Muggles Take Over
Sirius Black, clothed in dark traveling garb, entered the gates of Hogwarts. He ran up the steps and disappeared through the doors. Sirius was on a mission. Dumbledore stopped him when he saw him coming down the hall. "Hello, Sirius, how are you? But come up to my office; if any students see you, it might cause a panic." After they had climbed the spiral staircase and passed Fawkes, they sat down at Dumbledore's desk. "Now what seems to be the problem? You look exhausted. Would you like me to call Harry?" he asked. "No, Professor, there's no time for that now. Snape just informed me that Voldemort's power is beginning to affect the Muggles. This is it, Dumbledore. We need to call on the Muggle population for help. We can't keep this a secret much longer," explained Sirius, all in one breath. "Yes, I know. Who to call on, though?" mused Dumbledore. "We should just do it randomly. If we get children, we can't use them, unless they're Harry's age and equipped to fight," said Sirius. In the end, it was selected children who went: Me, Amanda and Stephanie. How they did the lottery was, they looked for certain traits in the person- bravery, loyalty, calm under pressure, and, most important, belief in the wizarding world. Dumbledore quickly found out that he couldn't use adults because most didn't believe Hogwarts, or Harry or any of the rest, existed. The ones who did were few and far between, mainly serial killers, psychopaths and the like. Dumbledore got us to go by sending the three of us a fake certificate to fly to England.alone. No parents, no anybody. It took a bit of convincing (i.e. a lot of pleading) to let them make us go, but in the end, even Amanda's parents figured whoever messed with us would have Stephanie to blame for the shoe permanently shoved up their rear end. So we went. The airport was crazy, filled with, as we called them, "English magpies". You know, the yappy British woman with ten kids who she can't control. English magpies. We got off the plane, picked up our luggage, and walked to the doors, where a taxi waited for us. It took us to King's Cross Station. The place was huge, even bigger than Grand Central, but Amanda and I navigated pretty well. We were to go to Track 42 B, but there was only Track 42 and 43. "Maybe there's a magic wall or something that takes you in, like Platform 9 ¾," I said. We tried that, but nothing happened when Stephanie ran into the wall except she got her toes stubbed. "Damn wall," she said as she walked back to us, her nose in the air. "Hey, girls!" called a voice. We turned around. A man was standing near Track 42. He was tall, well built and had brownish-gray hair. "Yeah?" I called back guardedly. This guy could be anyone. "Who are you, sir?" He walked over to us, holding out a hand and moving close to us, motioning us to lean against the wall that Steph had run into. "I'm Remus Lupin. However, you're to call me Jack until we get to Hogwarts. Our train isn't here yet, which is why the wall won't work. I saw you trying that. It'll be here in five minutes, around there," he said in a low voice. The three of us looked at each other, silently asking if we believed his spiel. "How do we know you are who you say you are?" asked Stephanie. "And not some sick, demented madman who's going to kill us?" asked Amanda.
"Guys!" I commanded in a sharp, soft voice. I motioned them into a huddle. "Look, if he wanted to kill us, wouldn't he have done it already? I mean, look at him. Does he really look like a killer? Besides, call me crazy, but there's just something about him.I don't know, Lupin-like." "All right, but if we get raped and murdered it's your fault!" Amanda said. "Fine." We de-huddled and faced him once more. "Try the wall again. Just run straight at it." he said, waving his hand. This time, I ran first. The wall admitted me and I was quickly joined by Amanda, Stephanie, and Jack/Lupin. A small train was on the tracks, and when I say small, I mean small. It was just an engine with two extra passenger cars. Nothing like the huge Hogwarts Express, and I mentioned it. "Well, since there's only three of you, it seemed a waste to pull out the Express," Jack/Lupin said with a shrugging smile. We went inside. It was very plush, with carpeting, velvet seats, the works. We sat down. Since I wasn't entirely sure whether I trusted him or not, I decided to test him a little. "So, Jack-" I began, but he cut me off. "Call me Remus, please," he corrected. "All right, Remus.The full moon's coming in a few weeks, isn't it?" I asked. It might have been a bit cruel on my part, but I had to know. "Yes," he replied suspiciously. "Listen, I know about you. Werewolf and all. I personally think it's very cool," I began, but Stephanie chimed in. "Yeah, I mean, you get to take payback to a whole other level. h, the things I could do." she said. "Steph, he can't control what he can do while in wolf form without taking that potion, you know that! And besides, that's the kind of thing that gives werewolves their bad rep!" I scolded her. "It's quite all right," he said with a tired smile. "Good to know that the list of non-secretive friends grows longer by three." "What exactly are we here to do?" Amanda asked. "Somehow, that point wasn't made clear to me on the letter." "Well.I'm not sure I'm the best one to tell you that, but.fine," he relented when he looked at our curious faces. "Here goes. "The Order of the Phoenix was established hundreds of years ago, you know that. What Muggles- and even some witches and wizards don't know is that there was also established an Order of the Owl. The Order was made to help protect the Order of the Phoenix." "Oh, like the Secret Service," Amanda said. Lupin stared at her blankly. "Muggle thing," she explained hastily. "Go on." "This Order requires traits of bravery, natural protection, and a certain likeness to animals, either the horse, falcon, or lion. These are all traits you three have." "But we're Muggles," I said. "I mean, I know half the terrorist things are fabricated by Voldemort's forces, but couldn't the situation just be rectified by Aurors?" "Not entirely. Even the Aurors need protection. And sometimes, all you need are a few outsiders to shake things up a bit, to see things others may miss," Lupin explained. "Makes sense," Stephanie said. "So we're part of, or may be becoming part of, this wizards' Order. What, now we just go out there and start watching the Auror people's backs?" "Pretty much," I answered. The train slowed down and ground to a halt. "Welcome to Hogwarts," Lupin said with a grin. We got out, me carrying my violin plus backpack and a suitcase. Steph had two suitcases, as did Amanda. Putting the luggage in the awaiting carriage, I noticed the horses pulling it, and went over to say hi. "Hello there," I said, patting a charcoal gray horse on the nose. "Hey, Remus, do you think I could unhitch one of these and ride him up to the school? Promise I'll keep up." He frowned. "Think not. You could probably ride later, though." "Come on, Rai. Get in the damn carriage," Stephanie said. "All right, fine," I said, climbing in. "But if it's cramped, don't blame me." "We won't," Amanda said. "We'll just blame Remus for not letting you." "Excuse me!" Remus exclaimed, pretending to be hurt. "All right, then, I'll just not let you meet Harry and everyone else." "Okay, Remus is blameless." After the short ride to the school, we got out. "Your bags will be taken up separately," Remus explained. "Not my violin," I said. "I'm carrying that with me." Lupin nodded. "Fine." He got it and handed it to me. "Now, once we go in, we'll meet Professor Dumbledore and Sirius Black- I assume you've heard of them?" "Heard of them?'" I said. "We practically know them!" With that, Amanda and I promptly started spewing out every fact we had ever learned about Dumbledore and Sirius. Once we'd reached Dumbledore's office, Stephanie and Lupin told us to shut it. "They're here- safe and sound," Lupin announced. "Professor Dumbledore, Sirius, may I present Stephanie Orgavan, Rachel Ambrose and Amanda Nackos of the Order of the Owl." The two were sitting at a desk, Dumbledore behind it and Sirius in front, along with four unoccupied, posh-looking chairs. The four of us sat down, and introductions were made, including Fawkes the phoenix, who sat on his perch, looking very regal. Sirius was very polite and extremely cool. For some reason, he reminded me of my boyfriend Matt, and I told him so. "He's talented like you, hot headed like you, only more quiet," I said. "You mean silent," Stephanie said. "Honestly, Rach, you've got to make the boy talk!" "But he's not suspected of murder, is he?" asked Sirius. "Sirius! I wouldn't be going out with him if he was!" I reply. Lupin elbowed me. "Back to Dumbledore." he muttered. "Sorry Professor," we chorused. "Now, you won't be taking classes here, but you'll be working with certain students and teachers, namely Professors Snape, McGonagall, and Sirius and Remus here," Dumbledore explained. "If you don't mind me asking, sir, who will the students be?" Amanda asked. "Harry Potter and his friends, along with Susan Bones, Cho Chang, Draco Malfoy and Oliver Wood," Dumbledore answered. "You three have the rest of the day to yourselves, and your quarters are on the staff floor. Stephanie, you have the Blue Room, Rachel, the Green, and Amanda, the Purple." "Sir..?" I asked. "The stables are by Hagrid's hut, and, yes, you can go visit Harry and the others. They have been informed of your presence and are expecting you," he returned with a wink at me. We told Sirius and Remus goodbye, and then went off to hunt for our rooms. Coming down from Dumbledore's office, we enlisted the help of Colin Creevey, who turned out to be a little less annoying than he was in the books. He led us to the Gryffindor Common Room, (password was "eucalyptus") and we waited for about five minutes before Hermione showed up. She actually bore a strong resemblance to me, only not so dark. "Hello, you must be Amanda, Rachel and Stephanie. I'm Hermione Granger. Good to meet you; I've heard a lot about you." She took a hard squint at me. "Are your eyes always that color?" "Which color? Brown?" "No, no, that lovely bronze." "What? Someone get me a mirror!" I said. "Hey, she's right!" Stephanie said. "Wow, Rai, your eyes are so pretty now!" Indeed they were if I do say so myself. Looking in the mirror, I saw that all of our eyes had turned a different color; Steph had gone from blue- green to all green, and Amanda had had brown; now she had purplish-blue. "Do you have any idea why they're doing this?" I asked. "Adjusting to the magic here," Hermione explained. "You got what you would have gotten had you been born into a wizarding family, or at least that's what McGonagall told me." "The funny thing is, I always wanted bronze eyes," I said. "I see you've brought your violin with you. Maybe later, when everyone is here, you could play for us?" Hermione asked, seeming a little hesitant. "That's what it's here for," I answered, shrugging. "Of course, I'd be happy to. Amanda and Steph can sing." "Don't think so," Steph said as she lounged in a cozy armchair by the fireplace. Before I could make a retaliation, though, the Common room door opened and two boys stepped in. They were Ron and Harry, without a doubt.
Sirius Black, clothed in dark traveling garb, entered the gates of Hogwarts. He ran up the steps and disappeared through the doors. Sirius was on a mission. Dumbledore stopped him when he saw him coming down the hall. "Hello, Sirius, how are you? But come up to my office; if any students see you, it might cause a panic." After they had climbed the spiral staircase and passed Fawkes, they sat down at Dumbledore's desk. "Now what seems to be the problem? You look exhausted. Would you like me to call Harry?" he asked. "No, Professor, there's no time for that now. Snape just informed me that Voldemort's power is beginning to affect the Muggles. This is it, Dumbledore. We need to call on the Muggle population for help. We can't keep this a secret much longer," explained Sirius, all in one breath. "Yes, I know. Who to call on, though?" mused Dumbledore. "We should just do it randomly. If we get children, we can't use them, unless they're Harry's age and equipped to fight," said Sirius. In the end, it was selected children who went: Me, Amanda and Stephanie. How they did the lottery was, they looked for certain traits in the person- bravery, loyalty, calm under pressure, and, most important, belief in the wizarding world. Dumbledore quickly found out that he couldn't use adults because most didn't believe Hogwarts, or Harry or any of the rest, existed. The ones who did were few and far between, mainly serial killers, psychopaths and the like. Dumbledore got us to go by sending the three of us a fake certificate to fly to England.alone. No parents, no anybody. It took a bit of convincing (i.e. a lot of pleading) to let them make us go, but in the end, even Amanda's parents figured whoever messed with us would have Stephanie to blame for the shoe permanently shoved up their rear end. So we went. The airport was crazy, filled with, as we called them, "English magpies". You know, the yappy British woman with ten kids who she can't control. English magpies. We got off the plane, picked up our luggage, and walked to the doors, where a taxi waited for us. It took us to King's Cross Station. The place was huge, even bigger than Grand Central, but Amanda and I navigated pretty well. We were to go to Track 42 B, but there was only Track 42 and 43. "Maybe there's a magic wall or something that takes you in, like Platform 9 ¾," I said. We tried that, but nothing happened when Stephanie ran into the wall except she got her toes stubbed. "Damn wall," she said as she walked back to us, her nose in the air. "Hey, girls!" called a voice. We turned around. A man was standing near Track 42. He was tall, well built and had brownish-gray hair. "Yeah?" I called back guardedly. This guy could be anyone. "Who are you, sir?" He walked over to us, holding out a hand and moving close to us, motioning us to lean against the wall that Steph had run into. "I'm Remus Lupin. However, you're to call me Jack until we get to Hogwarts. Our train isn't here yet, which is why the wall won't work. I saw you trying that. It'll be here in five minutes, around there," he said in a low voice. The three of us looked at each other, silently asking if we believed his spiel. "How do we know you are who you say you are?" asked Stephanie. "And not some sick, demented madman who's going to kill us?" asked Amanda.
"Guys!" I commanded in a sharp, soft voice. I motioned them into a huddle. "Look, if he wanted to kill us, wouldn't he have done it already? I mean, look at him. Does he really look like a killer? Besides, call me crazy, but there's just something about him.I don't know, Lupin-like." "All right, but if we get raped and murdered it's your fault!" Amanda said. "Fine." We de-huddled and faced him once more. "Try the wall again. Just run straight at it." he said, waving his hand. This time, I ran first. The wall admitted me and I was quickly joined by Amanda, Stephanie, and Jack/Lupin. A small train was on the tracks, and when I say small, I mean small. It was just an engine with two extra passenger cars. Nothing like the huge Hogwarts Express, and I mentioned it. "Well, since there's only three of you, it seemed a waste to pull out the Express," Jack/Lupin said with a shrugging smile. We went inside. It was very plush, with carpeting, velvet seats, the works. We sat down. Since I wasn't entirely sure whether I trusted him or not, I decided to test him a little. "So, Jack-" I began, but he cut me off. "Call me Remus, please," he corrected. "All right, Remus.The full moon's coming in a few weeks, isn't it?" I asked. It might have been a bit cruel on my part, but I had to know. "Yes," he replied suspiciously. "Listen, I know about you. Werewolf and all. I personally think it's very cool," I began, but Stephanie chimed in. "Yeah, I mean, you get to take payback to a whole other level. h, the things I could do." she said. "Steph, he can't control what he can do while in wolf form without taking that potion, you know that! And besides, that's the kind of thing that gives werewolves their bad rep!" I scolded her. "It's quite all right," he said with a tired smile. "Good to know that the list of non-secretive friends grows longer by three." "What exactly are we here to do?" Amanda asked. "Somehow, that point wasn't made clear to me on the letter." "Well.I'm not sure I'm the best one to tell you that, but.fine," he relented when he looked at our curious faces. "Here goes. "The Order of the Phoenix was established hundreds of years ago, you know that. What Muggles- and even some witches and wizards don't know is that there was also established an Order of the Owl. The Order was made to help protect the Order of the Phoenix." "Oh, like the Secret Service," Amanda said. Lupin stared at her blankly. "Muggle thing," she explained hastily. "Go on." "This Order requires traits of bravery, natural protection, and a certain likeness to animals, either the horse, falcon, or lion. These are all traits you three have." "But we're Muggles," I said. "I mean, I know half the terrorist things are fabricated by Voldemort's forces, but couldn't the situation just be rectified by Aurors?" "Not entirely. Even the Aurors need protection. And sometimes, all you need are a few outsiders to shake things up a bit, to see things others may miss," Lupin explained. "Makes sense," Stephanie said. "So we're part of, or may be becoming part of, this wizards' Order. What, now we just go out there and start watching the Auror people's backs?" "Pretty much," I answered. The train slowed down and ground to a halt. "Welcome to Hogwarts," Lupin said with a grin. We got out, me carrying my violin plus backpack and a suitcase. Steph had two suitcases, as did Amanda. Putting the luggage in the awaiting carriage, I noticed the horses pulling it, and went over to say hi. "Hello there," I said, patting a charcoal gray horse on the nose. "Hey, Remus, do you think I could unhitch one of these and ride him up to the school? Promise I'll keep up." He frowned. "Think not. You could probably ride later, though." "Come on, Rai. Get in the damn carriage," Stephanie said. "All right, fine," I said, climbing in. "But if it's cramped, don't blame me." "We won't," Amanda said. "We'll just blame Remus for not letting you." "Excuse me!" Remus exclaimed, pretending to be hurt. "All right, then, I'll just not let you meet Harry and everyone else." "Okay, Remus is blameless." After the short ride to the school, we got out. "Your bags will be taken up separately," Remus explained. "Not my violin," I said. "I'm carrying that with me." Lupin nodded. "Fine." He got it and handed it to me. "Now, once we go in, we'll meet Professor Dumbledore and Sirius Black- I assume you've heard of them?" "Heard of them?'" I said. "We practically know them!" With that, Amanda and I promptly started spewing out every fact we had ever learned about Dumbledore and Sirius. Once we'd reached Dumbledore's office, Stephanie and Lupin told us to shut it. "They're here- safe and sound," Lupin announced. "Professor Dumbledore, Sirius, may I present Stephanie Orgavan, Rachel Ambrose and Amanda Nackos of the Order of the Owl." The two were sitting at a desk, Dumbledore behind it and Sirius in front, along with four unoccupied, posh-looking chairs. The four of us sat down, and introductions were made, including Fawkes the phoenix, who sat on his perch, looking very regal. Sirius was very polite and extremely cool. For some reason, he reminded me of my boyfriend Matt, and I told him so. "He's talented like you, hot headed like you, only more quiet," I said. "You mean silent," Stephanie said. "Honestly, Rach, you've got to make the boy talk!" "But he's not suspected of murder, is he?" asked Sirius. "Sirius! I wouldn't be going out with him if he was!" I reply. Lupin elbowed me. "Back to Dumbledore." he muttered. "Sorry Professor," we chorused. "Now, you won't be taking classes here, but you'll be working with certain students and teachers, namely Professors Snape, McGonagall, and Sirius and Remus here," Dumbledore explained. "If you don't mind me asking, sir, who will the students be?" Amanda asked. "Harry Potter and his friends, along with Susan Bones, Cho Chang, Draco Malfoy and Oliver Wood," Dumbledore answered. "You three have the rest of the day to yourselves, and your quarters are on the staff floor. Stephanie, you have the Blue Room, Rachel, the Green, and Amanda, the Purple." "Sir..?" I asked. "The stables are by Hagrid's hut, and, yes, you can go visit Harry and the others. They have been informed of your presence and are expecting you," he returned with a wink at me. We told Sirius and Remus goodbye, and then went off to hunt for our rooms. Coming down from Dumbledore's office, we enlisted the help of Colin Creevey, who turned out to be a little less annoying than he was in the books. He led us to the Gryffindor Common Room, (password was "eucalyptus") and we waited for about five minutes before Hermione showed up. She actually bore a strong resemblance to me, only not so dark. "Hello, you must be Amanda, Rachel and Stephanie. I'm Hermione Granger. Good to meet you; I've heard a lot about you." She took a hard squint at me. "Are your eyes always that color?" "Which color? Brown?" "No, no, that lovely bronze." "What? Someone get me a mirror!" I said. "Hey, she's right!" Stephanie said. "Wow, Rai, your eyes are so pretty now!" Indeed they were if I do say so myself. Looking in the mirror, I saw that all of our eyes had turned a different color; Steph had gone from blue- green to all green, and Amanda had had brown; now she had purplish-blue. "Do you have any idea why they're doing this?" I asked. "Adjusting to the magic here," Hermione explained. "You got what you would have gotten had you been born into a wizarding family, or at least that's what McGonagall told me." "The funny thing is, I always wanted bronze eyes," I said. "I see you've brought your violin with you. Maybe later, when everyone is here, you could play for us?" Hermione asked, seeming a little hesitant. "That's what it's here for," I answered, shrugging. "Of course, I'd be happy to. Amanda and Steph can sing." "Don't think so," Steph said as she lounged in a cozy armchair by the fireplace. Before I could make a retaliation, though, the Common room door opened and two boys stepped in. They were Ron and Harry, without a doubt.