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Introduction
Sometime during the writing of one of the earlier drafts of ASFS, a lot of content was cut in order to improve the overall experience and tone. This resulted in an almost completely different book, save for the major plat points/characters.

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These include:
 * The concept of a "convi". A voice inside every witch's head which would try to convince them to do something. The personality of one's convi differed from person to person.
 * Mary's convi was afraid and would constantly tell her to run, while Ash's convi was aggressive and tried to make him fight people.
 * Reg was originally going to have a much darker personality sue to being possessed by some evil spirit. This spirit made Reg seem angry at almost everyone, even leading to him attacking his own brother, Callum. After Reg abandons the group, Reg would have eventually broke free from the spirit and returned to the group.
 * Callum's whole storyline was altered from its initial plan. Originally, Callum was going to be an electricity mage and would have joined the others in going to Salem, making the Salem Four actually the Salem Five. Furthermore, Callum basically served in what would become Florence's spot in the story. Befriending Marcus, and dying by his hand were both going to happen to him.
 * Callum's story was changed due to the fact that, with him there from the beginning, his presence caused conflict with Reg's storyline, and gave Florence too few things to do in the story.
 * After Ash's arm was harmed by Ursula, the original plan was to have the group summon Heracles using a spell in order to heal him.
 * This spell included the murder and removal of Fairy hearts.
 * This was, obviously, deemed too dark, and the Heracles plotline was removed in favour of Zeke's
 * Atlantis, Sentinels, and the Nine Wands of the Earth were not originally planned in the story.
 * When Mary escaped to Brompton Cemetery, the original plan was for Cassandra's spirit to give the group a prophecy, and summon a group of Draugr. The group would then come back to the academy only to find it besieged by more Draugr, leading to the deaths of many students including Cara.
 * Beatrice was initially on the main characters' side and wished to prevent Cassandra's return. This was changed, however, when the incident at the Rainbow Bridge was altered to include her.
 * The dire wolves were supposed to have a smaller role than they got. They were supposed to chase the Salem Four for a while after their escape from the abandoned school but were never intended to follow them to the Rainbow Bridge.
 * Instead, a Phoenix that had been corrupted by Cassandra was supposed to attack them. Once defeated, it was going to fall and blow up a section of the bridge, blowing Mary into the river.
 * Originally, Dennis Flyman was going to appear in a flashback in which he would be killed, giving Reg a much darker personality by the time the novel begins.
 * This was removed as it was less about the main story and mainly served to give Reg a tragic backstory.