Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, would I be writing fanfiction? Didn't think so...
Fire and Rain
Chapter 2
The Attic
"Ouf!"
As the dust parted, Hermione found herself lying right on top of Harry, their faces very close. A little too close. A small smile crossed Harry's lips, and Hermione felt herself go red. She hoped he hadn't noticed...
"Oh my God, it actually worked!" Tearing their eyes away from each other, they turned their heads toward the voice.
A girl neither of them had ever seen before emerged from behind a tall, musty screen. She had straight jet black hair and clear dark blue eyes. She wore an unbuttoned long white lab coat and a wide grin.
Hermione quickly removed herself from Harry and helped him stand up. Harry immediatly reached for his wand but couldn't find it on him.
"I believe you are looking for this," the girl said with satisfaction as she held the wand out to him. "And don't worry, I doubt you'll have to use it...unless you crashed into my cage of lab experiments when you arrived. It could get kind of ugly..."
"Who are you and how did we get here?" Harry interrupted.
"The name's Anika Storm," she answered, stepping forward and holding her hand out. When neither of them made any move to take it, she dropped it and took a step back. "Ok then. Now, tell me...who are YOU?"
After a brief inspection of her surroundings and of the girl standing across the small room, Hermione decided that wherever they were, it wasn't a dangerous place. She looked over at Harry, who also seemed to be warming up to the situation, and decided to speak.
"Nice to, er, meet you, Anika. I'm Hermione Granger, and this is..."
"Harry Potter," Harry spoke up, following Hermione's lead. He stood there waiting for Anika to show any sign of instant recognition and wonderment. But her expression stayed the same.
"Well, nice to meet you, too, Hermione...and Harry," she replied. Of course she knew who Harry Potter was (who didn't?), but she wasn't going to freak out as she figured most people did. He probably hated it anyway. "So, I suppose you want to know how you got here."
"And where 'here' is."
"Of course," Anika said as she looked around the room for a couple of chairs. "Here, take a seat."
Harry and Hermione sat down on the two fold up chairs now directly in front of them, and Anika took a seat on a nearby trunk. They both sat eagerly awaiting an explication.
She rubbed her hands together excitedly before starting. "First of all, you're in my attic."
"That would explain all the dust," Harry added as he noticed some on his arm and dusted it off.
"Yes, well, I haven't had much time to clean up yet. You see, I just recently moved here with my Dad. I'll be going to Hogwarts this year...I'm assuming you guys go there too..."
"Of course!," Hermione exclaimed. She always got excited when the subject of a conversation was school. "We're both in Gryffindor house, and our 6th year starts next month."
"No kidding! I'll be in 6th year, too! What a coincidence," Anika beamed. "I don't know what House I'll be put in, though.."
"I'm guessing...either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw," Hermione predicted.
"Either one would be great!," Anike added. "But back to the subject at hand: can you guys tell me what you saw before you ended up here?"
"Not much...only a really bright light," Harry told her. Anika grabbed a pen out of her coat pocket and scribbled a few things down on a piece of paper. Harry and Hermione watched her until she was finished writing.
"Alright...what you guys went through was a portal. I read about them a few months back, and I've been working on one ever since. Today was its first test, and by the looks of it, it actually worked!" Anika explained, smiling a bit as she noticed Harry and Hermione's jaws drop ever so slightly.
"A portal...? How far exactly are we from where we came from?" Hermione asked, getting a bit concerned.
"Oh, don't worry about that. The portal only has a 5 mile radius, so you guys must have been at exactly 5 miles from this attic when you saw that bright light," she reassured them. "And even if you had come from thousands of miles away, this baby's a two-way, so you can get back the same way you got here."
"Wow...but why...how did you...," Harry stumbled.
Anika briefly glanced at her watch, and looked back up. Her eyes grew suddenly very large as she realized what time it was. She quickly stood up and moved behind the musty screen, from where Harry and Hermione could hear a few odd sounds emerging.
"Was it something I said?" Harry asked Hermione, confused. She looked just as confused as he did.
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"...Fifty-seven....fifty-eight...fifty-nine...sixty! Ready or not, here I come!" Ron yelled at the top of his lungs and opened his eyes. He spun around and saw...nothing. Everything was pitch black, and Ron felt blind as a bat. He reached for his wand, whispered "Lumos!" and started walking along the side of the house. Something caught his eye as he was just about to turn the corner. With his wand leading the way, he slowly approached his first victim and...
"Ahhhh!!"
Ron nearly fell backward as he tried to get away from it.
"Ron! Are you alright?" Ginny came running toward her brother. When all he did was lean against the wall while holding his heart, she started to worry. "What is it? Are you hurt?"
"Ss....sss..."
"What?"
"Ss..sp..sp...ider..." he gasped.
"A spider? You saw a spider?" Ginny asked, not believing what she had just heard. She then burst out laughing.
"W-why are laughing? It's n-not funny!" Ron attempted to gain composure but failed miserably.
"Oh come on, Ron! You scream like a girl!" she said before laughing some more. A few moments past before she finally stopped.
Ron, still pouting, started walking toward the garden shed in the backyard. "I do not scream like a girl..." he grumbled under his breath.
"Oh yes, you do!" Ginny said, catching up to him.
"I do not."
"Do to."
"Do not!"
Ginny was about to say "Do to!" once again when she noticed that a couple of people were still missing.
"Hey, have you seen Harry and Hermione?" she asked, looking around as she did so.
"No. I haven't exactly been looking, now, have I?" Ron replied, his voice rich with sarcasm. "I suppose they didn't hear me...wherever they are."
"Impossible. That scream was so loud...I thought you'd been attacked by a raging banshee!"
"Ha ha, very funny," he said, not at all amused. "Well, I suppose we should go find them. I'll go this way, you go that way."
"Are you sure you'll be fine all by yourself?"
Without answering, Ron stomped off in one direction as Ginny made her way in another, chuckling, of course.
***Fifteen long minutes later***
"Any luck?" Ginny asked as she joined her brother.
"Nope. And you obviously haven't had any either." Ron replied, noticing it was still just the two of them. "Where in the bloody name of God could they have gone?"
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"What is she doing in there?" Hermione asked, talking mostly to herself. As soon as she finished speaking, a cloud of purple smoke began to form itself in the center of the room, and Anika finally came out from behind the screen, beads of sweat dripping down the sides of her temples.
"Sorry guys, but it's time for you to leave," she told them, wiping the sweat off her face with the sleeve of her coat. "The portal can only exist for a certain period of time, and since this one was my first, I'm guessing you only have about a minute and a half to get back to wherever it is you came from. So, unless you want to spend the night here in my attic, I suggest you go through the portal now."
"Are you sure it'll take us straight back to The Burrow?" Harry asked as he and Hermione eyed the portal suspiciously.
"Well, I can't guarantee you anything, but..." Anika trailed off as she saw the looks on their faces. "Just trust me, ok? Now hurry up! You only have 30 seconds left!"
Harry and Hermione looked at each other once before stepping in front of the portal, and, just as Hermione reached for Harry's hand, they were both sucked into the purple smoke, leaving Anika all alone once more in her musty old attic.
A/N: Will Harry and Hermione make it back to The Burrow? And in one piece? Stay tuned to find out! And don't forget to review please! Thanks to everyone who reviewed chapter 1 (aren't you guys lucky? You only had to wait a day for chapter 2! Yes, I am very proud of myself).
Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow!