PROLOGUE: PART III

AMEILIA

These first few years of my life have been wasted. Wasted like putting chocolate on a chocolate cake. Except my life is nothing like chocolate cake. It's more like spinach. I live with my Aunt Memphis and Uncle Peter.

Except, to them, I'm like a rat in their house. They pretend I'm not there; they abuse me, leave me to the cat (In this case, my cousin Damion Anan) but not even bother to kick me out.

I tell you, having a cupboard under the stairs as the place you sleep in for 10 years is not fun! Especially when you're being abused by your guardians AND their son. Even school's a drag just because Damion and his gang always beat me up. Alright, let's cut to the chase.

My name is Amelia Thomas. The reason I am living with my dreadful uncle, aunt and cousin is because when I was a baby, my parents died in a car crash. Or at least, that's what my uncle and aunt told me. So that's why I was sent to live with my only living relatives, the Anans. So with this kind of life, what makes me think that my 11th birthday will be any better? After all, the Anans never acknowledged my birthday before.

"Happy birthday to me" I muttered in my "room", a.k.a the cupboard under the stairs. I opened the little door and walked out. Damion was watching TV (as usual) and eating bacon on the couch. (Seems about right. He keeps getting fatter everyday) I sat down on a chair at the table, and Aunt Memphis handed me a plate of pancakes (Actually, one pancake. No wonder I'm so thin!) But didn't look me in the eye, as if she was setting down a plate of pancakes on the table, waiting for someone to come and get it.

Before I could take a bite, though, an owl suddenly flew in out of nowhere, carrying a letter, which landed right in front of me. As I was preparing to open it, though, suddenly confused, Aunt Memphis and Uncle Peter's eye suddenly bulged. Peter was sitting on the couch with Damion, and since he was so, oh should I say this….Fat? It took him awhile to dash up to where I was in the kitchen. I had just got the letter out of the envelope, and the front said "HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY". What? What's that supposed to mean? Before I could find out, though, Uncle Peter snatched the letter from my hands and threw it in the garbage.

"Anything anyone sends to you, isn't worth keeping" Peter merely said and strode out back in the living room with Damion. What the hey was that? That was the first time anyone has ever sent me a letter, and he just threw it away? Rage suddenly filled inside me like mad, my eyes red with fury, as they always were, behind my glasses. Though before I could go and spaz out at Peter, two more owls came in, bearing the same message.

Unfortunately, though, before I could open any of them, Peter came and stole them again and threw them out. Though still, more and more owls flew it, bearing the message, and Peter looked so purple and fat, he could basically be a giant grape. As time passed, the kitchen was full of owls that started attacking Peter and Memphis. I couldn't help but to just laugh.

Apparently, though, that was not the right thing to do. Peter dragged me, Damion and Memphis over to the car, without packing, and threw us in. He started driving, and neither of us dared to ask where we were going. We finally stopped at a hotel and rented a room, but unfortunately, Uncle Peter's nightmare was brought to life again was more owls swoop in trying to deliver the letter.

Honestly, what message can be so important? So, going to the hotel didn't solve anything, so Uncle Peter drove us to this cabin in the sea, claiming that no one would want to deliver mail way out there. But as night fell and I was about to go to sleep on the damp floor, ending another miserable birthday, someone knocked on the door.

"Amelia! Get that, would you? And that's an order!" Peter yelled. Sighing, I walked over to the crappy door and opened. Honestly, whatever I was expecting certainly wasn't anything I would ever have imagined to be like the man who opened the door. He was extremely large and was really hairy.

"G'day, 'Melia!" He greeted. Ok, how the hell did he know my name? "I've come to take yer to 'Ogwarts" He beamed.

"Hog...warts?" I repeated suspiciously. Wasn't that letter from someone at…Hogwarts, was it?

"'At's righ. 'Ow, come on!" He gestured to follow him outside.

"I-I'm not going anywhere with a stranger. I don't even know what you're talking about!" I stammered. The man's smile faded to a frown.

"Doesn't she know?" The man yelled at Uncle Peter and Aunt Memphis, who now appeared in the room and were cowering in the corner at the man's voice booming throughout the room. Aunt Memphis and Uncle

Peter shook their heads rapidly. The man suddenly took out an umbrella, and a magically stream of light hit Damion right on the ass, and where the light landed, grew a little pig tail, making Damion look more pig-like than ever. I let out a little laugh.

"Don Cha gets it, 'Melia?" The man turned to face me, "Yer a witch!"