CHAPTER 1: TWO WORLDS
Do I really know what I'm doing here?
Fifteen-year-old Jimmy O'Bannon sat on the edge of his bed, staring at the book in his lap. Hogwarts: A History. A week from now he'd actually be at that school. He should be psyched. He'd been psyched all summer, looking at his trip across the ocean as a big, exciting adventure.
But now that he could count down the handful of days that remained until he left for Britain, second thoughts crept into his mind. His teachers told him to expect a bigger workload and a more disciplined environment at Hogwarts than he'd known at the Salem Witches Institute. Could he deal with that? Would he be able to make friends as easily in Britain as he had when he first entered Salem?
Maybe I should've thought about all this before I spent last year working my ass off to win that exchange student competition.
Someone knocked on his bedroom door.
"Yeah."
The door opened. A woman with coiffed dark hair and glasses entered. "Jimmy. Could you give your father a hand putting the drinks in the cooler?"
"Uh, yeah, sure," he told his mother.
Her forehead crinkled as she stared at him. "Are you okay?"
"Um, yeah."
Mom frowned and tilted her head, showing she didn't believe him. "Jimmy, you're going to spend nearly a year in another country. I think anyone would be nervous."
"Okay, maybe I'm a little nervous. But, you know, it's like baseball players or hockey players who say they're nervous on opening day. I'll be fine."
That seemed to satisfy Mom . . . he hoped. She could be a big-time worrier. The last thing he wanted was for her to know he was way more than a little nervous about going to England.
"I'll be down in a sec," he added.
"Okay." Mom nodded and left.
O'Bannon got up and tossed Hogwarts: A History onto the bed. He scanned the posters around his room. It was an interesting mix of magical ones and Muggle ones. A group of men and women clutched brooms and struck dramatic poses as the wind whipped their hair and robes. The Boston Bandits of the United States Quidditch Association. Two posters showed Bandits Chaser Melanie Mosbey dodging Bludgers as she streaked toward the goal, and Keeper Edson Janks knocking away a Quaffle. Other posters did not move. Those showed some of his favorite Muggle athletes, like Nomar Garciaparra of the Red Sox and Bruins legend Bobby Orr.
Just keeping a foot in two worlds. O'Bannon had heard stories of Muggle-borns becoming so enamored with the Wizarding World they completely turned their backs on the Muggle World. He was determined not to let that happen.
He started toward the door, glancing at his reflection in the full-length mirror on the wall. A round face crowned by conservatively-combed brown hair stared back at him. His lip curled for a moment. While most people wouldn't consider him short, he still hoped this next year would see him grow another inch or two, or three. He had a lean, solid build, but wanted to put on more muscle. O'Bannon held his own quite well on the ice at 5'9 and a buck fifty-five. But he could be a much better hockey player at six-foot and 170 pounds.
He headed downstairs and into the kitchen, where Dad directed him to take the drinks out of the fridge and put them in the cooler on the back patio. He just shoved the last soda can into the ice when a gusher of green flame exploded from the fireplace. Mom jumped and put a hand over her chest, then relaxed. It was a vast improvement over her earlier reactions to Floo travel, when she freaked out and worried the whole house might burn down.
A girl with an athletic build, smooth tan skin, shoulder-length dark hair and diamond-shaped earrings that glowed red and white stepped out of the flames. Right behind her came a boy shorter than O'Bannon, but with a stocky build and curly black hair. He looked around the house, scrunching his face.
"What the heck kinda party is this? This place is deader than Salem during summertime."
"Ha ha." O'Bannon walked over to him. "You're the first ones here. Everyone else'll be showing up in a few minutes."
"Or everyone's just blowing you off." The boy laughed at his own joke.
The girl smacked him on the shoulder. "Oh shut up. You're not as funny as you think."
O'Bannon smiled. "Glad you two could make it."
Rosa Infante smiled back and wrapped him up in a tight hug. "Like we'd really let you go off to England without saying good-bye. Especially since we'll be back at school when you leave."
"Yeah, man," said Rosa's cousin, Jared Diaz. "I can't believe you're not gonna be around for a whole year. Salem's gonna be friggin' boring without you."
"You'll survive." He clasped hands with Jared. They pounded one another on the back. That's when O'Bannon noticed two men step out of the fireplace. One big, bald and muscular, the other tall and stout with a goatee.
"Hey, Mister Diaz. Mister Infante." He went over to greet Jared's father and Rosa's father. "Where's Mrs. Diaz and Mrs. Infante?"
"They have some auror business to tend to," Mr. Infante answered.
"Yeah, but don't worry," Rosa said. "They promised they'd get here as soon as possible. They want to say good-bye to you, too."
O'Bannon smiled. He'd grown very fond of Jared's and Rosa's parents ever since first meeting them five years ago. Often times, he felt like an honorary member of their family. Plus their parents had wicked cool jobs. Rosa's mom and dad and Jared's mom were aurors, whom he likened to a Wizarding version of a SWAT team. Half of Rosa's and Jared's family served in the U.S. Aurors Bureau. Even the ones who weren't aurors had risky jobs. Jared's brother, Esteban, worked as a Curse-Breaker, and their father led an elite group of wizards and witches that dealt with dangerous magical creatures like werewolves and wendigos.
Sometimes O'Bannon wondered if he had it in him to do that kind of stuff. What he lacked in size he made up for in toughness. He never backed down from a fight on the ice, no matter how big the other guy was. But he doubted a hockey fight could compare to taking on a werewolf or a dark wizard.
Mom and Dad came out to greet them, and showed them where they'd set out the food and drinks. Jared's eyes nearly popped out of his head when he spotted a white cardboard box with red trim and lettering.
"Dude, you got Dunkin' Donuts!"
"'Course I did. I always take care of my best bro."
Jared turned and high-fived him before rushing over to the box.
"It takes so little to make that boy happy." Mr. Diaz grinned and shook his head.
Floo flames poured out of the fireplace every couple of minutes, discharging more and more young witches and wizards. All classmates of O'Bannon's at Salem. Gregory Lancemore, the school's resident ladies man and newly-minted captain of the Blazenrowe Hall Quidditch Team. Dante Marshall, a teammate from Blazenrowe's hockey team. Ursa Oberlin and her best friend Cindy Walker. Penelope Hale. Eli Witting. Abigail Aguirre. Mario Hernandez. They shook O'Bannon's hand or hugged him or slapped him the back.
"So do you think Hogwarts has a hockey team?" Dante asked half-jokingly.
"Yeah right. How many magical schools besides ours even have a Muggle sport?"
Dante shrugged. "Well then, it looks like you're gonna have to start up your own team over there. I don't know how you're gonna last a whole year without hockey."
O'Bannon stifled another laugh. Even if he'd been going to a Muggle boarding school over there, he wouldn't seriously consider Dante's idea. England wasn't exactly a hotbed for hockey.
He noticed Cindy Walker coming out of the kitchen, holding a plastic plate with a small turkey and cheese sandwich and some chips. She chuckled softly to herself.
"What's so funny?" O'Bannon asked.
"Ursa. She's fascinated by your microwave. Her and Eli were watching your mom heat up some pizza rolls. Then Ursa asked how Muggles can fit a whole pizza into a little roll."
O'Bannon grinned and shook his head. "Purebloods."
Both he and Cindy laughed. So did Dante, since he was a half-blood with a Muggle-born father.
"By the way." O'Bannon rested a hand on Cindy's shoulder. "I wanna thank you again for helping me with Potions. I never would've got an Exceeds Expectations and qualified to study abroad if it wasn't for you."
Maybe you shouldn't have asked her for help. Maybe you should've gotten your usual Acceptable score and stayed here for Sixth Year.
He clenched his teeth, trying to push down his anxiety.
"Well how could you not get at least an Exceeds Expectations when you've got the smartest witch in school helping you?" Dante said.
An embarrassed smile formed on Cindy's face. "Thanks, guys. It was no problem, Jimmy. I was glad to help. Just do me a favor and make all us Muggle-borns proud when you're over there."
"You know it." That had been another reason he worked so hard to go to Hogwarts. While things had improved for Muggle-borns in the US over the past seventy years, there still existed many purebloods who didn't consider people like him and Cindy "true wizards and witches." O'Bannon hoped winning the competition and doing well at Hogwarts would help change that perception.
Another burst of Floo flames came from the fireplace. Out stepped a tall boy with an angular face and brown hair.
"Artimus!" O'Bannon went over and slapped his friend on the shoulder.
"Hey, Jimmy," he flashed him a quick smile.
Rosa and Jared called out to Artimus Rand and bounded over to him.
"So your old man let you come over here, huh?" asked Jared.
"Yeah. Well, my step-mom convinced him to let me come."
O'Bannon nodded, but felt a spark of anger. Artimus came from one of the oldest and wealthiest wizarding families in New England. His father, Ulysses, owned a chain of magical supply stores. Elitist snob was about the nicest thing O'Bannon could say about him. Mr. Rand looked down his nose at anyone not as rich as him, and didn't think too highly of Muggle-borns.
He also doesn't think too highly of his own son.
"C'mon, man." O'Bannon put an arm around Artimus' shoulder. "We got plenty of food, I'm gonna show everyone a couple Monty Python episodes. Get me ready for being in England. Know what I mean, know what I mean? Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Say no more, say no more."
Artimus emitted a barely audible laugh.
"And mingle, okay?"
He turned Artimus toward some of their classmates and got him to wave. They politely smiled and waved back.
O'Bannon frowned. That was probably the most reaction Art would get from them. Outside of him, Jared and Rosa, Artimus didn't really have any other friends at Salem. The three of them had spent the past five years trying to get him to come out of his shell. To this point, their efforts had changed Art from painfully shy to just shy.
Everybody talked and dug into the platters Mom and Dad set out, with Jared trying to convince Abigail about the greatness of Dunkin' Donuts. Ursa talked about how tough her Sixth Year schedule looked, while Mario asked about O'Bannon's schedule for Hogwarts.
"It looks pretty much like what I'd have at Salem, except I don't have to take Arithmancy or Divination, thank God." Arithmancy, which delved into the magical properties of numbers, had been a pain in the ass for him because of all the damn charts involved. Divination was, simply put, a load of BS. His teacher, Miss Vomstam . . . well, to call her a charlatan would be an insult to legitimate charlatan.
"Well it's too bad you won't be around to see Blazenrowe win the Quidditch championship this year," Gregory said.
"Blazenrowe?" Abigail walked over to them, holding a half-eaten Lemon Crème Donut. "You better not count out Jingosocke Hall."
"C'mon on, Abs. I take nothing away from your ability as a Seeker." Gregory beamed at her. O'Bannon swore Abigail blushed.
Damn, that guy is smooth.
"But, Rana and her boyfriend are over in England right now for the World Cup." Gregory referred to Rana Rollingsworth, Blazenrowe's Seeker, and Darius Forten, one of the team's Beaters. "And Rana's parents own the Boston Bandits, so you know they'll have connections with some of those national players. Just think about all the great pointers Rana and Darius are going to pick up, especially if Rana runs into that big-time Seeker from Bulgaria, Krum. We'll be unbeatable."
"Man, those guys are so lucky." Jared joined them, taking a final bite of his donut. "Quidditch World Cup. Makes me wish I was Rana's boyfriend, then I'd be over there, too."
"Hah!" Rosa barked. "The only way you'd ever be Rana's boyfriend is if you used an Imperius Curse on her, and even then she'd probably resist it and tell you 'no'."
Ursa, Abigail and Penelope all laughed.
Even O'Bannon had to grin. Heck, what guy at Salem wouldn't want to be Rana Rollingsworth's boyfriend. Aside from having famous parents, she was gorgeous, outgoing, blessed with a great sense of humor, loved sports - even Muggle ones – and best of all, was one of the nicest witches at school.
Heck, if she was single and I was single, I might ask her out.
Speaking of girlfriends, he wondered where –
Another burst of Floo flames came from the fireplace. Something fluttered in O'Bannon's chest when he saw a short, slender witch with a clear complexion and jet black hair that fell past her shoulders.
"Penny!" He strode out of the kitchen, a smile on his face.
Penny Nichols turned to him. "Hey, Jimmy."
The words barely left her mouth when he took her by the shoulders and kissed her.
Jared cut loose with a loud wolf whistle. Rosa smacked him upside the head. "Grow up, for Merlin's sake."
Jared rubbed his head and glared at his cousin. Mr. Diaz and Mr. Infante both looked to Rosa and nodded with approval.
"Sorry I'm late," Penny said.
"Don't worry about it. Heck, the party's just getting into full swing." Placing a hand on her back, O'Bannon guided her toward the kitchen. "We got plenty of food, so help yourself."
"Do you have anything to drink?"
"Yeah, there's a cooler out on the back patio. We got soda, iced tea, even a few bottles of butterbeer."
"Thanks. I'll be back in a sec."
O'Bannon watched her go through the sliding door that led outside. It's gonna be almost a whole year before I see her again.
He clenched his teeth. Yeah, he'd thought about spending all that time away from her in the months leading up to Headmistress Esmeralda selecting him. But it just seemed so . . . distant at the time. Now, with only a week to go until he left, he felt an ache in his heart whenever he thought of Penny or wrote to her or looked at her picture. Again he asked himself, do I really know what I'm doing?
"So, getting excited for your trip to England?"
O'Bannon turned and found Mr. Infante standing next to him.
"Um, yeah. Heck, yeah. Who wouldn't be pumped to go to a school like Hogwarts?" He hoped he sounded convincing. He didn't want to let any of the adults know how truly nervous he was.
He chatted with Rosa's father for a few minutes before the man headed off to throw away his empty plate. O'Bannon checked around the kitchen to find Penny, but didn't see her. His brow furrowed. It shouldn't take this long to get a drink from the cooler.
He went over to the sliding door and stepped outside. In the yellowish glow of the porch light, he found Penny sitting in one of the plastic chairs on the patio, holding a bottle of butterbeer and staring out at the darkened backyard.
"Penny? You okay there?"
She turned toward him, unsmiling. She let out a sigh. "It's going to be almost a year before we see each other again."
O'Bannon frowned. "I know."
"That's all you have to say? 'I know'?"
"What do you want me to say, Penny? We talked about this before. We promised we'd wait for each other."
"But a year? It's gonna be like forever. Why do you have to go? Why can't you tell everyone you changed your mind?"
That sounded tempting, especially coming from his girlfriend. Maybe he should do it.
Then he thought about how hard he worked all of Fifth Year to keep his grades up, while still playing hockey and participating in Dueling Club. He'd gotten his schedule from Hogwarts, had all his books owled to him, gotten his passport and completed all the other necessary paperwork. Heck, his parents even bought him a new set of dress robes as requested by the Hogwarts deputy headmistress, a Professor McGonagall. And he hated clothes shopping, unless it was for T-shirts and sweatshirts with sports-related themes.
Something else kept him from giving in to all his doubts and fears, something he'd learned from his years playing sports. No matter if his team was behind, no matter if the players on the opposing team were bigger than him, no matter how bad things looked, he never quit. Ever!
And backing out of going to Hogwarts at this point would be quitting.
"Everything's all set for me to go to Hogwarts. C'mon, this is important to me."
Penny's thin eyebrows scrunched together as she stood. "I thought I was important to you."
"You are. You're my girlfriend."
"But right now Hogwarts is way more important."
"Penny . . ." He looked up to the sky in frustration, then took a breath and stepped over to her. "Look, I don't want to argue with you about this, not tonight. I promise I'll write you all the time, and maybe before I leave we can spend the day at Milmothryn Market, just the two of us. Okay?"
"Okay." Penny said without looking at him.
O'Bannon smiled and kissed her on the temple. That got her to turn and look at him. That's when he kissed her full on the lips. A long kiss, one that –
"Yo, Jimmy. I . . . Whoa!"
O'Bannon whipped his head around to find Jared standing in the doorway. "Dude!"
"Um, sorry, man. Um, your mom wanted me to come get you. She's bringing out your good-bye cake."
O'Bannon let out an annoyed breath. "All right, I'm coming."
Taking Penny by the hand, he followed Jared back inside the house. Mom had put out a white ice cream cake with chocolate crumb pieces lining the sides and the British Union Jack flag made of blue, red and white frosting in the center. Black icing around the flag spelled out the words "Bon Voyage Jimmy."
"So Mrs. O'Bannon." Eli's eyes flickered between her and the cake. "Muggles can really turn ice cream into a cake?"
"Well, I don't know about turning it into a cake. They just make it out of ice cream."
Eli's eyes widened. Ursa and Mario also looked astonished by this.
"That is wicked cool," Eli said. "We gotta tell Mister Lymstock about this when we go back to school."
Eli referred to Salem's Muggle Studies teacher. Being Muggle-born, O'Bannon obviously never took the class. But from everything he'd heard about Mr. Lymstock, the guy couldn't tell the difference between a toaster oven and a lawnmower.
Some Muggle Studies teacher.
Everyone dug into the ice cream cake. He noticed his pureblood friends really enjoying it, and raving about it. O'Bannon grinned. Just one small way for him to give those who grew up in the magical world a way to appreciate what the Muggle World had to offer. It would be nice if he could do more, but what could a fifteen-year-old wizard do to really change purebloods' view of the Muggle World?
He was about to get a second helping of cake when Floo flames shot out the fireplace. Out stepped two witches, one stocky with brown hair, the other slender and attractive with long black hair.
"Hey, you finally made it," Jared said to his mother, Liana Diaz, and his aunt, and Rosa's mom, Adelaide Infante.
"Sorry, everyone," Mrs. Diaz said. "We had some things to finish up at work that took longer than expected."
She and Mrs. Infante came over and hugged O'Bannon.
"So, looking forward to going to Hogwarts?" asked Rosa's mom.
"You kiddin'? The most famous wizarding school in the world. The school run by Albus Dumbledore. The school where Harry Potter goes to. Who wouldn't be psyched to go?"
Out the corner of his eye, he noticed Penny frown.
"Well, you're both just in time," said Mr. Diaz. "You have to have some of this cake Jimmy's parents got. It's actually made of ice cream."
"An ice cream cake?" Mrs. Infante sounded amazed. "Well I definitely have to try that."
"I'll get a piece in a bit." Mrs. Diaz turned to O'Bannon. "Jimmy, may I talk to you for a minute?" She lowered her voice. "Alone."
"Um, sure." He led her to the sliding door, wondering what this could be about.
They stepped onto the patio. When O'Bannon shut the sliding door behind them, Mrs. Diaz said. "So, are you nervous about going to England?"
"Um, no. No, I'm fine."
"Of course you are." Mrs. Diaz's tone indicated that she didn't believe him.
He frowned. "What, you reading my mind?"
Mrs. Diaz chuckled. "I don't need Legilimency to know how nervous you are. The week before I left to begin auror training, I was an utter wreck. But I got through it, and I firmly believe you will, too."
"Thanks." He smiled, feeling a little bit better by her encouragement.
Mrs. Diaz bit her lower lip, then looked down at the patio.
"Um, Mrs. Diaz? Is everything all right?"
She looked back up at him and took a deep breath. "There was a reason why Adelaide and I were late to your party. We received word from the US wizarding ambassador to Britain." She paused. "There was an attack at the Quidditch World Cup."
"An attack?" O'Bannon felt his chest tighten. "Oh my God. Rana and Darius are there. And Headmistress Esmeralda and some of the Salem teachers. Are they -"
"They're fine." Mrs. Diaz held up both hands in a calming gesture. "They're all fine. There were several injuries, but none of them were fatal."
"But who attacked the World Cup? And why would they do it?"
Again, Mrs. Diaz bit her lip. "All indications are that it was a group of Death Eaters."
O'Bannon's jaw dropped. "D-Death Eaters? I thought most of them were killed or locked up after You-Know-Who died, and the rest went into hiding. Are . . . are they coming back?" He'd learned all about Death Eaters not just from History of Magic class, but from Jared's and Rosa's parents and his own independent reading at the Salem library. Basically, take Hitler's SS, give them magical powers, and you've got Death Eaters.
Not the kind of people I'd want to run into.
"We don't think so. We think this is probably an isolated incident. Still, many wizarding governments around the world are on alert for any sign of renewed Death Eater activity, just in case."
O'Bannon let out a sardonic laugh. "Well this'll make going to England fun."
"Jimmy." Mrs. Diaz gave him a sympathetic smile. "I didn't tell you this to worry you. From the way the British talk, it sounds like a bunch of former Death Eaters had too much to drink and got rowdy. I suspect they'll go back to lying low from now on. Even if they do try any more attacks, Hogwarts is one of the best protected magical schools in the world. It would take a lot for any Death Eater to even scratch its security wards and charms. But I just want you to be aware of what happened, and keep it in the back of your mind while you're over in England. If you find yourself outside Hogwarts, keep an extra eye out for anything suspicious, and report it to one of your teachers."
"You got it." O'Bannon felt glad he was one of the best students in his year in Defense Against the Dark Arts. He just hoped that would come in handy if he ever found himself face-to-face with a Death Eater.
Mrs. Diaz gave him a sympathetic smile and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure you'll be fine. Somehow I doubt you'll come within a hundred miles of a Death Eater while you're over in England."
O'Bannon smiled back. He figured Mrs. Diaz knew what she was talking about. The woman was an auror, for Merlin's sake. Plus in all the years he'd known her, she'd always been straight with him. If she really felt he'd be in danger, she'd tell him. Besides, even in the Muggle World, there were still little groups of Nazis around. Every once in a while they did something that made headlines. Most times, though, they kept to themselves. It was probably the same with this bunch of Death Eaters.
He shook off his stupid fears about Death Eaters. He had more important things to worry about, like doing well at Hogwarts, and hoping his and Penny's relationship could survive being apart from each other for a year.
TO BE CONTINUED