Salutations and bienvenue! To those in this fandom, welcome to my insanity! To those that are following me from my other stories… this story is going to be the opposite of my usual work.

Disclaimer: Ilvermorny, M.A.C.U.S.A., the whole of the wizarding world, and every character in it belongs to J.K. Rowling, not me.

Prologue

Atop the highest peak of mount Greylock, hidden behind enchanted mists, stood an impossible sight: a medieval granite castle. But this isn't your average impossible castle, no this impossible castle is an impossible school… what? You've heard of another impossible hidden school? Oh, you must mean that one in Scotland! That's not the one I'm talking about, no I'm talking about the one in America!

That impossible school is Ilvermorny; Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in (point of) fact. For many years this school has stood against the test of time, dark practitioners, bigotry, and has trained the next generation of American witches and wizards for three hundred and ninety-seven years.

It was the next generation that was on the mind of Professor Agilbert Fontaine, Headmaster of Ilvermorny, as he sat at his desk looking over the letters that were about to go out to a new batch of first years. Fontaine was a thin dark-skinned man, coarse white hair on his head, a trim white beard, bright green eyes, and a multitude of wrinkles that, in conjunction with his white hair, bellied his age.

Most of the letters were already in their envelopes and to be owled out, except for the stack of letters that were right in front of him, the No-Maj-born (magical children whose parents have no magic) letters, which required a more personal touch then the other letters. "William." He called out in a, despite his age of ninety-seven, strong New Orleans accented voice. At his words an elderly humanoid figure appeared out of thin air with a small pop. He had grey skin, was small in stature, four feet tall, with an elongated nose, ears, and fingers.

"Whadaya want Fontaine?" said the old creature "You know me, and the others are busy getting the castle ready for the brats." Fontaine only smiled at the old Pukwudgie, not taking offence in the slightest. "I know William, and I'm very grateful fo yo work, but I need to speak with Hue and Sylas. Would you please get them fo me, it's about the remainin' No-Maj-Born letters? I believe they should be on campus."

The old Pukwudgie glared up at the headmaster for a few moments before grumbling under his breath and popping away. The headmaster looked back down at the small stack of No-Maj-born letters, five out of nine left and sighed thinking to himself 'Dere always seems to be fewer and fewer No-Maj-borns every year. I hope it's just nature deciding this and not some outside force at work.'

Images of the past flashed through the headmaster's mind: a banner with a set of hands breaking a wand, a glowing green skull with a snake coming out of its mouth in the sky, a mass of black smoke like substance lashing out, and a line through a circle enclosed in a triangle etched into a brick wall. He shuddered at the significance of each one. He shook his head violently, 'No! Voldemort and Grindlevald are dead and buried, their fallowers are either dead or in prison. The Scouiers have been dormant for years, and as fo an Obscurial-'

He would have continued along this train of thought, but with a small pop, William appeared with a scruffy looking middle-aged man with salt and pepper hair, dressed in white healers' robes, No-Maj running shoes, and was leaning heavily on an old and gnarled cane with the image of Pukwudgie house carved in the center of it. "Thanks for the ride stumpy." Said the man as he limped to one of the chairs in front of the headmaster's desk.

Fontaine frowned at the man before looking to the grumbling Pukwudgie with a kind smile on his face. "Tank you, William." The Pukwudgie grumbled something that sounded like 'stupid bum legged human' and popped away. The headmaster looked back to the man in front of him "You should really be nicer to dem Hue, dey are the namesake of yo house after all." Said the headmaster to Hue Homes, school doctor, deputy head master, and head of house Pukwudgie.

"Doesn't matter if I'm nice to the little snots," he said in his usual gruff and deadpan manner, "They're going to treat me the same way they treat everyone else: badly."

Fontaine rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Yes, but if you treated dem better they might stop hiding yo cane whenever you take yo eyes off it for more than five seconds."

Healer Homes seemed to think that over for a bit before shaking his head and frowning. "Nah! Besides, jokes on them, I'm getting much better at wandlessly summoning it back to me." He looked down at the letters on the head masters desk, "That the last of the letters? So, we waiting on the limey, the cowboy, or the runt of the litter?"

Before he can answer, Fontaine was interrupted by a small pop. William appeared yet again, this time with a tall man with brown hair, a handle bar mustache with a long connecting goatee, dressed in a purple vest with brass buttons and green trim, a white long sleeve button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up, black pants, boots, and tie, and a black fedora with a purple band around it. He also wore a black leather apron and had a vile of something green in his hand, poised to be poured into something. He looked slightly startled to be in a completely different place then he was earlier. "The runt it is then." Said Homes with a role of his eyes.

"Sylas," said Fontaine in a friendly tone, "good to see you my young friend, I hope we didn't take you away from somethin' important?" Sylas M. Zax, Transfiguration teacher and head of Horned Serpent house was about to answer but was stopped by the sound of a low boom that seemed to come from somewhere in the castle, more likely than not, Professor Zax's office and lab. "…No head master, you didn't." He said in a slightly pained voice, corking the vile, putting it away in his vest pocket, and pulling out his wand from the same pocket.

"Do we want to know what that was, newbie?" asked Homes, as Sylas waved his wand over his apron, transfiguring it into black suit jacket robes with deep red trim and a bright red interior.

"Nothing, well, nothing anymore." He answered as he took the other chair in front of the headmaster's desk. "I was working on a levitation potion to fuel Rosemarie in combination with the levitation charm I already placed on her chassis, but wouldn't interfere with the rune pattern or the invisibility booster or the extension charms I have on the-"

"Is there anything else you need of me, oh wise and venerable headmaster?" William asked, sarcasm dripping from his voice at the second half of his question.

"No, tank you William, that will be all." Said Fontaine, a sympathetic and grateful smile on his face.

"Good." Said William, "Cause apparently I got an explosion to clean up in the Horned Serpent wing." He gave Zax the stink eye, "Again." This caused the younger man to wince as he slipped his wand into his sleeve. With a final glare at the three wizards, the old Pukwudgie disappeared with a pop.

Homes grimaced at the spot where the Pukwudgie had just been, "The old man's been crotchety lately." Turning back to Fontane and Zax, and seeing their skeptical expressions, he added "More than usual I mean." A rarely seen concern came flashed on his face as he said, "You think it's because of all the quakes we've been having lately?" The head master brows furrowed in thought.

"Could be, the earth quakes are a concern and a mystery. There has never been an earth quake here at mount Greylock, not before or after the settlers came to the new world and certainly not before or after Isolt Sayre, James Steward, and the Boot Boys founded Ilvermorny." Said Fontaine, a crease in his brow.

"So why are there earth quakes now?" asked Zax, his curiosity peaked. "Has something changed about the land since the founders built the school? Could it be a curse set on the mountain before the founding that was on a kind of timer or degraded to catastrophic effect?"

The head master realizes that the discussion has come back to his earlier thought: "I hope it's just nature deciding this and not some outside force at work." He said in a quiet voice.

Something flashed in Zax's eyes, but it went unnoticed by his elder professors as the head master shook his head. "As much as dat is a concern, we should get to the task at hand." Fontaine picked up the stack of five letters and placed them horizontally on his desk. "Dese are the last of the No-Maj-born letters, I have already given the other letters to the heads of Thunderbird and Wampus, I just need the two of you to decide who gets three letters and who gets two." Homes turned to Zax, fist on his open palm.

Zax looked slightly affronted, "Seriously? You're really going to try and get out of what amounts to charity work?" Homes, face deadpan, patted his open palm with his fist three times in answer. "Fine, lazy bones." Zax said in exasperation as he got his hands ready. They patted their hands three times in sync, then their hands formed the necessary symbols: Homes making a three-pronged claw, Zax with his hand open with the fingers splayed.

"Damn." said Homes, snatching his hand away as if it was burned.

Zax smiled in triumph, "Phoenix tears beats basilisk venom. I win." Zax looked at the five letters on the headmaster's desk. He closed his eyes and hovered his hand over the letters, but before he can pick even one, Homes quickly took three of the letters off the headmaster's desk.

"A Mr. Juan Zamora in the third bedroom at 564 Sanchez Lane Mexico City Mexico, Mr. Casey Johnson in the second-floor bedroom at 208 Jackson Boulevard Chandler Arizona, and a Ms. Sonia Wong in the smallest room at apt 48 Regan Avenue Boston Massachusetts" He read to the headmaster, who was giving him a disapproving frown at his antics.

Eyes now opened, Zax sighed in exasperation before picking up the last two of the letters. "A Mr. Ricardo Gomez in the third room at apt 10 Rio Grande Boulevard San Antonio Texas, and a Ms. Alice Starling in the fourth room on the left side at 13 Elm Street Durant Oklahoma."

"Good." said the head master as he took out and waved his wand at the letters, causing them to fly out of the professor's hands and into five unsealed envelopes. The head master then pointed his wand at a lit red wax candle, gathering melted wax into five small balls, then dropping them onto the closed envelope, and pressed each with his signet ring, leaving the schools seal.

That finished, Fontaine retuned the letters to Zax and Homes. "See that they are delivered to the children, educate the families of our existence and the Statute of Secrecy, and set up an appointment to take them to get their supplies. I know dat I can count on you two to get the job done."

Alice Starling

And the Beast of Ilvermorny

By DrZevil

AN: And there it is, short but hopefully you all liked what you read, but rest assured there will be more. If some of you have read my other stories, The Spider-Overlord and Breaking Point, then you know this is a major deviation from my usual work. If you've read Star Trek: Endeavor then it's not that different, morally if not genre-y.

When J.K. Roweling came out with her writings about Ilvermorny, I was inspired and felt that I need to write something. Plus, contrary to what I have written in my other stories, I need a little light every now and then. That said, this series (yes series, I'm going to try a little harder to get a story finished in less then a century) will have its dark moments as our intrepid heroine and her own band of friends grow into adulthood.

Normally this would be the part of where I would do my shtick about 'bidding you adieu', but after I post this, I'm going to be posting chapter one. So, lucky you! You get two chapters for the price of one!