"Cherry-Lynn! Hurry up; those horses ain't gonna feed themselves!"
Cherry-Lynn Rainer or Cherry as she was sometimes called let out an irritated huff and pulled on her cowboy boots.
"I swear the woman has a patience of a peanut!"
she grumbled to herself as she walked down the hall way of her and her mother's airy ranch styled home.
She jogged outside to the stables and grabbed a bale of hay.
She drug it to the middle of the walkway then grabbed two fistfuls and made her way to the first stall.
She threw the hay into the bucket then gave the nose of her mare shadow a good rub before spooning some oats and corn into the bucket with the hay. After adding another pound of hay to the bucket she moved on to the next horse repeating the process until all 6 horses were happily munching on their breakfast.
Cherry looked up at the clock in the stable and swore. School started in 30 min and she still had to get dressed and get there and it was a 20 min drive.
She ran full speed to her room and quickly pulled on a pink sundress she threw her messy black hair into a pony tail and swiped some gold eye-shadow above her blue eyes, she quickly put on her cowboy boots again and ran all the way to her beat up pick-up truck.
She jumped in and headed for school not knowing that today would be the day that her life changed.
Once at school Cherry jumped out and collided with her best friend Nalla Hayden the Goth stood tall at 5ft 11 and had blue/ grey eyes and ebony hair that ended at her shoulder blades today she was wearing a black and red lace corset with combat boots and a black tutu style skirt with fishnet stockings.
"Nalla!" Cherry exclaimed "your home! When did you get back from boarding school?" Nalla and Cherry had been best friends since daycare days when they were 2.
But soon after her 11th birthday Nalla left for boarding school in England. Her mother's home country.
Now the girls only got to see each other on holidays and summer break. Sure they exchanged letters but it wasn't the same. "My school got let out for winter break yesterday.
I just got home and decided to come see you." Cherry gave her friend a bear hug "I wish I could stay and talk but school starts in 5 minutes…" Nalla smiled "I called your mom she said you could skip since I was home after 3 months of not seeing each other and since it's the last day before winter break for you."
Cherry squealed "YES! Now get in the truck were going for pizza at bob's and you are going to tell me everything that's been going on with you since you left!" and with that the two girls sped away from the high school that filled so many teenagers with dread.
Even though it was 9 in the morning Cherry Rainer and Nalla Hayden could be found at Bob's Pizza Place. The joint tended to be where most of the teenagers in Rawley Texas chilled after school.
"So Nalla" Cherry said around a mouthful of cheese pizza, "what's new at that school of yours?" Nalla shrugged and shook her head "nothing exciting, same old, go to classes do homework we did have a big game before the break my house won."
"House?" cherry looked at her friend in confusion. Nalla's eyes widened for a second " ya you see they separate the students into 4 houses to cut down class size my house is the red and gold house."
Cherry laughed " red and gold house? How lame is that?" Nalla giggled " pretty lame now that you mention it." They chatted about nothing in particular before deciding to go back to Cherry's house. "
Nalla you need to ride storm! He misses you so much." Nalla smiled at the mentioning of the black stallion he and his brother Cherry's horse shadow were twin brothers. " Ok let's go."
2 hours later the girls were laying on the grass laughing as their horses chased each other around the open field. Then from seemingly nowhere a large great horned owl landed on Cherry's chest. " What in the hell?" she screamed as the bird dropped a letter on her face and flew off. Nalla looked at her in shock. "Um cherry? Are you sure that letter is for you?" cherry picked up the envelope and read the name on it. The envelope read
Cherry-Lynn Rainer
1433. Cobalt. Dr
Rawley Texas
" I'm sure Nalla, well let's open it and see what is going on." Cherry quickly ripped open the envelope and read the letter out loud.
Dear ms .Rainer I am sorry if the arrival of this letter has startled you, but I felt the time had come to bring to light your heritage. You see you are a witch. A very powerful one if my assumptions are correct. The wizarding world needs you. I have enclosed a port key that will activate ten minutes after this letter was open. I await your arrival and that of Ms. Hayden. All will be explained then
Yours truly,
Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
" What the hell? A witch? Why does he want to see you too? I'm confused" she looked at Nalla who had turned very pale " you see cherry I'm a witch as well. The boding school I got to is Hogwarts and Dumbledore is the headmaster however I can explain later right now grab this."
The this she was referring to was a silver chain. Cherry hesitantly grabbed onto it and felt a pulling sensation in her belly-button.
Next think she knew she was in an office and an old man with the longest and whitest beard Cherry had ever seen was sitting behind an large oak desk. Nalla stood before her and looked at the old man " Headmaster what's going on? Cherry's a witch?" she then noticed that they weren't alone Harry potter the boy who lived was also In the office looking as confused as she did " and why is harry here?" by this point Cherry had stood up, she walked over to Nalla and was about to open her mouth to give her best friend a huge tongue lashing when she saw the boy sitting there.
He had messy black hair much like hers but shorter and bright green eyes. He had a lightning shaped scar on his forehead and cherry was a bit freaked out to notice that they have the same facial structure, hers just being more feminine.
The boy, Harry as she had heard him called also looked at her in a bit of shock. Finally he broke eye contact and turned to the old man and said " what the bloody hell is going on? " Finally! Cherry thought. Someone on the same brainwave as me.
The old man looked at them over his crescent moon spectacles " well children you might wish to sit down it is a long story I have to tell you I'm afraid." And with that they all took a seat and waited for him to begin. "You see harry" he started "it all began when your father got his first order mission…."
To be continued…