Another chapter. I have now reached 19,689 words, that's 106357 characters and crud I only starting writing two weeks ago!!! :) I think this is easily the longest story I have ever written. Plus I'm determined to finish it, at least to the end of Meg's first year. Enjoy the chapter, bit err...dismal this one.


Chapter 7

A Dismal Saturday

Ange,

Sorry I abandoned you for the last few weeks. I needed to get out.

It's great here, so magical and unbelievable. I'm good friends with Ginny and I have Transfiguration and Herbology with the Ravenclaws, but I'm too shy to talk to Luna. I'll talk to her next week. This castle is mad, Ginny and I end up taking half the lesson just getting there! You'd love it though.

I don't know if I'll be back for Christmas, is mum still mad? Tell them I'm sorry and I love them. They're quite welcome to send a letter with Wulfric, so are you.

Don't worry about me, I'm living my dream!

I love you all, Meg x

It was almost 6.00 am on a Saturday morning in the Gryffindor common room. My weary eyes turned to the large pile of scrunched up parchment. I'd woken up at 3.00 and never managed to get back to sleep again. Writing a letter to Angie seemed like a good idea at the time. I yawned loudly and picked up the letter. Half asleep I climbed through the porthole and was halfway to the main well when I realised I still had my pyjamas on. Oh well, I thought, no one was going to see me.

The corridor before the changing staircases I saw a shadow on the floor. Whoever was casting it stood just round the corner, and walking straight for me. I immediately cringed against the wall, my eyes shut tight and my mouth clamped shut. Which was stupid, I was seconds away from the landing halfway down the main well, but don't expect someone like me to be rational. The figure came closer, step, step, step and I made myself small as possible, I'd stopped breathing long ago step, step, step they walked straight past me. Hardly daring to believe it I opened my eyes cautiously and looked to my left. A girl stood in the doorway, her back turned, long flowing blonde hair down her back, she wore a cotton blue nightdress and purple converses up to her knees. Luna was sleep walking.

She took a few steps forward and I ran forward laughing as she entered the well of the changing staircases. It's a miracle she ever made it through Hogwarts. I turned her around gently, talking to her in a kind, slightly patronising voice.

Once she was in the corridor I closed the heavy doors behind me so she wouldn't wander off again, typical Luna. I took staircases across and along the well, making for the outside grounds. It was so much simpler to find my way round Hogwarts now, Ginny and I could now get to and from the Great Hall and the Gryffindor tower but with each new classroom came a new challenge. I walked out the large main doors and round the side of the great castle. I stole past the greenhouses and the the Whomping Willow (had a good chuckle when I spotted that every branch was in a sling), past Hagrid's hut.

The owlery was in a dismal circular, stone hut. Many holes were in the walls which may once have windows. It smelled horrible and was covered with owl droppings from the inside out. And, of course, there were the owls. Shelves upon shelves of owls, their feathery plumage ranging from reddy brown to snowy white and their size from a baby smaller than my fist to a whopping great big bird that would have no trouble carrying a baby elephant. Wulfric chirped happily at me from...maybe three times my height. He flew gracefully from his perch to my shoulder.

"Hey Wulfric. You alright? They haven't been picking on you have they?" I gazed at at him fondly and he chirped happily again. I could just imagine the owlery drama in here when no one's looking, my poor little owl would be pretty far down the pecking line. I fed him some saved left overs from my pocket (don't make a face, I put them in a plastic bag first (I supplied said bag, wizardkind have never heard of plastic before)).

"Good morning, Miss Andrews. I thought I might find you here." I spun around in a heartbeat and saw Dumbledore (gulp) in the doorway.

"Good morning sir."

"I trust you are well?" I nodded my head, "I have a few matters to discuss and I think they shall be best with a good mug of hot chocolate."

"What are they?"

"All in good time. Are you sending a letter to your parents?"

"No, to my friend, Angie."

"I see, well you might want to keep a hold of that letter until after such matters are discussed. It is up to you of course how much you tell them."

I said goodbye to Wulfric, slipped the letter into my cloak and followed Dumbledore through the castle to where the two gargoyles stood which guarded his chambers.

"Licorice all sorts." Trust Dumbledore.

Dumbledore's office was...well...magnificent. It was full of twinkling objects, all with fascinating uses. The past headmasters and mistresses slept in the frames, vacant as ever. The pensive sat in a corner next to many other interesting objects. Everything sparkled with glee, like the twinkle in the headmaster's eye and the joy in his childish grin. He was a spitting image of Richard Harris, oh, I wish he was still with us for the other films. It just wasn't the same with Michael Gambon, he made Dumbledore far too strict and angry all the time. He was also very short, things like that annoy me.

"Cocoa?" He gestured to the table in front of me and I noticed a steaming mug of hot chocolate with a thick squirty cream foam sat there. I took a sip and felt the warm liquid happiness down to my stomach. I swear chocolate, in all forms, was a hundred times more delicious in the wizarding world. Hence Claire Autumn, Gryffindor, was counting the days until we could go to Hogsmeade for the weekend.

"Thank you." I said, smiling. He gestured to his own lip and I wiped my upper lip with my sleeve, covering it with squirty cream.

"How are you finding Hogwarts?"

"Perfect. I keep thinking I'll wake up any time soon. Every morning I thank my lucky stars I'm still here!"

"Good, good. I assure though, that this is not a dream and as real as the world of muggles. Well, your world of muggles in fact does not exist to us but the wizarding world does." I'm confused dot com.

"Huh?"

"Think of it as two parallel worlds, well there are many, but only think of two. One is the world where everything make believe is just that, make believe, your world. Often nick named The World of Make Believe. Where magic and monsters only exist in the imagination. But when a powerful imagination in your world creates, it creates a parallel world. In this world most things are the same but the book or film was never created, the author never thought of such an idea. But the idea is real. And all other books and films remain as they always have been.

"In our world Harry Potter and Hogwarts is real, and in your world they were written by a single mother struggling to juggle teaching, writing and looking after her little daughter. But her mere imagination was strong enough to create everything you see before you. But went wrong. There are gaps in the storyline that she never thought through. My plan, when I discovered this, was always to find a student who could put it right. When I thought of using a student from The World of Make Believe I performed enchantments that were necessary to keep connections with your family and to get you here in the first place. When you decided to commit yourself to me, when you left your family, you passed seamlessly from one world to the next. When you go back home and we both wish it so, you shall pass through again, your owl too can pass between the two with a simple thought. The idea seemed perfect."

"You've planned my whole life?" I never agreed to this?! I thought I was in control of my life. Apparently not.

"Not quite, Megaline. I am sorry, but we did play God with our plans, got too carried away."

"Who else knows?"

"Myself, you, Professors Snape, Trelawney, McGonagall and Cornelius Fudge."

"Wow." Wow you're a git.

"I am sorry to land this bombshell on you in your first week. I am sorry it ever had to happen. I do understand if you think us unjust to have done this."

"Good, I do." My fist came to the table with anger.

"I'm sorry you feel that way." Dumbledore gazed sadly at me over his half moon spectacles, I couldn't bear it anymore.

"I'm going." I said rudely and slammed the door behind me, smashing the mug on the floor in my wake. I ran down the spiral staircase, thoughts buzzing through my head. Admittedly, my muggle life had been lame, but it had been mine, and I didn't even have that now. Born to save a stranger. Who would do that to a kid? I never thought Dumbledore would. I suppose they had great fun making up my life, its probably destined to end in death. Okay, everyone's life ends in death but I mean an early one. Probably blocking Harry Potter from the killing curse. I wiped a tear from my cheek as I ran up the stairs. By the time I was back in bed I was shaking with tears. Who would have thought? Dumbledore the life destroyer. To think I once idolised him.

"Meg, Meg wake up, it's morning." Said Ginny, yawning. I coughed twice, like pulling a sword through my throat. "You ok?"

"Morning." I said hoarsely through more tears. Ginny walked round the bed to my face and placed a small, cold hand to my clammy forehead.

"You gotta go to Madame Pomfrey, you're burning up."

"Don't want..." I said vaguely, turning over again. "Please leave me alone."

"Ok, you get well soon, alright?" It sounded more like a command than reassurance, she ruffled my hair and skipped out the door. I buried myself under the covers and forgot about the world, all of them.

I shifted the cold pebble from one hand to the other, deciding how to throw it. I'd never been able to skim stones, it was the sort of trick I left to my brothers. What was the point of ever trying at anything when I stood next to them? I knew what I was good at now, finally. But I didn't know if I ever wanted to use a wand again. Ginny was in the castle somewhere, probably talking to her brothers. It was unseasonally chilly outside and I still had a hacking cough but the lake calmed me. Which is strange no matter how you look at it, considering that I grew up far away from the sea and I, better than anyone, knew exactly what was in that lake. I marvelled at the waves and the colours, the way each wave flowed to another and the waves had shining foam at the peak. Like it had its own little magic. Which, I reminded myself, it probably did, for one it had a tide and waves which is highly unusual of a lake.

I was starving in the afternoon, bending over my aching tummy. I collapsed into coughing fits for no reason and nose ran from the cold. But I fought the temptation to go back to the castle again and again. I pulled from my (magically enlarged) pocket one of my Harry Potters. I was rereading them for for the billion and millionth time, I could almost recite them all word for word now. But it became more and more crucial I knew the second book parrot fashion. Of course, I would still do exactly what Dumbledore instructed me, I cared too much about everyone in Hogwarts. But maybe I could edit things, it made me shiver to think of Ginny in Riddle's grasp. I would take her place but then the Weasleys wouldn't be so devastated, Harry and Ron wouldn't go to the chamber for me, I die, Riddle comes to power and Voldemort returns to power three years early. I threw a rock into the lake with frustration, there was nothing I could do without activating the Butterfly Effect. I never really liked butterflies, pesky little things.

I lay before the lake hours after the sun went down, still reading by wandlight. I finished the second book there and then, shuddering when Ginny was taken. It seemed so real, in a matter of months it would be real. What made me ever agree to this? Did I never think of Ginny?

I heard a shuffling of feet and panting that made me hold my breath with shock. Three, no six pairs of feet and a seventh pair, heavier and stronger than the rest, were walking across the dark forest floor.

"Meg!" They shouted. "Meg!" Speak of the devil. I closed my book with slight annoyance and sat cross legged, waiting for them to find me.

"Where are you!"

"Meg!"

"Meg!"

As they called I broke into another coughing fit, I didn't stop myself, I wanted to be found.

"Meg! Is that you!" A pair of feet that I was certain belonged to Ginny led the others to where I lay, having moved my position from my coughing. Six witches and wizards gathered round my head, all holding lit wands, Hagrid blundered behind, a moment behind the others. My own was on the floor, the wand tip still alight. The faces above me were all contort with concern, there was who I had expected, Fred, George and Ginny but it amazed me to see Hermione, Harry and Ron. Harry's foot was inches from me, what any girl wouldn't give for this moment. But I wasn't quite in the state to be ecstatic just now.

"Why were you out here? You had us really worried." Said Ginny, feeling my forehead again.

"Hi, Ginny." I said, almost inaudibly from my sore throat.

"How can someone so clever-"

"be so stupid?" Asked the twins in bewilderment.

"I manage." I chuckled.

"We gotta get her to the hospital wing." It was a boy's voice, either Ron or Harry as they were slightly out of view.

"I'll carry 'er." Hagrid lifted me effortlessly from the forest floor and proceeded to the castle, Ginny, Fred, George, Ron, Hermione and Harry Potter in tow.


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I would be very grateful if someone could give me some constructive criticism, and 'write more!' does not count!

Love you all, thanks for reading