The Fateful Encounter/ The Explanation
Samuel wakes up with a start and squints as sunlight pours into his room. It's morning already? He thought. He gets up and dresses for the day. He had to go to Diagon Ally for this year's school supplies. He descends the stairs and meets his older brother Johnathon, age eighteen, his younger brother and sister, age ten, the twins, Sally and Stewart, already up and eating breakfast. His mother, Martha, is drinking her usual morning tea and his father, Arthur was probably already off to work at the ministry. His family had similar physical traits such as near blond hair and various shades of blue eyes.
"Morning, sleepy head," John teases, "Just wake up or are you sleep walking?"
"Good to see you're as lively as ever," Sam says dryly.
Talia, the youngest of the Longfellow children, age five, waddles into the dining room, rubbing her eyes. "Mornin'," she says still waking up. Sam helps her to get into her seat at the table and gives her some breakfast. He then serves himself some and starts eating.
"I can't believe that this is my last year at Hogwarts," John says full of energy, but Sam was only half listening as his brother kept talking. His mind went back to the dream he had the previous night and who that girl was. What was she to him? What role will she have in his life? He didn't know and he wasn't sure he wanted to find out.
Sam was brought out of his thoughts when John kept calling his name.
"Earth to Sammy," John says, a little peeved that he was being ignored.
"Hmm," Sam asks with little interest.
John's eyes widen, "you usually hate it when I call you Sammy," John says, astonished, "You're not sick are you?"
Everyone looks at Sam curious. He looks around confused. "What?" he asks.
"We've been trying to get your attention for five minutes," Martha says, "Is everything all right?"
"Yeah, yeah," he says, "I was just thinking."
No one questioned him. They knew that he didn't like it when people pestered him to speak his mind. And Sam could get scary when he was mad. After breakfast, John, Sally, Stewart, and Sam set off to get their school supplies. The twins' birthday was just after school started so they got special permission to go to Hogwarts before they officially turned eleven. Once they were at Diagon Ally, they first went to Allivanders' to allow the twins to get their wands while John and Sam went to the book store to buy the books they would need for that year and also bought the twins theirs in the process.
Once the twins both got their wands, they headed to get their uniforms to be fitted. Sam waited for his turn to be fitted with Sally. The door opens and the bell jingles letting them know another customer was there. "Yes," one of the women says not looking up, "please, wait to be fitted." Sam looks to see who it is and his eyes widens. Even though the shop was dimly light with candles, he could tell that the person who just walked in was a dark haired girl. Though there are many young girls with black hair but this one was different. She seemed uncomfortable being here. He wondered why.
Sam was frozen to the spot and unable to do anything but Sally seemed unphased by this new arrival and instigated a conversation with her. "Hi," she says brightly, "my name is Sally Longfellow. And who would you be?"
"My name is Ann Marie Huntington," the girl says with an accent that clearly came from the States.
"May I call you Marie?" Sally asks.
Ann Marie looked stunned. Could it be that she has never encountered someone like his sister Sam thought to himself. "I...I don't mind," she says shyly.
Sam couldn't help but think that she was cute the way she acted. "This is my older brother, Sammy." Sally says, bringing Sam back to what was going on.
"Sally," Sam says, trying to be patient, "don't call me Sammy. Or do you want me to call you Silly Sally like John used to?" he teasingly threatened and she giggles.
"If I may ask," Marie says softly, "but who is "John"?"
Before either Sam or Sally could answer her, John walks up with his new school uniform wrapped up saying, "That would be me. My name is Johnathon," He grabs Marie's hand and gently kisses the back of it and winks at her causing Sam to twitch unconsciously, "but everyone calls me John."
"O...Oh," Marie stutters and blushes, "It's nice to meet you John."
"Likewise," John smiles brightly.
Stewart comes up and looks at everyone confused and then sees Marie and asks without thinking, "Are you some kind of raven?'
"Stewart," John scolds, "you must be polite to the young woman."
"Oh no," Marie says quietly, "It's fine. I can understand why he would ask that. Can I have my hand back please?" she asks John.
Sam walks over to the women to be fitted for his uniform, not sure what was going on with him just now. Why did he not like the fact that John kissed Marie's hand? He only just met her and he's feeling this way!? But, he thought to himself, I'm sure I'll forget about her in no time.
...
Marie looks after Sam in confusion, why does it feel like I've met him somewhere? She thinks to herself. John continues to talk to her but she can only hear half of what he is saying and responded without thinking of what he was saying to her. The girl, Sally, follows Sam to be fitted as well and it is almost her turn. She looks away from Sam as she tries focusing on John and what he is talking about. America? She wasn't sure but she can't get that guy out of her mind.
She takes a quick glimpse towards Sam to find him looking back at her. She blushes and looks away again. Her mind wonders to the move here and her guard slips. She notices that everyone can sense her magic power seeping from her body when everyone becomes deathly silent. She quickly puts her guard back up and walks to one of the seats against the wall and looks at the floor. She doesn't dare look up to see if anyone was looking at her. She feels tears trying to push its way out of her eyes until she hears footsteps approach where she sat. She could feel her body tense up and tremble from the effort. Marie feels a gentle hand touch her knee. She looks up to see Sam looking down at her with concern.
"Hey," Sam says, "are you ok?" He kneels down in front of her, causing her to blush more and look away.
John walks up behind Sam, "Gee Sammy, I have never seen you so interested in a single person before." Sally and Stewart both agree. "But what I don't get is what happened just now?" John and everyone looks towards Marie, "Can you tell us what happened?"
Marie looks around at everyone that is surrounding her when her mother walks in. She takes in the situation and says, "How about after you're all fitted, we all get something to eat and I'll explain the situation?" Everyone agrees to that and Sam and Sally go back to being fitted. Abigail walks over to her daughter, "Is everything alright?"
"I don't know," Marie says shortly, looking down at the floor once again until it is her turn to be fitted.
Once everyone had their uniforms, they go to an eatery nearby and Abigail starts to tell the story of how Marie got this illness, "She was born with too much magic for her young body. And despite her appearance, she got no traits from her father or me. We don't know where she got her hair and eye color from but we think it's all that magic inside of her. But if she's not careful, that power of hers could build up and explode killing everyone around her including herself," Everyone is silent when they heard what could happen if her power goes out of control. Marie sits in her seat playing with her food, not wanting to look anyone in the eyes but she knew that they are looking at her. "We've been trying to figure out how to help her get over it but nothing has helped so far," Abigail continues to say, "We hope that, if she learns how to use the magic she has, then it will be easier for her to cope with all that that pent up energy. But in America, there is no magical school in which to teach her."
"That makes sense," Sam says, he looks at Marie with what looked like concern, "There have been similar cases but they did not live this long. Usually it's from stress or depression. I've never heard of it occurring since birth."
"Neither have we," Abigail says, "but lately it's been getting harder for her to contain it," Abigail looks down at her food, unable to say anything else. No one pressures her to continue. They know without anyone saying it wouldn't have made a difference in the matter.