When we returned home, Dad and I were exhausted. It felt like we had just been through a shopping war, and we were on the losing side. The only one of us who didn't look tired was Mum. She had a smug grin on her face as if everything had gone according to her master plan.

Floating behind my dad was my trunk. Inside was all the supplies that I would need for the year. Looking at all the stairs and corners that we would have to maneuver it around made me grateful that I was in a family of wizards. If we had to drag it up by hand, it would have taken forever. As it were, Dad just followed me to my room with it effortlessly floating behind him.

After he dropped my trunk in the corner of my room, I eagerly opened the trunk looking for my spell books for the year. Looking inside, I discovered the trunks' expansion charm. It was a little strange to look inside and see the inside dimensions around three times the outside dimensions. Finding my books off towards the side, I grabbed the first one and turned it over to find — Standard Book of Spells Grade 1 by Miranda Goshawk.

The instant I opened the book, my mother's voice rang out, "Alex, dinner time."

Reluctantly, I set the book down, knowing if I didn't head down now, Mum would lose her temper. Dinner seemed to drag on forever. Time itself seemed to be mocking my desire to practice magic with my wand for the first time. Deciding that attempting my first spell in the house was too risky, I decided to wait till night when everyone was asleep.

To pass the time after dinner, Dad and I played a few games of wizard chess. After his third loss in a row, dad threw his hands up and declared, "You're cheating somehow."

Off to the side, Mum and the twins laughed at Dad's expression.

Sorry Dad, but you're no match for someone who has played computer chess masters before. While wizard chess did have a few other factors to consider, like your piece's motivations. It was mainly similar to regular chess. In my previous life, one of my main pastimes at the hospital was playing chess online.

I think the final straw for my dad was when Sasha stood up and hugged him to comfort his latest loss. At first, my dad seemed to draw strength from her support and almost issued another challenge. Then she patted him on the back and sweetly said, "It's ok daddy, even though you stink at chess. I still love you."

Hearing Sasha's words, Dad's face wilted. Mum fell off her seat laughing uncontrollably. After catching her breath, she crowed, "This is karma, all those time beating me and gloating when we used to play, now it's your turn to lose all the time."

As the night wore on, I couldn't help but watch the clock impatiently for my chance to head to the tower. An hour after everyone had gone to sleep, I slowly opened my window, I winced at every loud squeak it made. After making sure the noise didn't disturb anyone, I grabbed my book and broom and took off into the night sky.

Luckily my tower master ring had some type of homing spell linked to the tower. If I concentrated, I could feel a tugging sensation in my mind, pointing the way to the tower. Upon arriving, I headed to the top of the tower where a broken branch hid a ledge with a door as soon as I landed the door melted away, leaving a gaping black hole in the tower. Once I crossed the threshold, torches on the wall began to light, and when I made it to the main floor where I found Anton sleeping in his portrait.

"Anton," I called out, wanting to seek his instruction before I started casting spells.

Upon hearing my voice, Anton's eyes snapped open, and he began howling, "Intruder, how dare you wake me from my slumber, prepare to meet thy doom. Your fate shall be horrible, all will tremble in awe of my power, and the whole world shall fear my wrath… Oh, it's just you, Alex."

I rolled my eyes at his antics and pulled out my new wand. I waved it threatening in his direction and joked. "You know, now that I have my wand, you might want to be a little more respectful."

He scoffed, and said, "Bah, the great wizard Anton, fears no one."

Studying my fingernail, I innocently suggested, "You know, the other day, I was at my grandmother's house, and I found another painting of one of our ancestors. Her name was Elizabeth Fawley."

Upon hearing the name, Anton shuddered and whispered, "You wouldn't dare."

Knowing that I had found a weakness, a cheshire grin emerged on my face, "Well, I suppose I don't have to mention I found her husband's painting. I wouldn't want to see my brave mentor who fears no one, to suddenly become fearful. Especially since I will need his instruction."

Muttering to himself about how kids these days have no respect for their elders. Anton gave a small bow and asked, "How can I help you at this late hour?"

Pulling out my spellbook, I eagerly responded, "It's time for me to cast my first spell. I want your advice before I do."

Nodding thoughtfully, he responded, "Before you start casting, it would be better to work on learning the different wand movements beforehand."

Tilting my head in confusion, I asked, "How many wand movements are?"

Anton waved his hand through the air while he explained,"There are dozens of different movements. Such as, swishes, flicks, twirls, spins, pokes, and even compound movements that combine multiple movements. If you learn how to move your wand correctly, there is less chance of your spell going out of control. I believe I had a book on wand movements in the library on the lower level."

After retrieving the book from the library and looking over the movements, I began practicing the swish and flick movement in anticipation of casting the levitation spell that Ron used to take down the troll in the first book.

After practicing the wand movements for some time, I opened the Standard Book of Spells to look up how to cast it. After memorizing the spell incantation Wingardium Leviosa, I started to swish and flick my wand while chanting the spell.

I drew my wand and pointed it towards a wine glass on the desk and chanted, "Wingardium Leviosa" while performing a swish and flick wand movement and concentrating on making the goblet float.

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To mine and Anton's surprise, I achieved success on my first try. Having a wand made all the difference in the world when casting magic. The amount of mental effort compared to using a wand or wandless magic was like comparing night and day.

I shot a smug grin at Anton. I could see from his expression that he was impressed that I achieved success on my first try. After a few minutes of watching the glass float around, the spell began to wear off, and it floated back down to the table.

Eager to try another spell, I began to flip through my book for another to try out, when Anton interrupted, "What do you think you are doing?"

Raising an eyebrow at his question, I replied, "Looking for another spell to try out, that one was too easy."

He rolled his eyes at my answer, and scoffed, "So you cast a spell once, and you think you have learned everything there is to the spell. Let me tell you, there are many different ways to use that spell. You simply had it float in the air. True mastery involves being able to command it entirely in the air."

Hearing his advice, I continued to practice the levitation charm. After thirty minutes of casting the levitation charm over and over, I realized that I was quickly becoming exhausted, and it was becoming more difficult to cast the spell. Finally, I chanted the charm one more time, and it failed.

Turning to Anton in confusion, I asked, "Why am I so tired? I feel like I can barely think, what is wrong with me?"

Rolling his eyes at my questions, he said, "What did you think you could cast spells indefinitely with no consequence. You will have to build up a mental endurance, to be honest, you did amazing for your first time, I expected you to run out of steam fifteen minutes ago."

To clarify, I said, "So, it's not because I ran out of magic, right?"

Shaking his head, Anton clarified, "Wizards don't ever run out of magic, but rather, there is a mental limitation that wizards have; it is because of the mental component that spells require. When wizards cast spells, they can become exhausted by the mental effort needed to perform the spell correctly; if they can't concentrate, they may not be able to perform the spell."

I nodded my acknowledgement and asked, "Is there any way to improve my endurance?"

He shrugged and replied, "Sure all you have to do is cast spells over and over, as you get older, you will also be able to last longer and longer. The mental component is like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it gets."

After confirming with Anton that wizards can build their mental endurance, I decided that I would cast spells at the end of every day until I was too exhausted to continue. The next night I returned to the tower with more of my spell books. Pulling out my transfiguration book, I asked for my first lesson in transfiguration.

Shaking his head, Anton refused, "No, stay away from transfiguration magic. It's one of the most demanding subjects, and too much has the potential to go wrong. Perhaps next year, when you have some experience with transfiguration, we can move forward. But, until then, I would recommend just practicing, charms, jinxes, and hexes. There is no need to be in a hurry; you will have seven years at Hogwarts to learn more difficult magic."

Seeing how serious Anton was on the subject, I decided to follow his advice. As summer continued, I split my time at Dad's workshop and at the tower. There I practiced charms, hexes, and jinxes, I was determined to impress my teachers at Hogwarts. By the end of the summer, I could tell Anton was half annoyed, half impressed on how easily I picked everything up. He said, "With how quickly you pick magic up, I wouldn't be surprised if you are sorted into Ravenclaw."

Having never heard him speak about the houses at Hogwarts, I asked curiously, "What house were you in?"

Puffing his chest up, "I was in the noble house of Hufflepuff."

Snorting in laughter, I said, "I don't know, you seem more like a Slytherin to me. I mean, you did build this dark tower in a forest, which has a lot of traps built into it. It seems like what a dark lord from Slytherin would do."

Snorting in derision, he replied, "Hmpf. Shows just how little you know about the houses, Hufflepuff is the house dedicated to hard work. What could be harder than building a tower like this all by yourself? Besides, just because a few wizards from Sythernin go bad doesn't make them all evil. Plus, there have been plenty of dark wizards who have shown up in some of the other houses. Although even I will admit, more of them seem to come from the Slytherin house."

Not knowing what to think, the books seemed to imply that all the dark wizards came from Slytherin house. But there is the possibility that the Harry Potter books were told from a narrow point of view.

That theory does make sense. If Slytherins were really a breeding ground for evil wizards, why would they be allowed to remain? The idea if you are sorted into a particular house, either makes you a hero or a villain, is too simplistic.

Over the next few days, the idea of what house I would be sorted into consumed my thoughts. I was curious about what it would say about my character.

If I remember correctly, Slytherin took those who were of the purest blood, and of great cunning. But I also remember that there have been plenty of talented half-bloods who ended up in that house as well.

For Gryffindor's house, I believe they sought the bravest wizards along with those who are chivalrous. Those in Ravenclaw were supposed to be the most intelligent wizards.

And while Hufflepuff didn't have any mandatory criteria, her house was supposed to be hardworking and the most dedicated to teamwork.

A few days before I was supposed to leave for school, we had a large family dinner with Grandma, Uncle John and Aunt Nefret. Cousin Omar couldn't join us because he had already left for school.

Wanting to get some advice about the Hogwarts houses, from my family, I asked, "Does our family have a particular house we normally get sorted into?"

Hearing my question, Dad shook his head, "Not really, while some families seemed to stick to a particular house, our has been all over the place. I was a Ravenclaw student," he bragged.

Considering what my father did for a living, I wasn't too surprised. Eager to hear what house Uncle John was in, I turned to him with an expectant look. A smug grin appeared on his face, and he pronounced "Slytherin."

Not too surprised at the house he was in, I sent an eager look towards Grandma, and she said, "Well, I was a Hufflepuff, and your Grandpa George was a Gryffindor."

Hearing that my family came from all the different houses, I asked curiously, "What house is the best?"

All three exchanged looks towards one another and responded at the same time.

"Hufflepuff," Grandma exclaimed.

"Ravenclaw," Dad declared.

"Slytherin," Uncle John replied.

With an annoyed look on my face, I replied, "That's less than helpful."

Seeing my expression, Dad comforted me, "It doesn't matter what house you're put into. The house the hat sorts you into is the house in which you are most suited for, and we couldn't care less where you end up."

Seeing that I was nodding to indicate that I understood, he reached over and hugged me and whispered into my ear. "That being said, Ravenclaw is the best house."

Deciding to interject, Mum said, "I don't know why Hogwarts sorts people into different houses, it only seems to divide your school."

Before anyone could express their opinion, I replied, "It's a rather clever system. Having different houses has multiple benefits. The first is it gives people motivation to try harder. When people have a sense of belonging to a group, they naturally want that group to succeed. Having opposing houses ensures that you strive your hardest to do better than the other houses. The next benefit is that of behavior control. How else do you expect a few teachers to control the behavior of almost a thousand teenage wizards and witches? They achieve all of this through the house cup competition. On the one hand, they reward students for being the best and having achievements, and on the other hand, if they misbehave, they punish the house that they belong to, which encourages students to follow the rules. If they choose not to and continue to cost the house points, they often have to deal with their fellow student's disapproval from their own house. It is an effective social control formula."

The rest of my family looked flabbergasted at my in-depth review of the house system.

My uncle weakly offered, "I was just going to say it was a longstanding tradition."

Dad proudly raised his nose and bragged, "Definitely a Ravenclaw."

The following two days went by in a flash, and the next thing I knew, it was the first of September, and I would be heading off to Hogwarts.