Over ten years after the birth of Alazne Lumihee, not much had changed about Doleville. The town still appeared darker than the countryside around it, the sky still seemed as gloomy as ever, and the neighbors were still suspicious of the Lumihee home for reasons they couldn't quite put their fingers on. The house was no longer darker than the rest of the town, in fact if anything it was brighter, and the woman inside now had a child of her own like all the other respectable women in town…but there were some things that didn't quite add up. First of all, just after the little girl was born, Mr. Lumihee had up and left town without even bothering to come back for his things. His friends had asked around to see what had happened, as well as the nosier of their neighbors, but he refused to even acknowledge he even had a wife anymore, let alone a daughter. Then there was the change in the house itself, now bright and welcoming when before it would make them feel colder just to come near it. But if they had to put their finger on it, almost everyone would say what made them feel a little uneasy about the Lumihees would be Alazne herself. People who had come to the door, as well as the curious children who spied through the windows, saw plenty of pictures of the girl. At first it had just been pictures of a mousey haired baby in different colored dresses or bonnets, all taken indoors—but Alazne was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a short pale girl riding a big wheel down the hall, reading by the upstairs window, in masked costume on Halloween, and being hugged and kissed by a smiling Mrs. Lumihee. Yet the girl in question had rarely been seen in the flesh by anyone in town, and only the pictures showed any signs at all that Mrs. Lumihee didn't live alone in her little apartment.

Alazne Lumihee was there though, asleep for the moment, but she wouldn't be for long. Her mother was awake, and she rarely let her daughter sleep in on weekdays.

"Alazne! Time to wake up!"

Alazne jumped, startled. Her mother knocked again.

"Alazne, I mean it!" she called. Alazne heard her walk next door to her room and the faint sounds of movement as she sat up, trying to remember what she had been dreaming. It had been so strange. There was this tall, weedy looking man in it, and she had a funny feeling they'd met before…

Before she could think too much about it, her mother was back at the door.

"Are you up yet?" she asked.

"Almost, Mummy…" said Alazne.

"Well get a move on, breakfast is nearly ready. We're having bacon and eggs today."

Alazne made a little noise of approval, wondering what the occasion was. It wasn't often they had such a nice breakfast. Alazne rolled out of bed and started looking for her pants. She found them half-kicked under the bed and pulled them on over her shorts. She tended to wear shorts to bed a lot since it was a bit stuffy on the second floor, being it was right under the attic, so she ended up wearing boxer shorts under her jeans most of the time.

When she was dressed she hurried down the stairs to the kitchen and was surprised to find a present siting on it. It looked like it was some kind of special occasion after all, since she knew how tight money got most of the time. Though what exactly the occasion was escaped Alazne, since it was the start of summer and her birthday wasn't for another two months—unless her mother had stumbled on some extra money somehow. Mrs. Lumihee seemed to like spending whatever extra money she had on her daughter, and she did sometimes get some by doing extra work. Her mother didn't look it, but she was a very hard worker. Alazne was happy she took after her.

Maybe it was because her mother didn't let her go out very much, but Alazne had always been very small for her age, and very pale, as if she had been given a good fright. She looked even smaller and paler than she really was too because most of her clothes were from second-hand stores, and were all dark colors like black or grey. Alazne had a little face, pierced ears, long, mousey brown hair, and overall looked a little like a field mouse. She also wore little half-moon glasses and her hair up in a ponytail when she read—which was often. The only thing she really liked about how she looked was her eyes, which were nearly black with flecks of gold that made them look like the night sky. She remembered when she was really young she asked her mother if they ran in the family, and it was the first time she could remember her mother getting upset with her.

"It doesn't matter, you'll never meet them," she had said. "So please don't mention them again."

That was one of the few rules her mother had—Don't ask about the family.

Her mother entered the room as she was inspecting the present.

"No peaking," she warned, seeming a little eager herself.

Mrs. Lumihee never liked missing her daughter's face when she was happy about something. She always tried to surprise her with little things she knew she'd like just for that reason, except for one thing she asked for every few days—to go play with the other children.

Alazne had moved on to watching her mother instead by the time breakfast was set in front of her. She looked quite a bit like her mother. She was thin and weedy, in fact she looked very fragile, with a small face like her daughter, a small stature, small black eyes that always looked sad even when she was smiling, and long black hair that was nearly to the small of her back. People often said her mother looked like some sort of ghost-like creature—Alazne usually countered that her mom looked like an angel. That always made her mother smile, but Alazne really meant it.

She started eating with her eyes on her plate, which was hard considering all she wanted was to tear open her present. Her mother, meanwhile, seemed to be just as impatient.

"You know what, Mousey," she said, using her nickname affectionately, "you can open it while you eat."

"No, that's okay Mummy, I'll open it after," said Alazne, though she started wolfing down her food so she could open it sooner. Whatever it was must be good if her mother was so impatient.

Her mother obviously noticed her speed up though, because she said gently, "Now don't choke, sweetheart, it'll be there when you finish. Besides, it's your favorite."

Alazne slowed down obediently. It was harder than it looked. Finally she finished and asked eagerly, "so…can I…?"

"Yes you can, sweetheart," said Mrs. Lumihee.

"Yes!" Alazne grabbed the present and shook it gently. "I wonder what it is?"

Mrs. Lumihee chuckled.

"You won't know until you open it. Go ahead, Mousey!" She ruffled her daughter's hair.

As Alazne tore the package open the doorbell rang and Mrs. Lumihee had to go and answer it, just after she caught a look at the grin on Alazne's face as she revealed the cover of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander. She was just starting on the first chapter when Mrs. Lumihee came back from the front room, looking both upset and worried.

"It's for you, Alazne," she said. "The little girl from next door wants to ask you something."

Alazne's heart leapt in her chest. Every time she asked to go out and play with the children in the countryside or watch television at their house or take a ride to the city to find something to do, her mother always refused. She was worried she might do something that might get her picked on or that she would lose control and do something by accident. It was the only thing that ever made her upset with her mother. She tried very hard to keep her emotions in check while she was out, and she never would do anything to hurt or scare the other children if she could help it.

"Did she say what?" said Alazne, looking towards the door eagerly. She knew she should try and keep nonchalant about it in order to keep her mother from worrying more, but it wasn't easy when she reminded herself it was the first time any child had actively sought her out.

"No, you'll just have to find out yourself," Mrs. Lumihee replied.

Alazne needed no further persuading, and eagerly raced to the door to find the rosy cheeked girl from next door, who was a few years older than her. She didn't look overly happy to be there, but at least her voice was pleasant enough when she spoke.

"Hey Lumihee, you free?"

The neighbor kids often addressed her like this on the rare occasions they saw her—she was actually pretty sure they didn't know her first name.

"Yes, I'm free, Joanne. Why?"

"I wanna go out to the countryside hunting beasties and mum won't let me go unless I have at least four people with me, but Vivian's sick. My sister's too busy too and I can't find anyone else, so my mom told me to ask you," snipped Joanne in a prissy voice.

"You want me to go?" Alazne said hopefully.

Joanne made a face like she had gotten a bug in her mouth.

"Want is a strong word," she replied.

"But…you're asking me to go, right?" said Alazne.

"Yeah...I guess so," said Joanne slowly, "…if you don't act all weird."

"I won't do anything weird, who said I do weird stuff…?"

Mrs. Lumihee began to gesture wildly out of sight of Joanne—she didn't want to actually embarrass her daughter—and Alazne asked the girl to wait before going over to her.

"Mummy, what's wrong? I can go, can't I?" she asked, giving her mother the most pleading look she could muster.

"I…don't really want you…t-to go, Sunshine," Mrs. Lumihee replied, straining to not be manipulated by her daughter's look and countering it by using her oldest pet name. "What if something happens?"

"Nothing will, Mummy, I promise! I can control myself!" Alazne pleaded. "Oh please Mummy, please let me go! No one ever came and asked for me before!"

Just then Joanne poked her head in—of course her mother stopped gesturing and Alazne stopped giving her the look—and asked, "so are you coming or not?"

Alazne gave her mother the look one last time, mouthing, "please, please, please?" and less than ten minutes later, Alazne, who couldn't believe her luck, was walking into the countryside with Joanne and two brothers named Percy and Seamus for the first time in her life. Her mother hadn't been able to say no to her daughter's pleading. But before they'd left, Mrs. Lumihee had taken her aside.

"Now Alazne," she had said, whispering close to Alazne's ear, "anything happens, anything at all, and you run right home, okay? I mean it. Don't do anything or let yourself get worked up."

"I won't, Mummy," said Alazne, "I can control it. Honest…!"

But she could tell her mother didn't believe her. She never did.

When she was four, Mrs. Lumihee, worried Alazne would go to primary school and make people suspicious with her eyes, went and found special glasses in Diagon Alley that would make the wearer's eyes look a certain color to onlookers. However, they were so big that Alazne felt like an owl in them, and she spent a sleepless night worrying about going to school with those glasses when she liked her eyes just fine how they were (and the glasses gave her a headache to boot). The next day, however, when they went to meet the principal they just stopped working, and she had frightened the man with the sudden change—the color they were supposed to be was blue like her father. Her mother had immediately fled with little Alazne and she had been homeschooled ever since.

Another time, a little boy had been teasing a neighbor's hand-me-down clothes and suddenly found himself in a vibrant orange dress. Worse, the harder he tried to get it off, the uglier and frillier the dress became, until he was standing in an Amish style brown dress with orange puffballs crying for his mother. To Mrs. Lumihee's great relief, no one mentioned Alazne when they discussed the incident, not realizing she had been around when it happened and not at home.

On the other hand, Alazne had almost been discovered when she knocked a large shelf over a few years back, nearly crushing a young man shopping at the store. Alazne had heard the father screaming at his son for crying when he hurt his foot, telling him to act like a man, and in a sudden rush of anger the shelves next to him had found themselves rushing towards him. Luckily no one was hurt, but someone had seen Alazne glaring at the man and shaking with anger and suspicion flared.

But today, nothing was going to go wrong. Alazne had been training herself to keep calm just so she could prove to her mother she could hide her magic, and now she was going to do it and finally be able to go into Doleville and make friends.

It was a very sunny Thursday and the countryside was very inviting. The trees offered plenty of shade, and the other children didn't say anything mean at all. In fact, Percy even offered to share some of the lemon drops he'd brought with him. They weren't bad either, Alazne thought as Seamus and Joanne looked under some bushes for a "beastie" to catch, holding a large net to catch it with when they found one. In fact, Alazne was having one of the best days she'd ever had. She was very careful to walk a polite distance from Joanne and the brothers so that they wouldn't start asking too much about her, which sometimes kids did when she went out since she was such a mystery. They ate there under the trees when they hadn't found anything by lunch time, and when they noticed near the end of eating their lunches she didn't have anything, they gave her the odds and ends their mothers had given them that they hadn't wanted.

She should have known it was going to well.

After lunch, the other three decided it would be a good idea to split up so that they'd have a better chance of finding something. Alazne didn't mind. She was pretty sure there wasn't anything too dangerous around their part of the country. They made a deal that anyone who found something would howl like a dog—especially Seamus, who owned the net—and split up. Alazne kept an eye out as she walked in hopes she would find something first to make the others happy, but mostly she was just happy to be outside. She knew the others wanted to find huge, poisonous spiders or big man-crushing snakes, but she was happy stumbling across a butterfly or a rabbit. The latter, of course, got away before she could call for the others.

Then she stumbled on a large snake that she recognized from one of her reptile books, a Common European Adder. She knew they were poisonous and if startled it would bite—but when she looked it didn't look frightened at all. In fact, it looked almost like it was expecting her.

She moved over a little so that she was in front of the snake, since she had come upon it from the back, and crouched, looking at it curiously. She had never gotten to see a snake outside of her books. She kind of felt jealous of it—it got to wander about and use its special gift by biting people whenever he got mad or scared, while she had to stay cooped up and teach herself to hold her tongue.

The snake let her look at it until slowly, very slowly, rose up as if to strike. Before Alazne could move, worried, its head was level with hers as she crouched before it.

And it winked.

Alazne moved back a little in surprise. Snakes couldn't wink, she knew they couldn't, but this one definitely had. Then she looked around to see if any of the other three were around. They weren't. So she winked too.

The snake opened its mouth and as clear as day, said to her in a low hissing voice like one would expect a snake to have, "I sssssee you are enviousssss of me?"

Alazne swallowed a little, both nervous of being caught and embarrassed to answer.

"Yeah," she murmured, though she didn't expect the snake to understand, "I can't wander around or use my gift like you."

"Oh," said the snake, "That musssssst be very annoying."

Alazne nodded vigorously.

"I sssssssee you are a witch then?"

Alazne nodded again, replying, "how did you know?"

"Mossssssst humansssss don't notissssss me in a sssssivilized manner. Issssss it nissssss?"

"To be a human? I guess so. I dunno what it's like to be anything else. Is it nice to be a snake?"

"Yesssssss. But I don't know what it'sssss like to be anything elssssss either."

As she smiled at the snake, the snake returning it as best as a snake can return a smile, the sudden swish of a net and a shout made both of them jump. "JOANNE! PERCY! COME HERE, I CAUGHT A SNAKE! LUMIHEE CHARMED IT!"

Out of nowhere Joanne and Percy rushed from the trees as the snake cried out and squirmed under the net, Alazne letting out a sympathetic cry.

"Wait, you're scaring him…!"

"Out of the way, you! We want to see it!" Joanne said, shoving her over. Caught off guard, Alazne fell over and noticed that two newcomers had brought sticks and were jabbing at the snake spitefully, making it call out in pain and bite futilely at the net.

"Stop it! Stop it, you're hurting him! Stop it!" Alazne called, near tears and getting angrier by the minute.

"Oh lighten up, Lumihee! It's nothing but a stupid snake! It's not like it feels anything," Percy replied, laughing as he nearly hit the Adder in the eye.

Alazne felt the hairs rise up on the back of her neck and screamed in rage, "DON'T YOU SAY THAT, YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO HURT HIM JUST 'CAUSE HE'S A SNAKE!"

What came next came so fast no one saw how it happened—one moment Joanne and Percy were poking at the poor Adder while Seamus kept it trapped, the next, they had all leapt back with cries of horror.

Alazne paled and covered her mouth in shame; the net around the Adder had vanished and the snake was now poised to strike. Joanne and Percy brandished their sticks like swords while Seamus looked at the stick that had held his net in shock.

As the snake made a bite for Percy's ankle, Alazne quickly moved forward, saying to it, "no, don't bite them, they could die!"

The three children looked at her in shock but the snake paused in mid strike, Alazne now between it and its former tormentors. It moved back into a relaxed position and bowed its head, saying in a low voice, "fine…senssssss you freed me I'll lisssssssten and sssssspare them a bite….Thankssssss, Sssssnake-Ssssspeaker…" before it fled into the brush.

It took a few minutes for anyone to calm down enough to speak, and when they did, it was Seamus.

"But my net," Seamus managed softly, "where did my net go…?"

Before anyone else could say anything Alazne fled toward home, face red and eyes pricking with tears of shame and embarrassment at losing control. Someone could have gotten hurt if the snake hadn't listened to her. When she got home she clung to her mother and sobbingly explained what had happened, apologizing over and over again.

Mrs. Lumihee was kind enough to wait until Alazne had calmed down before chastising her. She only said, "people always hurt others when they think they're better than them…I know you were only trying to do the right thing. But I hope you know you're not allowed out with them again," before bringing her to her bedroom so she could calm down with her new book.

Alazne lay in her bedroom much later, wishing her mother hadn't come and taken her flashlight away. She liked to read when she wanted to calm down and the new book was a good one. She always loved books from the magical world.

She had lived in Doleville all her life, but as long as she could remember, she wished her mother would let her into the wizarding world she was a part of, even if it meant working with her in one of the houses that employed her. She couldn't remember ever meeting a witch or wizard, but sometimes, when she was half-asleep in her bedroom, she got this strange vision: a weedy, tall man with a cold voice. She guessed it was her father, though she assumed that her father was a Muggle and this man definitely wasn't. Then again, she didn't know anything about her family or the magical world except what her mother told her. She talked about the magical world often enough, but she almost never said anything about her family, and the only photographs in the house were of the two of them.

When she was younger, Alazne had wished her mother wasn't so afraid of people mistreating her, but it had never happened; she was too ashamed and afraid of something to live in the magical world where Alazne could be herself and too afraid to let her be around Muggles, who might see she was different and do something to her. As far ahead as the world had come, her mother said, "people will always be afraid of difference. They fear what they don't understand." Somehow she had a feeling her mom might be right, so she never questioned it…but she had never understood why her mother had refused the few times Alazne had gotten the courage to ask about living in the wizarding world until today. The way those kids had jabbed at the Adder, just because they thought they were stronger and better than him…how would witches and wizards treat her, who knew magic only from books and the times she lost control?

Alazne turned over, tearing up. Except for her mother, she had no one. She was just that weird Lumihee girl in second-hand clothes who read in her granny-glasses…the one that didn't belong with anyone, magic or Muggle.