********2********

She stepped into the dry, warm sunny area, and smiled. It was much

more pleasant than the chilly foggy London Alley she had been in just then.

She glanced around, for fear of cars. None were seen. But what was seen was

plenty of men, women, and children walking happily about wearing purple,

emerald green, red, and many other colored cloaks and robes. "How strange!"

She thought. This seemed perfectly normal to everyone else, however, so she

said nothing but simply unfolded the map and walked on. The map told her

to go to "The Leaky Cauldron". She shrugged and walked on, crossing the

street to a small, shabby looking pub that had a sign reading, "The Leaky

Cauldron" in large red letters on a wooden door. She frowned slightly; this

hardly looked like a suitable living place. She checked the map again, but it

still read the same thing. She walked ahead an into the small pub.

Her first impression of the bar was unclear and very wrong. The pub

from the inside was nicely cleaned, heated and polished. Many tables

occupied the room, and many more people in strange colored robes occupied

these tables. She pushed back a lock of light brown hair away from her face,

and sighed, relieved. This looked much better than the outside. A little old

man came up to her, smiling and bowing. "May I help you, Miss?" She smiled

gratefully and nodded, hurriedly putting away the map. "Yes, thank you. I'm

here for my room....my mother reserved me a room to stay in for the summer

until school starts." He smiled knowingly. "Ahh, yes. Hogwarts, my dear?"

She cocked her head, then nodded. "Yes, if that's the boarding school around

here." He bowed again. "Yes, of course, Miss. I am Tom, I run The Leaky

Cauldron. And your name, Miss?" She pushed her hair behind her ears again

and shifted the bag. "I'm Aly, and I believe my mother reserved it under

'Otaku'." He bowed and nodded, turning to a clipboard with names on it. He

ran his finger down the list, muttering to himself, then smiled at her. "Yes,

your mother did indeed reserve you a room, Miss. It's room 320. Right this

way, Miss." He nodded and walked past her, showing the way to a room at

the back. As she followed him, she realized that her birthday was March

20th. "Hmm." she murmured as she followed Tom through the pub and to her

room.

Her room was a nicely decorated little room, with an adjoining

bathroom to the left. Next to the door, a dresser and closet stood. Across from

the door a large trunk sat against the wall. Next to the trunk against the

right wall stood a four-poster bed, with curtains and everything. The whole of

the decor was a deep, shadowy emerald green. She stepped inside, looked

around, then dumped her bag onto the bed and nodded. "Thanks, I think I'll

be okay now." Tom smiled, bowed, and left the doorway. She stood and closed

the door, then opened her bag. She put her T-shirts and shorts into the

dresser, and hung her jacket and poncho in the closet. As she closed the closet

door, she noticed an old, antique mirror on the wall above the trunk. She

dusted it off, then peered into it at her reflection. She pushed her hair behind

her ears then stepped back. Suddenly, to her great surprise, the mirror

coughed and said in a wheezy voice, "That's a good girl, hair out of your face,

dearie!" She gasped and leapt back in surprise, but the mirror said no more.

Frowning slightly, she turned back to her bag. She unpacked her quilt, her

travel pillow and her large book. She laid the quilt out on the bed, then set

the pillow on top of the ones already there. She picked up the book, and sat

on the bed. She opened the cover and flipped to the first page.

"The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. She

was very old, though she did not know it, and she was no longer the careless

color of seafoam, but rather the color of snow falling on a moonlit night."

She snapped the book closed, feeling an eerie prickling on

the back of her neck as she read. She looked around, then stared down at the

cover of the book. A beautiful creature looked down into a crystal clear pond,

its reflection staring back at it. In the distance, rolling green hills and trees of

all kinds lay peacefully at the foot of several purple mountains. She sighed

and touched the picture lovingly, remembering how this book had been read

and read again by her over the years. She looked at the worn picture, and

suddenly gasped as the silky unicorn turned and looked up at her, dipping its

ivory horn to her. Her eyes widened and she dropped the book on the bed. She

once again looked around the room. She sighed, and put the book under her

pillow. She reached into the bag and pulled out a plastic bottle of some

greenish-yellow liquid. She untwisted the cap and drank some. Then she put

the cap back on and put the bottle back in her bag, dropping it so that the

label, "Mountain Dew" was facing upwards. She took the book and put it in

her back pocket, then exited the room.