Chapter 1: Pea Soup

14 years later

August 1, 1995

"Ahhhh!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

I had been having these nightmares about my parents for a while, but they were never this bad. I keep wondering if they are trying to tell me something.

Madame Elsie rushed into my room to see what was wrong and she didn't look happy at all. I already didn't like where this was going.

"It is 2:00 in the morning! You better have a good reason for waking everyone up."

I looked down at my hands and began to twiddle my thumbs.

"I didn't mean to... I had a bad dream," I spoke quietly.

"That's it? I came all the way down here for a bad dream?" She asked me with a very annoyed look on her face.

"Well, at least I'm not hurt!"

"That would probably be the only way to shut you up and teach you to not speak out of turn."

I was extremely hurt and angry in that moment, but I would never let it show in front of these people. Madame Elsie always treats me like I am nothing! I don't know how much longer I can deal with this!

Then, all of a sudden, Madame Elsie was being shoved out of my room by an invisible force, slamming my door in her face.

Something like that always happens when I get really angry. I've known about my magic for a couple of years now, but I still lose control sometimes. It feels like my magic grows stronger every day.

I got up to open my door and I saw that Madame Elsie had left. Apparently some of the kids that stayed in rooms near me saw what happened. Their names were Billy and Leo. They always make fun of me. I guess they just can't get it into their heads that I'm older and could really hurt them if I wanted to. I rolled my eyes as I saw them approaching me and I inwardly smirked. This should be good.

"Hey Chaisty, I always knew you were a weird one," said Billy.

"Yeah, no wonder you don't have any friends," Leo added.

I started staring at them in an unfocused way and I turned my head a little thinking it would scare them.

"Hey, let's go... I think she's doing her death stare," Leo said trembling.

I jumped at them a little, which caused them to freak out.

"Run! Ahhh!"

"Hahaha. Serves you right! Now stay out!" I yelled out my door.

I watched them run away like two little chickens. Then, I decided to go back to sleep hoping that my nightmares wouldn't come back.

·∫·∫·∫·∫·∫·∫·∫·∫·∫·

Sunlight streamed through the cheap, old curtains in my room. I looked on my bedside table and saw that it was 7:00 in the morning. I'm 15 years old today. Hardly anyone tells me happy birthday and it's been ages since I've had a birthday party.

"It's just another day," I sigh inwardly.

I sat up in bed and rubbed my sleepy eyes. I almost shrieked from what I saw on my desk.

There was a large barn owl perched on my chair and there were many colorful packages covering my desktop. As I moved to get up, the owl suddenly swooped out the window, which I didn't even know was open.

"I guess I forgot to close it."

As soon as I said that, the window magically closed on its own.

"...Or not."

I looked over the colorful wrapping paper before opening them. This was the first time in years that I had received presents on my birthday. I unwrapped them slowly, wanting to savor the moments. I had received lots of books, such as "Hogwarts a History" and "The Standard Book of Spells" for years 1-5.

"What in the world is all this? What's a Hogswart? Who sent these? You would think that they would be expecting me or something. Whatever... I'll ponder over this later."

I hid the books under my bed and began to make my way towards the kitchen. I was nearly there when I was stopped by Brenda, a bratty, annoying girl who roomed right across from me.

"Hi Felicity, Happy Birthday! I heard you turned 15 today," she said in an apathetic tone.

"Yeah, so what do you want," I replied callously.

"Madame Elsie wants to see you. She says that you're in trouble again. She wants you to go back to your room."

"Whatever...," I say walking in the opposite direction.

There's no way I'm staying cooped up in my room all day! Nothing I do can please that woman!

After arriving to the kitchen, I noticed that all the foods gone.

"Wonderful. Just peaky. I guess I could go out into town to get breakfast. I will have to sneak past Madame Elsie."

I headed back upstairs to get cloak, but I had to be careful because Madame Elsie was still looking for me. I arrived outside of my door and I heard Madame Elsie talking to someone that I didn't recognize. When their footsteps started coming closer to the door, I quickly looked around trying to find somewhere to hide. The door slowly started to creak open, so I just threw myself against the wall and prayed they wouldn't see me. They came out and walked the other way, which caused me to sigh in relief.

I saw a glimpse of the visitor, but I didn't know her. She looked to be middle aged, had grey hair, and wore black professional clothing.

When I was sure they were gone, I went into my room to fetch my cloak. Then I was off to London. I made my way down the streets, observing different families and their children. I smiled sadly, wishing that I had a family too.

As I looked around, something rather odd caught my attention. There was a building nestled in-between a record shop and a bookstore. It didn't receive any attention or second glances. A little boy ran up to the building about to go in when his mother grabbed his hand pulling him away.

"But Mommy! Why don't we go in there?"

"There is nothing there. It's just a run-down old pub. I honestly don't know why they haven't built something new there yet."

I glanced at the pub, not seeing anything wrong with it.

"It looks perfectly functional to me," I said to myself.

I walked inside the pub and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. There were many people hustling and bustling, chairs were stacking themselves on the tables, and pictures were moving.

"Impossible...," I spoke in awe.

I saw a bar in the corner and decided to sit on one of the wooden stools. There was a luncheon menu posted on the wall behind the counter.

"How odd. Leaky Leaky Soup, House Soup Leaky, Soup Soup Soup... What is this place?"

An elderly man must have overhead me because he began to walk over to me and proceeded to take the seat next to me.

"If you're looking to eat something off the menu, I suggest staying away from the pea soup."

"What? Why? Pea soup seems like the only ordinary thing on the menu."

"Pea soup is known to eat people if you're not quick enough eating it."

"I see... What exactly is this place?"

The old man chuckled at my lack of knowledge of the wizarding world.

"This is the Leaky Cauldron! It's only one of the oldest, well known places around! How have you not heard of it?"

Before I could respond, a short, bald man came up and asked, "Can I help you with something?"

"Yes, um... I guess I will have the Soup House Leaky and... the Exploding Lemonade sounds good."

The old man then whispered, "The lemonade is known to cause some health problems."

"Oh! On second thought, I'll just have tea."

The nameless, bald man limped away to prepare my food.

"That was Tom. He's the landlord of the Leaky Cauldron."

We began to chat with each other, until Tom returned and said, "That will be 5 sickles."

I sat flabbergasted, not really sure what a sickle even was.

"Sickle. I'm not sure if I have any sickles," I muttered to myself while searching in my change purse.

When I looked up, I noticed that the old man was paying Tom for my lunch. He handed 5 shiny, sliver coins to Tom, who happily limped away. The man noticed my shocked expression and simply smiled in response.

"I can tell that you aren't from around here."

"Thank you," I replied and smiled with gratitude.

I observed the "soup" in front of me, which looked like a pile of dung and smelled like eggs. Not wanting to be rude, I reluctantly swallowed a spoonful and surprisingly it didn't taste as bad as it looked.


Author's Note: Hey everyone! How did you like the first chapter? I did a lot of research about The Leaky Cauldron to try and make it as real as possible! Would you try the Soup House Leaky and Exploding Lemonade?