A New Problem For A New Generation
By SuperstitiousPieceOfWood
Chapter 1
Fond Memories
Lenny was on his bed waiting until it was time to leave for the Hogwarts Express, remembering his time at Hogwarts. Reliving his past two years of going there made him realize how it just didn't seem real. He had lived with his mother, who he had found out was a muggle, and didn't know that he was a wizard. He was very confused when he got the letter, but somehow his mother knew what it was about. Even though it wasn't as good as it could have been, his relationship with his mother slowly went downhill because of all his talk about being really happy to be a wizard after his first year. They were fine even while she helped him shop for the stuff he would need. She even helped him decipher how to use wizard money.
To get his mind off of this he grabbed the letters from his friends Jeriah and Jared from Hogwarts. The three of them loved writing about all the running around the castle after hours, narrowingly escaping Filch, the caretaker, and exploring all the hallways, passages, and rooms. Then he eventually came back across the subject that always arised when talking about Hogwarts - that weird hallway. A hallway that, when they entered, made Jared and Jeriah gradually start to panic and they got out of there within the first few seconds. He remembered how they had to pull him out because, for some reason, he wasn't as affected.
Jeriah had somehow found out about that place but wouldn't tell him or Jared about how he knew about it. Even though he was super freaked out, Jeriah supposed that it was some sort of protective charm protecting whatever was down there. Lenny and Jared had even thought to get Lenny's head of house, Professor Hopkins, to tell them what was there or at least something about it, but Jeriah realized that since it was properly guarded, the teachers probably would help and the students wouldn't even know about it. Lenny couldn't even remember how to get to it since it was a whole lot of rights and lefts just to get the edge of it. He was just remembering about the three doors he could see at the end when his mother called up for him," TIME TO GO"
After getting into another argument with his mother, which had started to begin happening more frequently, they drove silently to the station. About a quarter the way there, he started to think about where he used to live - Rochester, Minnesota. He thought about his childhood friend Jackie and how it it was hard to say goodbye to him since, for some reason his mother moved them to the U.K., and how he now lived in a place called "Leeds". After a while his mother told him how much she loved him and that she was sorry. This would've had more meaning, if this hadn't have been the millionth time she said sorry. Every fight or argument she would say how much she thought was wrong with him, then later say sorry. But saying sorry never took back what she said or stopped her from saying it again.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"I'm fine."he replied
She didn't seem satisfied with this answer, but didn't try to push a conversation for the rest of the ride. Once the were in the parking lot she asked if he wanted any help. He told her he was fine because, well he just wanted to be by himself for the rest of the way. Once he got through the barrier, he headed toward the train. He always liked the train because well, well it was mostly the colors that he found aesthetic. The shiny scarlet red that contested with the old dark black components. As he was looking at the train he heard a voice shout out to - well him he guessed.
"Hey Loser, Over Here!" a voice called.
Lenny pushed his trolly toward Jared."have you seen Jeriah anywhere?"asked Jared."Nah Just got here."Lenny replied. Jared looked bemused for half a second, gave a smirk then said,"I don't think I'll ever get used to your american accent." he said with a chuckle. Lenny thought this was funny since he thought the same thing about jared's british accent. They started looking around but then looked at the time,10:59, than ran aboard the Hogwarts Express. While searching for a compartment he saw Jeriah heading towards them. " Found any seats yet?" asked Jeriah. Lenny replied with a no that was more of a sigh. "Hey, found one!" called Jared and pointed to an empty compartment. But as they headed toward it a girl with short dark brown hair, who had seen them head for it, walked into it with another person who was small enough that he was hidden behind her.
Jared's face froze with a plastic grin and wide eyes."haha...WOW" Lenny recognized her from his previous year at hogwarts. "Isn't she that ravenclaw who broke your arm when when she crashed into that stadium last year - during the gryffindor vs ravenclaw match."asked Jared
" Yeah sorry for that, I was trying to do something like the Wronski Feint because i had seen the snitch before she did" said Jeriah. "Meh it's more than okay, at least you got it and won the match. " added Lenny. Eventually they found an empty compartment and put away their trunks. Lenny and Jeriah decided to get changed immediately. Lenny put on his Hufflepuff robes while Jeriah put on his Gryffindor robes. Jared decided to lay down on his side of the booth, pulled out a sack of money. "I thought you were broke" Jeriah stated inquisitively. " Guess who's really good at gambling." Jared said with a smirk. " No it wasn't on the train chill. chill." He added when he saw Jeriah get worried. Jeriah had been wanting to eventually be a prefect or, most of all, head boy. As passionate as he was about this, he had always enjoyed it when they where running around at night. Lenny couldn't blame him though, it was great feeling having the castle to yourself, even if you had to out run filch and his cat. But that wasn't that hard but not because of his age (even though he seemed pretty old probably about mid 70's) but it seemed like he didn't care as much as rumors said. People told stories about how he would hang kids to the ceiling by their ankles, or how he would give peeves the school poltergeist deadly weapons to torture kids but, he just didn't seem like that kind of person.
"You should spend that money on a haircut." Commented Jeriah. Jared had long black wavy hair all the way to his shoulders that, from a distance, made him look like a girl. But as Lenny first found out the first time he saw him, looked more masculine than a really scrawny boy should. He had a long face ,but a sharp jaw-line, and a pretty wide nose. He also had bright blue eyes. He had never realized his eyes until Jeriah commented on them. He had confessed tat he was jealous because he didn't like the color of his own. They weren't butt ugly (although Lenny himself didn't really care about the color of peoples eyes so he probably wasn't the best judge) but they weren't exactly dazzling. Jeriah's eyes were a dark shade of brown. So dark in fact, that if you weren't looking closely, his eyes would look like they just had big pupils instead of iris's. Lenny remembered how Jeriah had said that he was also lucky with the color of his eyes. Lenny had never paid much attention to them but his eye color wasn't necessarily common. His eyes were a light, pale , hazel brown color.
Once Jared finally got changed into his Slytherin robes, the talk about their weird experience about the hallway cropped up. "Why wont you tell us how you knew it was there?" Jared had always asked this question of Jeriah whenever they started to talk about this. Yet he always answered the same. "I heard it from someone who heard it from someone else." And then Jared replied with a squint that he had somehow managed to make sarcastic," Oh yeah because I totally believe anyone could just stumble over to it accidently, even taking every perfect turn, not to mention that once they left they wouldn't remember how to get there." Lenny took a moment to think about that last part. "What?" He asked with a minor crack in voice. "Have you not tried to remember how to get there?" Lenny thought this was a kind of dumb question because he didn't think anyone could remember the turns by just being led there. "Listen I memorized every turn we made but for the life of me, I'm not even completely sure we were there at all. Jared actually a very good memory. He was actually pretty helpful in their classes when he would them wite their notes when they didn't listen. It also helped him be pretty good at lying. Lenny couldn't judge though because when ever a quidditch match popped up that Jeriah wasn't in, they would explore the castle.
Jeriah as a pretty good seeker on the Gryffindor team. He was tall and had long arms, but thin and didn't weigh to much more than the seekers on other teams. He had pure white hair that had been from when he was trying to cast a spell for the first time but it wouldn't work so he looked at the tip to see if anything was wrong, but then he got hit in the face and someone screamed as his dark brown hair turned pure white from the roots up. Other than that it was short but kempt so his eyes were not obscured by it. Lenny remembered a match where Jeriah did the most unbelievable trick, earing him a spot on the first page. Then there was a nock at the door. The trolley witch had arrived. He spent about five galleons and gotten about enough stuff to fill a small sack. As Jeriah reached for on, Jared smacked it and gave an amused but confused look. So then Jeriah bought himself some snacks to. Lenny decided to gat some chocolate frogs and some Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. As Jeriah started to say, " Be careful with those, when the say every flavor-" Lenny interrupted him," They really mean every flavor yeah I know." "what I thought you lived with your mum - how did you get wizard money?" Lenny remembered the goblins that creeped him out the first time they went there. He was sure they knew he grew up as a muggle and were trying to tease him. "you can trade muggle money for wizard money at Gringotts." They diced to play a " dare or eat a random bean" they had taught him. Then Lenny took a look at the cards that always came with chocolate frogs. He Got a man with jet black hair, green eyes, and wore round glasses. He also had a weird scar on his forehead. He turned it over and read the facts about the man named Harry Potter." Harry James Potter, most well known for the defeat of Lord Voldemort in 1998 Harry Potter also has many times helped Hogwarts and the wizarding community, with the protection of the philosophers stone(now destroyed) in 1991, the attack of Slytherins basilisk in 1992, Triwizard champion in 1994, the protection of the prophecy (now destroyed) in 1995, and the Battle Of Hogwarts, where he defeated Lord Voldemort, in 1998." Lenny was a little wide eyed. "Jeez man, and I thought I would be remembered just for being great at transfiguration." Jeriah and Jared both looked at the back of his card and laughed. "Yeah they even got a statue of the bloke - you know - down in Hogsmeade, did you get your slip signed?" Even though he had found his mother in a good mod one day, a couple days later they got into another argument and in her anger she ripped it up. Again later she said sorry but, as usual this just couldn't be fixed just because she said sorry.
Once ho told them about why he couldn't go, they gave a little disappointed look. " Well in about four years you can come and live with me." said Jared. Lenny was a little confused by this since he would only be thirteen this year. "You mean five." He added, much to Jared and Jeriah's confused looks. "The adult wizarding age is seventeen mate." Jeriah said, with too much of an amused tone than Lenny would have liked. "There is no way she will let me go just at seventeen." Jared thought for a second then replied," Well there isn't anything she can do really, she cant legally take you- by our laws - and I doubt she could navigate any place in the wizarding world other than diagon ally." "Yeah but if she gets drunk enough she might try to reveal the truth about wizards and other stuff." Jared seemed a little to ready for this answer, as he answered almost immediately. "Then shell be seen as a crazy drunk." This only made Lenny feel worse. "Yeah but I don't want that for her, I mean , she's still my mom."Then there was a knock at the door. The boy who helped steal their compartment had knocked and told them," We're at Hogwarts."
