"Mom! How am I going to finish all this in two months!?" Jason exclaimed.
Mrs. Frek pulled out a small sand clock and replied, "Jason, this is called a Time Turner, it will allow you to go back in time. So whenever we finish a lesson, you can go to a place where you will not be disturbed and go back in time an hour or so. That way you can practice your lesson."
"Well, won't I get older quicker?" asked Jason.
"Not really, this is a magical time machine, you don't have to worry about that, just don't interfere with the past, I'm sure you read about that in your physic books."
Jason's mom was a very good teacher, and Jason was a very good student. Just in the first day alone, they covered most of the basic potions already.
In the evening, the phone rang, "I'll get it," said Jason.
He picked up his cordless next to him, "Hello."
"Um.. Hi.. May I talk to Jason please?"
"Yes, this is he."
"Hey... I'm Martha, remember? I'm that girl in the magic shop... I was wondering if we can do something tomorrow."
"Sure, what do you want to do?" Jason grinned so hard his face started to hurt. A girl never called him before to ask him to do something. They only asked him about homework.
"Well, do you play tennis or swim or something?" she asked in a nervous voice.
"I LOVE TENNIS!" Jason exclaimed.
"Sure, I can play around 10:00 AM then we can go for lunch or something. So where do you want to go?"
"Well, you can come over my house, I have a tennis court here, I'll tell you my address and you can find it on Mapquest."
"Mapquest?"
"Yes, it's on the Internet, I'll give you the site."
"I don't have the.. the... In..tre..nat."
Jason gave Martha directions to his house. He wanted to ask her if she was a witch or not, but he was too afraid. If she was a witch, why did she play tennis? Jason decided to ask her tomorrow. He hung up and told her mom she was playing tennis with Martha tomorrow.
"Don't you need to study?" she asked.
"Come on mom, I studied all day today, please, and I have a tournament this weekend as well, I need to practice."
Tennis, the word sounded weird to him now. Wizards didn't play tennis, he thought, and wizards played Quidditch. But since he already came this far in his tennis game, why should he stop. He still loved the sport, although he doubted he would be able to play while in Hogwarts.
Suddenly, a revealing thought came to him. He thought: That's why I'm so good at tennis, it seems whenever I hope the ball to go in, and it goes in! It must have to do with the fact that I'm.. I'm a wizard! Jason stood up and clapped his hand at the thought that he could use this power even more in his game.
"Why are you clapping son?" Mr. Frek asked.
"Nothing dad."
"Well, you better go study your magic if you want to play tennis tomorrow because you have four years of magic to catch up on. I know it's summer but..."
"It's okay dad, I think it's really fun making spells and stuff."
"You think it's... fun?"
"Ye, why isn't it?"
"Oh never mind, I hated homework when I was at Hogwarts."
That night, Jason had the strangest dream. It was his father and mother. His father was carrying a baby. It was very dark, and that strange man appear again. He was laughing while shooting red and green beams from his wand at his frightened parents. Then, he yelled "Avada Ke... NOOOOOOOO" The man screamed and he woke up sweating really hard. Jason tried to forget about that and fell into an uneasy sleep.
Jason got up at eight thirty that morning and remembered about the dream before. Jason was too excited to think about that as soon as he recalled that he was going to play tennis with Martha. He quickly took a shower and looked at himself in the mirror. I want to impress her, he thought. He straightened his hair and put on his best tennis outfit. Jason was too excited to sit down and eat she he ate a sandwich walking around in circles.
Jason waited until ten. He waited another ten minutes. Another twenty. Why wasn't she here? he thought to himself. Suddenly, a strange sound came from his fireplace. She must have used floo powder he thought.
"Oh, sorry about that, I can explain." she said.
"No need, I know, you used floo powder." Jason said.
"How did you know?"
"I'm a wizard."
"Really?? Do you go to Hogwarts?"
"So you do go to Hogwarts."
She blushed and said, "Yes, I thought you were um a..."
"Muggle?"
"Ye, how come I never saw you around?"
"I just found out that I was a wizard two days ago, its freaky man, most of your predictions were correct." He turned red when he thought about that she said he would fall in love with a girl that day...
"So are you going to Hogwarts?"
"Yep, I'm doing all four years of work this summer."
"How? And I thought underage wizards can't perform magic in the summer?"
"Time Turner, and my mom straightened things out with the Ministry... well why don't we play some tennis and talk later, I haven't played for three days and I'm dying to play."
They walked onto Jason's court and starting hitting some balls. It turned out that Martha is an excellent player. She hits hard and has great control over the ball. Before they knew it, it was already lunchtime. Mrs. Frek made Jason and Martha a wonderful meal and left them to eat it a picnic table outside.
They washed their hands and sat down.
"Why do you play tennis if you're a witch?" Jason asked.
"Well, my dad's a Muggle, and he doesn't know I'm a witch and my mom takes care of all the school work so he just thinks I go off to some boarding school. My dad's a professional tennis player so he wants me to play as well. I actually like it. It's something different than Quidditch."
"Oh."
"Sooo, do you know what house you're going to be in next year?"
"Pardon me?"
"You know... Griyffinor.."
"Ohh house, I don't know."
"I guess you'll be sorted with the first years."
"Ye. What house are you in?"
"I'm in Huffpepuff."
"I hope I'm in that too," Jason smiled. They both blushed.
Martha caught Jason up with the news about Voldemort. She told him how a boy name Harry Potter, A Gryiffinor in their grade defeated the dark lord three times.
After a wonderful lunch, the two just sat in the comfortable garden of Jason's and talked for a while. Jason told her about his miserable Muggle life, and about his achievements in tennis. Martha told him how his father just disappeared.
"How?" asked Jason.
"Well, it was last summer and just one day, he simply disappeared."
Jason thought a little. He remember, a hot day in June, Jason answered the door. He saw a strange man wearing sunglasses and a hat. He couldn't make out his face because of his sunglasses. As soon as the man saw Jason, he ran away.
Jason just said, "Oh, well, let's go play some more tennis shall we?"
"Too lazy. I like this place."
"Please, I have a tournament this weekend." Jason held out his hand and helped her up.
In the middle of playing, Jason's racket strings, broke. What?! I just got them restrung! Cheap strings damn it! Jason thought. He took out another racket and continued playing. After Martha went home, Jason and his mom went to his racket club to get his racket restrung. The usual man wasn't there, instead, a vaguely familiar man stood behind the counter instead.
"Uh, yes, please restring my racket, Gamma TNT, 54 pounds per square inch please. I'll need it by Saturday morning. Thank you." The man nodded and took his racket. He didn't look so bad, Jason thought as he walked away in disbelief.
At night, Jason laid awake wondering about that strange man—the strange man in Jason's dream that is haunting him for almost every night now Could he be Martha's father? Naw, probably just a coincidence, and he shoke it off.
The few weeks and been hectic. Besides studying like crazy, Jason had also had a major improvement in his tennis game for. He couldn't understand why this was so. He was constantly playing with that racket he restrung after playing Martha. For some reason, whenever he made contact with the ball, the ball never went out. Never. The only point his opponents scored on him was when he couldn't get to it.
Because of this, Jason made it all the way to the Wimbledon. WOW! Jason made it all the way to one of the most famous world tennis tournaments just in a few weeks. Something was very odd about this, but Jason was so excited that he didn't care.
Throughout this time, Jason was so confident in his tennis game, that he just studied his Magic and hung out with Martha allot. Martha happened to know allot about Defense Against Dark Arts, so she helped him with the creatures and stuff.
"I don't know why I do," she explained, "It's like this stuff is... natural to me."
Jason and Martha grew closer every day they met, but Jason never had the guts to make a move on Martha.
Because the Frek family was very rich (Muggle wise), they were able to afford a luxurious hotel suite in England and they also had Martha join them.
Jason blasted his way through the tournament all the way to the semi finals .Whenever he scored a point, he looked up at his parents and Martha. Everyone was clapping, but his dad was always fidgeting a little before he clapped again. After winning each match, he gave his racket to his mom and ran off to study for Hogwarts again.
He lost in the quarterfinals because Pete Sampras kept on acing him so he didn't have a chance to touch the ball. Nevertheless, his publicity rose as the youngest tennis player to reach the quarterfinals.
Jason's family and Martha flied back to the US while being beseted by hundreds of reporters. The day after Jason got home, a very attractive girl greeted Jason by his door. It was Samantha, Jason's crush ever since seventh grade, but she was too popular for him. Of course now, his crush is Martha, but she didn't know that.
"Hey" she said.
"Um, hi."
"Are your parents home?"
"No, they repres...."
She jumped onto him and kissed him heavily.
"Samantha..."
"I saw you on TV, you were sooo hot, I'm sorry that I didn't go with you to homecoming..." Samantha said as she pulled Jason to a sofa.
She pushed him onto the sofa and kissed him.
"Samantha..." What am I doing? Jason asked himself. I'm not ready for this, besides if she wants to have sex with my just because I'm a famous tennis star, then I think it's really bullshit that she really likes me. I like Martha, not Samantha. Jason thought to himself as she took off her shirt reveling her bra.
Jason thought: I can't do this. I know it's tempting, but I just can't I can't I can't!!!
"Samantha!!! Please, don't do this!!!" Jason desperately yelled.
"I know you want me!" she yelled back.
Jason pushed her back took a deep breath and said, "Look... I know I used to like you... but I like someone else now... and I don't think I'm ready for this... I'm really sorry."
A hurt look fell upon Samantha's face as she pulled her shirt back on. "Oh okay, I'll be leaving now then, bye."
"Um bye."
Samantha left. Soon, Jason had the urge to practice some magic with Martha. He called her and noticed that his racket wasn't by the door as it usually is. He remembered that he just put it there a while ago, where can it be? Martha just used floo powder to get to his house while the doorbell rang.
It was Samantha again, and she looked very confused.
"Um, Samantha, didn't I tell you..."
"Ohh are you Jason Frek?"
"Um... yes..." She giggled.
"That's so weird, the last thing I remember was waking up today, and suddenly I was in front of your house. That's actually pretty cool if you ask me."
"You mean you don't remember that you were just at my house?"
"No... I was at your house? I must've got drunk or something, but I don't feel drunk."
"Well, look, I'm sorry but I'm very busy right now," Jason said, he was rather confused as well. Why was she here again? She's definatly not acting that she just forgot.
"Oh, right sorry, how do I get home again?"
Jason sighed and told her directions to get to town and told her she can find her house form there.
Then, Jason just saw his tennis racket on his front lawn. What is my tennis racking doing in my front lawn?
He picked it up and waved Samantha good-bye. Jason then saw a wand next to the racket. A wand?!? Jason brought that wand and tennis racket back to the house and left both of them at the table. He would ask about that to his dad later.
"What was that all about?" she asked.
Jason explained to her the whole thing about Samantha, but he decided to keep the wand thing quiet for now. Martha laughed and said, "So why didn't you do it?"
"Do what?" Jason smirked. He wanted to say that because he likes Martha, but didn't have the guts to.
"You know..."
"No I don't."
"Oh never mind, you're hopeless," said Martha laughing. Then she pulled out a black container and sat it down on the ground.
"Well, I'll teach you about boggarts today."
"Well what are they?"
"Boggarts are tiny dark creatures that turn into your worst nightmare as soon as you see one. Because of this, we never know how a real boggart looks like. Of course the boggart won't do any real harm to you. To defend against then, think of a funny and happy thought and say riddikulus!"
"Riddiklales!" repeated Jason.
"No, riddikululus."
"Riddikulus!"
"Yes that's right, you want to try now?"
"Ye."
Martha opened the box and ran to the side of the room.
The strange man in sunglasses and a cap appeared in the room. Martha gaped. "Riddikulus!" yelled Jason (waving his wand) as he thought of the first day he met Martha in the magic shop.
The man started to wear Martha's dresses as he disappeared.
"JASON! That looks like my.. my dad!" She started to cry and ran to the fireplace and floo powdered away.
Jason also looked very startled. When the strange man saw Jason, he ran away from his family. This was certainly odd, thought Jason. He kept playing the events over in his head, but nothing seemed to make sense. Alas, Jason went back to practicing his charms to keep this off his mind.
When his mom came home, she yelled, "Jason, how many times did I tell you not to leave your tennis racket on the dinning room table!"
"Sorry mom, but did you see a wand too?" Jason asked as he just remembered about the wand.
"What wand?"
"There was a wand on the table."
"I don't see a wand."
"Oh never mind, it's right here," Jason lied. What the hell is going on? How can the wand just simply disappear?
When Mr. Frek came home, he told Jason that it wasn't a good idea to go to Hogwarts after all.
"Why?" asked Jason in a surprised tone.
"Because, you have so much talent here in the Muggle world with your tennis.."
"But that's because of my magical."
"Honey, how can you say he can't go to Hogwarts," Mrs. Frek interrupted.
Then they got into a big argument about Jason's future and stuff; Jason slowly crept away to his room to get away from this quarrel.
His dad has been really strange lately. First during the Wimbledon, and he kept on fighting with his mom about Jason's safety.
This was quite odd, for Mr. and Mrs. Frek hardly fought before. Does this have to do with the strange man or the wand?
Author's Note:
Sorry that this chapter was a
bit weird. As I said before, It will
make sense. If you have the chance,
read the beginning of Chapter 1 again, I made some revisions. If you have any new ideas, please E-mail me. I look forward to your reviews!
