Tracy took one last look around her empty apartment and grinned. She was
so glad to get out of Kansas, and being able to move to England was
defiantly a plus. Although she didn't know why, Tracy had been picked to
transfer to England to manage one of the branch offices. It was a big
promotion since she was only 25, and now about to become a manager. Tracy
was glad to jump at the chance, since she had few real friends and no
family left to tie her in one place. The transfer came through in August,
and Tracy moved across the Atlantic as soon as she found a place. Luckily,
she was able to find a nice flat within bicycling distance of her job since
she was not too sure about driving on the wrong side of the road.
After a few weeks of going to work then coming home and unpacking, Tracy was going stir-crazy. She decided to start exploring her new neighborhood, and stop by a different shop each night on her way home from work. She started by hitting all of the bookstores first, since she had not brought many of her books from home, and was feeling deprived of her main stress- relieving outlet. Tracy found some very interesting books about fantasy worlds, and some very interesting fiction about alternate realities including a set of books about a wizard named Harry Potter. Since Tracy had been accused many times of being a dreamer, these fantasy books were perfect for her since she was able to almost see the world as the author wrote. Since she had this ability, she didn't go to movies all that often because she could see better in her own imagination. Since Tracy bought so many books, during the first month there, her bank account started running low. To stay afloat, she had to go on a budget, and started going to other types of shops so she would not be tempted as much as she was in bookstores.
One day, Tracy stopped at a little antique store that caught her attention with Chinese dragon figurines in the window. When she stepped into the store, she was almost overwhelmed with all of the interesting things she could see. She knew it would take at least a week of browsing to be able to see everything, but it did seem like there was an order to the shop. Tracy decided to start to the right of the door, and walked slowly down the aisle looking at the shelves, touching objects that caught her eye. She saw many ceramic figurines, lots of antiques, and occasionally movie memorabilia. As she was bending down to get a better look at a china head doll, a bookcase caught her eye. In the bottom corner, were 3 books, tied together with a faded ribbon. She picked them up carefully, and looked at the titles. With her first glance, she knew she was going to buy these books. They almost seemed to call to her. She knew they had to be fantasy, since with titles like: "charms and hexes for beginners," "50 shields and their uses" and one with just the title of "animagi." , What else could they be? She looked at them and remembered the harry potter books, and wondered if maybe those books could be true. Tracy carried them carefully up to the counter, and the little old gentleman behind the counter looked at her, and seemed to be looking in her for something. Finally he nodded to himself, and said, "there is more than just the books in this lot" then he went to the back room and came back with what looked like an oversized necklace box. "Don't open the box until you get home," he advised her and rang up the purchase.
Tracy couldn't wait to get home to find out what the books were like, and pedaled home at top speed. Once she got home, she collapsed in her favorite chair and put her bag on her lap and slowly drew out the books and strange box. After turning the box over and over a couple of times, she decided to let the anticipation grow, and decided to read the books before opening the box. Since in all of her other reading shields played an important part, she decided to start with that book, and curled up with a glass of Mountain Dew, a bar of chocolate and the book. After reading the first page she closed the book and looked at the cover again, then checked the title page. This was no fantasy book! It seemed to tell exactly what shields to raise in what situation, and how to pronounce the spell. Tracy decided not to worry if it was real or not, and decided to keep reading. She opened it again and started learning how to protect herself from things like faeries, trolls, giants and manticores, also listed in the book were shields that would block others from knowing that magic was going on inside of a room or house. She didn't finish reading the book until about 3:00 in the morning, and just sat and stared at nothing for a while. This book seemed to operate on the premise that magic was real, and the person reading the book could control it. Tracy decided to read the book on charms and hexes next, and with liberal applications of caffeine, she was able to stay up til 7:00 and finish that book too.
Since she had been up all night reading, she called in sick to work so she could read the last, and most interesting looking, book. This book dealt with changing yourself into an animal, by potion, or will alone. Tracy wondered what kind of creature she could become, and on the last page saw a recipe for something that claimed to show a person what form they would take as an animagi. The only problem was most of the ingredients were weird things like beetle eyes, unicorn hair and other oddities. Tracy thought back to the shop where she got the books, and remembered that at the back wall, there were rows upon rows of bottles. She had not gotten back that far, and wondered if that shop carried these things. She copied down a list of ingredients(but not what they were for or the amounts) and went back to the store. The old gentleman did not look surprised to see her and went directly to the counter at the back. "What ingredients do you need missy?" he said. She handed him the list, and he looked it over carefully. "Do you have a cauldron to mix this potion in?" "No, I don't." "Ok then, you need the ingredients, probably a motor and pestle, some scales and a cauldron, does that about wrap it up?" "Yes it does, thank you very much" "here are your supplies, please be careful with the mixing, some of these can combine to be poisonous": "could you suggest some other books then? Just to make sure I don't do anything too wrong?" "I thought you might want more books, so I decided to give you my old school books. I don't use them anymore, and you could benefit from the lessons. There will be no charge, just think of it as a permanent loan if you have to" Tracy just about danced in her joy, and beamed at the man, and when he was within reach handing her a parcel of books, gave him a hug. "I don't know why you are being so nice to me, but thank you so very much!!! I have been dreaming of something like this all of my life."
She gathered up all of the supplies and started out of the door, but the man stopped her and asked "have you opened the box yet?" Tracy blushed, "I forgot about it with the books" "when you do open it, make sure that you are sitting down, and don't be afraid of anything you see" he said cryptically. "What does that mean?" "It means your life if about to change completely missy, but it should be for the better" "thank you once again for all of your help" she said over her shoulder as she left, "I appreciate this more than you could know". Tracy didn't hear the old man say "I do know, and I hope you are able to stay safe"
Tracy hurried home so she could look at the books in the parcel and get started on the potion to find out what creature she could become. It was evening when she got home, and started the potion. It takes 12 hours to brew, so she knew she had to call in sick again in the morning. Since she had to be up to make the potion, she decided to start reading the books the nice gentleman gave her, and opened the parcel. It had about 25 books in it, and some of them were combinations. There was a book called "transfiguration years 1-7" and one called "Potions: beginning and advanced, years 1-7" there were lots of other books, and they all looked like they came from Hogwarts. Tracy wondered if the Harry Potter books were true and was going to go reread them, but all of a sudden she remembered what he had said about the box and went to get it.
After checking on the potion, she sat down with the box in her lap. She slowly put her hands on the latch and started lifting the lid. As the lid came up, it looked like some kind of mist was coming out of the box and covering her legs. She looked in the box and saw a grey shimmery lump of materiel that when she shook it out became a cloak. As she shook it, a piece of parchment fluttered to the floor. She bent to pick it up, but it was blank so she ignored it for a while because in the bottom of the box she saw a stick. As she picked it up, her hand trembled shaking the stick, and red and gold sparks flew out of the end. Tracy dropped the stick, no it was a wand, in shock. The wand landed on the parchment and words scrolled up and off the edge: this map was made by messrs. moony, padfoot, prongs and wormtail. Use it wisely, and get in lots of mischief. To make it work, tap the map with your wand and say "I solemnly swear I am up to no good", and when you are done tap it again and say "mischief managed" I know that the person in the prophecy will need this so I made sure this copy of the maruader's map and an invisible cloak were packaged together with the wand for the person who will change history. Long live the maruaders!
Tracy had to sit in her chair for quite a while assimilating this shocking event, realizing that one of the fantasy worlds she dreamed about had just became real. She had an invisible cloak and the maurader's map, and now just needed to get to hogwarts to find out how all this happened. finally Tracy stirred herself to go add the last ingredients to the potion. While she set the pot to simmer for the last 2 hours, Tracy started reading the books the old man had given her, and slowly started accepting that she might not be able to ever go back to being the same person again. Magic was real, and with this wand, she could do things she had only read and dreamed about.
After the potion was finished at nine the next morning she called in sick again so she could take a nap before trying the animagi potion. Her head was swimming with all of the things that had happened to her in the past 48 hours, and she couldn't get to sleep. She finally decided that she would get up and get some sleeping pills, but when she opened her eyes, she noticed something was very different. She decided that she had fallen asleep, and was dreaming since she was looking at a gorgeous castle with turrets and a moat, that had lots of children wandering around wearing what looked like robes. Since they were all walking in the same direction, she decided to follow a group, and ended up in what looked like the great hall from the Harry Potter books. It had four rows of tables and what looked like a head table with adults at it. Tracy decided to head toward the table with adults to see if she could listen in, and maybe interact with someone. As she was walking forward, the oldest man at the table, who had a long white beard and young looking sparkling eyes seemed to track her movements. She saw a lady with her hair in a bun and glasses, and a huge man with bushy hair and a beard exchange speaking glances, and looked around and noticed that everyone was staring at her! She looked around nervously, and smiled at the kids.
Then she walked up to the old man and said, "my name is Tracy, and I love this place! Where is it? Is it just a dream? If so I am going to be very disappointed when I wake up."
The old man looked at her with twinkling eyes, and said " my name is Albus Dumbledore, and this is a school called Hogwarts. Would you come with me to my office and we can talk?"
Tracy agreed, and followed him down hallways and up stairs until he stopped in front of a gargoyle and said "Reese's Pieces" She jumped back when it pivoted to the side and revealed a door. Dumbledore just grinned, and said "after you." Tracy gathered her courage and walked into a very comfortable office/library. She sat down in a comfortable chair and looked around. She saw lots of books, a fireplace, and a bird she had never heard of in her life other in fantasy books. When Dumbledore noticed the direction of her attention, he looked over his shoulder and said "I see you are interested in Fawkes. He is a phoenix, and my friend"
Tracy looked at the bird again and said "hello Fawkes, you are one glorious bird!" Then she had to fight the urge to duck when he flew over and perched on the back of her chair and stared preening her hair. Dumbledore just looked at her and said "he is an excellent judge of character." Then he asked her how she had gotten to Hogwarts, and she told him that she was dreaming. He looked searchingly at her for a minute, and then said, "yes you are. Do you know why you would be dreaming of us?"
And she replied, well, I found some interesting books at an antique store, or what I thought was one, the day before yesterday about magic, complete with a stick that may be a wand, and I think I ended up in this place so I can learn to control my power. I just moved here not even 2 months ago from Kansas, and I guess that magic and England just go together in my mind after all of the books I have read. He looked a little sad for a minute, and said "well, I think your dream is just about done, since you are starting to fade a bit. I hope you will come back again in your dreams." Just as she was fading out, he heard her say "I definitely will try!"
Once she was completely gone, he summoned the rest of the teachers to his office to discuss this phenomenon. A person, who could not be Muggle, but didn't seem to be a trained witch had made it to Hogwarts. She had made it through the wards and talked with people here. She had looked solid until she said she was dreaming, and then faded out, but she had never been to a magic school, but still got her hands on a wand and books. He was worried about her. After they had discussed all of this, they decided to try to find her if she came back the next night by getting her address. They needed to see how such a powerful person had made it through life without training.
After a few weeks of going to work then coming home and unpacking, Tracy was going stir-crazy. She decided to start exploring her new neighborhood, and stop by a different shop each night on her way home from work. She started by hitting all of the bookstores first, since she had not brought many of her books from home, and was feeling deprived of her main stress- relieving outlet. Tracy found some very interesting books about fantasy worlds, and some very interesting fiction about alternate realities including a set of books about a wizard named Harry Potter. Since Tracy had been accused many times of being a dreamer, these fantasy books were perfect for her since she was able to almost see the world as the author wrote. Since she had this ability, she didn't go to movies all that often because she could see better in her own imagination. Since Tracy bought so many books, during the first month there, her bank account started running low. To stay afloat, she had to go on a budget, and started going to other types of shops so she would not be tempted as much as she was in bookstores.
One day, Tracy stopped at a little antique store that caught her attention with Chinese dragon figurines in the window. When she stepped into the store, she was almost overwhelmed with all of the interesting things she could see. She knew it would take at least a week of browsing to be able to see everything, but it did seem like there was an order to the shop. Tracy decided to start to the right of the door, and walked slowly down the aisle looking at the shelves, touching objects that caught her eye. She saw many ceramic figurines, lots of antiques, and occasionally movie memorabilia. As she was bending down to get a better look at a china head doll, a bookcase caught her eye. In the bottom corner, were 3 books, tied together with a faded ribbon. She picked them up carefully, and looked at the titles. With her first glance, she knew she was going to buy these books. They almost seemed to call to her. She knew they had to be fantasy, since with titles like: "charms and hexes for beginners," "50 shields and their uses" and one with just the title of "animagi." , What else could they be? She looked at them and remembered the harry potter books, and wondered if maybe those books could be true. Tracy carried them carefully up to the counter, and the little old gentleman behind the counter looked at her, and seemed to be looking in her for something. Finally he nodded to himself, and said, "there is more than just the books in this lot" then he went to the back room and came back with what looked like an oversized necklace box. "Don't open the box until you get home," he advised her and rang up the purchase.
Tracy couldn't wait to get home to find out what the books were like, and pedaled home at top speed. Once she got home, she collapsed in her favorite chair and put her bag on her lap and slowly drew out the books and strange box. After turning the box over and over a couple of times, she decided to let the anticipation grow, and decided to read the books before opening the box. Since in all of her other reading shields played an important part, she decided to start with that book, and curled up with a glass of Mountain Dew, a bar of chocolate and the book. After reading the first page she closed the book and looked at the cover again, then checked the title page. This was no fantasy book! It seemed to tell exactly what shields to raise in what situation, and how to pronounce the spell. Tracy decided not to worry if it was real or not, and decided to keep reading. She opened it again and started learning how to protect herself from things like faeries, trolls, giants and manticores, also listed in the book were shields that would block others from knowing that magic was going on inside of a room or house. She didn't finish reading the book until about 3:00 in the morning, and just sat and stared at nothing for a while. This book seemed to operate on the premise that magic was real, and the person reading the book could control it. Tracy decided to read the book on charms and hexes next, and with liberal applications of caffeine, she was able to stay up til 7:00 and finish that book too.
Since she had been up all night reading, she called in sick to work so she could read the last, and most interesting looking, book. This book dealt with changing yourself into an animal, by potion, or will alone. Tracy wondered what kind of creature she could become, and on the last page saw a recipe for something that claimed to show a person what form they would take as an animagi. The only problem was most of the ingredients were weird things like beetle eyes, unicorn hair and other oddities. Tracy thought back to the shop where she got the books, and remembered that at the back wall, there were rows upon rows of bottles. She had not gotten back that far, and wondered if that shop carried these things. She copied down a list of ingredients(but not what they were for or the amounts) and went back to the store. The old gentleman did not look surprised to see her and went directly to the counter at the back. "What ingredients do you need missy?" he said. She handed him the list, and he looked it over carefully. "Do you have a cauldron to mix this potion in?" "No, I don't." "Ok then, you need the ingredients, probably a motor and pestle, some scales and a cauldron, does that about wrap it up?" "Yes it does, thank you very much" "here are your supplies, please be careful with the mixing, some of these can combine to be poisonous": "could you suggest some other books then? Just to make sure I don't do anything too wrong?" "I thought you might want more books, so I decided to give you my old school books. I don't use them anymore, and you could benefit from the lessons. There will be no charge, just think of it as a permanent loan if you have to" Tracy just about danced in her joy, and beamed at the man, and when he was within reach handing her a parcel of books, gave him a hug. "I don't know why you are being so nice to me, but thank you so very much!!! I have been dreaming of something like this all of my life."
She gathered up all of the supplies and started out of the door, but the man stopped her and asked "have you opened the box yet?" Tracy blushed, "I forgot about it with the books" "when you do open it, make sure that you are sitting down, and don't be afraid of anything you see" he said cryptically. "What does that mean?" "It means your life if about to change completely missy, but it should be for the better" "thank you once again for all of your help" she said over her shoulder as she left, "I appreciate this more than you could know". Tracy didn't hear the old man say "I do know, and I hope you are able to stay safe"
Tracy hurried home so she could look at the books in the parcel and get started on the potion to find out what creature she could become. It was evening when she got home, and started the potion. It takes 12 hours to brew, so she knew she had to call in sick again in the morning. Since she had to be up to make the potion, she decided to start reading the books the nice gentleman gave her, and opened the parcel. It had about 25 books in it, and some of them were combinations. There was a book called "transfiguration years 1-7" and one called "Potions: beginning and advanced, years 1-7" there were lots of other books, and they all looked like they came from Hogwarts. Tracy wondered if the Harry Potter books were true and was going to go reread them, but all of a sudden she remembered what he had said about the box and went to get it.
After checking on the potion, she sat down with the box in her lap. She slowly put her hands on the latch and started lifting the lid. As the lid came up, it looked like some kind of mist was coming out of the box and covering her legs. She looked in the box and saw a grey shimmery lump of materiel that when she shook it out became a cloak. As she shook it, a piece of parchment fluttered to the floor. She bent to pick it up, but it was blank so she ignored it for a while because in the bottom of the box she saw a stick. As she picked it up, her hand trembled shaking the stick, and red and gold sparks flew out of the end. Tracy dropped the stick, no it was a wand, in shock. The wand landed on the parchment and words scrolled up and off the edge: this map was made by messrs. moony, padfoot, prongs and wormtail. Use it wisely, and get in lots of mischief. To make it work, tap the map with your wand and say "I solemnly swear I am up to no good", and when you are done tap it again and say "mischief managed" I know that the person in the prophecy will need this so I made sure this copy of the maruader's map and an invisible cloak were packaged together with the wand for the person who will change history. Long live the maruaders!
Tracy had to sit in her chair for quite a while assimilating this shocking event, realizing that one of the fantasy worlds she dreamed about had just became real. She had an invisible cloak and the maurader's map, and now just needed to get to hogwarts to find out how all this happened. finally Tracy stirred herself to go add the last ingredients to the potion. While she set the pot to simmer for the last 2 hours, Tracy started reading the books the old man had given her, and slowly started accepting that she might not be able to ever go back to being the same person again. Magic was real, and with this wand, she could do things she had only read and dreamed about.
After the potion was finished at nine the next morning she called in sick again so she could take a nap before trying the animagi potion. Her head was swimming with all of the things that had happened to her in the past 48 hours, and she couldn't get to sleep. She finally decided that she would get up and get some sleeping pills, but when she opened her eyes, she noticed something was very different. She decided that she had fallen asleep, and was dreaming since she was looking at a gorgeous castle with turrets and a moat, that had lots of children wandering around wearing what looked like robes. Since they were all walking in the same direction, she decided to follow a group, and ended up in what looked like the great hall from the Harry Potter books. It had four rows of tables and what looked like a head table with adults at it. Tracy decided to head toward the table with adults to see if she could listen in, and maybe interact with someone. As she was walking forward, the oldest man at the table, who had a long white beard and young looking sparkling eyes seemed to track her movements. She saw a lady with her hair in a bun and glasses, and a huge man with bushy hair and a beard exchange speaking glances, and looked around and noticed that everyone was staring at her! She looked around nervously, and smiled at the kids.
Then she walked up to the old man and said, "my name is Tracy, and I love this place! Where is it? Is it just a dream? If so I am going to be very disappointed when I wake up."
The old man looked at her with twinkling eyes, and said " my name is Albus Dumbledore, and this is a school called Hogwarts. Would you come with me to my office and we can talk?"
Tracy agreed, and followed him down hallways and up stairs until he stopped in front of a gargoyle and said "Reese's Pieces" She jumped back when it pivoted to the side and revealed a door. Dumbledore just grinned, and said "after you." Tracy gathered her courage and walked into a very comfortable office/library. She sat down in a comfortable chair and looked around. She saw lots of books, a fireplace, and a bird she had never heard of in her life other in fantasy books. When Dumbledore noticed the direction of her attention, he looked over his shoulder and said "I see you are interested in Fawkes. He is a phoenix, and my friend"
Tracy looked at the bird again and said "hello Fawkes, you are one glorious bird!" Then she had to fight the urge to duck when he flew over and perched on the back of her chair and stared preening her hair. Dumbledore just looked at her and said "he is an excellent judge of character." Then he asked her how she had gotten to Hogwarts, and she told him that she was dreaming. He looked searchingly at her for a minute, and then said, "yes you are. Do you know why you would be dreaming of us?"
And she replied, well, I found some interesting books at an antique store, or what I thought was one, the day before yesterday about magic, complete with a stick that may be a wand, and I think I ended up in this place so I can learn to control my power. I just moved here not even 2 months ago from Kansas, and I guess that magic and England just go together in my mind after all of the books I have read. He looked a little sad for a minute, and said "well, I think your dream is just about done, since you are starting to fade a bit. I hope you will come back again in your dreams." Just as she was fading out, he heard her say "I definitely will try!"
Once she was completely gone, he summoned the rest of the teachers to his office to discuss this phenomenon. A person, who could not be Muggle, but didn't seem to be a trained witch had made it to Hogwarts. She had made it through the wards and talked with people here. She had looked solid until she said she was dreaming, and then faded out, but she had never been to a magic school, but still got her hands on a wand and books. He was worried about her. After they had discussed all of this, they decided to try to find her if she came back the next night by getting her address. They needed to see how such a powerful person had made it through life without training.