Alina got up and walked out of her room into the bathroom. Her hair was sweat matted from her efforts last night. After she changed the first time, she had to find a way to change back, and then she had to remember how to change. All in all she probably practiced it fifty times, now she just had to have and impulse, or a concentrated thought, and she could change very easily. She got a shower and shook herself. It was Friday, only one more day before she could crash for a while.

She washed with her favorite vanilla soap and washed her hair debating weather or not to cut it, she loved her long hair, but it was such a hassle sometimes! She got out and started to dry off. She looked at herself in her mirror; she wanted her hair to be dry! She didn't want to have to spend forty minutes bent over with a blow dryer. She had a thought, could I? She looked in the mirror and concentrated, she thought of fire, of warmth. She envisioned an invisible blow dryer raking its way down her back, drying all her hair as it went, she thought of heat, and therma-silk not dry heat, but moist, the kind that leaves her hair silky smooth. She got tired of pretending what she wished she could do and opened her eyes. Her hair was dry! She jumped and ran to the living room in her towel.

"Mother!" she cried

Her mother was up drinking her morning tea, she looked surprised.

"What, what's happened? Are you alright?"

She pointed to her hair, "It's dry!"

"Yes…."

"Mother, I just turned off the water, and I didn't use a blow dryer!" Alina insisted.

"Then how-oh!" she smiled at her daughters nervous behavior and couldn't help but laugh. "Of course it is dear! You wanted it to be, didn't you?"

"Well yes…"

"Magic has the ability to do much. If you concentrate on what you want it will happen. Like if you wanted the TV on, or to change a channel, or do your makeup or you hair." She said gesturing to her attire, "or finding clothes."

"Mom, don't laugh, why is all this happening? I mean, I'm only sixteen, by days, I am only sixteen!"

"You're reaching your majority."

"Huh?"

She laughed again. "You're growing up."

"Does the animal thing come with that too?" she asked

"What 'Animal thing'?" Her mother questioned taking a sip of her tea.

"Yeah, ya' know when you change? Which by the way you didn't warn me about." Alina said pointedly

"I didn't warn you because I didn't think you could do it!"

"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence." She muttered crossing her arms.

"No, I meant, that-"her mother began coughing and rasping, her face was turning blue and she was tilting over to the side. Alina rushed to her in just enough time to catch her before she fell.

"Mommy?" she whispered

Her ears were answered only by shallow breathing and rasping. She fought back the urge to cry and drug her mother's body over to the couch; she tucked her in and watched her for a little longer, making sure she would be able to breathe on her own. Satisfied she would be alright for the time being she went back into her room and pulled on her cargo pants. She grabbed her black tee shirt and her backpack and walked into the kitchen. She grabbed a chocolate muffin and headed out the door. Walking to school she mused about this Kelsey character. Could she really be trusted, how did she know she wasn't just some mean kid trying to pull a prank on her? Like in Carey when they acted all nice to her just to get her to the prom. But she reminded herself that girl actually did want to be her friend, and it was her that helped Carey to get out in the end. She saw the cross walk that lead to her school and stopped. She really didn't want to go, but knew she had to. She wondered if she could find something to do for seven hours before having to go home. She didn't get to make up her mind as the principle pulled into the lane next to the crosswalk. She looked over and waved to Alina. Alina waved back half heartedly and knew there was no way now, she only waved when she wanted to speak to her. Alina would have to see what she wanted.

She crossed the street and walked into the main building, she walked to her locker and didn't even get to finish turning the dial before she heard and exasperated voice chide,

"Ms. Daniels."

She looked up feigning shock and asked the air," Yes Satan?" she turned around and pretended to jump, "oh, Mrs. Carlson, excuse me, you sounded like somebody else."

"Funny, what is this I hear about you leaving a new student yesterday?"

"Oh well-"

"She didn't leave me!" Kelsey said from out of nowhere.

"Oh?" Mrs. Carlson asked eyeing the young girl.

"I asked her to go, that way I could get a baring and find my classes myself. You know she can't watch me all year."

"Well, where that is commendable it is also highly irresponsible."

"If you want to be a baby sitter I suggest you find an infant. Ma'am I am more than capable of navigating through a school, more so when said school is smaller than my old house."

The principle looked surprised. She narrowed her eyes and said lowly, "Watch that tone." She walked off, her cheap heels making sticky suction sounds against the tile floor.

Alina looked at her from under her bangs. "A baby sitter, huh?"

Kelsey smiled, "You liked that?"

"Oh, what's not to like? It was a very clever line." Alina said eliciting a small laugh from her new companion. She smiled at the girls whimsical sounds.

"Ah! Mona smiles!" Kelsey laughed pointing at Alina's face.

Alina only smiled wider and shook her head.

"My, you're in a much better mood than last we spoke, mind if I ask why?"

"I talked to my mom about you; she said I should trust you. But the thing is; I don't. I can't."

"Well, do you trust your mom?" Kelsey asked unperturbed by the statement.

Alina nodded, "unequivocally."

"Then trust her judgment, and give me a chance."

"We'll see." Alina looked around in silence for a minute. "What do you have first block?" she asked.

"Art." Kelsey said proudly

"Art huh? Let me see your schedule." Alina asked taking a slip from her. She smiled as she read it.

"What??" Kelsey asked peering over the paper.

"We have three out of four classes together; 1st, 2nd, and 4th block. Different lunches though."

"Really?! Cool."

"Shall we to class then?" she asked holding out her arm in a sarcastic manner and to her utmost surprise, and secret pleasure, Kelsey unhesitatingly laced her arm with Alina's.

They walked that way jovially to class. When they walked in they found most students were still wandering around or eating breakfast, or doing anything really that didn't require them to be in the room. The girls chose a seat in the back of the room at a table that would only fit two anyway since it was pushed a against a corner.

"So, tell me about your family!" Kelsey said after a few minutes of silence.

"You want to know my family?" Alina looked puzzled, "What ever for?"

"It's called 'getting to know you'. " Kelsey said pointedly.

"Fine, Kelsey fine!" Alina said sighing,

"Oh, call me Kels." She said smiling

"Only if you call me Ali." Alina said returning the smile.

"Deal, so Ali tell me about your family."

"Well, you already know about my dad, uh…my mother, well she's a good lady, but, she took ill recently, it's fatal." She said her throat closing.

"Oh no!" Kels' hands flew to her mouth in horror, "not any time soon though right?"

"Uh, actually it's probably a matter of weeks, if we're lucky." She said tears welling in her eyes.

"What will you do?" she gasped.

"Probably go to England and hope my grandpa can house me for a while."

Seeing that Ali wanted to go on to another subject Kels switched topics.

"England? Where in?"

Alina was grateful for the switch and answered in a firm voice that did not match her quavering emotions. "London."

"Wow, that's cool. I wish I had a relative in a place like England!"

"Yeah, my papa Al always compares it to the States, England is always better in his opinion." Alina said laughing.

"Al? Is that his name?" Kelsey asked

"Hmm, Albus." She replied nonchalantly. She looked at Kelsey and was confused. Kelsey sat with her mouth agape and her eyes wide.

"What?!" she breathed.

"Al-bus" Alina said clearly and loudly.

"As in Dumbledore?!"

Alina nodded amazed,"You know him? He always says he has friends all over the world but I didn't think-"

Kelsey clapped a hand over Alina's mouth. "Are you telling me that you are the granddaughter, the only granddaughter, of Albus Dumbledore?"

Alina smacked Kelsey and wiped her mouth off with the back of her hand, "Yes, did I stutter?"

"Are you joking?" Kelsey asked incredulously.

"No, what is the big deal?" she asked annoyed

"Albus Dumbledore is only the greatest wizard in the whole of the world, everyone knows him!" she shook her head at Alina's apathetic look. "He's said to be a direct descendent of Merlin himself!"

"Uh-huh" Alina said slowly, still not grasping the severity of her statements.

"He's the only wizard feared by he-who-must-not-be-named."

"Whoa, whoa wait a minute! He-who-what?" she asked.

"The dark lord?" at the blank look Alina gave her she sighed and elaborated."A while back, a wizard went bad, I mean really bad, and he got it in his head that anyone who was not magical should be killed. All muggles, dead! And he started using dark magic, the kind that kills and gives witches and wizards a bad name." Kelsey said lowering her voice. "Anyway, he just so happened to be one of the most powerful wizards ever, so a lot of people followed him."

"Did they follow from fear or loyalty?" Alina asked enraptured by the story

"I don't know, both, neither, who knows? But the point is; he and his followers started acting on their dark whims. They started torturing and killing as many muggles as he could find!"

"So he pulled a Hitler?" Alina asked

"Yes, exactly! Except he wasn't as humane as Hitler."

Alina looked at her incredulously. "What?"

"Hitler put some Jews in an oven and watched 'em burn, big deal!" she said twirling her hand sarcastically. "But what the dark lord did, whole different ball park. Jack the Ripper was more humane than you-know-who."

Alina's eyebrows rose," Why do you call him that?" she asked suddenly

"He created so much chaos, and so much pain, and he did so many terrible unspeakable things, that no one even says his name. Magic is a very fickle thing, and words have power."

"So…no one says his name for fear he'll come back?"

Kelsey nodded.

"So what happened, why isn't he in power anymore?"

"Well, he heard about a prophesy that said an infant boy would be his downfall, so he tracked him down. He killed his father with an avera kedavra-"

"A what?"

"An unforgivable, ask me after okay?" when Alina nodded Kelsey continued with her narrative."So he killed his dad, and goes to the nursery kills his mom, then goes to kill the baby. But something happened. He didn't die, on the contrary, the spell backfired and hit you-know-who! He lost all his power that night. His dark reign came to an end, because of one little boy. His name is well known throughout the wizarding community, everyone knows him."

"I don't." Alina grumbled.

"His name is Harry, Harry Potter, 'The Boy Who Lived'." She laughed

She nodded and sat quite for a while, "So what's an unforgivable?"

"Oh, well they are the spells that are cruel and inhumane, which is why most people can't and don't use them."

"Oh!" Alina said sarcastically.

"Yeah there are different kinds, one that causes enough pain to drive you to insanity, one that has a sort of mind control power and there's one that kills you instantly! That's the one he used on the Potter's."

"Well at least it was fast."

Kelsey looked like she was going to say something but Tiffany came walking over.

"Hey, Kels, you okay?" she asked eyeing Alina with trepidation.

"Yeah, I was just talking to Ali." She said offhandedly.

Tiffany looked surprised that she referred to her as such but even more so that Alina didn't snap to correct her.

"So...what were you talking about?"

"Books." Alina said easily, for some reason she was an expert at lying, she didn't like to but when she did no one knew. She even got hooked up to a polygraph once and it didn't know!

"Oh, books huh?" Tiffany said skeptically.

"Yes, like the kind with words and no pictures, so nothing you'd be too familiar with." Alina said emotionlessly.

Tiffany bristled but kept in mind who she was talking to. "Oh." She said pursing her lips.

"Ali, that wasn't very nice." Kelsey said seriously.

"You're right, Tiffany I'm sorry." Alina said bowing her head in respect to Tiffany

She just stood there in shocked silence and finally managed to say quietly, "thanks." Before she quickly vacated and hurriedly began telling all her friends about the encounter.

"Okay, I don't know you that well and even I can tell that was out of character for you. Why are you so happy? What happened? The way you took off yesterday I expected to see fire!" Kelsey laughed.

Alina smiled. "I'm just getting to find new uses with my powers, like this morning, I took a shower, and I didn't want to spend an hour bent over with a hair dryer, so I thought about it, and poof!" she said flicking out her hands in an animated manner. "My hair was dry."

"Uh-huh, so you learned a drying spell and-"

Alina shook her head, "what is this hang up with you and spells?" she flicked some of her hair over her shoulder.

"Uh well, how about the fact you cant do magic with out them!" she said dumbly

"Yes you can!"

"No you can't; it's like doing magic without a wand! That just doesn't happen."

"Well it obviously does or I wouldn't be doing anything at all." Alina huffed.

"Wait, are you telling me that you do wandless magic?"

"Well as far as I can tell, yes."

"As far as you can tell?" Kelsey asked skeptically

"Well, I don't know the full extent required to qualify but, all I know is I have never owned a 'wand'." She laughed like owning one was a ridiculous thought,"and I never used any 'spells'." She laughed again.

"Then how did you, how do you use magic?"

"Like everyone else I suppose."

"That's the thing" Kelsey said scooting closer to her, "wands have magical artifacts inside them, things suited specifically and individually for each user to help them utilized their magic. The spells are verbal connections with their powers as well, only the greatest of wizards can do wandless. It takes such skill of mind and such concentration that they can usually only manage simple shield charms. It's not used for menial everyday tasks like," she pointed at Alina's head, "drying ones hair!"

"And why not?" Alina asked confused

"Because it's not something you can just do! It takes concentration and energy and stamina. It's not so easy you can just dry your hair!" she laughed

"But I do it all the time. " Alina said.

"Here, let's test this m'kay?" she reached over and picked up an eraser. "Take this."

Alina reached over and Kelsey pulled back, "Without your hands." She laughed.

Alina just held out her hand, and before Kelsey could blink the eraser was gone and hovering inches above Alina's palm. Kelsey's jaw dropped. How did she just do that?!.

"How?" she shook her head amazed at this girl's power.

"Is that it? That the end of the test?" Alina asked

She's not even trying! Kelsey thought. "No, that's not the end of the test. Now, turn the eraser into something!"

"Like what?" she asked bored.

"Like…..a mouse!"

"A mou-." She shook her head but twitched her eye slightly and the eraser was a small grey house mouse.

"Sweet Merlin!" Kelsey whispered. This girl was doing wandless, species transfiguration like it was a simple hover spell!

"Now is it over?" she asked boredly changing the eraser to different animals, then back to an eraser.

"What else can you do?" she asked stunned.

"What other than this, well, I can change. Hey what do you change into?" she asked

"Change what? Huh? What are you talkin' about?" Kelsey asked confused

"When you change into an animal- or…Sorry I forgot you didn't have the uh, right." Alina looked decidedly uncomfortable. "What does your dad change into?"

Kelsey looked at her confused and sarcastically said, "We're in America, we speak English!"

Alina rolled her eyes," When he changes into his animal. What does he change into?"

"What you mean like an animagis? He's not."

It was Alina's turn to look confused.

"If a witch or wizard can change into an animal, the animal they are most like, kinda' like their totem, if they can manage the change, they are called Animagis."

"Oh. What do you mean 'if'?"

"I mean if, it's a hard process that takes years to accomplish, if it can be done at all. There are so few and it's such a testament to power that if you can manage to do it you have to register with the ministry."

Alina looked studiously at the table.

"Don't tell me!" Kelsey said unbelievingly, "you're an animagis too?!"

"Well, I guess." She said demurely

"What do you change into?" Kelsey asked excitedly

"Well, I guess a wolf?"

"You sound unsure." Kelsey commented confused

"Well, I'm about this big." She held her hand up about 4'5 to 5' in the air. "And I'm huge! And I have this black, silver, husky like fur. But I don't have amber eyes, I keep my grey ones. And I have mondo fangs!" she said shaking her head.

Kelsey listened and when Alina stopped speaking she asked. "Anything else?"

"Well," she said thinking, "I kinda look like a wolverine."

Kelsey nodded distractedly, "I think," She finally said at length, "that you may be a werewolf."

"That's what I thought too. But then I remembered they don't exist."

"Uh, I beg to differ!" Kelsey said quickly.

"They do?!"

"As do vampires and gnomes and elves and unicorns! Muggels see, muggles do!"

"I guess the stories had to come from somewhere." Alina said quietly. She caught Kelsey staring at her again and asked annoyed and self conscious. "What!?"

"Do you even know how amazing you are? The things you do, the way you think! The things that are supposed to be trials and burdens where I come from are nothing more than leisure times activities to you. How do you have that much control?" she asked unbelieving.

"Well, anytime I was alone I would practice, and then when I finally told my mom about it, she enrolled me in classes."

"Classes?"

"You name it! Dance classes, art classes, Karate, kung-fu, jujitsu, judo, boxing, kendo, fencing!" she sighed and rolled her eyes. "Anything that involved physical and mental discipline. She thought it would do me good, according to you her efforts were rewarded."

"How did you pay for all that? Or find the time?!" Kelsey asked amazed

"Well, grandpa suggested a hobby, and after I started making his hat disappear so he couldn't leave, he said something that would school my mind. She came from some well to do family in England, so money wasn't an issue. She bought personal trainers and sent me to fancy schools and camps. "Alina sighed sadly. "Since I was five years old, I've known nothing but discipline, never spent a summer without training. After a few years of hard practice, I mastered my classes. I danced to anything with a beat, painted with my eyes closed, won every belt there was to get, passed every test made. I kept leaving so my mom wouldn't know; I got a job, and started my own account. Just stayed places, saw the sights. It kept my mom in good health thinking I was safe at camp learning something 'productive'."

Kelsey reached over and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

They sat in silence of the rest of the block. When the bell rang and everyone filed out, they took their time and moved slowly. As they made it into their second block class, Alina stopped dead. Something was wrong, she could feel it, and she could sense it. Something told her to get home, now! She didn't make it all throughout the slums of Brooklyn by disregarding her gut, so when her stomach flipped she dashed out of the room. She didn't even bother to get her things, she just ran, the cars and the lights bled into a rush of silence as her endorphins kicked in, she found her rhythm and pushed herself harder, she just had this feeling, something that said to hurry. She ran to her house and kicked open the door; she dashed around but couldn't find anything.

"Mom!" she called breathlessly. "Mom!"

There was silence, she rushed down the hall way and started throwing open doors, it wasn't till she touched the knob of the bathroom door that bile rose in her throat. She steeled herself for whatever she was about to see. Sucking down a gulp of air she threw the door open.

The tub was full, the water was running, and her mother lay unmoving at the bottom.