Title: Hogwarts: Somewhere Between the Underground and Here
Author: Anne-Marie
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own Labyrinth or it's characters. Those go to Henson and Co. Nor do I own Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling was fortunate enough to invent them. All other characters, unless noted otherwise, are mine. Just borrowing the others, borrow mine if you want, but please ask (I doubt you will want to though ;) )
Summary: It is about eleven years after Sarah's adventure, but things have changed she is the single mother of a ten year old daughter, Delphine, who due to her rather odd talents has been accepted into Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
NEW! Author's Note: I started writing this story nearly 6 years ago (yikes) I've had more of it on my hard drive than ever actually got posted, so in an effort to actually make myself finish this little sucker I'm going to at least tidy up and post what I have (not to say that's a lot). I really do want to finish this...before the second coming...
Chapter the First: A little Back story
The skin over her stomach was taut with the swelling of her belly; there was a small flutter under her ribs. The baby, his baby, was awake and kicking. Her thoughts were interrupted with the loud crash of pans from the room below her.
"Sarah!"
"Coming Andrea!" Sarah shouted back as she heaved herself out of the rocker, she waddle down the hall to the top of the stairs, grasping the railing she slowly made her way down the old staircase, the wooden steps creaking beneath her weight. In the kitchen she found Andrea, a petite blonde woman, or girl rather. She was a woman by circumstance, girl by age. Just like Sarah. Andrea's hands were clutching her round stomach.
"Sarah I think my water broke! And, Lisa went to the store, what am I gonna do? I don't know what to do?" Andrea's face went tight with pain, her mouth pinched at the corners as her abdominal muscles clenched down willing the child out of its haven.
"Sit down and breathe Andrea. Did she take the van?"
"No, she took the car."
Sarah grabbed the van's keys off the key rack by the door. "Come on, do you think you can walk to the van?"
"Yes, Sarah, you can't drive!"
"Yes I can, just the van though, don't think I could manage to sit behind the wheel of the car," Sarah smiled hoping to look confident. Truth was she hadn't driven since she came to Hope House. Driving was just one of the many things that had changed in the last few months though. Andrea stood and walked to the door, apparently Sarah had convinced her.
On their way to the hospital, Sarah continued to think about how her life had changed, so much so quickly for someone she considered so young. Of course, Andrea and the other girls at Hope House were in the same sort of situation as her. Similar but not down right the same, no one else had been seduced by a Goblin King in a land of Magic, in the weeks after her return from the Labyrinth Sarah had wondered how so much time had passed at the ball, to her it seemed like minutes.
Then, the week before her sixteenth birthday she had dreamt of things she would never have thought of on her own. Flesh rubbing against flesh; need consuming her and her mysterious partner. Thresholds broken and climaxes reached. Her fingers danced lightly on her lover's skin entwining themselves lightly in his baby fine light blond hair. She jolted awake after she had gazed into her dream lover's smoky mismatched eyes, she ran to the bathroom as she realized who she had dreamt of, she barely made it before the nausea overcame her. Then for the next week she would dream more and more, in more detail and color as it all seem to come back to her, and each morning she would wake up loosing all the food she had consumed the night before.
How can you have the child of a figment of your imagination?
When she realized what had happened to her, she planned her escape. For her sixteenth birthday, her mother was going to fly her into London and show her the sights. Instead of meeting up with her mother, Sarah went on her own as soon as she landed.
The Hospital came up; Sarah pulled into the round about in front of the maternity ward. Sarah carefully slid out of the driver's side and waddle over to help Andrea out. Two nurses came out with a wheel chair.
"Hello ladies, which of you gets to be rolled in?" he asked surveying the two very pregnant women.
"That would be me." Andrea managed to whisper through the pain of her contractions.
"Andrea, sweetie, I am just going to go park the car and call Lisa, then I will be right up, ok?"
"Ok, Sarah, thanks." Andrea smiled weakly.
The labor was over relatively soon. It lasted long enough however for Lisa to come and also the Gangersons, Andrea's child was to become theirs.
"How are you feeling now Andrea? It's all over." Sarah gently swept Andrea's damp bangs back from her forehead.
"It's over? Oh, Sarah, he was perfect, ten tiny toes and fingers. I love him so Sarah," tears ran their course freely down Andrea's tired face, "go look in on him please, let me know he is all right. I need to know that, even though he isn't mine, never could be. They will love him won't they?"
"Yes, I think they already do, I will be back in a little bit Andrea, is there anything else you want?"
"No, nothing you can get me Sarah, thank you."
Sarah walked down the hospital corridors until she came to the nursery window; she peered into the rows of tiny infants. She spotted Andrea's baby, a few rows over and walked to him. A small pink fist clutched at the white blanket that surround the small bundle, the scrunched up red face let out a sudden yawn, the small pink lips forming a perfect "o". Sarah swore silently to herself, she had been considering adoption, but now that she was faced with it she knew she could never give up her child, his child.
Sarah clutched her belly fiercely.
"I am never letting you go, never!" she whispered.
"Get down here right now and put this laundry away! I told you to last night, and earlier this morning, and sometime after that..."
Sarah heard a mumbled "oops".
"Um, sorry Mom, I guess I got distracted by that white owl this morning…I'll come down and redo the laundry."
"What was that Del?" Sarah asked faintly, clutching the back of the chair.
"I said I would redo the laundry?"
"No, sweetheart, before that…"
"I saw a white owl this morning, kinda made me forget what I was doing, it looked like it was holding a letter, weird huh?"
"Can you show me where you saw this owl?"
"Sure mom."
The 10-year-old girl ran down the stairs her dark blonde pigtail flying behind. Standing next to her mother she pointed to the tree branch she had seen the owl on earlier,
"There mother, he sat there and looked at me."
"Oh," Sarah in a daze opened the back door and walked towards the tree, Delphine followed behind her. Sarah investigated the tree, nothing strange about it, such as copious amounts of glitter.
"Hey Mom, look! Up there!"
Sarah snapped her head up in time to see a white owl swoop down to her daughter, she lunged to cover Delphine, but all the owl seemed to do was soar back up.
"Mom, it dropped something," Delphine stooped to pick up the white envelope on the ground, "It's addressed to me mom."
And so it was. It was a yellowish sort of color and on the back it had a purple wax seal with a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger and a snake surrounding a large letter H. Delphine ripped it open with eager hands.
Sarah read what it said aloud:
Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, first class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. Of Wizards)
Dear Ms. Delphine Halliard,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall,
Deputy Headmistress
Sarah looked up from the letter to see the owl sitting on the apple tree, waiting for the answer apparently. Sarah could have thought this was some sort of weird joke, but for some odd reason she knew it wasn't.