CHAPTER TWO
As she started into the Leaky Cauldron, a chill ran up Gwen's spine. It was not from cold, as it was the middle of August, but there was a kind of electricity in the air of the small, dimly lit pub. It was a new, yet strangely familiar sensation that seemed to draw Gwen in and wrap comforting arms about her.
The Leaky Cauldron turned out to be larger inside than it looked from the street. There was one main room with tables scattered around, and a bar that ran along the far wall. Off of this main room was a narrow hallway with doors off of it, and at the end, a staircase led up to what Gwen thought must be sleeping quarters.
She sat at the bar, and searched the menu for a drink she recognized.
"Pumpkin juice? Vlad's Delight? What are these drinks? What is this place?" she asked herself, for the first time thinking about where she was. "I've only seen people like this once before in my life, and if it's anything like what I remember, I don't want to be here. What made me come in the first place?" Gwen wondered.
She looked at the people around her. There were people with cloaks, and people with owls and people who hardly looked like people at all.
Gwen realized with horror that she had inadvertently brought herself back into the world she wanted to forget, the places and things she had so far succeeded in ignoring. "Would HE be here? What brought me back to this world?" she asked herself warily.
"Fate." A nasty little voice in her head told her defiantly.
"No!" she told herself firmly, "It's purely coincidence."
But the memory of Brett wouldn't let Gwen think it was simply coincidence that brought her back to his world for the second time. Brett. Her first love.
"I gave you so much, and you just...left."
Two summers ago, when Gwen was fourteen, she had met Brett. He was fifteen at the time, and seemed so sophisticated to her. He had black hair, crystal blue eyes, and a charming lopsided grin that had made Gwen want to die, but made her afraid at the same time that if she did she'd never get to see it again. She had been so wrong about him.
She wondered who that man had been, the one that was with Brett, that night. The one who had made the strangest request of her... in exchange for Brett's life, he'd said.
But that was crazy. Nothing would ever come of it, some old wacko in a robe, waving a stick. What did he know? But Brett was safe. She had made sure of that, promising the madman things he thought he could get by waving his damned stick.
How had Brett repaid her? He was off now with the school bimbo, parading her around town like she was some prize.
***
The door to the Leaky Cauldron opened, and a man walked in. He was tall and impressive-looking; a no-nonsense kind of man with silvery-blonde hair, and very cold grey eyes.
"Not the kind of man you'd want to cross." Was what went through Gwen's mind as soon as she saw him.
Before the door closed behind him, a pale hand pushed it open again and a boy, just a bit younger than Gwen, walked in. She breathed in sharply.
"He is so HOT!" Gwen thought suddenly, surprising herself. He resembled the man he was with immensely, the same silvery-blonde hair and grey eyes. Gwen assumed the man to be the boy's father. The pair walked up to the bar, and sat on the vacant stools to Gwen's right looking like they owned the place.
"And the way the bar-tender is falling all over them, they probably do." Gwen thought. It was a familiar sight, the old bartender running to and fro to get them anything they wanted. People who were looking to climb the corporate ladder did that to her father all the time, and once they knew Gwen was his daughter, she got the royal treatment too, though she didn't much enjoy it, complete strangers fawning on your every need tended to be annoying.
ZAP!!
There was a commotion near the door of the small pub. Gwen stood up and moved so she could see what was happening. There was a man, looking stunned, backing away from the door of the pub. His face and clothes looked charred, and he stumbled as he backed away. This man looked strangely familiar, but the astonished look on his face and the fact that his skin had turned a blackish color made it hard to tell, and before she could think about it, something happened to distract her. Suddenly off to Gwen's right a short, pudgy man, in a cloak appeared out of thin air with a faint pop. He wore a lurid green bowler hat, a purple tie and shiny red boots. He looked around as if it were perfectly natural to appear out of thin air.
"Where's Tom?" The little man yelled over the din of the people crowding around the door.
"I'm over here, Fudge." The owner of the Leaky Cauldron worked his way over to where the small man stood.
"What's wrong Minister?" he asked, looking innocent. Fudge drew him away from the crowd, and nearer to where Gwen sat. She pretended not to be listening, but really she was looking for any clue as to what this place was. The silver-haired man got up and joined them.
"Tom, you know you can't go around 'Zapping' Muggles who try to get in here." The portly man said firmly. Obviously, he had some authority because Tom looked nervous.
"I didn't ZAP the muggle, the door did. He had no business being here. I don't know how he could even see the place, most muggles just walk by..."
"Muggles? What on Earth...?" Gwen muttered. Then she noticed that she was being watched. Gwen turned and to her surprise, the guy with the silvery-blonde hair was gazing at her curiously with intense grey eyes.
"Did you just say you don't know what a muggle is? Where are you from?" he asked, looking incredulous.
"Should I know what a muggle is? I've never heard the word in my life." Gwen answered, trying to ignore the fact that this complete stranger was talking to her like she was an idiot.
"Well, it's obvious you're not a muggle, or you would've ended up like Charred Charlie out there," he said, nodding in the direction of the street. "But if you were a wizard... you'd know. And besides that, you'd go to Hogwarts." The boy answered, his grey eyes narrowing. "You do know what Hogwarts is, don't you?"
"Erm... no." Gwen replied, feeling stupider by the second. "Is it a new club?" she asked. The boy snorted.
"NO, it's only the greatest wizarding school in the world. Well it was, until that prat Dumbledore got hold of it." He said.
"Wizarding?" Gwen thought. That's what that loony said last summer, the one that had Brett. What if it was real? What if all those things he said were true? And he took my...No, it's not possible! But then... how did that guy, Fudge I think his name was, how did he appear out of thin air? It could've been a trick of the light, or an illusion, but no. I have a feeling this is the real thing." Gwen thought. She had to find out for sure.
"Are you planning on explaining all this? Or are you simply going to continue standing there looking at me like my head is on fire?" Gwen asked.
The boy started speaking, a superior look on his face as if he was extremely proud of what he was saying. "I am a wizard." he said, and by the look of his face, it was apparent that he thought Gwen should leap for joy. Gwen raised an eyebrow at him. "Who put you up to this? It's a very good joke, but c'mon, it's a little above and beyond reality, don't you think?" Gwen said. "What's your name? You're a very good actor." "My name is Draco Malfoy, but I'm not an actor, I'm a wizard. And so are you."
"Prove it." Gwen challenged. She never would have given this a serious thought under normal circumstances, but the atmosphere of the Leaky Cauldron made Gwen have the strangest feeling that anything was possible. The boy called Draco Malfoy took something out of his robes. The object caught the dim light in the room as her drew it out of his pocket; it was a wand.
"Now, watch and believe." He said. "Wingardium Leviosa!" Gwen's glasses lifted off of her face, hovered a foot above her head, flipped upside down twice, and returned securely to their place on her nose.
"Whoa." She said in a whisper. "You're saying I could do stuff like that?" she asked.
"With the right training, you could." Draco answered.
"And where do I get this training?" Gwen asked, raising an eyebrow and looking expectant.
"I told you, Hogwarts. You should write to Dumbledore. He'll let you in, he lets anyone in, that old muggle-lover." Draco said disgustedly.
Three hours later, Gwen was creeping to her bedroom on the third floor of her house. A letter with an emerald seal was clutched firmly in her hand from the Headmaster of Hogwarts school. The fact that she had gotten into the Leaky Cauldron had convinced him that she had magic in her, and she was to be on the train to Hogwarts on September first.
A/n
I want to say thanks to everyone who reviewed! Shy lil writer, Janine, Amy, Virginia, Rosie, moonka_d, Jessi, Lori, Kim, Fantacy, Lupin, and a thanks to J. Sebastian Black for being honest. I promise you I didn't forget that the Hogwarts book doesn't usually miss people, and I've got that covered. Give me a chance to elaborate, that was only the prologue! Oh, and yes to whoever asked if Gwen lives in London, and yes Virginia, as you saw, Draco will be in this! =) You know I'd never write a fic without him, even though he is so hard to write. And thanks to Rosie Dumbledore for all your help! I love your suggestions!
I'll put up the next part soon... or later, depending on how many reviews I get! I love reviews, they make me happy and I write best when I'm happy! The fate of this story is in your lovely reviewers hands!!