*~Chapter One~*
Cora and Sammy, two best friends that had known each other since the second grade, were having one of their many sleepovers that happened almost every weekend. Eagerly the two began to watch the first Harry Potter movie, being the big Harry Potter fans that they were. When the movie was finished Sammy realized she had left her toothbrush at her house and told Cora she would be right back. Going down the stairs and out the front door Sammy walked outside and looked around. She then rubbed her eyes with her knuckles, thinking that the Harry Potter movie was messing with her head. Sammy then blinked several times in alarm. What the heck is going on!? Sammy thought to herself as she saw owls flying around with letters tied to their legs. She then ran back inside and back up to Cora's room.
"Cora! We have a problem!" Sammy exclaimed. Before Cora could even say anything though, Sammy continued to talk without even taking a breath. "There are owls flying around with letters and packages on their legs. Just like in the Harry Potter movie! And…" Sammy trailed off when she saw two owls at Cora's window. "Well, should we let them in?" Sammy asked Cora, looking over at her best friend waiting for some sort of response from her shell-shocked friend when she looked up from her most recent book.
Cora had repeatedly tried to tell her friend to calm down but when Sammy continued to prattle on she just rolled her ice blue eyes in annoyance. When Sammy was finally finished talking Cora just stared at her. Had her best friend finally go insane? "Owls at my window? Hah! Yeah right! You obviously drank too much…" Cora had turned around then and saw the two owls Sammy had mentioned staring back at her from the outside of her window. "…soda…" She finished meekly before cautiously going over to her window. Opening up the thin sheet of glass the two owls flew inside her room along with the gust of air that whipped at Cora's black hair. Quickly shutting the window Cora then watched as one of the owls landed on her arm and the other on Sammy's. The owl perched on Cora's arm was dappled with the many colors of autumn: red, gold, and yellow while her friend's owl was light gray. Large chocolate brown eyes stared up at Cora while dark brown, almost black eyes stared up at Sammy while the owls both held out their legs for the girls to untie the letters.
"This is so weird…" Cora told her best friend before untying the letter, her friend doing the same. They both opened the finely decorated envelopes and reached in to take out the letter inside of it. Cora, an avid reader, read the letter quick and easily and screamed when she finished, the owl on her arm squawking in fright before flying to her dresser, leaving Cora alone to hyperventilate by her window. "This is a letter from Hogwarts!!! What kind of sick joke is this!?" Cora demanded before she stared looking around her room, throwing up pillows and examining the corners of her room looking for some type of hidden camera, waiting for someone to jump out of her closet and scream "You've just been punked!" Cora found no such luck. Staring at the letter again Cora looked over at Sammy who was still silent as she stared at her own letter. "Well…if this is a letter from Hogwarts, we need some sort of helper, like Hagrid! But since he's not here, or anyone else, this letter has gotta be fake!" Cora nodded like this was a certain fact before dropping her letter with another scream. "Oh, my, God! Sammy, your hair and eyes!!" Cora shouted in alarm as she dropped her letter, her best friend's appearance changing before her very eyes. Sammy was finally brought to her senses and gave her a questioning stare.
"What's wrong with my hair and eyes?...Holy crap!!! Your hair and eyes are changing!" Cora screamed again and darted to the nearest mirror, grabbing fistfuls of her now brown hair and staring in shock at her new appearance. "Oh my God! What is going on!?" Sammy demanded, starting to freak out over this whole situation. "How the heck is all of this real? Hogwarts is just in a book and a movie!" Sammy exclaimed. "Wait…maybe we're dreaming!" Sammy said as if that would explain everything before pinching her arm, hard. "Ow!!! No, I am not asleep." She said, stating the obvious. "What are we going to do!? I mean there is no way all of this is happening!!" Sammy said starting to calm down a bit while Cora still continued to search for a hidden camera while freaking out over her new appearance. "Maybe your parents will be able to tell us what's going on…" Sammy said to Cora trying to get her best friend's attention.
"Brilliant!" Cora shouted when she heard Sammy's idea then grabbed her friend's hand, darting down the stairs. "I think my mom's in the kitchen! C'mon!" She then dragged her friend to the kitchen but stopped at the doorway when she almost bumped into…her dinner? Cora and Sammy's jaws went slack as the two friends watch some pot roast drift past them and onto the table that was currently setting itself. Dishes washed themselves while a duster was dusting the shelves. "Wha…?" Snapping out of it Cora looked around and finally saw her mom and was about to get her attention when she saw what was in her mother's hand. "No…it can't be!" Her mother was holding a wand. Cora slowly backed out of the kitchen, her eyes wide. "Okay, this is either a really good prank show or we're really in the Harry Potter movie…" Cora told her friend as she watched the house clean itself.
"Cora, this is really weird. We have to find out what's going on!" Sammy told her friend . Well, if we are in a movie then someone should be coming along and explaining the whole Hogwarts thing. Sammy then looked over at Cora. "I gotta go to the bathroom…I'll be right back." Sammy then rushed to the bathroom and shut the door behind her, locking it. "How on earth is this happening? Magic isn't real and Hogwarts is fake!" Sammy muttered to herself while looking in the mirror, examining her new reflection. "My eyes are blue…my hair is shorter and with brown and blonde in it…something is definitely not right." Sammy then used the bathroom and washed her hands before going back to Cora. When she got back there was a knock at the front door. "Uh…Cora, should we get that?" Sammy asked quietly, not really knowing what to expect from the way this day was going.
"I guess we should get that…" She replied warily to Sammy's question before slowly making her way to the front door. Opening it, Cora was expecting to see someone like Hagrid so she was shocked to see an old man dressed in a purple robe and hat with spectacles on the bridge of his crooked nose. Of course, seeing him and being the huge Harry Potter fan that she was, Cora knew who it was standing in front of her. "Dumbledore???" Cora exclaimed in surprise, shock etched into her face. The old man gave a chuckle and walked inside as Cora held the door open for him. He gave a knowing smile to them both but didn't say a word as she sat down on the couch in the living room. With a wave of his hand a tea cup with a tea pot and a bowl of sugar appeared out of thin air and he slowly prepared himself some tea, all the while still saying nothing.
"Where's Hagrid?" Cora tried, looking really confused about seeing the old professor in her living room.
"My, my. You do know a lot, don't you?" Dumbledore remarked with another chuckle. "Don't you want to know why I'm here? And why Hogwarts is suddenly real to you two? Children are always demanding answers these days…" Dumbledore then sat back with a content sigh and took a sip of his tea, his stormy piercing grey eyes on Sammy and Cora, waiting for their answer.
"Yes, we'd like to know… Of course we would!" Cora stuttered out, looking over at her friend. Dumbledore smile kindly.
"Don't answer for your friend, my dear. She can talk for herself." Dumbledore told Cora warmly, his voice calm and kind. He then looked over at Sammy. "Would you like to know why all this is happening now?" He asked with a twinkle in his eye. Sammy looked to Cora, then Dumbledore, then to Cora once more. Sammy then got really quiet, and went into her shell. Even though she was with her friend, she didn't know Dumbledore personally.
"Yes…" She replied, her voice barely above a whisper. Dumbledore was silent for a moment after Sammy answered, leaning forward in his seat to hear the soft-spoken child better, before settling back onto the comfy cushions of the couch.
"Good. Now, what would you like me to start with?" He asked and Cora stared at him like it was obvious.
"How about with: why are we here?" Cora asked, crossing her arm in front of her chest. Dumbledore smiled, amused by her spunk for someone supposedly so shy.
"I figured as much. Now: you're here because I summoned you myself." When Cora was about to ask why he summoned them, Dumbledore held up his hand to silence her. "Let me finish. You've been led to believe Hogwarts is just a fantasy place where witches and wizards live alongside Muggles. Well, it's not. The Wizard world is very real here and so is the threat that comes with it: Voldemort." He said that dreadful name with no fear, but Cora involuntarily shuddered. She had never liked that name, it just screamed the word 'evil.' Sammy cringed as well but stayed silent, still inside her shell where she felt safer, less vulnerable. "Harry Potter cannot defeat him alone, and Voldemort will have many allies. The magical abilities within the two of you are astounding and you'll be great assets for stopping Voldemort. But you are untrained, and your magical powers lay dormant within you. Because of this, the two of you will have to attend Hogwarts for your training. Have I answered most of your questions?" Dumbledore asked the two girls and the two girls looked at each other before Sammy asked her question when Cora gave an encouraging nod.
Sammy, brave and fearless Samantha, was terrified. Fighting Voldemort was not how she had planned to spend the next seven years of her life, and she knew how evil this guy was since she had seen the movies and read the books. Could this get any worse? "How come we never showed any signs of magic?" Sammy asked quietly, running her fingers through her hair, a nervous habit of hers.
Dumbledore took another sip of his tea before he answered. "Again, they've been lying dormant inside of you. Have you had anything happen to you or anyone else that you couldn't explain?" He asked and Cora looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Well…there was that one time I was five and I really wanted one of those huge inflatable pools. The next thing I knew one popped out right in front of me in my backyard, but then we had to get rid of it since we didn't have a fence. And on that fieldtrip to the zoo I wanted some wolves to be free and the cage just disappeared…" Dumbledore nodded slowly but Cora wasn't finished. "But those only happened when Sammy was right next to me and we had both wanted the same thing." Looking back over at the old professor she saw that Dumbledore looked shocked. "What?" Cora asked.
"It seems that the two of you are more powerful together…interesting." He sat back on the couch, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "Anymore questions?" He asked looking at towards Cora since she seemed to want to ask something else.
"How did someone discover Hogwarts? Isn't the school invisible to all Muggles?" Cora asked and Dumbledore smiled.
"Corazon, my dear, a Wizard leaked out the information but made it seem like some sort of fantasy world. I believe his name is David Yates."
"The director of the Harry Potter movie?!" Cora exclaimed and Dumbledore nodded. "Are you going to help us shop for our supplies?" Cora then asked and Dumbledore shook his head.
"No, you'll be traveling with Hagrid in a few moments. He'll tell you all about the things you need. And with that said, I take my leave." Dumbledore waved his hand and the tea cup and tea pot along with the bowl of sugar disappeared. Dumbledore then started for the door, stopping at the doorway. "Last chance: anymore questions? Revelations?" He asked as he looked from one girl to the other.
Cora and Sammy shook her head. As Cora guided the old professor outside Sammy slipped away unnoticed back to her best friend's room. When Cora walked back into her house and shut the door, she looked for her friend. Not seeing her, Cora went back up the stairs and into her room to find her friend crying, holding her favorite stuffed bear for dear life as she sat on the bed. "I'm so scared…" Sammy whispered when she realized Cora was there, standing at the doorway. Cora sighed and crawled on the bed next to her friend, laying her head on Sammy's lap so she could look up at her. Purposely making funny faces to make her friend laugh she gently pried the teddy bear gently from Sammy's grasp and made her voice high and squeaky, pretending it was the bear that was talking.
"I lurve you Sammy!!!" The bear 'told' Samantha and pecked her on the cheek with the help of Cora's hands. "What's wrong?" Cora continued in her high pitched voice, still pretending to be the bear and making funny faces. Cora figured Sammy's sudden tears had something to do with the new task that had just been put upon their shoulders: Voldemort. She was scared too, but Cora knew that there wouldn't be a real battle until they went after the Sorcerer's Stone so she wasn't all too worried. Cora grinned when Sammy chuckled at her attempts to make her laugh and waited patiently for her friend to tell her what was wrong with her.
"I'm just scared." Sammy repeated, her voice now a bit louder since it was only Cora she was talking to. "I mean, this is all just too weird and it's happening so fast! I don't want to fight evil, Cora! I just want things to get back to normal!" Sammy explained to her friend, looking out the window to wipe her tears away before looking back at Cora. Her friend was silent for awhile, making Sammy's teddy bear dance while she looked thoughtful.
"Well, I can't argue with you there. This is going really fast, and I don't want to fight evil either. But you know what I'm happy about?" Cora looked from Sammy's teddy bear to her friend since second grade. "I'm just glad I'm doing this with my best friend in the whole wide world and that I'm not alone." She told Sammy with a tender smile. She then put Sammy's teddy bear in front of her friend's face. "Don't forget about me!" Cora spoke for the teddy bear again in a high-pitched voice. She then laughed and gave the teddy bear back to Sammy and got into a sitting position next to her friend.
"I'm glad we're in this together too." Sammy told her friend then hugged her teddy bear tight before setting it aside. "I wonder when Hagrid is going to get here and get us our supplies." Sammy said with a thoughtful look on her face. I hope they don't put us in different houses. Sammy thought worriedly, not really wanting to tell her friend what she was thinking. "Anyway, I hope Hagrid gets here soon, I don't want to be around strange people for too long." Sammy said as she walked over to Cora's window and watching the owls flying around town outside. Cora joined her friend at the window, but their thoughts were soon interrupted when a loud crash ripped through the house, making both of the friends jump in alarm. What was that!!!???