Leave That World Behind

The brand new house at 207 Sweetmaple Avenue looked very much like the house Alexandra had grown up in. Her room was once again upstairs, overlooking the back yard. It was a little larger than her old room, which she liked, but it was directly above her parents' bedroom, which she didn't like.

Many things looked almost exactly like their old house – the fireplace, for example, was in exactly the same location, and the living room had the same open space between it and the dining room, and the same door to an almost identical hallway to the stairs. But the kitchen was on the other side of the dining room, there was a large den where there had once been a back porch and a storage closet, and the carpets and wood paneling were all new and (Alexandra thought) not as attractive as the old interiors. She kept finding herself looking for things where she knew them to be in the old house, or expecting to find a door that had moved to another wall.

It didn't really seem much nicer than their old house, just newer. Alexandra was happy to be back 'home,' though.

As usual, her mother and stepfather were both working throughout the week, right up until Christmas. They had both welcomed her home, but Alexandra thought her mother had been more enthusiastic about showing her the new house than she had been about seeing her daughter again. Archie, as usual, had been gruff and said little, after giving her a brief, awkward hug.

Just like the previous winter, Alexandra waited for an opportunity to confront her mother, and there never seemed to be a good time. When Claudia Green came home from work, she was tired and untalkative, or else Archie was there too, and Alexandra didn't want to have this conversation in front of her stepfather.

She spent most of her time watching TV or reading. Sometimes she played computer games, when her parents would let her use the computer. She went shopping for Christmas presents, and spent a lot of time looking for something for Maximilian, while wondering how she would send it to him.

Should have thought of that before I left Charmbridge, she scolded herself. But she had no idea what to get for him. It occurred to her, belatedly, that for all the time she had spent with her brother, learning about brooms and spells, she hadn't really gotten to know him as well as she would have liked. Maximilian had talked a bit about his family and the wizarding world, but not much at all about himself. What was his favorite food? What subjects was he particularly good at in school? What did he do during summer vacation? Did he prefer Quidditch or Quodpot?

She didn't even know for certain whether Maximilian had a girlfriend – though if he did, she thought she'd have noticed. And he probably wouldn't have wanted to spend so many evenings with his younger sister.

She found a sports jersey for David at the mall, and mailed it to him four days before Christmas, even though her mother shook her head and warned her that it was likely to arrive late. She'd received a package in the mail that same day from him. Alexandra had mailed a present to Anna the day she got home – it was a disposable camera that didn't require a battery or charger. She thought Anna would enjoy the Muggle item, something she could keep even in her strict household, where her wizard father allowed no electronic devices. She had two more for Constance and Forbearance; she was hoping they were going to send her a present as well, not so much because she wanted a present, but because if they sent their owls, as they had last year, she could send their presents back to them by return trip.

She also bought a birthday card and another present to send Anna later – a book of gift certificates for a popular burger chain, since Anna's father rarely allowed her to go out to eat “Muggle food.” But her failure to find a present for Maximilian nagged at her. She stared at the wrapped gift he'd given her, now sitting underneath the tree in her living room, feeling guilty. Anna, she thought, would have told her to plan more carefully. Anna would never wait until the last minute, when it was too late.

I'll give him a late present, when we get back to school, she sighed to herself. She knew that was a really lame thing to do, even if he had said he didn't expect a gift.

On Christmas Eve, three sets of visitors came to 207 Sweetmaple Avenue.

The first, she had been expecting: a pair of barn owls tapping at her bedroom window. She opened it with a grin. “Hi guys,” she greeted them. “You've grown a lot bigger since last year!”

The Pritchards' owls hooted cheerfully as they hopped inside. Charlie squawked a greeting, while Alexandra untied the package the two travelers from the Ozarks had brought her, and read the accompanying card:

“We miss our home and family,
throughout the livelong year;
it's hard sometimes to be so far
from all that we hold dear.
But you know we miss you terrible,
and wish that you were here.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas, and a wonderful New Year.

Love,
Constance and Forbearance”

Alexandra smiled, relieved that the twins weren't upset at her after all. “I've got something for you to take back to Constance and Forbearance,” she told the owls. Then, when she noticed them peering intently at Nigel through the bars of his cage, she exclaimed, “Hey!” sharply enough to make them jump and let out startled hoots.

“I've got food for you,” she scolded them. “Nigel isn't on the menu!”

She felt a little guilty after sending them off, each with a camera clutched in its talons – it was a heavy burden for such modestly-sized owls, and a long way back to the Ozarks. She frowned at Charlie. “It would be nice if you'd deliver things, like Hagar does.”

The raven squawked indignantly and looked away, beak high in the air.

The second set of visitors was unexpected, and to Alexandra's mind, not entirely welcome: the Seaburys rang their doorbell that evening, just after Archie had returned home. He greeted them at the door, still wearing his Larkin Mills Police Department uniform, and then his wife joined him, and welcomed Mr. and Mrs. Seabury, Brian, and Bonnie inside. Alexandra had already come downstairs, to see who was at the door, and stood there silently while Mrs. Seabury handed Mrs. Green a pie.

“We thought we should come by and wish you a Merry Christmas, and also tell you how happy we are that you've moved safely back in after that terrible fire,” said Mrs. Seabury.

Alexandra didn't miss the word 'should,' though she thought perhaps she was being too cynical. (She'd been thinking a lot about whether or not she was cynical, after her father called her that.) Mrs. Seabury seemed sincere. But Alexandra knew Brian's mother had never exactly approved of her, and probably wasn't too upset about the fact that she and Brian were no longer close.

“We have a housewarming gift for your family also,” said Mr. Seabury, handing a perfectly gift-wrapped box to Archie.

While the adults exchanged pleasantries, and Mr. and Mrs. Green invited the Seaburys inside, Alexandra and Brian stared at one another, neither sure what to say. Brian was wearing a suit, and Bonnie was wearing a dress, and Alexandra heard Mrs. Seabury mention that they were all on their way to Christmas Eve services at their church. She invited Alexandra's family to come along. Alexandra winced mentally, even though she was sure her mother would decline. She thought Brian looked like he was trying not to wince as well.

“Hi, Alex.” Bonnie broke the uncomfortable silence.

Alexandra looked at the younger girl, and managed a smile. “Hi, Bonnie. How's school?”

“Okay,” Bonnie replied, and then Alexandra's mother suggested, “Why don't you show Brian and Bonnie your new room, Alex?”

Alexandra shrugged. “It's pretty much like my old one.” But she knew that was actually adult-speak for, 'You kids go upstairs so we grown-ups can talk,' so she turned and went back upstairs, not looking back to see if Brian and Bonnie were following.

They were, and a moment later, the two of them entered her bedroom and looked around. Bonnie stared wide-eyed at Charlie, and then squealed excitedly when she saw Nigel. “You have a snake!” she exclaimed.

“Yeah.” Alexandra smiled a little, while she avoided looking at Brian. Bonnie was fascinated by the brown snake, though she looked as if she were afraid to get too close.

“I thought your mom and stepfather wouldn't ever let you have a pet,” Brian muttered.

Alexandra had wanted a pet for years, and Claudia and Archie had been unbending. They had been less than enthusiastic when she brought Charlie home from her first trip to the Goblin Market last year, and they were even less happy about the addition of Nigel.

Alexandra's long-denied desire for a pet was one of those many little details Brian knew about her, because they had been friends for years. Now, Alexandra just looked at him and shrugged. “They changed their minds.”

“A crow and a snake – that's so cool!” Bonnie enthused.

Charlie squawked angrily. Bonnie jumped back, and Alexandra said, “Charlie's a raven, not a crow.”

“Oh.” Bonnie stared at the raven. “Sorry.”

“Charlie's a raven, not a crow,” Charlie repeated.

Bonnie's eyes went wide. “It talks!”

“Ravens can do that.” Alexandra hid her own surprise.

Bonnie stared at Charlie a moment longer, then turned to look at Alexandra. “Are you really a witch?”

If Charlie had surprised her, Bonnie's question stunned her. She looked at Brian, who was turning red. “Bonnie!” he hissed.

“It's what the kids at school say,” said Bonnie. “And I figured, if you have a pet crow – I mean raven, and snake, and, you know, the other stuff...”

Brian grabbed his sister by the arm and pulled her close to him. “Bonnie, Mom told you never to say things like that!”

Alexandra folded her arms. “What if I am a witch?” she asked.

The other two kids looked up at her. Brian had a pained expression – but Bonnie, Alexandra noted, looked excited by the idea.

“You're not a witch,” Brian said firmly. “Witches aren't real. Magic isn't real.”

“It is so!” Bonnie insisted. “We've seen magic! You know we did, Brian!” She turned to look at Alexandra, with a pleading expression. “We did see those things, didn't we? That thing in the pond, and you making Tom Gavin eat worms, and the store dummy –”

Brian looked desperate. His eyes met Alexandra's.

For a moment, she felt fury. She remembered him turning his back on her. She remembered him calling her a 'freak,' last Christmas. Did he think Bonnie would forget about everything if he just pretended it didn't happen? He acted like he could make Alexandra's magic not real by saying so.

Brian was the first to look away. Then Alexandra remembered his ghostly, cursed, accusing expression, back in the Boggart's hollow. She looked at Bonnie, who thought Alexandra was dangerous and cool and magical, and saw the younger girl's bloated, drowned face, a dead thing floating in water.

She wondered what the Seaburys' church taught about witches.

“Like Brian says,” Alexandra mumbled, “witches aren't real.”

Bonnie looked crestfallen. “But we saw –”

“Forget what you saw!” Alexandra snapped. Bonnie blinked and stared at her.

Alexandra narrowed her eyes at the other girl. “Don't go around talking about magic or saying I'm a witch! Understand? No one will believe you.”

She felt a pang of guilt, as Bonnie's eyes filled with a look of disappointment, and betrayal.

“Brian, Bonnie!” called their mother from downstairs. “We're going now.”

“Gotta go,” Brian mumbled. “See you later.”

“Yeah, sure.” Alexandra didn't bother to walk back downstairs with them, but threw herself onto her bed after they'd gone.

Charlie fluttered down to land on her stomach. Alexandra winced as the bird's weight settled onto her. “You've got sharp claws, Charlie!” she protested.

The raven shifted from one foot to the other, until it had balanced itself and its talons were no longer poking her through her shirt.

“Big fat jerk,” said Charlie, in a voice that almost sounded commiserating.

Alexandra gasped in surprise, then laughed. She reached one hand up and very gently stroked her familiar's black feathered head.

“Yeah, he is,” she whispered. She ran her thumb along Charlie's beak, and Charlie nibbled at it affectionately.

Despite her sulky mood, she joined her parents that evening after dinner, as they all drank cocoa and watched Miracle on 34th Street. Alexandra lay on the floor by the Christmas tree, in her pajamas, while Archie sat on the sofa with his arm around Claudia. Alexandra studied them, out of the corner of her eye. She and Archie had never quite been able to warm up to each other. But she remembered her father's question about her stepfather. Archie Green, she concluded reluctantly, had been better to her and her mother than Abraham Thorn had been.

“No need for you to wait up for Santa Claus...” Archie told her, as she headed upstairs.

“...because I'm on his permanent Naughty List. Yeah, I know.” She rolled her eyes. He'd made that same joke every year for as long as she could remember, even though the girl who could do magic, and who had believed in goblins and elves long before she'd actually seen them, had never believed in Santa Claus. “Good night, Archie.”

Her third visitor that night was solitary, and came after Alexandra had gone to bed. A tapping on her window woke her up, before Charlie began squawking.

“Shh, Charlie!” Alexandra hissed. She didn't want Archie to start yelling at her through the floor. She looked out the window, and froze when she saw another enormous raven sitting on her sill.

For a moment, she considered not opening the window, but then the raven outside spoke aloud: “Alexandra!”

She unlatched the window and raised it, shivering a little as a cold winter breeze swept into her room. She stared at Hagar, who hopped inside without further invitation, croaked, “Alexandra!” again, and held out one large, rough talon, which had something wrapped around it.

Carefully (Hagar's talons, she thought, could easily rip someone's skin open), Alexandra untied the little bundle from around the raven's leg, and held it up. A gold chain slipped out of it and tumbled to her desk. She picked it up, and her eyes fixed on the locket dangling from the chain.

Her fingers fumbled a little at the latch, and then with a click, it opened, and she saw a cameo of her father, Abraham Thorn.

The small image moved, and her father said, “Merry Christmas, Alexandra. Please keep this locket with you. It would mean a very great deal to me.”

She stared at it, and then at Hagar, who was watching her with beady black eyes. She looked back at the cameo.

“Can you talk to me through this?” she asked.

Her father's image smiled, and much like the locket she'd possessed last year, did not respond further to any entreaties, merely behaved like a normal wizard photograph.

Hagar croaked, “Merry Christmas!” and then took off, flapping out her window and into the night.

Alexandra looked at Charlie, who was now wide-awake and shivering a little. She closed the window, and considered the locket a moment, and her father's smiling visage.

She snapped it shut, wrapped the chain around it, and dropped it into her desk drawer, before checking on Nigel and then crawling back into bed.

Christmas morning, Alexandra came downstairs still in her pajamas. It made her feel like a little girl again, which wasn't an entirely bad feeling. She saw that Archie had lit the fireplace. Despite her mixed feelings about her stepfather and her ongoing anxiety about confronting her mother, she had many happy memories of running downstairs on Christmas mornings to open her presents. Archie and Claudia weren't always both there – this was the first Christmas in several years when both of them had the day off. She sat cross-legged on the floor, while her mother sat down on the couch in a bathrobe, next to Archie. Both of them were drinking coffee.

The fire felt nice. Alexandra looked at the fireplace for a moment, as if examining it for malicious signs – something like the burst of magic, fueled by her errant curse, that had burned down their house last Christmas. But everything seemed normal. Unlike last year, there was no blizzard outside; indeed, there hadn't yet been a sign of snow this winter.

“Well,” said her mother. “It looks like you have quite a few presents from your friends this year.”

Alexandra nodded. They took turns unwrapping gifts – she received clothes, gift certificates, and books from her mother and stepfather, and a computer game. The housewarming/Christmas gift from the Seaburys turned out to be a deluxe bread maker. Claudia made politely appreciative sounds, while Alexandra rolled her eyes. Had Mrs. Seabury ever met her mother? She doubted the bread maker would ever be used.

Anna's gift was wrapped in red paper: a small gold charm, in the shape of a Chinese character. There was a second gift wrapped in plain paper, with the words “For Nigel” written on it. It was an ordinary-looking, smooth, flat rock.

“A snake in your house means your family will never starve,” said the accompanying note from Anna, explaining the Chinese character. Alexandra smiled, and put the charm on the bracelet around her wrist, next to the raven symbol Anna had given her last year. The rock puzzled her, until she turned it over in her hands and felt it becoming warm. She grinned, realizing it was Anna's way of making peace with having to share their room at school with Nigel.

Alexandra was expecting something hand-crafted from the Pritchards, but she was a little nonplussed to unwrap the bundle they'd sent and find a pair of white socks.

“Your friends sent you socks?” Archie asked, looking amused, as she held them up with a small frown.

Maybe they were still upset with her, she thought. Then she found the note pinned to them.

“We knitted these Lucky Socks ourselves from the hair of a white hound. They are specially lucky against Dark forces. (Not that you oughter be anywhere near such works!) Love, C&F.”

She smiled as she folded them and laid them aside. She wasn't sure if she believed they were really “lucky” – Ozarkers believed in a lot of superstitions that were considered odd even in the wizarding world – but clearly Constance and Forbearance had put quite a bit of effort into her present, and she felt a little guilty that all she'd gotten them was something she'd bought at the SuperMart.

David's gift was next. She gasped when she opened it.

“A cell phone!” she exclaimed. And it wasn't just any cell phone – it was a slim, compact model that also played music and could access the Internet.

Her mother and stepfather looked at each other, while Alexandra excitedly opened the box and tore open the packaging around the phone. “Oh, man, I'm really going to have to apologize for calling him short and nerdy!”

Archie cleared his throat. “So, who is this David?”

“He's my friend at school. He's another Mu–umm, Michigan student.”

“And he sent you a cell phone,” her mother commented. “An expensive cell phone.”

The 'expensive' part hadn't registered until now, but as Alexandra looked at the shiny new phone, she realized that it was an awfully expensive gift. It had certainly cost many times what she'd spent on David's present.

“Er, yeah, I guess.” She looked up at her parents, and saw the way they were looking at her.

“Oh, come on!” she protested, her face turning red. “It's not like that!”

“Not like what?” her mother asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I know what you're thinking! David's just a friend!”

“Maybe you think he's just a friend.” Archie pointed at the phone. “But that's quite a present to give a friend.”

“Especially a seventh grader,” Claudia agreed.

Alexandra's face was turning redder and redder. “No way!” she stammered. “David's not – there's no way!”

Claudia and Archie both frowned. She looked at them unhappily. “Are you not going to let me keep it?”

Her mother cleared her throat. “I think you need to have a talk with David. If he thinks this present means you're more than friends, you need to give it back.”

“No. I'm sure that's not what he thinks,” she insisted, trying not to sound as dismayed as she felt. It wasn't possible, was it? Could David actually have a crush on her? She started going over every interaction they'd had, over the past semester. Had he ever behaved any differently towards her? They hadn't even hugged when he got off the bus at Detroit, just shook hands. And when she'd asked him whether he liked Angelique, he'd blushed – was he really blushing because it was her she liked?

The idea was extremely unsettling. She liked David, but she didn't like him! What would she do if he wanted to be her boyfriend? Having to give back the phone suddenly seemed like the least of her worries.

In a much less festive mood now, she opened Maximilian's present. It was a glass cube, displaying photographs, like plastic paperweight picture-holders she'd seen in department stores.

Except they were wizard photographs, and they were moving, and different pictures would fade in and out on each surface. Alexandra's mood lightened, and she smiled as she saw some of the pictures Sarah Wittencroft had taken of her and Maximilian. There she was, standing next to her brother, both of them in uniform, he with his arm around her, and there was another one, with Beatrice laughing and grabbing her arms while she squirmed and made angry faces at Maximilian, who was tickling her in the ribs, and Martin, who was mussing up her hair.

There were other pictures that had been taken by Bea or Martin while they were out in the woods, practicing dueling. In one, she was standing with her back to Maximilian, holding her wand as he corrected her stance and her grip. In another, she was tumbling backwards over a log as a hex knocked her off her feet. She winced as she remembered that day. That hex had hurt!

And there she was sitting on a rock next to Maximilian, both of them looking at whoever was taking the picture – Beatrice or Martin, she couldn't remember – and both of them seemed at ease and comfortable. And, for the first time, Alexandra looked at the two of them together and thought that he really did look like her brother.

Lost in thought, she only realized what it was she was looking at when she glanced up at Claudia and Archie, and saw them staring at the moving pictures in the cube.

“What is that?” her stepfather demanded, frowning.

“Those pictures are of you,” her mother said quietly.

“Yeah,” Alexandra mumbled. “It's just a toy.” She hastily put the cube back in its box. What was Maximilian thinking, giving her a gift like that when he knew she was going home to Muggles?

“Who is that boy?” her mother asked. “Who gave you this present?”

“No one! Just a friend from school!” Alexandra stammered. It didn't sound very convincing, but Archie rarely tried to pick apart her explanations, and her mother –

Alexandra stared at her mother. Claudia Green looked pale.

“He's not my boyfriend either,” Alexandra added.

Her mother blinked, and took her eyes off the box with the picture cube, and looked at Alexandra.

Maximilian might look a little like her, Alexandra thought, but he looked a lot more like his father. And she was pretty sure her mother had seen that. She opened her mouth, and wished desperately that Archie weren't in the room.

“Well, I should hope not. He looks much too old.” Claudia rose from the couch. “I'll fix us some breakfast now. Make sure to clean up the wrapping paper, Alexandra.”

Alexandra slowly pushed the wrapping paper into a pile, and then carried her presents upstairs. She put her “lucky socks” in a drawer with her other socks. She laid the rock Anna had sent on the bottom of Nigel's cage, and watched as the snake inspected it with his tongue, and then slowly slithered over to curl up around it. She put the cell phone on her desk, along with the instructions for activating it. Her first call, she thought, would have to be to David.

Then she sat on her bed for a while, holding the photo cube in her hands, watching Maximilian grin as he teased her, studying Beatrice as she and Martin linked arms with Maximilian behind her, and reliving that tumble over the log again and again. Finally, she opened the same drawer where she'd put her father's locket, and set the cube next to it.

Her mother's demeanor had rapidly gone from inquisitive to evasive, when she saw those wizarding photographs, and considering how she'd demanded answers about the cell phone, Alexandra thought Claudia Green's sudden disinterest in a cube with moving photographs, showing her daughter in uniform, and cavorting with a strange boy, was highly suspicious.

Today was Christmas. Tomorrow, Archie was on duty again, but her mother had the day off.

She looked at the phone again, and thought about calling David now, but he was probably celebrating Christmas with his parents. And she decided she'd rather deal with one confrontation at a time anyway.

The next day, Alexandra woke up early, and made herself breakfast, as she usually did while at home. Her mother shambled out of the master bedroom, bleary-eyed and half-awake as always, before she'd had her morning cup of coffee. She blinked when she reached the kitchen counter and found that Alexandra had already started a pot.

“Good morning,” Alexandra said, sipping some orange juice.

“G'morning.” Her mother looked at her, with something akin to suspicion. “Thanks for starting coffee for me.” Her suspicion was understandable, since Alexandra had never done that before.

Alexandra nodded, and continued eating her cereal while her mother poured herself a bowl, waited for the coffee to finish brewing, and then sat down across the kitchen table from her daughter with a bowl and a mug.

Outside, the sky was cold and gray. It looked like it might snow. Alexandra finished her cereal, studying her mother as she waited for her to come fully awake.

Claudia Green's long hair was not straight like her daughter's. Alexandra had seen pictures of her mother as a teenager; Claudia's slightly wavy, once-blonde hair was now turning a sort of mousy brown, and a strand or two of gray was visible already. She was not exactly overweight, but Alexandra so far showed no signs of inheriting her mother's soft, gently-rounded figure. Her face still held some of the prettiness of her youth, but she was not in any way remarkable-looking.

Her mother wasn't an unattractive woman, and she was smart, and nice enough, but she was just so ordinary – Alexandra tried to imagine what had attracted a powerful wizard like Abraham Thorn to Claudia Quick, even a younger and prettier Claudia Quick. Not that she thought her father would necessarily have chosen Claudia for her looks alone, but – she was a Muggle! What else would have drawn him to her?

Her mother noticed Alexandra staring at her, and raised an eyebrow. “Do I have something in my teeth?” she asked.

Alexandra shook her head. “I'll be getting my report card any day now,” she said.

“Oh,” Claudia replied. “Are you doing well in your classes?”

“Funny, you've never asked that before.” Alexandra's voice was flat.

Her mother blinked. “Don't be silly. Of course I have.”

Alexandra shook her head. “Not since I started attending Charmbridge.”

Mrs. Green took her time over another sip of coffee. “I think you're exaggerating.”

“You've never seen any of my report cards. You've never asked for them.”

“Well, you've always done well enough in school, when you bother to do the work, and not sass the teacher –”

“So you just kind of assumed everything was all right?” Alexandra's hands were clenching the edges of her cereal bowl. “You weren't interested in checking on me?”

Her mother sighed. “Honestly, Alex. You act offended that I trust you're doing fine. I assumed Dean Grimm would contact me if you were having problems.”

Alexandra let out an unexpected laugh, with an edge of bitterness.

Claudia slapped her mug down on the table, annoyed. “Is there something you want to tell me?” she demanded.

“I met my father,” Alexandra said, staring directly into her mother's eyes.

Claudia Green seemed to freeze, not all at once, but slowly, as if the shock that came from hearing those words was seeping into her bit by bit, robbing her of speech and movement.

“His name is Abraham Thorn. You know that, don't you?”

Her mother just stared at her.

“Do you know what he is?” Alexandra swallowed, as the words that she'd been forcing out suddenly stuck in her throat. “Do you know what I am?”

“I – I –” Her mother was trying to stammer something, but all that came out was a breathless whisper.

“Do you know what I am?” Alexandra repeated, her voice rising.

“You're my daughter,” her mother murmured.

“Abraham Thorn is a wizard!” Alexandra shouted. “And I'm a witch!”

The words hung in the air, and in the moment that Alexandra realized they couldn't be taken back, she wasn't sure whether she was sorry or not.

Claudia put her hands over her face and shook her head. “Alexandra, stop it.”

“Stop what? STOP WHAT? Do you think I'm making this up?”

She jumped when her mother's fists suddenly descended on the table with a thump. “Stop shouting!” Claudia snapped.

Alexandra sucked in a breath. She opened her mouth to speak again, but her mother held a hand up. “No. Stop. I don't want to hear any more.”

Alexandra stared at her. “You... what?”

She had been prepared for denial, for a confession, maybe for confusion – it had occurred to her, despite what her father had told her, that perhaps her mother had had all memories of Abraham Thorn and witchcraft Obliviated from her mind. She wasn't prepared for this reaction, though.

“I don't need to hear about... witches, and wizards,” her mother said. “And I don't need to hear about your father.”

Alexandra's mouth opened and shut. She was speechless.

Her mother reached across the table, slowly, and grasped her hand. “Do you like it at Charmbridge?” she asked.

Alexandra swallowed, and nodded.

'Why couldn't you just stay at Charmbridge? You know I never wanted you to come back.'

Those had been the Boggart's words. Not her mother's. Her mother didn't look angry or disgusted. Just – sad. “You don't need to talk any more about magic and wizards, or your father, then.”

Alexandra shook her head in confusion. She felt her hand shaking a little, as her mother held it.

“Did – did he hurt you?” Alexandra whispered.

Claudia's eyes clouded over for a moment, and then she shook her head. “No. Not in the way you mean.”

“Why can't you talk about him, then? Why can't you tell me anything? Why did I have to find out the way I did? Why did you never even ask what I'm doing at school? Don't you want to know? Don't you care? Or do you hate what I am?”

“No.” Her mother squeezed her hand. “Not that. Never think that, Alex.” She closed her eyes, and took a long, deep breath. Everything else in the world was irrelevant. There was just her mother sitting at the table with her, and years of unanswered questions.

When Claudia opened her eyes again, she fixed her gaze on her daughter.

“I want nothing to do with your father, or his world,” she said. “I need you to respect my wishes on this, Alexandra. I know...” She swallowed. “I know it's your world, now.” For a moment, Alexandra had the horrifying thought that her mother might cry, but she didn't. “You will always be my daughter. But when you come home, I want you to leave that world behind.”

“Okay,” Alexandra answered, in a small voice. She didn't know what else to say. All her anger had evaporated.

Claudia Green stood up, and leaned across the table to kiss her daughter on the forehead. “I think I need some more coffee.” She walked into the kitchen to refill her cup, while Alexandra sat there, staring at her empty cereal bowl.

Two owls came to Sweetmaple Avenue the next day. Alexandra had spent most of the day in her room. Her mother was back at work, and her stepfather was at home, and Alexandra didn't really want to talk to him. Even Archie had noticed how listless she was. She sat at her desk, holding Nigel in her hands, letting the snake coil around her fingers, or else lay in bed, reading a book or sometimes turning the picture cube Max had given her over and over in her hands.

Her first visitor was a familiar great horned owl, and Alexandra smiled for the first time since Christmas Day when she opened the window. “Hi, Jingwei!”

Jingwei hooted and stepped inside. Charlie, fortunately, was somewhere outside. The two birds got along when Anna and Alexandra were present, but Alexandra knew Charlie was becoming more nervous as Jingwei grew larger.

Alexandra untied a letter from the owl's leg, and gave her some treats, then snapped her fingers in front of the raptor's face, heedless of that powerful beak, when she caught her staring intently at Nigel's cage. “Forget it!”

Jingwei looked at her and hooted reproachfully. Alexandra kept half an eye on the owl as she read Anna's letter, noticing that the bird's eyes repeatedly rolled in the snake's direction.

Anna sounded cheerful, but lonely. She didn't mention it in her letter, but Alexandra knew Anna's thirteenth birthday was in three days, and that there would probably only be family members there to celebrate it with her. Anticipating Jingwei's visit, Alexandra had Anna's birthday card and present ready. She made the big owl wait while she wrote a reply to slip into the envelope along with the card. She only briefly mentioned talking to her mother about Charmbridge – she didn't want to spoil Anna's holiday making her worry, and she also wasn't sure that the Office of Special Inquisitions couldn't intercept owls and read her mail.

Once Jingwei had taken off, Alexandra laid her gifts out on her desk – the locket from her father, the picture cube from Maximilian, the cell phone from David. Idly, she toyed with the charms dangling from her bracelet given to her by Anna, as she watched herself goofing off and dueling and being teased by Maximilian, Martin, and Beatrice, over and over. Finally, she took out the bright red cell phone and followed the instructions to activate it.

It was sleek and very cool. She held it in the palm of her hand, looking at the little screen that could display web pages, music videos, and even games. It was really a shame that it wouldn't work at school. And that she couldn't use it to call Anna, or Constance and Forbearance.

With a sigh, she dialed David's number.

“Yo!” she heard David say, only a second later.

“Hi,” she said. “Merry Christmas.”

“Alex! You got the phone?” He sounded pleased.

“No duh. What do you think I'm using to call you, dufus?”

He laughed. They talked for a little while about their Christmas presents, and the dozens of aunts and uncles and cousins visiting David's house in Detroit, and whether they thought it was snowing in the Ozarks, where Constance and Forbearance lived. Alexandra felt better, hearing David's voice, but she was still feeling dispirited and unnerved by her conversation with her mother. Somehow Brian came up in the conversation, and she wound up telling David about Brian and Bonnie's visit, and then she was telling him everything – meeting Abraham Thorn in the woods, confronting her mother, and now sitting at home with no fewer questions than she'd had before.

She was lying on her bed now, staring up at the ceiling, and wondering why she was telling all this to David. At some point, Charlie had returned, and was now sitting on a bedpost looking down at her.

“Wow,” David said finally.

“Yeah,” she replied.

He was silent for a while, then he said, “I'm glad I can talk to my folks about... you know. Being a wizard. They don't totally understand it, but they're interested. 'Course I don't tell them some of the more freaky stuff either.”

“Like walking across a valley on an invisible bridge?”

“That sometimes disappears. Yeah.” He laughed.

They were both quiet for a bit. Then she said, “I'm sorry I called you up the day after Christmas to complain about my parents.”

“Nah. S'all right.”

She hesitated. “Thanks a lot for the phone, David. It was a nice gift. A really nice gift.”

“Cool. I'm glad you like it. Too bad we can't text each other at school, you know?”

“Yeah.” She frowned a little, and took a deep breath. “I feel kind of lame, only giving you a sports jersey.”

“No, the jersey was cool, really! Don't worry about it!” David protested.

Alexandra cleared her throat. “Yeah, but... a cell phone. It's kind of an... expensive gift.”

“Alex, don't worry about it,” he repeated. He paused. “Look, my folks kind of have money, all right? I don't talk about it much, 'cause at school, if you've got a Muggle family, that's all that matters – your folks could be rich or poor, but you're still a Mudblood. So, whatever. But it's no big deal, really.”

Alexandra frowned. There weren't actually that many students at Charmbridge who insulted Muggle-borns, but now wasn't the time to get David agitated again. “It kind of was a big deal for my mom and stepdad,” she said slowly. “They, umm, they freaked out a little, that a boy was giving me a cell phone.”

There was a long pause, followed by a baffled, “Huh?”

He sounded honestly confused. Alexandra blurted out: “David, do you have a crush on me?”

“What? No!”

There was a much longer pause, during which she squeezed her eyes shut, clenched her teeth, and smacked herself on the forehead, while Charlie hopped from bedpost to bedpost, clucking.

“Look, Alex,” David said at last. “I told you before –”

“Yeah, you don't like skinny white girls.”

He made a coughing sound. “Umm, look, no offense...” he mumbled, and Alexandra could tell he was as embarrassed as she was. “I didn't exactly mean it like that.”

“If you do have a crush on me, it's all right. I won't make fun of you, I promise. But I just don't want a boyfriend, okay?”

“I do not have a crush on you!” he declared angrily.

They were both silent again, and then David muttered, “Man, if I knew giving you something you kept talking about wanting was going to cause all this trouble –”

“I'm sorry, David. I'm really sorry. I just – my folks got all weird, and I didn't know what to think, and I was just worried –”

“Alex, I do not have a crush on you. We're just friends. That's it, okay?”

“Okay,” she replied, relieved. She smiled a little. “Do you have a crush on someone else?”

He stammered. “Alex, would you knock it off?”

“Like, I don't know...” And she pitched her voice lower, trying to sound breathless and sultry and Southern: “Some othah girl, from Noo Oh-leans, who has a rillah ob-nahk-shus familiah, and big –”

“Girl, that's the worst accent I've ever heard! Angelique doesn't even sound like that!”

Alexandra laughed.

“If you're gonna keep making fun of me, I'm hanging up,” David said indignantly.

“No, no, I'm sorry,” she apologized quickly. Then, looking at Charlie, she grinned wickedly. “But if you really do like Angelique, David, I'll bet I know a way to find out if she likes you, too...”

By the time they finally hung up, Alexandra had talked the dubious boy into a plan she was certain would work, based on many hours of television-watching.

She had also used up a significant portion of her prepaid account, but that was all right, since when she thought about it, she really didn't know anyone else except David that she could call. Which perhaps made her desire for a cell phone kind of stupid, but she was still glad she had one now. She felt much better, and although she was still plagued by questions and doubts about her mother and father, she felt ready to face the coming year again.

That was when a snow-white owl landed outside her window and pecked demandingly at the glass. Alexandra didn't recognize this one, so she looked quizzically at it as she opened her window.

The envelope it carried bore the Charmbridge Academy seal. When she opened it, she found her report card and her SPAWN results within.

Mrs. Middle had really not liked her essay, she thought, when she saw her Wizarding Social Studies grade.

She cared more about her SPAWN results, which were almost the same as at the end of last year. She had scored 'Average' in all academic areas (even Wizard History, her weakest subject), 'Excellent' in Charms, and 'Superior' in Basic Magical Defense. She was unsurprised that Mr. Grue had given her a 'U' for 'Underperformer' in Alchemy, but she was more disappointed by her Transfiguration score going down to 'Average.'

There was one more item in the envelope the owl had brought: another copy of the form she was supposed to have filled out listing her preferred electives, and a note from Dean Black:

“Miss Quick,

I do not have a copy of your Elective Request Form, which you were supposed to have turned in before the end of the fall semester. You are not a special snowflake who gets to make up her mind at the last minute. In order to plan class schedules for the coming year, it is very important that we have all students' requests for electives as early as possible if we are to accommodate student preferences. If you do not send a properly filled out Elective Request Form by return owl, you will be assigned to whatever class has available openings, at my convenience.

Wishing you and yours happy holidays,

Caelum Black, Dean of the Seventh Grade.”

Alexandra sighed, and looked at the snowy owl, which was hooting impatiently.

She still wanted to take Magical Ecology, though it would be nice to be in the same class with Anna, in Geomancy. Or maybe she should take Muggle Studies. It had to be a pretty easy class, for a Muggle-born.

But her eyes were drawn again to the picture cube, where she was standing proudly in uniform next to her brother. Maximilian had, as promised, not tried to talk her into signing up for JROC again. But she knew he'd be pleased if she did. And more than that, she realized that one of the few pleasures she'd had, the past semester, was seeing his look of approval, and the time she had spent with the Stormcrows, being treated as (almost) one of them.

Anna is going to have a cow, she thought, but she wrote down on the line to list her first choice: 'Practical Magical Exercise,' and at the bottom of the form, checked the box for 'Junior Regimental Officer Corps.'