Prologue

Chapter One

Hanging up the phone, Ashlie Peterson folded her arms on the table and laid her head down. She knew she had a problem on her hands.

"Mari!" Ashlie called, sitting up. No answer. "Mari!" she called again. She heard a door open on the floor above her.

"Yeah Mama?" a young voice called.

"Get down here, young lady," said Ashlie.

Minutes later, a girl entered the kitchen. She had long light brown hair and a slim figure. A pretty girl…with her father's bright green eyes.

"Is something wrong Mama?"

"I got a call from your teacher…again," Ashlie said.

Mari fell back into a chair. "Oops."

"Want to tell me what happened?"

"Not really," muttered Mari.

"Mari," Ashlie said warningly.

"Okay, okay. Jade Kenning got me mad and in my mind I thought it would be funny if her bag broke open when she was walking out of class. I didn't do anything, I promise!"

"Then why does Mrs. Ellison think it's your fault?"

"I don't know…Maybe because I was the only one laughing and I sit right behind her?"

Ashlie sighed. There had been a lot of I didn't do anything, I promise! going on recently. Most of it involving Mari getting mad and then something happening to the person she was mad at.

"Maybe she's…no, don't think that way," Ashlie thought to herself. She willed herself not to think about Mari's eleventh birthday, which was just around the corner. Eleven years had passed since they had left London and the Wizarding world. They were settled in Atlanta, Georgia where Ashlie owned a bookstore. Life was relatively normal. Well, as normal as it could be when you were hiding the secret that you're a witch. She didn't want to think about how to explain to her daughter why she wasn't like everyone else.

"Mama, why do these things always happen to me?" asked Mari, "It's like every time I want something to happen, nothing big, just minor stuff, it always does. I can't explain it."

"I don't know," Ashlie lied. She hated lying to her daughter, but how could she tell her that she was more than likely a witch?

"So…am I in trouble?" Mari peeked through the hair that had fallen over her face to look at her mother.

"No," said Ashlie, running her hand over her face, "Not this time…again."

"Great!" Mari jumped up, hugged her mother, and ran out of the room.

"What am I going to do?" Ashlie asked herself.

That night, after Mari had gone to bed, Ashlie pulled down a box from a shelf in the back of her closet. Placing the box on her bed, she pulled the masking tape off. At the top of the box, under a long black robe, was a long slim case. Ashlie took it out and carefully opened the cover. There, lying on a bed of blue velvet, was her wand. She hadn't looked at it or held it in years. Ashlie lifted it out of the case and held it in a shaking hand. When they moved to the US, she had put that part of her life away. Why was she bringing it up again? Quickly replacing the wand in its case, Ashlie dug through the remaining contents of the box. Many of her books and school supplies from her years at Hogwarts had been stored in it. On the bottom of the box was a photo album. Opening it to the first page, Ashlie saw her family smiling and waving back at her, completely animated like all magical photographs were, not still like muggle photographs. It was the only picture she had of her, Harry, Mari, and David. Tears came to her eyes. The choices we make as children are not always the choices we'd make as adults. The words her father had spoken to her when she arrived back in the States with Mari echoed through her head. Would she have made the same choice to come back if she had gotten pregnant later? No, of course not. She and Harry would have been settled in their jobs and in their lives. But would she have been happy living a magical life? That, she didn't have the answer to.

"Why couldn't I be happy living in the Wizarding world?" Ashlie thought to herself. "It's who I am, isn't it? My parents were both magical. Why did I feel like I didn't belong? Did I leave because I didn't feel like I belonged or did I leave because of something else? Because I was afraid of loving him?"

Dropping the photo album back into the box, Ashlie sat on the bed. She knew in her heart that the Hogwarts letter for Mari would arrive within the next few days. She'd have to be ready to explain to her daughter the choices she had made, and who her father was.