Prologue: A Curious Past

"Once upon a time there lived a man and his wife who were very unhappy...[They] had a little window at the back of their house, which looked into the most lovely garden...but the garden was surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared to enter it, for it belonged to a witch of great power, who was feared by the whole world."

-Rapunzel, Brothers Grimm


June 28th, 1980

"Look at her, James," Lily Potter whispered to her husband. "She's beautiful."

They stood on the other side of the glass, gazing at the newborn baby lying in a crib. A knitted pink hat adorned her head as she slept soundly.

"First girl in the family in a long time," James commented. "You think he'll give her any trouble?"

Lily placed her hands on her swollen stomach and felt her baby boy kick. "Not if you don't teach him to be a rascal," she said, kissing him on the cheek.

"Yeah! That's my job!" Daniel Beeson approached the young couple, a mischievous smile on his face.

"How's Nina?" Lily asked, fighting her own smile. "She looked absolutely stricken when we saw her."

Daniel sighed. "I don't think she'll ever grasp the fact that we're…" he trailed off, remembering that they were in a Muggle hospital. "Her parents don't even know."

James whistled through his teeth. "Are you going to tell them now, or when their granddaughter starts levitating?"

"James!" Lily slapped him lightly.

"Right now, I'd rather not think about it," Daniel admitted, running a hand through his dark hair. "Her family is already furious that she got married at such a young age. For a Muggle," he added, noticing James's slightly shocked expression.

"Aren't you lucky we're around?" James said, flashing a smirk. "Your daughter needs some of her dad's crazy in-laws to keep her from dying of boredom."

Daniel chuckled and shook his head. "Oh, don't I know it."

Lily blinked as the two men exchanged amused glances. There was no mystery in the fact that they were cousins; they had the same look and the same impish personality.

"Have you given her a name yet?" Lily asked.

"Tamisin Emily," Daniel said proudly. "After our grandmothers."

"Aunty Tammy? That old windbad?" James asked, shocked.

Daniel shrugged. "What can I say? She was a feisty woman, full of courage and spirit."

"I'm sure she'll turn out beautifully, no matter what her name is," Lily encouraged, giving James a look.

"Speaking of names, have you decided on one for Junior?" Daniel asked.

"Not yet," James said. "It's harder than you'd think. And he's due sometime next month."

"Well, what are you doing here, Jimmy? You'd better run on home and keep searching!"

"We have plenty of time for that," Lily insisted. "We came here today to celebrate the newest member of our family."

"And, as the proud godparents, how are you feeling?" Daniel asked, holding out his hand as if he were brandishing a microphone.

"I'm much more curious to hear how the proud father is," James said.

"Excited, nervous…the works."

"Couldn't have summed it up better myself."


October 31st, 1981

Nina Beeson had never asked for an exciting life. But that's just what she got.

It was bad enough that her husband was a wizard; now they lived in constant fear and turmoil. And she had had just about enough.

"We're perfectly fine," Daniel would say. "We'll be safe."

Nina hadn't believed him then, and she didn't believe him now.

She furiously drove down the quiet streets of Godric's Hollow, angry tears rolling down her face. If only her husband were here to see the bite his words now had.

Earlier in the evening, they had been ambushed by those hideous monsters with the masks. Daniel and his friends, who had been over for Halloween, had managed to hold them off, allowing Nina and baby Tamisin to escape.

But their bravery came at a price. Their house was destroyed, and so was every living soul who had been in it – good and evil.

Nina could bring herself to mourn her husband too much. She realized, the day after their wedding, what a mistake it had been to marry into a wizarding family. He never took anything seriously, and was always playing around with spells, which made her uncomfortable. He insisted she was too uptight. Maybe she was. But at least she wasn't a freak with magic.

She glanced in the rearview mirror at her sleeping daughter and exhaled. "You're going to a better home, Tammy," she whispered hoarsely. "Just know that."

As her car pulled up in front of the Potters' home and she stepped out, she gasped.

She should have known that they had been there, too.

The house was smoking, the roof caved in just a bit. There were no lights on, and no sound came from within.

Nina cursed and got back into the car.

Daniel and James had made a pact once James's son, Harry, was born: they would agree to raise each other's children if something were to happen to them. Nina had argued that her side of the family was much more capable than Daniel's jerk-off cousin, but he had pestered and begged, and she had finally given in.

Look where it had gotten her.

She sat for a moment, crying into the steering wheel. She just wanted to go back to three years ago, when she was in college and not yet dating Daniel Beeson.

Daniel Beeson, the boy who changed her life.

The boy who had ruined her life.

And now she was stuck with a half-magical baby.

There was no way she could provide for her daughter, not without the help from her parents. They were getting older, and she didn't need them to be worrying about her. She could always go to her brothers, but then she'd have to explain about what had happened to Daniel, and then explain some more if Tamisin started doing…things.

She wasn't even going to think about going to the Order of the Griffin or whatever the bloody hell her husband had called it; it had gotten him and a bunch of others blown up in the process, and she at least wanted her daughter to be in a safe place.

With no other option in mind, she started the car, and drove out of the solemn neighborhood.


Two hours later, rain was falling. Nina walked quickly back to her car, the lightning in the sky illuminating the orphanage's big glass windows.

She had just gotten out of a meeting with the orphanage directors; it had been sticky, but she had managed to get her daughter in. She had lied and said that Daniel had abandoned her, and she had no financial support to give her daughter. They had bought her story, after about a half hour of groveling (from her end).

She supposed that now, she'd have to go live with someone in her family. They'd ask questions, but she could just say that Daniel had taken Tamisin and left. It didn't happen often, she knew; then again, it wasn't that often that a normal girl like herself got tangled up in such a crazy mess such as this.

At least they didn't have to know the truth.

"You'll be better off here, Tamisin," she said quietly, looking up at the huge building. "I just hope you don't hate me for it."


Life finally got back to normal for Nina. She met and married a nice businessman, and they moved to London. She had three other children, and her life became the bland mediocrity she had always hoped for.

Daniel Beeson was buried like a hero, in the same cemetery as James and Lily. No one knew what had happened to Nina or Tamisin; they assumed that they had escaped, and they would never hear from them again.

Tamisin was only a year old when all of this happened, and couldn't understand anything. All the directors of the orphanage knew, as they watched her grow up, was that she was a curious sort of girl, from a curious sort of past.

They just didn't know how curious she really was.