Disclaimer: All characters except for Hollie, Sam and a few others, are owned by J.K. Rowling and of course we are not receiving profit for our story.
Visions and Letters
(11 years old: summer) Sam's POV
"Sam, wake up!" My brother's voice and the insistent pushing on my shoulder woke me up from a rather pleasant sleep. I groaned since I hated being woken up. Unfortunately, my three brothers knew this, so it became something they loved to do.
"Nate! I was sleeping." I pretended to rub the sleep from my eyes. Maybe if he thought I was awake he would leave and I could go back to sleep.
"We're going to the park to play football, remember? You need to get up. We're going to be leaving soon." Knowing that was enough, he left my room.
After hearing the day's plans, I woke up immediately. One thing that I loved more than sleep was playing football. I might have been a small eleven-year-old but I was the most aggressive player on the team and I absolutely loved it.
I got out of bed, changed clothes and headed downstairs for some breakfast. While I was eating, my younger sister, Dani, walked into the dinning room. I looked up at her and found myself no longer sitting at the table but instead at a football stadium, watching Dani play. She was dribbling the ball up the field, passing the defenders to score and helped her team win the championship game. The other players ran towards her, already celebrating. The crowd was going wild including my family whom was standing near me.
Just as quickly as it started, it stopped and I was back in the dinning room looking at the door where my sister had entered the room. She was now getting her breakfast, not having noticed what had just happened. Of course, Dani ignoring me was nothing new. She had started avoiding me a few years ago after she witnessed me dropping my brothers' on their heads. Ever since then, she thought I was a freak.
'Maybe she's right.' A voice said in my head. 'I'm going crazy because this is not normal.'
I still felt the happy emotions from the game, but I didn't feel that happy or joyous. Instead I was scared and worried. If Mum found out, she would surely kick me out. That was why Billy, E.J., and Nate had been covering and hiding the unusual things that I had been doing. For as long as I could remember, the four of us had been keeping a list of things not to tell Mum, including Billy's on going obsession with magical stuff.
'I guess we can add Sam traveling...seeing...something that was not there to the list.' The thought came into my mind as I went into my room, not wanting to face the day anymore. I had never felt like such an outsider and all I wanted to do was curl up on my bed and sleep.
It could have been hours later when Billy, E.J., and Nate walked into my room. I looked up at them, wanting to make a retort about them not giving me my privacy but as I locked gazes with Billy, for the second time that day, I was whisked away from my home. This time I found myself standing in between two other girls and we were wearing identical dresses.
"Where am I? A wedding?" I asked myself as I turned my attention to the groom, my eyes widening at the sight of an older version of Billy.
"Who would marry him?" I immediately turned my attention to the bride walking down the aisle. She had dark black hair and bright blue eyes. She was beautiful.
All of a sudden I was back at home, lying on my bed looking up at my brothers. Their eyes were wide, with confusion, fear and concern written on their faces.
"Sam, are you okay?" E.J. managed to ask.
I nodded my head. "I'm fine," my voice sounded stronger than I felt. "What happened?"
"Your eyes turned purple for a minute!" Billy informed me, excitement was edging its way into his voice.
"They turned purple!?" I heard myself exclaim as different thoughts whirled around in my head. Looking up, I caught the look of excitement on Billy's face, not at all shocked. Billy laughed out loud as he heard me mumble "You would find this enjoyable."
"I'm not sure if that's such a good thing." Nate voiced, his thoughts echoing my own.
Billy turned on our brother. "Shut it will you Nate. You're going to freak her out even more."
'So he already knows I'm freaked out.' I thought as I looked down at my bed, no longer trying to hide my feelings. What was the point? They already know.
"And don't you two dare tell Mum." Billy warned. "You know how she is. She'll throw Sam out and we'll never see her again."
"Of course we won't tell Mum." E.J. agreed.
Nate nodded his head. "We haven't told her anything yet. It's just something else we'll add to the list."
"Good." Billy seemed convinced that they wouldn't say a word. He sat down on the bed next to me and put a comforting hand on my shoulder as I sat up, tightening my arms around my stuffed wolf, a gift from Billy for my third birthday.
"Do you still want to go to the park?"
I shrugged, not sure of what I wanted anymore except that I wanted to feel normal. Maybe playing football with my brothers would help, as it usually did. 'Maybe if I did something normal, I wouldn't feel so freaky.' With that thought I made up my mind. "Sure."
I made my way upstairs into the bathroom, wanting to take a shower after playing football for a few hours. Going to the park with my brothers was a good idea. I had nearly forgotten what had happened that morning, simply remembering enough to avoid looking anyone directly in the face.
"Don't think about that." I told myself, shaking my head, wanting to clear it of any thoughts.
I picked up my brush and pulled my hair out of the ponytail. Looking into the mirror, I saw my own reflection but before I could start brushing my hair, I was standing next to a young man with brown hair. I vaguely heard someone saying you may kiss the bride and then his hand was on my cheek and his lips were on mine. When he pulled away, I opened my eyes and locked gazes with two light blue eyes that held such an immense amount of love.
"Sam, I love you." I heard him say, barely above a whisper.
I blinked and I was standing in my bathroom, holding onto the sink, my brush had fallen onto the floor. Once my grip had loosened, I fell to the floor, not believing what had just happened. I had just seen or been...whatever it was...my own wedding. He kissed me. A boy kissed me? And his eyes...a pretty light blue color, but the way he looked at me scared me. I had never wanted a boy to look at me like that or to be married to one. However, what scared me even more were the emotions that were still running through me. Emotions, that had been reflected in his eyes. I had felt the same way he had.
'I need to take a shower and go to bed.' I pulled myself off of the floor, walked to the shower and turned on the water.
Through the next few weeks, I was still trying to avoid looking at people in the eye. It still happened though. I saw Billy holding his newborn son. E.J. and Nate's weddings. The majority of my time was spent in my room by myself since I was feeling more and more like an outsider, like I didn't belong. The only time I felt normal or that I belonged was when my brothers and I were playing football. They still hadn't told Mum anything and I knew that they wouldn't.
Noises coming from downstairs drew me out of my thoughts. My mother was screaming and I could hear what sounded like some kind of bird flying around inside our house.
I got off of my bed and headed downstairs to see what the commotion was all about. This was definitely an unusual experience in our house.
"Get rid of that owl! I want it out of this house right now!" I heard my mother exclaimed as I walked into the living room.
'An owl? Those are wild animals…what is one doing in the house?' I questioned myself as I watched the scene in front of me which was actually quite comical.
The owl was flying around the room while my brothers were chasing it, apparently trying to get it to fly out the window. However, they weren't doing a very good job. The owl kept circling the room. "We're trying Mum," Billy tried to assure her as she simply stood in a corner of the room yelling orders. It was what she did best.
The owl dropped what looked to be an envelope at my feet, changed directions and flew out the open window.
While my brothers were trying to calm down my mother, I picked up the envelope. The first thing I noticed was that it was addressed to me.
"What is it?" I hadn't noticed that Billy had walked over to me and was now looking over my shoulder.
"I don't know." I answered as E.J. and Nate walked over to us. I flipped the envelope over and we saw a coat of arms but failed to recognize it.
"Aren't you going to open it?" Billy asked eagerly.
With shaking hands I was able to open it and took out the letter. My eyes went wide and my mouth fell open as I read the first sentence.
'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!' I thought. Even in my shock, I knew better then to say that aloud. That would have been certain death with my mother sitting in the room.
"What is it?" My mother asked us.
"Nothing." The four of us answered in unison, and bolted towards the stairs, leaving the living room behind us and headed towards my bedroom. Once the door was closed, Billy took the letter from my hands and read it.
"Well," he finally said. "This is something else we can add to the list. E.J., why don't you go get it?"
E.J. nodded his head but before he left the room, I had to know. "What do you mean add to the list? How are we going to hide me going to Hogwarts?"
All three of them stared at me in disbelief. "You mean you're actually planning on going?" Nate asked.
I nodded my head. I wanted, no, needed them to understand. "Don't you understand? These past years, all those weird things I've been doing, dropping you on your heads, the flying chair and the cat walking on the ceiling, there's a reason for it. Look, I'm not the only one. There's enough people like that to make a school." I paused for a second knowing this part would be the hardest. "You know I love you guys. You're my best friends but the fact is I don't feel like I belong here. I belong there with people who are like me." I stopped to let that sink in. " I'll write you guys all the time."
"You better."
I smiled, knowing that they, at least somewhat, understood.
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