Taylor Lucas

Backstory

Although spending most of my life in America, having been born there and being raised in a somewhat "normal" environment, I was always aware of my family's long and magical past. The Lucas lineage, having been involved in the arts of healing and spell researching for hundreds of years, had diverged when my great-great-grandparents moved from London to the United States. They had become disinterested in nearly all things magic and longed for a life of peace in the States. Though their efforts to raise my great-grandmother in a nonmagical environment almost worked, she was an explorative spirit, and soon discovered her true capabilities. Pursuing magic on her own, she decided that her own children, as well as all future generations, would be actively involved in some profession in the wizarding world.

I came into this world many, many years later. My father, a wizard from Chicago who was traveling on business, had met my mother by chance at a convenience store. After a brief affair, my mother was pregnant, and I came to be. Being raised by a single mother in the wizarding world was somewhat difficult, at least for my mother. A good and kindhearted woman, she would often be criticized by her peers for not being married and birthing a child. However, she gave me the best life that she could, and for that, I am forever indebted to her. I attended public school for several years, assimilating into No-Maj society as best as I could, even though I knew that it was not where I belonged. I had dreams of being able to explore the magical world, to become someone great and to achieve even greater things! I didn't want to remain in my hometown for long, and I wanted to become someone who could be admired, someone who could be seen as confident and powerful. I wanted to learn more about magic, and I often expressed this to my mother. At the age of eleven, I was preparing to begin a new educational career at a wizarding school.

I had no interest in Ilvermorny. For whatever reason, I found the idea of somehow being sorted into a house known as "Pukwudgie" to be very, very distasteful. So, after begging my mother for hours and hours, she finally agreed to appeal to MACUSA to allow me to receive my education elsewhere. This, of course, meant that I would have to attend a wizarding school beyond North America and that I would have to make a journey alone, my mother only being able to afford to send myself to another country. Luckily, the Magical Congress answered to our appeal, and I was allowed to attend another school. Excited beyond comparison and thrilled to be seeing another nation, I decided that I would very much enjoy attending the very school that my ancestors and family overseas did, the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Although my letter took longer to arrive than those sent to students in the U.K., I received mine early enough to be hyped out of my mind. Reluctant to let her only son leave by himself, my mother gave me the biggest hug ever and sent me off in tears.

Arriving in England, I found myself met with some distant relatives of mine. Before leaving for school, I had never even heard of these people, but my mother had somehow managed to contact them and ask them if I could stay with them until it was time for my first year to officially begin. My distant cousins, Lawrence and Maureen Lucas (Lawrence being an Auror and Maureen working for a small wizarding paper in London), had agreed to take me under their wing for the time-being. They were nice people, very welcoming and simple, so much different than how my grandfather had described them. My grandfather had been raised with the belief that the Lucas clan in our home-country were nothing more than rude, greedy, and rather snobbish. This was not the case, and I found Maureen and Lawrence to be quite wonderful.

They had two children of their own, who I was soon acquainted with after arriving from the airport. Kelly and William had birthdays that were two years apart. William was thirteen, and Kelly was my age. After trying to imitate and lightheartedly making fun of my "American" accent, the two soon became great friends of mine. It was so strange to see these people that I had never met before suddenly becoming integral parts of my life. It made me feel very much less alone in my current situation.

My cousins helped me prepare for my first year at Hogwarts, and introduced me to many of the mechanics of the wizarding world that I had never even been aware of. It was a culture shock in two aspects, the first being the English No-Maj society (I soon learned that No-Majes were called "Muggles" in this part of the world), and the second being that many parts of the hidden magical society were varied from everything that I was already accustomed to. It was fun to explore new places, and I found Diagon Alley to be particularly cool when shopping for my supplies for first year. I also received a tabby cat, one which I named Belle. It would also be Kelly's first year at Hogwarts, and she and I were very excited to be attending together. Her parents would often smile when they saw us talking to each other about everything that we planned to do once we arrived.

The day it was time to go, we were all very emotional. Lawrence and Maureen were so happy that their youngest child and myself would be starting school. It was another tearful goodbye at King's Cross as they saw us off. William promised to keep a watchful eye on the two of us, and we all boarded the Hogwarts Express with our hearts full of hope and excitement. I thought of my mother as we pulled out of the station, and I thought about how proud I wanted to make her. I also thought about my own ambitions. I was going to be attending Hogwarts! I knew that it would be the first step toward figuring out my life's purpose and becoming something great. I was ready.