Maxon Charris (or Neil as he was nicknamed), was born in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania on May 18th. He had very calm baby years, despite what many told his parents, and he was always noted as a sensible, calm child. Until he was seven, his home life was pretty stable. Unfortunately, it became clear soon after his seventh birthday that his parents were starting to have...disagreements. While his mother was born and raised in the United States, his father was from Great Britain. Several months before Maxon was born, his parents had agreed to move to Great Britain, so his father could live close to his family again. Plus, his mother loved the idea of her son going to a prestigious British college when he got old enough. Unfortunately, not long after Maxon was born, his mother got an extremely well-off job that she had dreamed of getting and soon didn`t like the idea of abandoning her new-found career to live in Great Britain. This led to a night filled with arguing and tension, causing Maxon to become even shyer and hesitant than he ever was before. Upon his 8th birthday, after a full year of arguing and strife, his parents had decided that enough was enough, and they promptly got divorced. Poor, little Maxon, being the naive little child he was, believed that he was at fault for their separation, believing that they separated because he stole some cookies out of a box his grandparents sent his dad. After a long custody battle, his father won custody of Maxon, and soon after, he whisked him off to York, England, to live closer to his father`s family.

Maxon, being the shy boy he was, found this change to be very troubling. Being in a new land with different people (who spoke a different accent than him), and different customs, he found it hard to make new friends. He worried his father a lot, as he wasn`t making friends in school as quickly as he sued to, and his father soon started to discuss shipping Maxon off to live with his mother back in the states. However, this plan was soon scrapped when his father learned that she had a boyfriend. Being quite spiteful at times, his father decided to keep Neil in York, believing that Neil would eventually get over it.

So for two years, Maxon stayed with his father, slowly but surely getting used to his new surroundings. Heck, even picked up the accent a little, though not as good as his other classmates. However, it was in the latter half of his tenth year on Earth that something weird happened. One day, he was working on his homework, rather angrily. His teacher had assigned them a surprise book report. Halfway through the book report, the paper suddenly burst into flames, completely turning the paper into ash. The young boy could only stare in shock at what happened. He didn`t dare tell anyone about what happened, fearing that his dad would believe him to be an evil witch. (Learning about the Salem Witch Trials was a mistake.) Plus, as far as he knew, his family didn`t have any history with magic.

He wouldn`t get any clarification of the event until his eleventh birthday. His birthday party was quite grand (for an eleven-year-old), he invited all his friends, family, and even his mother (who wisely attended without her new husband). He was outside playing when he suddenly heard a loud hoot.  Stopping, he searched around to see that a large owl had perched on the fence, and it was staring directly at him. Max was amazed. An owl. At his party! Cool! The owl blinked two times before taking off, but it didn't get too far without dropping a letter on the gift table. Maxon had walked over and examined it. An owl delivering mail? How...outdated... Maxon stood there for confused for a moment before his grandfather quickly excused him. Once they were in a private area, his father explained that the letter came from a place called "Hogwarts", a magical school for...magically-inclined students. Maxon just stared at him. Him? Magical?? No way. Noticing his confusion, his grandfather explained that he had gone to Hogwarts himself quite a long time ago. Though, the magic seemed to have "skipped" a generation, as his father never was magical. As his grandfather explained where he was to go to school, Maxon couldn`t help but get excited, but a little nervous. Who knew his greatest present would come from an owl?