Alexander Hamilton probably was the only person on the streets when the hurricane stroke Nevis. Most people had locked themselves into their houses and prayed for a happy end or had evacuated, but not Alex. He didn't even realize the dark clouds in the sky or the howling wind until it was too late.

But really, it wasn't his fault. He just had a small disagreement with one of the richer inhabitants of his home town about a book the nice man had given to him, or as he called it:  stolen from me, you dirty little rat! Alex felt like puking just at the thought of the man's fat, reddened face. Actually, the guy had dropped it right in front of Alex' feet, just before giving him a small smile. Okay, he might have imagined the last thing and he might have bumped into the man before he let the book go. Well at least that's what everyone including the cops thought. And it was better this way. In reality Alex hadn't done any of this. In reality he just had wanted for the book to get over to him and it did what he commanded, but that wasn't the point.

The point was, that this rich guy probably had enough money to buy another one! Unlike Alex who had to beg for every written on piece of paper! It just wasn't fair that everyone was grabbing for him, asking after his parents or yelling at him to return what he had stolen. When the man insulted him as a dirty little rat and even worse, a thief, Alex snapped.

And nobody wanted Alex to snap. Not only for the amount of insults coming out of his mouth in the speed of light or the long lecture following but the other, unexplainable things that were happening around him when he got angry.

For a brief moment everyone was too shocked by the tirade coming out of the teenagers mouth to realize these certain other things but it didn't last long until they broke out into loud screams of wonder and fear. The boy, this cursing, arguing boy in the heigh of a twelve year old suddenly seemed bigger. But not because of a sudden growth spurt but because his feet stood a few inches over the ground. He was flying.

Now, this wasn't new to Alex who often used this useful skill to get to things on shelves he was to small for. But for the people around him it seemed like sorcery. Alex didn't realize what he was doing, he was too caught up in his speech about unfairness to hear the screams.

The only thing he noticed was that no one listened to him so he spoke louder. A little too loud. All around him the people were pressing their hands to their ears.

"What's going on here?", somebody asked but he couldn't drown Alex' voice. "Hey! Are you doing this kiddo?"

Only when he discovered the person speaking to him to be a police officer Alex understood what a mess he was in.

"Shit", he sweared softly with the difference that his voice still had the volume of a megaphone making his words boom over the entire city.
Probably every person living there had looked up at the sky, wondering if god spoke to them and why the fuck his first word to humanity was shit. Okay, maybe Alex overacted but he always did. It was just his thing.

Everyone was staring at him, a girl his age even snapped a photo of him, white in the face and with mouth wide open. Seven pairs of eyes were pointed at him, two belonging to not particular nice looking police officers. No, he miscounted. There was another person lurking in the slowly longer getting shadows.

He wore a long, black cloak with a hood drawn deep in the face that only let show a small, knowing smile. A chill crept up Alex' neck making him shiver.

"I need you to come with us", a female police officer said, grabbing his arm.

Alex froze. Nobody ever touched him like this. Especially not at this spot. A different hand flashed up before his eyes. A different person holding him back, this time forcing him to stay behind. And all the things that happened after.  In short, Alexander panicked at the thought of the old memory.

"D-don't touch me!", he stuttered before he turned his arm from the woman's grip.

"Don't you dare to try to escape, little bastard!", the man he had stolen the book from yelled and reached for Alex. 

And then exactly the same as at this one, awful day happened again. The man's head got bigger and his eyes popped out of their sockets. His nose swell up just as his nostrils. Old snot jumped out of them and hit one of the police officers, making her scream out of disgust. Then his head followed. It grew more than double size of what was normal before changing it's color to an unhealthy orange. Alex thought he looked like Donald Trump now but even that couldn't change anything about this being his worst nightmare. Maybe the similarity to the US  president made everything  even worse.

"What have you done?", pumpkin head screeched in a high pitched voice.

Alex hugged the book he still held in his arms closer to his chest, then he used the upcoming panic and shoved the police officers out of his way before he dived into the crowd of people standing in front of the Memorial Square of Charlestown. Near by stood the Mall where it would be easier to hide for him. Nobody would know his face there and he hoped that the people who saw him back at the Memorial would forget about him as soon as possible.

Alex didn't understand how he did this but when he fucked things up and a person saw him fucking these things up they would forget about a few minutes later. He didn't know if it would work with this many people at once though. It has to work, Alex thought, or tomorrow I'll be everywhere in the news. It was the same trick he had used on the people that had wanted to separate his big brother James from him when their cousin had committed suicide. James. He was the only one that knew about Alex' secret powers. What would he do when he found out about what his little brother had done?

Alex slowed down a little as he entered the Cotton Ginnery Mall. His stomach grumbled and for a moment he played with the thought of sitting down in a small restaurant but then he remembered that he had no money with him to pay for food. So he decided to slide down on a wall and start reading the book he got from pumpkin head.

The ground was hard but Alex didn't care. He just wanted to forget about what he had done and get lost between the good smelling pages of the book. A tear dropped onto the cover and he quickly wiped it away. Nobody should know that he was crying. He had to be strong. When a kid was crying most grown-ups noticed it and in the thought of having to do something nice at least once a week so they could sleep at night in their beds wich where ways to soft to rest in anyway, they got the absurd idea of trying to comfort this kid. Alexander didn't need any of this right now. He just wanted to be left alone with his book.

Later he couldn't even remember what it had been about, just that he had  read the entire thing at one day. To be honest, it wasn't a very long book maybe two hundred or three hundred pages. But still, when Alex closed it again, it was because of an older man chasing him out of the closed mall. Nobody had recognized him. Apparently it worked and everyone had forgotten about him. Alex shivered again, although it was still summer it felt cold to him.

His powers were getting stronger and, something he didn't even tell James, harder to control. What when all out of sudden everyone around him would forget what happened the last days? Or what if James forgot him! Or when everyone in Charlestown would wake up one day with a giant jack'o lantern as a head?

It was already getting dark but Alex didn't feel like going home. He knew James would be worried about him even if he should know by now that he could take care of himself. Somehow his brother would have heard about what happened and then he would try to talk about it with him. James was horrible at talking and it was always awkward when he tried to comfort his little brother. Alex remembered with horror when he tried to give him the sex talk.

No, he would rather go down to the sea and wonder what it was like to live on the mainland. He was sure that he would be able to make money there. He could publish a few of the things he wrote or do something else. In this small town nobody let him do any kind of work, when he asked for any they just looked at him, frowned and said: „Sorry boy, come back when you started Highschool."

But on the mainland. In America. Yes. Everything could be different in America. If Alex learned one thing from all the books he had read than it was this: In New York you can be a new man. Maybe he would go there one day. When he could afford it.

Alexander was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice the people around him screaming and running to their houses. The wind blew his hair into his face and Alex closed his eyes imagining how life would be in New York. How he would go to a real school and get real education. A place where he wouldn't have to teach everything himself. Maybe James could get a better job and they could afford an apartment. Just you wait. I can do this. I will get to New York. Just you wait.

Alex was deeply lost into his dream when the storm started. Waves splashed over his feet and rain hit his face. In a few moments he was soaking wet. Confused he opened his eyes just to look up to big, dark clouds. A storm. But this was even worse. And now he remembered what his brother had warned him about just this morning before he was going of to work.

"Don't forget about the hurricane today Alex. Be back before the storm starts and um... you know don't do anything stupid."

As usually Alex had ignored James warnings completely. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. SHIT! I hope he isn't searching for me! He knew how dangerous it was to run around outside in the case of a hurricane. They already didn't have a real house, certainly one that wasn't really save. Alex didn't need his brother to get in even greater danger than he was in already. Besides, he had superpowers, maybe frightening and uncontrollable ones but without doubt superpowers, James didn't.

Alex clutched his book closer to his chest in the attempt to keep it dry before storming of into the city. Their house was located at the outer border of the city where nobody ever looked at twice. Normally he thought lucky of himself to have found such a good place to live in but right now he cursed the old hovel and his brother who found it. Why did it have to be so far away from downtown?

Behind him the storm got louder and the rain stronger. Alex was almost ripped out of his shoes and he had to watch out for flying branches or bricks. His heart started pounding so loudly that it almost jumped out of his chest. Why did nobody tell me that the hurricane is going to be this strong? Maybe he could knock at a random door and hope that someone would open. But he would be impossible to hear over the wind and most people living here weren't stupid enough to let a strange kid from the street into their houses.

Alex tried to walk faster but the storm dragged him back until he had to clinch to a street lamp to not be blown away. He wished he was a little taller and not light as a feather. The wind howled into his ears as he bit into his cheek till he could taste the blood. Slowly he hanged from one object that still stood on the ground to  another. Tears from the wind started forming in his eyes but he blinked them away. I have to get back.

Where were his powers now when he needed them? But what would a loud voice or flying help him in this situation. Think Alex. Something to make the hurricane slower or else. Maybe you could teleport to James. But he never teleported before and didn't know how to stop the storm. A branch flew past him and hit him in the face with it's whip-like end. Alex let out a small cry. He needed something to protect him. A shield. A shield against the storm.

He closed his eyes and searched for the burning fire inside his chest, made a fist and held it close. When he opened them again a light red shimmer was in front of him, protecting his face. It didn't help anything against the storm but at least he didn't have to worry about other flying objects anymore. It works. It works. It works. He sung inside his head.

Alex had almost reached the edge of the city when he decided to do the most stupid thing he could ever do in this situation. He looked back and froze.

There was a large white funnel coming into his direction. It was as if the tornado just wanted him and took up everything else in its way as well, not caring about the damage it was doing. Alex couldn't stop himself from watching the funnel destroying everything around him and slowly getting closer. He could even see a tree swirling inside of it. That's when he realized what was going on. He was going to die.

Shit.

It was to late to run away. He already felt himself ripped from the ground and flung around. The same tree he had watched before from a distance was now about to crash into him. Alex felt totally helpless. He always found a way out, he always knew what to do next and how to use his powers to help him out of the mess he was in but now where it was important his usually full head was as empty as his purse. He couldn't talk himself out of this for the tornado wouldn't listen. For the first time in like, ever, Alexander Hamilton didn't know what to do.

He grabbed after a thick branch of the tree, hoping that it would give him some stability in the storm as he was spun around and around, higher and higher until the ground was so far down that it would be impossible to survive a fall. It was a miracle that he didn't get knocked out by one of the other objects the storm picked up on its way. But when Alex saw the dead body of the dog he petted just this morning, he wondered if it wouldn't be better to be unconscious and not to have to watch himself die.

For a second he closed his eyes, imagining to be back home, huddled under the old table together with his brother and praying for the tornado to miss their house. Maybe it was time for him to die after all. He should have been dead for a long time now anyway. He couldn't understand how he survived the last sixteen years. Almost everyone he knew and ever cared about was gone, nobody here knew him. For the most people he was nothing than a ghost, a whisper to quiet to be heard. James would be better of without him too. Maybe he would even be able to afford a real apartment without his little brother to care for that was too thin and too small to get real work.

Suddenly Alex felt a chill creep up his neck. Of course, he was dripping wet and it was cold with all the wind but still, this was a different kind of chill. The creepy watch-out-something-bad-is-about-to-happen kind of chill. Or maybe the careful-somebody-is-watching-you kind? But that was impossible. Who would be crazy enough to run into a tornado? Oh god. Did he feel that he was about to die soon? Would praying help in his situation? Probably not. Most people didn't believe in this kind of warnings but Alex wasn't most people. He had some kind of super powers and he was always getting this weird feeling when something bad  was about to happen. Like with Donald Trump the pumpkin head for an example.

Alex felt something grabbing him by his back and almost died of a heart attack. So that's what the warning had been about. Big hands pushed him on some kind of stick bevor pressing him close to a weirdly warm body. What was going on?

Suddenly the stick took a sharp turn causing Alex to almost fall off. He would have been dead if it wasn't for the guy behind him. Who was stupid enough to run into a tornado beside him? And why did this guy try to save him?

It took him a few moments before he was calm enough to realize that they were flying. Yes, real flying, not whatever it was he had been doing earlier when he lectured the police. And even better, they were flying away from the tornado and back to the city! The stick wavered like a boat on the stormy ocean but Alex didn't care. He could live another day!

He would stop dreaming of going to the mainland. He would start publishing his writings until he had enough money to fulfill his dreams. He would somehow get work. He wouldn't be a whisper anymore but a scream.

The mysterious guy somehow knew where Alex lived wich made him uncomfortable. Had he been stalking him? Slowly his rescuer let the stick down till they landed in front of a crumbled hut. Alex winced at the sight of his home. It looked even worse now that it was storm shaken. Most parts of the roof were missing and the door hung loose in the hinges.

He could just disappear inside and forget about the mysterious man saving him. He could carry on his life in his little, boring world were no one took him serious. He could follow the new plans he made. But Alex did none of those things. No, he turned around before the guy could disappear again and asked the only question that came into his mind right now.

"What are you?"

The sentence was out before he could think of something better and he regretted it the second after. He could have asked as well: Are you a pervert? After all he knew the man. It was Mr cloak, the guy who had been watching him earlier the day. The only difference was that he had removed his hood. He looked completely different from what Alex had imagined. First, he had a bald head. Second, the eyebrows. He decided to call Mr cloak Mr eyebrow from now on. And third, he looked a lot nicer than your average creepy stalker.

Now Mr eyebrow gave him a warm smile before answering: "I'm just like you."

Somehow Alex knew exactly what he meant. His powers. He wasn't the only one.

"Why?", he blurted. "Why are we like this?"

Were they some kind of lab rats? A went wrong experiment? Or were they chosen by someone to be like this? Some kind of god? What was he expecting from Alex? Mr eyebrow laughed.

"Don't you want to go inside first?", he asked. "This storm is getting irritating."

Alex quickly nodded before he opened the door and let Mr eyebrow in. Inside he searched for James but he was nowhere to be seen. Please don't be searching for me out there, he begged. But then he found his brother sitting under the small table in the middle of the room.

"Alex?", he called out and rushed to him, hugging the smaller boy until Alex pushed him away.

"Yes, I'm alive", he explained, "thanks to him. He says he's like me."

He pointed at Mr eyebrow who acted as if he was very interested at studying the small room. James who hadn't realized that there was a third person in his home let out a sharp snort and treated his younger brother with his what-did-I-tell-you-about-others-in-here glance. Alex rolled his eyes before answering with a but-this-is-very-important stare.

"Okay", James sighed. "Is it true, sir? Are you like my brother?"

Mr eyebrow nodded slowly. But he didn't really notice James and stared at Alex with his serious looking brown eyes. It felt as if they pierced directly into his soul. Finding out what he was thinking and feeling right now with nothing but a glance. Can he read minds?, he wondered.

"This is impossible", Mr eyebrow explained. For a moment Alex thought he answered his question but the man quickly added:"Why are you still alive?"

What kind of a question was that?

"Sir?"

He was confused. Of course, he could have died a million times, not counting today, but still, this wasn't the first thing he thought Mr eyebrow would ask.

"Don't get me wrong, you're a great young man and I know that there is a lot of potential in you but you shouldn't be alive. You're not on any of the wizarding schools and it should be impossible to control your powers for so long without someone to teach you. Alone what you did today! I had to obliviate half of the city", Mr eyebrow explained.

"But... I am alive", Alex said slowly, "and I don't plan to die anytime soon."

Obliviate? What did that mean? Was he the reason that nobody remembered pumpkin head Donald Trump? Wait! Did Mr eyebrow just say wizarding schools? There were schools for wizards? And even more importantly there were wizards? Mr eyebrow laughed at his confused expression.

"Really son? I thought a smart kid like you would have found out earlier! Yes, you're a wizard. And I'm a wizard too. And your brother James is a squib", he declared.

"I'm a wizard", Alex repeated.

"Wait! What's a squib?", James shouted at the exact same time.

"Listen Mr Hamilton", Mr eyebrow started, "I don't know why we forgot about you and how you survived for this long, but I know that I can help you. There are wizarding schools all around the world where you can learn to control your magic. It might be a little too late for this, but I still want to tell you that, if you want to, the Ilvermorny school will welcome you as one of their students."

Alex felt a laugh bubbling up his chest. He was a wizard. He really was destined for greatness and he wished for nothing more than to go to this school. However, he still had a lot of questions before he was about to lay his life into Mr eyebrow's hands.

"How do you know my name and who are you? And where is this school and..."

"Slow down, I'll explain everything later. My name is Professor George Washington and I'm headmaster of the Ilvermorny school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I've been watching you for a while now. The school is located on Mount Greylock in north America, that's all you have to know for now", he said.

Somehow Professor Washington's voice filled Alex with calm and made him yawn. He was tiered from all the things that happened today and just wanted to sleep which was very weird since he hated sleep. Now he had confused himself.

"What about me? I'm not letting my little brother leave with some weird guy that claims to be a wizard!", James shouted and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

Of course he would at least try the big brother thing although he wasn't very good at it. Professor Washington smiled again.

"You can come with us. You're a squib, you can't do magic but your parents were wizards. Don't worry, we also have classes for people like you in Ilvermorny. You don't have to leave your brother alone", he replied with a proud grin.

This guy seemed to be very convinced of his school. Maybe we could give it a shot. Then Alex realized that it was impossible for him to get there. Ilvermorny was in America.

"I'm sorry sir but we have to reject your offer. We um..." He turned red. "There is no way for us to get to Mount...um...Greylock."

Again the missing money was the problem. They wouldn't even be able to buy school books with both of them not working. The professor laughed.

"Don't worry son. It's a wizarding  school or did you forget that? School starts on the first of September that's tomorrow. Most students don't arrive until then but I think under these circumstances I can make an exception."

He looked up to the remains of the roof and Alex felt strangely ashamed for the already falling apart hut.

"Wait we're going now?", James asked hurriedly.

James! Whyyyyyyy? Alex wished for nothing more than to leave this damn island.

"Yes. Unless you want to stay here for the night", Professor Washington suggested.

"No!", the boys cried out.

"Our ride is waiting outside. You better hurry up bevor he gets bored and leaves without us."

Before Alex could ask what that was supposed to mean the Professor had already stepped outside. James and he exchanged a short he-is-completely-nuts  glance before following the wizard into the storm. What they saw made them question if they weren't crazy as well. It was a bird. A giant metal bird. A giant metal bird that was picking at the ground and flexing its wings totally unimpressed by the hurricane.

"Ah, yes. He's very impressive but please don't stare at him like this or he'll get offended", the Professor explained.

His stick flew into his right hand as he held it out. Now Alex realized that the stick was a broom. A flying broom. A stupid grin spread over his face.

"Nice vehicle."

He pointed at the broom.

"Yeah, you'll learn to use this as well", Professor Washington replied while petting the metal bird. "I think it's safe for you to go inside now."

Neither Alex nor James moved. Mr eyebrow was nuts.

"What are you waiting for, step in!", he called.

Warily Alex took a step to the bird. I have to be crazy, he thought. When he stood in front of the bird's head he decided to do exactly what the Professor had done. Slowly he reached out for the metal bird and carefully petted it. The bird let out a high-pitched screech and jerked back.

"No, no! You have to try a little harder or he will be offended!", Professor Washington corrected him.

"Okay", Alex answered and tried to bury his anger.

Who did this stupid bunch of metal think he was? Your only chance to get away from here, a voice inside him said. Slowly he approached the bird again and held out his hand. Come here you oversized chicken! But again, it didn't listen. And the time after that as well. His anger got harder to control. This stupid bird embarrassed him right in front of Ilvermorny's headmaster.

"You know what, I don't even need you! I'm sure there are a thousand other ways to get to this school! If you just want to stand there and mock me, okay! You stupid metal chicken!", Alex screamed frustrated. "Your entire life is about carrying people around and you can't even do that without somebody foundling you, you spoiled junk heap! You think I'm frightened of you man? Think again! I had to put up with enough people like you that weren't accepting me because of my missing money, don't you think you're special because you're made of metal you heartless piece of tin!"

The bird let out another screech and Alex thought it was going to fly away or attack him or something but the chicken broke out into loud sobs.

"Ha! You can cry as much as you want to, that won't work with me!"

James sighed. "Are you done?", he asked.

"No!"

But his brother didn't care. He walked over to the crying bird and started petting it until it let out a low-pitched hum. It opened his bark wide enough for a grown man to walk through and kneeled down.

"You first", Professor Washington offered and let James step forward. He didn't hesitate and stepped into the bird. Only now a very important thing flashed through Alex' mind. How could I forget to ask that?

"Won't people see us flying in this giant metal can and you know, wonder why there is a giant metal can in the sky", he wondered.

"No. The no-majs will see our bird as an average plane", the professor replied.

"No-majs?"

"Non-magicans. The people who have no magic powers and weren't born in a wizard family. They don't know we exist and it should stay this way. Who knows how no-majs would react when they would discover what we are."

There was an unspoken warning his voice.

"What do you mean by that?", Alex asked angrily staring at Professor Washington.

It wasn't his fault that he couldn't control his powers. The other wizards forgot that he existed and didn't invite him to one of their schools! What made everyone hate him?

"Nothing. Get your education, don't forget for what you came and everyone will know your name", Professor Washington said, squeezed his shoulder and followed James into the metal bird. The storm was getting stronger again and Alex had to clinch to the chicken's bark to not be blown away.

Still, he just couldn't go inside before overthinking everything one last time. He was about to go into a metal bird with a man who had been stalking him for quite a while now and claimed to be a wizard. Also, he invented him to his wizarding school he was supposed to be the headmaster of. Sounds crazy. But what else could he do but follow Mr eyebrow? Die out in the storm, stay on this forgotten island? Whatever is awaiting me in there, it will be better than this.

Alex looked deeply into the shining eyes of the bird and whispered: "Know. Your. Place." Before he finally climbed through the mouth into a surprisingly large and comfortable looking room. It remembered him of a plane just that the interior was smaller and decorated with two  big couches and a wooden table. Nothing remembered of a metal bird, the walls were covered with blue and cranberry colored tapestries and there were pillows on the ground.

"You should sit down", the Professor suggested from one of the couches but Alex didn't listen.

"How's that possible. I mean, yeah, the bird is large and all but not this large. This is... magic!", he declared.

Professor Washington chuckled and nodded.

"Yes, I think you finally get it. It's impossible for you to understand it all in one day. You better rest during the flight."

He clapped his hands and the bird closed it's bark. The room started shaking, Alex lost his balance and stumbled over the table.

"I told you to sit down", the wizard remembered him.

Alex  dropped down on the opposite couch, right next to his surprisingly quiet brother. His eyes were closed and his breathing was shallow.

"What did you do-"

Oh. James was sleeping.

"He already took my advice, you should do the same", Professor Washington realized.

But how could anyone sleep? Of course, Alex was tired but he was in the belly of a flying metal bird. A metal bird. A very impolite one, but still. And he just found out that magic existed and that he was a wizard. And that he would be going to a wizarding school from tomorrow on. He couldn't imagine something more exciting. He still had so many questions to ask.

"Here, drink that."

Oh, and the headmaster of the wizarding school he would be going to from tomorrow on was sitting right in front of him with a cup of... tea? Warily he inspected the green liquid.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to poison you!", the Professor laughed.

Slowly Alex took a small sip of the already cold leaf water and felt his eyelids becoming heavy. No! No sleep! Were his last thoughts before he finally fell into a deep, dreamless slumber.