PROLOGUE

It was weird. Too weird. Things like this didn't just happen. It had to be someone playing a very elaborate, well-thought-out prank on her. At any moment, someone was going to jump out from somewhere and yell, "Gotcha!" and everyone was going to have a good laugh at her for being so gullible and stupid.

It was all just too much for little eleven-year-old Jane Hensworth to comprehend or fully believe in. Witches and wizards didn't exist. Goblins and ghouls were merely fairy-tale monsters used to frighten child into being good. Magic didn't really exist, not in the way it did in her storybooks. However, around a month ago, two very strangely dressed people came knocking on her door and told her that she, of all people, was a witch, turning everything she thought she knew right on its head.

She and her parents were shocked to say the least, but her mum told her that she always knew that Jane was special, and that had made Jane smile. Mostly because her mum was doing well. Jane had been worried that her going away for the school year might make her mum bad again, but her mother seemed genuinely happy for her daughter. And for those moments when Jane was with her mum, she thought that maybe her mum wouldn't have any more bad spells and that she'd stay happy this time. After all, if she could be a witch, then maybe her mum could be happy.

Jane looked at all the stuff that she'd managed to cram into her suitcase, from spell books to robes to a small, black cauldron, and she vaguely wondered how she was going to get her suitcase to close around all of the weird belongings she'd acquired to start her new school. From the floor below, there was a faint knock followed by the sound of footsteps and the front door being opened.

"Janie!" called Jane's mother. "Sarah's here!"

Jane frantically shut the suitcase, pushing with all the strength she could muster to close the lid as best she could and shoved the infernal thing under her bed. As much as she wanted to tell Sarah about Hogwarts, Jane knew that she couldn't. The people who had come before, to tell Jane of this world she'd never known, were very adamant about keeping it all a secret, which bothered Jane because Sarah was her best friend, her only friend, and Jane wasn't in the habit of keeping secrets from her.

Sarah Camden had moved to the neighbourhood four summers ago only a couple of houses down from Jane's. They became inseparable after their initial meeting, which was odd for Jane because she'd never had a friend her own age before. The two girls only grew closer over the last summer when Sarah's dad left, and it seemed like she was always at Jane's. Jane had been a bit worried that summer because her mum was doing bad again and she wasn't sure how to explain this to Sarah because Jane didn't quite understand it herself. However, Sarah didn't judge.

The girls talked to each other about their problems late into the night after climbing up on the roof of Jane's house from her bedroom window, where they stared up at the stars and made silly wishes for the gift of flight so that they could fly far away from their problems and their little town. In short, they were really close, and different schools or not, Jane intended to keep it that way.

"Jane!" Sarah squealed as she burst into Jane's room. Jane laughed as she was enveloped in a crushing embrace.

"You sound like you haven't seen me in forever. We saw each other yesterday, remember?" Jane reminded her friend.

"Yeah, but you're going to be going to this new boarding school, and I won't see you until, like, Christmas!" Sarah half-whined as she released Jane, a pout forming on her lips.

"True," Jane replied, wondering how school without Sarah would be. Sarah dropped her bag and flopped down on Jane's bed, staring at the plain, white ceiling.

"How am I supposed to survive school without you? You're my best friend! Seeing you on holiday isn't enough! Who am I supposed to hang out with? Our classmates are prats, the lot of them!"

"I know," Jane said. "I'm going to miss you a lot."

Sarah rolled over and propped herself up on her elbows to look at Jane.

"Don't go," she pleaded in a half-hearted effort, knowing that at this point no amount of begging would be enough to have her friend stay and join her at Test Valley in September. Jane smiled sadly.

"I can't just back out now. It's kind of a done deal. Plus, my parents are making me."

This was a small lie, one that she'd been practising for weeks now. She felt it was better than explaining why she really had to go, but it still made her upset to say aloud, feeling as though she were betraying her friend's trust.

"Who am I supposed to talk to?" Sarah insisted.

"We can write letters," Jane suggested.

"Well, where am I supposed to send it? You haven't told me where this place is," Sarah said. Jane thought for a second. She was also uncertain of where the exact location of the school was or its mailing address, but surely her parents knew such information.

"You can give the letters to my parents, and they'll send them with what they send me. And you can pick my letters to you up from them," Jane proposed.

"Oh, alright," Sarah relented, "but you have to promise to write at least once a week, no matter how busy you are!"

"I swear," Jane said, fully intent on keeping this promise. "Now, why don't we enjoy the rest of the summer we have together? I don't fancy staying locked up in my room all day complaining about my new school."

Sarah smiled a toothy grin and the girls raced each other out of the room, down the stairs and out the front door, determined to make their remaining days together some of the best yet.