A/N: I decided to post chapter 3, too, since I have it finished. Chapter 4 is going to be really long, because it involves Diagon Alley and getting school supplies, I won't post it for a while because I'm still playing with the details. Once again, a beta reader would be appreciated.
BTW: Struggling with the formatting For some reason my spaces don't show up normally, and these lines are really getting on my nerves.

Toto Nation: That's actually kind of what inspired this - on FictionAlley, a Harry Potter website I visit a lot, there is a section for crossovers, but Darren Shan wasn't among the crossovers at all. That kind of shocked me.

Ariana-blood-hehe: This story actually technically takes place after the last book, Sons of Destiny, which explains the whole life changing thing. If you haven't read it, I really suggest you do. I promise that in this story there won't be any real spoilers for the final book, but its sequels (Darren's later years at Hogwarts) will have spoilers... You have a long time to finish reading the series, though, seeing as I won't be getting to the sequels for a long time.

Lluvia: I definitely plan to keep writing this story. Mostly I just wanted to test the fandom a bit, and see reactions before I posted more.

Thanks so much for the reviews, guys!


It took me a couple of days to get up the courage to ask my parents about the letters. I guess I believed in them, because my eventual motivation was how close the "owl by" date was. I approached my dad about it first. I couldn't think of how to phrase any questions, so I just told him I got something weird in the mail and showed my letter to him, and mentioned that Steve got one, too.

After reading through the entire letter, my father laughed. "You don't actually believe this, do you? There is no such thing as magic. This is just an elaborate hoax."

"Well…" I mumbled under my breath. I wanted him to say more, but I didn't want him to think I believed in this magic school or else I would look like an idiot.

At that point, I was really frustrated. I almost wanted to tell my dad about what happened at the party, but I knew that would probably make the situation worse. It was okay for my dad to laugh at the letters, but I couldn't stand it if he laughed directly at me for something I thought was serious. So I gave up with my dad. I laughed along with him and then went straight to my mom while I still had the spirit.

My mom laughed, too, and ruffled my hair. "Darren, you have an incredible imagination. Put it to something more useful."

I didn't have the heart to tell Steve what my parents said, because I knew he still believed that we had special powers and we could go to this magical school and join the Cirque du Freak.


That night, before going to bed, I decided to tell my sister Annie about the letters. She wandered into my bedroom and found the letters on her own while I was taking a shower. When I got back to my room and saw her trying to read them, I wasn't mad at all. In fact, I was kind of relieved. She is okay for a little sister, because she never snitches to my parents. I didn't want my parents to know that I took the letters seriously, but my sister would probably understand. So I explained everything to her, starting with the party and finishing with the owl in Steve's backyard. Afterwards, I read the letters aloud to her.

"Dear Mr. Shan, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31."

"Wow!" Annie said, and took the letters from my hand. She studied the writing for a while, eyes wide with astonishment. There was a period of silence during which she just stared at the parchment in her hands. "Well, you're going, right? The deadline is only in a couple of days! Have you sent an owl yet?"

"What? Am I supposed to hunt down some wild owl and trust him with my mail? Don't be ridiculous! There's no such thing as magic, and owls can't deliver mail!" I snapped, taking the letters from her. I almost immediately felt bad, because I had gotten mad at her even though I was thinking the same thing as she was.

"But how do you explain what happened to you, aside from magic? Darren, you have to go! You can't just pretend nothing happened. Besides, this is a school! Your education is at stake! You have to tell Mom and Dad!" Annie argued.

"I already did, Annie. Mom and Dad just laughed at me. I would probably laugh at someone, too, if they told me they believed they were a wizard," I replied, and fell back onto my bed. I stared up at the ceiling and clawed at the blankets, trying to vent some of my frustration through being violent towards my bed.

"Maybe if you showed them some of what you can do? Then they'd have to believe you, right?" Annie suggested.

I sat upright in bed and slapped the mattress enthusiastically. "That's it, Annie! I can just show them, can't I? I've done it once, and this place thinks I can do it again."
I immediately decided to try and do some magic for my parents. I bolted out of the room, leaving Annie by herself, and took the stairs three at a time. My parents were in the living room watching the news. When I entered the room, catching my breath, they turned to look at me suspiciously.

"What are you up to, Darren?" my mom asked from her seat on the couch beside my father.

"Nothing," I lied, and wandered into the kitchen, where I pretended I was thirsty. I searched slowly through the cupboards, as though I couldn't find a cup even though there were dozens of cups in the shelves. When I picked a cup, my parents turned back towards the television. I walked to the fridge and filled up the cup, then drank slowly, making sure my parents were focused on the television. Then, with all of my might, I thought about making the television float. I stared at the television, willing it to levitate above its stand, imagining it a foot in the air. I said in my head, Television, you WILL float. Levitate! Go up in the air! I know you can float! Float, damn it! But nothing happened. Then I realized that maybe I was going to fast. Maybe I should do something easier. I focused on the television and imagined it turning off. And it did!

My dad got to his feet and dropped the remote onto the couch cushion. He stretched and yawned, and stared at me with my stupid victorious grin on my face. When he looked confused, I realized that I hadn't turned off the television with magic, but he had turned it off with the remote. My smile disappeared and I buried my face behind the glass of water so that he couldn't see my disappointment.

"Go to bed, Darren," he demanded.

I set the cup on the counter, leaving it there, and trudged up the stairs to my room. The stairs felt like a mountain to me as I climbed them. When I got to my room, Annie was gone, and the letters were folded neatly back into their envelopes and sitting on my bedside table. I opened the table's drawer and slid the envelopes into it. Then I dropped onto my bed and pulled the blankets all the way up to my chin. I was so devastated that I didn't even want my parents to come and say good night to me, so I just turned off the lights and went to sleep on my own.


The next morning, I slept in really late. I ended up waking up with half of the day gone. I dressed and went downstairs to make myself some food. My dad was at work, and I didn't know where my mom or Annie was. I decided to make myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I sat down to eat my food, and I was barely half way through my sandwich and glass of milk when the doorbell rang.

Annie rushed downstairs from her bedroom to answer the door, despite how many times my mom and dad had told her not to answer the door. I abandoned my sandwich and milk on the table to help her with the door. We fumbled with the locks for a while before I finally managed to open the door. Annie immediately let out a shrill shriek and darted back up the stairs. I wanted to follow her, but I was petrified and speechless.

Standing before me was the shortest old man I had ever seen. He wore a confused expression and strange clothes. "You must be Darren Shan!" he said with a smile, and shook my hand enthusiastically. "My name is Filius Flitwick. You can call me Professor Flitwick, because hopefully I will be teaching you Charms at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry if this meeting goes well. I believe I just spoke to your friend Steve…"

"Hogwarts? So you left those letters at Steve's house!" I cried.

The Professor Flitwick man laughed. "Me? Of course not! The owls left all of those letters!"

"All? You mean there was more than one?" I wondered.

"Certainly. The school sent out several letters to your house, and when we hadn't heard back the headmaster sent me out to speak with your family personally. He assumed there would be some problems. This happens quite frequently, actually. It seems to be difficult for Muggles to believe in magic, Merlin knows why…"

I stared at him, mouth gaping. Suddenly, I could hear my sister whimpering and footsteps coming down stairs. My mom was walking Annie back towards the door, but obviously wasn't expecting to see this Flitwick character when she got to the bottom of the stairs. She gasped, covered her mouth with her hand, and Annie ducked behind her as though she was a human shield.

"Who are you?" my mother screamed, trying to comfort Annie with gentle pats on the back.

"My name is Filius Flitwick. I teach Charms at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. That is precisely what I am here to talk with you about. Do you mind if I come in?" Flitwick said. He waited for my mom to answer before stepping inside and carefully shutting the front door behind him.

My mom ran her hand through her hair and massaged her temples before sending Annie back upstairs and walking me and Flitwick to the kitchen, where she offered us some tea.

"Oh, no, allow me," Flitwick said with a smile, and pulled a long, thin piece of wood from his belt. He waved it earnestly and suddenly our cupboard flung open and our tea kettle floated over towards the sink. The sink turned on by itself, the kettle filled with water, and then floated over to the stove. After the tea kettle was settled on the stove, he sat down at the kitchen table across from my mother and I. "I believe you have been receiving letters from Hogwarts? Am I correct?"

I looked up at my mother as I told him, "I got one letter, while I was at Steve's house… I showed you, mom, remember?"

My mother's head dropped into her hands. "Yes, I remember. You got about a hundred more that your father and I never showed you. We thought it was some joke…"

"I assure you it was not a joke," Flitwick said, and waved the bit of wood again to make three tea cups and saucers float down from the cupboards and arranged themselves in front of us.

"Is that a magic wand?" I asked, and I suddenly wanted to reach out and grab it. There seemed to be so much I could do with it. It was kind of enchanting.

"Yes, it is my wand, and you will get one, too," Flitwick said, then looked towards my mother, "If you decide to let him attend the school?"

"But when I did magic, I didn't have a wand at all," I said.

"Wandless magic is quite common in children who haven't learned to control themselves yet. Mrs. Shan, I hate to sound threatening, but if Darren does not attend some sort of magic school, his inner magic could grow quite out of hand," Flitwick said, still looking at my mother.

My mom sighed and finally met Flitwick's eyes. "What do you people want with my family? Why can't you leave us alone? My son is normal and can't do magic!" she snarled.

"I'm sorry if I'm bothering you, Mrs. Shan. I am just doing my job. But I assure you your son can do magic, or else I wouldn't be here. I realize how hard this must be for you, but you need to take your son into consideration. I doubt he wants to live his life knowing he can do these things but doesn't know how to do them properly," Flitwick replied, just as the kettle started whistling. He waved his wand and the kettle flew to the table and served us. "Do you see what I am doing? I am doing magic, Mrs. Shan. And if your son attends the school, he will be able to, as well. I have been working at Hogwarts for many decades, and I assure you it will do Darren good."

I went to grab my cup of tea but my mother stopped me. "Darren, go check on Annie," she grumbled, pushing the cup out of my hands and waving over her shoulder towards the stairs.

I knew there was no point in arguing with her, so I left my tea and for a second time I left my sandwich and went upstairs. In her room, Annie was laying on her bed with her face buried into her pillows. I sat on the end of the bed and poked her in the back. "Annie, get up," I sighed.

She didn't sit up, but she turned her head so that she could look up at me out of the corner of her eye. "Who was that man?"

"I don't know, but why did you get so upset?" I asked.

"He's not just a small person, Darren… There's something wrong with him… he's so small, like a doll. That's not normal! He isn't just some dwarf man…" Annie replied, and shuddered.

I nodded. I still think she definitely overreacted, but I wasn't in the mood to argue. I wanted to know what was going on downstairs, and whether this stranger would be able to convince my mom to let me go to Hogwarts. I was surprised that she seemed so accepting of Flitwick's magic. She must have gotten so many letters from owls that she expected it.

I spent a long time with Annie, but we didn't talk a lot. Both of us were thinking. I wanted to be called back downstairs. I wanted to have a say in my future. Eventually, I couldn't stand it any more. I found a cordless phone, which I used to call Steve.

Mrs. Leonard answered, "Hello?"

"Hello, Mrs. Leonard. Is Steve there?"

There was an unnerving pause. "Fine," she eventually said, and then there was a long silence. A very long silence. I almost hung up. But then Steve's voice said, "Hello?"

"Hi, Steve," I said, not really sure if I wanted to mention the man in my kitchen or if he would first.

"Darren! I was just about to call you! This … miniature man came to my house, he said he was from that school, Hogwarts. He spoke to my mother all about it… I get to go! Darren… do you know what this means?" He took a deep breath, and when he spoke again his voice was barely above a whisper. There was something strange about the way he spoke; he was so emotional, as though he might have even been crying, or had cried about the subject before. "For an entire school year, I wouldn't have to see my mother, Darren… Almost a full year, I don't have to worry about her getting drunk or coming home with men… I don't even have to see her." He stopped, and I heard something like a whimper escape his lips. I wanted to tell him that the Flitwick man was at my house, but I didn't want to interrupt him. Steve rarely showed any emotion at all, so I figured that it was important that I just listen to him for the moment. "Apparently this school…. It happens over seven years and then you graduate, and you're a wizard. Seven years…and I only have to see her over the summer." He took a deep, quivering breath, and I could tell that he definitely was crying now, although he was trying his hardest to hide it. After a while, when I hadn't said anything, he asked me, "Are you still there?"

"Yes," I uttered quietly. I suddenly felt so terrible. I couldn't imagine hating my mother so much that I would be excited about leaving her. Suddenly I understood a lot about Steve that I never did before. We had been friends almost our entire lives, but I had never really realized how bad it truly was between him and his mother. "Steve, he's at my house, too. I think I'll be able to go, too…"

There was a pause, but I could hear some movement on the other end and then Mrs. Leonard's voice, but I couldn't pick out what she said. "That's great, Darren. I'm going to go, now…" Steve mumbled.

I was kind of pissed that Steve wasn't as excited about me going to Hogwarts with him as he was about getting away from his mom. But I was also glad that Steve considered me a good enough friend to get emotional around me. Suddenly, I heard my mom calling me from downstairs. "Okay, Steve. Bye."

Steve hung up first, without saying another word to me. I hit the off button and threw the phone against my bed. I glared at it, and felt my stomach churn. This would be possibly the most important moment of my life. My mother and this strange midget man would be determining my future. I got up and went downstairs. My mom looked up at me, and I could tell she was stressed.

"You can go, Darren," my mom said with a forced smile.

For a moment, I looked from her to Flitwick, who was sitting propped up on a pile of old phone books in a chair so that he could reach his cup of tea on the table. He was grinning at me over the rim of his cup, which was almost bigger than his entire head.

"Really?" I muttered, somewhat shocked. I wasn't entirely sure if I was happy with the news. Before talking to Steve, I had been thrilled about learning to use this new power that I was told to be magic. But now, the thought of going to a school where I couldn't see my family and the only person I would know would be Steve… well, I actually dreaded it.

Flitwick waved his wand, which had been sitting on the table. A pad of paper and a pen shot across the room and landed on the table. He picked up the pen, half as long as his body, and wrote something on the paper, occasionally pausing to think.

"In order to get into the Wizarding World, you'll need a wizard," Flitwick said, and smiled up at me as he handed me the paper. "Those are some instructions. Someone, if not me, then another professor from Hogwarts, will meet you at the time I wrote down at the address I wrote down, which is a pub called The Leaky Cauldron. Whoever is there will assist you in buying your school supplies. You'll have to convert your Muggle money to our money, and perhaps set up a bank account."

"Muggle?" I questioned him. He had said the word several times before, but I had been a little preoccupied with more important questions to ask.

"Of course! It means a non-magical person," he replied, then quickly turned to my mother and told her, "It isn't a derogatory term at all, Mrs. Shan, I assure you."

She nodded and smiled.

Flitwick finished his tea and, with his wand, made his cup and saucer fly over to the sink and wash themselves. Then, pocketing his wand, he climbed down the stack of phone books and off the chair. "Darren, you'll enjoy Hogwarts. You will, I am certain of it. If you have ever felt different, you will be at home here. This will be an adventure for you."

"Thank you," I mumbled, because I couldn't think of anything more appropriate to say.

And with a loud sound like corn popping, the tiny man disappeared.

"Mom…" I muttered, unable to shake off my astonishment. A miniature person had just convinced my mother that magic existed and that I could be a wizard, and then had completely disappeared in my kitchen. He had also made tea and cleaned his dirty dishes without leaving his seat at my table.

My mother smiled weakly. "Darren… you'd better wash the dishes like that when you come home over the summer," she said as she stood up and approached me. She wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into a tight hug that almost hurt. "I'm worried about you…"

"Me, too mom," I said, and hugged her back.