A/N Sorry, this is pretty much a filler, but I'll probably fit Diagon Alley into the next chapter somewhere.
It was already getting late, so we all separated to our rooms. There was too much elation left in me to go to sleep, so I leaned against a wall and surveyed the room. I felt all sorts of emotions at once, happiness, excitement, calm and…I guess you could call it yearning. Yearning to be back in the carefree atmosphere of the garden. Together, it was a quite indescribable mess of feelings. Ha! It was unspeakable mess in the old house of an Unspeakable.
"Unspeakable," I whispered, just to hear it. And the moment after that I nearly had a heart attack because THE WALL BEHIND ME DISSAPEARED! I fell onto the ground and stared around in disbelief. There actually was a secret-something in my room! I looked back into my room and then into the darkness. It was obviously a short tunnel, but I didn't know what was at the end, and that was what bothered me. But my idiotic curiosity just made me go and get a flash light to explore. Like I had assumed, the tunnel was short, barely 20 feet long, but the room that I saw around a bend in the tunnel is what really stunned me.
It most definitely had an enchantment on it because there was no way in the world that this room could fit in here any other way. It was a large room with book shelves, all of them empty, and a grand fireplace in one corner. There was also an antique desk pushed in a far corner. The floor was carpeted with something plush but resilient, and a solitary window on a wall across from me had the remnants of draperies of some kind of purple material. As I took it all in, I realized I finally, finally, had someplace to put my books!
However, I would show this place the Melanie, Jessica, and Max before I touched anything because they deserved to know that they had been right about the secret room. I knew there was something suspicious about that wall! Now I was really too excited to go to sleep, but I'd had a long day. I left the magnificent room and went back to my own, resealing the passageway by saying 'Unspeakable' again. While getting ready for bed, I wondered about all the things I could do in a room like that, but any real testing would have to be tomorrow.
The next morning…
I stretched luxuriously as I woke up, still in a good mood from yesterday. It was Sunday, so I decided to do something I hadn't done in a while; sit down and read a book. The last one had been Hogwarts, A History, and I had cut it off in the middle because of the move. After riffling through my book boxes to find it, of course, in the one at the very bottom, I used most of the morning to complete it. I felt quite proud that I had been able to collect so much information so quickly. Almost a month ago, I had never heard of Hogwarts. I checked my calendar quickly; we would be getting our letters from Hogwarts anytime soon!
Strolling out of my bedroom to the kitchen, I nodded a slightly sleepy 'good morning' to my Dad, who was sitting on the balcony couch outside with a cup of coffee. I suspected Mom would have one, too, and my assumption was correct. She and Lizzie were sitting at the kitchen, Mom with coffee and Lizzie with a glass of milk. I joined them and we sat in a comfortable silence for a good 5 minutes. Then, Mom asked us, "What are you two planning to do today?" I told her vaguely I was going to hang out with Max, Jessica, and Melanie and Lizzie said that she was going to play some Quidditch with the guys. Mom and I raised one eye brow at her identically when she said this, but didn't question it. I was just wondering why she hung out with them; they were always jerks to me, but nice to her even if she had been the one to end the conversation we had had earlier. Well, she could hang out with whoever she wanted as long as they didn't get her in trouble.
As Lizzie and I went to start our days, Mom strolled over to Dad and curled up beside him on the couch. I believe that they stayed that way pretty much the rest of the morning; sitting next to each other on the couch, just enjoying each other's company in silence. It almost made me jealous sometimes; it made me wonder if I would ever find someone I could do that with.
That thought aside, today was a special day! I was going to tell them about the Weasleys and show my friends the room. Maybe Mr. Myles had forgotten something when he left. It would be one step closer to discovering some of the former tenant's secrets.
Especially for Max, I wore one of my more confusing t-shirts, a grey one with Pi saying, "Get real," to the square root of negative 1, which was answering back, "Be rational." Let's see you understand this one, Maxie-boy!
Nearly skipping down the stairs to the lobby, I ran out to the park and over to the shady tree where I had had my first conversation with them. Both Jessica and Melanie were already there, but we still had to wait for Max to join us. Thankfully, he didn't take long to arrive.
"You will never ever ever guess what happened yesterday!" I exclaimed excitedly. "Well, then, why don't you tell us, if we're never going to guess," Jessica answered, amused at my obvious enthusiasm. I told them about my day with the Weasleys, describing them, the garden, and what we talked about. Max seemed to relate to Percy when I said he'd had his nose in a book the whole time. "But the weirdest thing happened in my room! I was leaning against a wall, said the word 'Unspeakable' (you had to know my train of thought), and part of it disappeared! You were actually right, Max!" They were all speechless at this revelation, until Max broke the silence by interjecting, "Why do you sound so surprised that I was right?!" We all chuckled at his mock-outraged tone.
"Come on, do you want to see it? I haven't touched anything in it because I wanted to show it to you three first." They all nodded enthusiastically, their eyes shining with the prospect of adventure, but right at that moment, a huge stream of owls crossed in front of the Sun and poured letters into the apartment building's mail slot, widened for just this sort of thing. All the kids of Hogwarts age sprinted towards the building and their letter, desperately trying to get there before the others. We didn't hurry fast enough, so we got caught on the tail end of this huge mob of students. By the time we reached the mail counter, the man behind it was very flustered and simply shoved the letters at us, as if trying desperately to get away from all the children that were crowding his desk.
The four of us broke away from the crowd, tearing our letters open greedily. Each was addressed in emerald green on a heavy parchment:
Dear Ms. Hendrix,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress
P.S. As your owl has arrived later than scheduled, we await your owl by no later than August 12.
"August 12? That's today!" There was a mad dash to reply to the letter, many people only scribbling a sentence or two of acceptance. We all agreed to look into the matter of the secret room later, after the resulting frenzy of the letters being resent was over and most of the people had gone shopping. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment, I pondered over her words. Was there a choice in the matter? And just where had I heard the name McGonagall before? Oh, right! Mrs. Jones had said she was the Gryffindor's head of house.
I rushed up the stairs, closely followed by other students, until I was the only one going up the last flight to the 12th floor. Barging into the apartment, I nearly flew to the balcony and ripped the door open. My parents were already waiting for me, having also seen the swarm of owls and realized what it meant. I showed them the letter excitedly, explaining that we had to go shopping for my stuff now, and going on and on about how it was so close to the start of term and I hadn't even read my course books yet or thought about what house I wanted to be in.
My Mom cut me off by simply pointing over the edge of the balcony at the ground below. When I had peered over the side, I realized what she meant. An enormous mass of people was streaming out of the door of the building, all frantically trying to get into taxis before the other families. "Oh. Tomorrow, then?" I asked hopefully. I really did want to read my course books before term started.
"It'll either be tomorrow or the day after that. Those are work days, so your father won't be here, but until I have a job as well, I can take you. We might have Lizzie tag along, too, so she can see the kind of things she'll need next year," she answered calmly. I nodded and skipped back inside to the couch. I looked back inside the envelope for the 'enclosed list of necessary books and equipment'. Most of it was standard things like cloaks, scales, a cauldron, and protective gloves, but all the books had very eye-catching titles, like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander and The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble.
The bottom two lines where the ones that interested me the most, however. 'Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad' and 'PARNTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS.' It seems like they were pretty adamant on the last point; Lizzie wouldn't like hearing that! But a pet? What should I choose? I most definitely wasn't going to get a toad; they were bumpy and weird-looking. But a cat I could deal with and an owl wouldn't be too bad. After deliberating for a minute or two, I decided on an owl, because it could carry my mail.
A/N Shout out to my friends who I'm forcing to read this XD! Another shout out to golden-priestess, TheTinyTimelord, and Ciarle for following! What kind of owl should she get? And don't say snowy white like Hedwig!