Chapter 1: The Letter

Lee Taylor stepped off the creaky old yellow school bus and breathed in the fresh air. School had ended for summer, and Lee felt a big grin wind its way onto his face as he ran up the driveway of his house.
"I'm home!" Lee shouted, running through the front door and tossing his backpack and schoolbooks into the garbage can with a solid clunk. At the desk in the living room, Lee's godmother, Moira Sebastian, looked up from her work. "Oh Lord. Is it that time already?" she joked, ruffling Lee's short black hair.
"Is Jim home?" Lee ignored Moira's playful jab and leaped back out of ruffling range. "I wanna see the new job."
Moira nodded. "You're about to miss the limo," she replied. "Jim is leaving in a minute and a half."

Lee bolted to his room and frantically pulled on a pair of two-sizes-too-big coveralls and a pair of perfectly fitting steel-toed work boots. Lee clunked down the stairs to the garage to find his godfather Jim already twisting the key in the ignition of a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado.
"Wait for me!" Lee shouted, yanking open the passenger door and diving into the Eldorado's front seat as the V8 rumbled to life.
Beside Lee, his godfather looked over with a grin. Jim Sebastian ran an auto shop in Edmonton City Center, and Moira managed the business from home. When he wasn't at school, ten-year-old Lee hung around the shop, soaking up every bit of his godfather's automotive knowledge and advice like a highly precocious sponge.

"Ready to go, boy?" Jim flexed his fingers on the Cadillac's steering wheel.
Lee nodded, and Jim pulled out onto the driveway and began driving towards the tall buildings barely visible in the heat haze hanging above the long, straight stretch of Albertan highway.
Upstairs, Moira watched the Eldorado's taillights disappear down the drive, humming softly to herself while she picked up the phone and dialed the number of a pizza place. Suddenly, the quiet of the afternoon was broken by the front door's mail slot rattling.

Moira frowned and put down the phone, descending the stairs. When she reached the front door, the sight of a single letter greeted her. Moira picked up the letter and turned it over to read the address.
"Lee Milo Taylor," the address read. "42 Hammer Lane, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada."
In the section for a return address was a crest bearing a bird, a snake, a cat, and what looked like a Native American, surrounded by the words Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Moira's breath caught in her throat, as she recalled Lee's birth parents' stories of the wonderful place where they learned to do the most incredible things. They'd called it magic, but Moira had always been slightly doubtful, until she met Jim Sebastian.

Jim had been living on his parents' farm on the outskirts of Calgary, and was just getting into motorsport when he'd gotten his letter from Ilvermorny. From what he'd told Moira, it was an unbelievable place; a secret school where young children learned magic and became part of the Wizarding World. Jim was a gifted wizard, but he'd dropped out of Ilvermorny when his parents died in a house fire. Since then, Jim had sold the farm, started the auto shop, and used his magic to build and repair the cars he loved so much. He'd never been back to the Wizarding World since his parents died, so Moira often worried that Lee would never get his acceptance letter.
Holding said letter tightly, as though it might disappear at any moment, Moira ran back upstairs and grabbed the phone, all thoughts of food forgotten.

Inside Sebastian Auto, Jim and Lee were busily working through the process of removing the engine and gearbox from the dark blue Cadillac they had arrived at the shop in. Lee's nimble fingers were everywhere, disconnecting wires and sealing fuel lines, while Jim's strong arms worked to increase the tension on the engine crane that held the big V8 block. By this point, both boys were covered in black engine grease and dirt.
Lee swore as he dropped the ten-millimeter spanner down a gap between the car's engine and the exhaust manifold for the third time when it slipped off a bolt.

"Language," Jim smirked as Lee dove underneath the car and retrieved the troublesome lump of metal.
"You're worse than me, Jim," Lee raised an eyebrow. "I heard you cursing like a sailor when you dropped that wrench on your foot last week. Moira would be so mad if she knew what you said."
Jim blushed. "That was different, but I'll let you off the hook this once. Speaking of which, give me a hand here so this block doesn't fall off the crane when we haul it out."
Lee grinned and began loosening the engine from its mounting points.

Suddenly, the shop phone rang. Jim wiped his greasy hand as best he could and plucked the phone from its cradle. "Sebastian Auto; Number One Stud speaking," he said brightly. Within a few seconds, his expression had changed to one of astonishment.
Without saying a word, Jim hung up the phone and turned to Lee.
"We need to go home," he said slowly, as though he couldn't quite believe what was said over the phone.
At the look on Jim's face, Lee pulled the tarp off another project car, an acid green Lotus Seven. Jim hopped in and started the little Seven while Lee stood next to the shop's roller door, ready to pull it down. Jim eased the Seven out onto the auto shop's driveway and Lee locked the door before hopping in the shotgun seat.
Without warning, Jim put the pedal to the floor and dumped the clutch. The little Lotus shot off the mark, tires laying down thick lines of burned rubber all the way down the street.

Author's Notes:
I thought it was time to try something new.
This story is set in the Harry Potter Universe, but it is written from an entirely new perspective, from across the Atlantic.
I'm still in the middle of an inspiration strike, so I'll have a few new chapters up soon, but I wanted to release this preview now to see what people think of it.
This will be an original story with original characters, and it will not cross over into official Harry Potter canon. We're leaving Harry and his friends well alone.
If you like what I've done so far, leave me a review.
Till next chapter,
-the Seacopath