Pence Auryion bounded down the stairs of her grandmother's house on the morning of October 28, 1967, where she had stayed the night before, to find her parents already there. She ran up and hugged her mother,
"Morning mama," she said smiling.
"Good morning and Happy Birthday!" her mom said.
Today was Pence's seventh birthday, and she was very excited. Because Pence didn't go to school yet, she really didn't have any friends to invite to her party, but her cousins (mostly very distant and older) were coming later that night.
"Now," her grandmother said, standing up and walking into the kitchen and pulling out her wand, "time for breakfast,"
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It was nine thirty at night, Pence stood near the edge of the timber with her second cousins and her parent's friend's children. All of them were over 14, but Pence had no where else to stand, because her family had taken up the lawn chairs to play cards. A loud howl was heard from the woods, making Pence shiver and step backwards a few paces, and run into her second cousin Troy. He laughed,
"Oh, are you scared?" Pence shook her head,
"No!" They laughed, and one of the boys, Zack, said,
"I bet you couldn't last five minutes in there without running out crying," he said grinning. Pence glared at him, then glanced at her parents who weren't paying attention. She made up her mind and ran up the sloping hill and into the timber about 30 feet. She smiled as she heard the startled voices of the teenagers below
"Keep checking your watches," she yelled down to them, "I'll stay in here 6 minutes!"
Every time a minute passed, her cousin Candace would yell how much time she had left. Standing up there by herself was scary, but Pence knew she could do it…she was seven years old now! After what seemed like forever, Candace yelled that she could come down, that she was done. Pence grinned, feeling very accomplished, and started down the hill. About halfway down, she heard the crackling of leaves behind her. She turned around swiftly to see a large, grey wolf with gleaming yellow eyes staring at her.
Pence made a move to run, but her feet seemed glued to the spot, and she couldn't find her voice to yell for help. Slowly, she managed to go backwards a step. As her feet hit a twig, the wolf growled and started forward. Pence whimpered and kept moving backwards, going faster and faster. The next step she took, she tripped over a tree branch and fell backwards. The wolf took this as its chance, and ran forward, growling. It jumped on Pence and started tearing at her left leg. Finally, Pence had the ability to scream, and she did. She heard people running up, and then yelling. Pence's world went black as she felt the wolf sink its teeth into her side.
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Chapter 1

Pence woke with a start and sat up slowly. Looking around the whitewashed dormitory, she saw that some of the other girls were also stirring. Out the barred windows, she saw a cloud shifting away from the nearly-full moon. This has happened before; sometimes, when the moon is close to being full, Pence and some of the other girls there at the clinic had trouble sleeping.
Pence had been at the Lycanthrope Clinic and Orphanage in London, England, for about a year and a half now. October 20, 1974, her parents and little sister had died in a car crash back home in Iowa, U.S.A., leaving her to the Ministry, as she now had no living relatives. The American Ministry arranged for Pence to stay at the clinic until she was 17, legally an adult, and continue her education in magic with the tutor at the clinic.
She couldn't say she hated life in London, living with other children that shared her condition, but she missed living in a house and having a real family. Pence, being 15, was one of the oldest girls at the clinic; most of the others were about 6-12 and avoided her because she was older. She didn't care though; she had never had any real friends anyways, so why bother?
The next day, one of the healers walked Pence and some of the others down the snowy streets, through the Leaky Cauldron, and into Diagon Alley to buy books at Flourish and Blotts. Pence always enjoyed their trips to the bookshop; she never had much else to do, so she would buy big books to help pass the time until she turned 17.
Pence walked up to the counter to purchase a new book; behind it was a young witch who looked about 19. Pence handed her some money,
"Hey, how old are you?" asked the girl as she gave Pence her change.
"Fifteen…" Pence answered quietly, wondering why this girl was asking her age. The girl grinned,
"Ooh, just old enough…" she grabbed a scrap of parchment and a quill and started writing rapidly. When she was done, she handed the paper to Pence, who could barely make out her scribbled writing,
"Party on X-Mas eve, ages 15, 6:00 p.m. - whenever. Flag down the Knight Bus; tell conductor you need to go to the Cummings party. Tell your friends! (No muggles.)
-Lillet Cummings "
Pence looked back to the girl, "Lillet", she gave her another grin,
"You should come," she said, "there's gonna be loads of people there…and we've got music and alcohol…all sorts of stuff, it's gonna be great."
Pence looked back at the paper; Christmas Eve was the full moon, there's no way she'd be able to go…As another customer came up behind her, Lillet tapped Pence on the shoulder and raised an eyebrow. She thought about her longing to be with regular people her age, and how she might never get a chance like this again. She quickly made up her mind; she'd sneak out after dinner that night, then go to the party and be back at the clinic before they went down to the basement to transform…
"I'll be there," Pence said, stuffing the paper into her jeans pocket.
"Brill! I'll see you there," Lillet said, as the healer came and ushered Pence back to the group. As they trudged through the snow, back to the clinic, Pence thought about how long the next two days would be, waiting until Christmas Eve.
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Hey there guys! Started writing this awhile ago…
This is a prequel that tells Pence's life before Incoherent Memories. You don't really need to read I.M. before you read this, so yea…Hope you like it! Review pleasums!