Odd Book 1: The Grimoire of Honorius

Chapter 1: A Tragic Beginning

            Dawn Hampshire was a simple girl.  She lived in an ordinary town with her two ordinary parents that she loved very much.  She had ordinary brown hair and ordinary blue eyes. She was an average height and build for a fourteen-year-old girl.  She got ordinary grades in an ordinary public school.  She kept to herself and only occasionally spent time with her classmates.  They were all much more exciting than Dawn thought she could ever be.  She spent her free time reading books making many of her classmates think she was boring.  When she was younger many of her classmates bullied her.  They would spill drinks on her in class pretending they were accidents or they would throw her books in the toilets.  Many times Dawn would be hurt by their actions and would go home crying but her father would always comfort her.  He used to always tell her that sometimes bad things happen to good people but it's to build character.   If one can overcome the small struggles, one can overcome the big ones too.   Her mother would tell her that "the past always has a significant role in the battles we fight in the future. No matter how small or insignificant those moments in the past might appear to be, everyone's past gets them where they will be in the future."  Dawn took comfort in their words and started to ignore the bullies. As she began to care less about the bullies, they grew bored with Dawn and began to leave her alone.  When they entered high school, things weren't as bad. Dawn felt as accepted as she could be with her class.  Every now and then someone would say something about Dawn's bookworm habits but Dawn would smile and laugh with them now.  It didn't matter to her anymore what they thought.  She never considered herself anything other than ordinary.   She wasn't particularly special in any way.   She was not skilled in sports or particularly smart, but she liked her life as it was.   Oh, and one more thing.  Dawn was a witch.

            She isn't the only one.   Her ordinary public school, was actually an ordinary public magic school.  Her parents were ordinary magical historians.   Her town was an ordinary magical town.  Nothing more.   Dawn had hoped her life would go on happily as it was forever.  She had no idea how it was all about to change. 

            It all happened one day after school.  Dawn was walking around the town square with a few of her classmates shopping. They weren't particularly close friends, Dawn never seemed to have any close friends but they didn't seem to mind her company and she didn't mind theirs.   They had just walked into an old book store.  Dawn was a regular customer at this store but  every time she would go there she could always find something new whether it was one book or a whole new section.  The shop seemed to change every time.  Dawn liked the adventure of finding something new and she went off from her classmates on her own to explore for a new book to add to her collection.   She walked slowly through the twisting corridors of books, slowly glazing over them to find the perfect book to take home with her.  She turned around the corner and knocked right into someone. 

            "Sorry!" She stumbled to get up.  She looked to the boy who she had run into.     

            "No! It was my fault!"  He offered his hand to help her.  

            "Thanks." Dawn took his hand and they stood up.  She couldn't help but smile at him. He was very attractive with blonde hair and blue eyes.  She noticed the jacket he wore had a fancy golden emblem of a dragon perched on a stone bridge on it.   She knew that symbol, everyone did.  "You go to Bridgestone Academy?"

            "What?  Oh yeah, I'm Ethan."  He held out his hand again.  Dawn took it and shook it still a bit mesmerized by him.  "Where do you go to school?"

            "Nowhere as spectacular as Bridgestone.  What are you doing in a place like this?"

            "What do you mean?  Is there something wrong with this place?" He looked around the bookstore searching for a fault.