Ok, this is going to be a very,
very confusing first chapter to my best work (Or, at least I think it's my
best). Please don't flame telling me this. In this chapter, there are not going
to be many HP characters, but they will come in the next few chapters.
This is about the origin of the
bookstore that Harry and the gang know as Flourish and Blotts. Yes, it does
take place in the future, but the reason for this will be made clear in the
end.
Disclaimer-Draco Malfoy, Katie
Bell, Pansy Parkinson, and Gregory Goyle all belong to the greatest author in
the world, J.K Rowling.
Claimer- Flora, Jack, Carolina,
Rory Taylor, Carson, Anderson, Samuel Coren and other people that I forgot to
mention all belong to me. It seems like a lot of new people, and only like 3
oldies, but Harry, Hermione, Ron, and a lot of those other people are going to
step in, most in the next chapter.
The Story
Of Flourish and Blotts (Or SOFAB, to shorten it)
The
Attack of '06~Part 1
September 29, 2006~
"Flora!" A man called out in a
sharp whisper. The woman that went by the name of Flora turned her head to
where she thought she heard the whisper come from, and ran in that direction.
She looked around the building that she was in, and tried to find the bearer of
the voice, but she could see no one. She looked behind herself not knowing
where else to look. Behind her, the room was empty, but she knew it wouldn't
stay that way for long
"Flora!" The same person said in the same sharp whisper, but this
time, the person behind the voice took action. He grabbed Flora's arm, and
pulled her behind the door where he stood, which led to a dark and damp alley.
"Jack…" Flora said to the man
with the sharp whisper, but she could not continue, she did not have enough
breath to do so. The 2 stood there, trying to grasp some air, while at the same
time, looking into each other's eyes.
"Jack…" Flora tried to say
again, but this time, she could say no more because the man called Jack was
leaning closer and closer into Flora. Though both knew that this was no time
for romantic gestures, they still leaned closer and closer to each other. They
were about to touch lips when…
SMACK!
There was a loud smack a few
feet away from Flora and Jack. They both jumped away from each other, and
turned to their left to check what had made the sound.
"Damn it Carolina, you and your entrances." Flora said in a
jokingly way. Standing in front of the duet was a woman who looked as if she
had to beat men off with a stick. She had long, auburn hair, and bright blue eyes.
She also had what men would call a 'great figure'. Compared to Flora, she
looked like a model, while Flora looked like she belonged behind a librarian's
desk. She had plain brown hair that she tied in a bun, and boring brown eyes
that were hidden behind a pair of oval shaped glasses. She looked a bit old for
her 26 years, even older than Jack, a tall man with sandy brown hair, and sea
green eyes. When Jack and Flora were standing next to each other, Flora could
pass as Jack's mother, even though he was 28.
"Well, what did you want me to
do? Knock?" Carolina asked.
"On what?" Flora asked with a
degree of sarcasm.
"Look, Carolina," Jack said, trying to pull the 2
back to the real world "you must have jumped from wherever you jumped from for
a reason, right?" He asked
"Oh, right." Carolina said,
realizing where she was. "Well, while you 2 stayed on the 1st floor,
they decided to follow me on the 2nd floor. I had to get out without
them seeing me, so I jumped out the window, though I think I was sighted. We
should be running for our lives," She said, looking up to the window she jumped
out of. 2 men and a woman were looking out the window, pointing to the 3.
"right about now!" She yelled as she started to run, with Flora and Jack close
behind.
They ran for, to Flora, what
seemed like an hour, but was really just a minute. Flora looked behind herself,
trying to scare herself so she would run faster, seeing as she had fallen
behind Jack. She saw 3 figures following them, and one by which she knew by his
silvery-blonde hair.
They came very close to their destination, when
suddenly, someone tripped.
"Flora!" Jack yelled, seeing Flora fall. He was a
pretty quick thinker, and he knew that if she fell, it could cost them both
their lives.
He quickly stretched out his arms to catch her, and
did mid-fall, but something else fell.
"My glasses!" Flora yelled, trying to grab for them
while they were still in the air, but she couldn't because once again, Jack had
grabbed her arm, and she was forced to run.
She practically floated with Jack grabbing her arm.
Flora could see a big black blob not too far ahead, and she knew they were
almost there.
Carolina was far ahead of the 2. She wasn't running
or recovering from the long run when the 2 got there. She was standing behind the
big black blob, which was a garbage dumpster, and holding a flip phone (flip
phone, cell phone, same difference) in her right hand.
"Finally, come on!" She said, gesturing to the 2 to
come to where she was standing. They walked behind the dumpster, and stood in a
small square, that could barely fit the 3. One would have to look very closely
to find the square, but Flora, Jack, and Carolina must have been used to going
into the square, because they didn't even glance down to make sure that they
were in the square.
When Carolina saw that Jack and Flora were next to
her, she flipped open the phone, and put it to her ear.
"Carson, get us to WIC." She said into the phone.
She did not dial any numbers, nor greet the person, if there was even a person
on the other end. She flipped the phone back together, and put it away in her
pocket. All that was left to do was wait.
And that's exactly what they did, they waited
together in the tiny square, that was behind the dumpster, in the dark and damp
alley. They stood there for about another minute, waiting for Carson to get
them to WIC, whatever that was.
Flora was looking over the dumpster, even thought
she was only 5'3. Despite her height, she couldn't see much of anything without
her glasses. But what she could see was 3 figures running towards them, and one
was distinguishable, because of his silvery-blonde hair.
"Malfoy." Flora whispered just loud enough for
Carolina and Jack to hear her. (Remember, only Flora saw Malfoy behind them,
Jack and Carolina still have no idea who was chasing them.) When they heard her
say that name, their heads jerked into the direction that Flora was looking,
ands they clearly saw Draco Malfoy walking closer and closer to them, with
Gregory Goyle and Samuel Coren right behind them.
But they needn't worry about Malfoy, Goyle, and
Coren coming to kill them, since they were not there anymore. Instead, the trio
was in front of either a small, run down shack, which was sporting a condemned
sign in the front, or a tall, narrow silver building that had to be about 70
stories tall, but looked as if only one room could fit on each floor. Depending
on what type of blood you had determined what you saw, and I don't mean type A
or B.
The 3 walked in unison into the building. The front
door opened automatically, and the trio stood in the entrance for a few
seconds. After they heard a rather loud beep, another door opened, and they
proceeded to walk into the next room. It was not a small room, though not big,
with mirror tiles on the walls and floor. The only things that were in that
room were a desk, and a chair behind, its back facing the 3. Also, there was a
section of the floor that didn't have a mirror. It was another square much like
the one behind the dumpster, but this one was much more defined.
"Took you long enough, Carson." Jack said, not
stopping.
The chair behind the desk turned, and a tall boy,
fresh from his last year of school was sitting in the chair, looking over a
stack of papers in his hand.
"Things to do, people to see." Carson said, not
taking his eyes of the papers. He then picked up a pen with his free hand, and
wrote on top of the papers.
"Whatever." Carolina said as they all go into the
square. They turned around, so Carson was to their far left. "Get us to
Taylor's office." Carolina said to Carson.
Carson then put down the pen, and reached for the
phone, putting it between his ear and shoulder. Without looking at the phone,
he dialed a number. After a few seconds, he put the phone down, and still
shuffled through the papers that he had yet to put down.
"Rory Taylor is not available right now." Carson
said in somewhat machine type voice.
"Get us Anderson, please." Flora asked Carson.
Carson then put down the papers on his picture
perfect desk, and picked up the phone again, looking very frustrated. Before he
could dial the number to get Anderson, the front door of the building opened.
Once again, Flora could not make out who was standing before the trio, but
Carolina and Jack could.
"Malfoy! Carson, now!" Carolina yelled to Carson in
a panicky voice. Carson started to fumble the phone, also in a state of panic,
trying frantically to dial the number. Malfoy ignored Carson entirely, and
walked past him, but Goyle and Coren went up to Carson, each seizing one of his
arms, and lifting out of his chair.
"Nowhere to run now." Malfoy said in his calm, yet
oily voice. Jack put his arm around Flora, intending to protect her, which was
true, but he knew that Flora was perfectly capable of taking care of herself.
He slipped something into her back pocket, and let her arm go.
"Any last requests?" Malfoy asked, when he was
about 2 feet away from the square.
"Just one Draco. Listen to this." Flora said with
an attitude, very unlike Flora.
"What would that be?" Malfoy asked, putting his
hand under Flora's chin, but for some reason, she did not jerk her head away,
or hit his hand, but she let his hand remain there.
"ASSINIANI!" Flora yelled, taking what Jack had
slipped into her pocket, a long, slender stick, and she was using it as if it
was a wand. Malfoy's hand then dropped since he was not holding Flora's chin
anymore, since that and the rest of her body, along with Jack and Carolina's,
had disappeared.
"She remembered the spell." He said in a low
whisper. He then turned around to face his 2 sidekicks, who still had a hold of
Carson's arms.
"Um, later." Carson said to Coren and Goyle. And
then, like the 3 before him, he disappeared, but he did not say any words, or
use a wand. He simply disappeared into thin air, leaving Coren looking very
confused.
******
The 3 of them, led by Carolina, ended up in a room
just a bit larger than the ground floor room, though it was hard to tell, since
the room was pitch black. There were no windows in the room, but windows
wouldn't help any at that time, since it was almost midnight. Though Flora did
not show it, she felt very nervous, for her own reasons.
"Lumos." She said, and out of the front of the wand.
Flora then went to a large torch, and though there was no fire at the end of
her wand, she was able to light the torch. The flame jumped from one torch to
another until all the torches were fired up, and the room was brightly lit. The
room was dull, with a large meeting table in the middle, and a very large
square in the left corner that looked as if it could fit 15 people.
"How did you do that?" Carolina asked as Flora handed
Jack his wand.
"The torch thing? Well…" Flora said, wondering why
Carolina would ask such a question.
"No, that spell to get us here. And how were you
able to us Jack's wand?" She asked, getting a bit mad at Flora for thinking she
was that dense.
"Oh, the Assinian spell. That spell transports you
from anywhere in this building to this room. Nifty little thing I created about
a month back." She said, recollecting her college days of spell creation classes.
"And let's just say, sex changes everything." Flora said, with a grin on her
face.
After a little laugh, they walked to the other end
of the room, where there was a large screen. At that present moment, it was
black. The screen changed colors, depending on the screen's mood. Black meant
that it was sleeping.
"Sora, wake up." Flora whispered to the screen. The
screen then quickly went from black to orange. Orange meant energetic.
"Ok girl, get us Anderson, go get him girl."
Carolina said to the screen as if it was a dog. They waited in front of the
screen for about 10 seconds before a man with short brown hair and a thick
moustache.
"What's the current status?" The man asked from the
screen.
"We were discovered, and now Malfoy, Goyle, and
Coren are downstairs, about ready to kill us." Jack said sarcastically.
"That wasn't Malfoy." Flora said quietly from the
back of the 2. Both Carolina and Jack turned to her, and Anderson gave his
attention to her.
"And how do you know that?" Carolina said with a
hint of attitude in her voice.
"Because I know him, a bit too well, I may add.
First off, notice how they didn't use magic to capture us." Flora said.
"Well, they never use magic. They like to know they
won a battle because you had the chance to win also, so whatever you can't do,
they won't do." Carolina said, thinking she finally got Flora.
"Exactly, but Draco bends the rules. He's smart,
and he knows if you still have your powers, he can be defeated. So before he
does anything else, he'll try his hardest to render you helpless." Flora said,
making Carolina feel stupid.
"Number 2, he'll never do anything for himself. He
would never try to kill anyone with his own hands; he'll get someone else to do
it."
"Ok, but still, you need more evidence." Carolina
said.
"Well, here's the killer. Number 3, Draco isn't
part of the mafia." She said, throwing her arms up in the air. "Like he needs
the money. You know how we all have one barely filled vault at Gringotts, Draco
has about 20, one for each million Galleons. Besides, the mafia is such a
cliché, Draco could do much better than joining the mafia." She said, folding
her arms across her chest.
"Alright, but that won't help any if the Draco
dummy tries to kill us." Carolina said, partly yelling.
"I'm guessing that they put an anti-magic hex on
you?" Anderson asked
"Yes, obviously explaining all that talk of how
they wouldn't use magic on us." Carolina said in a snappy tone.
"How did they get here?" Anderson asked, making the
trio feel as if they were criminals under questioning.
"That's something I can't answer." Jack said
"But I can. They used a translocation spell. I
guess they felt that when we disappeared in the vortex, we used magic, so they
used it back." Flora said, going to push her glasses up, but then she remembered
that she'd lost her glasses, and put her hand down, feeling a bit foolish.
"But what did they use?" Carolina asked, trying to
get Flora again.
"My glasses." She said, taking a moment to look
down at her nose, where her glasses usually rested, making her look cross-eyed.
"I dropped them in the alley. I was about to get them, but the doofus to my
right," She said, pointing to Jack with her thumb. "swooped me away before I
had the chance."
"Have you any plans?" Anderson asked in a monotone
voice.
"Not at the moment, but I figured that we should
check in with Taylor, and leave the country, before the Malfoy wannabee
fulfills his wishes." Jack said, pointing his index finger to his head,
indicating a muggle gun.
"That should be fun." Said another that was behind
them all. They all turned around, save Anderson, to see who had said that.
"Malfoy!" Carolina gasped, holding her chest.
Standing in front of them was a tall, blonde man,
who looked as if he was ready to take anybody down. He had gray, cold eyes, and
an evil smile to top it off.
"Well, maybe." Malfoy said.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jack said in a
defensive voice from behind Flora (He's behind Flora, since they all turned
around, and he was in front). But Draco Malfoy did not respond to that
question. Instead, he looked to his watch.
"It should happen," He said, tapping his watch.
"right about now."
"What?" Carolina said, looking to her side to a
wall clock. She turned her head back to Draco. "Are we all going to…" She
started to say to Draco, but then she realized she wasn't looking at Draco
anymore. The blond hair had turned a very dark brown color, easily mistaken as
black. The cold, gray eyes had become a pair of lifeless green ones. He looked
as if he had shrunk, and his whole physique had changed. Someone completely
different was now standing where Draco had previously stood.
"Rory!" Flora shouted in shock to the new person.
"I knew that you weren't the real Draco, but I…"
"Never expected that I would be the man behind the
mask." Rory said, assuming that was what Flora was going to say. "But we've all
had our share of deceiving people, haven't we?" He said, putting on a small
grin as he glanced to Flora.
Jack was about to go and defend Flora, but she
pushed him back, not taking her eyes of Rory, and he didn't take dare take his
off Flora.
They seemed to be speaking the language that eyes
could speak before Flora said, "You know, don't you?"
"I know everything about you, Flora, or should I
say…"
"DON'T!" Flora yelled, cutting off Rory before her
had a chance to say more. She looked worried when he said those words, like
whatever her knew could cause her destruction.
"Does it matter? Might as well share it with the
ones you care about before they all die." Rory said, getting out his wand
"That's my decision." She said, getting a bit
ticked off.
"Any last requests?" He asked, flipping his wan in
and out of his hand.
"I want answers." She stated about a moment later.
"Here, this may help." He said, suddenly throwing a
small, golden egg shaped ball to Flora, who quickly caught it. "In the
unfortunate circumstance that you do live, this may help you, if you ever
figure it out."
Jack did not take this all lying down. He tried to
march up to Rory, but Flora stopped him.
"There's nothing we can do, Rory has us." Flora
told Jack in a non-convincing tone.
Rory smiled at that comment, but did not talk of
it. "Your last request has been fulfilled. Avada…" He said, not wiping the
smirk off his face for a second. The wand was pointed at Flora, but she did not
panic in the face of danger like she usually did. She did not flinch, nor move.
She seemed to know something, and that was preventing her from going crazy.
What wasn't expected from all, sans Flora (who saw
it coming), happened. Rory turned his wand to another, and he finished the
spell.
"Kedavra!" He yelled, as a corpse fell to the
floor.
Flora turned her head to the side of her, looking
into Jack's eyes, which now lacked life. She turned her head back up, and
looked at Rory with a face of courage, though she was broken up inside. She
hoped that all this was just a bad dream, and that she'd wake up and see Jack,
and he would tell her that everything would be ok, but that moment never came,
and would never come.
Rory stared at Flora with a look showing that he
was ready to do it all over again. But he saw something in Flora's eyes, and
once again in that language that the eyes speak, he heard Flora loud and clear.
"You knew, didn't you?" He asked.
"That you were going for Jack first? Of course,
what do you expect? I know you about as well as you know me." She said, getting
Rory like Carolina wanted to get Flora all night.
"You're a smart girl, Flora, but not as smart as…"
he was about to say more, but then oxygen started to become an issue.
"You will pay." Carolina yelled out, holding the
back of Rory's neck, and letting Jack's wand go in the front of his neck. Up to
that point, both Rory and Flora forgot the presence of the others in the room,
and seeing Carolina sneak up in Rory was quite a shock.
"You're not the only one with guts to kill."
Carolina whispered into his ear, though loud enough for both Flora and Anderson
to hear.
She pulled Rory closer to her so that her mouth was
right next to his ear. She removed the wand from the front of his neck,
allowing him to breathe. She now stuck the wand in his back.
"Avada Kedavra." She whispered into his ear. As
soon as the last syllable of the last word came out of her mouth, Rory sank to
the floor.
Flora wanted to say something, but found that she
was at a loss for words. She turned to Carolina, who was walking away from
Rory's dead body, looking shocked.
"I…I killed him." She said, stuttering, dropping
Jack's wand. "I didn't ttt…think that i…it would actually work."
"It's a killing spell, it was going to kill him."
Anderson said. The 2 had forgotten about him, and both gasped at the sound of
his voice.
"But…but it wasn't my wand." She said, she said,
still not believing all this. "But…oh, oh no." She whispered, realizing
something.
"What?" Anderson asked.
"I have to go, I have to get out of here." Carolina
said, picking up Jack's wand, and making a window in the wall.
"What are you doing?" Flora asked.
"I have to leave." She said, climbing onto the
ledge of the window. She looked down, seeing how far they were from the bottom.
"Carolina, don't!" Flora yelled, running to the
window to stop her, but it was too late. She had already jumped. She looked
down to see if Carolina had landed ok, but mostly expected a great blob of
Carolina on the ground. As Carolina traveled through the air, someone brushed
up against her arm.
"How did you get here?" Flora asked Anderson, who
was right next to her.
"The Assinian spell. I figured that you would know
that." Anderson asked, returning his attention to Carolina, who landed safely
on both feet.
"How did she nail that landing?" Anderson asked
himself, not really expecting an answer.
"She has Jack's wand, she'll manage." Flora said,
following Carolina until she could not see her any longer, which happened
rather quickly. As she was about to turn away from the window, she sunk to her
knees, and made a groaning sound.
Anderson heard Flora, and turned to accompany her
on the floor. She was holding her head, still groaning a bit.
"Are you alright?" He asked
"What time is it?" She asked with difficulty.
"Midnight." He said, looking at the wall clock.
"Damn." She whispered, and then she looked to
Anderson. "You have to get out, now!" She yelled at him, even though they were
face to face. She tried to cover her face, and push Anderson away from her. He
landed on his back, and tried to look at her again, but for the second time
that night, he noticed that he was looking at someone completely different.
Flora's hair had grown longer, and turned curly black. He watched her legs grow
about 4 inches, and her clothes change. He then stood up, and pulled this new
person up with him.
"I thought I told you to get out of here!" This new
person said with a voice completely different from Flora's. Anderson put one
hand on her shoulder, and another under her chin, to see who this person was.
If he was doing this to Flora, her chin would have come up immediately, but the
minute his hand went under her chin, she kicked his stomach, and sent him to
the floor.
She walked to the side of Anderson, and looked down
on him like he was a little child. She said to him,
"Don't mess with me." Anderson could now see her
face. The only familiarity he saw in her face was her eyes, which were brown
like Flora's but had little green flickers in them. Her nose was a bit shorter
than Flora, and she wasn't squinting to see clearly. Her skin was a bit darker
and her lips a bit fuller. Anderson had never seen this person before.
"Who…"
"Wouldn't you like to know." This new girl said,
and right then, the empty square was filled.
"Freeze!" The person in the square said. Anderson
shot up from the floor, still sitting, and the new girl jumped in surprise.
"You!" The new Flora yelled. "Katie! What are you
doing here?"
Katie Bell was standing in the middle of the square,
holding her wand in both hands. When Katie saw this new person, she smiled.
"I finally have you, Pansy Parkinson." Katie said,
looking very pleased with herself. "Finally getting what you deserve." She
said, moving a bit that light reflected off her badge, and the new Flora could
read what it said, 'Agent 3246'
"Oh, you're a ministry geek." Pansy said "What are
you gonna do to me?" She asked, testing Katie's nerves
"Don't tell me that you think you can get away with
2 murders, do you?" She said, and then she pointed her wand to Anderson. "Is
that your accomplice?"
Anderson was about to speak, but Pansy was faster.
She stepped on his stomach, which made him lay back down.
"Why would I tell you?" She asked, turning her
attention back to Katie.
"For you, that a yes." Katie said, getting pretty
mad.
"Are you just going to talk me to death, or what?"
Pansy asked. "You know, you haven't changed, still don't have anything of
interest to talk about." She said, tossing her hair back as she turned.
"I'm going to enjoy this." Katie said, gripping her
wand a bit harder, and centering it on Pansy.
"Stupefy!" She yelled, and someone hit the floor
with a loud bang.
"But not as much as I will." Pansy said, looking
down at Katie. She pried open Katie's fingers around her wand, and was able to
take it out of her hands. She then walked over to Anderson, who was just
sitting there, watching the 2 girls.
"So, what was it? A Polyjuice potion?" Anderson
asked as she approached him.
Pansy then went down on her knees, and pulled the
collar of Anderson's cloak, so that they were face to face.
"I see that you are far too dense to consider the
facts. If you did, then you'd know."
"So, what do plan to do now that you're a wanted
criminal?" He said, trying to get out of Pansy grip, but he realized that Pansy
was much stronger than Flora would ever be.
"I can always go back to being Flora, but now
you're wanted as my partner in crime." She said, grinning at him as he thought
about that one. "Anyways, you're coming with me." She said, pulling him up from
his sitting position so that they were both standing. But as soon as he stood
up, Anderson pulled away from Pansy so she would let go of his collar, which
she did, and he looked at her like she was a mental case.
"Are you nuts? That Ministry girl, Kathie or
whatever her name was doesn't exactly think you're little miss sunshine, and I
think I'll take her word on that." He said, whispering the last part. He was
about to walk away when Pansy pulled on her collar once again, and they were face
to face, except that Pansy's wand was in the middle of the 2.
"Well, I have a wand, and you don't, so we can do
this the easy way, or the hard way, take your pick." She said, staring at him
for a few seconds. She finally threw Anderson into a wall that was about a foot
behind him. She walked away, waiting for an answer. He walked to the window
that Carolina jumped through, and said,
"Ladies first." Putting his arms out like he was
leading her to the window.
"So what are you waiting for?" She asked, not
showing any sarcasm in her voice.
"Ha ha, very funny." He said, getting ready to
jump. "Um, I might need that Ministry girl's wand." He said, noticing how high
they actually were from the ground.
"I can't believe I'm actually going to trust you
with a wand," she said, throwing Katie's wand to Anderson. "But I must be
having a Flora moment."
"I still don't get how you did this, if it wasn't a
Polyjuice potion." Anderson said, looking a bit confused.
"You're dumber than I thought." She said, pushing
Anderson out of the window. She than sat on the windowsill, about ready to have
another Flora moment.
"See ya later WIC, I'm off to the Americas, I
guess." She said, and then she joined Anderson by jumping out the window.
Katie heard it all.
In Coming Chapters- What is Flora/Pansy, really?
What is that egg thing? What happened to the real Draco? And what's Anderson's
first name? Is it really that bad that he had to start using his last name?
There will be some Harry in the coming chapters, and a lot of Draco in the last
few chapters. If you want to know, WIC stands for Wizard Intelligence Center,
just for the people that wanted to know.
I might have a bit more Katie in the coming
chapters and more of the old Quidditch team, but that depends on you guys. And
tell me anything else you want to know, or any suggestions for
self-improvement.
Thank you for reading this story, please, no
flames, or if you're going to flame, call it constructive critism.
Laterz-MG
