This isn't the life I was born into; my parents once thought I was going to be an engineer, a programmer, or something respectable for my generation. Those hopes my parents had for me died 10 years ago when I got a strange letter from a place called Fire Bird Prepatory School for Magical Youth. It took three representatives and five months of persuasion to convince not only my parents even but me to consider going to this school. They said I was different and could do things beyond anything I had even ever dreamed of. I was skeptical but after seeing what they performed as demonstration I was sold. I begged my parents to let me go and after some long talks about it they agreed. I was then relocated near Phoenix, Arizona and put under the care of Richard and Kelly Bright. They were nice people, never had the opportunity to have kids so signed up to take care of me while I was at school. It took a while to get used to the conditions; I went from living in a mostly plain uneventful Nebraskan neighborhood in a decent sized house to The Sonoran Desert in an apartment complex where all of the occupants were magical people. The conditions were nothing in comparison to the culture shock I received; everything was different and so much more wonderful than anything I had seen.
About a week before school I was taken to a place called Mummy Town: a small magical community that was formed inside of a mountain. It mainly served as a trading center for magical goods and industry. I got my school supplies here which mainly comprised of a few potion supplies and textbooks, but it also contained the most important tool for my wizarding life: my wand. Wands in this region were mostly bought from Charlene Clair's Wand Emporium and were reportedly some of the best wands in America. Charlene was a very nice older witch who had extensive knowledge of not only wandlore but of divination as well. As soon as I walked into the store she pointed to a particular section of the shop and told me she would be over there shortly and to wait there. She told me she foresaw my arrival and while she didn't know what exact wand I would need she knew it had to be over in this section of the store. She started handing me wands and told to flick my wrist near a wall covered with burn marks and cracks. Two of the wands felt just wrong to me and Charlene immediately rejected them as possibilities, then almost as an autonomic response I grabbed a wand from the shelf. Instantaneously I was able to use this wand better than the others and it felt almost like an extension of my arm. The wand had a slight green tint and was longer than most with a curve along the bottom of the wand. She said it was one of her more exotic wands she had made, and it was only comprised of materials found locally. She had great faith in me because she claimed only a wizard with a lot of potential would be chosen by the wand. It was thirteen inches long, made of Palo Verde wood with a phoenix feather core. She ended up giving me the wand saying it had been on her shelf for too long and she was just glad it had finally found an owner.
The school itself I went to was in a mostly run down and abandoned factory with enchantments to prevent unwanted attention and even I would have dismissed the place unless I was directed there. What the school lacked in exterior made up for in interior with grand intricate floors, detailed stone statues and anything but run down. The students were from all over the southeast United States and even a few from the upper regions of Mexico. My first year was the most fun I had ever had, so many new people and so much to learn. It wasn't like muggle school where the entire day I just wanted to go home, no when I stepped into Fire Bird I was glad to be there and eager to learn more. I had what was considered a basic set of classes: Intro to Spellcraft, Beginners Potions, Defensive Magical Theory, American Magic History, and Herblore. While each class was exciting my favorites were Spellcraft and Defensive Magic, they were the only class where I actually got to use my wand and I excelled at the subjects. My caretakers were pleased and when I went back to Nebraska for the summer I couldn't wait to go back.
My second year was still equally as exciting as the first I had done so well at a few of my subjects I had been moved to more advanced classes: Adv. Spellcraft, Potions II, Defensive Magical Theory II, European Magical History, and Herblore II. It was more challenging than before but I still excelled more than any other student in some classes and by my fourth year I was head of my grade. My Fifth year was the most life changing for me; I made the decision to move in with Richard and Kelly permanently. I had been thinking about doing it for a while and it just made sense. I was having a disconnect from muggle life and it was becoming a hassle going back and forth each year, my parents understood but were still a little heartbroken. They knew though that deep down that moving to Arizona was the best choice for me and agreed to let me go. I still visited every so often and sent them gifts when I could. Also in that year I joined the Dueling Team and the team embraced me for my magical talent, never in school history had a muggle-born been able to give our team as many victories as I had. My sixth year was when I was given more options in regards to classes that year I took: Complex Charms, Advanced Curses, Jinx/Hex Application, Defensive Magical Theory VI, Advanced Summoning/Transfiguration, and Magical Innovation. My wand almost never left my hand during classes and I was among only a select few students in school history to be undefeated in a season at Dueling.
My last year of school was a wakeup call to me; I had always assumed that magic was mostly a source for good, how wrong could I be. I was in the more safe parts of the American wizarding world. All seventh years had a mandatory class about the dangers of the wizarding world, we were told in detail the extent the dark arts had come in America and about the Seven Deadly Curses named so because if caught using them and then convicted by the American Wizarding Judicial Department you were instantly executed. I learned about the groups of wizards whose entire goal was to break the international secrecy clause and would kill you if you tried to get in their way. I learned about how powerless the Magical Congress of America was to stop everything that was going on and how all their resources were going towards making sure muggles weren't getting killed in the streets more than they already were and covering up the deaths as much as possible.
After my seven years at Fire Bird I graduated and joined a minor dueling league as a solo man mostly participating in 1v1 duels. I was no longer the best; people were much more skilled and ruthless than people I was used to dueling. Spells I had never even dreamed of using offensively were now in main strategies for some of my opponents and were more effective than anything I had been taught. I found out that Fire Bird was a joke compared to other schools around the country and I was behind significantly in more combat oriented techniques. Spells I was learning in my fifth year were already perfected by the time students from other schools were in their third year. New Bayou School of Voodoo and The Salem Institute of Magic were much more strict when it came to what they taught and even had some of the Dark Arts in their curriculum. These schools had more classes that focused on magical combat and started way earlier than us in those subjects. I was only mediocre as best when I first joined the leagues, but I learned quickly to change my strategy to more fit this more diverse and complex game. I had learned in dueling anything can be weaponized, even healing could be used and actually was a full strategy called "Combat Healing". I used my knowledge of Transmutation and Summoning to my advantage and got more of a foothold in the competitions. I went from a laughingstock to a rising star among the minor leagues. The more I rose in the ranks the more hatred people had of me and not even 2 years into my time in the league I was chased out with threats and insults. Most of them said it was because they were not going to allow a muggle-born show them up and threatened to kill me if I rose above them. I quit and went to more underground leagues, less regulation, more danger, more illegality, and less pay. I still didn't complain it wasn't a glamorous life but I managed. I started living with my newly made friend Quirce and he provided more insight into the things I should be wary about in this new community I had associated with. Most of the people there weren't evil and just in my boat; they all either had nowhere else to go or needed money so they turned to the Dueling rings or the trade of illegal goods. I once thought the wizarding life would be glamourous, that it would be filled with wonderment and that I would never have to worry again.
Do those thoughts still hold true? No, but I wouldn't have it any other way.