALOHOMORA! REPARO!" She wasn't sure what the words meant, or if they were having any effect on the monster. She was sobbing, shouting, anything that came to mind. "STUPEFY!" A blast of red from the wand, and the monster lay still. "Echo," came a small voice from the other side of the room. "Grandma!" Echo shouted, realising that she had used the wand- something she was never supposed to do. "Grandma, I'm sorry!" she cried. "It's okay, darling," came the small voice again. Echo had never heard the woman sound so weak. They were both broken and bloody, but Echo could hardly feel it. "Can you give me the wand?" The small girl, tears falling down her cheeks, handed the dark wand to her grandmother. Edna was in deep pain, and her face showed it. "Echo, you need to move out of the way. I never, EVER want to hear you use this spell, okay? NEVER." Such a weak voice that could hold so much power... Echo nodded and scampered out of the way of the beast. "AVADA KEDAVRA!" Edna said firmly, and the beast dissolved into dust. Six months later Edna sat in her wheelchair, her wounds still aching from the attack. Echo lay asleep in her bed. Mr. Eastwood knocked on the door. "Come in," called the older woman, wheeling herself to the door. Mr. Eastwood, the voted leader of Shadow Brook, and what he called the "New Order," was a tall, thin man with greying-black hair. He greeted Edna with a smile. "Please," she said, "Have a seat. Echo's asleep." He sat down across from her at the table. "It's nice to see you and young Echo are... recovering." She smiled weakly. "Thank you." Supplies took too long to get here- by the time the potion supplies had arrived, her legs-which had been shattered by the strange beast- had healed themselves the wrong way. She was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life. She would never recover. "I understand the usage of magic outside of Shadow Brook was necessary, and I'm not here to punish you for it," he said kindly. She nodded. "But, I do believe that some discussion is in order." Again, she nodded. He took a deep breath. "Well... I think we would both feel better if Echo would be able to defend herself in the Muggle world, in case such an... accident happens again." "Echo isn't going back out there," Edna said sternly. "Not for a long while." "Edna," he implored, "please. You can't walk- how do you expect do go out there and do all of your errands? I was proposing something that could improve the lives of all the children living here- a school." It was then when Bitterblue Academy for Young Witches and Wizards was born. Many weeks later, the construction plans had been set. Mr. Eastwood had returned to the Sterling residence, to discuss Echo once more. "I don't believe the creature's attack was by mere chance," he proposed. "Magical creatures don't just go wandering the streets of San Francisco- and besides, I don't believe there are any in the Americas." He paused at the pained expression on the woman's face. "Edna, do you think someone could possibly be trying to hurt- or even kill- the child?" She shook her head. "Echo is six years old, she can hardly hold a wand yet. For you to tell me someone magical, in a place where there are no magical people, is trying to kill her, then you must be crazier than a bedbug." "Well I was thinking this over not too long ago, and I was wondering..." his voice trailed off in thought. "Wondering..." Edna prompted, an eyebrow raised skeptically. "Wondering if it had anything to do with her father." Edna shook her head sharply. "Her parents were great people, Mr. Eastwood, killed by unfortunate circumstance and grief. If that's why you're here-" "No! Heavens, no! I was simply suggesting the fact that she may... resemble her father-" "You know as well as I do that she resembles neither of her parents. She's a unique child." "That wasn't what I was implying, actually." Edna's eyes narrowed. "Mary and her husband were very happily married, surely you can assume so after she killed herself for him." He put his hands up in surrender. "I'm just putting the idea out in the open," he said. "I'm only trying to get to the bottom of this, Edna, surely you can respect that." Over the years, Echo learned to defend herself. She learned to kill monsters and only monsters, and she could do it within a heartbeat if she needed to. She learned memory charms, so no one thought anything was out of the ordinary. She gained the favour of Mr. Eastwood, who trusts her to use magic whenever needed, both to aid her grandmother and to protect herself. Only Echo herself knows about the nightmares. The headaches. The time she was once pushed into a swimming pool- and emerged dry.