I've only been here for a day and oh, what a day it's been! I've seen things I can hardly believe and- well, I think I might be getting ahead of myself. It's nice to meet you! My name's Michaela, but most people seem to call me Kayla since that tends to be easier, and I've been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. 

Let's start from the beginning, shall we? I'm a muggleborn, or at least that's what my classmates seem to call me, my parents raised me in a small town in the American midwest. Nothing ever seemed to happen there, it was a place where everyone knew everyone, where you'd see the same ten faces in the supermarket every weekend. Let's just face it, it was probably the most boring place on Earth. My little town thrived on gossip, so if anything strange ever happened, word traveled like wildfire. That's where I come in.

I really was a quiet girl, keeping to herself, nose always in a book, that sort of thing. But even so, everyone thought I was odd, and kept their distance. I didn't mind it much, that just meant more peace and quiet and less of the constant jabbering of obnoxious mouths anywhere near me. It was pretty lonely though, especially when I was younger. Sitting alone on the playground for five straight years can cause some serious baggage for a little girl. But my books kept me company, and as I got older I found more people who enjoyed what I enjoyed and before I knew it I had a group of my own friends. I was a perfectly normal muggle girl for about 17 years. But after my seventeenth birthday, that changed rather quickly.

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Muggle school had this amazing talent of stressing me out, and it wasn't the schoolwork, it was the people. So many of them were just rude, pushy, unkind, and totally inconsiderate. And with my small group of friends being at the bottom of the social pyramid, we tended to get picked on the most. It didn't really bother me at first, the constant stream of giggles that followed me and any of my friends walking down the hallway turned into static, just part of the constant barrage of noise that came with high school. The teasing stayed tame for a year or two, until someone decided to start defacing our lockers with mean messages, and leaving notes in our backpacks and purses when we weren't looking. That's when the stress hit. And when the stress hit, things started to disappear. They were little things at first, my favorite pen, a book I was reading, homework, drawings. They always ended up coming back eventually, but I didn't really think of it much. I honestly just thought I was disorganized and scatterbrained. 

The cycle continued, the bullying got worse and bigger things started disappearing: The neighbor's cat, a dog or two, my bike, someone's car... but I never put two and two together. This went on for a year or two until the bullying reached it's peak and left me at home crying most nights. On one particular night, I was up late studying for an exam that already had me stressed when my phone started ringing off the hook. Dozens of text messages were being received, all telling me I was worthless, ugly, a loser, and even more terrible things. That's what did it, that's what sent me over the edge. I wasn't even sad, I was angry, angrier than I had ever been in my whole life. I tossed my textbook that I had been reading across my room with all my might, and it hit my door with a deafening thud. I turned around to discover that my desk was no longer there. It had vanished into thin air. 

That's when I started to panic, because where would a desk go? It was impossible for a desk to just disappear! And as I started to hyperventilate from the panic attack I could feel coming, the lights started violently flickering. What was going on? The light bulb in my ceiling fan burst and I let out a piercing scream, trying to alert my parents that I was in danger. From what, I didn't know, but I was terrified. I covered my head with the pillow that was lying on my bed and closed my eyes, telling myself over and over again that this wasn't happening, it was all a dream and that in a few moments I'd wake up. But it wasn't a dream, and as I opened my eyes and removed the pillow, all I could see was the darkness surrounding me. A series of loud thuds came up the stairs and I could see my mother's face illuminated by one of the emergency candles she always had stashed away. 

"Oh my God, are you okay? Your father and I heard you scream!" The concerned look on my mother's face helped me feel calm and I took a deep breath before explaining how my desk disappeared and the lights flickered and how absolutely terrified I was. My mother turned to the corner where my desk usually was and let out a light chuckle,

"What are you talking about sweetie? Your desk is right there!... Are you sure you're feeling okay?" She put her hand to my palm but I pushed it away to see my desk. She was right, it was right in the place it had always been, as if nothing had happened. Before I could tell my mom that I felt fine and that she shouldn't worry, my dad came bounding into my room.

"It seems like the whole city's out of power!" He announced, completely out of breath from his sprint up the steps. "They just can't figure it out, everything was working perfectly fine and then it all just shut off! They're investigating what happened now to see if someone tampered with the city's electrical system"

My eyes went wide. It was me the whole time! I was the one who shut off the power, I was the one who made our neighbor's cat disappear. But how? Why? I couldn't understand it all. I looked to my parent's faces and knew that they wouldn't believe me. They were people of logic, the thought of me being able to shut off the city's power would be contradictory to everything that they ever thought possible. I'd need proof.

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I stared down my lightest book I owned, my copy of A Streetcar Named Desire, and focused all my energy on it. I envisioned it slowly floating up into the air, hovering for a bit, and floating back down to land safely on the table. My best friend, Hannah, sat across from me, arms crossed with a tiny smirk on her face. She probably thought I was crazy, but I'd been practicing this for weeks now, I could do this. The book twitched ever so slightly on the table, hardly noticeable unless you were watching closely, and then it made it's ascent. I heard Hannah curse under her breath with astonishment as the book slowly lifted itself off of the table. There, I'd done it! I let it rise higher and higher until it was barely above our heads and then allowed it to float back down. It turned out even better than I had imagined it, I was getting good at this. 

"So, do you have like, ESP or something?" Gasped Hannah, unable to tear her eyes away from the book that had been floating above her head just moments before. "You know, like X-Men?"

"I dunno," I sighed as I took the book off the table and stuffed it back into my purse.  "I just know that I'm different, a freak,"

"No, this is so awesome Kayla! Do you think maybe you could do mind control? Or like, tell the future?" I could tell she was getting a huge kick out of this now that the shock had worn off.

"I really don't know Hannah, all I know I can do is make things disappear, levitate, and I can shut off the power,"

Hannah gasped "So... A few weeks ago?"

"That was me"

Her eyes grew wide and in a voice I could barely hear she whispered "That's wicked"

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Months had come and gone and school had finally ended, I had graduated high school, one of the youngest in my class and college loomed in the near future. For now it was summer, and trivial things such as school didn't matter to me. But an interesting turn of events soon changed that when a letter came. This wasn't a normal looking letter, the address was handwritten in perfect calligraphy. Who even did that anymore? And the back had a wax seal. What was even more odd was that it was addressed to me, and I never get mail. So I greedily ripped the envelope open and read the contents which have changed my life forever:

Dear Ms. Kreidler,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Students shall be required to report to the Chamber of Reception upon arrival, the dates for which shall be duly advised.

Please ensure that the utmost attention be made to the list of requirements attached herewith.

We very much look forward to receiving you as part of the new generation of Hogwarts' heritage

Yours sincerely

Professor McGonagall