Author's Note: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the things created in Rowling's universe. This story however is of my own making. It takes place twelve years after the Battle of Hogwarts in an American wizarding school named the Salem Academy, located on an unseen island off the coast of New York with an entirely new cast of people unrelated to the original. Besides that, well you'll have to see. I'm posting both the prologue and the first chapter at the same time, and will be updating hopefully regularly. Enjoy and drop a review after you do.

Edit: Reposting the story so farafter reworking the first chapter and prologue.

Prologue

June 19th, 1996 – 15 years ago

London

"I'm not going without the two of you!" The young witch was livid as she desperately protested her parents' completely lunatic decision. What they were asking of her was beyond ludicrous and she was not going to tolerate it! "If you want me to go to America, then both you and mother will be coming with me and staying there too!"

"This is not open for debate, Celeste! You are going there and you are going to stay there until I say it is safe to come back and that is final!" Benjamin Feroux's voice was as commanding as the man's presence as he stared down his almost fully-grown daughter while his wife scurried about the lavish appointed room packing the last of Celeste's things into a chest for the girl. His eyes and hair continuously shifted colors and designs as he glared at his precious but ever-so-impertinent little girl, his mind unable to focus long enough to keep his Metamorphmagus abilities in check thanks to the stress he was under. "I've known this whole year that Potter and Dumbledore weren't lying when they said that You Know Who is back. That buffoon Fudge tried to deny it but HE IS BACK! My daughter is not going to be anywhere near Europe while the monster is free again!"

"Mum, please talk some sense into him!" Celeste pleaded, turning her attention to her mother. "This is all nonsense!"

"It's not nonsense, Celeste. You were so young when He Who Must Not Be Named disappeared, only a mere three years old. You don't remember the kind of evil that took place in those years, the kind of horrors that monster perpetrated on both the muggle and wizarding worlds. If you did, you would know that what happened last night, what has been happening this whole last year is just the start of something horrible. And I am behind your father one hundred percent in his decision." Shrinking down the chest, Mary Feroux carefully handed it to her daughter before taking her place beside her husband.

"But why can't you come with me then? Surely Dumbledore will-"

"This conversation is over!" Benjamin roared. "Ascher, are you ready?"

"Everything is set, Mr. Feroux." The American said with hurried assurance masking his own worry. He was a younger man, just about Celeste's age, with a head of sandy blonde hair and warm green eyes. His name was Anthony Ascher, and for the better part of the last two years he had been Celeste's boyfriend. "I've just gotten done contacting my father; he's already with our friend inside the OMA and has the papers ready for us as soon as we apparate in to Washington. They have the marriage license, the wand registry, identity papers; everything."

"Good. Then you leave immediately."

"But dad-"

"But nothing!" Ben shouted furiously, his eyes and hair shifting to a fiery red as he did so. For a moment Celeste thought he might finally lose his temper but the man's face just softened as he gazed down into his daughter's worried eyes. "Celeste, I gave you and Anthony my blessing a year ago. This boy has always been a person I could trust with your safety; even from the day I met him. I would not do this if I wasn't one hundred percent sure that he is right for you. He cares enough to make sure are safe and secure in America so you will go with him today, do you understand? I would rather face a legion of Death Eaters knowing you are safe and secure on the other side of the world than risk your life when they come after me and your mother thanks to our loyalties to Dumbledore. When it is safe, when this is all over, trust me when I say that your mother and I will come to America for you and Anthony to welcome you back home personally… But until that time, please just do as I say."

"… I love you Celeste." With those final four words, the Feroux patriarch hugged her one last time before giving a swift nod to the Ascher boy. When the two of them were gone he and his wife would scrub their home of any link to their daughter and wait. Benjamin was not so niave to doubt that the Death Eaters would be here sooner or later and then...

Watching his daughter tearfully accept the boy's outstretched arm, Benjamin just mouthed two last words, these ones for the boy that was about to become his new son-in-law. They were a final request.

'Protect her.'

Anthony simply nodded, the gravity of the task set before him resting heavily upon him. With one last glance at them he apparated Celeste and himself away, bound for America.

/\

Dear Willing Recipient,

On behalf of the Office of Wizarding Education, the Salem Academy of Magic and Sorcery is greatly honored to offer you the opportunities to harness, develop, and broaden your wizarding abilities and talents. As a result, you might find yourself excelling in the future, finding greater success through education, and reaching your full potential in the wizarding world beyond Salem's walls.

With pleasure, Salem requests the favor of your reply to be received no later than July 31st, 2010 so that we may ready to welcome you for this new school year.

Departure for the school will take place from Merlin's Gate at Pennsylvannia Station in New York City on the morning of September 2nd, 2010. The will depart the gate at 10:00 a.m. so please be prompt. Enclosed is a list of all necessary items and sundries you will need this year.

Sincerely,

Headmistress Zofia Ardorum

The Salem Academy of Magic and Sorcery

\/

Benjamin Ascher And The Halls of the Phoenix

Chapter 1: Twenty-Twenty One

If one were to look at the small, quiet little neighborhood of Coldwater on the outskirts of Olympia, Washington there was a good chance that they might remark how all of the quaint little homes seemed to be cut from the same mold. Each one of them was an older wood –paneled two story with the same shade of off-white paint that had slowly been eaten away from years of wet weather along the Hoh rainforest. Each one was rather uniform in this respect, having the same style porch along the front lined by a garden where a few measly flowers tried to take in whatever sunlight trickled down from the canopy of massive evergreens overhead. Each one was likewise occupied by the same style people: good mannered, generally hard working and quiet people who kept mostly to themselves save the few small pleasantries one might exchange during a trip to the garbage can at the curb or the mailbox in the afternoon. It was all so similar.

However, upon further inspection of the houses one might notice the tiniest peculiarity along the side of the mailbox of one of the houses in the group, the one belonging to twenty-twenty one Coldwater Way. Along the side of the rusted metal box with its white exterior and little black numbers, something had been seemingly cut into the metal. What this little piece of possible artwork was differed from person to person; some saw it as a bad attempt at a hummingbird while others would suggest a dragonfly that had gone awry. The owners of this house, twenty-twenty one, meanwhile would simply call it a snitch.

From the outside of twenty-twenty one nothing was amiss, nothing too seemingly out of the ordinary for anyone to suspect some deep secret about the young couple that lived there with their one son. Yet stepping inside, there was something about the house that seemed not quite right. Though the outer walls contained presumably the same space that every other house along the street had, once inside it seemed as though the innards of the curious beast known as twenty-twenty one had been replaced with those belonging to a much bigger monster. The rooms were deceptively larger than they should be, the entryway seemed to stretch on beyond all belief, and even the staircase was seemingly triply stretched along its widths when compared to the other houses along the street. Then if one were to look even closer, one might begin to notice the peculiarities that had made themselves commonplace within twenty-twenty one. All along the walls, the portraits of family and friends seemed alive, as though the subjects in each picture were living entities trapped within the confines of the numerous golden frames that lined the hallways. Some seemed to just stand there and fidget under a passerby's gaze; some simply went about their daily routines; and some moved about and seemed to go converse with the members of other portraits close-by as though this behavior were quite acceptable for a portrait.

Yet stepping further into the depths of twenty-twenty one, the casual observer might ignore the television in the living room and instead take note of the fireplace, a rather ornately carved black marble wonder that stood as high as the wall it rested against and deep enough that one might be capable of parking a small car inside its spacious stone insides. All along the marble were reliefs of various people carved into the stone that seemed to move to and fro whenever no attention was focused on them. At the center of the monstrosity a blaze continuously burned, endlessly consuming the same set of a dozen or so logs yet even so its feeble heat could only be felt by those who dared to stand almost directly beside it.

Moving past the living room from the front door, the spectator might behold the two slumbering furred creatures that often-times laid about in the middle of the main hall, noting perhaps that they must have been some breed of dog that one was simply not familiar with instead of noticing the distinctly lupine jaws and ice blue eyes. Maybe they were both some breed of husky? No, one would think they were much too large for something so mundane; the black, white and gray fur that covered their bodies more regal than that of a common dog, the seemingly naturally red markings around their eyes too out of place. But if the observer watched the two twin animals long enough, they might just be lucky enough to see way the two beasts seemed to interact with each other with decidedly more intelligence and more… humanity… that one would expect to find in a normal household pet.

Then there was the study, a rather gargantuan room that stretched upwards well beyond the limits of what the natural ceiling should have been. The furnishings simple enough: a classic hardwood desk with a worn black leather chair with its back to the one window behind it. The walls would garner attention though as they were covered from the hardwood floor to the impossibly tall ceiling with bookshelves filled with thousands upon thousands of books, each one an ancient leather-bound tome that seemed in impeccable condition without so much as a speck of dust to be found on them. Upon deeper scrutiny one might find the titles and authors of these olden volumes pure nonsense like Zeus V. Akakios' greatest work: "On The Study of Acromantulas: The Wondrous Spiders and Where to Find Them"; or perhaps Leuthar Lutgardis' seminal book of interspecies love poetry "Ode to my Giant".

Yet even if one could overlook all the aberrant abnormalities that seemed to dwell within twenty-twenty one, there was final little curiosity that could not be ignored. Unlike the rest of the house though, this was not a what but rather a who; and the who was the husband and wife that dwelt there with their eleven-year-old son Benjamin.

(I)

July 21st, 2010

7:00 a.m.

"Benny! Time to get up!" The voice was loud; loud and very shrill. It was feminine with a marked southern English accent that even fifteen years spent in the states could not destroy, as though it were a banshee that hailed from the Thames. It tore through the calm atmosphere of the early morning like a knife, effectively killing whatever peace the residents of the house and their nearest neighbors might have been enjoying. More importantly though, it woke him up from what he could have defined as the best dream he had had in his short life.

"Ugh…" Ben murmured, not even caring to use a coherent word at this ungodly early hour of the morning as he kept his eyes firmly closed in a desperate attempt to stay at least partially asleep. He knew it was a futile effort to try; it was always a futile effort when she was calling for him but he just couldn't muster the drive to force himself to open his eyes so he just lay there, praying she wouldn't call him again.

"Apollo, Artemis; get him up." The voice called again, this time to the other two members of the family that were currently home.

'Crap.' He thought sullenly, still refusing to peek open even one eye to the blinding morning sun that would be shining through his window by now. He hated when she sent them up here this early in the morning; was thirty extra minutes of wondrous sleep too much to ask for? It was summer! But already he could hear their muffled steps through the walls as the two of them made their way up the gargantuan stairwell that curved throughout the house to the upper landing where his bedroom waited. They moved quietly as only they could, like two hunters quietly stalking their prey. Within a few seconds he heard the distinctive creak of his door being nudged open before they carefully stepped inside and onto the hardwood floor at the base of his bed.

"I know you're awake, Ben. I can hear your heart racing." That was Apollo, the older and the leader between the two of them. Unlike his sister, Apollo was always a bit gruffer and more straight-forward; he was just a bit too tightly wound at all points of the day to be much fun to the young boy. "You heard what your mother said; it's time to get up."

"No…" He moaned slowly, still keeping his eyes tightly shut in protest to this most unreasonable of orders.

"Very well;" The female, Artemis, replied. A moment later Ben felt the weight drop onto the foot of his bed as she jumped up on to it. With grace and a lithe step she confidently strode across the bed until she was right over top of him, keeping her body off of his but using her legs to pin the comforter securely to his sides. He knew what she was about to do, it was what she always did whenever she was sent up to wake him up. He knew it and utterly hated it but he refused to give up on his vain and pointless crusade for a little more rest. So, with all the nerve he could muster, the young boy just braced himself as she carefully bent down over him and… began to lick his face.

"UGH! Okay; I'm up, I'm up!" Ben spat out, his eyes shooting open to the pupil-burning sunlight that was filtering through his window as he pushed the female dire wolf off of him. With the best smile that a wolf could muster she just chuckled heartily as she stepped back and set down on her haunches at his feet while he sat up. "Do you have to do that every single time you wake me up, Artemis?" He asked, staring down at the wolf. She was far larger than a normal creature just like her brother was, with gray and white fur across her body but a jet black snout and a pair of ice blue eyes that glowed on the darkest nights. Her brother Apollo shared a lot of the same features save for the red striations around her snout running up and around her eyes that were distinctive to her.

"Be glad I stopped as quickly as I did, young pup." She replied with a throaty laugh. Compared to her twin brother she was a playful little creature. "You taste so good today that I was starting to get hungry. Too bad, you'd make such a perfect little treat for breakfast."

"And that makes it okay how? I'm not a buffet." Ben responded, rolling his eyes in exasperation as he finally just accepted the fact that he was not returning to sleep. Apollo and Artemis were his father's familiars; they were a pair of dire wolves that the elder Ascher male had magically bonded with back during his own school days twenty years back. Like most of the familiars, they were a different than normal animals in that they were uniquely bonded to his family line until the day they died. And then there was the talking. His Dad still had never explained how they came to be so… social; but it was a rare trait indeed as most animal familiars were aware and intelligent but incapable of speech.

"Good question; ask me again when I've had a full stomach." Artemis cheerfully chuckled as she rose back up and dropped from the bed, taking her place beside her brother.

"Enough of this foolishness…" Apollo was always such a boring little creature Ben thought, a real downer of sorts. "Ben, your mother wants you clean, dressed and downstairs in fifteen minutes for breakfast. Understand?"

"Sir yes sir!" The preadolescent boy retorted with a mock salute, eliciting another vigorous round of laughter from Artemis. Apollo meanwhile only growled, narrowing his eyes at the young boy for a moment before turning away and leaving the room.

Once the wolves had left he finally forced himself out of the bed and onto his feet. After a deep stretch, he casually shed the pajamas he had slept in and made his way to the bathroom on the far side of his room and away from the rays of golden evil that shined mercilessly into his room. The room, like the others in the house, was much larger than the exterior let on. It was a marvel his dad had designed and his mother had enchanted for him. On the left side was a hardwood floor that led up two steps to the raised platform his bed rested on as well the large bay window that lit up his room. The right half meanwhile was more keeping in with the true nature of the house as the hardwood was gone and replaced with what appeared to be a small field of grass that led to his bathroom and closet, lined on either side by the trunks of two oak trees that seemed to be carved out of the very walls themselves as they reached to the ceiling. His mother called it the Meadow.

As he stepped into the bathroom, he was greeted by an unfamiliar reflection in the mirror.

Instead of his short cut naturally sandy blonde hair and radiant green eyes – traits which he shared with his dad – there was a mess of jet black hair cascading down his back and around his shoulders like a lion's mane coupled with a pair of warm hazel pupils. With a grimace he forced himself to concentrate long enough and imagine them as they should be to make them change back to their proper color. The young eleven-year-old was a Metamorphmagus like his grandfather was and had been capable of changing his appearance for nearly three years n0w so these changes were quite normal for him. However, he was never too thrilled when his features changed on their own like they did usually three or four times a day; it was part of the reason his mother had kept him from going to a proper school before this year. After all, they couldn't explain the reason why they changed like that to a normal Muggle nor could they risk another child running off and causing a panic when they told their parents what they saw in class. Quite frankly, it was one of the reasons Ben couldn't wait until September 2nd rolled around. Come that day, he would finally enroll in his true school: The Salem Academy.

Smiling in approval once his appearance had normalized; he quickly discarded his clothing from the night before and climbed into the shower. As he let the warm water rinse over him the last of his grogginess quickly washed down the drain with whatever sweat he may have had while he slept. Unlike most boys his age, Ben took a certain pleasure from being clean and would oftentimes take two or even three such washes a day just to stay that way. He didn't know why; he just liked the feeling of knowing he was dirt free.

A few minutes later, clean as a whistle and dressed in a t-shirt and pair of jeans appropriate for a summer day in Washington, he made his way out of his room and downstairs. From the stairwell he could hear voices coming from the kitchen, one belonging to his mother talking to a male that was unmistakably his father but was accompanied by the sound of a lot of movement. Ben had come to recognize that background noise as the sounds of the people at his dad's work in the Auror department at the Office of Magical Affairs. Whenever his mom talked to him during the day over the Floo network via the fireplace he had in his personal office, that shuffling sound was almost always present. Deciding to let them finish their conversation first, Ben just sat down at the foot of the stairs and listened in a little.

"I don't know what to tell you, Cel;" His father said in the casual tone that he often spoke with. "I know I told you we'd be able to do a family night tonight but with this latest development I'm probably going to be here all night."

"Is it them again?" That was his mother, piquing Ben's eleven-year-old curiosity. His dad never really talked about work to him, having told him once that he was just working to 'try and keep the family safe' but that the boy was too young to really know what it meant. Ben knew that he hunted down dark wizards and investigated crimes in the wizarding world; he had watched enough CSI with his parents to know what a detective was and that his dad was the magical equivalent of one. Outside of that though, they had tried to shield him from anything else so this was a rather rare opportunity for the boy.

"We think so. Another couple was found last night, this time in Adel's Fall over in upstate New York… The Secretary had Magister Vance put a media blackout on this for the time being to keep from inciting a possible panic but it's only a matter of time before someone leaks the story to the W.T. or one of the other papers." Anthony Ascher responded with what sounded like straight weariness from where Ben was sitting. The boy had met Magister Regulus Vance – his father and the other Aurors' boss – a few times when his dad had had him over from a dinner or something along those lines. He was a scary looking wizard with a set of scars along his jaw from a fight with a werewolf that stopped right beneath the pair of horn-rimmed glasses he wore. "I-I've gotta admit that these monsters are a little past what I can tolerate, Cel. The things they do to these people before they kill them… it's terrifying. And then it gets even worse after the poor souls die. And then there's that damned mark they leave behind."

"Do you think that the people behind this might be related to…?"

"We thought they might be but there's just no evidence to link them with the… them. We don't know for certain though; with blood purists like these you never know where their loyalties might have laid over the years. However, the mark they're leaving isn't like the Dark Mark was. I really don't want to go into details about it though. Listen honey, I've got to go. Vance wants us gathered for a debriefing in ten minutes."

"All for the best I suppose. Benny will be down for breakfast any minute now." His mother finished, her tone having grown weary and worried as well. "Listen; take care of yourself tonight, Tony. I…"

"I know Cel. I love you too." With those words, the background noise died meaning that the connection had been terminated.

Ben sat there silently for a moment, wondering just what was going on that his parents weren't telling him. He had heard of the Dark Mark before; his mother told him about it about two years ago after he had heard someone mention a dark wizard named Voldemort. She had told him that the man had almost taken over England twice and that his followers – the Death Eaters – flew a mark shaped like a skull with a snake slithering through it over the houses of their victims to let the rest of the world know. She had also told him that the Death Eaters were the reason why he had never met her parents, his grandfather and grandmother. According to her, they had sent her away when Voldemort came back four years before he was born to live with his dad and that was the only reason why she was still alive today while they died long before he was born. Ben often wondered what they would have been like, especially the granddad that he was named for. Maybe the man could have taught him some nifty trick with his Metamorphmagus abilities or taught him the kind of dangerous things that his mom and dad tried to keep him away from like how to really play Quidditch or hunt for Bowtruckles. However, it was all rather irrelevant now.

After a long moment he finally climbed up off the stairwell and made his way into the kitchen. His mom was silently preparing some breakfast for the two of them while Apollo and Artemis were both working over a pair of bones beside the table. As he entered Artemis looked up at him with a telling look; the two wolves would have heard him come down the stairs of course but if they weren't going to say anything to his mom about his little case of eavesdropping then neither was he.

"And there he is. I was wondering when you were going to finally get down here." Celeste Ascher said with a smile as her son took his seat at the breakfast table. At those words Apollo likewise cast a very telling look at the boy, as though accusing him silently through his intensely focused stare. "Sleep well Benny?"

"Yup;" Was his simple reply. He didn't know what he should talk about with her given what he had just heard. Certainly not what his parents were discussing, that was for sure. But beside that, he was at a loss of just what he was supposed to say.

"Good to hear it. Now, I think today we should head into town for a little while and maybe just stroll around for a while. Maybe even go to that park over near Delaney's shop that you like so much." He nodded, trying to casually avoid his mom's eyes as Artemis strolled over the table and brushed against his hand. The wolf waited patiently for him to pet her for a moment while his mother brought over two plates of food for both of them and sat down. Celeste Ascher was a shorter woman with a head of raven black hair that fell in a bob around her heart-shaped face as well as exceptionally dark eyes. It all served to make her seem to just blend in with the shadows, something that kept very well with her usually subdued demeanor. Unlike her husband she was not a very loud or excitable person but rather one generally at peace. "Now, unfortunately your dad's going to be late getting home tonight but maybe we'll just stay in the city all day."

"Sounds like fun mom;" He said, flashing a smile while taking a bite of the pancakes she had made and scratching Artemis' ears with his free hand. The wolf quietly set down on her haunches there next to him, noiselessly resting while he stroked the black fur that ran between her two perked up ears. Neither her nor her brother spoke much during a conversation between humans unless they were addressed directly, preferring to keep their opinions to themselves more often than not.

"Great. By the way, I talked to your father earlier today and he thinks that tomorrow is going to be a good day." That got Ben's attention a little more fully.

"... A good day for what?"

"Well we were talking and we both agree tomorrow we're going to take you down to Edea's Landing and finally get your school shopping done." The words had barely left her mouth before he was already out of his chair and hugging her tightly, thanking her excitedly as she smiled at her son's cheeriness. He had waited and waited and waited for this day for the better part of the last four months since his letter to Salem had come in the mail and now within the next thirty or so hours he would finally have his own wand!

Author's Note: Well there you go, the first official chapter. This thing has been in development for quite a while so drop a review. I'm excited to see what people think of it.