Sarah wasn't sure what the Goblin King had planned. He showed up unannounced, as he normally did, for reasons Sarah was certain she would never understand. This time she was in her backyard reading one of the Harry Potter books, under her favorite tree. She was guilty of not being interested in them before, and never really thought to read them. Even after all the books had been out, or bother to watch any of the movies. Even though the franchise was complete. She of course knew some of the major spoilers already, and decided even with that knowledge, that she was ready to invest her time into reading them all. Summer had just started and Sarah decided to use that time to tend to her small backyard, which had a beautiful tree in center of it, and read.
When the King appeared Sarah took no notice of him as she read. She had just started to read the fourth installment in the series and would not be bothered by the Goblin King. Somehow, within the first fifteen minutes the King went from annoyed to enraged.
Sarah couldn't remember the exact wording of their argument, only that he had demanded she put the book down and be respectful to her guest. Sarah retorted that a guest should never come unannounced, and the argument escalated to the point where Jareth stated that if she enjoyed the story so much more than his company, perhaps she would fare better there.
She hadn't a clue what he meant and only remembered that he produced a crystal, seeing flashes of light, and glitter, so much glitter.
Sarah awoke sometime later leaning against the tree. Her head ached and she moved the book off of her lap, and slowly stood using the tree as support. She closed her eyes trying to fight off the headache. When she felt she was stable enough, she moved to step away only to feel fabric brushing against her legs.
"Odd," Sarah thought to herself, "I could've sworn I was wearing pants." Instead she wore a odd dress, or gown, of black. Feeling frustrated she called out to the Gobiln King, only to receive no replay, she even called for her friends with a similar response as the King, and when she became desperate she made a wish; that too was responded with silence.
Deciding to give it a rest and try to wait out the King's anger, she made her way back into her house. Only to be stunned silent by the massive castle that stood before her. She looked down at her book to see that her Goblet of Fire book had been replaced with Advanced Potion-Making by Libatius Borage. To say Sarah was confused was a gross understatement. Regardless she pulled up her dress thing, and made her way to the imposing castle, only to feel the weight of something in one of the pockets. Sarah stopped to see what it was that was being concealed and pulled out a long intricately carved stick.
"Not a stick," Sarah thought to herself, as she turned it this way and that, examining it, "a wand, my wand." Her thought finished. Suddenly she remembered being a young girl it was a gift before she started school, going to the best wand maker in the world, her father told her. Ollivander helped her that day, 12 1/4" English Oak, with a dragon heartsrting core, and unbending flexibility.
Sarah pocketed her wand shaking the thought away. Instead she thought of all the ways she could harm the Goblin King the next time she saw him.
She looked back up at the castle as she got closer. Sarah didn't study at Hogwarts, she was almost homeschooled, but persuaded her father to let her attend Ilvermorny. Once again Sarah shook her head, trying to rid the ridiculous thoughts from her mind. Mumbling to herself, she walked into the school, determined to figure out exactly what was going on.
Upon stepping inside the castle she was overwhelmed by the sheer grandness of it. She had not ventured far in when a bushy haired girl ran up to her.
"Professor Kingsley, would you mind if I go over this with you. I know it's not your office hours, but it will really take only a moment and I was hoping to have this draft corrected by this evening, and I would appreciate it if..." The girl continued to talk, and all Sarah heard was herself being called Professor Kingsley, and it was then another memory came to mind. She was Sarah Kingsley, born to a prestigious wizard family in America. Technically she was not a Professor per se, but she was hired on as a tutor the beginning of the prior year. She had no house to claim finding it best that the students take her authority as an outside source with no bias, even if she had slipped the sorting hat on with only Dumbledore and Mcgonagall present to be surprisingly sorted into-
"Wait what potion are you writing about again Miss Granger?" Sarah's musings having been interrupted by the student in front of her.
"Hiccoughing solution." Granger responded.
"Is not that a N.E.W.T level potion Miss Granger?" Sarah questioned, Miss Granger responded only with a nod of her head.
"I am trying to catch up on my studying Professor with the tournament and other schools arriving, I fear I won't have as much free time." Hermione Granger replied.
"I believe that the problem has to do with the number of times you stir in each direction, you have them out of order." Sarah replied easily, it was almost amusing to watch the girls eyes widen at the sudden recognition of her mistake.
"I can't believe, I mean how did I miss that? No wonder my calculations were off. Thank you Professor." The girl all but shouted as she speed off down the hallway. Sarah bit her lip, trying to figure out how she knew all that information when the rumble of a voice spoke behind her.
"How do you expect the students to learn if you give them the answers, Miss Kingsley?" The question came out as a statement and Sarah couldn't help the smile that crept onto her lips as she turned.
"Haven't I told you on multiple occasions to call me Sarah, and what answer was that Severus? I just told her there was a mistake in the stirs but I did not specify the exact ones that were out of order." Sarah retorted. Severus sneered, as he looked down the hallway.
"If you ask me Kingsley, she's an insufferable know it all." He stated completely ignoring her request to use her given name, causing the smile to widen on her face.
"It's a good thing I didn't ask your opinion Severus, I don't care for it most times anyways." Sarah replied teasingly before crossing her arms in front of her. "Besides I like the Gryffindor, she reminds me of myself at that age." Sarah said proudly.
"You were once a bushy haired troll?" He deadpanned.
"Perhaps," she said giving him a look which he merely rolled his eyes at. "I meant the fact that I always had something to prove. You know my father almost didn't allow me to attend school? I remember he said 'Darling it's an institution, they can teach you nothing compared to the instructors I can get you.' I told him if he decided to keep me home, I would go to my grandfather and demand a letter be sent to Drumstrang accepting their invitation. Drumstrang is Grandfather's alma mater you see, father wasn't too keen on me being so far from home. Still nothing is good enough for father, so here I am taking a position he detests to prove a point." Severus looked at her with an expressionless face. "I happen to like it here all things considering. It could be worse you know Severus, we could have secret admirers and love notes, I heard from Minerva that a couple years back there was such a fuss over a Gilderoy Lockhart, count your stars you don't have that kind of attention, wouldn't you agree Severus?" Sarah batted her eyes at him only to get a scowl as a response, before he turned with a flourish of his cape and walked away.
Sarah laughed at this she always had a way of changing the subject to get some sort of reaction from the Potioneer.
She nodded to herself, if she was going to be stuck here for some time, than having these memories should work to her advantage. Now if she could just figure out where exactly she needed to be, and what she needed to be doing. Why did random memories about insignificant things come to mind instead of important ones, such as where her quarters were, what her exact job title was, and most importantly, where could she find a toilet?
A/N: I'm thinking of calling the next string of 'chapters' the Hogwarts Saga. I originally planned to have 3 of them in all, but then they snowballed into more. In any case it could very well be it's own separate story, but I don't plan on it going that far.
I decided to keep these as one shots, as each 'chapter' could be read as stand alone. If you would prefer to read them as a set then you can do so by reading Sarah and the Wizarding World.
Also Happy Readings.