There are times when I think my life is a series of awkward events that never stop coming. Tripping up the stairs, thinking faster than I speak, you name something embarrassing, I've probably done it in the last month. However, there are times when, out of the blue, something marvelous happens. Today was definitely one of those days. But here I am, getting ahead of myself. Let me begin at how it all started this morning...
Seriously, the alarm can not be going off at six AM on a Saturday morning. Oh, but it is, I think to myself.
I jump out of bed and race to my desk, where Tik Tok is blaring out of the tiny speakers on my cell phone. Stupid Daily alarms. Stupid alarms in general. It's the first day of summer, and my sub-conscious is screaming at me to go back to sleep. I grab the phone and press the "off" button on the screen, and when the alarm screen goes away, my phone goes back to it's original screensaver: a picture of three girls, each of them extremely different, lined up in front of our high school's brick exterior.
I literally just changed that not even twenty four hours ago. After taking picture after picture with our friends as commemorative tokens for the summer, the three of us went out to lunch with our friends. Serena flipped through the pictures one by one, and finally found one she liked, urging me to set it at my screensaver. Sure, she looked good. Most of us did. Except me.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a confident girl. God gave me hips, and an ass, and by golly I was gonna work it. But clearly, no one ever taught Mrs. Carter, our Vice Principle, what the words "flattering angle" meant. So there I stood, Elle Major, double chins and all.
Before this little gem of a picture was my background, it'd been the same for months. I unlock my phone again, scrolling through my picture to find the quote.
"Class is not defined by our circumstances. It's our reaction to those circumstances that define who we are." The only quote I've ever found that basically completely describes my life. It makes me so angry when people blame the situation they're in for their wrongdoings. Maybe it's because I'm a control freak, but I refuse to let anyone else's decisions dictate the way my life is run.
Ok, so I'm up. Now what do I do? There's no way I'm going back to sleep after-
Can't read my, can't read my, no he can't read-
I pick up my phone and look at the caller ID before answering, bopping my head along to the Lady Gaga.
"Alarm wake you up too?" I ask Penny before she gets a word in.
"Elle, I'm so tired; I look like a freaking zombie. I just looked in the mirror and about had a heart attack." I laugh, having a hard time picturing Penny looking anything but perfect.
"It's probably just post-exam relapse. That's what happens when you opt for all AP courses." I had been regretting my decision to go the AP route since the third week of the semester, but by then, it was too late to transfer out. Every single course we took was advanced. Of course, Serena, with her angelic voice and figure that looks good in crushed velvet, decided to take Honors Choir as her elective. Penny and I went the opposite route and did Creative Writing and Choral Composition, a musical composition class. "Is it one of those emergency makeover days? You know I love doing that." I can practically hear her rolling her eyes.
"Nah, I think we need a salon day after this hellish week we've all had." I grin and stand up.
"I was gonna call Serena anyways, I wanted to make sure she's up."
"You know I can just walk down the hall and wake her up?" she says sarcastically. I shrug, forgetting that Penny isn't with me. Serena and Penny are fraternal twins who couldn't be more different. The only real claim to relation they have is the perfect, glossy McAllister hair, and their half English accents derived from their parents.
"I know, but it's more fun to wake her up on the phone!" We both laugh and say goodbye and I scroll through my recents, touching the screen where it says Serena's name. "Morning starshine, the Earth says hello!" I respond to her raspy "Hello?"
"I'll show you where to shove that starshine in a second…" she mutters into the phone. I laugh. Serena is one of my more, shall we say, outgoing friends. She can be a bit crude. As can I, of course, but I'm a little more reserved than she is. My mind is privately in the gutter. Her sister, on the other hand, only opens up to us. To everyone else, she's this shy little bookworm that never really makes jokes. She gets them, yeah. But she, like me, prefers a good book as supposed to a good party or make out session (which Serena prefers). But she's actually really outgoing outside of school. She'll chat with someone who starts a conversation with her, no matter what.
The two of them, as different as they can be, are like my sisters. Our parents, also best friends since they were kids, went to school together in the UK. They moved to Louisiana together when we were all newborns, and we haven't been back since. That bonded the three of us together; it was the weird slightly-British-speaking kids against the world, and boy, was that world mean.
"Ahhhh, the light, it burns!" I scream into the phone when I flip on the light in the bathroom. It actually does hurt, just not that much. I just want to make sure that Serena's actually awake. She doesn't scream, nor do I hear the loud thud of her falling out of her bed, so I assume it's good as I look in the mirror. "Ahhhh!" There's that thud.
"What the hell, Elle! I just fell out of my bed." I giggled at her rhyme.
"Sorry, I saw my hair. I look like I belong in the Thriller video."
"Oh god."
Eight hours later, Penny, Serena and I are all walking out of Shelton's Salon and Day Spa, arm in arm, careful not to screw up our freshly manicured fingers. "You were right, Elle, that's exactly what I needed," Penny says as I pull my phone out of my purse and start dialing Ralph, our Driver's number. Ok, so let me set the record straight; just because I have a driver does not mean I am filthy rich, like most of the people at my school think. My dad is a lawyer for some of the wealthiest families in Louisiana, so yeah, we live comfortably. But Ralph lives on our property; his wife, Maria was my Nanny growing up, and he helps navigate my dad to business meetings and my mom to clients. They mostly help with driving me, since I can't yet, and cooking food, when Maria's not tending to their 6-month-old, Carson. It's one of the things you kind of need when your underage and both your parents work full time, or have a busier social life than you do.
Like tonight; they're having dinner with Uncle Tim and Aunt Lindsey, Penny and Serena's parents. Ralph picks up after three rings.
"You girls ready to come home?" he asks. I can hear a crunching sound. He's eating in what sounds like tacos in the car. I roll my eyes and look at the girls, who are inspecting each other's nails.
"I think we wanted to go see a movie over at the Rave. Right?" We nod in unison.
"Ok, I'll be there in ten." We all wait for the short time, talking about what plans we have for the summer ahead. My cousin Neville was coming to town, and he was planning on staying with us for at least a few weeks since he, too, was from the UK. Just as the girls beginning to detail their upcoming trip to Florida, Ralph pulls up, and the three of us pile into the car.
"To the Rave!" I call, sticking out my hand into the front seat like a valiant knight. The twins laugh, and Ralph just rolls his eyes as usual as we drive the whole two miles to the theatre. Piling out, we tell Ralph to pick us up at eight, and that we'll call his cell and tell us where to meet him. The theatre is as packed like it always is, and we patiently wait in line, buying our tickets, then popcorn and drinks, and then get our tickets torn. We're five minutes late for Prom Night, which has been on a second run here for about a month. I quietly sneak into a row, followed by the girls, just as the opening credits start rolling. Sipping our Dr. Pepper, we watch the first thirty minutes of the movie. I see Penny get up out of the corner of my eye, and about ten minutes later, I get a text on my phone. While watching the Psycho kill Claire, I read the text.
Penny: I'm not feeling so well, can you have Ralph pick us up? So sorry!
I text back as quietly as possible, while avoiding Serena's gaze.
Sure! Hope you're okay ):
I motion for Serena to get up, and she does, giving me a look before filing out of the row and into the hall.
"What the heck?" Serena says, taking a long sip of her drink. My phone vibrates in my pocket again, and I hold up a finger as I text back a reply.
Papa Ralph: Out front. Is everything ok?
P's sick. Home early, I think.
"Penny's got cramps, Serena. Ralph is picking us up early." She bites her lip and says nothing as we go to meet Penny in the restrooms.
"Penny, you ok?" Serena calls out as we walk into the restroom.
"Noooo." The voice is shaky, and I follow the sound to one of the stalls in the back. We knock, and Penny peers out. Her long brown hair is somewhat messy, and her DKNY tee shirt is tucked into her jeans in the front.
"Oh, shit," Serena mutters, wrapping one arm around her sister, and reaching into her purse for an emergency Midol with the other.
"So are we going back home?" Ralph asks when we finally reach the car. Penny shakes her head from the back seat, where she and Serena are sitting. I sat in the front to give them more room.
"William and Marie are at the house, so we can just go there," I tell him, and he nods, putting the car into drive and rolling out of the lot. When we pull up in the front of my house, we just get out and say good night to Ralph, who walks the other direction towards the small cottage where he and his wife live on the property.
"…but weather or not you yourself think it's important…"
We hear bits and pieces of a conversation as we walk into my house, and put our purses on the table by the door, hanging up our coats. Penny and Serena both give me a look that says "Who is that?" but my only answer is a shrug. I hear my parents, the soft voices of Serena and Penny's parents, and then an unknown voice. He has an accent like my parents, but it sounds older and worn. Almost like my grandpa's did before he passed a few years back.
"…it is of the utmost importance that you consider the consequences of not coming back. You know what has been foreseen, as do so many-" The voice stops as we reach the doorway to the living room, and I spot a royal purple jacket with gold stars stitched to it, a matching cap donning a white-haired head. "I believe we just received some unexpected visitors." All five of the adults turn towards the doorway at the same time, and I can hear Serena and Penny sucking in deep breaths. I'm not sure if it was because they had just been caught sneaking around by their parents, or the fact that there was an Albus Dumbledore impersonator sitting in my living room.
Okay. So let me make something clear, since I haven't mentioned it before now. The three of us are book nerds. To the n-th degree. Like my entire room is lined with shelves of YA and Fantasy novels. In Creative Writing, Serena and I wrote stories so long they would give Stephen King a run for his money. And when it cam to Harry Potter - oh, nothing came between us and our HP.
Maybe because we'd been forbidden to read it by our overtly Christian parents until recently, but those books were like our drug. While most kids could spew out what had happened on the previous week's episode of Hannah Montana, Serena, Penny and I were discussing fan fictions and watching the movies, quoting every line.
So when we walk in, and see some old guy with a long beard and purple robes, two options pop into my head: they're hiring someone as entertainment for my 15th birthday, or one of their friends has turned to secretly LARPing on the weekends and they forgot to tell us.
Either way, I smile briefly before looking at my parents.
"What, are you interviewing actors for my birthday party or something?" All four of the younger adults stare at us with wide eyes, and none of them even smile at my joke.
"I thought you girls were still at the movies?" My mom's voice has a questioning tone to it, but Serena answers before me.
"Penny got sick. Ralph brought us home." She crosses her arms, and I help Penny sit down on the loveseat near the door. "What's going on here?" she asks them. There we go. Plain as day, straight forward. That's my girl. I look back at the weird guy sitting on the couch and see that he's even got a pair of half-moon glasses sitting on the edge of his nose. I'm tempted to let out a giggle.
"Whoever this is," I start, pointing towards the man, "he's sure got impersonating a pre-Half-Blood-Prince Dumbledore down to a science." And I seriously shouldn't have said that. My parents glare at me, my dad giving me a look that says "we'll talk about this later." Like I said, they don't even know I've read the series, much less that's I've got a collection of hand made wands stored in a secret compartment under my bed frame.
The man stands up, and extends his hand towards me.
"I don't believe you'll remember me. It's been quite a while since I last saw any of you. My name is Professor Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." I actually do giggle as I shake his hand, and Penny and Serena crack smiles as he does the same to them.
"Albus." Aunt Lindsey's voice has a chastising tone to it, and I look over at her, and then back to my mom.
"All right then, you four have had your fun. Who is this, really?" I gesture back at him again, and even yank on the hem of his jacket for added effect. Mom and Dad glare at me a second time and the guy smiles slightly.
"You guys don't honestly expect us to believe that this is Professor Dumbledore," Penny says with a slight eye roll.
"He's fictional," Serena emphasizes. I look at both of them and nod.
"And besides, what would Albus Dumbledore be doing here, in the middle of nowhere, Louisiana, at our house?" All four adults look as though the have no idea what to say, but I see the weirdo shift out of the corner of my eye.
"I believe some proof is needed in order to ensure that I am who I say I am."
"You think?" This guy is good. He's got the slight Scottish accent down, too. But seriously, our parents think we're that dumb?
"Ask me anything. I can guarantee that I can answer any question you propose."
"Isabella, you shouldn't know anything about this man," my mom says, using my full name. She only does that when she's super pissed. Uh-oh. I look at her, and she's got her arms crossed too. I fold mine tighter, and stand my ground.
"Mom, I've been reading those books since we started in Haltom. I know it was wrong, but I did. Now's not the time." I look back at the guy and raise an eyebrow. "Ready."
"I believe the phrase 'Bring it on' is quit appropriate for this situation." I roll my eyes again and questions start popping into my head faster than I can say them.
"Full name?"
"Albus Wulfric Percival Brian Dumbledore."
"Hometown?"
"Godric's Hollow."
"Siblings?" His eyes shine slightly.
"Aberforth." I raise an eyebrow. "And Ariana." I huff, thinking for a second.
"Patronus?"
"Phoenix." Bam it. He was really good.
"Ok, so you know some stupid trivia," I say, tossing my hair. "Doesn't mean you're a wizard. Magic doesn't exist. It's just fiction." Serena and Penny nod, agreeing with me, and everyone looks to see what the guy has to say. He's pulling something out of the pocket of what I now realize isn't a jacket, but a robe. I should have known it was a wand. He points it vaguely in the air and before anyone can say anything, a light blue mist shoots out of the end. Serena, Penny and I stare wide eyed, while the adults seem nothing if not a little pissed off.
The mist floats for a bit before landing in the shape of a wispy phoenix, and before it's there for ten seconds, it disappears.
"Holy crap," Penny says. I look at her, and she looks like she's just been told that her favorite pair of Prada heels at the mall were on sale. I blink a few times, before slowly sitting on the couch behind me. This can not be happening. Albus Dumbledore is a fictional character in a book series. Magic isn't real. It can't be. That's what I've been told my entire life. But this….this seems like magic. There were no wires, and no mirrors from what I could see.
Part of me, in my head, wants to be suspicious of this still. The three of us have spent years wanting this world to be real - to be a part of something fantastic, magical. But the fact that it could actually happen? That scared the shit out of me.
"How…how is this possible?" I ask, looking up at him. He smiles meekly and sits back down.
"I assume you three are familiar with the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling?" The three of us nod, avoiding our parents' glares. "Well, as strange as it may sound, that is the world I come from. That world that you all assume is fiction is in fact, not."
"But…" Penny looks confused and sits on the arm of the couch next to me. Serena stands next to her. "But if it's real…." She trails off, obviously as overwhelmed as I am.
"If it's real, then how come the Ministry allowed JK to write about it?" Serena asks. Dumbledore smiles at her.
"You three know more than I thought. You're well versed in this whole thing." He adjusts his glasses. "The Ministry of Magic did try to intervene when Mrs. Rowling first published the books. They used time turners to try and keep her from ever writing, but her premonitions kept coming back."
"Premonitions?" I ask.
"Maybe we should just start from the beginning," Uncle Tim proposes. I nod.
"That would be good."
"Ok," my mom starts, taking her seat back. "I'm just going to assume you've read the entire series?" I nod again.
"Penny and Serena have too." The both look down to avoid glares.
"So, you three know about the prophecy made about Harry before he was born."
"Yeah. Didn't Trelawney predict that?" Serena asks. Dumbledore smiles and nods.
"She did, my dear. But what only a few know is that on that same day, she made another prophecy. A prophecy about a little girl born the same day as her kin, towards the close of the seventh month." Serena and Penny both look at me, eyebrows raised and wide eyed.
"Wait, me?" I ask, pointing to myself. "She made a prophecy about me?" Dumbledore nods again.
"It said, 'And there shall be another child. And she shall be the key to the Chosen One prevailing over the Dark Lord. Another child born as the seventh month closes, on the day of her wizarding kin's birth'."
"What, no magic crystal ball?" I ask sarcastically, rubbing my temples to fight the migraine beginning to build in my head.
"Isabella," my mom chastises. Dumbledore smiles again.
"There is. I just did not have time to retrieve it from the Hall of Prophecies." He winks at me, and I can tell that Serena and Penny catch it too. They smile.
"Ok, so keep going." Dad coughs.
"Well, those prophecies were made a few months before both of you were born. Once we knew that Harry was the Chosen One, once…" He trails off, looking teary eyed. Uncle Tim cuts in.
"Once Lily and James were gone-
"And Alice and Frank," Mrs. McAllister adds.
"We knew that you were the only possibility for the second prophecy." Uncle Tim spoke as though he hadn't talked about it in a long time.
"But I don't get it," Penny starts. "The prophecy says 'wizarding kin.' Elle's not a witch, and she sure as hell doesn't have any wizarding family." At once, all four adults look down, and I can see them blushing.
"You have got to be kidding me." I cross my arms again. "All of you? All of you are wizards?" They all look up and nod, and I roll my eyes. "Well, I guess I should have figured that out from the beginning. But who's the prophecy talking about when it says kin?" My mom looks at me.
"Well, you're the genius here. Who's got the same birthday as you? Who else was born at the close of July?" She's being sarcastic, but I know who she's talking about immediately.
"Wait a second…" I trail off. This can't be true. I so should have connected it earlier. "Neville?!" I stand up. "Neville, my dorky cousin? He's the Neville from the book? Neville Longbottom?" Dumbledore smiles.
"The one and the same."
"So you guys have read the books?" Serena asks.
"No, we haven't," Aunt Lindsey answers.
"Unfortunately," Dumbledore starts, "Only a few of us wizards can actually read the books. That is part of the story." He pauses. "After Lily and James were killed, your parents knew it was dangerous. Aside from all of your parents," he gestures to all four adults behind him, "being in the Order, Renee and Aaron knew that with you in a prophecy having to do with the Dark Lord, you were all in danger. And after Frank and Alice were hurt, they all decided to relocate here." My parents were smiling again, like a fond memory had passed them by.
"Once Mrs. Rowling's books came out, I knew that they weren't just books. They spoke of our world, of our people. Mrs. Rowling predicted the future. I do not know why or how, but some how she predicted what would happen to the wizarding world." He pauses again, and then looks me square in the eye. "Almost a month ago, Miss Major, Mrs. Rowling contacted me saying she had had another prediction. This one of a world not ruled by good, but my evil. Lord Voldemort was never killed, and Harry in stead was captured and slaughtered. And Mrs. Rowling believes that it is because someone was missing from the story. The first time she told it, there was an invisible hand at work. One Mrs. Rowling didn't see, and therefore didn't write about. But she's seen the world without that person, and it's darker than any of us could imagine." He still stares, and Penny and Serena gape.
"I'm the guiding hand?" I ask, incredulous. Dumbledore nods, smiling. "So all of that crap happens because of….me?" I ask. "Because I don't help Harry?"
"We believe that's correct, Ms. Major." Dumbledore smiles. "Soon after they were published, I cast a spell over the books. Any wizard or witch, or any person who has knowledge that our world is real, who picks up those books, merely thinks it is the history of the Bathtub." Leave it to Dumbledore to cast a spell on the entire series. "No magical folk can read it. But because you were raised to believe that our world is purely fiction, you three, along with most Muggles, can still read the books."
"So if I pick it up now," Penny starts, "I would just think it was some boring book on the history of the bathtub?"
"Precisely." Dumbledore adjusts his glasses again. "Now is there anything I've forgotten?" He looks back at the parents.
"Uhm…How about why you're here? It can't be just to tell us a story. There's got to be a reason you're showing up after all these years." Serena spoke like she knew what she was saying. He looked back at me.
"I've come for the reason I told you. The world Mrs. Rowling newly predicted, where many die, friends, foes, bystanders, and where the wizarding race plummets into a time of fear and darkness, even more so than what's been foretold in the books, that world will happen unless Ms. Major here comes back to England and helps Mr. Potter."
"But," I start, "If I'm thinking correctly, Harry's about to start his fifth year." I look back at Penny.
"That means that Voldemort is already back. And he's already killed…" She doesn't finish her sentence. Cedric has always been Penny's favorite character. And she thinks Robert Pattinson was unbelievably cute.
"It means that it's time to start helping," my mom says, drawing our attention towards the adults. I stare, shocked, and she's smiling. "It's time we go back to England. There's no way around it." The McAllister's nod, and Serena and Penny stare at their parents.
"Why didn't we know before?" Penny asks. "I mean, with everyone else, every kid, there's always something…"
"Like Harry and the glass at the zoo," I finish, understanding what she's getting at. "We haven't had anything 'strange or unexplainable' happen. Ever. Never mind how much we've all wanted it to."
"That's partially my fault," Dumbledore says, glancing at us then our parents. "Before your parents left England, we made the mutual decision that if you three knew of your powers, knew of our world, you'd want to come back. And at the time, we thought it to be too dangerous to even think about." He pauses. "So your parents asked me to perform a binding spell on you. You magic is stored in my office at Hogwarts, and only I have the ability to give it back to you." The three of us stare at them in awe and anger.
"You took our powers away?" Serena sneers at our parents.
"It was what we thought was best," her mother cries, looking like she's gonna start crying again. I step in, trying to mediate.
"How do we get them back?" I ask, distracting Serena long enough.
"Before the school year starts I will meet with each of you in private and give them back. You won't be able to use them much, but I have pulled some strings with the Ministry as far as underage magic goes. You three are going to have to catch up-and fast-if you want to be able to keep up with the other students. Not that I think that's going to be a problem." He smiles at us, his eyes twinkling and then jerks back, like he's remembered something, and hands each a white envelope, our names written in a dark, cursive scrawl. The Hogwarts crest is stamped into the seal.
"I almost forgot these. I'm assuming you three already know what to Serena, but just in case." His eyes twinkle brightly, and in a blink of an eye, he disappears, leaving Serena, Penny and me to stare blankly. So we're witches. Not a big deal. It's something I've wanted all my life. It's so cool. And now we get to shop in Diagon Alley and go to England, and…Oh, who am I kidding? I'm a witch, for Merlin's sake.
*certain characters from this chapter are from JRK's Order Of The Phoenix and other Potter books. I own none of this, or her characters, only what you don't recognize as canon.
Hello everyone! Welcome to I Hate This Part 2.0. I'm going through a serious revamp of this story and would appreciate some feedback on the changes.
Also, to new readers, welcome to Elle's world. It's a little more bubbly than Harry's, isn't it? I like to think so.
Anywho, I'm off to finish editing the first chapter. Thanks for reading, lovelies.
Holly
A Darling Disaster