Ash Cassidy

Backstory

I grew up thinking I was a squib. It was so frustrating. My family consisted of my parents, who were both wizards, and my little sister Emilia, who was magical as well. There was no doubt that I wouldn't be a wizard - it just made sense. But I never really showed any signs of having any powers.
I did everything I could: I would let my cat, Baloo, bite me in case she could pass on any crazy magic cat powers. I brought my wand everywhere, and even put it under my pillow when I slept. But it was no use. By my eleventh birthday, I didn't have any magic bubbling at the surface. My hogwarts letter didn't come either. I was about as useless as a muggle.
My whole family was disappointed, but not as much as I was. When it came time to face the facts, my father was the one to sit me down and tell me I was a squib. I wouldn't take it. It wasn't fair! I ran off to my room, and jumped under the covers. I wallowed in my sadness, and took the time to process the information. After about of month, my energy was renewed because I was ready to prove I was a wizard. So what if I didn't have powers? All I had to do was prepare for them.
I sneaked into my parent's old boxes that they had from when they were students, and grabbed all the textbooks that were from the first year curriculum (I had memorized the packing list from before my birthday). For the next year, I studied non-stop. I practiced motions for charms, memorized the recipes for potions, even walked through imaginary encounters with magical creatures. My logic was that I just had to prepare myself for when my powers came so I could already know what to do.
Funny thing about my sister, Emilia: She and I had the same birthday, just a year apart. So when she was turning eleven, I was turning twelve. It was bound to be a disaster. I tried to keep to myself and try not to stir up old emotions. But it was hard to keep focused on my cake while Emilia was just bouncing this way and that, shoving her acceptance letter to Hogwarts in everyone's face. I lost it. It just wasn't fair! Why was this little brat a wizard, and not me! When she came over to me and bragged about it, I did the only thing I could: I threw the closest thing I could right at her smug little face. (It just happened to be my piece of cake, which might have been a good choice, but I just didn't want to hurt her.) Having no coordination, it flew right over her head.
But then, the strangest thing happened. As if my magic, it turned mid-air and hit her right in the back of the head. Instead of screaming about the frosting in her hair, she just kind of stared at me, and I stared back. "What just happened...."
The next thing I know, my mom is thrusting her wand into my hand, seeing if I can get anything to happen with it. I looked at her cautiously: I didn't want to give my hopes up again. I looked down at the wand, and focused all my energy into it. Slowly but surely, a ball of light started to form at the tip. I was so excited, so I made it get bigger, and stronger. I looked up at my mom. "See! I'm doing it-" I quickly lost my focus, and lost control of it. It went flying off the wand and hit the chandelier that hung in the kitchen. There was an explosion of sparks, and then the room was plunged into darkness. As we stood there in shock, Baloo came and batted my leg with her paw. I picked her up, telling her it was okay, when I realized she was carrying something in her mouth. It was a letter, my letter from Hogwarts.
That's the story of how I found my powers. Yes, they were late, but I'm doing just fine in school now! Thank goodness I studied, or else I would have had to be in my sister's grade!