Hey everyone! I wrote this years ago, then reworked it after the seventh HP book came out. I thought Harry Potter needed a desperate, weak-at-the-knees, can't-survive-without-you love story (and of course it HAS to be forbidden), so Ginny fans, sorry – but it's not with her. In all fairness, he's a different Harry...
And for the record, I ADORE JK Rowling, but she had to be depicted in a certain way for my story to work… well, you'll see what I mean.
Enjoy!
DISCLAIMER: Glances down Nope, still not the extremely rich JK Rowling who owns Harry Potter.
Chapter One – Knight Bus
'She without the magic of our world will be the key to victory in the Great Battle ahead.'
There are three terrible things that can happen to you to make your life a living hell:
A - you can lose your job
B - you can lose your apartment
C - you can lose your boyfriend
Now I'm generally a positive person. Who wouldn't be, if they were the youngest person in their company and one of the highest valued employees? And they shared an awesome apartment with their gorgeous boyfriend? And they were so busy and important that they only had one friend?
So you can understand that my manageability threshold is pretty high. Unfortunately, no one's threshold can withstand the three aforementioned things when they all happen within the space of fifteen minutes.
Because that's what happened to me.
It's a Saturday, 8.50am. I'm going into work for a major meeting. The 'big boss' is coming in to discuss something important with the group. I look sharp, with classy attire and an efficient hairstyle. My makeup is perfection. I want to show the 'big boss' what I'm all about.
My expensive company mobile rings at 8.54am. It's my gorgeous boyfriend. He tells me in less than forty seconds that he's sleeping with my best (and only) friend, and that I can keep the apartment if I pay him back his half of the bond money.
This is not good. This definitely has put a damper on my day. A massive betrayal of my best friend and boyfriend. Sure, I'm not totally positive I loved my boyfriend, but he was still cute, you know?
So I gather myself in the fifty-nine second ride in the elevator up to the top floor, and flick off the smudge of mascara under my eye that has formed from a threatening tear. I will not cry about such silly things, believe me. I have gone through worse than this, and come out of it a better person.
9.07am is when the worst of it hits. The twenty or so employees that have been called in for the Saturday meeting are sitting around the large oak table, wearily watching the 'big boss'. None of us like the tone in his voice. And then he breaks it to us. The company is going public. There will be layoffs. Our services are no longer required. We have two weeks to pack up our things and tidy up loose ends.
9.08am I stand up and storm furiously from the room. I have given the better part of my last year to this damn place, and I'm not going to waste another moment in the building. Of course, my reaction probably had something to do with the conversation I had 14 minutes ago, but that didn't stop me.
9.09am I walked out of the building and realised that I would not be able to buy the apartment from my ex boyfriend. I couldn't afford to live there now I didn't have my flashy job.
My spectacular life had crumbled into a mountain of debris within a quarter of an hour.
My stylish heels clicked against the pavement as I walked through the city towards the bus station. My lovely ex apartment was only five minutes from my wonderful ex job, so I had never bothered to buy a car. Of course now it would have been a great asset to have, so I could sell it and find somewhere else to rent. But now, all I had were my savings in the bank and the clothes hanging in my ex wardrobe.
To stop myself from giving a wretched sob, I jumped onto the closest bus (I had no idea where it was going) and let it take me out – out of the city, out of the ridiculous boundaries of the day and out of the sickening pile of dung that was now my life.
The bus chugged down the freeway as I attempted to gather myself. It was all I could do to stop the tears leaking from my eyes. One hour out of the city, we were zigzagging through pretty suburbs and luxury houses. Grass and flowers and trees flourished around marble buildings and limestone pavement. I took in the scenery and let the beauty soothe me. I could get myself through this. I could get myself through anything. I had grown up without parents, without a family. If anyone could deal with the three worst things happening to them in one day, it was me.
The bus pulled up at a large shopping complex – the last stop. I hopped off, feeling indescribably better than when I'd boarded.
I spent the entire day shopping.
I know this isn't the smartest move for someone who's homeless and unemployed, but I needed a pick-me-up, and retail therapy is the only way to go. Besides, I deserved it more than anyone today.
I brought shoes and outfits and coffee and make up and perfume and more coffee and a delicious gourmet lunch, maxing out my credit card in the hopes that they wouldn't be able to find me when they came to repossess it all.
It had to come eventually, however. I couldn't stop the inevitable. Slowly, lights flickered off in the shops, and shutters began to roll down. The bustling crowd thinned, and the sun began to set.
My feet were killing me, despite the fact that the first thing I had done was swap my heels for more comfortable footwear. Exhaustion hit me like a brick wall, and depression quickly followed.
I had nowhere to go.
In a moment of insanity, I thought about going to my best friend's house, but I quickly remembered that she was now my ex best friend, living with my ex boyfriend in my ex apartment. I wasn't going to stay with her.
I trudged out of the complex with my piles of shopping bags, gazing out blankly into the empty car park. The street lights flickered on as the sky glowed orange. The roar of cars along the main road was distant and ineffective. They seemed so far away from me at this moment.
I mused vaguely over the horrendous task of going to my ex apartment to collect my things. Where could I possibly keep all my material possessions, if I didn't have a home?
My despair was growing like the darkness around me, building with every passing minute. I stood in that space for I don't know how long. Behind me was the once-cheerful shopping centre that had harboured me during the toughest day of my life, now cold and desolate. In front of me was the vast, silent parking lot, disappearing into the twilight. I felt frozen in time, though the day continued around me. I wished it would stop; become frozen with me. I didn't want to continue this way.
Honestly, honestly, what was I going to do?
I wished desperately that this was all a bad dream, that I would wake up tomorrow in my soft, warm double bed in the arms of my handsome boyfriend.
A cold wind picked up and bit at my skin. There was no way a dream felt this icy.
The tears from that morning burnt threateningly behind my eyelids, but before my breakdown could really get going, a purple double-decker bus chugged around the corner and stopped at the pedestrian crossing right in front of me.
I blinked, surprised, as the doors groaned open to reveal a shaggy man behind the wheel.
'Need a ride?' he grinned down at me.
'Er,' I replied out of lack of things to say.
'Hop in,' the man encouraged. 'I'll take you where you need to go.'
'Er,' I said again.
I wasn't stupid. There were plenty of things wrong with this scenario. Why didn't this bus driver have a proper route? Why did he assume his bus was going in the same direction as 'home', wherever that was?
'I'm not gonna hurt you,' the man assured me.
That was one thing I wasn't afraid of. I knew how to look after myself, and grown men did not scare me. I prided myself on being particularly courageous. This in mind, I climbed up the steps and boarded the bus.
I was surprised to find cosy armchairs in the place of seats, with a large brown box on the left side that looked like a vending machine. I paused in the aisle.
'New government proposal,' the shaggy bus driver explained when he noticed my hesitation.
'Impressive,' I said, raising my eyebrows.
The only other passenger was a tired-looking man at the back of the bus, by the staircase. He had his chin in his palm and was staring absently out of the window. I noticed he kept one hand in his shabby coat, and wondered if he was carrying a weapon.
Deciding to stay well away from this man, I hauled my shopping bags into the armchair closest to the driver and settled down comfortably.
'Can I offer you a hot drink?' the driver asked, twisting in his seat to look at me.
'Another government proposal?' I asked wearily.
'Absolutely,' the man grinned broadly.
I had expected his teeth to be yellowed and old, but they were actually white and healthy. This struck me as rather strange, but the entire past two minutes had been pretty bizarre.
'Public transport is something the government will be focussing on in the next election,' the driver explained, getting to his feet and heading down to the vending machine. He pressed a few buttons and the machine shuddered.
'Coffee?' he inquired.
'Definitely,' I replied.
'Milk? Sugar?' the driver inquired, his finger on another button.
'No thanks,' I said, and the man brought me a paper cup with a very delicious-looking liquid inside. 'Wow,' I said as the aroma reached my nostrils and I took a sip, 'not bad for instant.'
The driver looked pleased, and perched himself back on his seat in front of the wheel. 'We'll just drop this other passenger off then I'll take you home,' he said as the doors hissed closed.
There were many obvious problems with what was happening, but I simply didn't care. My life was down the drain, and the extra part of the journey would give me time to figure out what to do with myself. So far, my plan was to go to the cheapest hotel in the city and find a new job before my money ran out. However, if a new plan was to come to me during the bus ride, I'd be happy to consider the alternative.
The bus lurched forward, and I grabbed hold of my shopping bags to keep them from flying everywhere while still clutching my coffee. I took another sip, but suddenly sleepiness was gripping at my mind. My eyelids felt as though they had heavy coins on them, and drooped threateningly. I had an unpleasant idea that there was something wrong with the coffee.
I could have sworn I heard a loud bang, as though part of the bus had exploded, but I was asleep before I could check.
'We've made it.'
'We definitely haven't been followed?'
'Not to my knowledge.'
I slowly drifted back into consciousness as two male voices punctured the silence.
'Excellent, she's waking up. Excuse me, miss? Hello?'
I stirred and opened my eyes, jumping in panic when I saw the shaggy driver and the tired passenger smiling down at me.
'I must've fallen asleep,' I said in shock, glancing around to make sure all my shopping bags were still with me. I caught sight of the scenery around me and frowned. Grassy hills and mountains stretched out as far as I could see on either side of the bus. There was certainly nothing like this anywhere near the city. And… it was still light. How long had I been asleep?
'Where are we?' I asked.
'Home,' the shaggy man grinned.
And that's when I caught sight of the castle in front of the bus.
I sat up abruptly in my seat, clutching at the armchair's fabric.
'Oh my god, where have you taken me? Where is this? What do you want with me?'
'Now calm down missy, it's alright,' the tired passenger smiled. 'We're not going to hurt you.'
'This is a university,' the shaggy driver explained. 'We'd like to show you around.'
I glared up at the two men, completely unconvinced.
'Take me back,' I demanded.
'I'm afraid I can't do that,' the shaggy driver said, and I shivered.
What on earth were these men going to do with me?
'Do you really want to go home?' the passenger inquired. 'I hear you were in a bit of a rough situation back there.'
'How do you know that?' I asked suspiciously.
'Everything will be explained to you if you just come inside with us,' the driver promised.
'Do you think I'm stupid enough to fall for that?' I said angrily.
'Look, we can take you back,' the passenger said patiently. 'But what have you got back there? Really? So you can choose to go home to nothing, or come inside and find out what this university has to offer.'
I peered out of the front windscreen. Giant iron gates rose up before the bus, clamped together by an oversized padlock. A wide driveway wound up an incline, leading up to the castle, which stood magnificently on the crest of the hill.
'I want you to know that I could kick both your asses if you try anything,' I warned, getting out of the armchair and starting down the aisle with my shopping.
I caught the driver and the passenger exchange grins as I thumped down the steps.
'Oh thank god, oh thank god.'
I turned to the new voice as I reached the ground and saw an old man with large glasses hurrying up to me.
'Is she alright?' he asked as the two men disembarked behind me. 'Is she hurt?'
I glanced down at my body in surprise, wondering why this strange old man was worried about me.
'She's fine,' the driver assured the old man. 'I got her back in one piece. I took her for a few burns down some back roads so she could let off some steam.'
It took me a few more confused moments to realise that 'she' was actually the bus. The old man hastened around the double-decker, checking the sides and the windows. The shaggy driver held up the bus keys, dangling them in front of the old man's face as he rushed up to them. The old man snatched the keys from him and made a face.
'I hate the thought she's been with someone else. I wouldn't have let you use her at all! If it wasn't for Du–'
'Hush!' the driver said sharply, flicking his eyes towards me.
The old man shook his head and thudded up the bus steps.
'I'm taking her back, if you've finished with her.'
He didn't wait for a reply as the doors hissed closed and the bus chugged away. I watched it follow the slope down towards a little village in the distance.
'Shall we?' the driver smiled to me.
I turned just in time to see something silvery dash up the driveway towards the castle and the passenger shove something hastily into his shabby coat.
Instead of asking, I merely pretended that I hadn't seen anything. To be perfectly honest, something seemed bizarrely familiar about all this.
'Who are you?' I asked.
They didn't get a chance to reply before the padlock clicked and the gates creaked open.
'Automated service,' the passenger said quickly at my surprised expression. 'Come on, follow us.'
I hesitated for a moment at the very threshold of the gates, and the men stopped to wait for me. I didn't have to go inside. I could still go home and fix my life. Well, what was left of my life…
The more I thought about what was waiting for me at home, the more desperate I became to leave it all behind. I could be dead right now, actually. I could have been shot outside the shopping centre, and this was actually the afterlife.
I know this sounds awfully stupid, but it was the best explanation for the otherwise unexplainable circumstances.
Even if it wasn't the case, I knew I had nothing to return to. They could be crazy, they could be murderous, they could make my life hell, but I was going to follow these men and see where life (or the afterlife) was taking me.
Inhaling slowly and deeply, I stepped inside the parameters and heard the gate clang closed behind me. I refused to look back.
It took twenty minutes to climb the hill, but I was fit and exhilarated by my bold choice. It was strange, really, but the further I walked, the sharper my mind seemed to be. I knew things, silly things that didn't make any sense. For example, I knew that these two men would not hurt me. In fact, for some reason, I knew I could trust these two with my life.
The last part of the journey was a set of steps leading up to the entrance of the castle, and I climbed them with ease. My daily jogging routine had finally paid off.
The oak door swung open and an elderly man stepped out, wearing some sort of midnight blue dressing gown and nightcap. His silver beard and half-moon spectacles sparked a memory within me, but I dismissed it immediately.
'Ah at last!' he beamed through spectacles, clasping his hands together. 'I trust your trip was… uneventful?'
'It was fine,' the driver nodded meaningfully. 'We're clear.'
'Excellent excellent,' the old man smiled. 'Now young lady, I'm sure you have many questions, but please just come inside and have something to eat. It's dinner in your time zone.'
I frowned. That definitely didn't sound right.
'Wait… what?'
'Come come,' the old man insisted, placing a hand on my back and gently ushering me inside the castle.
I walked through the entrance, craning my neck to see the domed roof above me. 'What the hell's going on?' I wondered silently. I skidded to a stop as my brain suddenly seemed to convulse. Everything suddenly seemed familiar, as if I had seen it all before. It wasn't a memory – more like a déjà vu.
The three men froze in their tracks, their eyes glued to me.
'Are you ok?' the passenger asked worriedly.
'Uh… yeah,' I said carefully to avoid concern.
Something, like an instinct, or a strange knowledge was telling me to keep silent, and I trusted it.
We continued into an enormous dining area with four tables running the length of the room and it hit me abruptly. I suddenly knew where we were. Hogwarts… from Harry Potter.
The moment the ridiculous thought entered my brain, I flushed, embarrassed. This was the stupidest thing that had ever happened to me. How could I be in an imaginary place? I hated the idea with every fibre of my being, but I couldn't dismiss the thought. I shook my head, trying to clear the notion. I refused to believe it, refused.
'Have a seat,' the old man urged, gesturing towards a chair by the far right table.
A hot meal sat waiting patiently for me. My stomach growled as the smell of roast chicken and potato wafted tantalisingly around me. I remembered that I hadn't eaten anything for at least six hours and decided that even if these crazy people had poisoned my food, I didn't care. I plonked myself down on the wooden seat, shoving my shopping bags under the table and shovelling food down my throat while the men whispered in low voices to each other in the corner of the room.
My eyes kept flicking up to the three. The driver was Sirius Black. The passenger was Remus Lupin. The old man was…
I reached for the cup in front of me and drained the sweet-tasting juice to hide my humiliation. I wanted to stop these stupid thoughts from running through my brain.
When I had finished my meal, the men stopped their secret conversation and sat with me at the table.
'Now,' the old man said carefully, his grey eyes intently piercing into me. 'I'm sure you'd like an explanation.'
'Yes please,' I said, but part of me was resisting. If this man started saying all the things I had been pushing to the back of my mind, I was going to run for it.
The old man nodded before gesturing to the castle. 'This is a university. We are stationed in Britain. You've come a long way.' I pursed my lips but did not reply. The old man paused, his gaze never leaving me. 'Would you like to add something?'
I shook my head, not daring to let myself speak. My stupid thoughts might escape my mouth, and I didn't want to be thrown into an asylum.
'Do you know who we are?' Sirius Black – no, no, the shaggy bus driver – asked.
'I'm crazy,' I blurted out in desperation. I knew I was crazy. I knew it.
'I think she knows,' Remus Lupin – NO – the passenger said.
'I hope she knows,' the old man said, still staring at me. 'It would be a lot easier than trying to explain everything.'
'I'm out of here,' I said, standing sharply and almost running through the hall.
'We need you,' the old man called out after me in a booming voice, and something inside me knew he was telling the truth.
I slowed by the entrance and turned back to him. 'I,' I puffed, 'am not insane!'
'We know,' the old man said gently. 'Please let us explain everything to you.' He nodded towards my recently-vacated chair, and I hesitated before walking unsteadily back to it. Even if I had been able to escape, I had no way of getting home. I sat myself down, hiding my trembling hands under the table.
'Have you read Harry Potter?' the old man inquired very carefully, as though well aware how I was going to react.
I cringed and whimpered inaudibly. I didn't want to be hearing this. It had to be a dream. I was in a coma, or unconscious in the purple bus. Maybe the driver had drugged me, and I was still asleep.
Swallowing hard and squeezing my eyes shut, I nodded. I drew a deep breath before daring to open my eyes again. The old man leaned forward, his spectacles sliding slightly down his crooked nose.
'Do you believe in magic?'
I shook my head determinedly. 'No. No.'
The stupid, know-it-all part of me that had appeared when I walked through the gates was telling me otherwise. 'Yes,' it sung, 'magic is real and you're in Hogwarts and you're not even crazy!'
I hated that part of me.
The old man sighed and sat back in his chair, surveying me over the temple made from his fingers.
'What is your name?' he asked quietly.
Even the know-it-all part of me knew how to answer the question.
'Emma.'
The old man paused for a moment before continuing. The passenger and the driver seated opposite me remained silent.
'Well Emma, it's time you began believing in magic. You're living in it.' I didn't respond. I didn't know how to. The old man leaned forward again. 'Don't fight it. Let it flow through you, let it be a part of you.'
I gritted my teeth. I knew what he was talking about. The know-it-all voice inside of me.
Well I wasn't going to let it control me. I was going to suppress it with every ounce of strength I had. There was no way I was going to end up in a nut house.
To my surprise, the passenger (NOT Remus Lupin) reached out and touched my hand.
'We're real,' he said gently. 'Magic is real. Wizards and witches and Hogwarts and Harry…'
'So you're telling me,' I said suspiciously, 'that the Harry Potter books are real?'
'A witch wanted to make quite a lot of money from Harry's story,' the old man explained quietly. 'She exposed our world in the process.'
The driver (NOT Sirius Black) snorted. 'She sold out big time. A lot of things in the book are off. I've raised Harry since his parents were killed. Rowling wanted to start him off in a muggle family so muggles could enjoy the book. You know, it was a selling point. Plus, Hogwarts is a university, not a school.'
'The books began going awry when the war started and she stopped being able to worm information out of people,' the old man said. 'She started making a lot more things up. It was a tough task to destroy the horocruxes when she spilled that big secret, but we succeeded.'
I stared resolutely at a spot above the old man's right shoulder. This was not happening. I was not hearing this nonsense. Even as I thought it, the stupid part of me told me it was all true.
'Now, as the true prophecy says, Harry will face Voldermort during his twenty-fourth year on earth,' the old man finished.
'What have I got to do with this?' I asked sharply. I simply did not see where I fit into the picture.
'Ah!' the old man exclaimed triumphantly. 'This is the intriguing part. Another prophecy was made several months ago. A prophecy about a certain muggle being the key to Harry's victory.'
'Excuse me?' I demanded. The three men all grinned at me. This was utter absurdity. I had had enough. Standing again, I spun on my heel and walked straight into a hard wall.
'Oof!' I gasped, stumbled back. My chair toppled over as my legs banged into it.
The moment I gained my bearings, I glanced up.
There he was.
I knew it the moment I saw him, and it had nothing to do with his black hair and green eyes. And even though he looked older and did not have glasses, I was not mistaken.
'Harry Potter,' I said as the air whooshed from my lungs.
'Who are you?' he demanded, glaring at me suspiciously. He glanced at the other men. 'Who is she?'
I didn't hear the next part of the conversation, because my head was buzzing in astonishment. How was this happening? I covered my face with my hands tried to resist hyperventilating.
'I am asleep,' I muttered under my breath. 'I am fast asleep and dreaming –'
'Are you serious?'
The boy's… Harry's… shouting made my head jerk up. I glanced towards the table as Harry's face filled with fury.
'This muggle girl is the key to destroying Voldermort? You're all out of your minds!'
'I'm perfectly capable,' I snapped, despite myself.
'You're having me on,' Harry said with a wry smile. 'A second ago you were having an anxiety attack.'
I folded my arms calmly. This was it. The solution to getting a grip. An insult to my nature was the driving force to excel. Suddenly I was back in the office, being told by an executive that I couldn't get a client.
'I can do anything I need to,' I said, staring him down with an unwavering gaze.
Harry glared at the men at the table and shook his head. 'This is stupid. I don't need some little girl 'protecting' me. I'll do just fine on my own. Send her back to her own people.' And with that, he stormed away in fury.
I turned to the men, unable to help it as my eyebrows flew up in surprise. 'Did… he just have a temper tantrum?'
I had done it. I was in control. I was determined to prove I could handle this, even if just to show up that jerk of a boy.
'He didn't exactly grow up to be the modest hero Rowling made him out to be,' the passenger – Remus Lupin – admitted with an apologetic shrug. 'He's been living with fame his entire life…'
'Not to mention having the prophecy on his back,' the driver – Sirius Black – added defensively. 'Give the kid a break.'
'You've been giving him a break his whole life,' Remus argued. 'Maybe that's why he is the way he is.'
'Maybe that's why Emma's here,' Sirius grinned. 'To set him straight.'
'Well whatever the reason, we would like you to stay for the time being and see what little secrets this prophecy holds,' the old man smiled. Who was I kidding? The old man was Dumbledore. I was even surprised to find myself glad that he didn't really die.
I suddenly hesitated. 'You want me to stay here?' I asked.
'The remanets of your old life has been taken care of,' Dumbledore assured me.
He did not elaborate, and I felt that I did not need to know, at least for the time being.
Remus showed me around some of the castle, but it was so enormous that I knew I'd probably get lost.
'So do you work here?' I inquired casually as we passed a particularly large painting.
I was sure I saw something in the picture move out of the corner of my eye, but I couldn't bring myself to look. I kept my eyes on the length of the corridors, occasionally glancing at rooms that Remus pointed out.
'I teach advanced Defence Against the Dark Arts classes,' Remus told me.
'You resigned in the Harry Potter books,' I remembered. 'Because you're a… uh…'
I didn't want to finish the sentence.
'I take a potion to keep me from turning,' Remus shrugged casually, as if it was no big deal that he was a werewolf. 'I'm not a threat to any of the students here.'
'Where are all the students?'
'The new year doesn't start until Monday. The students arrive tomorrow.'
I felt a particularly large lump form in my throat.
'Tomorrow? There's going to be hundreds of magical students here… tomorrow?'
'Absolutely,' Remus grinned. 'I don't know what Dumbledore's planning to do with you.'
'He's going to let her go to classes like a normal student.'
I stopped as Harry Potter (oh jeez, that sounded so weird) stepped out from behind the corner.
'How do you know?' Remus inquired.
'Dumbledore told me,' Harry said, his eyes fixed on me. 'He said she will take all the classes I'm doing.'
'And you agreed to this?' I asked warily. 'I thought you didn't need a girl protecting you?'
'I want to find out if you can really live up to this 'secret weapon' prophecy,' Harry said. 'If you can't, I'm shipping you back to wherever you came from.'
'You're so nice.'
'Oh no,' Remus groaned. 'This is going to be painful, I can tell already.'
'I'm just careful,' Harry pointed out. 'I don't need anyone trying to 'help'. I don't trust her. This could be all Voldermort's doing."
'Oh, you caught me,' I drawled. 'I'm Voldermort's agent; we cooked the whole plan up this morning.'
'You think you're funny?'
'Got more of a sense of humour than you –'
'Oh for the love of God, stop it or I'm putting the Silencing Charm on both of you.'
I turned to Remus, who was rubbing his eyes with his forefinger and his thumb.
'Are you ok?' Harry asked, concern flickering across his face.
I immediately saw why he was worried. Remus's skin had an odd grey tint, and his fingernails suddenly looked a lot sharper. A few moments later, Remus let out a sigh and withdrew his hands from his face, looking completely normal again. I wondered if it had just been my imagination.
'Yeah,' he said breathlessly. 'I'm alright. I just feel a little stressed. This year's going to be hard on all of us.'
Although his expression was convincing, I couldn't shake the discomfort in the back of my mind. Something had just happened to Remus, something that wasn't supposed to happen.
'Alright Emma,' Remus said. 'I'll take you to the Fourth Year common room. Professor McGonagall is waiting for you. Harry, go back to Dumbledore and we'll figure out how we're going to work this.'
Remus started to turn, then hesitated. 'I think I need some water. I'll be right back.'
He disappeared around a corner and I took the opportunity to turn to Harry. 'I think something's wrong with him –'
'What would you know?' Harry snapped. He stalked away in the opposite direction to Remus. I waited alone, feeling incredibly uncomfortable. A figure in the painting to the side of me moved, and I squeezed my eyes shut tightly.
'I am ok,' I whispered to myself. 'It's just like the books. I am going to deal with this.'
'Are you talking to yourself kid?'
I jumped and opened my eyes, whimpering when I saw a woman in a painting staring down at me. The slender lady was adorned in a purple gown and a fruit hat, surrounded by grapes and apples. I was unable to control my legs as I stumbled backwards against the far wall.
'Yikes, what's the deal hon?' the painting woman laughed.
'Can I help you?'
The raspy voice came from my left, and I turned to find a fat old man in the painting next to me. I scrambled sideways, away from the man, knocking another frame.
'Hey, watch it!' a boy yelled in the swinging picture, grabbing on to a tree to keep his balance.
'Oh my god, what have I gotten myself into?' I moaned, sprinting down the corridor after Remus.
Suddenly everything changed. My mind felt sharp, like glass, and the sound of rushing water thundered in my ears. I skidded to a stop as strange flashes of images ran across my mind. There was a man with a curtain of black hair by a large pot… Green smoke was spewing out of the pot in waves… the man was coughing…
I shook my head violently to clear my mind.
'Emma? Are you ok?'
My mind returned to my surroundings, and I found Remus standing in front of me.
'What happened?' he asked in concern. 'You looked a little out of it.'
'I saw something…' I started slowly, then I shook my head. 'Never mind.'
Remus smiled kindly. 'Don't be afraid. You're in the magic world now. It's a different realm. Strange things are allowed to happen.'
I didn't reply, but Remus prodded further. 'What did you see?'
I hesitated, but I felt like I could trust the person before me. 'I saw… a… man and… I think it was a cauldron.' I cringed slightly. 'You have cauldrons in this world… don't you?'
'Yes,' Remus promised. 'What did the man look like?'
'Tall… uh… skinny. I didn't get a good look. It went by so quickly.'
'Did he have black hair?'
I nodded numbly, feeling my face grow warm. I couldn't believe anyone could take me seriously.
'Hmm,' Remus said slowly. 'It sounds like Professor Snape. He works with cauldrons. But you haven't even met him yet.'
I started to feel anxious. 'It's alright, it was nothing. Don't worry about it, I'm just tired. It's quite late in my time zone.'
'Are you sure?' Remus asked, frowning slightly. 'This might have to do with the prophecy…'
'I'm sure, please just let me go to bed.'
Remus looked uncertain for a moment but nodded when he met my pleading gaze.
'Ok, come on then.'
He led me up several flights of stairs, and we passed many corridors and paintings. I preferred to keep my eyes on the floor.
Minerva McGonagall was just how I imagined her. She had prepared an extra bed for me, with pyjamas, a towel, a toothbrush, hairbrush and other necessities. I noticed that my forgotten shopping bags had been brought up to my room, so at least I had a few extra clothes and shoes.
'Is this the Griffindor place?' I couldn't help wondering as I wandered back down from the dormitory to the common room. Remus was waiting by the fireplace.
'No dear, there are no houses in Hogwarts,' Minerva smiled.
'Uh… Minerva…' Remus said hesitantly, glancing at me. 'There's something you should –'
'No,' I interrupted quickly. 'It's ok, really.'
Minerva looked from me to Remus, puzzled. 'Is something the matter?'
'Nothing's wrong,' I rushed in before Remus could speak. 'Everything's been sorted out. Thank you Minerva.'
Minerva nodded and walked out of the common room. The moment she was out of earshot, Remus turned to me.
'Why don't you want to talk about it?'
'Because it was nothing,' I said firmly.
Remus let out a sigh. 'Alright, I won't say anything. But if it happens again, promise you'll come to me.' I didn't answer, and Remus leaned forward. 'Promise?'
'Fine,' I muttered, glaring at the ground.
'Get some rest,' Remus said gently. 'I'll have Minerva wake you for supper.'
I nodded and headed back up the stairs, hoping dearly that when I woke up, I'd be home in bed.
