Brand found himself awake, his head on top of the letter his friend Axelle had sent him. His brown eyes gazed at the clock on the wall above his bed, he saw that he had been sleeping for over five hours, it was just starting to get dark for the night. His brown hair was in a mess; he couldn't even pass his fingers through it without getting them stuck in a knot. He looked back to his letter:

Guess what Brandy! I used a spell! I was sitting on the couch in the living room listening to MMC: Magic music channel…you wouldn't know it, you never listen. Anyway, so I was sitting there and I lifted my arms and my crazy grandpa was floating in the air and he hit the ceiling! I couldn't stop laughing. What ever, I have to go eat now.

It's me,

Ax!

Brand took a piece of parchment from his drawer and wrote:

That's great Ax. I hope your grandpa's head get's better. I can't wait till we can actually go to school.

Have a good one,

Brand

Axelle had been known to cast accidental magic all the time, unlike Brand who no one really believed could be a wizard, he'd never used a spell, purposeful or accidentally.

"ow!" the owl that had brought the letter from Axelle bit his finger impatiently; it had apparently been waiting there on the window all the time he had been asleep. "Oh, I'm so sorry Meep-meep" He said, and rolled up the note, attached it to the owl's leg and it flew off making angry noises.

Brand walked downstairs to see if he could eat dinner before he went to sleep. "Dad, I need food!" Brand called, he waited for a bit then when he didn't get an answer he started looking through the rooms in the house. His dad was a wizard and he lived alone with him since after his mother had died. After Brand made sure his father wasn't in the house he went to the phone, there wasn't a lot of magic in the house because his father had wanted to keep the memory of brand's muggle mother alive. Brand called the number his dad had given him for emergencies, "Five… Four… Three… Two… One

Before Brand could hit the last number there was a loud noise upstairs, like a firing of a gun, so he hung up the phone and ran upstairs. He grabbed the handle to his room door and opened it; inside, an old man was sitting in a wooden chair that he didn't remember ever being there.

"Hello," the man said and outstretched his hand. "I am Aurelius Kin Zeheb, you can call me Zeb." Brand took the hand and shook it. The man was old, as old a man as Brand had ever seen, he had wrinkles all over his face and his hands felt like they would break off to his touch. He let go from the hand hoping he hadn't hurt it.

"I'm—

"Brand Garrick" He interrupted.

"Sorry…" Brand paused, "do I know you?"

"Yes, now you do" he said, and smiled making Brand feel very uncomfortable. "I'm here to take you to my house! I believe you know my granddaughter Axelle?"

"You're Ax's Grandfather? I would never have guessed!" Brand said, he really couldn't see anything alike between them.

"Well, that's no fault of mine," he said grumpily. "She was adopted." He looked at Brand with his brows half covering his eye, again Brand felt uncomfortable. "Hold my arm tight"

"err… why?" Even without an answer however Brand took the old man's arm trying not to hurt him. Then, he was sucked through a tube of wind where he couldn't breathe, and couldn't help but hold tighter to Zeb's old arm.

He took a huge breath and suddenly found himself in a huge room with wooden tiles for walls floor and ceiling. There were 3 doors per wall…but none of them seemed to be an entrance, his first thought was that Ax's house was huge and they must be very rich.

"Welcome to my home," Zeb said, still sitting in his chair, grumpily rubbing his arm where Brand had been holding. "Don't make yourself too at home, not meaning to be rude, no one's welcome here."

Brand thought the old man was being rather rude for someone not trying to be rude. But his thoughts were interrupted by a scream high pitched and horrible as if someone was in terrible pain.

"BRANDY!"

Axelle was running towards him at the speed of light. Brand was starting to think it would be a good idea to start running in the opposite direction, but it was too late he was slammed to the floor and he felt like his back had broken in five different places. Once Brand managed to get to his feet he looked at Ax, she was smiling really wide and her eyes were twinkling. "Guessss what Brandy!"

"erm.." Brand started to say then he turned to Zeb. "Why did you bring me here?"

Zeb looked like he was going to give bad news and Brand inside became heavy. "Your father... he…" Zeb began—

"He got held up at work! So we get to keep you here!" Ax yelled excitedly. Zeb walked away grumbling something about, 'disgrace to the family' and 'that child is a pain...'

Brand hoped he only got held up at work… it happened a lot before, after all Brand's father was the most powerful person at the ministry, Tristram Garrick, Minister of magic.

"Well thank you for inviting me to stay," Brand said, he was feeling a bit down, his dad promised him he'd be there when his school letter arrived. Ever since His mother, Orenda Garrick, died his father was always busy, or maybe that's just when Brand realized that he was always busy.

There were four schools wizards and witches from California were sent to: Galiawaver, Urielflere, Indiralite, and Mandartree. Which school you entered was the decision of your parents or guardians. So Brand didn't even know if his dad had already chosen behind his back. The only way he would receive the letters was if his dad was too busy to get his son into school, which was likely.

"…and so much fun, we're gunna' play all kinds of games" Axelle had apparently been talking while Brand was thinking, but Brand couldn't focus on anything he was still very tired even after the five hours of sleeping he had done earlier. "we'll do all this fun stuff and then we'll eat, and then—

"Hey Ax, can you show me where I'm sleeping? I'm really tired" Brand asked.

"Sure, your room is way up top" She began walking towards a metal door in the wall with millions of buttons on the side, in Brand's opinion, it was too many buttons, there was no way the house could be that big.

"Is it an elevator…?" He asked.

"Elevator? No, this is a floor changer of course," she said, as if it were the most obvious thing. "You press the button for the floor you want to go to and go inside" She pressed the button with the label '18059', the metal door slid open and she stepped inside, she beckoned to Brand to follow. Once he stepped inside the door slammed shut. At first all he could see was darkness, but before he opened his mouth to ask her what was going on, a million or so bright stars of colors sparkled all around him. It was beautiful and it seemed to go on forever, but it suddenly faded back to black and the door slip open again making light spill into Brand's eyes. It took Brand a moment to realize how little time he had actually passed inside the floor changer. Ax turned and smiled at him, "you'll get used to it."

Axelle kept talking as they walked through a corridor with doors numbered with a strange alphabet that Brand didn't know. "What's amazing about this house is that it doesn't really exist" she said with a mysterious sideways look, a kind of scary one, as if she was sure he would ask…

"Umm… doesn't exist?" He asked hoping it would make her stop staring at him weird.

"Yea, its own world…it's not on the map. And it's alive, if it doesn't like you… It'll make sure to get rid of you." She smiled, Brand was starting to worry, was this what Zeb meant when he said that no one was really welcome in the house, was he going to be spit out into space while he was sleeping?

"Here it is! Grandpa told me it's this one." She pointed at the only green door in the black walled corridor; the other doors were blue, yellow, or red.

"Thanks Ax," he said. "I'll go right to bed."

"Bye bye Brandy, see you tomorrow in the kitchen, I'll be making eggs by the time you get up and find your way there." She ran off through the corridor skipping.

Brand turned to the green door and opened it, all he saw as he opened it was a bed, and it was all he saw before he feel asleep on it.