Chapter 1: Normalcy

Sapphire eyes mirrored the blue of the sky as a boy sat staring into the sky. A few clouds traced the sky here and there, and overall it was a very relaxing and peaceful day. The boy brushed his light-brown hair with a forlorn sigh. It was another normal day in his normal neighborhood… something was horribly wrong. The boy's name was Daelin Soren, and he was not fit for normal; Daelin would often lay outside and dream of all the far away places and fantastic settings described in the books he'd read, his imagination knew no bounds.

Daelin lived with his father… alone. Daelin's mother had died of an illness only five years after he was born, and they were forced to move from their large two-story house to the small one story abode due to financial problems… Daelin's father, was a librarian. Not the most glamorous job, but it was the perfect job for a boy who loved to read and escape through the words on the page to the fantastic realms which lay just within the page.

Daelin was 11 years old, would be 12 in December. He would soon be back in school again, which he dreaded. As he looked back at his humble house, he had to repress another forlorn sigh. Their house was a small black spot in the neighborhood; an imperfection to the otherwise perfect model for the neighborhood. It was seated between two larger homes, both which looked like they were looming over the house, ready to consume the outsider and finally be at rest.

Not only was the house a ugly smudge, to the neighborhood's opinion, but also Daelin himself was targeted to be a troublemaker. He couldn't explain how he got the name other than that he was just present when strange things happened. For instance, after their neighbor had gotten himself a brand new sports car and showed it off, later making fun of the car that Daelin's dad had, somehow mysteriously the engine simply disappeared the next morning when the neighbor tried to start it.

Another strange occurrence was with another neighbor. Their dog constantly got loose, however, its favorite target seemed to be Daelin. After chasing Daelin it suddenly found its way of the top of a large oak tree. Daelin couldn't explain it, but it took all night to get poor "fluffy" down.

Oh well, Daelin thought, this is how it's gonna be, I'd better get used to it. Things don't change overnight…

Daelin reluctantly marched back to the house, he had to check on what his father was doing. His father's hobby, when it was particularly quiet at the library or on his free time, was to invent things. Most of the things he made didn't work properly, or simply exploded, but there were a few things inventions that served a purpose, even if it wasn't the original intentions.

The door cracked open as Daelin approached, and a blond-haired and skinny man stuck his head out,

"Hey Daelin! Just the man I needed to see. I've got a surprise for you," Daelin's father said, "But! You first need to help me clean up my latest disaster… I don't think I had the right screw in perhaps…"

He moved backwards to let Daelin through, and once inside Daelin could make out the burn marks on his father's shirt and on the floor, where what looked like a smoldering pile of burnt metal.

"A present huh…" Daelin inquired as he fetched the bust-bin. His father moved back to his workbench where the blueprints lie, "Why didn't you tell me about it when you got home from work today?"

Daelin's father didn't look up from his blueprints but answered absentmindedly, "Because I figured that one of my inventions might go Ka-Bloowie and I thought I might need some leverage to get you to help me."

Daelin rolled his eyes but just cleaned up the mess. It wasn't long before he had cleaned the area, even got rid of most the scorch marks. His father was screwing two pieces together but, noticing that the work was done, pointed to his old and tattered bag that he brought his important library-related papers to work. Daelin eagerly opened the satchel and looked inside. A Dark blue book lay inside, and eagerly Daelin picked it up and leafed through the first few pages.

"It's about a boy who can talk to animals. He gets sucked into a magical world, pretty good read from the reviews…" Daelin's father said. Daelin beamed,

"Thanks! I haven't heard of this one, I love fantasy..." He said. His father smiled and went back to his work. Daelin took his book back to his room and started reading…

………….

It was a few hours later that Daelin put the book away for the night. He enjoyed the story so far… a boy who could talk to animals, he had an owl companion and was just about to get sucked into the fantasy realm… but it would have to wait until tomorrow to see what happened, because Daelin was tired. Since it was summer the sun set late at night, so he would have to go to sleep.

Daelin turned off the light and said goodnight to his father and crawled into bed. He took one final look out the window to gaze at the moon… it was nearly full and cast a silver sheen through Daelin's window and illuminated the whole room.

BAM! A small fluffy thing hit the window. Daelin jumped nearly out of bed, clutching the blankets and looking to see what it was. It was a bird… an owl to be exact. It was small and had white feathers, which were strangely glowing due to the moon's light. BAM! Again it pecked at the window. It was then that Daelin noticed that it held a letter in it's claws, and then it occurred to him that the owl might want to give him that. Slowly Daelin crept to the window and opened it, jumping back as the owl flew in and landed on the bed, offering the letter to him with a raised claw.

That was nearly too much for Daelin, had he been a completely normal boy like the rest of the kids in the neighborhood he might've screamed, or maybe even attacked the bird by now, but Daelin simply looked over to his nightstand, where the blue book sat. Suddenly a very crazy thought popped into his mind and tentatively he asked,

"Hello? Umm… can you speak?"

The owl just stared at him,

"It's ok… you don't need to be nervous…" Daelin said. The owl seemed to roll its eyes and again offered the letter, eager to be rid of it and out of this crazy boy's room. Daelin felt really stupid and, blushing, took the letter from the owl. With a whoosh of feathers the owl was gone, again part of the night.

Daelin felt really ridiculous, sitting in his bed with a letter that was delivered to him by an owl after he had tried to talk to it… maybe he was just crazy… or maybe it was a dream…

Daelin decided that it must be a dream, and therefore he'd but the letter on his nightstand on top of the book, and if it was there tomorrow it must be real. With that decided, Daelin closed the window and crawled into bed, his last thoughts was about if the owl really understood what he was saying…

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Author's Note:

Disclaimer: All ideas and names from the Harry Potter Series are not mine, but J.K. Rowling's. Anything familiar from those Series are not mine, but the rest are mine, and only mine.

This is Onihawk, previously known to this site as Blackotter. I've decided to try and write a my own little novel, even if it's based on another book, it still is a pretty nice thing for me. I have a lot of new ideas, so I wanted to base the world of Harry Potter on this, so I erased Voldemort and all that, but I may keep some of the characters. So far I have completely new characters because I don't want to erase some characters but keep some in as well, plus I always feel nervous about controlling other's characters because I could play them out wrong and have them act how they normally wont.

For those who've already read my work, you will probably recognize some of the scenes from the last chapters I wrote of the old version. I have liberty to do that because to me, that book is no more. I decided to write a completely new book because there were some things I didn't like about the old one, and I also have been gone a long while reading new books, learning new things about literature, and I decided that I wanted a new approach. You will recognize some of the characters, but I changed a great deal. I have kept my old novel up for those who wish to read it, but this is the new novel.

I am putting two chapters up today because I want you to be able to get a good taste of how my stories will go, and I thought it would be a good hook to see if you're interested in my story or not. I will try to update Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I may update Either Saturday or Sunday of this week because I'm excited about the book and I want to get the chapters out. What stopped me from updating was that I got sick and got really behind, plus I noticed some things that I didn't like and lost my inspiration. Please review my work because that is something that also drives me on. It's hard to write for yourself, but when there are people reading it, a new inspiration to write comes into you. If you like it please say so! If you don't but have suggestions, please say so! If you just don't like it and want to say that, then please don't, just read a different novel. Thank you for any reviews you guys give me, and please enjoy. I will work hard to continue on time and work for you guys.

(If you have any ideas, e-mail them to me, and if I like them I'll put them in and give you credit!)

Onihawk