Three weeks later and I'd finally made it to the Great Hall without an unintentional detour.

Smiling broadly and completely proud of myself, I looked around for Jamie, to tell him that I'd finally done the impossible.

But when I found him over at the Ravenclaw table next to my sister- the smile slid right off my face.

"You leave my sister alone, Bellatrix!" my brother snarled angrily, his wand in his tightly-clenched fist emitting red-hot sparks.

"Then tell your Mudblood sister to keep her filthy little head down and live quietly! What's it to her if we gave a second year Mudblood what she deserved?" a tall, dark-haired, and rather intimidating seventh-year Slytherin girl snapped back at my brother.

My brother growled angrily. In fact, this was the angriest I'd ever seen him, other than the one time my father had beat him at Quidditch. That was a mistake my father never made again.

"Jamie, don't you dare waste your breath hexing her," Sola sternly warned my brother, her hand gripping his shoulder tightly, to restrain him.

"Ha!" the Slytherin girl scoffed haughtily and her dark-lidded eyes narrowed, "As if he could! Try it, I dare you. Just try it, you dirty little-"

"And that will be quite enough!" Professor McGonagall cried sharply, "Ms. Bellatrix Black, twenty points from Slytherin for provoking fellow schoolmates and for such vile, uneducated language!"

"Let's go, Jamie," Sola said shortly and quickly walked out of the Great Hall, pulling my brother with her.

I watched my siblings as they disappeared into another corridor, feeling frightened, confused, and helpless. I couldn't comprehend what had just occurred nor was I even included with my siblings. I wasn't sure which was worse; ignorance or isolation. And then I realized I embodied both.


Shouts of "Up!" in varying degrees of confidence littered the air as we first years attempted our first flying lesson.

This was not my first time on a broomstick, thanks to Jamie's maniacal love affair with Quidditch. To my great relief, my broom flew straight into my hand. The first time I'd ever tried that, the broom had whacked me straight in the face. I'd cried, my father had tried to bite back a smile and patted my head gently, my mother had yelled, terrified at the sight of blood, and my siblings had both laughed heartily.

On my right, Marlene's had flown into her hand after five or six tries. On my left, Alice's hadn't even budged. And across from me, a Slytherin first year, Audrey Zena, was gradually beginning to lose patience with his broomstick.

"Up… Up. I said up. Up! UP! UP, YOU STUPID PIECE OF WOOD, UP-!"

We all simultaneously winced as the broomstick jumped up vertically and smacked him right in the face.

And in that instant, I knew, somehow, that before seven years had passed, Audrey Zena and I would be friends, Slytherin-Gryffindor rivalry or not.


Halloween morning was cloudy and brisk and the atmosphere was full of excitement. The upper classmen were excited because the Hogwarts masquerade ball and their first Hogsmeade trip of the year were today. The lower classmen were excited not only for the feast and decorations at Hogwarts later that night, but also because it meant that we could have the castle to ourselves for a few hours.

Marlene, Dorcas, Alice, and I chose to wander the grounds while Lily flounced off to meet with Severus Snape, a first year Slytherin who seemingly scowled through all twenty-four hours of his day. How a cheerful and carefree girl like Lily and a severe and unforgiving like Severus were friends was beyond my comprehension, or as Marlene eloquently put it, "What in the bloody hell happened to make those two best friends?"

Chattering away, the four of us ended up next to the basements when Marlene bumped into me, jabbing me in the side with her elbow by accident.

I winced in pain, but couldn't help but snort as I'm extremely ticklish on my sides.

"Ticklish, aren't you?" Dorcas noted with a mischievous grin.

"Don't!" I warned, but it was futile. Within ten seconds, the four of us were in a vicious tickle fight where I was quite obviously the last-place loser.

I shrieked and quickly dodged as Marlene's long arms chased after me. She barely missed and accidentally tickled the pear on a portrait of a bowl of fruit on the wall.

Suddenly, the pear shaped itself into a door knob. Wide-eyed, we all stopped dead in our tickle fight.

"Am I dreaming?" Alice wondered breathlessly, rubbing her eyes.

Dorcas reached over, pinched her, and teased, "We're not dreaming, Alice dear. We really are in Wonderland."

"What?" Alice murmured.

"Alice in Wonderland?" Dorcas responded. "Didn't you ever. . . ? Oh right, you're pureblood, I forgot."

I reached over, grabbed the door knob, and pulled.

And just like that, we discovered the Hogwarts kitchens and house elves as first years.


Quidditch season had begun and the first match was Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw, which meant that Jamie and Sola were versing each other; Jamie as Gryffindor Chaser and Captain and Sola as Ravenclaw Seeker.

The minute the Quaffle was thrown into the air, Jamie was in action, moving almost too fast to be seen and performing flying techniques rivaling that of professionals. He flew more gracefully and naturally than a hawk. He even seemed to breathe easier up in the air.

The Quaffle seemed magnetized to Jamie, avoiding the Ravenclaws, and within fifteen minutes, Jamie had scored forty points. The Gryffindors were cheering like maniacs; I even spotted a few fan girls screaming Jamie's name and yelling that they loved him.

"Marry me!", some Hufflepuff twat screeched.

I shuddered.

Thirty minutes in and Ravenclaw was looking desperate – three hundred to one hundred and forty with Jamie having scored two hundred points by himself- and forty of those points from the other end of the field. I proudly noted that Jamie was not selfish with the Quaffle. In fact, he threw it to others more often than he kept it, but the team definitely depended on him to score.

The Gryffindor Seeker, sixth year Hunter Weasley was flying high in the air, trying to spot a glint of gold in the sun. Suddenly, Sola dived. She was heading straight for the ground, hurtling down until she was fifty feet from the air, forty, thirty- Hunter was following her, trying to get even with her- and he almost was. But then, ten feet from the ground, Sola pulled up her broom with a great jerk and suddenly shot straight up and all the Gryffindors groaned as we realized Sola's dive had just been a ploy. Hunter nearly crashed into the ground at full speed but Jamie had dived down and grabbed Hunter at the last minute, prioritizing Hunter's well-being over scoring more goals.

Sola was now a dot in the sky, almost impossible to see, and we were all craning our necks when the whistle blew.

"And the Ravenclaw Seeker has caught the Snitch- but Gryffindor has won the match by ten points! Three hundred versus two hundred and ninety! One of the highest-scoring games in Quidditch history at Hogwarts! Congratulations Gryffindor!" the announcer, a third year Gryffindor named Mary McDonald spoke.

I let out a breath of relief- Jamie had won his first game as Captain and Sola had made a spectacular catch… the only disappointment I felt was that sinking feeling that my siblings were so brilliant. How could I live up to them?


It quickly became clear who the bright students of our year were- and I don't mean intelligent or book-smart, but bright- that rare mix of creative, eloquent, brilliant-beyond-the-books, and charmingly energetic.

No matter how many hours Alice, Marlene, Dorcas, and I studied, we could never come close to the genius of Lily Evans, James Potter, Sirius Black, Athena Cross (Ravenclaw), Madison Jane (Hufflepuff), or Severus Snape (Slytherin).

"How is it," I muttered to Dorcas as James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter stumbled in late to Herbology, but were excused by Kettleburn with one of Sirius' winks, "that they're so bloody brilliant? They get away with everything."

Dorcas shrugged and shot me a grin. "Why? Are you jealous? Do you want be late as well? Just walk out and come back."

"Yeah", Marlene scoffed, "and if one of us winked at Kettleburn like that, do you think we would be excused?"

Dorcas laughed. "No, probably not", she admitted.

"Now, who can tell me what the Abyssinian shrivelfig is used for?"

There was a dead silence and after giving everyone else a long enough time to prove themselves, Lily Evans and Madison Jane raised their hands.

"Yes, Ms. Evans?"

"The Shrinking Solution," she replied straightforwardly.

"Good girl, take 10 points to Gryffindor," Kettleburn replied, smiling warmly at her.

How nice it would feel to just have that knowledge somewhere in my head? To answer when no one else could? I wish I were my sister.

Though teachers had initially expected much of me, as the sister of the extremely brilliant Sola Kingsley and the ridiculously charming Jamie Kingsley, they quickly came to expect far less of me than of my siblings.

I wasn't slow. In fact, I was fairly advanced in all of my classes, especially Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts, but nothing close to the amazing genius Sola had been.

"Lily, how are you so brilliant at Potions?" I asked her glumly as we walked out of class to lunch one day.

"Well, I studied a lot before I got here and I also had the best tutor possible," Lily answered.

"Tutor? Who? I thought your parents were Muggles like mine are," I said.

"My parents are Muggles, Raylynx. It was Severus who tutored me," Lily replied.

"Severus Snape? That Slytherin boy?" Marlene asked, her eyebrows raised.

"So what?" Lily asked, flushing pink, "So what if he's Slytherin?"

Marlene was respectful and quick enough to conceal her skepticism and answer, "No, nothing. Nothing if he's Slytherin."


The first year passed by in a flurry. To be honest, I never quite fit in as a Gryffindor, ever. I was too meek, but everything was such a rush that it was hard to dwell on that feeling. Really, it felt as though we had barely started when it ended, and I was promising my friends that I would write to them over the summer.

Jamie graduated famous, having been scouted by Luxembourg's Quidditch team a few days before term ended. They wanted him to be a starter next season, which was a rare offer for players as young and fresh-from-school as Jamie.

Sola had finished her O.W.L.s now and she was content to spend her summer in peace- right up until she was scouted to become a model.. She traveled between Australia, London, New York, and Los Angeles, quickly climbing the staircase to becoming a top model. By the time I was going back to my second year, Jamie Kingsley was all set to play his first professional Quidditch match against Ireland and Sola Kingsley was on the cover of many famous magazines.