Prelude

From below the surface, everything is peaceful. Really. Everyone keeps telling you how a duck looks peaceful when floating on a lake but that the feet are wiggling and making wave after wave. I can tell you, underwater? Things can be peaceful. I remember that. I remember being tied to a rock and looking up, watching as the moon started to fade. Then, it was all like a flash of light and the next thing I knew, I was on the surface, breathing air, looking scared... the town's people lying down, sleeping around the lake. My grandmother was holding me and my aunt kept saying "obliviate, obliviate" as she aimed her wand to people.

I was ten years old.

The next day, I started getting letters, all from different schools, all of them claiming I had a spot reserved at them. Boarding schools. Brasil, the US, Africa... Norway... France... and yes, the UK. My aunt was biting on her nails as my grandmother suggested they talked to a Headmaster... whatever that was. They talked during the night, when they thought I was sleeping, but to be honest, I've never been a fan of sleep. It brings me nightmares of a life I don't know if it's mine or someone else's. I never associated them to my previous life, the one before the mountains and the bears and the lake. I never associated it with myself, because it wasn't me holding that chalice, it wasn't me saying those things. So I listened, and wondered what Hogwarts was, who these people they mentioned were... and then, when they decided to move, I was excited and afraid.

To this day, I still don't know why I never traveled by train.