For the millionth time, sixteen-year-old Laya flipped a burger. For the thousandth time she wiped grease off her smooth hands, and onto her uniform. For the Billionth time she looked at the cashier she was crushing on a few feet from her. And it all would be the last.
Laya Skywalker drove home to her adopted family. They were nice, but she just wanted her own parents sometimes. Her mom, Carrol Hollings, was amazingly nice. She smiled, and smiled, and smiled.
Her dad, George Hollings, was rich. He bought home heaps of money to spoil his only "child", Laya.
But even after all this, Laya didn't care why they put her up for adoption in the first place, she wanted to find them. Well, him that is. She had been told her mother died in childbirth.
When Laya reached home, she packed her own things, and headed for the doorway. "Where are you going?" her "mom" asked.
"To find my dad. You told me I could when I was older." she replied as she lugged her things out the door.
"But your only sixteen!" she squealed. "You can't go now!"
"I can, cause I am." Laya stated. She lugged her stuff into the backseat of her car. Laya expected her mom to cry and beg, but instead she turned around and went inside with a single tear in her eye. Laya felt horrible, but jumped into her car and drove off anyway.
She drove just out of Beverly Hills, because that's where she lived, when lightning struck the front of her car. Suddenly Laya wished she was at home. She'd have to stay at an awfully expensive hotel while waiting for her car to be expensively fixed.
But the car was unhurt. Instead, a tall bearded man stood in front of her car. He had a long, silvery beard to match the rest of his long silvery hair. He wore a long blue cloak around his old, frail body. How could I have hit an old man? Laya thought, aghast. But then he spoke.
"Hello, Laya." he said kindly, waving his hand. She had obviously not hit him.
"How do you know my name?" she asked.
"I am Dumbledore. You have just been accepted to Hogwarts speed training. You will learn everything there is to know about magic in one year, instead of seven. Do you accept?" the old man stated.
"Yea!" Laya exclaimed, not knowing quite what else to say. "I guess this explained why my mother left me to leave, instead of begging me to stay." she added to herself. "She must have known."
"Yes, she did. She was a student at the school I will take you to. But the speed training is new." Dumbledore replied. Laya rolled her eyes, angry the old man answered her question she directed at herself. "Well, off we go, then." the old man then took out a long wooden stick he waved in the air.
Laya found the two of them, and her car, in a foggy wood. He waved his wand again. "Woops! Wrong place. I guess my magic isn't what it used to be!" Laya looked worriedly at him. Now they were outside an iron gate, surrounding a giant castle.
"The castle is bigger than any I've ever seen!" Laya exclaimed.
"Yes, I wish I could take credit for its ginormous-ness. Welcome to Hogwarts! And as you are a main character in this book already, I'll just place you into Gryffindor." Dumbledore informed her.
"Wha-"
"No time for talking! Now come on or I'll miss my opening speech as headmaster!" he hurried her past the gate, and into the castle. He hustled her through a few stone corridors, and finally into a large stone room. "Yes, and also, since you are important to the series Collided, why don't you sit with Harry Potter?"
"What nonsense is this?" she asked.
"Oh, just nonsense! I'm just a wacky old man. Nothing more! Harry! Escort this Miss Skywalker to your table!" he yelled.
A sixteen-year-old boy with black unkempt hair approached her. He had a lightning-bolt scar on his forehead. "Hey, I'm Harry." the boy said with a British accent.
"Bloody- I'm not in America, am I?" Laya asked.
"Er, no. But students come from all over the world. Don't you know? Aren't you in my year?" Harry asked.
"Don't you know I'm new?" she replied, angry. He led her to the Gryffindor table.
"Hermione, and Ron, this is, erm-" he began.
"Laya Skywalker." she finished. Hermione was a nice looking girl, with long wavy hair. She looked like she was pretty smart. But part of that was because her nose was buried in a textbook.
Ron had red hair, and was stuffing food into his mouth. He was wearing a hideous sweater. He saw Laya staring at it. "My mum made me wear it." He said, shrugging. Laya sat down, nodding her head sarcastically. She filled her plate, and dug in. But five minutes later, the food disappeared, and the headmaster stood behind a wooden pedestal with what looked like a live wooden owl mounted on the front.
"Greetings, witches and wizards." he began. "And another year here at Hogwarts! I will point out our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Severus Snape." Boos echoed along the Gryffindor table, and cheers from the table labeled Slytherin. "And I would also like to point out our new student. I know we don't normally do this, but this is a special new student. Laya Skywalker." Somehow she couldn't believe it. Everyone turned to look at her.
"Hey." she whispered. Laya finally managed a feeble wave.
"And go to bed so you can rest up for school tomorrow." Dumbledore said, waving his hand. Schedules appeared in everyone's hands.
"No Modern Muggles?" Hermione screamed enraged. "Just what we need to know? You wizards need more muggle training, I tell you!"
"Modern Muggles?" Laya asked. An odd subject to teach. She thought to herself.
"Yes, you see, not all families came from Muggle families, and some even thi-" Hermione began.
"No, not that, I meant, What is a Muggle?"
"A Muggle is a person who can't perform magic." Harry stated. "Some students here think they are better than others just because both their parents are witches and wizards. But Hermione is a Muggle-born, and she's the smartest girl in our year!"
"Interesting. Well, I don't even know who my father or mother was, so I guess I can consider myself Muggle-born." Laya decided. She didn't want to appear snotty or anything to her new friends.
"Well you must be important." Ron said in between bites. "Dumbledore introduced you to the whole school!" The four began up to the dormitories after Ron's comment to get in a good night's sleep.
"Interesting place, this is." Laya almost whispered. "Moving and talking paintings, moving , animated pictures, and such."
"That isn't even the all of it!" Harry said excitedly. "I remember my first year. It is just amazing what goes on in this castle." Just then a red-headed girl joined us.
"Whose she." the girl asked snottily. She looked about a year younger than the four.
"Laya Skywalker. Leave us alone Ginny." Ron spat out quickly.
"Sister?" Laya asked.
"Yep. Only girl and very annoying." He replied, rolling his eyes. The four continued the hike through the maze of corridors and moving stairways. Finally they arrived in front of a moving and talking painting of a fat lady.
"Why are we stopping here? I don't see a way to the Gryffindor corridors." Laya said, confused.
"Another wonder of Hogwarts." Harry said. "Lemon Snaps." The giggling fat lady's portrait began to move from the wall like a door. "There is the Gryffindor common room. The password changed every month or so. But remember, this is a secret. Nobody knows where the other house's common room is." Laya nodded.
"Cool. So, um, in we go?" Ron said. The four entered the Gryffindor common room. Everything was Red and Gold, the colors of the Gryffindor house. There were three other houses. Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Hufflepuff's house colors were Canary yellow, and Black. They aren't really known for anything special, or extraordinary wizards or witches. Ravenclaw's colors were Blue and Bronze. This house is known for some sort of crown of wisdom. Finally, Slytherin, whose colors were Green and Silver. This house is known for the Dark Lord Voldemort, known by all wizards and witches as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and Death Eaters, people who were loyal to the terrifying Dark Lord. Gryffindor is known for good witches and wizards, and Harry Potter, who is the only wizard to have lived after being attacked by Lord Voldemort, and even more the boy was only of the age two. Voldemort killed his parents, but the killing curse he cast upon Harry left Harry a lightning-bolt scar, and left Voldemort powerless.
"So, what is this 'speed training' thing?" Laya asked.
"This is the first year it is being introduced." Hermione. "And you, me, Harry, and Ron are the first to go through this course, and the only this year. We have to help you go through all seven years in one, and we also have to complete our last two years with you."
"She read ahead, apparently, because this is news to me and harry." Ron stated with an idiot grin.
"Ron, Dumbledore explained it in the letter he send you, me, and Hermione." Harry said, laughing.
"Whatever." Ron replied, rolling his eyes.
"Boys dorms are on the left, and girls are on the right." Hermione informed Laya. "Come with me and I think I can show you your bed. We will be staying in the sixth year's dorm." The two boys headed for the boy's dorm, and the girls to the girl's dorm.
Laya and Hermione walked slowly up the stairs to the sixth year's dorm. "Do you think it will be difficult to learn all seven years in one?" Laya asked.
"For you? Possibly. But us three will be doing nothing but help you through it. I think it will be around fourth quarter when we all have to struggle together." Hermione replied. "But personally I think I will take any spare time I have and read ahead and work with the other sixth years to get a head start on this year." She shot Laya a cold look.
"And I'll see if I can get ahead on the speed training with Harry and Ron's help." Laya tried to offer, feeling somewhat offended by Hermione's reaction.
"You'll be lucky if they give you five minutes." Hermione shot back. "They'd rather sit back and watch a quidditch game than help you get ahead."
"quidditch?"
"Oh, read a book!" Hermione said loudly. "You sleep there." She pointed to the bed next to the one she was opening her trunk on.
"My bag is here! I don't recall arranging for someone to bring it up here!" Laya gasped, surprised.
"Magic." Hermione grumbled from under her pillow. She was soon asleep.
Laya stay awake for a long time. She couldn't get over what had happened over a short period of time. She left to find her father, and now she was in a school of magic. Maybe he is a wizard! she thought. Maybe if I spend one year in this school, I will be able to find him. And when I do he will be proud of me for learning all about magic. She thought about what he must look like, and how he would react when he found out she had become a witch and gone to school, and graduated a year before most of the other students her age had.