A/N: I had a positive first week at my beloved camp, marred only by a 12-hour stomach virus that got passed around camp. I thankfully got it Friday, so my time with my camper was not impacted. (It just messed up my Friday fun, that's for sure!)
Here's another chapter for you all - not as long as I wanted it to be, but just as much as I could write today. Hopefully I'll have another chapter up next Friday or Saturday. Enjoy! And thanks to all my readers and reviewers - you're just awesome!
The little bus took the exit marked for Universal Studios, but passed right by its gates. Mulciber Capulet kept driving until he spotted a small access road on the right hand side of the road. Then, with obvious glee, he signaled for a turn and performed a perfect right turn onto the road.
"Hang on, travelers!" Mulciber intoned as he gave the bus some more gas. The vehicle passed easily over a few feet of paved road, and then began jolting up and down as the road turned into dirt. "Not quite as smooth as brooms, eh?"
His joke got a few laughs out of the group in the van.
"I've never been on a broom," Cat said, her eyes wide.
"Allow me to assure you that it is the smoothest of rides," Mulciber said. "Especially some of the newer models. I hope that you will be able to enjoy a similar ride today – not in this Muggle heap of gears, of course, but once we get home."
"Home," Jade mused, a small smile playing on her lips. She liked the idea of Hogsmeade being home.
After a few minutes the bus pulled up in front of a red wooden gate. To one side was a small keypad and a speaker. Mulciber stopped the bus and rolled his window down. "Hmm," he said, and then keyed in a code. There was a moment or so of silence, and then a British-accented voice played over the speaker: "Password."
"Um… flobberworm," Mulciber said.
"Enjoy your stay," the speaker voice said. "And please remember to respect the spell limits."
With that, the gate swung open, and they were inside.
"Wake up, Evie," Annie said gently, and rubbed Evie's knee.
Evie opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw were the rising roofs of Hogsmeade, snow-covered and pointy, reaching up towards the very blue Florida sky. "Wow," she breathed.
Mulciber kept driving. Alongside the road now were wooden signs. Some had purely descriptive titles, like "Maintenance Sheds" and "Guest Assistance," while others leaned a bit towards the more fantastical: "Dragon Parking" and "Ollivander's Deliveries." There were two more that stood out, bigger than the others: "Hogwarts – 6.6 klicks" and "Please respect the spell limits."
After a series of quick turns on winding little roads, Mulciber pulled the bus into a small parking lot occupied by two similar buses. "Alas, fellow travelers, this is where we must leave our Muggle transport and continue on foot."
He scrambled out of the front seat, robes flying behind him, to open the door to the wheelchair lift. Annie unhooked Evie's wheelchair from the floor, and the others gathered their backpacks and purses.
Once on the ground, Evie was wracked by a sudden spurt of coughing. Annie fairly bolted off the bus, the oxygen compressor over her shoulder, and hurried to hook the oxygen tubing into Evie's ventilator. Evie ripped off the ventilator attachment, ignoring the blaring alarms, and hunched her shoulders, trying to get more air into her lungs to cough.
Like a pit crew at a NASCAR event, Annie and Kent moved into action. Annie yanked the backpack off Kent's back and pulled out an oxygen mask. She hooked it to the tubing and held it over Evie's trach, then cranked the dial on the oxygen compressor up almost as far as it would go.
Kent took Jade's backpack from her and unzipped it, coming out with two handfuls of inhalers and a trach spacer. He fitted the first inhaler into the spacer and handed it to Annie. Without breaking stride, Annie switched out the oxygen mask for the inhaler and puffed it into Evie's trach.
Jade stood by Evie's head, holding her sister's hand as Evie's arms jerked in towards her body. "It's okay, Evie," she whispered, although she knew it wasn't.
It just wasn't fair – they had gotten so damn close to the magic and they were about to be derailed by the goddamn monster living in her sister's lungs. It was hard to watch Evie suffer – harder still when they were supposed to be enjoying something wonderful.
Tears rolled down Evie's face as she breathed, hacked, coughed, breathed, coughed, coughed, coughed. Kent kept passing Annie inhalers and Annie kept doing puffs in between rests on the oxygen mask.
To his credit Mulciber did nothing and said nothing, and kept his expression blank. Jade wondered just how much he had seen in his time as a Grant a Dream liaison, if they were the worst, or if he was thinking about his KISS cover band or something as equally elsewhere.
Annie handed the oxygen mask to Kent and flipped open the top of the suction bag. She ripped open a new suction catheter and hooked it up to the machine, then suctioned out Evie's trach. "Put the vent back on, baby," Annie said softly. "Do it for Momma, huh?"
Evie struggled for her next breath and coughed twice more, but she didn't fight Annie as her mother fitted the ventilator attachment back over her trach. Her body went limp as the vent gave her a breath, and she leaned her head back as she allowed the machine to take over.
Jade reached up and wiped the tears off Evie's face, still holding to her sister's hand.
There was quiet in the parking lot for a while, everyone listening as Evie breathed a little easier. Jade looked over at her friends and saw that Cat was clinging to Andre's hand, looking as worried as Jade had ever seen her. Tori stood with her feet a bit apart, and Jade had the feeling that Tori's eyes had never left Evie's face during the spell.
Beck took a few steps towards Jade and put his arm around her. For a moment they stood as one unit, Beck connected to Jade connected to Evie, as Annie and Kent packed up the medical supplies and zipped up bags, waiting for the next crisis.
At last, Mulciber broke the silence, and when he spoke, it was as though nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. "Are we ready to begin the walk to Hogsmeade?"
"We are," Annie said after a quick glance at Evie, who nodded and gave a small smile.
"Then let us begin," Mulciber said. Whipping his robes about him, he turned on his heel and led them away from the parking lot.
It was a quick walk down a twisted, paved path and it led them ever closer to the peaked roofs of Hogsmeade. There were no other workers around, and truly nothing remarkable about the areas they walked through, save for the signs pointing off to other destinations.
Finally Mulciber stopped at another, smaller gate. He punched in a code and, when asked, gave the password ("rum punch"). When the gate swung open, a gray-haired woman with apple cheeks was standing before them, wearing Hufflepuff robes. "Welcome!" she exclaimed.
"This is my associate, Sylvia Wagstaff," Mulciber said. "Sylvia, these are our guests for the day."
"So very pleased to meet you," Sylvia said, still beaming, coming forward to shake Evie's hand. "Many welcomes to our little piece of magical paradise."
"This is where I must leave you," Mulciber said to the group. "But it will be my pleasure to escort you back to your hotel after your day is finished. Have a truly magical experience."
Annie and Kent thanked him, and Mulciber bent down to give Evie a hug. She brought her arms up and squeezed him tightly. "Thank you," she breathed.
"Believe me, young lady, it was my pleasure," said Mulciber, and then he turned and disappeared back through the smaller gate.
"Right this way," Sylvia said, and led them up a small rise.
At that point the entire theme park was suddenly below them.
"Welcome," Sylvia said, and she needed to say nothing else for a while.
Transfixed, Jade stared down at the magic before her. At the far end of the park was Hogwarts, rising all points and spires towards the sky. The castle was connected to the rest of the village by a cobblestoned road. Nestled down in a handful of land was the little village of Hogsmeade. The Hogwarts express train was steaming and puffing into the morning air. Robed and hatted workers were moving about quickly, sweeping cobblestones, pushing wagons, and carrying piles of robes between buildings.
Annie reached into her fanny pack for her camera and took a few pictures.
"What do you think, Jadey?" Evie asked. "Magical enough for you?"
"It's… it's… it's just like I dreamed," Jade said, feeling as though she'd been sucked out of her ordinary life and deposited into a book.
Evie readjusted herself in her chair, her smile becoming broader. Jade's reaction was everything she had wanted out of the trip. It made all the suffering, all the travel, all of it, all of it, worth it. And she'd go to the ends of the earth – or the magical world – to see it.
"Let's go," she said, slipping her hand into Jade's.
"Yeah?" Kent asked, leaning over Evie's chair to make sure he'd heard his daughter correctly.
"Yeah," Evie said, and with that, they headed towards the magic's center.
"Our first errand will be to get you out of those Muggle clothes!" Sylvia exclaimed as they walked along the cobblestoned path in Hogsmeade. "For that we'll need to head to Dervish and Banges. Right this way, right this way!"
"It looks so real," Cat said as they followed Sylvia into a high-ceilinged shop crowded with merchandise.
"That's 'cause it is real, Cat," Tori said.
Cat looked a little confused at this.
"Just for today, it's all real," Tori went on, a smile spreading across her face.
Jade turned and gave Tori a real, true smile.
"Look at all this stuff," Kent said, shifting his backpack to his other shoulder. "Hats, scarves, robes…"
"Let's see, let's see," Sylvia clucked as she rummaged through a cabinet. "Ah, yes, here it is!"
She pulled out a strange-looking, extremely battered hat from the cabinet.
"The Sorting Hat!" Jade breathed excitedly.
"Yes, yes, of course!" Sylvia said. "Wouldn't be a fair start if you weren't sorted properly! Now, who's first?"
"Evie," the group said as one, and Sylvia leaned forward to place the hat on Evie's head.
"What's it saying?" Cat asked.
"It thinks I'm very good-looking," Evie rasped as she shifted in her chair, adjusting her ventilator attachment. "And…"
She was interrupted as the hat's mouth opened and declared: "Gryffindor!"
"Ah, a very auspicious house," Sylvia said, nodding. "Yes, yes, we'll have some robes for you."
Out of nowhere a shop attendant appeared, a bespectacled boy in his twenties, and he started pulling robes from the rack behind Sylvia. "A size small should do," he murmured as Sylvia gently removed the hat from Evie's head.
"Who's next?" the apple-cheeked witch asked.
"You go, Mom," Jade said to Annie.
"Oh, I think I'm far too old to be going back to school," Annie said. "I know everything I want to know."
"Oh, come on, honey," Kent said, giving Annie a mischievous grin.
"Yeah, come on, Mrs. West," Beck agreed.
Annie blushed, and then, looking at Evie, she said, "Oh, all right," and allowed Sylvia to place the hat on her head.
After a moment the hat declared: "Hufflepuff!" and the shop attendant scurried off into the racks.
The hat made its rounds and the group was quickly divided into houses. Cat and Robbie joined Annie in Hufflepuff robes; Beck, Tori, Kent, and Andre were in Gryffindor with Evie; Jade was Sorted into Ravenclaw; and, in a surprising move, Rex was placed in Slytherin.
"Is anybody surprised?" Andre asked the group at large, gesturing to the puppet. Robbie was trying to get Rex's robes straight.
"Puppet's an evil dude," Beck agreed.
"It's not evil," Rex protested from beneath his puppet-sized wizard's hat. "It's… cunning. Shifty. Awesome."
"Such wonderful robes!" Sylvia chirped. "Now, I think you're all still missing something."
"Wands!" Evie breathed to Jade.
"Let us step through to Owl Post and back out into the street," Sylvia suggested.
Within a few moments they were out on the cobblestoned street, standing before the Ollivander's shop.
"Ollivander's has been in business for quite a few years," Sylvia said, "as you already seem to have noticed, from your shirts. It is our pleasure today to be able to give you each your own wands."
She carefully opened the door to Ollivander's, and waved the group in ahead of her.
The inside of the shop was dusky and dusty; the morning sunlight coming in through the windows pierced dust motes and spun them in the air. For a moment the group stood in silence, and then from seemingly out of nowhere, a dark-haired girl with big eyes appeared from behind what had appeared to be a pile of boxes. "Hello, hello, welcome to Ollivander's," she said, her voice husky and mysterious. "I am pleased to see you all today."
She hurried out from behind the piles of wand boxes. "Let us begin with some introductions. I am Clare, and I believe you all to be the travelers from the far land of California. Is that correct?"
The group nodded.
"And you must be Evie," Clare said, coming forward to shake Evie's hand. "It is an honor to meet you."
Evie shook the girl's hand, and Clare nodded slowly. "I sense strength," the wand shop assistant said, "and hope. Hmm, let's see… unicorn tail hair, perhaps."
With a surprising speed she leapt away from Evie and began rummaging in the wand boxes, coming out with a single box. She ripped off the cover and held it out to Evie.
Evie looked at the wand, and then up at her parents.
"It's all right, honey," Kent said. "Today you can use your powers for good."
The group chuckled, and Evie's face relaxed. She picked up the wand.
"Let's see, let's see," Clare encouraged.
Evie raised the wand and gave it a little flick.
Nothing happened.
Evie looked back at Clare.
"No, no, not the right one, obviously." Clare snatched the wand away from Evie and darted into another pile of boxes. "Hmm, rowan, perhaps, something a little lighter…"
She disappeared completely for a few seconds, and came back with another box. "Try this one."
Evie picked up this wand and gave it a bit of a wave.
Still nothing.
"All right, all right, I've got the one," Clare said, whisking the second wand away from Evie and heading up a ladder to more wand boxes. "Rowan, with phoenix feather at the core… and… hmmm…"
She reached for a box, leaning nearly all the way off the ladder, and the group below gasped collectively. But Clare soon had the box in hand and was scrambling down the ladder towards Evie. "Rowan and phoenix feather, my dear," she said, pulling the lid off the box.
Evie raised this wand. It felt warm in her hand, like maybe it had a heartbeat. As her fingers closed around it and she raised it, a jolt of something tingled its way up her arm, and there was a bright series of sparks from the end of the wand. Purple and blue and green lights flared out into the store.
Evie gasped.
"Ah, the wand has found its master," Clare said. "I had a feeling this would be the one. Phoenixes, my dear, are very secretive creatures, but they always raise themselves from the ashes of suffering. They're reborn in a burst of fire. I feel this wand will serve you well."
Her eyes were kind as she looked over at Jade. "And you must be next," she said. "Let's see… I think something in ebony would do…"
She disappeared back into the piles of boxes.
"Something in black, for Jade?" Rex cracked. "Why, what an idea."
"Shut it, puppet," Jade growled, but without her usual menace.
"Ah!" Clare said, reappearing with a wand box. "Ebony, with dragon heartstring at the core."
She held out the wand to Jade.
Jade picked it up and waved it a little. Nothing.
"Hmm, something else," Clare said, removing the wand from Jade's hand and diving back into her boxes. "Ebony, though, perhaps with… ah, yes!"
She reappeared with a slim box in her hand. "Ebony, with a braid of silver at its core. Very light."
Jade took the proffered wand and waved it. A bright silver light flashed out of the end, bouncing all around the Ollivander's building.
"Ooh," Evie breathed, clutching her own wand close.
Jade smiled, still holding the wand. As Clare disappeared back into the stacks, claiming she had just the wand for Beck, Jade realized the arc her wand's path had taken left the wand's tip, its bright flaring lights, pointing directly at Evie's chest.
It had been a snap reaction, something definitely unplanned, but a frisson of magic seemed to peel itself up from the wooden floorboards and ring its way through Jade's feet. She knew it was all illusions, some excellently-done stage craft that Sikowitz and his fellow teachers at Hollywood Arts could have taught any day of the week, but it felt real.
And wasn't that what mattered?