AN: Hello, welcome. I'm very excited for you to read this story. A few clarifications before we start:

Since the location of the Durmstrang Institute is never explicitly stated, and it's only said that it's in the far north of Europe, I have taken the liberty of assuming it is in Russia since it obviously can't be in Bulgaria bc Bulgaria is very much not in the north of Europe, the only logical option would be Russia bc the names sure do sound a lot more Russian than, say, Scandinavian. And I'd think it'd be more likely for a Bulgarian to go to a Russian school. So yeah.

There's also a bit of Russian spoken at some parts, and I decided to transliterate from the Cyrillic alphabet since I assume most of you won't be able to read Cyrillic that easily, so you at least know more or less what the Russian being spoken sounds like.

And just to avoid any confusion, the main character's name is Alexandra but I refer to her as Sasha too and sometimes other shortenings of her name like Sashenka, Sashulya, Sanya.

Please let me know what you think with a comment and/or vote, I'd really appreciate it !!

May 31, 1987

Honey Harbour, Ontario, Canada

Alexandra woke with a start. There had been a loud crash downstairs and she wanted to get out of bed and run to her mother's room but it was way too dark — darker than usual — and she didn't dare step foot outside the safety of her bed.

She was about to scream for her mother when she appeared at her doorway. "Sashulya," she whispered.

Alexandra's eyes had adjusted to dark more now and she saw that her mum was holding her magic stick. Sasha wasn't quite sure what it did, but she knew her mother only took it out on emergencies. In a very small voice, Sasha said, "Mamochka."

Mama knelt by the bed. "Baby, I need you to listen to me very carefully. You have to get under the bed right now and don't make a sound. No matter what you hear, do not come out until I come and get you. Okay?"

Sasha's eyes brimmed with tears. Her heart was beating too fast with fear. "But why —"

Mama took Sasha's hand and pulled her to her feet. "You need to do it now, baby." She kissed the top of Sasha's head. "Ya lyublyu tebya, Sashenka."

Before Sasha could say I love you too, her mother was out of the room, closing the door quietly behind her.

Fighting hard to keep her tears in, Alexandra dropped to the floor and crawled under her bed. It was extremely dusty and there were cobwebs but she took a deep breath and bore it.

She could hear her mother's voice downstairs but she couldn't make out what she was saying, just the pleading tone of the words.

Then the shouting started. First, a man's voice, shrieking the word, "Crucio!"

Then Mama's gut-wrenching screams started. And on cue, Alexandra started crying. She tried to keep her sobs as quiet as possible but it proved hard. She wanted so bad to be able to do something, but she was just a skinny nine-year-old girl.

Suddenly the screams stopped. Sasha could hear the man speaking and her mother's ragged breaths.

After a few seconds of silence, she heard the man's voice raise again. "Avada Kedavra!"

Then silence. Agonising silence. After a few minutes, Alexandra heard heavy footsteps roaming the house. Footsteps that definitely weren't her mother's.

As the footsteps neared her door, Sasha took a few deep breaths to control herself. Her mother had said to be quiet.

From her spot under the bed, Sasha could see a shadow stopped outside her door. The door opened.

Her heart was beating so fast she thought for sure the man could hear it.

He stepped into the room. He neared the bed and Sasha could make out his sensible brown shoes. That although small, definitely belonged to a man.

He stood right there, no more than a metre away from Alexandra's trembling frame for twenty seconds, which although she was counting, felt like hours.

Sasha almost gasped when loud ringing cut through the silence like a knife. It took her a second to realise it was coming from her mum's room. Her extremely loud and annoying Hello Kitty alarm clock. She heard the man curse, then his footsteps retreated out the door.

Not even a minute later, she heard the back door slam.

The alarm was still going off.

It was by mere chance that it had gone off. Mama was meant to switch it off after Eid since they didn't need to wake up before dawn for suhoor anymore, but she'd forgotten for the past few days.

The alarms eventually turned itself off.

After thirty minutes or so, Alexandra figured it might have been safe to come out. But Mama had said not to until she came and got her. So, in her petrified state, Sasha stayed under the bed for another half hour.

The sun was starting to come up when Sasha heard the front door open. She tensed. She instantly regretted not getting out and calling someone.

She heard footsteps coming up the stairs and a knot form in her throat. But then she heard Paul's voice. "Sasha? Sasha?"

Sasha dated a peek outside her hiding spot and saw Paul standing on her doorstep, his usual grumpy demeanour replaced by a look of pure grief.

"Paul!" Sasha said through tears.

He helped her out from under the bed, dropped to his knees and brought her to his chest and squeezed her tight.

Sasha sobbed into his shoulder. "Mama, s-she told me to hide. There was a man in the house."

Paul pulled away slightly. A deep frown etched onto his face. "A man? Are you sure?"

Sasha nodded. "He yelled something at her. And then she was screaming and screaming."

Paul stood. "Sasha, I'm going to go downstairs to call for help. I need you to stay upstairs. Do not come down unless I call you, okay?"

Alexandra nodded, trying to hold back tears.

Paul went downstairs, leaving Sasha standing in the threshold of her bedroom. Paul spoke softly enough into the phone that Sasha could tell he didn't want her to hear, but his voice was naturally thunderous, and the walls of the house were pretty thin, so she could hear most of what he was saying.

"I just got to my girlfriend's house and she was lying on the living room floor unconscious, her kid was upstairs hiding under her bed, scared out of her mind." He practically panted into the phone.

Unconscious? Sasha thought. That meant Mama had just fainted. Right?

"I... I can't find a pulse," Paul's voice cracked. "She's twenty-seven. She's just scared but otherwise okay. Yes, I... I'll try."

Paul went quiet afterwards. Alexandra felt tempted to go pick up the phone in her mum's room but she was scared of what she might hear.

Once the police arrived at the house, Paul went back upstairs with Sasha. He took her hand. "Sweetheart, I'm going to call Marissa and you're going to go to her house with her and Brooke for a little bit, I have to go down to the police station, but I'll be done quickly, I promise."

Brooke was Paul's daughter, who was a few years younger than Sasha.

"Did you tell them about the man who broke in?"

Paul didn't meet her eyes. "I did... they might want to talk to you about it, but I told them to hold off until tomorrow at least."

"I want to see Mama."

Paul looked like he was about to cry. Which really freaked Sasha out. He rarely showed much emotion, let alone tears.

He knelt down so he could see Sasha at eye level. He took her small hands in his. "Listen, honey. Your mum... she's, she's in a better place now."

Sasha frowned and pulled her hands from Paul's. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Your mum's gone, Sasha."

And with that, Alexandra turned around and took off running down the stairs. She could hear Paul begging her to stop but she couldn't. Because there was no way what he was saying was true. Her mum wasn't... dead. She couldn't be.

Sasha would come downstairs and her mum would be in the kitchen singing to herself, making special chocolate chip pancakes.

There were a few police officers in the living room, Sasha ran straight past them and towards the door, where her mum was lying on a stretcher.

Someone came up from behind her and stopped her from reaching for her mother. Paul.

Sasha wailed as she stared at her mother's limp body. She was dead.

February 7, 1989

Novosibirsk, Russia

The doorbell rang. Alexandra tensed, effectively breaking the graphite tip of her pencil against the paper. The logical part of her knew that an intruder would not ring the doorbell, but there was still something about giving a stranger such easy access to the house that didn't sit right with her.

She heard voices down the hallway and her grandmother entered the kitchen, followed by a man Sasha had never seen before, which piked her curiosity.

He seemed to be in his thirties, with long-ish shaggy brown hair streaked with some grey, he wore strange clothes, which didn't seem to be in great state, there were deep dark circles under his eyes but he smiled widely when he saw Sasha.

Grandma cleared her throat. "Sasha, this man here is an old friend of your mother's, he would like to talk to you for a brief moment. Please behave, Alexandra. I'll just be in the other room."

"Hello," the man said in English. "My name is Remus Lupin. It's very nice to meet you again, Alexandra."

Sasha did a double-take. "Did you just say Remus Lupin?" Sasha's head tilted as she examined Mr Lupin's face. She'd definitely seen pictures of her as a kid with a younger-looking version of this man. From back when they lived in England. She remembered her mother telling her about him. They hadn't been exactly friends when they were in school together, but after Sasha had been born, Remus had helped Mama quite a bit.

"Yes, I've sent you a few presents over the years."

Sasha remembered. Not every year, but sometimes he'd send her birthday presents accompanied by short letters. Even though she hadn't gotten one since moving in with her grandparents. She'd figured he didn't know where to reach her. Mama always said he couldn't visit them in Canada because he didn't have the money to. Now that she thought about it, she realised she didn't even know if someone had told him what had happened to her mother.

"Right. Of course. Remus. I'm sorry I didn't recognise you."

He shook his head with a chuckle. "That's quite alright, Sasha. Mind if I sit?"

Sasha motioned for him to go ahead.

He sat in front of her. Still smiling. "So, how much do you know about magic?"

Sasha's brows raised. Something fluttered in her heart. She'd been waiting for so long to talk to someone about magic! "I know that my mum and dad were wizards, and I know that I'm a witch and that my mother was killed by a wizard, using magic."

Remus's smile faltered. "Oh, your grandma made it seem like you knew next to nothing about it. Some things must've gotten lost in translation I guess."

Alexandra sighed. "She likes to think that, if it were up to my grandparents, I'd just stay a clueless little No-Maj girl forever."

"But I assume... you do want to learn magic?"

Sasha nodded firmly.

"I'd thought maybe you'd want nothing to do with it... after your mum."

Sasha looked away from the man. "I want to learn what it was that killed her, and I want to stop it from killing other people."

Remus's eyes widened, he glanced at her worriedly. "Well... that'd certainly be... quite an accomplishment."

"Plus, it sounds pretty cool, to do magic."

Remus chuckles. "It is pretty cool. Did your mother tell you after all? About being a witch."

Sasha shook her head. "After she died and I went around saying she'd been murdered when it was clear that she'd died of natural causes, the Canadian Ministry got involved and made everyone forget I said anything. That was a pretty good sign."

Remus nodded thoughtfully. "Paul didn't forget though."

Sasha perked up at the mention of Paul. "You talked to Paul?"

"I did, he's the one who told me Zamira had passed. Remembered everything you said vividly too."

"I convinced the Ministry he didn't know anything." And quite honestly, she was glad she'd fooled them at least since they had refused to do anything when the No-Majs had decided Paul was unfit to be her guardian.

Remus smiled. "Of course you did." He took out an envelope from inside his robes. "Well, even though I told your grandma I came here just to check on you, another reason I'm here is to deliver this."

He slid the envelope towards Sasha, who took it gingerly.

A crest she's never seen before decorated the front. It was addressed to Alexandra Khudaiberdieva, 82 Rassvetnaya Ulitsa, Novosibirsk, Siberia, Soviet Union.

She opened it.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, it read at the top.

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore (Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Ms. Khudaiberdieva,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

Alexandra couldn't believe her eyes. She'd been starting to think this would never happen. She was about to become a real witch. "Is this the school where my mum went?"

"She only attended for a year, but it was there that she met your dad."

Sasha didn't know what to make of that. She didn't know much about her father. Only that Mama had met him in England and had always told her he was a bad person, whom they were better off without.

"I should mention that you do have another option. There is another very highly regarded wizard school right here in Russia called Durmstrang, I don't know how they go about contacting prospective students, but you should be granted admittance since you were born here."

"Did my mum go there?"

"She didn't, they wouldn't accept her because she was a Muggleborn... er her parents were No-Majs. But I do know that she wanted you to go there since it's a very prestigious school."

"Where'd she go before Hogwarts, then?"

Remus thought for a second. "I believe... she went to a few different clandestine schools around the USSR for the children of No-Majs, I don't think most of them exist anymore though."

"Hm."

"You can think about your options though. I'll be in town for the next week or so, you can tell me later what you decide."

Sasha nodded. "Okay, I'll think about it."

Remus shifted in his seat. "You know, there are a few other things that I wanted to talk to you about. I know that you're settled down and happy here with your grandparents —"

Sasha couldn't help the laugh that escaped her.

"What's so funny?" Remus asked.

"Where'd you get that from?"

He frowned. "You aren't happy with your grandparents?"

Sasha looked at Remus square in the eyes. "Do I look like I'm happy with my grandparents?" She deadpanned.

Remus seemed alarmed. "I mean, they seem a little strict but I figured things were fine overall."

Sasha chuckled drily. "Things are fine in the sense that I'm clothed and mostly fed and have a roof over my head. But you try living with a man who refuses to acknowledge his daughter was anything but a freak who got what was coming to her and whose only response to your accidental magic that you have no control over is a beating as if that's going to make it stop."

Remus now seemed horrified. "You mean... your grandfather... doesn't your grandmother... ?"

Sasha shook her head. "I know that lady seems like she's not so bad, and she isn't, but she never lifts a finger to stop her husband."

Remus stood up abruptly. His expression had now given way to anger. "Get your things."

Sasha looked up at him in confusion. "What?"

"We're leaving. Right now. We're going to your room and you're taking a suitcase and getting your things together and we're leaving this place."

Sasha took a moment to let his words sink in. Was he being serious right now? She stood up. "You mean you want me to go with you?"

"I... probably should've mentioned this from the get-go but there's actually someone else here who'd like to see you.

Alexandra raised a brow. "What?"

"Paul. He's here."

Sasha's breath caught. Paul was here? As in, Novosibirsk? Right now. "What? Where is he?"

"Your grandma wouldn't let him in... for some reason. He's waiting outside. I meant to talk to you about a way to see him if you wanted to."

"Of course I want to, he's my — he's the closest thing I have to a father," Sasha breathed out. "You mean I could go back to Canada? He'd want me to live with him?"

"You can live wherever you want, I'm sure Paul would be over the moon to have you, but I am not leaving you here. Is that okay with you?"

Sasha bit the inside of her cheek. "I'd love that too. But we tried once. After Mama had died, I lived with Paul for a couple of weeks, and then Grandma came and the social workers said I had to go with her."

Remus shook his head. "Don't worry about any of that. We can figure it out. I promise. You don't have to come back here ever again."

Sasha tried to hide the smile that threatened to take over her features. She nodded, finally.

As she led Remus to her room, they passed Grandma in the living room, who stood up. "What are you doing?"

"None of your business," Sasha replied.

Grandma followed them to Sasha's room but the girl managed to shut and lock the door before she caught up to them.

"Alexandra Zamirovna Khudaiberdieva open this door right now!" Grandma pounded on the door.

Remus took out his wand and pointed it at the door. Suddenly, the banging seemed more muffled. "They won't get in."

Sasha took out her suitcase. "I don't think I can fit everything in here, but I can leave some stuff behind."

Remus smiled. "Ah, that, my dear niece, is why we have magic."

He pointed his wand at the suitcase and muttered a strange word.

"Niece?" Asked Sasha.

Remus shrugged. "I thought maybe you could call me Uncle, you used to when you were little."

Alexandra smiled. "Okay, Uncle."

"I've put an expansion charm on the case, you should be able to fit anything you want in there."

And she could. Sasha tried to arrange things in an orderly fashion at first, but soon enough she was just throwing things in, especially since her grandfather's voice had now joined her grandma at the door.

With that method, she was done in a flash. She faced the door, with a worried look on her face.

Remus put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you."

Remus positioned himself in front of her, keeping a hand on her shoulder and his wand raised in the other.

The door opened to reveal Sasha's red-faced grandfather. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Move aside, sir," even though they couldn't understand Remus, they seemed to understand the language of a raised wand and backed off, although they still screamed at Alexandra.

They made it to the front door and Remus motioned Sasha outside. She could barely contain her elation when she saw Paul standing there in his plaid shirt and his ever-present battered baseball cap. She immediately threw herself into his arms, tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

He rubbed her back comfortingly. "I missed you, kiddo."

"Alexandra, you get back in this house, right now!" The moment was interrupted by Grandma's shrill voice.

Paul pulled back from Sasha and frowned at Sasha's grandparents. Remus approached him and whispered something to him that Sasha couldn't quite catch.

Paul's face changed. Gone was the wide smile he'd sported when he'd first seen Alexandra, now the glare he was throwing at the elderly couple could kill. He calmly walked up to the two and decked Sasha's grandpa so hard across the face, Sasha thought she heard bones crack. He went in for more punches when Remus grabbed him by the arm. "That's okay, Sasha doesn't need to see that. Let me just..."

Paul reluctantly moved aside while Remus turned to face the elderly couple at the threshold of the house. Then he pointed his wand at them and whispered a word that Sasha had heard before, "Obliviate."

Then the door shut. It was quiet. Sasha felt like she could breathe again. "What did you do?"

Remus scratched the back of his neck. "I... made them forget Paul and me, and this day... they now think that they sent you to live with some Muggle relatives in the North."

Before Sasha could even react to this bit of information, Paul had pulled her into a hug again. He bent down to see her at eye level. "Why... why didn't you say anything? All those times we spoke on the phone."

Sasha felt bad looking at the man now. He looked so... tired, and older than his thirty-three years. "I... wanted to. But you just seemed so... tired and you were barely making ends meet when I came here, I didn't want to add to your burdens."

Paul let out a dry chuckle and leaned his head down for a second. "You're too observant for your own good sometimes. If there's something worrying you or bothering you, you can always tell me, okay? Always."

"How will I be able to go with you after what happened last time? You know... when they said you were an... unfit guardian and I wasn't even a... Canadian citizen."

A small scowl overtook Paul's face. Sasha found that she'd even missed his scowl.

"That's nothing a few Confundus charms won't fix. I'll go back to Honey Harbour with you and set you up in no time," Remus cut in.

Sasha grinned. "I think I love magic."

Paul stood up and offered Sasha his hand. "You ready to go?"

Sasha nodded. "I'm too ready."