This is my new story, the Marauders at Hogwarts with a special OC, Riley.

What Now is a Witch

Riley Stevens sat on the couch, flipping through the channels with the remote pointed at the TV. Channel after channel provided nothing interesting worth giving attention to. Her mom and dad were upstairs, taking a nap, and Buster(the dog) was napping as well on the floor next to Riley's feet. The doorbell suddenly rang, and Hannah muted the volume on the TV and went to answer the door. She opened it, and there stood an old man in long blue robes and a pointed hat.

"Are you Miss Riley Stevens?" he asked. Riley nodded slowly, not daring to speak, because if she did, she feared her mouth would drop open.

"I am Professor Dumbledore. Could I come in?" asked the man. Riley took in a breath, willed herself to stop being shocked by the weird guy at her door, and answered.

"Yeah, sure," Riley replied in no more than a whisper. Now she was afraid if she talked she would either start laughing or screaming. Dumbledore followed her into the living room, and he sat on a chair opposite the couch, where she retook her earlier seat.

"Who are you?" she asked, looking into his startlingly blue eyes.

"Like I said, I am Professor Dumbledore. I am the headmaster of a school called Hogwarts," he said.

"I've never heard of a Hogwarts," Riley said. The professor smiled.

"That is because you are the only one like yourself in your family," Dumbledore replied.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Miss Stevens, you are a witch," he said.

Riley's jaw dropped. What the heck was going on?

"I am a what now?"

"That is a very good question, Miss Stevens. I suppose I should define the 'what now' as the term for a girl of magical powers. You would be one," he said calmly.

"There's no such thing as magic," Riley said. Dumbledore shook his head.

"Yes, indeed there is. Would you like me to prove it to you?" Dumbledore asked. Riley's eyes widened. If he was offering to prove it to her, that meant it was real. She was really a witch. She nodded, and Dumbledore took out a stick from his pocket. He aimed it at Buster, who immediately began floating through the air, though still asleep.

"I have obviously been proven wrong, Professor," said Riley, "Let me guess, you've come to tell me that I should be a student of Hogwarts?"

"Very clever, Miss Stevens. Now, as the headmaster of this school, it is therefore my duty to show you the way to Diagon Alley and Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. Where are your parents?" asked Dumbledore.

"Upstairs, asleep. If I get them up, can we go to Diagon Alley today?" Riley questioned.

"If they agree to it," replied Dumbledore. Riley needed no approval, she dashed upstairs and woke up her parents with gentle but hyper shaking. Within ten minutes, the three people were ready to go and joined Dumbledore downstairs. He took out a little sack of something, when he opened it, Riley saw it was sand.

"Why do you have sand, Professor?" she asked, confused. What did sand have to do with going to Diagon Alley?

"It is not sand. It is Floo powder. Take some and throw it in your fireplace," said Dumbledore, gesturing towards the fireplace on the other side of the room. Riley took a handful, and watched as Dumbledore flicked his wand and flames grew out of the logs. Trying not to act too surprised and confused, Riley threw it into the fire. The flames turned green, a bright emerald green to rival the green in Riley's own eyes.

"Just step into it, and say 'the Leaky Cauldron'," instructed Dumbledore. Riley nodded, and put a cautious foot into the flames. Finding them harmless, she hopped in and spoke her destination. She was immediately swooped away from her cozy living room, into a cocoon of roaring green flames. Occasionally, she glimpsed other places as they rushed by. Or was she doing the rushing? Before she had time to think it over, she was thrust out of the fire and a large pub met her eyes. The green flames came out of the fireplace again, and Dumbledore stepped calmly out, acting like he was oblivious to Riley's mother clutching onto his arm like her life depended on it. Riley's father was holding her mother's hand, eyes wide and mouth gaping. Riley held back a laugh. This day would be interesting.

"Follow me. We would have Flooed straight into Diagon Alley, but this being your first time, I always think it exciting to view it from the archway," Dumbledore said. Riley followed him outside to a little corner. For the third time that day, Riley saw Dumbledore draw his wand, and he tapped a brick somewhere in the middle of the wall. The bricks began to move aside, until a beautiful and amazing alley came into view.

"Welcome to Diagon Alley, and, quite frankly, the Wizarding World, Miss Stevens," he said.

"Thank you, Professor," Riley replied.

"Now, here is your letter, Muggleborns get theirs hand-delivered, seeing as they need a little introduction. There's a list of supplies and your train ticket in there, as well,"

"Train ticket?"

"Yes, you take the Hogwarts express from King's Cross Station, I assume you have been there?" Riley nodded. "All right, then you just enter the platform by going through the wall between platforms nine and ten. Also, it would be a wise idea to say your goodbyes outside the platform, as Muggles such as your parents can not enter and it would be unwise to try. It is, after all, a wall," Riley chuckled at the Headmaster's little joke.

"Is this it, then, Professor?" she asked.

"Yes, I'm afraid so. I shall see you at the Welcoming Feast," replied the Professor, and he turned on his heel and disappeared. Riley and her parents gaped at the spot where he vanished.

"Maybe I'll learn to do that someday," said Riley. She opened the envelope Dumbledore had given her, and pulled out a list of supplies.

An hour later found Riley and her parents outside of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor. Riley was licking a chocolate ice cream cone, while looking at her supplies list. A nice wizard had told her how to change Muggle money to wizard money, and they went to Gringotts to do so. She had gotten all of her books at Flourish and Blott's, but purchasing a few other books. Riley had gotten Hogwarts: A History by Bathilda Bagshot, A Study of Basic Potions and Ingredients by Martin Crevaskkey, and How to Hex your Neighbor by Margaret Sanhoven. Her cauldron, scales, potions ingredients, uniform, phials, and telescope were all safely tucked away in her brand-new trunk engraved with her initials and the Hogwarts crest. The only things left to get were a wand, and an owl, as her special starting-magical-school gift from her parents. In Riley's view, they were taking all of it surprisingly well.

"I'm going to go get my wand now," said Riley suddenly, standing up. Her parents looked up at her from their identical vanilla sugar cones.

"Sweetie, we'll go with you," said her mother. She made to stand up, but Riley gently pushed her down.

"I want to do this on my own," she replied, and walked down the street, but she had barely taken ten steps when she realized she didn't know which shop was a wand shop. She looked around, recognizing most of the shops, as she had been nearly everywhere. The Apothecary, Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, but no unfamiliar shops showed any signs of being a wand shop.

When in doubt, ask somebody else, thought Riley, as she spotted a man in light yellow robes. She walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, do you know where I can buy a wand?" she asked, looking into his eyes. The man smiled warmly, a twinkle in his eyes.

"Oh, yes, you'd want to go to Ollivanders, best around, right over there," replied the man, pointing a finger over to a small shop with the name in white writing near the roof. Riley thanked him, and slipped through the crowd towards the shop. She entered the building, silently thanking God there was no one else. She was nervous beyond belief, and she didn't want anyone else to see this.

"Hello?" she called to the empty room. Suddenly, a bang and a shuffle was heard from the back, and a man who slightly resembled the goblins appeared behind the desk.

"Hello, looking for a wand, are you?" he asked pleasantly.

"Yes," Riley said. The man nodded and walked around the desk to her.

"What's your name?" he asked. Riley guessed he must be Ollivander.

"Riley Stevens," she replied. He nodded again.

"What's your wand arm?" Riley answered each of Mr. Ollivander's odd questions, until he finally took a box from a shelf and pulled a long, thin wand from it.

"Try this one. 14 inches, unicorn hair, mahogany, rather firm, wave it a bit," he handed her the wand, and she gave it a small flick like she had seen Dumbledore do, but he took back the wand shaking his head. She tried another one, dragon heartstring and cherry, but just made a weird hissing sound. Riley tried about five other wands, until Ollivander handed her one with a small smile tugging at his lips.

"I think you'll like this one. Phoenix feather, willow, swishy yet firm, 12 inches," As soon as she took the wand in her hand, Riley felt a strange excitement. The wand felt pleasantly warm, and her hand tingled a bit. She waved it around, copious amounts of light issuing from the tip. Ollivander looked overjoyed.

"Excellent, excellent, that's just perfect. I think you'll find a bit of talent in Charms at Hogwarts, this one's excellent for it,"

Riley just smiled and paid the man, putting the wand in the box and stowing it in her pocket. Once she got back to her parents, she showed it to them, and they set off to Eyelops Owl Emporium. Riley had only seen pictures of owls, and was excited to get one. The shop seemed magically enlarged, as it looked much smaller outside. Owls of all kinds flew about the place, except some larger more aggressive-looking ones which sat in locked cages. One owl on a perch near the left side caught Riley's eye. A beautiful tawny owl with hazel eyes looked at her. She reached out a finger to pet it, and it closed its eyes and lowered its head, as if asking for love. Riley took the owl to the front, paid for it, and set off to one of the fireplaces outside with her parents and her owl and its new cage.

"Riley, how are we supposed to get back?" her mother began looking panicky. Riley just smiled and pulled out her letter.

"There's a bit of Floo Powder in this envelope. I think Dumbledore left it," she replied. Riley pinched the powder between her fingers, and threw it onto the fireplace. Her mother grabbed her and her father's hands, and Riley led them in, shouting Number 10 Haven Way, and they were swept back home.

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