I let him in while the kids got their stuff. After getting to know him(his personality is as wild as his beard), we started walking. He led us down an alleyway near where we were staying and disappeared into a door that I, if I were a normal teenager(shudder), would not noticed.
I looked in suspicion to Angel, but She motioned that it was fine. We entered silently. We could hear loud rock music coming from the small stereo in the corner of the room. There was a rugged couch on the opposite wall, but that was all there was in the room, besides a door. Just then a girl who was tall and skinny with black clothes that looked like she had slept in them for weeks. Then I saw her hair. It was changing colors. Both of us immediately crouched into battle position, then relaxed once we saw that the other was a mutant too.
"So, another emo?" I joked.
"I'm not emo!" Both Fang and the new girl said at the same time. Funny.
Then another boy came in through the door. He froze when he saw us, but relaxed as soon as he saw Angel, for some reason. He noticed us all staring at him, and said, "What?" He had spiky black hair, one blue and one green eye, entirely black clothes like the other girl, and black and red headphones around his neck.
"So why don't you guys think we're a threat?" I asked, confused. Any mutant that had escaped the School had to be very paranoid.
"I can read minds and transmit my thoughts into people's minds, a lot like Angel over there, but more like your and Fang's connection." he said. I nodded understandingly and exchanged a glance with Fang. Hagrid, who had sat back and watched while we met each other, said, "Well, we have to get one more person before we go shopping, so let's go." He exited through the door in which we came.
Shopping. A Max's worst nightmare. I exited after him, 7 people coming behind me. Suddenly, about 30 Fly-boys appeared along the rooftops along the alleyway walls.
"Don't worry, guys, we got this." I said, motioning to Fang. He rolled his eyes and followed me into the air. We flew above the rooftops, to low to be seen, but high enough to have them follow us into the air. Our plan worked, and now we were surrounded by Fly-boys. We looked at each other and nodded. We started doing the movements we synchronized long ago, covering each other but not hitting our wings. After about 2 minutes, and most of the Fly-boys were down, one did an unexpected move and hit my wing. I dropped like a stone.
"MAX!" Fang yelled. He turned, dived, and caught me before I had fallen 15 feet. "I'm fine, I'm fine." I said, relieved and irritated. I was relieved that Fang had managed to catch me before I had fallen too far, and irritated at both myself and the Fly-boy for the fact that it had been able to make that move. I righted myself in the air as Fang let me go, still looking worried. I took out an Fly-boy who was trying to creep up behind Fang while I kissed his cheek in thanks. I then zoomed off to take out the last 2 Erasers who were coming our way. Oh, the fun of being a mutant. When we were finished, we landed in front of Hagrid, the flock, and the other mutants. I then noticed that New Girl had changed her hair and eyes to match New Boy, whose names I never got.
Their names are Alice and Uriah. Angel told me sweetly.
Thanks I replied. Uriah had grabbed the stereo and now held it on his shoulder like it weighed nothing. I surveyed the alley, and Hagrid was the only surprised one. Iggy looked frustrated, and I knew it was because he was blind. I went over and gave him a hug. He was surprised for a moment, but returned the hug thankfully. I drew back, and saw that he was smiling. I turned Hagrid, who was still looking at us with complete astonishment, and asked, "Where's the next target?"
"Number 4, Privet Drive." He replied weakly. I gestured at Fang, who pulled out his laptop and gave it to Nudge, who looked it up while I turned around to face the other mutants.
"So, do you have wings?" I asked them.
"Yes."
"Sometimes." they said at the same time. Then Alice said, "Well, one of my powers is shape shifting/changing my appearance, so I sometimes don't." I nodded, not surprised.
"We've got directions." Fang said quietly from behind me. I whirled around, gasping. "Don't do that, Fang!" I gasped, laughing. He grinned, lighting up his face.
"Kay, how far is it?" I asked once I had gotten my breath back.
"Did the great Maxy Ride just say 'Kay'?" He asked, still teasing me.
"Shut up, Fnick." I muttered, my glare of death ruined by the smile on my face. He handed me a piece of paper, still grinning. I read it. 2 miles. Close.
"Come on everyone." I said. "Let's go." And so that's how I lead my merry band of mutants plus one giant down the road to the plainest street in London. When we arrived at number 4, We heard a high pompous voice yelling about something called a 'Duddykins' and for Harry to open the door. When the door was opened by a small, wiry, fast-looking boy, who I immediately took a liking to, I asked cheerfully,"Hi. I'm Max. What's a 'Duddykins'?"
Beside me, Fang face palmed, and the boy, Harry I'm guessing, looked close to laughter. He was suddenly pushed away roughly, being replaced by a large man who closely resembled a walrus. My smile was instantly replaced with a scowl, and I took an instant disliking to him. "Listen, mate. We're here to take Harry off of your shoulders and to the school where he belongs. Harry, get your stuff. You're going to a much better place than this. Oh, and you should lay off the dough. You look like a walrus." I said before walrus guy had a chance to speak. Harry, who I could barely see behind the wall of walrus fat in front of me, nodded, and ran off to get his best part about it? I used a completely awesome fake British accent.
The walrus man was slowly turning beet color, so I unfolded my wings a bit and growled, giving him a death glare. Not my best one, though,he didn't deserve that. He backed away in fear, and I turned to Fang and smiled my most innocent and yet self-satisfied smile I could. It must have worked, because he just rolled his eyes and went to go help Harry carry his trunk down the stairs. As soon as Harry was out the door, I shut the door in Walrus's face. Hagrid seemed to have finally recovered, because he said, "Alright, this way." and led us down more streets.
Fang, Harry, and I were right behind Hagrid, with Alice,and Iggy,then Nudge and Angel, and finally Gazzy and Uriah bringing up the rear. "So really, what is a Duddykins?" I asked Harry earnestly. He smothered laughter as I watched him, finally calming down enough to say,"My cousin." before erupting in more laughter. Fang and I exchanged a confused look. We chat about random things before arriving at the pub, just as the sun was going down.
"Right." Hagrid said decisively. "We'll have to stay here tonight. He led us inside and asked the bartender for 5 rooms, and once he saw us he led us right up. It was weird, because when we entered the place, everyone stopped and stared at us. Mainly me and Harry, but they stared at all of us like we were famous. Apparently I was to share with Fang and Harry, Uriah with Alice, Nudge with Angel, Iggy and Gazzy, and Hagrid had a room for himself. Our room had 2 twin beds, but none of us were about to sleep on the floor if I could help it, so I just made Fang share with me. It wasn't until morning that any of us noticed the comfy looking couch in the corner of the room.
I got the other kids and we headed down to breakfast in a single file line. Yeah, right. We can't even do that when awake with full stomachs. During breakfast, Fang even fell back asleep on my shoulder. "You must have really tired him out last night. How were you so quiet?" Iggy said, joking. "Shut it, sexist pig." I growled, only held back from smacking him upside the head by a sleeping Fang, who had at that moment put an arm around me and nuzzled his face into my neck, mumbling about teddy bears and gummy worms. Alice, Iggy, Gazzy were laughing, Harry and Uriah were chuckling, and the rest of them were still too asleep to respond to Fang's uncharacteristic sign of affection.
He suddenly woke with a start, yelling my name, and fell out of his chair. By now, those who weren't glaring at him(me) were laughing their heads off(everyone else). He looked around, tense, but relaxed as soon as he saw that I was okay. He then took in the situation, and right as he turned his confused look at me, Iggy said, "Must have been one nice dream."
Fang blushed. He actually blushed! He then asked me with his eyes what happened.
Well, first you fell asleep on my shoulder. Then Iggy made a sexist pig remark, and you started talking about teddy bears and gummy worms while giving me a hug. Then, everyone started laughing, and you jerked awake screaming my name, and fell on the floor. I'd find it very funny had I not been a victim too. I told him.
I kinda had a nightmare. He told me reluctantly, as if I was going to bite his head off for being weak.
What happened? I asked.
Later. was the reply.
"Great. Now that everyone is awake, how about we go shopping?" I said, clapping my hands and trying not to shudder. At least we had a time limit and a list. Without one, Nudge and Angel will go crazy and kill me with their over obsessive shoppiness. Fang smirked at me. I scowled at him. We finished our breakfast and Hagrid led us out the back way into an empty alleyway. I was for some reason feeling suspicious of the back wall and wasn't surprised when it retreated after a few well-placed taps of Hagrid's umbrella, revealing a busy street filled with people dressed as Dumbledore had been when he visited us at 3 in the freaking morning. The shops lining the street were very odd indeed. Oh great, I'm starting to sound like an old English professor. I looked around, trying to absorb everything with my eyes and ears. Gazzy was leading Iggy through the crowds, looking excited. Iggy just looked confused. Hagrid led us to an elegant white building that said Gringotts Wizarding Bank.
We were scanned for bad stuff, apparently came off clean, and entered the double doors. On the wall above the doors opposite us, there were a bunch of words engraved. I read them aloud quietly while the others listened.
Enter, stranger, but take heed Of what awaits the sin of greed, For those who take, but do not earn, Must pay dearly in their turn. So if you seek beneath our floors A treasure that was never yours, Theif, you have been warned, beware Of finding more than treasure there.
"Ominus." Iggy muttered.
"Hagrid." I said realizing something."We don't have any money. What are we doing in a bank?" The others agreed with me, looking at him in confusion.
"You'll see." He said, winking at us. He lead us straight up to the front of the room.
He noticed us staring at the weird creatures and whispered, "They're goblins, they are. Don't cross paths with a goblin. Creatures of honor and all, see. Deadly clever. Will have your money in 'is hands before you know it's out of yours." He glanced around nervously, as if he expected a goblin to come out and attack him at any moment.
"How may I help you?" The goblin at the desk asked us crisply. Hagrid started, as if he had forgotten he was there, and cleared his throat importantly. "The Rides, Potters, and Griffins would like to extract from their vaults, oh and this," He pulled a letter out of his coat that had TOP SECRET stamped in bright red ink across the front and gave it to the goblin.
"It's about You-know-what in vault You-know-where, from Dumbledore himself." He said in a very loud and obvious whisper. "I see. I will need proof that it is them, of course." The goblin looked up at us. His desk may be tall, but we(me, Fang, Iggy, Uriah, and Alice) were only about half an inch shorter than Hagrid himself, being the mutants we are.
"Your wings." Hagrid told us.
"Ohh. In that case, you might want to step back a bit." I said, catching on. We positioned ourselves so that we wouldn't hit anyone, then we all whipped out our wings. Mine were 14 feet long, and a dark, chocolaty brown, with flecks of white. Fang, who was as always hovering by my shoulder(not literally, this time), had midnight black wings which were almost as long as mine. Alice had chocolate brown and black wings, sort of a mix of mine and Fang's. Uriah had grey wings, which were broad and kind of short for bird-kid size. Harry had grey-black wings, which were speckled with green, and long and thin, just like else in the hall stopped and stared, mesmerized. I hated it.
"Okay, this way, follow me please." We pulled our wings back in and followed the goblin who was beckoning us. "Your parents all had a joint vault." Hagrid explained to us as we walked through the tunnels and corridors. "They all had wings too, see. They made a group at Hogwarts, you winged people being more common back then. They were more or less the trouble makers o' the lot. You are all that's left of the winged people nowadays. You're all famous. Your parents even had their own house, back when winged people weren't so rare. You'll get your house to yourselves, I suppose. I'll tell you more about it when we've gotten your stuff." He said as we were loaded into 2 carts on dangerous looking tracks. I sat on the end of one, Fang pressed to my side, then Angel, who was talking to Harry on her other side. Alice was on the other end of the cart, looking absently into the abyss.
Hagrid, Iggy, Gazzy, Nudge, and Uriah were packed into the other cart. I bet we were all nice and cozy. Then the cart started up, and comfort was the least of my I was used to going fast, but I was relying on my own strength then. Here, I wouldn't have the time to snap out my wings before hitting the jagged rocks on either side of the rails. Fang's hand found mine in the dark and squeezed it, and I felt a bit better. I was shaky when we all got out of the cart in front of a very elaborate-looking door. It had 9 different feather-shaped holes. I unconsciously picked a feather from my wing and held it up to the first hole, seeing the others do the same out of the corner of my eye. It was a perfect fit. We all put our feathers in at the same time, and stepped back to watch the door open. Inside, there were piles of gold, mountains of it. I looked at the others for their reactions, and even Fang had his mouth open slightly, meaning he was as shocked as I was. He turned to me, and said out loud,
"I think I hit my head." I burst out laughing.
"I think I hit my head too." I said, smiling.
"Me three." Iggy and Gazzy said together.
"Me four." said Angel and Nudge. We all burst out laughing, with Hagrid and the goblins watching bemusedly. When we finally stopped, Hagrid handed us all pouches to put the gold in. "They're bigger on the inside." He had explained when he saw me eyeing it's small size. After that the kids went crazy. They ran, jumped, and dived into the mountains in the vast room. Fang and I went to the nearest pile and began methodically filling our pouches. According to Hagrid, they only opened for the owner. When we had our fill of gold, we rode to Vault 713, where Hagrid picked up the mysterious package for the crazy 3:00 in the morning Professor. After that, we finally went back outside. I love being outside.
"Where are we going next?" I asked Hagrid. The crowds had thickened so much that I couldn't see any of the other stores. He told us, and I bound over the crowd's heads, frustrated, to fly. Immediately, almost everyone did a double take at the same time. It was quite amusing. I kept doing this until all we had left were our wands. We went to Ollivander's, which was, according to Hagrid, the best wandmaker in all of the wizarding world. As we entered the shop, a bell tinkled, announcing our arrival, but no one came to the front desk. I stepped forward and rang the ringer, anxious. I stepped back and felt Fang put his hand on my shoulder, comforting me. An old man appeared suddenly around the corner, and all of us flinched in surprise.
"Well, if you don't say." He said looking at us weirdly, a smile growing on his face.
"Who's going first?" He asked. Fang pushed me forward, and I glared at him. He just smirked, and I turned my attention back to Mr. Ollivander.
"What's your wand hand?" He asked, already pulling a tape measure out of his pocket. I held out my left hand, since I was left handed. He tossed the tape at me, but it caught itself in midair, and started measuring my arm. he went through his boxes on one of the shelves, pulling it out and muttering to himself. I had a feeling he did that a lot. He snapped his fingers and handed me the wand, the tape measure falling into a crumpled heap on his desk. I waved the wand at Fang, and turned his black shirt into a neon pink one with sparkles. "Oh my god I'm sooo sorry Fang." I squeaked and waved the wand at him again, changing it back to his usual back. The others roared with laughter. I quickly handed the wand back to Ollivander, embarrassed. It took three more wands and the destruction of several things, including Nudge's hair too, until he finally pulled out a different wand. I could tell from the moment I waved it, it was the right one. I felt a warm, slow tanning feeling spread throughout my body. I asked Angel what happened, and she sent me a mental image of myself with fire instead of eyes, beautiful short black hair with red highlights, and flaming wings. I looked like an Angel. Mr. Ollivander gave me the box, muttering, "curious, curious."
"What's curious?" I demanded. My angel look had faded as soon as I lowered my wand, and I was back to average-looking again. He looked steadily at me, as though examining me. I narrowed my eyes.
"This wand is one of the rarest wands there are. The phoenix that gave a feather for this wand also gave 4 others. I think I know who the other 3 will go to, but the first is already sold. Your wand is the most powerful of all of them, but the other belongs to the most powerful dark wizard that reigned when you were babies." He hesitated. "The same one that killed all of your parents in a mass murder. He had despised the winged people, no one knew why. When he killed your parents, he was supposedly killing the last of you. Then he found out about you. He tried to kill you, but he couldn't. The spell backfired on him. After that he disappeared. I wish I had known what would happen when I gave him that wand all of those years ago. 50, now." He snapped out of his trance, and I stepped back silently, in shock. The flock was stricken and sad. I had always believed that we had been created in the School. This was worse. Fang put his hand on my shoulder, and I just looked up at him, sad. He then stepped forward to receive his wand. When he received his wand, he turned into an angel of darkness.(2)
Alice was an ice angel when she received her wand, and Harry a plant one. The others turned into angels to, but they had different wands. Nudge was violet, Iggy was brown, Angel was white, Gazzy was a suspicious green, and Uriah was a dark blue. We didn't say anymore than necessary, and when we left, even Nudge was quiet. Hagrid treated us all to peanut butter and strawberry ice cream. The flock regained their usual attitudes after that, but I could tell the older kids were more freaked out than they let on. Harry and Uriah kept sending me and Fang furtive glances, and Iggy stuck to us closer than normal, as if we might disappear if he got too far away. Alice comforted and amused the younger kids by making weird animal faces with her shapeshifting. I sent a thankful smile to her when the kids weren't looking, and she smiled back.
"I might have to consider having her replace you as second in command." I teased Fang as we strolled down the alley. It was the middle of a weekday, so not many people were around. They had all gone to work. He scowled playfully and shoved Alice away gently when she got in his face, chuckling. She then turned into Fang, and walked stiffly behind us, doing a very good impression of a duck face without turning into one. We were all laughing then, him included.
"So last place to go is to get your animals." Hagrid said, scanning the list. "It says here you can bring a cat, dog, toad, rat, or bird." We walked into Pluturious's Pet Palace, and were immediately engulfed in a foul smell. I looked around, and was immediately attracted to a small red dragon, who was sitting regally in the corner, not in a cage. The owner saw me eyeing him and hurried over, looking interested.
"He can fly at speeds over 200 mph, you know, and is never picky about his food." He rambled.
"How much for him?" I asked steadily, not taking my eyes off of the dragon.
"Excuse me?" The shopkeeper looked affronted, then got a very weird gleam in his eye, looking me up and down. I watched him out of the corner of my eye, warily. He took a step forward, until he was in my personal space, and said, "Well I'm sure a young lady like you can certainly find something to pay me with." He took another step forward, and was about to put his hand on my shoulder, when suddenly the dragon was there, wings raised, screeching at him. He backed off, a look of wonder on his face.
"You passed." He said. "He will only protect someone he feels is loyal and worthy to be his owner. He has never done that before."
The dragon nuzzled my face affectionately, and I laughed, stroking his spine lightly. I gave the owner 2 Sickles and a Knutz, and went over to Fang. He was observing what looked a great black hawk with a dragon's head. It took one look at my red dragon and hopped onto Fang's shoulder, burrowing it's head into his short hair for protection. We laughed. It peeked it's head out to look at me, and I smiled at it. It relaxed, settling on his shoulder. I guess it was afraid of me instead of my Dragon. Ironic, isn't it?
He went to go pay for his dragon bird, and I looked for everyone else. Nudge bought a brown kitten with white and black spots, and was now playing with it. Alice had a large bald eagle perched on her shoulder. Uriah had a black golden retriever with gold eyes. Angel had a small black dog and Iggy had tabby cat. Gazzy had a winged serpent and tried to hide it when he saw me looking. I smiled at him, and he relaxed. Harry was admiring a large white snowy owl.
"You can have it, if you want." I said behind him. He jumped and flinched, then relaxed when he saw it was me.
"I know, but every time I close my eyes, I expect it to all be a dream." He said.
"I know how you feel." I said this more to myself than to him, surveying my flock sadly.
"What did you save them from?" He asked. I looked at him in confusion.
"Fang said you saved them from something. What was it?"
I sighed. "A living hell."
I looked around sadly. He gave me a hug, somehow seeing the nonexistent tears in my eyes. I looked down at him in surprise, but hugged him back. We broke apart and I offered my arm to the owl, who took it. We walked up to the front desk and I payed for his owl. We all walked outside, heavily loaded with our trunks and pets, to meet Hagrid who had waited outside. We looked odd even, for the magic world.
"Alright, we'll have ter be off." Hagrid said, looking at his pocket watch.
"The train leaves at 5:30. It is 5:13." We walked out of the pub and down the street to King's Cross Station. We were on the bridge over the tracks when Hagrid looked at his watch again.
"Blimey! Look at the time! Right, I have ter go. Hope to see you at Hogwarts, bye. Oh, and here." He gave me an empty backpack. "It's bigger o' the inside. You can put ur stuff in it."
"Thanks-" I started to say, then looked up to find he had disappeared. We all looked around to see he was no where in sight. We went to a secluded corner of the place where no one could see us, and put our luggage in the backpack, which I put on. It still looked and felt like an empty backpack, and we set off again feeling reasonably lighter. Then I looked at the ticket. It said Platform 9¾. I logically went and leaned on a pillar between Platforms 9 and 10. Just as I leaned against it, Fang next to me, I felt like I was falling backwards. Then me and Fang were on our backs on the ground with a sign hanging above our heads that said Platform 9¾. Our pets squawked in protest while we got up. In front of us was a brick wall, looking a lot like the wall that we fell through. As we brushed ourselves off, everyone else came falling through the gateway, knocking me into Fang, and all of us into the ground.
"Well, now that we're all here, let's get moving." I groaned, trying to lift myself off of Fang, when Nudge sat on me. I went down with an oof. My face was stuck in his neck, so I could only mumble, "Geroff."
"What did you say, Max?" She said innocently.
"She said 'please get off of her'." Fang gasped. Nudge gasped as well, and then the weight was lifted, and Fang shoved me off of him, both of us gasping for air. The others laughed like it was hilarious. At least, until I glared at them. That shut them up real quick. We got on the train, which had only 2 minutes left, and started looking for an empty compartment. There was one last larger compartment empty, and we filed in. There were 4 bunk beds and one single bed were lined up against the wall, and it was obviously bigger on the inside(THIS IS A REFERANCE, PEOPLE, EVEN IF YOU DON'T WATCH THE SHOW, YOU SHOULD GET IT, IT'S THAT FAMOUS), because it had it's own bathroom and sitting area.
We entered and put our trunks by our beds. I shared with Fang, claiming top bunk, Alice with Uriah, Nudge with Iggy, Angel with Gazzy, and Harry got the single. We sat, talked, played games, and read our new textbooks until everyone was asleep except me and Fang.
"So." I said. We were sitting opposite each other on his bed, our feet in the other's lap. He was rubbing mine softly, and I tell you, it felt like heaven. I remembered this morning, which felt like a lifetime ago. "Your nightmare?" He stiffened, and stopped rubbing my feet. I frowned, and scooted over until I was in front of him.
"You were dead." He whispered, hanging his head. "They tortured all of you to death right in front of me, videotaped it, and played it back in front of me. I was so afraid. Who would save me now? You guys don't know how much I need you, how scared I am that one day you'll all leave me." I wrapped my arms around him, understanding what he felt.
"Yes I do. I do know how you feel, because I feel that too, all the time." I said. He wrapped his arms and legs around me tightly, and burrowed his face into my hair, engulfing me in him. Eventually his ragged breathing slowed, and he fell asleep, and I soon followed suit. I was the first to wake, and it was very hot when I did. Then I found out I was under a mound of sleeping bird kids. I nudged Fang awake, who was lying next to me under the pile, and accidentally got Uriah too, who was laying directly on top of me. They assessed the situation, then Uriah closed his eyes and looked like he was concentrating hard on something, and suddenly the weight(except Uriah) lifted. We got up, and looked around to find our family floating in the air, still sleeping! Uriah set them back in their dog pile on the bed.
"Telekinesis, huh?" He nodded, grinning. I turned to Fang.
"Think of all the tricks we could play on Iggy." The 3 of us grinned evilly. Turns out it was 3 in the morning, but the 3 of us were so unused to sleeping so long that we were kinda hyper. Fang and I bothered Uriah until he told us his story.
They had been part of the School, too, until Jeb had released him. Alice, who was and had been his best friend for as long as he could remember, had turned into a mouse and ridden along. When Jeb found out, he tried to send her back, so they ran away. They were part of a gang for a while, then they left, and had been on the run ever since. They had found their latest hideout 5 days before they had met the flock. He had been developing feelings for Alice for a while now, and he was afraid of what she thought of him. I promised to find out what I could later. I then asked what was up with the boom box. "I programmed it to play any of the songs I want. Like this." He set it down and started pushing buttons. By now, the whole flock was awake and had gathered around to see what he was doing. Suddenly a song started playing. It was Angel of Darkness.
I sang to Fang the whole time, referring to him as the Angel of Darkness. Finally the trolley came by and we had lunch. We got to know each other very well. Soon it was time to get into our school robes. I went around and cut slashes into the uniforms with my army knife for our wings. We were to leave our pets and luggage on the train, but we wouldn't leave our animals behind, so they stayed on our shoulders, except Total, Angel's dog, and Shadow, Uriah's dog.
We were grouped with other scared 11 year-olds, and met up with Hagrid, who led us to the boats. I asked if we could fly over because we're not that fond of water. Angel, Uriah, Iggy, and Nudge had to stay with their earth-bound animal's but Fang, Gazzy, Alice, Harry, and I got to fly. When Nudge saw the castle, I'm pretty sure her squeal could be heard from halfway around the world. Wonder what Alabama would think.
"Tone it down, Nudge!" I yelled. Jeez, who gave her candy? Oh, right, me. Let's forget that happened. I got bored of going slow and decided to race Dash to the shore. That's what I named my dragon. I turned to ask him, only to find him changing colors. Right now, he was a rainbow.
"I know!" I said after thinking. The others looked at me like I was crazy. I turned to my dragon. "I'll call you Rainbow Dash."
"Really? I mean, Dash is awesome, but rainbows are girly." He said. I looked around for Gazzy, but he was hissing to his snake, who he named Shirly. I'm guessing it's a girl. I'm hoping it's a girl. I turned back to Dash.
"Dash it is, then." I looked around. Fang was talking to his dragon-bird hybrid named Jet. I did a double take. He rarely talked to us in mumbles. Why was he talking to his pet? Oh well. I shrugged and continued looking around. Harry was loopty-looping with his bird, who he named Hedwig. Alice was practicing maneuvers with John Smith. I don't know why, and I'm afraid to ask.
"Who wants to race?" I announced. Fang, Alice, Gazzy, and Harry all flew over with their pets, and we lined up.
"Ready, set, and…. GO!" I said. I stayed with the others for a good 5 seconds, then started speeding up. Both Jet and Dash were able to keep up. They kept up until I reached about 250 mph, then continued racing each other. I kept an average of 300 mph and circled around the castle 6 times before the rest of them got here. "Max," Fang puffed, "you know using superspeed is against the rules."
"There are no rules in love and war." I sang, and flew away. I landed with the other kids on the dock, and was surrounded by the others. Uriah patted me on the back, and said, "Superspeed? Nice."
Dash landed on my shoulder as the others landed near me. He was grumbling about superspeed and how unfair it was. Hagrid ushered us into the halls of Hogwarts and made us stop in front of what sounded like a 'Grand Hall', you know, like the ones in old castles. Hagrid went off to go get someone called Professor McGonagall. He came back with a crisp-looking woman in her 70ties. I already knew she was not one to be messed with.
"Alright, when you go through this door, you will be sorted into one of 5 houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, or Avainias." She said.
"Wait, what? There are only 4 houses, I know, father said!" A pale blonde boy said, pushing his way to the front where we(the flock) were.
"There were only 4 houses for a period of 45 years, and during that is the misfortunate time that your father attended our school. Needless to say, with our new additions, that house can be restarted again." She and the rest of the kids looked at me. I looked around.
"Oh! You mean us? Well, I guess that makes sense, considering we're awesome and all." I said nonchalantly.
"Glad you have your wit about you, Miss Ride." She said dryly. I just smiled innocently at her. She turned on her heel and lead us into the other hall. It had 4 long tables nearly filled with students. They all turned to look at us as we were led up to the front of the room. There was a long table at the back of the room, and in front of it was an old classic-looking wizard's hat on a stool. I examined the architecture, layout, and escape routes, and I could sense the others doing the same behind me. I then examined the teachers, who seemed the only threats. I had memorized all of my spellbooks, as well as several advanced spellbooks, and could probably take on any of the students. There was the 3-o'clock in the morning Professor, a short exited-looking man(Shorty), a very nervous man wearing a turban, a greasy-haired man who looked like he had swallowed a lemon(whom I named Greasy), a very wild-looking woman with short spiky grey hair and yellow eyes(she became ), and a dumpy little witch with flyaway grey hair. We all walked up to the front of the room, and lined up according to last name. We watched the unfortunate soul with the last name of Anchovies walk up the steps to sit on the stool. Professor Stricty placed the hat on her head. It muttered to itself, then shouted,
"HUFFLEPUFF!" The table whose colors were yellow and black cheered. This went on until Alice was called. She walked up to the stool and sat down without hesitating. She smiled at us, then focused on whatever was talking to her. The hat suddenly called out, "AVAINIAS!" There was a ripple of confused murmuring throughout the crowd. Then, on the wall in the back right of the room, a door appeared in a flash of light. Then words appeared over the door, shining in gold and silver. They said 'Rainbow Schmainbow Room.' yeah, right. I'm sure you can guess what it said. Alice looked at us once more before going through the door. I reached behind me and squeezed Angel's hand. They went through until it was my turn. I walked up and sat on the stool, and Stricty put the hat on my hand.
"Interesting. Very interesting." A new voice was in my head. This one was slightly deeper than my voice, but still no way to tell what age or gender it was. Then again, I guess hats don't have gender.
Wait, wait, wait, what are you doing here? My voice said rudely.
"Well there's no need to be rude." The other voice said, offended.
Oh, it's you. The stuck-up talking hat.
"At least I have a physical body. You're stuck in this poor girl's head."
I'd much prefer her head than being a hat. She's a nice, intelligent individual, and quite fun to annoy. I've seen a lot of places with her.
And que the hat and the voice arguing. I know, I suck at Chapter endings, but this is all I've written when I was away and it took me a long time to do. IT'S ALMOST 7,000 WORDS LONG, PEOPLE! If you review, you get brownies.
(1) Oh, Max, if only you knew.
(2)Coincidence, not? I mean, you can Total-ly imagine it. Haha