WILLIAM STARLING

was twenty four years old when his brother and sister in law were killed in a car accident, leaving their six years old daughter an orphan. William was close with his niece but had no idea how to look after a child. He was the fun uncle who fed his niece pizza and soda every time she came to visit him. So when Celeste Starling's parents died tragically, William had no choice than to step up as the next person to raise Celeste.

William's parents had died and there were no people left from his brother's wife's family either. It was just William and Celeste against the world.

The first months were tortures for the both of them ― William was clueless with the concept of raising a child and Celeste was still trying to figure out why her mother and father weren't coming back.

If all this wasn't enough ― young Celeste struggled to control her magic which was very strong for a little girl. She would often wake up with headaches because she had done magic in her sleep. Magic wasn't something William was afraid of ― he was a wizard himself ― just like his brother and sister in law.

But Celeste was much stronger than William was when he was a child and that had something to do with blood. William was a pureblood wizard but there was no acknowledge of Celeste's roots. She was adopted from an orphanage when she was around four years old. The orphanage focused on magical children since it seemed that many were left without a family. 

Celeste knew she was adopted but she didn't recall her time before the orphanage where she spent four months. When she was adopted, her parents tried to find out about Celeste's past and who she was but they couldn't find anything.

One of the many things Celeste and her uncle did, was spending their mornings in a park. There was a nice park just a few minutes walk from their home where they would often go for no reason. The park wasn't special really although it was placed in a quarter that was accessible only for magical people.

It had been five minutes when Celeste started to panic a little after looking for her uncle who seemed to have vanished. One minute uncle Will had been playing with her in the park and now he was suddenly gone.

"Excuse me miss?" Asked Celeste politely.

Even at the age of eight, her manners were outstanding although William had taught her none.

A woman with strawberry blonde hair turned to look at Celeste and smiled at her softly. "Yes sweetie?" She said, keeping her green eyes at Celeste's brown ones. 

"I can't find my uncle," said Celeste, looking around but there was no sign of uncle Will. "I think I'm lost."

The woman's browns knitted together out of worry and concern for the little girl. She gently placed her hand on Celeste's shoulder. "Can you tell me your name? I might be able to help you."

"I'm Celeste," said Celeste, feeling brave and powerful with her character. "My uncle is Will, uncle Will."

"Well, I am Olivia and I can help you. We will find uncle Will in no time," assured Olivia, offering her hand to Celeste.

Celeste look at the hand for a few seconds, wondering if she should take it but for some reason, she felt that she can trust this woman. So she took the woman by her hand and they started to search the playground. They looked behind the slide, checked every bench and asked around but there was no sign of uncle Will.

The little blonde girl started to panic a little ― when her parents went away that faithful evening ― they never came back. Celeste didn't like to be left alone or behind, she would experience some bad post-traumatic-stress symptoms. 

Olivia sensed Celeste's rising panic. She kneeled in front of her, cupping her cheeks very gently so she wouldn't frighten the girl with such close contact. 

"I'm sure your uncle is somewhere," Olivia promised.

"B-but what if he isn't?" Asked Celeste, her bottom lip quivering. 

"Let's worry about that if the times comes. Now, we still have many places we can look for him," said Olivia standing up. 

The bight morning sun had turned into an afternoon chill and many families had left the playground. It was early September, the trees had turned into orange and brown instead of green. Grey clouds were filling the already grey sky and the wind howled in your ears.

"What if we go and find your parents?" Asked Olivia when there was no sign of Celeste's uncle.

"Mommy and daddy are dead," said Celeste.

While she knew her parents were dead and she understood what death was ― she was still young and didn't quite realize the shock she gave to people when they asked about her parents.

"Oh..." sighed Olivia.

There was a moment of silence in which Olivia wanted to hug Celeste. She liked the girl ― she was sweet and funny and polite. Olivia seriously thought about taking the girl in if her uncle was gone for good. Those thoughts were however soon interrupted when a tall man ran towards them.

"Celeste!"

"Uncle Will!" Celeste cried and ran straight to the man's arms. 

The man ― uncle Will ― hugged his niece tightly, forcing his tears to stand down. He placed a kiss on Celeste's forehead and gently placed Celeste down on the ground. He crossed his arms over his chest and sighed heavily but didn't get a chance to talk because his little niece already opened her mouth to speak.

"Where were you?" Asked Celeste pouting.

"I went to get that juice box for you that you so wanted," explained William. "I told you to stay by the swing set."

Celeste frowned a little before her frown melted away and she realized that she had completely forgotten about this. "Ups..."

William chuckled and rolled his eyes. "Yeah Celeste, ups."

Olivia cleared her throat a little to gain William's attention, which worked wonderfully since the man was now staring at her like she was the Queen of England or something. William quickly walked over to Olivia, nearly falling as he stumbled his way to her.

"Hey," said William, his voice suddenly high pitched.

Celeste wrinkled her nose at the weird sound his uncle made.

"Hi," smiled Olivia and waved rather awkwardly. "I'm Olivia and you must be uncle Will."

"Yes, I am uncle Will," said William and glanced at Celeste who was smiling very cheekily at him.

Celeste took William's hand and pulled it down so he would crouch down to her level. "She helped me," whispered Celeste. "Say something nice, she's pretty."

William's eyes widened at Celeste's words. Even at the age of eight, Celeste was a very smart and observant girl.

"Okay kiddo," said William as he stood up to face Olivia again. "I lost the juice box I was suppose to give Celeste, so do you want to join us? To get her a new juice box."

Olivia smiled widely and nodded. "Yeah, I would love to."

The uncle, niece and their new friend found a cart that sold juice boxes. William bought one to Celeste while he bought himself a soda. They sat on a bench together while Olivia still deciding if she should take a soda like William or a juice box. She settled with a juice box to match her new little friend.

Celeste saw this and smiled shyly. "We should keep her," she said to her uncle who tucked a loose hair behind Celeste's ear, smiling at her words.

unedited, sry for typos

so i just really wanted to rewrite this story and i sort of wanted celeste to grow up with an uncle instead of an aunt, so that's different at least. she isn't french either because i figured that many of you didn't like reading some parts in french, which i understand. otherwise the story has the same plot, at least for now.