'Where the hell am I?' Rebekah wondered irritably, as she shook the dead leaves off her. Sure, she was in a forest. It just didn't help that the last place she saw was a forest, before it all faded to black. And this was definitely not the same place. A variety of gold, auburn and red carpeted the ground here just as heavily as the earth had been littered with needles, cans and odd-smelling sofas where she was previously. The sky was a stretch of black velvet with silver sequins sprinkled haphazardly here and there, no dim sickly glow of the town to be seen.

An impulse told her to call for her friends, but what use was that now? She was calling for them when it happened. Out of the corner of her eye she'd seen a dark hooded figure, with a stick (or so she thought) in its hand. It muttered something; a ray of painfully white light came from the stick, and then that was it. Darkness. A weird feeling in her stomach. Then a dull 'thud' when she hit the ground.

'No. Not yet. I don't know if I'm safe yet. I don't know where I am.' Her brain kicked in.

Slowly, she turned her head and looked around at her foreign surroundings. A ghostly howl from behind her told her she wasn't alone. There, standing on its hind legs, was a monster with a malicious glint in its eyes. It seemed to be a bald sheep with teeth to rival a lion's. An involuntary scream escaped from her lips as she thought about her options. She could climb. But what if it could climb? She could run. But, by the looks of things, there wasn't anywhere to hide. She could fight…'ok, now we've run of out good ideas, let's move on to the stupid ones.' A voice in her head taunted her.

A red light from nowhere hit it and it howled in pain. Before she knew it, someone had grabbed her hand and was sprinting away to safety, her in tow. She dared to glance back, and saw two boys her age with the…thing.

"They'll die! We can't just leave them there!"

"They'll be fine." The stranger muttered idly, slowing down to a walk.

"You're mad." Rebekah gasped, clutching a stitch in her side. If she ever did get back home, she'd never complain about doing sport again.

"No, I'm Sirius." He said, and halted. In the moonlight, she could just make out a handsome boy with dark hair.

"You're serious they're going to be ok?"

"Yes and that wasn't what I meant." He laughed. "My name's Sirius. Sirius Black. Renowned rescuer of fair maidens far and wide."

"Right. Is that meant to be impressive?" Rebekah rolled her eyes at the sky.

"Alas, the fair lady's words wound me far worse than any sword." He gasped in mock agony, clutching at his heart.

"Ok, knight boy, where am I?"

"This fine county be Hertfordshire, pretty maid."

'Ok. Somehow I've teleported from Reading to some place in Hertfordshire. Well it's a start, I guess.' Rebekah thought as she gazed into the darkness, making out a rough outline of a big, mansion-like house.

"And, fair lady, what name be thine?"

"I'll tell you if you quit with the medieval talk. I am in the 20th century, right?"

"Yep. Why wouldn't you be?"

"Long story."

"Like how you somehow apparated into the woods? Surely you're not old enough?"

"What?"

"Never mind. What's your name?"

"Rebekah."

"Rebekah? What sort of name is that?" He looked at her with a puzzled expression on his face.

"What do you mean?" She said defensively.

"I've never met anyone called Rebekah before. It's different. In a good way." Sirius said hesitantly, clearly feeling uncomfortable.

"Oh." She murmured.

The house was looming upon them, golden light appearing from a few windows.

"Er, you'd better come in here, Rebekah."

Rebekah followed Sirius through a door and entered a kitchen. A kind-faced middle-aged lady smiled at Sirius and said, "Evening, Sirius dear, what's happened?"
"Remus almost attacked Rebekah here. Although I have no idea how she got there. It was like she apparated or something." Sirius shrugged and sat down.

"Remus?" Rebekah asked.

"Remus. My friend. He's a werewolf." Sirius explained.

"What?"

"You're not from around here, are you, dear?" The lady smiled, "I'm Mrs. Potter, James's mum. "

"I'm from Reading." Rebekah muttered, feeling ignorant and confused.

"How did you get here?" She frowned slightly, deep in thought.

"I don't know. All I remember was that my friends and me were in the woods. We played hide and seek. I hid myself so well I was lost. I couldn't find anyone. I called for them but couldn't hear them. Then I saw this figure in a black cloak with a twig in his hand. I saw white light and then, nothing but black. Next thing I knew I was here in the woods."

Both Sirius and Mrs.Potter went pale at this news. They sat there in silence, staring at Rebekah. It was beginning to freak her out.

"Sirius, get Albert to send an owl to Dumbledore.I'd better explain some things to Rebekah." Mrs. Potter said eventually.

Sirius opened his mouth to say something, the thought better & disappeared through a door.

"You'd better have a drink, dear. Tea?"

Rebekah nodded.

"Right, I think you need to know a few things before Dumbledore shows up."

"Dumbledore?"

"Goodness, you don't know who Dumbledore is?"

Rebekah shook her head.

"Right. First thing you need to know is that there is such thing as magic."

Rebekah wondered if she was in some bizarre parody of Alice in Wonderland. Everything she had been taught, everyone she knew told her there was no such thing as magic. Her religious school taught her it was evil devil worship. Science tried to prove that God and magic didn't exist. And now this woman was telling her magic was real?

"There are such things as witches and wizards. We live in an undercover community networked all over the world."

"Really?"

"Really." Mrs. Potter continued. "There is a war happening. No, not like your muggle wars. This war is undercover. Not all wizards are good. There's this one wizard, the Dark Lord, his followers, the Death-eaters, call him. They wear these hideous black robes and masks…"She broke off, shuddering at the thought.