John was 9 when his magical abilities showed. all he did was get mad his brother, Zac Swordkill, when he attempted and succeeded at ripping up stories he wrote for fun, and burning them in a campfire ( they weren't very good ). What happened was John stormed back inside, and Zac started to get a little bigger, and he started to float. John noticed before Zac got anywhere, but his mom was still going crazy because of what he did to Zac. But his dad, James Swordkill, was somewhat happy for him, because he would be going to Hogwarts, and also partly angry at him, because he hurt his brother pretty badly. when his eleventh birthday came around, his family threw the biggest party the neighborhood had ever seen ( the neighborhood contained about 3 or 4 families, so the competition was not high ). That was when he started to read some of his dads old books like A History of Magic and The Tales of Beedle the Bard and books like these. The time between his birthday and the day his acceptance letter comes, his head was in the clouds ( sometimes literally, his dad made him float around up near the ceiling of the house ). When his acceptance letter came, John, his brother, and his parents, all went to Diagon Alley to get his things.