"Look!" Krystal exclaimed, holding up a dusty rectangle.
"A book?" Ember blankly inquired, waving the dust cloud Krystal had caused out of her face.
"Yep!" Krystal chirped.
"What's the title?" Avery demanded, curiously peering over a stack of boxes.
"I don't know… It's not on the cover," Krystal replied. She flipped through the yellowed pages, dispersing more dust across the dim basement. Avery and Ember both staggered back, coughing and covering their faces. "Sorry!" Ember groaned and Avery rolled her eyes while smiling. After a moment, Krystal muttered, "That's odd…"
"What?" Avery curiously probed.
"It's blank," Krystal responded.
"Oh," Avery replied, losing interest.
"It's probably some old journal," Ember provided. "It's like all the other junk down here that came with the house: old, dusty, and useless. Can we go, now?"
The three friends were spending the day at Ember's house. When Krystal and Avery had found the musty, unfinished basement, they insisted upon exploring it. Ember had sighed and conceded.
"Alright," Krystal grumbled, slightly deflated. "I was hoping it was a Harry Potter book."
"Yeah," Avery agreed. "Especially one with Sirius in it…"
"He's my favorite, too," Krystal remarked.
"You just like him because he's constantly causing trouble," Ember teased.
"Off course!" Avery exclaimed. "That's why we love the Marauders."
"Except Peter," Krystal sullenly opposed.
"Nobody could defend that rat," Avery concurred. Then, she laughed. "That was a pretty good pun."
"Well, I guess I'm not 'Nobody'," Ember retorted.
"You like Peter?!" Krystal exclaimed in alarm.
"I don't like him. I just have sympathy for him," Ember explained. "He didn't want to do what he did, but he didn't have enough courage to defy Voldemort. When he finally does rebel, he's killed because of it."
"Well, why did he become a Death Eater in the first place?" Krystal retorted. "They were his friends and he betrayed them! What did they ever do to him?"
"James tormented him! The only reason he let him hang around was so he could make fun of him," Ember countered.
"That's still no reason to kill him!" Avery cried. "If he was so 'tormented', why didn't he just leave?"
"I don't think he knew at first," Ember insisted. "He just wanted fit in. Besides, do you really think he was walking down the street one day and just said, 'You know what? I want to be a Death Eater. First, I'll kill one of my friends and put the other in jail!'?"
"Peter was evil!" Krystal shouted. "How can you side with him?"
"I'm not!" Ember replied. "He was a coward and got what he deserved. I'm just saying I know why he did what he did."
"Traitor," Avery teased.
"Next, you're going to start defending Voldemort," Krystal taunted.
"Do you want me to?" Ember inquired. "Because-"
"No!" Krystal bellowed, bursting into laughter. Avery smiled deviously.
"Seriously-" Ember started. She was quickly cut off by her friends, who both doubled over laughing. "Will you two ever get over that? I mean, it's not really that funny in the first place."
"We can't be Sirius," Avery teased. "He's a guy." The two started laughing all over again. "I'm Sirius. No, I'm dead Sirius!"
Krystal stopped giggling and turned pale. "Don't say that," she commanded.
"Why?" Avery mumbled, put out.
Ember frowned. "The Veil," she softly responded. Avery nodded. "She hated him dying even more than Dumbledore or Fred."
"Me, too," Avery replied.
"He's not dead," Krystal answered. "They never said that the Veil killed him."
"Yes, it did," Ember muttered. "Luna said so herself."
"Well, she was wrong," Krystal persisted. "He can't be dead…"
"Let's just change the subject," Ember quietly suggested.
"You have a lot of things about Harry Potter wrong," Krystal asserted. "I wish we could go into the story and talk to the Marauders or something. Then, we could prove you were wrong."
"That would be fun!" Avery replied. "I could fly, hex people-"
"Umm… I think it's a good thing it's not real," Ember suggested. "Or else, think of all Avery would do…"
"I know!" Avery giddily declared. "Fred and George would meet their match."
"I, however-" Krystal began.
"-would accidentally kill us all, whereas Avery would do it purposely," Ember cut in.
"Probably," Krystal joyfully chirped back, completely unfazed. "But, I would have a blast the whole time!"
"I wouldn't doubt it," Ember answered. "Now, can we go upstairs before I suffocate?"
"Hey, I thought you said this was blank?" Avery inquired with a confused expression on her face.
"It is," Krystal answered.
"Nope," Avery declared. "Look." She held up the book, displaying the first page.
It read, "THE MARAUDERS,
PREQUEL TO THE HARRY POTTER SERIES.
J. K. ROWLING"
"That can't be right," Krystal muttered. "It was blank! And, that book doesn't exist…"
Ember, who was grabbing snacks from the kitchen, laughed. "It's probably a fake. I bet one of my brothers got bored and tried to make something up. They do that a lot, actually."
"I doubt your brothers could do this," Avery replied. "It's printed, not hand written."
"There's no such thing as a prequel to the Harry Potter books!" Krystal insisted. "Otherwise, I would have read it by now!"
"Maybe Rowling used to live here. This could have been a draft of the book, but it never got printed," Avery proposed.
"She never did, as far as I know," Ember answered, digging around in the fridge for a two litter. "I've seen the ownership records; there weren't any 'Rowling's. There were 'Ledbetter's and 'Wright's, though."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Avery announced. "Let's read it already!"
Krystal laughed. "Okay." She got up from her chair and plopped down onto the couch beside Avery. She grinned and began to read aloud.
"Chapter one: The Letter. James flew out of bed. Something good was going to happen; he knew it. What was about to happen, he had no clue. He could just feel that something big was coming."
Krystal's smile grew. "Yes! It's going to be about James," she declared.
"We already read about his kid. It's only fair that we follow his point of view," Avery replied.
"Hey!" Ember called, snatching three cups down from a cabinet. "Wait for me!"
"Okay!" Avery shouted back. "We will!" However, the two silently continued reading together.
The book began to glow, giving off an eerie blue light.
"What…?" Krystal began. She stopped as the world began to tilt. The two shared frightened looks. Then, they felt a tugging sensation, as if the book was pulling them in.
"Ember!" Avery shouted just as the world collapsed into the book, sucking them along with it.
Just as suddenly as it had occurred, the room righted itself. Everything returned to the same as it had been moments before, except one detail: Krystal and Avery were nowhere to be found.
"What?" Ember responded as she entered the living room, carrying a tray holding the cups and a large bowl of chips. Her eyes sweeping the room. "Hey, where'd you guys go?"
She gingerly set the tray down on a long, low coffee table beside the book. "Krystal? Avery?" She glanced down the hall and in the basement, bathroom, and outside.
"Hmm…" she murmured. "That's peculiar…"
Her eyes rested on the open book lying on the coffee table. It was no longer dusty, tattered, or aged. Actually, it looked brand new, like it was straight off the printing press.
Something was very peculiar, indeed.
A/N
Hi, readers! This is my first story, so I'm still getting used to the website. Please review my story. I'm still getting the hang of this. :)
Now, even though it's suggested by the fact that I'm not JK Rowling:
Disclaimer:
I do not own Harry Potter, or any of its people/places/terms/ etc. If I did, I wouldn't have OCs at all. Or author's notes. Or disclaimers. ;)
