My name is Alia Patil and this is the story of how I came about to become player 199 in Hallows Game.

With Voldemort having won the war, the survivors of the Battle of Hogwarts were living in a post apocalyptic world where every man, woman and dog were out for themselves. It was terrifying, lonely and, above all, ugly.

Despite my sisters and I having been accepted into Hogwarts, our parents, being Muggle-born, were run out of the country. It didn't matter that I had been top of my year group, the brightest witch following in Hermione Granger's footsteps. It didn't matter that me, Padma and Parvati were born and raised as witches in the UK, we were still considered scum of the earth and were constantly being told to go back to where we belonged.

But we belonged here - in good old England where the winters were crap but the summers were crapper. When it rained we complained, but we complained harder when the heat hit over twenty-four degrees for three consecutive days. Day one of a rare snowfall we would laugh and build snowmen, on day two we would distress about the cold getting to our fingertips so that we couldn't help with the household chores. We ate ice-creams on the beach the second the sun came out (despite it still being cold) and we always had fish and chips on Fridays just because.

In other words, we were British through and through.

But our skin said different, our blood said otherwise.

As a result, I felt I did not really belong, not like my white, pure blooded friends.

Wandless, Knutless and homeless, I was living in a den at the time that I received the invitation - a dug out below the markets that lined the streets of London. Who am I kidding? - I was living in the fucking sewers, and it was only time until I caught a nasty illness that would send me to my very early grave.

I owed money to people no one should be owing money to. I ran in circles with people my parents would have had heart attacks over. In a fit of desperation, I even sold my body one night just so that I could eat a fucking meal.

But, as I said, this is my story of how I came about to be in Hallows Game, not of my pitying life preceding it. More of my back story will come in time.

For now, all you need to know is about the woman I encountered one night. An encounter that changed my life.

I stole a fish. I'm not proud of it. But I was hungry. And if I didn't eat, I would die.

In my lethargic and malnourished state, I wasn't stealthy enough, and the market teller, an old, fat, balding dude, spotted what I was doing.

"THEIF! SOMEONE GET THAT SKANKY BITCH, NOW!"

I ran. I ran as fast as I could, which was pretty fast considering the state I was in. But it was survival instinct. My adrenaline always knew when to kick in at the right time and it'd never let me down.

Until now.

"Hold it."

I stopped in my tracks as a woman dressed in a sharp black suit and carrying a briefcase stepped out of a side street, blocking my path. I didn't recognise her, although she looked at me as though I should do.

I tried to push past her, but she was surprisingly strong, reaching out a hand to restrain my arm.

"Play a game with me."

My eyes widened. What the fuck?

"Uh- I'm kinda in a hurry right now," I said quickly, looking over my shoulder for the disgruntled fishmonger.

"He won't bother you anymore." The woman said with confidence. "He's already got another customer."

I looked at her now. Properly. She had a sleek black bob that fell around her heart shaped face without a hair out of place. She was quite beautiful in a non-conventional way. Her green eyes burned hypnotically into mine and I found myself inexplicably wanting to stay by her side, needing to know more.

"Play a game with me," she continued, "and I could make you quite rich."

"What game?"

She finally let go of my arm, and from her pocket, she retrieved a single gold Galleon. "Tales you win, heads you lose."

I eyed the gold coin greedily, thinking of the food I could buy with it. I licked my lips. "What do I win, exactly?"

She opened her briefcase. Inside were bags full of gold coins.

"Ten Galleons."

"And if I lose?"

"Then you give me ten Galleons."

I didn't have ten Galleons on me. I could not recall the last time I ever came close to having that sort of money.

But I needed it, I knew how much I needed it.

"Okay," I answered. I mean - I had a fifty-fifty chance, hadn't I?

"So?" The girl asked, looking at me expectantly as she held the coin up in her hand. "Heads or tails?"

"Tails."

I held my breath.

To my dismay, it was heads.

I got my excuses in early. "I'm sorry, I really am. But my card was chewed up-"

"It's okay, you can make repayment with your body."

I thought I hadn't heard right. In fact, I actually laughed.

And then the bitch slapped me.

*****

Twenty minutes later I had one hell of a sore cheek.

"This is fixed," I hissed when for the nineteenth time in a row, I still managed to call it wrong.

"Twentieth time lucky?"

Being a glutton for punishment, I nodded. What had I left to lose? I'd gotten this far, and the idea of getting my hands on ten Galleons made me quite giddy with longing.

"Heads." I called, crossing my fingers behind my back.

I watched as she tossed the gold coin in the air and caught it deftly in her hands. My eyes lingered hungrily in anticipation as my tongue darted out and swept over my upper lip.

She lifted her hand, and there, on the face of the coin, sat the wizard, and I could almost believe he winked at me.

"Ha ha! Yes!" I cheered, jubilantly pumping my fist into the air.

I went to slap her, forgetting all about the bags of gold coins in her briefcase. But she stopped me, just in time, catching my arm before I could make the connection.

"Don't forget why you're playing." She said coolly, holding up a bag of ten Galleons in her other hand.

Feeling my heart pound at the near miss, I quickly snatched it out of her hand, stowing it away safely in my pocket.

"Thank you," I said to the mysterious stranger, not forgetting my manners.

"You're most welcome, Alia," she answered, her lips curving into a warm smile.

I froze. "How do you know my name?"

The woman continued to smile, not looking in the least bit perturbed. "I know a lot about you, Alia Patil, Ravenclaw. You are a twenty-year old outlaw residing in the sewers. Your parents have been run out of the country and your sisters are in hiding. You owe one of London's underground loan sharks twenty-three thousand Galleons. Four years previously, you had your wand snapped in two after the Battle of Hogwarts, despite being your year's top student. You live each day in fear of being beaten, starving to death or never seeing your family ever again."

I swallowed, wondering who the fuck this woman was. I could only assume she was sent by the loan sharks. But then why was she giving me money?

"Who are you?" I asked, the tremor in my voice exposing my apprehension.

"That is not for you to be concerned with," she said, the smile never once leaving her face. It was only at this point I realised her smile wasn't warm, but actually rather sinister.

She reached into her briefcase once again and drew from it a business card.

"What if I told you you could make a whole lot more money by playing games like this?" She said, handing me the card. "Millions, in fact?"

"M-millions?" I stuttered, shakily taking the card from her. This was sounding too good to be true, which probably meant it was.

"Don't answer me now. Think it over, and then call the number when you've decided you want to enter."

I stared down at the card in my hand. There indeed was a phone number. I turned it over, and I found the breath catching in my throat.

Three symbols: a triangle, a circle, and a single line.

"What is this-?"

But when I looked up, the mysterious stranger had gone.

*****