I studied, practiced, read, and believed. But did any of that have an effect? Well it did later on but on my eleventh birthday, it didn't. My name is Ally Scamander. I figured with Newt Scamander as my great-great-grandfather, I would have a good chance of getting into Hogwarts. My sister, brother and parents all got in. I didn't. All because I did magic before I had a chance to even know about Hogwarts. I should explain.

I was five, a common age for good things to happen. That year was the worst year of my life. I killed my own dad. Using magic. I didn't know it at the time. My dad gave me his old magic books. I found one. It, how should I say this, it stuck out to me. Can you guess what spell it was? Yep, you guessed it. Avada kadvra. I played with an apple tree branch. I guess the power flowed into the branch from me and killed my father when the spell worked. I thought dad had just had passed out from being tired. Hah, if only I had known....