Greetings Readers! I'm Ro, one of the authors of this Harry Potter story.

And I'm Erin, Ro's crazier half.

That's...actually kinda accurate, but we tend to switch back and forth between who's crazier.

True. Either way, we're not here to waste your time with our ranting.

Erin's right. We're here to explain that we share the responsibility of writing this story so chapters will be slightly different styles because of this.

Nothing too drastic. We do edit each other's parts so our separate styles have melded together a bit. It shouldn't be too hard to follow. Right Ro?

I don't think it would be, but just in case it is, please tell us in the comment section!

Oh! Speaking of the comments section, Ro, do you want to tackle our comment policy?

Sure! Basically, we love to read your comments, good and bad. We just have a few rules when it comes to commenting. 1) Please be courteous to us and to others in the comment section. This is our story that we are sharing with you. We take your comments into consideration for future chapters, but please don't be angry if we don't do everything that you want. This is our story after all. Your comments are a compliment to us but aren't law. 2) Please keep the language in the comments section as PG-13 as possible. Crude language really isn't needed to express your thoughts of our story. We appreciate your thoughts and want to read them so make it easier for us by limiting the explicative we have to sift through before we find your point. 3) Have fun in the comment section. We will be reading and giving shout outs to our favorite comments so feel free to come up with theories or suggestions. We appreciate all comments, especially criticism that will help us write better. Thanks everyone!

One last thing. We don't own the Harry Potter universe. We only own our OCs and the unique plot nuances that occur in our rendition of J.K. Rowling's amazing story. Enjoy!

Chapter 1: Family Legacy

Kylie Bennett sits cross-legged on the lacy cushioned window seat in her room, unable to sleep. Propping her head up lazily on her little elbows, she stares through the glass at the full moon bathing the dark streets below in a silvery glow and thinks that it looks quite different tonight than it usually does. It's shiner, brighter somehow, as if it is announcing that something huge is about to happen.

And maybe it is, because tomorrow is Kylie's 11th birthday, and she, as all young wizards and witches her age, knows it signals the arrival of her long-awaited acceptance letter to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Being from a pureblood family, Kylie feels especially anxious to receive it. After all, nearly all of her relatives had gotten accepted and had recounted the story of their 11th birthdays to her so many times that she became sick of hearing it.

"Oh, it was simply the most joyous day of my entire life!" her starry-eyed aunt had crooned, clapping her hands together in sheer giddiness.

"You'll just be the best witch the Bennett family has ever seen, kiddo, I'm sure of it." Her kind grandfather expresses this thought on multiple occasions, making the pressure to get her letter that much greater.

"Turning eleven? I hope you know that you're just the luckiest girl in the world right now. Hogwarts will be the best experience of your life, and you had better appreciate it. You'll never get those days back." Her slightly grumpy grandmother had wistfully said to her just yesterday, and Kylie hadn't been quite sure how to respond.

Mostly she just wanted to scream, or throw something, or clap her hands permanently over her ears so she would never have to hear another comment about letters and Hogwarts and owls and best day evers. Because if her overzealous relatives were right in what they said, getting in to Hogwarts was all that really mattered in life. It would mean that her whole existence had been leading up to one day, one moment in time. And that moment could be tomorrow. Kylie wasn't entirely sure that she could handle that kind of pressure. She squeezes her stuffed snowy owl Matilda tightly, as if trying to siphon some comfort from its plush, fluffy body. Maybe tomorrow a real owl would soar through the sky with the crisp white envelope clenched safely in in its beak and, who knows, maybe it would be the best day of her life.

Unless of course, the letter didn't come. That might mean that the owl got detoured somewhere and she'd have to wait until later in the summer. Due to her impatient nature, Kylie wasn't sure if she could handle that. Worse still would be if it never did come. The only way that could happen was if she were a Squib, a person from a wizarding family with no magical abilities. Maybe that's what she was, though. A talentless Squib without a scrap of magic inside her. The thought strikes her with sudden panic, and she grasps Matilda tighter, shaking her head to ward off the unwelcome thought. She was being ridiculous. After all, she had already done some magic in her life; although they were accidents and helped literally no one.

For example, once she was super angry at her mother for not letting her go to her friend's party and shattered an entire shelf's worth of bottles of Essence of Dittany which she used in her job as an herbologist. All she even did was look at the bottles! That had left her and her family stepping on stray glass shards for weeks.

And then there was the time when she was so excited about all the chocolate her brother Ian had brought home for her from his trip to Hogsmeade, she made the candy literally explode in his face. Kylie giggles a little at the memory, picturing the giant gobs of chocolate streaming down his stunned face. She'd also made a paper airplane she had found lying in her backyard actually fly away about a week ago, but she'd never done anything really useful or special. That had to wait.

Kylie lets out a long, exasperated groan at the thought, rising from her perch by the window. She didn't want to wait any longer! The way this night was going, morning would never come! And sleep at this point was next to impossible. She needed something… one of her mum's herbal remedies, maybe? No, no, she didn't want to wake her, and she didn't know if they would even help when she was this excited. She casts a nervous glance back at the window, at the dark, abandoned streets below and gets a sudden impulse to pack a bag, sprint as fast as she could to King's Cross Station, jump on the train to Hogwarts and storm up to Dumbledore's office, demanding to know if she'd been accepted. She grins, imagining the look on the Headmaster's face if she were to pull such a stunt. Tempting, but no.

What she really needed was a book, one of her brother's. Ian had all sorts of textbooks from Hogwarts because he was going to be a Fourth Year this September. Every once in awhile, Kylie would sneak into his room and take one, unbearably curious to see what was inside. She'd only made it a page into Bathilda Bagshot's A History of Magic, but she absolutely loved Newt Scamander's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Reading has always helped her sleep before, and she didn't see why it should fail now. It was settled. That's what she would take. But she had to be super quiet.

Resolving herself to the task at hand, Kylie lightly crosses her carpeted bedroom floor to her door, cringing at the obnoxious creaking sound it makes when it opens. Neither of her parents have bothered to fix it yet, and Kylie wonders sometimes if that was on purpose, like to keep her from sneaking out. She rolls her eyes at the thought. As if she would ever do a thing like that! Anyway, they'd never hear it. Their house is much too big for that and her parents are sound sleepers.

Since she is the only one who has a bedroom downstairs she has to climb the long spiral staircase to get to her brother's wing. As she tiptoes as quietly as she can up the marble steps, she thinks of the rare occasions when friends come to visit and their shocked faces once they get a look at her house. One of two things always happen. They either squeal in delight at how big and grand it is, or they look sheepishly down at their feet, like they shouldn't be friends with someone that had much money. Kylie has always hated that, and it makes her kind of hesitant to make friends too quickly. But it wasn't because she was stuck up!

Sure, her dad has a really good job as a Healer at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, but that doesn't mean he's any different from anybody else. He has always treated everybody he meets with kindness; he never acted like he was better than any other wizard. He doesn't even own a house elf which most wealthy wizards wouldn't dare go without. No, he was certainly not a snob.

And neither was she. Kylie glances up at gilded framed portraits of her ancestors that grace the walls surrounding the stairs. All of their eyes slowly lock on her, as if they know she's about to steal, um, borrow something from Ian.

"Going somewhere, missy?" A warbling, judgmental voice comes from the bronze-framed portrait to the right of Kylie, framing a distant ancestor Kylie thinks is an aunt. She jumps a little at the sound but ignores her. She was always like this. Even though Kylie has asked for her portrait to be removed countless times, she was never permitted. Family history holds too high of an importance in pureblood families. Everyone had to stay. Even the obnoxious, snobby ones.

Looking into her great-grandma's sky blue eyes from the portrait directly above her, she wonders if she were ever stuck up. Probably not, her mum speaks too highly of her. But some people still dislike her family and Kylie can't help but wonder why. Maybe nobody at Hogwarts would want to be her friend.

Kylie becomes so lost in these turbulent thoughts that she barely realizes when she reaches the door to Ian's room. She cups her ear around the door, pushing strands of her brown hair out of the way. He's asleep; she can hear him snoring through the door. Ugh, why was he always so loud?! She grabs the knob as silently as she can and opens the door just a crack, not wanting to let too much light into his room. For all his snoring, Ian is actually kind of a light sleeper. Thankfully, she's tiny for her age and just can squeeze through the miniscule opening. Tiptoeing carefully across the carpet, Kylie gropes blindly along the wall until she finds the cool cedar wood of her brother's bookcase. She grins when her eyes alight on the shiny lettering of Fantastic Beasts shining through the darkness and pulls it from the shelf in one smooth motion.

She sees the dim outline of her brother across the room, lying on his stomach with his arms outstretched and snoring away like there was no tomorrow and Kylie smiles, quite pleased with herself. Clutching the book to her chest, she starts her silent journey back to the door, certain Ian would never suspect a thing. And she would have left right then and there had she not seen something that completely captivates her attention. Her brother's beechwood wand lying diagonally on top of his bookcase. It looks quite lonesome just sitting there like it was begging for someone to touch it. Ian has never let her hold it before, but she's always wondered what it would be like. And school supply shopping felt like centuries away. It wouldn't hurt to just touch it, right? Before she can stop herself, Kylie reaches down and grasps her fingers around the wooden wand, instantly loving the feel of it in her hands, cool and smooth. How much better would it feel if she tried a spell, just one… Her mind races through the array of incantations she has heard Ian tell her about… what was the one that made things levitate? She glances down at the feather quill sitting on top of the shelf and her mouth opens without her giving it permission.

"Wingardium…"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Ian's voice shatters the silence, and Kylie screams and drops both his wand and the book, wincing as it falls directly on her toes. She turns around, whimpering a little and stares at her brother, who has at some point stopped his snoring and is now shining a lantern beam directly onto her face. His short brown hair is mussed from sleep, his glasses are askew and he looks… absolutely furious. Kylie imagines she looks exactly like a guilty puppy.

"Um, I.."

"That's my wand! Why are you in here?! Were you trying to do magic?! You know you can get expelled if you do magic outside of school, right! You could get me expelled!" His words come out in a frantic rush, and he stares her down, demanding an explanation.

"I…I didn't think.."

"Yeah, that's the problem, Kylie." Ian interrupts, running a hand through his hair. "You don't… you never think!" The harshness of her brother's words startles Kylie, and her eyes start to well with tears against her will. Ian's face softens.

"Look…Kylie.. I'm sorry. I didn't mean.." He lets out a heavy sigh and rubs his eyes tiredly, knocking his glasses even more askew. "You just shocked me is all. Why were you trying to do magic?"

"I just… wanted to see if I could." Kylie whispers, her voice trailing off. She bites her lip, wondering if she should express her fear to him. The words come tumbling out. "Ian, what if I don't get my letter? What if I'm a Squib? It'll be just awful!"

Ian laughs as if he can't believe her words and sits up further on his bed. "Kylie, you're not a Squib. Remember the chocolate incident?"

"Well, yeah, but.."

"You're not a Squib, I promise. You'll get your letter… as long as you don't do something stupid and get expelled before you get there. Or they'll notice that you're good at sneaking around and put you in Slytherin."

Just hearing the word makes Kylie cringe. Ian, who had been sorted into Gryffindor, always comes home with horror stories about the witches and wizards in Slytherin house.

"They better not." She says bitterly.

"And you'd better get out of my room before you wake Mum and Dad."

"I'm going, I'm going." Suddenly feeling very tired, Kylie starts to make her way to Ian's door, dodging piles of dirty clothes and the odd candy wrapper along the way .

"Hey, Kylie?" Ian says as she opens the door to leave.

"Yeah?"

"You'll get your letter."

She smiles a little. "If I can stay out of trouble for the next couple of hours." Kylie then closes the door, leaving Ian and his copy of Fantastic Beasts behind her.

Rays of intrusive sunlight stream through Kylie's bedroom window, and she groans and rolls over to go back to sleep, trying to bury herself under the pillowy mounds of covers. Then it hits her all at once. Hogwarts! Her letter! How long has she slept? Leaping out of bed faster than she thought was possible, Kylie throws on a pair of old jeans that fray softly around the ankles and doesn't bother to change out of the shirt she'd slept in, an oversized purple thing advertising an all-witch band called The Weird Sisters. She pushes her tangled brown waves out of her eyes and sprints in her sock feet to her door. Taking the marble steps two at a time, and nearly tripping halfway down, she finally arrives in the dining area, where her Dad and Ian are already sitting down at the long ornately carved wooden table to have breakfast while her mother is getting ready for work in front of the full length mirror in the foyer.

"It was just the worst case of Vanishing Sickness I've ever witnessed, Rebecca!" Kylie's dad exclaims from his table, between large mouthfuls of breakfast. "By the time my colleagues and I had whipped up an appropriate remedy, all that remained of poor Jimmy was his head and one of his hands. Everything else.. gone!" He makes a dramatic gesture across the rest of his body.

Kylie rolls her eyes as she leans against the stair railing on the last step. Of course her dad was discussing one of the grotesque incidents from the hospital. He enjoyed his work way too much sometimes. At least it wasn't something super gross this time. She had no desire to hear about the properties of infected dragon pox, especially on her birthday.

Her mum grimaces in reply as she gathers her fine, ebony brown hair into a tight bun at the top of her head. Ian, however, grins like it's the best piece of news he's heard in a while.

"Weird! So were you able to get the rest of him back, or did you just have to bring him out in two pieces. Like you took the head and then told another Healer to "give you a hand?" Ian raises his voice at the end of his sentence and dissolves into a fit of laughter at his own joke. Kylie can't help but let out a groan at the terrible pun.

"Ian, this is not a laughing matter... well, look who finally decided to get up?!" Her dad turns his head at the sound of exasperation coming from his daughter, who has now made her way to stand beside the table.

She gives an awkward smile in reply and glances over to where bacon is sizzling in a pan on the stove and a wooden spoon is stirring a pot of some sort of healthy substance that her parents enjoy. She figures that's what comes from having an Herbologist for a Mother and a Healer for a father. They were a bit too health-conscious in Kylie's opinion. But sure enough, Pygmy Puffs, the sugary cereal she requests every year, is sitting on top of her place at the table, a shiny silver bow gracing the top with curly ribbons tumbling down the sides. She moves to sit down at her seat at the head of the table but not before her mum rushes over from the foyer to envelop her in a stifling hug.

"How's the birthday girl this morning?" She asks, cheeriness gushing from her voice.

"Is my letter here?" Kylie mumbles into her shirt as mother and daughter disentangle from the hug. She gazes up at her mum's sparkling blue eyes, awaiting an answer. Instead, her mother shakes her head in mock disbelief.

"That's all you care about, huh? We raised you for 11 years, put a roof over your head and gave you clothes and all the food you could ever want.." She pauses as Kylie gives her a suspicious glance.. "well, except for sweets, of course...and you just want a little letter. Did you hear that, Bruce?"

"I heard." Her father replies through a mouthful of the oatmealish substance in his bowl, and looks up from his copy of The Daily Prophet, a teasing expression dancing in his emerald-colored eyes. His short, graying hair sticking out in random directions from his head combined with his St. Mungo's lab coat gives him the appearance of the Muggle version of a mad scientist.

"I don't know. Should we give it to her?" He shrugs at both Ian and her mum before then extracting a large white envelope from under the table and twirling it temptingly around in his hands. Kylie's heart leaps violently in her chest. "She overslept, and well, the early bird catches the worm." Her father adds with a playful grin.

Kylie grimaces. Why do parents always act super weird on birthdays, she wonders to herself. It's like they contract this weird disease that makes them super happy and talk mainly in clichés.

"Maybe she just had a hard time sleeping last night." Ian interjects as he stuffs a whole piece of bacon into his mouth. "Too busy pretending to be a Niffler, right Kylie?" He smirks at her.

Kylie's stomach does a backflip. He had just compared her to an animal known for sneaking around stealing valuables. Of course her parents were going to ask what Ian meant! She would be in so much trouble!

Much to her relief, her father just raises his eyebrows at Ian, a confused look passing over his face, and then shrugs, probably just deciding that his son was super weird, and there was nothing that could be done for him.

"Well…. I guess it couldn't hurt." A millisecond is probably all the time that passes between Kylie's father holding out the envelope to her, and Kylie snatching eagerly it from his grip.

Her dad says something, and Ian laughs heartily in reply, but Kylie doesn't catch what it is. She is too busy running her fingers lightly over the inscription on the front of the envelope as if it were something far too beautiful to tear open and ruin.

Ms. Kylie Bennett

The Bedroom on the Lower Left Wing

48 Willowbend Way

Liverpool, England

Her shaking hands slide under the thick Hogwarts seal affixed to the envelope and she opens the letter, finally reading the words she has longed to read her whole life.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,

Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Ms. K. Bennett,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

She slides into her chair, not quite comprehending the words. She had made it. She really was a witch! Now all she had to do was stop sneaking around so she wouldn't be put in Slytherin.

Favorite and comment at your leisure!

Thank you for reading! Have a good day!

The next chapter should be out soon. What was the plan for updates again Erin?

Weekly, Ro. We'll do our best to update weekly. Thanks for your patience!

See you next week!