I woke up and yawned. Just another day in the wonderful life of me, Maximum Ride. Lovely.

"Hey, sis," said a cheerful voice. One of father's people my age in a black hood came into my awesomely awesome black and red room. One of my 'brothers'. "Your father wishes to speak with you this morning after you come down. He asks you to please not be late." I nodded, trying to stifle another yawn, and lightly kicked Grey off of me. Grey is my wolf. He fell off the bed and landed on Winter, my husky dog. She whined, annoyed from being woken up so rudely, and swatted at him.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, Travers, bro," I muttered. He's not really my brother. It's just that everyone that is under dad's power and is around my age is a brother or sister to me. Most of them, however, I've never even spoken to before. "Tell him I'll be there." Kick ass attitude, quick-as-lightning tongue, extreme mutation strength, and all. On the floor, Grey and Winter were still wrestling. It was fine by me; they loved each other too much to cause much damage. Their unborn children was enough proof.

I bet you're wondering just who I am really. Guess what? You're in luck. I'll tell you.

I am Maximum Ride-Riddle. Max for short. They let me name myself but they gave me the last name that they give all their experiments. More on the mysterious 'they' later. I am a part bird, part purebred wizard mutant who was given to Lord Voldemort (a.k.a. dad) as a gift from the company that made me all out of whack, Itex, a.k.a. 'they'. (Not the animal, ibex, even if they do sound mightily alike.) For me, life's good. I can wield magic better than most witches since I started my training early (thank you, dad) and I can fly. Not by broomsticks like those poor flat-backed schmucks do. With my huge harpy eagle-like wings. More on that later. I'm also home schooled. It's actually pretty boring unless dad teaches since all the other teachers drone on and on and on about crap that I could really care less about. But when dad teaches, it's pretty darn awesome if I do say so myself. Luckily, that's most of the time. We do hands on stuff and actually get to test out spells and potions. Every now and then, we invent spells. I won't tell you what happens during those lessons, but let's just say that with the right words, pigs can fly.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm the only bird kid the world has ever (not) known. Not like the world knows any anyways.

Either way, I showered, got dressed in baggy jeans that I've colored on with Sharpies and ripped a few times, light blue tank top, black hoodie, a few metal chain bracelets, and dragon claw necklace, and headed downstairs to the dining room. Yeah, I did get some pretty strange looks from the snooty purebloods around me all of whom were decked out with dark robes with elaborate designs, but this was my house and if they didn't like it, they could get out. Besides, dad didn't seem to care what I wore around the house as long as I wore my robes in public. Well, he'd probably be a bit concerned if I came down in a bikini, but I don't exactly own one because of the wings protruding out of my back. Oh yeah, the wings…

I did say I was part bird, part human right? Yes? Okay, good. Well, because of that mutation, (which leaves me 98% human, 2% bird, and attitude all over,) I've got a fourteen foot wingspan and the weird hollow bones along with the weird feeling to need to migrate every winter. Good thing this place has got a heater (along with a whole load of AC in the summer) or else I'd never survive.

"Good morning, Dad," I said with a grin, sitting down and grabbing a bunch of bacon and a small glass vial of a thick amber liquid. Jeez, chill. It's not poison. At least, it's not unless you're allergic to maple syrup. My dad, Lord Voldemort, looked up from the Daily Prophet he was reading and smiled at me.

"Good morning, Max. I've got some good news for you." I smiled, feeling giddy. Unlike a lot of parents I've read about, when dad says he's got good news, he means it, he's got good news. And it's never the small stuff like 'I'm sending you to camp,' it's more like 'I'm getting you a Siberian husky and a male wolf for your birthday to guard your room,' or 'I'm getting you a million Galleon necklace for your birthday that has been once in the ownership of Salzar Slytherin.' I still have that necklace. It's a flat gold egg with a green 'S' on one side that looks like a snake and it's got emeralds all over it. The only problem is that it doesn't match my outfits because everyone in the mansion knows that you do NOT mix Slytherin and Gryphondor colors together in an outfit ensemble.

"Ooh, really?" I asked. "Does this mean that I won't be homeschooled anymore?" I've asked this pretty much every single time he says that he's got good news for me. He's bound to crack at some point.

"As a matter of fact, Max, yes. You will be entering your fourth year." I gawked, the bit of waffle I was chewing dropping out of my mouth.

"You're joking, right?"

He shook his pearly white head. Did you know that when he waxes it, it looks like one heck of a round shiny mirror. "No, Max. You're really going to go to an actual school."

"It's not going to be some little ladies academy, right?" I clarified. "I'd love to go to a regular magical school, but one of those ladies academies where everyone acts all prim and proper, well, that'd be Hell."

"Yes, I would agree. That would be Hell." He chuckled. That's another thing I love about dad. He doesn't care if I swear. "No, you'll be going to my old school of magic, Hogwarts. It's where all the Death Eaters send their children and it's high time you got sent on a mission."

"A mission?" I squealed excitedly. I'd been waiting my entire life to go on one for my dad. Those mini-missions in training just weren't cutting it.

"Yes, Max, a mission. Your first one, I believe." I nodded eagerly. "Well, when you go to Hogwarts, you must get into Slytherin. Shouldn't be too hard, a cunning girl like you." I beamed at his compliment. It wasn't often that dad gave them. "Then you must find allies. Strong, willing, sly, and cunning; preferably in Slytherin. They will become possible future Death Eaters that will be under your control. Also, I have heard reports from old Mr. Malfoy, saying that his son has seen people flying through the air without broom and something like…wings." My jaw might as well have hit the floor.

"You mean there are more like me?" I asked, fluttering out my wings. They were huge, roughly fourteen feet of awesomeness. He nodded.

"If young Mr. Malfoy is telling the truth, then there is a slim possibility. I defiantly want those on our side. Unless, of course, you'd rather your cousins by bird genes be killed by us or kill us…" I shook my head desperately. "Very good then, Max."

"When do I get to start?" I asked, breakfast forgotten. What a pity. The cook rarely ever made crème brulée for breakfast.

"When school starts, of course, Max. You'll first have to make your acquaintance with young Mr. Malfoy–"

"–whose real name is not young Mr. Malfoy, I'm sure."

"His name is Lucius; he is one of your new brothers and he's a pureblood, very much like you would have been, had you not been injected with the bird DNA. I must say that that two percent is rather beneficial."

"I know; saves a whole lot of money when it comes to buying broomsticks." We both grinned about that because we both knew that dad was not a person who was cheep when it came to buying broomsticks. Every time a new broomstick came out, he'd buy it for me. Just because I've got wings doesn't mean I don't have to learn how to fly a broomstick. Imagine if my wings got broken, hurt, or even worse, chopped off! Kind of the reasoning I used on him when I said I wanted to learn how to fly…the manual way. (Well, between you and me, he got a bit pissed because he thought I wanted to learn how to fly a plane. It all smoothed over when I explained that I wanted to learn the way wizards and witches fly.)

"We'll be going, well, more accurately, you'll be going shopping in Diagon alley tomorrow with the Malfoys, who have graciously let you stay under their wing, no pun intended, for the day." Translation: he threatened them until they agreed to not let any harm come to his precious little angel. Really, other than the wings, I am as much of an angel as he is.

After breakfast, I departed to the large stretch of grass in the backyard. Since it's summer, I don't have many classes even if dad sometimes calls me over to tell me about the kills he has done so I can mark it off on the enormous family tree. Since all pureblood and half bloods are related, there is a bunch of line connecting a bunch of people. The not so pureblood people (in other words, muggle born) are just names of people who hang in the middle of a large mass of emptiness on the mural in our, well, mural room. Every time someone dies, I have to mark the person dead as well as explain how they died. It's one of the most annoying jobs ever, but it's not like I can say otherwise. After all, it's dad we're talking about. I have to repay him somehow.

Back to what I was doing before the blab-fest: I wanted to fly. Manually and not-so-manually. And besides, Lucius supposedly loved flying so I might as well kill two birds with one stone. No pun intended. Jeez, what is it with bird expressions?

As I had hoped, Lucius was there flying with his state-of-the-art broomstick. Mine was still better. He looked like an albino; he probably was. On the ground, watching him in awe, was another little albino; a girl. Beside her, a dark curly-haired girl with heavy lidded eyes scowled at them. She was probably jealous. Or disgusted. I guessed the later. Two sisters. My first ones, I believe. It took them all a few minutes to notice me.

"Bella, who's she?" the female albino asked the dark one. She shrugged.

"How would I know, Cissy? Maybe your darling Lucius knows."

"Yeah, I do," he yelled from up high in the sky. "Hello, sister, Max, person, dad told me about you." He grinned at me.

Cissy stepped forward. "I'm Narcissa Black, and this is my sister, Bellatrix," she said softly. I nodded once in understanding.

"I'm supposed to meet Lucius." I turned to him. "Hello Lucius!" And then I left to grab my broom out of the broom closet.

My broom was made out of a deep mahogany wood with rich red cherry wood twigs for the tail. It was a real work of art and I prized over nearly every other object I owned. That is, if you don't include my wings. I took it out to the flying pitch and mounted.

Despite the fact that I had wings attached to my back, I loved flying on a broomstick. It was that sense of pure freedom, but with no work involved. And I wasn't all tired out in the end. I slipped out my wand and muttered the incarnation that would send my broom back to the closet after I jumped off of it. As it headed back, I, in front of a probably shocked group of purebloods, jumped off of it, spread out my wings, and for the first time in so long, really flew.

"We'll need to get your robes fitted, and then we'll get all your books, cauldrons, and ingredients, and then we'll stop for lunch, get some stationary, we can stop by the sweets shop, then we'll get Max a new wand, and then we can go shop for clothes in a muggle mall and then we'll be done!" Lucius looked embarrassed at his mother's performance, but I wasn't complaining.

"You'll have to forgive her. She's still a teenager at heart. Can't stop shopping. It's a good thing we have a nearly bottomless bank account at Gringotts," he whispered to me.

"At least you have a mother," I whispered back to him. He looked at me sympathetically.

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay," I said, giving a noncommittal shrug. "I never had a mom in the first place, so I can't really miss her. I suppose I should be feeling sorrier for you; you have someone to miss later."

"But all the good times rules out how much I'll miss her and how much I really despise her at times." I nodded in understanding.

"We'll be friends; I can tell," I told him with a grin. "We're both shallow and in depth with a hint of kick ass attitude."

He looked at me with fake innocence. "What attitude?" We cracked up. "And besides, Max, you forgot about my amazing cunningness and stealth."

"I bet you've never even stolen so much as a quill!" I said between bursts of laughter.

"Now Lucius, now Max," his mother tsked at us. "We really must be going." We nodded and followed her reluctantly.

I had never been to Diagon alley before this. Generally, I went to muggle shopping malls since they don't really have malls in the wizarding world and they defiantly don't have iPods, skullcandy, converse shoes, or jeans. And they don't have any writing utensils but quills. Thank goodness for colored ink. Diagon alley wasn't like any shopping centre I had ever been to before, but it was still pretty amazing. And Madam Malkins was really nice for someone who I had never come across before in my life.

"All of your robes must be in black. You would imagine that one of these days they'd change that rule," she was saying sadly as she measured me. A minute later, she came back with several sets of robes of my size. They were elegant and soft, but on a closer inspection, not black. "Dark green, dark red, black; what's the difference? It more or less looks the same," she said with a smile. "Just insist that you got into a fight or something and that's why you're bloody and covered in grass stains. That's what my mother told me I should do when she gave me dark colored robes."

"Smart mother," I commented. She smiled, revealing two rows of perfectly white teeth.

"Thanks."

The book shop, admittedly, was not as fun as Madam Malkins, although Lucius was nice enough to give me a quick overview of some of the stranger titled books. Apparently, there was a pretty nice spell to turn someone purple in the book labeled 'Not-so-Colorless: Easy step by step instruction on how to change the color of your house, wand (though not recommended), nose hair (also not recommended), and more!' At the cauldron shop, I picked out a nice cauldron and Mrs. Malfoy got our ingredients. As we started to go to lunch, she suddenly let out a sharp squeal.

"Oh no!" she wailed. "I completely forgot to get you an owl, Max!" and she skittered off. Lucius just shrugged.

"This happens a lot."

"I'm not too surprised. Who could have ever expected a non-dramatic female Death Eater?" a snide voice commented. Lucius and I spun around and saw five people I didn't know. The one with short black hair was speaking. "I see you got rid of Cissy. Who's the bitch you've got there?" I glared.

"You DO NOT call me a bitch!" I screeched and punched his nose. He stumbled backwards, surprised. Then he shot me an easy going grin.

"We could have someone like you on our side. I'm James Potter. This is Sirius Black, my best friend." He pointed to a guy with long black hair. I sniffed disdainfully.

"A blood traitor," muttered Lucius. "Of course he'd be your best friend." James lunged at him, but I shoved him back. Who says a girl can't fight? "Stay away from them, Max. They're bad business."

"Max?" the short blond haired boy asked, laughing. "A girl named Max; what next?" All the others were also laughing.

"Shut up Pettigrew," growled Lucius. "And I wouldn't be laughing if I were you, wolf-boy Lupin. What kind of name is Fang, Fang?"

"A manly one," said the dark, almost gothic guy who also had long black hair.

"Manly my ass," I snorted. "I could kick your manly little butt around 'til next week." He glared at me.

"I hardly doubt it," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Who would have thought the great Max, wait, what's your surname again?"

"Will you stop harassing her?" hissed Lucius in my defense. Thank you, ye old albino.

"Lucius Malfoy! Maximum Ride!" Uh-oh with owl. "I understand that you both like fighting for what's right, but to stoop so low as this? Talking to blood traitors? I expected better of you, Lucius. And Maximum, I don't know how strict your father is with you, but I am pretty sure he would not be too happy if he saw this. You of all people, talking to blood traitors! Unimaginable! You should be glad I won't be reporting this to your father."

"You won't?" I asked meekly.

"What he doesn't know won't hurt him," said Mrs. Malfoy with a black owl on her shoulder that looked more like a crow to me. "I couldn't find an owl that suited your personality so I got you a raven. It's smarter, anyways." Yeah, defiantly not an owl. "Now, how about we leave the presence of these horrid people and have lunch?" Lucius and I both nodded and turned our backs on those jerks.

Later, when we sat down at the Leaky Cauldron to eat, I asked Lucius about the five of them. Apparently, they didn't get along too well.

"Well, they call themselves the Marauders. James is the leader, Sirius is his best friend, Remus is supposedly the 'brain', Peter, well, who knows why he's there? And Fang, well, he's not there because he wants to be, that's for sure. All of them are Gyphondors except for Fang. He's a Slytherin, one of us. As much as we all despise him, he's not a traitor. Mum didn't see him there, most likely, or she wouldn't have said that they were all traitors. He only has to act in front of those blood traitors because it makes his father feel better about his son getting into Slytherin. But underneath it all, he's a Slytherin through and through, that is, if you skim over the fact that most Slytherins have a bone to pick with him. He's adopted. Pretty much all of his family is. The youngest two aren't adopted. They live with Hagrid during the school year since their dad doesn't have the time to deal with them. They're showing Slytherin qualities."

I smirked. "I sure bet that makes dad happy."

"Serves him right. The only time Mr. Ride ever acknowledges his children is when he publically presents them to show how amazing they are."

"Wait, Ride?"

"Yeah, Ride. Their last name is Ride." I gaped at him.

"Luce, my last name is Ride!" He frowned.

"Two things. Luce is a girls' name."

"Well, it's either that or Lucy. Pick one," I shot back.

"Luce. And second, I thought it was Riddle."

"It is; I meant my original last name!" Surely, this was just a coincident.

"There are a lot of people in the world with the last name of Ride," he said soothingly. I sighed.

"Tell me more about the Rides."

Turns out, the Rides were pretty interesting. Fang, the one we had met earlier, was the oldest and was in our year, fourth. He was quiet and lethal, not shy, as some mistakenly thought. Most people thought of him as a dark, unapproachable person with a regal air around him. He was a good Slytherin, sly and crafty. And practically invisible. It seemed like you could never find him unless he wanted to be found. People swore that he disappeared into the shadows. I grinned at that. He was a total badass. No wonder why they hated him.

The second oldest was an albino, Iggy, also in the fourth year. He was blind but it always seemed like he was not. He could rig almost any bomb and was devious. When you looked at him, he seemed like a normal boy with all that innocence that blond angels usually have. Stay around too long and you might have discovered the truth behind that pretty little face while in Heaven.

After him was a dark-skin, dark-haired girl going-into-first-year named Nudge with a love to talk. And when there was talk, there was gossip. She was a great assent in revenge. Apparently, all you had to do was tell her a rumor that you needed to spread and within twenty-four hours, the entire school, and sometimes more, would know. She made Rita Skeeter look like a wannabe. Everyone went to her for the latest gossip when they visited Hagrid. Perfect Slytherin.

Then there was Zephyr, the oldest non-adopted child. He was a blond little eight-year-old angel like child. And he was like Iggy. He could make bombs out of nearly anything and was great at hacking and breaking in. He could pick locks and was the source of most of the chaotic problems in the forest and living with Hagrid only gave him an advantage. Rumor had it that he once set a Gryphondor into the forest, insisting that unicorns exist. (They do, in case you were wondering.) The Gryphondor got stuck there for a week, lost.

The youngest, Angel, was also not adopted. She was a little blond cherub at age six and was lethal in her own ways. According to Luce, she could know what you were thinking from one look at your face. With all this information, the little thing could easily control what many others did to her and her siblings. She had power.

"Wow, they're pretty impressive," I said to Luce, walking out of Toxic with four shopping bags. We had gotten a whole lot of stuff like torn jeans and awesome Dead by April t-shirts. I swear I have all their songs on my iPod.

"I know. I must also mention one thing. You know how you have wings?" I nodded.

"What about them?"

"Everyone's a bit curious about the flying people business at school. I'm guessing your dad already told you about it?" I nodded. "Well, whenever any of us ask them what they think about the flying people, they insist that it must be a hoax because flying people just don't exist according to them. I might be wrong, but I think they're the flying people." Well, jeez, he didn't seem too fly. Goodness, another bird joke.

"They could always just be telling the truth," I countered, but I was curious myself.

Could they be mutants, just like me?

"Bye dad! Love you!" I shouted out the window of the limo that would drive me and all the children of Death Eaters to King's Cross. Mrs. Malfoy, who had asked me to call her mom, was also coming. It made me feel better, knowing that at least one of my 'parent's would be there. Well, dad could hardly show up at King's cross, now could he?

Dad waved to me lovingly. "Remember, you are also on a mission, Max! I love you too!" The other kids seemed to look at me in surprise. They could probably never imagine Lord Voldemort being so…fatherly. Well, he was my father. Mine, all mine.

I turned from the window to talk to Lucius, but he was engrossed in a conversation with Cissy. Bella looked at them in disgust. "Lovebirds," she muttered. Cissy looked at her sister in annoyance and she must have seen me out of the corner of her eyes because she suddenly flickered her eyes over to me. I smiled at her but she glared back with a look of pure hatred before turning back to Luce.

"Um, Bella?" I asked quietly. "Why's Cissy mad at me?" She just rolled her eyes.

"She's being jealous. She heard about how your father sent you with him to go shopping yesterday and how much her darling Lucius loved it. Ever since she found out that she has to be married off to him when she grows up, she been over protective of him. Cissy's probably afraid that he'll elope with some other girl.

I smiled. "Jealous girlfriend much?" Bella smiled back at me and nodded.

"Yeah, jealous girlfriend much."

The rest of the car ride passed without too many problems. Lionel Travers started screaming profanities out the window at some point. Once we got there, we all fought on who would get out first. I won.

"Look, Max, there's the Rides!" said Luce, pointing to a family off in the distance and running there. I ran after him.

"Luce! Wait up!" We got there at the same time, him being totally winded and me with excitement pumping through me.

"Oh, Fang?" asked Luce. "I'm really sorry about the act in Diagon alley. Had to do what I had to do."

Fang smirked. Nope, not too fly at all. Well, a little fly, I'll admit. But not much. "No harm done, brother," he said, lightly punching Luce in the arm. "But it was really convincing. What happened to Narcissa? She looked like, well, not Narcissa. Didn't even act like her normal self. Seemed…braver. A lot braver."

"Fang, that wasn't Narcissa. That was Max. And she didn't mean to sound so threatening either."

"Really? I thought Narcissa was just going in disguise or something." He turned to me. "So, you're Maximum Ride. We have the same last name, you know." I copied his proud stance, his studying glare, his firm tone.

"Yeah, I know. What is it to you?" He just shrugged.

"Nothing. We better get on the Hogwarts Express." He gestured to the gleaming red train. I nodded and followed. Maybe I was just paranoid, but something about him just ticked me off. But we sat together on the train anyways, because of Luce.

His family was a whole lot better than he was. But I had to remember to excuse his actions. After all, he was a Slytherin. This was how he was supposed to be, cold and bitter. Good thing the rest of his family was different.

Angel was the sweetest. She complimented me on my hair and gave me a flower, the sweet thing. "It's a larkspur. Mum had a garden of larkspur before she died. After that, we brought all the little plants out to Hagrid's garden. His dog, also named Fang, loves them." I smirked and looked over at the human Fang.

"So, tell me wizard Fang. What does it feel like to be named after a dog?"

"The dog was named after me, jerk," he said into my invisible mike. I ignored the last part.

When we arrived at Hogwarts, Nudge instantly stopped talking, afraid. It was her first year here but she was a Slytherin shoo-in. So was I.

"I have to go to the boats now, right?" she asked Iggy. He nodded blindly at her.

"Hear you there, Nudge," he said with a smirk. It wasn't like he could say 'See you there,' anyways. She gave him a fleeting smile and left. The rest of us went to the carriages.

"What's pulling them?" I asked, carefully reaching out to stroke one of the scaly horse-like creatures. They were a scabby gray color with wrinkled skin and looked like death. They were beautiful.

"Nothing," said Luce, looking at me weirdly. I had so better not be hallucinating. Fang studied me carefully to see my reaction. "Well, Fang insists that they're being drawn by these things called thestrals that can only be seen by those who have seen someone else die. Iggy, well, he can't see anything. And when it come to these thestral things, I can't see much either." Well, that would make sense why I could see it while Luce couldn't. I had seen countless people die when dad brought me along to see his killing sprees. I had killed some of them myself. But I just kept quiet and got into the carriage.

"You can see them, can't you?" Fang's voice was so soft, I almost didn't hear it. Iggy was talking to Luce, keeping him distracted. I nodded slightly. "So you've seen someone die. Just like me, huh?" I nodded again. "Who did you see die?"

"Someone."

"How many?"

I froze. I couldn't tell him. I couldn't tell anyone, maybe except for Luce who knew who I really was. But not Fang, not him, at least, not now.

"I don't know…" I breathed.

"This year, we have a new student entering fourth year," announced the old man up front. I liked his beard. It was so long and white… "Please welcome Ms. Maximum Ride." I sauntered up to the front and slid into the seat. Nudge was already pronounced a Slytherin along with other little first years with the potential.

"SLYTHERIN!" And apparently, so was I.

A roar of green and silver clad students got up and cheered for me as I walked over to the table. Luce got up and met me halfway, hugging me. Behind him, Cissy was fuming. I gave her an apologetic look, despite the fact that she didn't deserve it.

"We usually evaluate the new Slytherins the night of the Sorting to get an idea of how they benefit us," said Luce quietly to me partway through dinner. Those little house elves sure made good steaks. But it then occurred to me that I wasn't even sure what kind of meat they were.

"This is cow meat, right?" I asked Luce warily. He nodded deafly and kept talking.

"Nudge was already determined by us a long time ago since she came up to the castle often and well, she was a Slytherin shoo-in like shown tonight. Max, you have to explain your talents and connections. Most of the Slytherins would be thrilled to know that you're the daughter of your father. But that's a harmful weapon against you if you have an enemy amongst the Slytherins. It's rare because all the houses are against us so we stick together like a real family, but rivalry can occur over stupid disputes and then house secrets can be spilled to one of the other houses. So you have to tell them something else. I know that you can be pretty convincing, or as some call it, brain washing, when you want to be. I've seen it happen."

I gawked at him. Nobody except dad and I knew about my ability to manipulate! "No I don't!" I hissed.

"I highly doubt it. But forget we ever had the manipulating conversation. You have a mission, Max. I know about it. I'm supposed to help you."

"Dad doesn't trust me, does he?" I asked with a scowl. He just rolled his eyes.

"He doesn't want you to get hurt in the process. Max, you're the only person in the entire mansion he truly loves. Probably the only person in the entire universe he cares for. You're his daughter."

"Thanks for the newsflash, Einstein."

"Back to the original conversation. You need to decide what of your talents you are going to reveal."

"The less, the better," someone behind me whispered. Bella slid into the seat next to me. "The less they know about you, the less they expect you to do dangerous things. Make yourself seem harmless. Like you're a Gryphondor who happened in here by accident."

I scowled. "Who wants to be a Gryphondork? I think I'd die before I even sat down at that table." They smiled.

"Gryphondork?" asked Luce, smirking.

"Yeah," I said. "Dorks throwing them into danger without thinking and die like that." I snapped up fingers. Bella laughed.

"You have a wicked sense of humor." She suddenly perked up. "You could say that you've got ability for insulting and hurting people mentally." Luce smirked. He does that a lot…

"I like the way you think, Bells." Cissy came up behind him and roughly yanked him out of his seat and out of the Great hall.

"Poor Luce," I said to Bella. "He's got a jealous girlfriend that he can't even break up with."

"Yeah. I'll feel worse for him later when you punch him."

"Why would I do that?"

"That's not cow meat, Max. That's dragon meat."

"Ewwwwwww!"

"Year after year, we, current seventh years, take the daunting task of distinguishing the talents, abilities, and use of the newest Slytherins," announced the male seventh year Prefect. I think his name was Alex. I was curled up on one of the many couches scattered around the room. All the little first years Nudge included, sat on the floor, waiting to be evaluated.

"We'll be going alphabetically," said the female seventh year prefect, Lexis. Oh yeah, did I mention that they're twins? No? Well, now I did.

Lexis grabbed the sheet of parchment she had been scribbling names on earlier during the sorting. "Andrea Aarons, please step up and state your talent and why you are a Slytherin." Little Andrea Aarons stood up primly.

"First, let me make it clear that anyone who calls me Andrea might as well pick out the color of their headstone and write their will ahead of time because I will not tolerate it."

"Then what are we to call you, Ms. Aarons?" asked Alex, amused. Matt, Ms. Aarons older brother, rolled his eyes. He was a skilled troublemaker.

"Andre. Not Andy. Not if you want to live. And I can find passageways really easy. It's like they pop up around me."

"We already know about the passageways around Hogwarts," said Lexus. She gave Alex a look that said 'this is going to be a long night.'

"Bet you don't know about the one that leads to the back of the portrait of a lion in the Gryphondor's common room," Andre countered. Matt gawked at her.

"So this is why it took you so long to go to the bathroom?" She shrugged as if it was nothing.

"I was curious about the painting of an archway and checked what was behind it. I didn't expect to tumble into the Gryphondor common room!"

"Very impressive, Andre," Alex said with a twisted smile. "Who's next to display their talents?"

I spent that night learning about the many abilities of my house mates. Or, at least the short ones.

Michelle was an exceptionally damsel-in-distress-like girl with a killer punch. Gordon and his goblin sized brother, ironically named Dragon, could fit into the tiniest spaces. Jack, short for Blackjack, knew how to operate muggle weapons such as gun and bows and arrows. Lilith was this tiny little professional gymnast who managed to get from one side of the common room to the other, just by grasping on to the decorative banners and ceiling beams and swinging to the next firm place where she could grip with either her hands or feet.

"Alia Nudge Ride, I believe we've already evaluated you before?" Nudge nodded.

"Yeah. I'm gossiper extraordinaire," she said primly and twirled off to where Fang and Iggy stood.

"And the last Slytherin of tonight was Maximum Ride," announced Alex. He looked over at me. "Nice name. Your talents?" I gazed over to where Luce and Cissy were locked in some sort of demented embrace. I knew for a fact that Bella had already left in disgust. I was on my own.

"Well, I can spar for one. I can fight physically and mentally. I can get under people's skins. I can move really fast. And, oh yeah, I can manipulate." Alex and Lexus looked over to me in surprise.

"What do you mean, manipulate?" he asked.

"I can make people see things my way. It's like, like, like I can convince people to do things, convince them to think the way I do. I can make anything seem wrong or right in a matter of seconds," I admitted. Lexus beamed.

"Very impressive, Maximum–"

"Max."

"Max. You wouldn't be one of Mr. Daniel Ride's new adoptees, would you?"

"I–what?"

"Never mind. You'll make a great addition to our, well, I'll tell you later." Then, turning to everyone else who had stayed around long enough to hear about me, (which included all the Rides and not including Luce and Cissy,) she bid us all good night.

My room…well…I've been living at the mansion since my time started. The mansion is probably the most amazing house owned by magical people. I shouldn't have expected much from a school dorm room. It was acceptable though. At least Bella was here and Cissy was not.

"Well, Max, you already know that I'm Bella. This is Halo," she pointed to a blond-haired blue-eyed angel-like girl who waved at me, "and this is Contessa." The girl with super curly red hair, bright electric green eyes, and freckles waved at me. "They're twins."

"Wow, you guys don't look like twins." They both grinned the same grin and they both gave me that knowing look.

"Yeah, we get that a lot," they both said in their same understanding voice before simultaneously bursting into the same evil sounding laughter. "So tell us, Max. How do you like Hogwarts? When we first got here, everyone avoided us. They thought we were creepy, always saying things at the same time."

"I can see why..."

"They never gave us a chance," they said with a regreatful sigh. "At least, not until Bella became out friend."

"Do you guys always speak at the same time?"

"One of the reasons why they're in Slytherin is supposedly because they get on people's nerves," Bella explained. Oh…

"Well cut the crap, I'm sleeping 'till the roosters crow," I announced. After my head hit the pillow, I knew of nothing else but my nightmare.

I suppose when you have nightmares, people in them are only in them because you think of them a lot. Well I think that's bullshit because I haven't spared the white coat schmucks at Itex a thought since they've dropped me off with dad and here they are. Thank you, unstylish insane people for invading my thoughts.

It was possibly the strangest nightmare ever. I knew I was a little girl in that dream. I had wings on my back and they were made of soft downy feathers. Judging by the size, I probably could have flown with them, but not far. I was maybe…four? Five? I was in a cage, no way out. In a cage near me, there was another little kid with wings around my age. He had a tan skin color and long black hair and matching eyes. Somehow, I knew he was my friend. So was the blond boy with the blurry blue eyes. He couldn't see, I knew. There was also another friend there, an African American girl. She was much smaller than the rest of us and looked much more terrified.

The white coats entered. They glanced at something quickly and grabbed our cages, loaded them onto a truck, and drove somewhere. The dream faded out.

Suddenly, I was in another truck, my friends still with me. We were driving down a winding lane. Colorful wildflowers grew on both sides. Soon, we were passing the first people I had seen walking on the road. And then other people. And then others. They all looked alike. Black hoods, pale face…it was a road of mirrors. We arrived at a mansion. A very familiar mansion, but my curious five year old mind won over my fourteen year old mind so I really didn't know where it was. A white coat took my cage to the door, rang the bell to signal a delivery, and left.

Then, it got even weirder. It was like I was being flung from my little body and I was now seeing myself through a mystery persons eyes. I looked at myself. No, make that my fourteen year old eyes. The truck screeched off and I heard the first and only distinguishable word in my entire dream so far. The dark haired boy with the panicked, anguished face set in perfect agony as he yelled,

"Max!"

The dream faded again. This time, my three friends were being unloaded on the front steps of a nice looking house, not as big as the previous one, but still rather nice. The servants carried them into the house, up the hidden staircase at the back of the mudroom, and into each of their individual hidden rooms, locked the doors so they wouldn't escape, and left. The dark haired boy crept out of his cage to the window.

"Max," he murmured over and over again. "Where are you, Max?"

Needless to say, I woke up then, feeling very unnerved.

"I feel like I have the world's worst hangover," I hissed to Halo and Contessa. Bella was talking to a boy she liked, Rodolphus Lestrange. They made such a cute couple!

Both girls gave me a sympathetic look. "It's bound to go away soon, Max," they said. "It's not like you had any liquor or alcohol last night." They both paused and then gave me the same horrified look, though Contessa's looked almost mocking. "You didn't have any, right?"

"Yeah, I mean, no, I didn't have any of that stuff last night, why?"

They then spoke the first individual sentences I ever heard out of them. "No reason, Max," said Halo, a little too brightly and let out a nervous laugh. Contessa laughed with her, though it was far from nervous. More like taunting.

"Halo's severely allergic to any types of liquor, Max. Just by being too close to air that's been mixed in with the scent of liquor could really damage her mentally. Not like she can get any more damage to the brain." Halo turned bright pink.

"You can talk now, Contessa, but wait until I find out something about you that makes you as red as your hair!" she said defensively.

"Well, Halo, when you do, you can tell me. Until then, I'll continue teasing you about it," said Contessa with a flip of her bright red locks, sending light everywhere.

"Max," cut in a voice. "Can I talk to you?" I turned around and saw Fang looking a little uncomfortable to be here. Halo and Contessa had enough sense to silently merge into the surrounding students and disappear.

"Okay. Talk."

He looked around nervously. "Not here. Too many people. Come on." He slid behind a door and disappeared into the darkness. I followed him into the empty classroom.

"Hello? Fang?" No answer. "This is not funny, Fang! If you don't think a girl can kick your ass, then you're wrong!" I shouted. A moment later, he appeared in my face.

"Sorry, I forgot that you can't run like I can," he said with a smirk, as if it were something to laugh about.

"It's not funny!" I snapped. "If you've got something, say it. I'm starved!"

"Come on then," he said, yanking my hand. He was running straight for a dark corner, full speed ahead.

"What the Hell–" I squinted at the bright sunlight. "How did you do that?" I demanded. He just smirked at me for a moment. Then an unknown thought occurred to me and before I could stop it, it came out of my mouth. "Shadow traveling." His face dropped.

"How do you know?" he asked.

I shrugged. "It just came to me. So why are you here? Why am I here?"

"You're Maximum Ride, aren't you?" he asked. I sighed.

"Is this really all you have to say to me?" I asked tiredly. "Can I go back now?" He shook his head.

"Have you ever heard of a company called Itex?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Do you know what they do?"

"Yeah," I said, a bit proud to be able to say I did.

"What do they do?"

"They create mutants, duh." Didn't he know I was one of them? No, of course not. But he was cute…as cute as Grey when he fell into the alligator pit…

"How would you know this?"

I cocked my head to the side. "Huh?"

"You wouldn't know this unless you've done major research on the company. I highly doubt that you just came across the name in a newspaper article." Oh shit.

"How do you know about it?" I countered back. He actually flinched. Okay, this was way too close for comfort. "Well, Fang, it's been wonderful spending time with you. Really, it has," I said sarcastically. "But it's been a total waste of time because all you've done is ask me about my name and a company I've heard of once. I'm already tired from lack of sleep and weak because of lack of both food and stamina. So really, Fang, it's been a pleasure talking to you, but I have got to go. Buh-bye." And just for the pleasure of completely taking him by surprise, I dove straight into darkness, doing a bit of shadow traveling myself, a talent I thought only I knew about up till now.

Whatcha' think?