Changing Times
Charlie Lane is visited by Professor Sinistra, revealing that she is magic. But will this new world be more accepting of who Charlie is than the world she came from?
Chapter One
One would expect that someone, upon hearing the news that magic was real and that their daughter was magic, to have shown some excitement. Perhaps even to have fainted, or at least to have shown some degree of emotion. At offered the chance to go to real life wizarding shops and experience even more magic, one would have expected someone to be jumping up and down with eagerness. Which is why Professor Sinistra was ever so slightly wary of the reaction of Charlotte's mother.
"I'm sorry, Charlotte, I just don't have the time to go with you to get your school things," Annabel Lane said, her voice actually sounding remorseful, although her body language suggested otherwise. Her head was upright, chin jutting forward just slightly, eyes boring into Charlotte's, defying her to say something, or whine that she wanted her mummy with her.
Charlotte gave her no such satisfaction.
"That's alright, mum," she told her. "I'm sure Professor Sinistra would be more than happy to chaperone me." She looked up at the woman who had arrived to tell her about the new school she had been offered a place at. A school that did many marvellous and, most importantly, magical things. Charlotte, or Charlie as she preferred to be known, had been all set to go to a boarding school in September anyway, an all girls one. She was relieved when the Professor had told her that this school wasn't segregated in quite such a Victorian manner.
"Why, of course," the silver haired woman, who was of course Professor Sinistra, replied. "I wouldn't expect a first year muggle born student to be able to locate the alley on their first venture into the wizarding world. Would you be ready to leave now?"
Charlie jumped to her feet, her mind racing at a hundred miles an hour. She knew she had never been like everyone in her classes before, and she knew that it wasn't just because of her stronger sense of independence, due to having a mostly absent mother and an entirely deadbeat father. It also wasn't, as she had first thought, just due to her repulsion at the idea of make up, and the magazines that the other girls in her year were obsessed with, whereas she chose instead to climb trees and generally get in trouble with the boys.
No, none of that was what made her more of an outcast. It was her ability to do magic.
It explained a lot of things, such as the dresses her mother had tried to make her wear finding their way inexplicably onto the roof, her homework occasionally completing itself and the make up her grandparents had bought for her disappearing as soon as they'd arrived home. Her friends, on the rare occasion she had made a friend, often shunned her for such displays of magic. They couldn't have been seen as normal by regular people.
She watched in amazement as the Professor drew from her pocket a pouch, from which she took a pinch of some sort of powder and threw into the fireplace. The flames turned an emerald green colour.
"Follow my instructions carefully, Miss Lane," she instructed, and stepped into the fireplace. "Diagon Alley!" she said clearly, and promptly vanished.
Charlie stared at the empty fireplace, and looked over at her mother.
"Are you sure you don't want to come?" she asked her, only now that the stranger was gone from their home voicing how she felt. Her mother only shook her head, and Charlie tried to shake the feeling that, somehow, her mother was disappointed in her. She couldn't think why. She had stopped all the nonsense she had once been coming out with, how she didn't want to grow up and get married and have a child, that she wanted to go out and work instead, do something exciting with animals, or exploring, or be the captain of a ship. Her mother had told her to stop being ridiculous, that those were boys jobs, entirely unsuitable for her. When Charlie had pointed out that she herself worked, Annabel had told her that was different.
Charlie shrugged off the thoughts about her mother, and the issues she clearly had regarding traditional gender roles. She hoped it wouldn't be so bad in the magical world. And that there might be a magic spell of some sort she could use to prevent herself from ever growing breasts.
She stepped forward into the fireplace and spoke firmly; "Diagon alley!"
Before she could catch her breath, she was being rushed up, up, up through the chimney. She could smell soot from a thousand fireplaces, and even once thought she caught the faint whiff of some toasting marshmallows. A brick knocked her elbow, and she quickly pulled it in, crossing her arms around her. She didn't want to be injured her first time in the magic world.
At last the journey stopped, and she was spat out of a chimney in a dingy looking pub. There were few others around. A tall man stood behind the bar, polishing a glass, and looked her way when she came tumbling through. No one else looked around. Charlie could see a man and a woman huddled in a corner together.
"Alright, Miss Lane?" Professor Sinistra asked politely, dusting some of the soot off of her shoulder.
"Please, just Charlie will do," she smiled up at the teacher, who returned the expression.
"Professor, I'd move if I were you," the barman called over. Charlie looked up at him, faintly shocked that he knew who the woman next to him was. Was Hogwarts such a huge deal, or was the magic world so small that everyone knew who everyone was? "I've got the Weasley's coming through in a minute, and you don't want to be there when they do." He chuckled slightly, and Professor Sinistra laughed as well.
"Well, let's move then, Charlie," she urged. "Although we may stay here a few minutes while the Weasley's arrive. They've got a girl your age, Ginny, who'll be starting Hogwarts too. It might be nice to see a familiar face on the train in September."
Charlie knew that the Professor meant well, but she didn't think that this Ginny would be the firm friend she would have liked her to be. Still, it didn't hurt to wait.
All of a sudden, green flames shot out of the fireplace, and a boy with red hair came tumbling through. His landing was far more balanced than hers had been, for all its roughness. She guessed he was only about a year older than she was.
"Ah, Weasley!" Professor Sinistra called over to him, and he seemed to freeze as if he was scared of the Professor. "Have you been completing your astronomy charts?" He turned around slowly, and Charlie recognised the face of someone who wasn't exactly the best at schoolwork.
"Uhm, Professor Sinistra," he stammered slightly. "Uhm, no, not yet. Harry's been staying, we had to rescue him…"He trailed off, as if what he was saying he shouldn't have been. He looked at me. "Hello, first year, are you?" he asked.
"Yeah, my name's Charlie Lane." I stuck my hand out, and he shook it, looking slightly distracted.
"Ron Weasley," he muttered. "Harry really should've come through by now…"
The fire turned green again, and a worried looking woman, also with red hair, hurried out of it, looking around her.
"Ron!" she called. "Did Harry come through?"
"No, mum," the boy, Ron, called back. "Did something happen to him?"
"The poor boy mumbled, first time using floo powder, can't really blame him," she bustled.
"Is there a problem, Molly?" Professor Sinistra asked the woman.
"Aurora! Harry seems to have gotten himself lost in the floo network," the woman, Molly replied.
Behind her, there was another burst of green, and an older red headed boy with a younger girl spilled out the fireplace.
"Ouch, Percy, let go of me!" the girl complained. Charlie guessed that was Ginny. "Mum, is Harry Potter going to be alright?" She spoke with the air of the girls at Charlie's old school who had crushes on boys, and Charlie noticed that the man and the woman in the corner glanced around at the mention of Harry's full name.
"I could look after Ginny and Ron for you, mum," the older boy said, sounding very pompous and full of himself indeed. When Charlie looked closer, she could see that he had on a shield shaped badge with the letter 'P' on it. She doubted that it stood for his name, and instead assumed that he was a prefect of some kind.
"Thank you, Percy, but we had all best stick together. Fred, George and your father should be through soon." Molly spoke over Ron's protests at the assumption that he needed to be looked after, and two more boys were spat out of the fireplace in quick succession. Charlie guessed that they were Fred and George, although how anyone could tell them apart she didn't know.
"Do you need any assistance, Molly?" Professor Sinistra asked. Molly shook her head.
"Thank you, but we can manage. Fred, George, do keep an eye out for Harry!" she called at the backs of the retreating twins. One of them raised a hand in acknowledgement, but neither turned around, heading instead for a door near the back of the pub.
Charlie watched them go, not noticing a seventh person step out the fire.
"Molly, he's probably only gone one grate too far. Come on, Ron, Ginny, let's go." Charlie glanced around at the unfamiliar voice, and watched the five remaining Weasley's leave the pub.
"Well, those were the Weasley's, Charlie," Professor Sinistra said calmly. "One of the biggest families there is in the wizarding world."
"Yeah, I could see that," Charlie said, slightly unbelieving. "Five kids is a lot."
"Molly and Arthur have seven children. William and Charles have already graduated from Hogwarts."
"What a coincidence," Charlie laughed. "We have the same name." Professor Sinistra looked at her strangely, and Charlie blushed. "I mean, he has the male version."
The Professor didn't drop the look she was giving the soon to be Hogwarts student, although she did leave the matter there, and instead shepherded her towards the door at the back of the pub, through which Charlie could see an archway leading to a long line of shops.
"Welcome to Diagon Alley," she smiled.