Dean Thomas, sixteen year old lad, was shoveling snow with his little brother Nat. Nat's hands were red and stiff with cold, and they felt like they were stuck to the shovel; that if anyone took the shovel away from him, the skin on his palms would rip

"Why can't you just magic the snow away?" complained Nat, "What's the point of having a magician in the house if you won't do magic?"

"You don't say 'magician', you're supposed to say 'wizard', and I am not allowed to do magic until I'm seventeen. You know that already, so stop complaining." Said Dean, "and not only that, I am never allowed to do magic in front of a Muggle, and you are a Muggle."

Dean enjoyed teasing his younger brothers and sisters. Particularly Nat who was six years his junior. ever since he started at Hogwarts, five years ago, he became a phenomena between his brothers and sisters.

Dean Tomas was a very famous actor in the Muggle world, and so were his siblings. Both his mother and stepfather worked in an independent film production that became so famous for its excellent films, it was bigger than Hollywood.

When Dean was only two years old, his stepfather (who was just recently wed to his mother) needed an actor for one of the movies he was producing at the time, and Dean fit the requirements for that child actor.

Five years later, Dean was the number one child actor in the world. He already stared in thirty different movies, and was the only child pop star who's albums were on the number one selling list every time they got released.

By the time Dean was eleven years old, there wasn't a child in the universe who didn't know his name, and half of mankind was able to name every movie he stared in, and sing every song he produced.

Dean, himself, was a spoiled brat of a child who has never heard the word 'no'. He was accustomed to people jumping to his every request; every whim. Everyone gave him everything he wanted, and more. He wanted a bike, he got a car. He wanted a trip to the zoo, he was taken to the safari. He wanted to go to the amusement park, they took him to Disneyland. Dean once read a book about a boy who built himself a club-house by the lake, and wanted one too, his publisher bought him a mansion in Martha's Vineyard.

His parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents adored him. His brothers and sisters were awed by him.

When the time came for dean to decide which secondary school he was going to attend, he had a tantrum for five days just because his mother suggested that he go to a lower profile school.

And then came the letter from Hogwarts

At first, when it came in the regular mail, it was discarded together with all of his fan mail. The next day, the head of the team who managed their mail was shown three of the same envelops. He tossed them all to the trash can, thinking how persistent some fans were with their mail. The day after that, the mail-handeling team was shocked that no more than one hundred envelops appeared to be from the same sender. Of-course, compared to the regular mail he received daily, this was no more than an extra garbage bag among a thousand others, and, again, the letters were discarded.

The next day, Dean had a visitor. It was the most stern-looking woman he ever saw, who was dressed in a strange hat and a robe, which, on her person, looked severe rather than facetious.

The visitor handed him the letter, and explained all about Hogwarts School of Wichcraft and Wizardry, and the world of magic. A world, he quickly learned, that knew nothing of the famous Dean Thomas. A world where he would be just another kid.

It took his mother a whole day to convince him that maybe it would be a good thing for him to start over. Maybe there were things he never learned, growing up as a celebrity. Wouldn't he like to try living a normal life, just for one year? If he hated it, he could always write, and his parents would come running to his rescue.

When Dean finally agreed, Professor McGonagall - as the stern looking woman introduced herself to be - told them that they were not allowed to tell anyone about Hogwarts, the magical world was suppsed to remain a secret from the Muggles. His parents had to tell the press that Dean needed a break from all the fame and was going to a regular secondary school somewhere far. It was very hard to convince most of the press that Dean Thomas can possibly find anywhere that he wasn't famous, but if that was the only explination his parents could give, they just had to accept it.