Lost and found in the world

Chapter One

"Where is it?!" a frustrated Michaela said. She was looking for her copy of "Angela's Ashes" so that she could start her summer reading. "Why did you have to put it off for so long, Michaela?" she said aloud to herself with a groan.

School was due to start in two weeks and she hadn't started the required summer reading for her British literature class yet.

Maybe it's under the bed, she thought. She went down on her knees and looked under her bed with some dread because after all, she was a normal seventeen year old with your standard messy, everything's everywhere type of room. She hadn't been under her bed in ages. Who knew what could be under there?

"So that's where my jacket went! And . . . aha!" she said triumphantly. "Here you are, you master of hiding book you!" She held up the book but upon closer inspection, she groaned once more. It was well over three- hundred pages that she'd have to read and take pages of notes on. "Might as well get started." She sighed.

As she started to read, she became deeply entranced in the book. This was how most books kept her and there were few things that could snap her out of it. Screams were one of them.

"AHHH!"

Michaela snapped her head up. That wasn't her imagination, that was her mom! She leaped up, her heart pounding. There were very few things that could make her mom scream like that. Running out the door, about to run down the stairs, she stopped.

Nothing ordinary could have made her mom scream because Michaela's mom wasn't ordinary. In reality, her mom and dad were wizards, although they lived in a muggle neighborhood for her sake. Michaela was born a squib, a non-magical person, and because of that, she attended a muggle school, as most squibs did.

So Michaela knew that muggle things didn't easily frighten her mother, even possible intruders like burglars. No, what could frighten her mother this badly had to be something from the wizarding world, in which Michaela had no powers.

With these thoughts, she moved with great care down the stairs. At the foot of the stairs, she heard voices in the kitchen.

"-won't get away with this!"

"Oh no? I seem to have you bound. I'm sure Lord Voldemort will break your independent will to his own. I daresay he'll extract useful information from you regarding your dear wife's brother, Dumbledore."

Lord Voldemort? This must be a Death Eater, thought Michaela with terror.

"We'll never-"

"Silence! Crucio!"

The air was suddenly full of screams and shrieks of Michaela's father.

"Dad!" cried Michaela and she ran to the kitchen. She stood in the doorway, staring at the scene in front of her in horror. Her dad was lying on the ground writhing with pain and the Death Eater was standing over him, laughing. Her mother was bent over, crying when she suddenly noticed Michaela standing there in the doorway.

With her eyes, she pleaded Michaela to run away. Michaela could have none of this and started to run to aid her father, but her mother raised her wand slightly to avoid the attention of the Death Eater and muttered something. Michaela looked, shocked, as her body stiffened together and she fell over. Her mother had put her in the full body bind. Luckily though, the Death Eater was too preoccupied torturing Michaela's father to hear what just happened.

"Enough!" said the Death Eater, turning to Michaela's mother who continued to sob. He snapped his fingers and ropes shot out to bind her. Then, as Michaela watched with fright, there was a loud crack! and the Death Eater and her parents disappeared.

If Michaela could have cried right then, she would have. Her parents gone, taken by a Death Eater! Of course her parents had warned her about these types of dangers, especially since Voldemort's return to power this June, but the whole thing had seemed just a bit unreal.

Though her parents worked at wizarding jobs, on the whole, they lived in the muggle world. Michaela had muggle friends and whenever they came over, her mom did a charm that transformed anything magical into something muggle- like. If it weren't for the fact that her parents often talked and complained about their jobs and the wizarding world, Michaela could have cared less about the magical community-she couldn't perform magic and though she used to dwell sadly on that fact a few years ago, Michaela had moved on and accepted her role as a squib.

She had though vaguely a few times that she might one day serve to help other wizards and witches understand muggles better, but she was increasingly becoming more and more distant with the magical community as college and her adult life loomed near. Her parents were a bit disappointed, of course, but Michaela didn't see any point in trying to live in the wizarding community when she had no magical abilities within her.

Even though it was useless, Michaela concentrated all her energy into moving one of her limbs, but of course she couldn't. She couldn't even open her mouth to call for help and the only thing she could move here her yes, which had a limited view on the floor. She lay there on the floor thinking of she could do (which wasn't much) when she heard another crack! and another wizard, clad in purple robes appeared.

Body still completely paralyzed, her mind raced with fear. Was this another Death Eater come to take her away? If it was, there was nothing she could do about it. With this unfortunate, but stark truth, she forced her mind to become calmer so that she could think more clearly.

"Angela, Howard, where are you?"

Some relief washed over Michaela's mind. He was here to help! As he turned around, each person got their first full look at each other and Michaela immediately recognized him. It was Uncle Albus Dumbledore.