Hello all! Warm welcomes to my new story- END GAME!
So excited to have this going. It's something I've been toying around with for quite some time. I wrote out a few chapters that had been in my head before I said "okay, it's time to get this going."
This one may or may not be as long as In the Name of Being Honest, I'm debating with myself where exactly I want it to end, but I do have the entirety of the Hogwarts experience plotted and almost written!
This story will be canon...and it will also be loosely based on the moved She's the Man! I do mean very loosely based, honestly, I had a few ideas cleaning my house and having that on the TV one day.
As always, please read, review, and enjoy!
The morning of August 30th was sticky and hot already as Jenna Murphy dragged her trunk through the front yard, toward the car that was already idling in the driveway. Sweat was brimming at the hairline of her chestnut brown locks, the dew from the grass soaking the bottom of her luggage and the soles of her shoes. She dropped the trunk at the rear of the car, where the books clanked angrily as they shifted when it hit the pavement. She winced, looking at her mother with apologetic green eyes.
"Let's both hope your potions bottles didn't crack," she said with a grin as she grabbed the handles of the trunk and loaded it into the car. As she shut the lid, Jenna saw her twin brother, Lucas, peering out of the back window. His green eyes were wide and terrified as he surveyed the two of them still standing in the humid air.
Karen sighed as she locked eyes were her young son before he turned in his seat to face the front of the car. She looked back at Jenna, who was watching her closely. "You'll keep an eye on him, won't you?" she asked her daughter quietly. "Kids can be so mean and-"
"Mom," Jenna cut across her, her eyes flashing sharply, "I would kick ass before I let anything happen to Lucas."
"Language," Karen warned playfully, but ruffled the ponytail of her daughter. "Thank you. You know how I worry." She sighed again before furrowing her brow. "Did you pack your broomstick? I didn't see you walk out with it."
Jenna opened the car door and slid in next to her brother as her mother clambered into the front seat, shifting the car into reverse. "I put it in the trunk LAST NIGHT," she reiterated for, what felt like, the fourteenth time. "There is NO WAY I was going to forget my Cleansweep, mom. I'm done playing these junior quidditch leagues. I'm ready for the big stuff."
Karen smiled toward the back seat, looking at her children through the rearview mirror. Jenna had always been a tough, adventurous child. Joining her first quidditch league in South Carolina at the mere age of five, she spent much of her childhood racing her broomsticks along the rugged country lanes in their small wizarding village and reading up on the latest quidditch players of the day. She could hang with the best of the older leagues when it came to her skills as Chaser, abandoning her dolls and potion making sets for the hot, summer weather when the teenagers came home from school.
Lucas, on the other hand, was shy and soft spoken. He could care less about the thrills of quidditch or the hot, sticky days of summer. His idea of a good time was curling into the corner of his dimly lit closet to read a book or to practice the guitar his father had gotten him for his birthday in the years before. He was easily bullied and Jenna had spent much of the beginnings of their lives beating up anyone that had something to say about him.
"Mom," Jenna drawled out in her light southern accent, "I thought dad was going to come and bring us to the transportation center for the first day of school." Lucas peeked his eyes over the top of his book.
"Dad had to work. He sent us an owl last week," she replied shortly. It wasn't unusual that her dear ex-husband missed the most important days of their children's lives. All it took was a few bad fights and a two week period of silence thereafter for him to request a transfer back to his home country and the Ministry of Magic in London nearly five years previously. He had barely made time to come back to the States after, mostly sending cards and packages over Owl Post for birthdays and Christmas.
Lucas's eyes returned to his book, clearly indifferent in the topic of conversation now. Jenna, on the other hand, huffed as she sank deeper into her seat. She had been a daddy's girl her entire life, at least until he left. She had taken it much harder than her brother, who had always clashed with him over his lack of interest in quidditch. It had been over a year since she had seen him in person.
The rest of the car ride was silent as they pulled into a sleepy, seaside town just short of an hour from their house. Jenna was jittery from nerves as her mother parked the car in an abandoned parking lot, weeds pushing up through the cracks in the pavement. Lucas carefully placed his book into his book bag as he opened his own car door, stepping out and looking toward the rolling waves of the ocean. Jenna followed suit, wishing she could steal her broom from the trunk of the car and take it for a quick ride along the shore.
"There it is," Karen paused to point toward the old, wooden structure that was erected at the end of the parking lot. It looked as though it hadn't been patched up in ages, despite it desperately needing it. "That's the transportation center for our area. Your time is in…" She looked down at her watch. "Five minutes. We should get going."
"THAT'S the transportation center?" Jenna said with exasperation as her jaw dropped. "It looks like an old porta-potty."
Karen laughed as she swung Lucas's trunk out of the car and planted it on the gravelly pavement. "That's exactly what it looks like to the no-majs around here too, my love."
"I thought it would be more-" Lucas trailed off, not sure exactly what he thought it would be."
"A little more MAGICAL," Jenna finished dramatically as she took the handle of her trunk into her hand and her broomstick in the other. Lucas shrugged a shoulder and nodded in agreement as he squinted against the sun that had just peeked out from behind a cloud. "Mom, are you sure we're in the right place?"
"Yes," Karen laughed as she set off toward the transportation center, the mix of rocks and sand crunching underneath her sandals. "This is the same one I used as a kid. I promise you, we're in the right spot." Just as she finished, another car pulled in and parked alongside theirs. A friendly woman with bouncing blonde curls waved at the trio as she stepped out of her own car.
"Ilvermorny day!" she sang out as her brooding teenage son stepped out, glaring at her as he gathered his luggage from the backseat of the car. "You two must be in your first year, we haven't seen you here before. Cameron is going into his seventh. He's just SO EXCITED to be going back, aren't you, sweetie?"
Jenna thought he looked anything but excited as she turned back toward her mother with an expression of distaste. Karen chuckled as she lightly pushed Jenna toward the transportation center, the clock drawing nearer to noon. "I told you we were in the right place," she muttered with a giggle as she adjusted the book bag on Lucas's shoulder. "Now this is going to act as a vanishing cabinet. You step in with your things and close the door. When you open it again, you'll be on the grounds of Ilvermorny. They have these set up across North America."
Jenna stopped in her tracks, looking at the transportation center with apprehension. She had been so excited to start at Ilvermorny, looking forward to shopping for their uniforms and packing her school luggage for the last month and a half. But now? It was standing right in front of her. She wasn't sure if she was ready. Karen smiled down at her, gripping her shoulder tightly. "I wish I could go with you. It's going to be the best seven years you could ask for."
She took a deep breath and grinned up at her mom. "I'm not scared," she lied with ease, pulling her trunk even closer to the wooden structure. Though as she reached out to grab the handle of the transportation center door, she recoiled it quickly before turning and flinging her arms around her mom's waist. "I love you," she said softly, burying her face into Karen's abdomen.
Karen wrapped her arms around her daughter, pulling her closely. "I'm just an Owl away," she whispered into her daughter's ear. "You're going to make so many new friends, play quidditch, learn magic…" she trailed off and kissed Jenna on the top of her head. "I can't wait to hear about your first few days."
Jenna pulled her arms back and grabbed her trunk, entering the vanishing cabinet without looking back at her mother, afraid that if she looked back one more time she would refuse to go.
Lucas clutched at Jenna's hand tightly as the two made their way along the gravel path among the group of first years. She looked up with wide-eyed wonder as the castle came into view. Stationed at the top of Mount Greylock, it was concealed by swirling mists that created an eerie feeling about the grounds. Jenna fastened the Gordian Knot that held her robes together tighter to her chest. It was chilly on the mountain in Massachusetts- much different than the humid shores of South Carolina.
Statues of the founders stood on each side of the entrance, their stone faces appeared cold to Jenna despite the smiles that donned them. She squeezed her brother's hand as the group shuffled into the castle, warmth washing over them as they passed into the light of the torches perched high on the walls.
Jenna gazed around the room, her eyes adjusting. They stood in a circular room, four large wooden carvings were laid into the stone of the wall in front of her. One, as her mother told her, for each house of Ilvermorny- Horned Serpent, Wampus, Thunderbird, and Pukwudgie. The Gordian Knot, the same as the fasten that held her robes together, was set into the stone floor. Her gaze shifted upward and she was surprised to see the older students gathered on the balcony above her, patiently awaiting the sorting ceremony to start.
"Welcome to Ilvermorny. When I call your name," a stout wizard with a large nose called out to the group of shivering first years, "you will come forward and step onto the Gordian Knot. One of the carvings," he paused again to gesture toward the wall behind him, "will react to your presence and that is the house you will be sorted into. You will pass through this door-" he gestured to his left- "to get your wand and join your house table. If one of you has been chosen by more than one carving, you will be given the opportunity to pick which house you wish to belong to. This happens very rarely-"
Lucas leaned over toward her. "What if I don't get chosen at all?" he asked in a small, frightened tone. Jenna turned to look at her brother. "Don't be silly," she whispered back, not unkindly. "You were sent the letter. Of course you'll be chosen by one." She said this aloud, but internally, she was envisioning the same thing happening to her.
"Adams, Anthony," the stout wizard called out. A shaking boy with dark blonde hair crept through the crowd and settled onto the Gordian Knot. Jenna held her breath as she watched. There was silence in the hall before the Wampus opened its mouth and let out a mighty roar. A group of students on the balcony cheered as Anthony shakingly made his way to the door on the left.
This is how it continued for some time as "Baker, Mia" became a Horned Serpent, "Bell, Ava" became another Wampus, and "Carter, Noah" became a Thunderbird. Time seemed to move slowly as Jenna anxiously anticipated her own sorting, looking around at all the students that she was ready to get to know.
She finally heard "Murphy, Jenna" as the hall quieted from "Mitchell, Mason" becoming a Horned Serpent. She lurched forward, the palms of her hands sweating as she stood on the Gordian Knot. Her knees knocked as she quivered, looking desperately between the four carvings. She barely had time to take a few breaths to calm herself when the Thunderbird opened its wings and beat them fiercely. She broke out into a smile as she skidded off the Gordian Knot and wrenched the door open to receive her wand.