Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I don't receive any money or any other compensation from writing this.
Prologue
"White. Very white. Blindingly so."
Great. Now I'm talking to myself.
"I'm an outcast in life, and now I'm an outcast in death."
"Who says you're dead?" a man's voice sounds all around me.
Ok, I'm not scared-or at least, I won't show that I am. This is just a bit freaky. I look down at my shoes,
relieved that I'm still wearing my favorite outfit-blue shirt, black cargo pants with zippers everywhere, and black steel-toed boots. Addressing the ceiling, I reply sarcastically, "Well, I've heard about and read about people getting struck by lightening and living, but I'm not that lucky so I doubt that's what happened to me. Therefore, I'm dead."
Complete silence-not even my voice echoes. Why didn't I notice that before?
Suddenly, a woman's voice sounds out of the nothing, startling me.
"Got a bit of a smart mouth, doesn't she?"
A different male voice agrees. "Yes, but can you blame her? This must be a shock. If she's read about things like that, she must like learning."
The first voice responds. "Yeah, but muggles learn about different things then we did. And I've been looking over her file-she won't participate in class, even when called on, but gets 100 on all her tests and quizzes. Frustrates her teachers to no end."
"What!" the woman screeched. "Would you rather people think you're stupid?"
"Don't call her stupid!"
"I didn't call her stupid!"
"Yes, you did."
"No-what I said was 'Would you rather people think you're stupid', not you're stupid. You never did listen to me, even when I was obviously right."
At this point, I decided they (whoever they were) were going to be at it for a while and sat on the floor. This has got to be some weird whacked out dream if I'm not dead. I unzipped my backpack, pulled out my walkman and cd case and chose a cd. I think some Nine Inch Nails sounds good about now. Which song would perk me up? Ah ha! I know!
Meanwhile, the bickering continued.
"Red, I think..." the second male voice says uneasily.
The other two continue, oblivious to anyone else.
"Oh, you were not always right."
"Really?"
"Really."
"Name one time when i was obviously wrong."
"Wormtail."
"Wormtail was not my idea!"
"Guys, I think it's not..." the other voice says, sounding peeved.
"Oh yes he was! Prongs was going to have me be secret keeper, but you said no, Peter would be a better choice, because everyone knows how close we were!"
"I thought he was yours and James..."
"Nope!" a voice boasts, "Now say it."
"Say what?" the woman says exasperatingly.
"Don't be a prude, just say it-Padfoot was right, and I was wrong."
"Are you serious?"
"Now that you mention it, yes, I am!"
"That is getting a bit old, and I am not saying that, that ridiculous-thing! Besides, I don't remember exactly what was said to whom that long ago."
"Oh, now isn't that convenient?"
"HEY! YOU WERE BOTH WRONG! Now can we please get back to the matter at hand?"
A man materializes a few feet behind the girl, and another man and woman quickly follow.
"As you can see, we've lost the girl's attention."
They watch as the girl starts nodding her head to the music, finally getting up and dancing.
Then she started singing.
I got my head but my head is unraveling
cant keep control can't keep track of where it's traveling
I got my heart but my heart's no good
you're the only one that's understood
I come along but I don't know where you're taking me
I shouldn't go but you're wrenching dragging shaking me
turn off the sun pull the stars from the sky
the more I give to you the more I die
and I want you
and I want you
and I want you
and I want you
you are the perfect drug
the perfect drug
the perfect drug
the perfect drug
you make me hard when I'm all soft inside
I see the truth when I'm all stupid-eyed
the arrow goes straight through my heart
without you everything just falls apart
my blood just wants to say hello to you
my fear is warm to get inside of you
my soul is so afraid to realize
how every little bit is left of me
Out of the corner of my eye I realized that I was no longer alone. 2 dark haired men and a red-headed woman stood there, not much older then I was, looking at me strangely. Feeling a bit embarrassed, I shut off my music.
"What? You've never heard of Nine Inch Nails?"
The taller man asks, "What would you need nails that long for?"
My eyes rolled at this. "They aren't actually nails-it's a band. Never mind. You done fighting yet so I can find out what's going on?"
The woman turns to the man wearing glasses.
"Are you sure she's the one?"
"She was chosen for a reason. Give her a chance."
"Um...who chose me for what?"
The man with glasses starts speaking to me.
"We need to ask a few questions. Tell me-has anything unusual ever happened when you were very angry? Glasses or windows breaking or anything of that sort?"
What kind of question was that?
"Uh, no, but I was really pissed off at this one guy once for taking my backpack and his nose started gushing blood and he got really bad stomach cramps until he dropped my bag."
"Ever find yourself in a panic and be in one place one minute, and somewhere else the next?"
"Yeah, so I've got a problem with blacking out at inconvenient times! Who told you that?"
"Dream about something and it comes true?"
"This is just stupid. Why don't you just tell me what the hell is going on?"
Three sets of eyebrows shot up.
The long haired guy spoke up.
"Well, I guess the little bird here wants us to get to the point. Ok-here it goes."
He clears his throat, and puts a big grin on his face.
"Welcome to your new life! Comes equipped with a new school, new friend, new subjects, excellent food served by house elves, and best of all-magic! That's right-I said magic! Sure, there's an insane freak of a dark lord trying to destroy everyone who doesn't bow down to him, but you get the opportunity-no, the privilege-of helping the savior of the wizarding world!
He paused for a moment.
"By the way, how do you feel about green eyes?"
I just stare at him.
The other man and woman look at him like he's grown a second head.
"Where the bloody hell did that come from?" asks the man.
Proudly straightening his shirt, Padfoot says, "Saw it on the telly once on something called a game show! The audience got excited when the man started talking like that, and I thought she might take the news better that way."
I interrupted.
"Am I in a coma and on some hallucinogenics?"
This is too strange-even for me.
The woman steps forward and puts her arm around my shoulders.
"Come with me. I'll explain everything inside. Then we can start training"
"Inside what?"
A modest looking white cottage appears in from of us about 30 feet away, complete with a white picket fence.
"Our home. Well, James and I live here. Sirius lives next door-I couldn't live in the same house as those two. Anyway, come in and we'll have a chat over a cup of tea."
"Got any hot chocolate? I don't really like tea."
"Of course. Probably better then the tea at the moment, all things considered. Had quite a shock today, after all. By the way, my name is Lily."
"Bethany. Pleasure to meet you."