One of my favourite quotes: People say that life is the thing but I prefer reading, Logan Pearsall Smith. *** Maria Power sat in bed at 2am reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban again... she had lost count of the amount of times that she had read it she had six overdue library books to start but she just had to read it again. She would have said that she was the biggest Harry Potter fan in the world but she believed herself unworthy of that title. She thought about going down to chat to all of her friends who were now in her favourite chatroom, It was so unfortunate that she was in the Greenwich time zone and most of the people who she had befriended via the Internet lived in places such as California.
Maria was a girl classified as a "swott" in school. She believed herself to be a Hermione Granger, an A student, unable to sleep without reading first, she even looked somewhat like Hermione with her bushy brown hair, big teeth, I'm right and you're wrong expression, the only thing that didn't fit the bill were her eyes, those eyes that were so admired by her mother's friends; blue-grey with a hint of green that sparkled in a slight glimmer of light,
how she hated her eyes. Maria's passions were reading, singing and acting as well as trying to write some fan-fic, she wished on a star every single night to play Hermione in the movie she was thirteen but looked eleven but knew this was ridiculous yet Maria was a girl who loved fairy tales despite her practical outlook on life and she longed to believe in them. She had gone from Blyton to Dahl to Watterson to Deary to Tolkien to Prachett to Pullman and now she was at her idle: Joanne Rowling she had written an English paper on her for an exam and got an A. She had received a letter from her and it was now in a gold frame in a place of honour in Maria's bedroom even though she knew that it was one letter used for all fans. She had spent all of her savings on buying softback, hardback and clothbound editions of each book.
One thing that Maria had promised herself that she would never ever be was a hopeless romantic, she had failed to keep this promise however, for the past few months even though she hated herself for it she was in love with James Potter, yes she knew that he was a fictional character, 26 years older than her, dead, married, he even had a son but she loved him anyway (as well as Remus Lupin and Hugh Grant, don't ask). "How did this happen" she thought, "I'm writing to a diary named Lily every night, begging to go to boarding school (well, that was before she read Harry Potter) and wishing on stars". She thought of her parents how they misunderstood her, thought that too much was too much and sighed when she mentioned anything of Harry, in fact her whole family did, she remembered her mother asking if she had decided between Elizabeth and Bernedette for her confirmation name and sighing at her choice of Hermione. Maria sighed in annoyance when she thought of the phrase now used throughout the household: "Star wars, we can understand but Harry Potter". She had also succeeded in making fanatics of her best friend as well as her English teacher. Amy, she knew shared her views on everything and they told each other everything, but...well she didn't know, somehow she preferred to be alone, even though she knew that she did Maria didn't see Amy as properly understanding her, it was a felling that was indescribable and she didn't even want to start to try. Maria sighed and sat up, reverently laying her (probably) most prised possession upside-down on her bed. She slid out of bed and put on her dressing gown, she still hadn't made her daily wish. She crept to her skylight, unlocked it, and pulled it open, the world was sparkling under a thin layer of frost and a full moon, the cool night air was refreshing on her face and she took a few gulps of oxygen before looking up, she scanned the sky for a star , there was quite a lot of cloud cover and it took a while but she found one in the end, well what a coincidence, it was Sirius, a faint smile crossed her face but it rapidly changed to an expression of sadness. Making sure not to glimpse other stars, for that would ruin the wish she began, she usually used the same words every night and never bothered with the traditional verse this was one thing that she didn't believe in but she was...in not a bad mood, merely sad, "Star light, Star bright, the first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, have this wish, I wish tonight, (then she added her nightly wish) I wish to play Hermione Granger in the first Harry Potter movie, ...please".
She thought of it, how she might meet Joanne Rowling, her family would have to read the books and understand her then, how she would no longer be teased, she would actually get to act in a film, not just a film but the film she would get the chance to be Hermione this was the closest thing there was to actually living out her dream; and that is what it would be; her dream come true, how many times had she dreamed that exact thing?
Then she thought of one other thing, she had never added to a wish before but...oh that was too outrageous a wish altogether she considered it's consequences, leave her family...but she could make them still her family just...but it's the year two thousand......Oh well here goes: choosing her words carefully she began "I wish that it were as if I were sucked in to the world of Hogwarts and Harry Potter, that they were real, and I were a main character in them, everything in the books were true, that it were 1994 and I was a Gryffindor from a wizarding family the best friend of Hermione Granger....please...", then stopping abruptly, pulling her hungry eyes away from the sparkling sky to scold herself for getting dragged in to a fantasy world. "Bad Dobby", she muttered instinctively, then realising what she had just said , giggled.
She crept back to bed and, switching off her lamp, snuggled down under her blankets. At that moment, a song, one of her old favourites came floating in to her head and she began to quietly hum it to herself, not noticing the hot tears streaming silently down her face (she normally didn't):
"A gentle breeze from hushaby mountain, softly blows o'er lullaby bay, it fills the sails of boats that are waiting, waiting to sail your worries away...", and then Maria Power was asleep. ***
"Maria, MARIA, c'mon we'll be late for breakfast!" Maria's eyes flew open. The girl standing in front of her she had never seen before, and yet she recognized her immediately, She had never set foot in that circular room before but knew it so well... "Hermione"? "It's a miracle"! Exclaimed Hermione sarcastically, "she's awake". And she was! Maria just sat at the edge of her four poster bed trying to take it in...she was at Hogwarts! "C'mon", Hermione repeated, "are you getting dressed or not, Harry and Ron are waiting for us, hey are you OK you've got those dark circles under your eyes again". "Er.. yeah of course I'm OK, c'mon we'll be late"! Ten minutes later they were seated at the Gryffindor table, Maria still in shock. Somehow she knew her way around Hogwarts, she knew three and a half years worth of lessons and (even though she had always known this) she knew her owl's name. Maria was overjoyed, she saw Harry seated across from her his jet black hair standing in all directions as it should and as she had always pictured, she saw Ron, tall, gangling, freckled Ron, she saw Hermione, Hermione Granger; her best friend playing with her wheatabix, she looked around the great hall, with it's cold grey ceiling; she happily recognized scowling Draco Malfoy seated at the Slytherian table, she looked up at the staff table to see the teachers and recognized to her delight; Dumbledore, McGonagall, Hagrid, Snape, Flitwick, Sprout, Binns, Pince, Hooch, Pomfery,(and to her astonishment she recognized some that had either not been mentioned or described) Vector, Sinistra, Winterbourne, Tricken, Andot, Smith and Hactons.
"Um..what've we got first", she asked. "Arithmancy", said Hermione, checking her pocket timetable. "Oh yes", said Maria. "Can we go now"? "What? We've still got ten more minutes, anyway you have to eat something first" "Oh yeah, the food", Maria thought "ha, I don't get bacon and eggs every morning at home...oh wow, pancakes"! Just then the post came and Maria was once again amazed that she didn't get the fright of her life at about six hundred owls all bursting in to the room at once, but she just kept on eating. Her elegant tawny owl glided down to her with two letters in her beak. "Hey Arcadia", she said still not looking up, then amazed at what she had just done, she turned to her owl who had dropped the letters in the butter and was now perched on her should er affectionately nipping at her ear. She stroked her for a minute and then picked her letter s out if the butter. One was actually a postcard from her sister Frances on a holiday in Andorra, she looked at the large drifts of snow longingly but then reminded herself where she was. She flicked it over, scanned down through it and then picked up her letter. This was from her parents, asking if she wanted to stay on again for Christmas (the word "duh" came to mind as she thought of the happy Christmas that would soon be upon her). It was soon time to leave for Arithmancy so they bade goodbye to Harry and Ron (who were heading for Divination). and set off... Arithmancy was wonderful, Professor Vector was an excellent teacher, if not a little strict. Then they went to Care of Magical Creatures. Hagrid had finally decided that he was able to let the students practise on something more than flobberworms and they were currently studying klarkins, cute little creatures who were rather timid and lived in rather uninhabite d areas. Maria loved animals and the klarkins were a joy for her.
She wasn't even put down by the fact that their next subject was Potions, she seemed in a world of her own and Harry, Ron and Hermione were rather worried about her, herself and Hermione were the most attentive students in the class, normally. the fact was that she was still in shock. She sat happily in the class thinking, until..."Ms. Power, could you please tell us how long a truth potion should be left to simmer before it is used, since I just mentioned it less than a minute ago, you should answer my question easily". Fortunately Maria had read that in first year, or at least she had the memory of it; "Eighteen days Professor", she said sweetly. Snape looked at her with annoyance and then not saying a word, turned back to the class. Then they had Astronomy at midnight, as Professor Sinistra began to ramble off the moons of Jupiter for the class to note Maria's thoughts began once again to drift (she already had the notes). Hermione poked her sharply in the arm, "What's up"?
"Wha...oh, nothing".
"Oh come off it you've been acting weird all day, what's going on. You honestly don't look well, are you sure you don't want to go to Madame Pomfery"?
"The stars are amazing, aren't they", said Maria distantly. Hermione was just about to answer when. "Caleisto is...Ms. Power, Ms. Granger, do you two have something to share with the class"? "No professor", chorused the girls. "Good".
Maria didn't know how everything in Hogwarts was completely taken for granted by everyone else. "That's one thing I'll never do", she thought. Within a week, she had.
Christmas was coming and the preparations were being made. Ron was going home, but Harry and Hermione were staying. It had already begun to snow and as always, the lake had frozen over. About a week before the holidays started, Maria and Hermione decided to go out skating on the lake, Ron was still doing a nasty punishment essay set by Snape and Harry was at quidditch.
It was freezing, but they bundled in to thick layers of clothes and were soon sliding over the smooth ice. As the sky began to fill with colour to indicate the setting sun and a few stars began to twinkle in the patches of darkening blue they decided to go back, it had begun to snow again anyway.
Their breath rising in a mist as they crunched over the thick, unspoiled blanket of white snow they began to talk about the coming holiday. "Oh, I just can't wait for the dinner".
"Think about it, the whole common room to ourselves"!
"The whole library to ourselves"!!! "Oh, I don't believe it, finally a normal Christmas just to relax and study in peace"!!
"Not exactly normal", Maria thought, this was going to be the most exciting Christmas of her life...Maria's thoughts were interrupted by a great deal of cold, cold snow, she had tripped.
Hermione burst in to a fit of giggles and ran over to her..she soon stopped giggling when a large amount of snow hit her. They were soon immersed in a rather violent snowball fight.
And so the Christmas holidays began, Maria learning more and more amazing things each day, she found that herself and Hermione were referred to as the twins, after all they were practically identical besides the fact that Maria had shorter hair and blue eyes. She found that Hermione had exactly the same taste as her.
Maria had grown to love Hogwarts, well she had always loved it, but now she felt so comfortable and at home there. Her classmates were so nice, and she was astonished by the way they supported instead of teased each other, even the way that if one had forgotten their homework the whole class would pitch in to cover up for them, it was the complete opposite of her old school. She felt as if she were living in paradise , it was all so perfect. It was strange the way that it now felt so natural just to curl up in front of the common room fire with a good book and read until she fell asleep or the sun rose.
Sometimes she would just go out for walks in the grounds to watch the magnificent sunsets. She would just sit near the lake under a tree, sometimes with a book, but usually she never read it, this was her thinking place. Where she wondered about how she actually got where she was, or wished that her friend Amy was there, even though her every dream had come true.. .sometimes she missed her. One such evening she was sitting in one of the topmost branches of her tree,absentmindedly making patterns in the powdery snow that lay on the tree when she heard a call from below her:
"Maria! What're you doing up there"? called Harry.
He was standing directly below her in a thick cloak as she looked down he started to climb.
"Nothing".
"We were looking for you, you've been disappearing lately, are you OK"?
"I'm fine, I just wanted to go for a walk and read for a while", she replied.
"Er...I've been wanting to talk to you for a while", Harry said.
"Yeah? This sounds serious".
He hesitated for a minute before continuing; "Maria, for the past two years I...I've...well I don't know, God this is harder that I thought, I...I don't even know, but I think that I love you".
Maria felt herself slipping and the next thing that she knew was that she was lying on the ground, with a very bad headache and a cut on the palm of her hand.
"Maria! Oh...are you alright"
"Harry I'm fine", she said sitting up and rubbing her head".
"I'm so sorry, c'mon, I'll bring you to the hospital wing".
"Harry, I said that I was fine and I am", Maria said standing up. "You...you...".
"I'm sorry, I understand that you..."
"Harry, for as long as I've known you...I...I...let's just say that I've been worse that Ginny".
They giggled and sat down again, Maria's mind was racing, Harry Potter, but why her? Hermione was smarter than her, and she wasn't exactly pretty, she had a clear complexion and all but she was no crowd stopper. "Harry, why me...I mean, I'm not exactly the best girl in Hogwarts and I'm not really the best person to talk to".
"Maria, you're the easiest person to talk to, you're smart, funny and I know you so well".
"But Hermione's all of those things and well...".
"Well if she's not arguing with Ron...I mean that you just can't talk to her as easily as you".
"Harry, that can't be it, you could have any girl in the school".
"Well, there is another thing....your eyes".
Maria couldn't believe what she was hearing, she stared at Harry and they slowly drew closer and closer...
At about one o'clock Maria sneaked up the stairs of the fourth year dormitory, herself and Harry had spent about five hours just sitting in the common room simply talking. She passed Hermione, sleeping serenely and reached her own bed. She sat down, brushing the book lying on her pillow ("The hitchhiker's guide to the universe") to the ground and, not even bothering to change, got in to bed, she was so happy but now sure that she was that she was dreaming. She closed her eyes expecting to wake up at any second.
She didn't.