I don't own MR or HP blah blah blah.
ONTO THE STORY!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Max P.O.VWe had gotten lost. Very lost.
It wasn't that we didn't know where to go, it was that we didn't know where we were! We had been flying over London, just happy to be free and, well, happy to be happy.
We had completed destroying all of the Itex's and School's, and we didn't know where to go next.
I remember that we flew over a forest, and then, all of a sudden, I couldn't locate us. I usually know exactly where we are because of our sense of direction and such, but for some reason, I just couldn't!
"Going down, guys!" I said. Everyone nodded, and we landed in a tree, and then jumped down easily.
I looked around. It was kind of dark, and had a creepy feeling around it.
We needed to get out of this forest and find out where we were.
Oh, the irony.
I need to climb a tree, and I just got down from one.
I rolled my eyes, and quickly picked a tall tree and climbed it. I poked my head through the almost bare branches and saw a castle up ahead.
"Head east. There's some kind of a castle there. We can find our bearings, and maybe contact Mom and Ella."
Angel nodded, and bit her lip. "I can tell that there adults here. We have to be careful. There's something… strange about them."
I nodded, my eyebrows coming together. "Well, let's go!"
We headed east, and soon came to the huge castle I had seen before. Angel projected an image of the castle into Iggy's head, and he inhaled in wonder.
"Wow… Just, wow." I smiled a little bit and nodded.
"Ig, you might wanna hold onto mine or Fang's belt loop. I don't know what it will be like inside." He nodded and chose Fang. I pretended to be deeply hurt.
"Why, Iggy? Just… Why?" He smirked and rolled his eyes.
When we reached the humongous oak doors, I stood there, not knowing what to do.
"Um, I am just going to guess, and say that we knock." I said.
"Wow!" Nudge said. Uh-oh. I know what's coming next.
"This place is huge! Do you think people live in here? Oh, I wonder what they wear. You know, if they are fashionable or not. We have to go shopping soon, since we still have that endless Max Ride card. I mean, do you think I could get a jean skirt? That would look sooooo co-"
Her endless ramble was stopped only by Iggy's hand.
I hugged him and said, "Thank you!" He smacked me away.
"Just knock!" Fang said, exasperated. I stuck my tongue out at him, and did so.
A tall lady in a pointed hat with dark red, um, robes answered.
"Yes?" She asked, almost sternly.
"Um, hi. We're kind of lost. We were walking around, we're tourists you see, and we got lost in the forest over there."
Apparently the lady didn't buy it. "Come with me. You need to see the Headmaster."
She kept glancing back at us as she walked, whether to make sure we were following, or to make sure we were real, I didn't know.
We passed a couple of adults, who looked at us strangely as we followed Ms. Pointed Hat.
'Um, Max? These people are thinking really, really weird thoughts, like wands and spells and something called Quidditch, which is a game that is supposedly played with, er, flying brooms. I think they are witches and wizards or something. I wouldn't believe it if I were you, but that's what they are thinking, and it doesn't seem like a joke.' Angel said. Or, I guess, thought.
'Thanks, sweetie. We'll sort this out.' She nodded.
I cleared my throat, and said, "My friend here thinks that you are witches and wizards. Is this true? We will know if you are lying."
That's right, straight to the point. That's me!
The lady looked as though she wanted to lie, but she slowly nodded.
"I guess there is no denying it, Miss...?" I looked at Angel to see if I should tell her our real names. She nodded, and smiled.
I smiled back and looked back to the lady.
"Ride. I am Maximum Ride, but I liked to be called Max. This is Fang, a.k.a Mr. Tall, dark and silent, Iggy, who is blind, Nudge, who is a motor mouth, so don't say I didn't warn you, The Gasman, please don't ask, and Angel, who is as good as her name."
"I am Professor McGonagall. And at the moment, I am taking you to see the Headmaster, Dumbledore, although you will either address him as Professor, Sir, or Headmaster. All right?" McGonagall said, trying not to look taken aback from our strange names.
They think ours are weird?
Dumbledore?
What the heck! We came to a stone gargoyle, and Professor McGonagall addressed the gargoyle. "Peppermint Toads." She said in a confident voice.
All right then?
Then, the gargoyle leapt aside with the words, "Go ahead."
Yikes! Magic is cool!
We walked up, and the Professor said, "Wait here while I talk to Professor Dumbledore. You need not wait long, I will be back in a moment."
I nodded, and we all just stood around for a minute.
Thanks to our raptor hearing, we could hear everything that was going on.
"Maybe they are magical. If they were Muggles, they couldn't have seen the castle!" McGonagall said.
"Minerva, calm down. I know that they aren't Muggle's. I believe that they are magical, but they aren't even fully human." Then, without raising his voice, the man who I took to be Dumbledore, said, "I know that you can hear us, Miss Ride, so you and your family may come in now."
I threw open the doors, and without looking at all guilty, we walked in.
"So, you're magical. How?"
McGonagall stared at me, her eyes saying, 'add sir!'
"Sir." I said, obeying her wishes.
Dumbledore raised his eyebrows, and the corners of his mouth twitched up in a smile.
"I will explain in time. But, for now, I would like to know what you are, and if you can do magic."
'It's OK, Max. We can trust them!' Angel said encouragingly.
I nodded, yet again, and took off my jacket. I rolled my wings out from my T-shirt, and both Dumbledore and McGonagall stared at them, in surprise.
Dumbledore recovered first, and smiled at me.
"Beautiful. Absolutely wonderful. Let's check to see if you can do magic. Now, I would like you to concentrate very, very hard. On anything, anything that makes you feel happy."
I nodded, and closed my eyes.
I remembered the day we defeated Itex.
It had been a warm, sunny day, and we had just flown around, practicing and playing Bird-Kid tag.
A smile came to my lips, and all of a sudden I felt very cold. I opened my eyes and saw that it was snowing!
"Um… What exactly is going on?" I asked hesitantly.
"It was as you thought, Minerva. At the very least, Max is magical. How old are you Maximum?"
I pointed to Fang and Iggy. "Fang, Iggy and I consider ourselves around 14 years old. Nudge is about 11, Gazzy is almost 9, and Angel says that she is seven."
Professor McGonagall nodded slowly, and turned to the Headmaster.
"Should we test the rest of them?"
"I think it would be necessary. It will only take a moment."
Slowly, Fang stepped up. Then Iggy. Then Nudge, then Gazzy, then Angel.
They all had the same thing happen.
"Are you related by blood?" Dumbledore asked. We all shook our heads.
"Well, the odds are certainly against that. Are you test tube babies, or were you born by a womb?"
"We believe that we are all born by the womb, but we aren't completely sure. We think we were made by an amniocentesis." Iggy said, before I could answer.
"Yeah!" Nudge said. "It's absolutely horrible, because if we weren't we might have been able to be normal kids, and we would have been ALL able to find out parents, but right now only Max has been luck-"
This time, it was Fang's hand that saved our ears from bleeding. She licked his hand, and he drew it away, disgusted.
"Why do you always do that?!" She demanded.
"Because you always talk too much!" Fang said, speaking for the first time. She stuck her tongue out at him.
"Back to the matter at hand. Would you like to attend Hogwarts? We would put you in the fourth year, as that would be where you were, except for Nudge, The Gasman and Angel. The Gasman and Angel would be safe in a cottage that could be built on the premises, and Nudge would be put into the first year. You three would have to have a tutor though, as you would be three years behind. You could be safe, warm and fed." McGonagall said.
I bit my lip. "Can we have a day to think about it? We have been trying to make more decisions as a flock lately, and not just me jumping up and saying something." I replied. Dumbledore nodded. "Of course! We will not rush your decision. The school year does not start for another week, so you have at the maximum, four days to decide."
I nodded. "We will only need today, honestly."
"All right. Come back here when you make your decision. Remember that the password is 'Peppermint Toads'."
I nodded once more, and realized something. "Where do we go, eat and sleep?" "Professor McGonagall will take you to a dormitory. Understand that the dormitory you are taken to does not necessarily mean that is where you will be sorted."
I just nodded again, and didn't ask any questions.
Dumbledore looked at McGonagall once more and said, "Explain everything to them along the way."
She nodded curtly, and started walking.
(A/N: I am guessing you have all read the books or watched the movies of both, so I am not going to explain it all.)
She explained everything to me, from Harry Potter, to the Sorting Hat, to Voldemort. I do not understand why everyone is so afraid to say his name.
She wouldn't even say the name out loud, but when she found out that Angel was a mind reader, she thought it, and Angel repeated the name in all of our minds.
When I repeated it out loud, she cringed.
Weird.
We all slept on it, and in the morning, we all decided that we would like to stay at Hogwarts.
We walked to the office, and sure enough, when I said Peppermint Toads, the gargoyle jumped aside and we walked up.
I marched up to Dumbledore, Professor Dumbledore now, and said, "We have accepted your offer, and we would like to stay at Hogwarts."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The sorting went well enough.
I won't bore you with the details. I was upset when Nudge and Iggy were put in Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, I will admit that, but it will turn out just fine.
The Hat knows best in this situation, I guess. I went with it.
Fang and I were put in Gryffindor, and then after the last name was called, Professor Dumbledore stood up.
I don't remember much, I wasn't really paying attention. But one part of the speech caught my attention.
Goblet of Fire, and competition.
Then, something amazing happened. Two other schools flounced in.
Beauxbatons school for girls, who I thought were completely disgusting. They were all wearing blue dresses, and blue high heels, and it was just… Ew.
Next, was the Durmstrang school.
Now, I had read up about Quidditch and stuff, and it sounded fun. I might play this year, if I could.
The Durmstrang school was all boys, and one of them was a professional Quidditch player, Viktor Krum.
I swear that he looked at me as he passed my table.
Well, then, they brought in the Goblet of Fire, and by now my attention was completely captured.
But, then he lost my attention again when he said that it was only for students who were 17 years old.
Then, something about a new teacher, Alastor Moody.
He looked weird, with a fake eyeball. But, remembering my wonderful manners, I looked away.
After all of that stuff, he made one more announcement.
"I would like to announce that we have four American students. Their names are Nudge, Iggy, Fang and Max. Nudge will be going into the first year class, and Iggy, Fang and Maximum will be in the fourth year, and will need tutoring. If you would like to apply for the job, write your name down on the sign-up sheet in your common rooms. Now, enough jabbering, let the feast begin!"
He clapped his hands, and food magically appeared on the plates.
I almost gasped.
Almost being the key word in that sentence.
I grabbed 6 chicken legs, a huge dollop of mashed potatoes, gravy, and a couple carrots, because otherwise Mom would get mad.
And that was my appetizer.
The kid next to me gaped at how much I was eating.
"What?" I said. "High metabolism." He nodded, and turned his gaze back to his plate.
I finished, and then leaned back in the bench before realizing there was no back.
"Ah!" I cried as I flipped over. I blushed bright red in the face, as I landed on the floor. No one laughed though, thankfully.
Fang smirked and offered me his hand. I smacked it, hard, and he glared at me.
I looked around the room, and realized that most of the people here were polite. They had all gone back to eating their dinner, except for one table.
Slytherin, I think it was called.
I glared at them all, and after laughing about it quietly to their friends, they also went back to their dinner.
A couple minutes later, dessert appeared. Since I had eaten so much dinner, I only had two slices of cheesecake.
After that, we walked to our dormitories with our Head Boy, and promptly fell asleep.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Well, that was a very long chapter.
VEEEERY long.
The longest chapter I have ever written, actually.
So, anyway, enjoy!
~Pixie