American Witch
A/N: Hola, peoples! I know I'm writing for the benefit of pretty much no one, but at least I'm getting more persistent! And I'm definitely not trying a romance short story again! Good reception…but seriously, you feel uncomfortable writing about romance unless you've actually experienced any…or at least that's my case.
And I just realized that I never had them choose their extra classes! You know, Divination and that. So…let's just say that did that, but it wasn't mentioned, and I'll just send them to some random classes…Hehe…
This chapter is dedicated to Ginny Ha-Ha for…reviewing…*sniff* I'm so grateful! Well, actually, no, I'd better not dedicate it to you, since no one wants this weird story floating around their dedicated things! =)
Disclaimer: In the last chapter, the letter from Hogwarts was JK's. I couldn't write such a formal one! And in this chapter, of course, JK's belongings: Diagon Alley and the Leaky Cauldron. Everything except my little characters and Amanda's house (which is also mine), practically…And again, I'm leaving the rest for surprises.
Oh, and please review! You can even not read if you want! =D
So, Chapter 2 is here (*slaps Chapter 2* Shame on you! You were late! ^_^) and I am going to shut up now!
~Hermione2
^_^
*****************************************************************
Chapter 2: School Shopping
About a week after she had the little interaction scene with the family across the street, it was time to go to Diagon Alley. Kara and Amanda had decided to go together again, and this time they were pretty much going by themselves. Mrs. Bustamente was going with them, but Amanda said that she would probably just tell them they could go wherever they wanted while she looked at the shops herself. Largely because of that, Kara thought Mrs. Bustamente was the best mother a kid could have.
Her mom dropped her off at Amanda's house, and she knocked on the door, fiddling with the shoulder strap of a bag hanging at her side. It contained some wizard money she had brought along for the shopping, and she planned to also carry her new books in it.
"Hello, Kari!" Mrs. Bustamente beamed as she opened the door. She had a habit of getting Kara's name wrong. Kara didn't care much, but she sometimes thought it did get annoying after a while.
"It's Kara, Mom," Amanda said in an exasperated voice as she came to the door. "Hi, Kara! We're going by Floo Powder this year."
"Oh…" Kara said uneasily. "Right." She didn't much like that idea. The idea of Floo Powder had always made her feel a little nervous. Just stepping into a fire…it didn't feel right.
Mrs. Bustamente led them to the fireplace in the living room, then took some Floo Powder out of a vase on the mantel and threw it on the fire. The fire turned green and roared up. Kara trembled a little before she could stop herself.
"Do you want to go first, Kari? We're going to the Leaky Cauldron, so just yell that out." Mrs. Bustamente asked, apparently not noticing Kara's fear.
"Kara, Mom!"
Kara thought for a second. Well, it hadn't been that bad when she'd done it last year… "Okay." She took a deep breath and stepped up to the fire. It seemed to roar higher than ever for a second. She swallowed, took another deep breath, and stepped in.
As she opened her mouth, ashes flew past, but she luckily didn't get much in her mouth. "The Lea…Leaky C…C…Cauldron!" She yelled, wishing she wasn't so nervous. Then, she felt herself whirling around, and tried to keep her arms from bumping into the fireplace. Nevertheless, she banged a shoulder on the side of the fireplace, and let out a small whimper of pain. That was probably going to be bruised for a while.
When she finally stopped, she threw her hands out to steady herself on the sides of the fireplace. Then, she looked around. Where was she? This wasn't the Leaky Cauldron. It wasn't even Diagon Alley.
She stepped out of the fireplace and looked around. There was a table, and a girl was sitting at it. There wasn't much light; there were only a couple of torches on the walls. This place looked creepy.
"Sit down," the girl at the table said. "I've been expecting you."
Kara stared uncertainly at the girl. She had long wavy red hair and green eyes. Now where had she seen that face before…? She knew they'd never met in her memory.
Still feeling confused, she sat down at a chair across from the girl and said, "What is this place? And who are you?"
"I'll answer the questions in their respective order. This is part of the world of the dead. And you know me as Jenny Chapman."
So that was it! She must have recognized her face from the photo album. That's where she'd seen her face before. Then, she processed the rest of the statement. "The world of the dead…?" Kara gaped, then looked around quickly. She'd never expected to get here before she died…She shuddered. "But…you…Jenny Chapman…So you're dead?"
"Yes, of course. I wouldn't be here otherwise. I obtained permission to summon you here for a little private chat."
"What did you want to talk to me for?"
"Well, I know you've found my things in that attic…When I died in my fifth year--"
"You died in your fifth year at Hogwarts? I'm sorry. How did that happen?"
"I…er…fell off that small cliff by the lake. I was unprepared to swim, and the impact weakened me anyway…so I drowned."
"I'm sorry. I thought, based on your things that we found, that you would have had a great future ahead of you, being a Seer and all."
"No. I couldn't have. It was Fate. If I had managed to escape dying, I would have had no purpose in life. But I didn't summon you to talk about my death, so…let's get on with it. As I was saying, when I died in my fifth year, my cousin, Lily--she happened to be identical to me as well, for a random fact--put all my things up in the attic. I knew that it was Fated that someone would come along and find them one day, and it would help them with something else, and you happened to be the one. So, I thought I would give you a small amount of advice for your task."
"Right. Before you give that to me, may I ask a question?" Kara had an interested expression.
"Sure."
"Your cousin, Lily…did her last name happen to be Evans?"
"Why, yes. Why do you ask?"
"Oh…well, I've heard of her." So, Kara thought, I'm actually talking to a relative of Harry Potter's mother! Interesting…
"Now that you've finished with your questions, do you want me to give you advice or not?" Jenny asked, somewhat impatiently.
"Oh, sorry. I know; I really have been asking too many questions. Bring on the advice!" Kara listened intently. She didn't want to miss this.
"Right…If you want to carry out your fate for this year, then you must look at all four houses, every person. Even people you don't particularly relish associating with. These people could be anywhere. Of course, if you want to go for a faster method…"
Kara listened especially intently.
"…then you should listen to any strange things you hear. That's often helpful. If you hear anything that sounds like the kind of person you need, then you investigate it. Track the person down and then try to figure out if the rumors are true….And that's my advice."
"Oh, so helpful," Kara said in annoyance. "That's pretty much what I was going to do anyway."
"Well, I said it was a small amount of advice…And if you were already thinking of those things, you're a bit more intelligent than I thought. Congratulations."
"Oh, yes, you thought I was dumb, even though I'm in Ravenclaw. Thanks!" Kara said in a sarcastic tone. "So, now that you've talked to me, could I perhaps be on my way to the Leaky Cauldron?"
"Certainly. Just get back in the fireplace and I'll get you there without any Floo Powder."
"Hey! Dead people have cool powers…" Kara muttered, stepping into the fireplace. She was relieved that she didn't have to use Floo Powder. As soon as she got herself in, everything whirled around once, and she fell out of the fireplace of the Leaky Cauldron.
"Hi, Kara. What took you so long?" Amanda's voice questioned. Kara looked up from the floor.
"Um…I don't know," she said, deciding that she'd better tell Amanda about Jenny Chapman when they weren't with her mom. Speaking of it, that girl was even more annoying than she'd thought. It was like she'd thought she was stupid…honestly…
"Well, we've been waiting for you for nearly 3 minutes! I timed it! Maybe our fireplace is malfunctioning…"
"Yeah, that might be it…" Kara said, relieved that Amanda had supplied an excuse, and getting up from where she'd fallen on the floor. Then, brushing the off the soot from when she left Sparrow's Perch, Kara said, "Well, I've already got my money in my bag…So, I'll be at Florean Fortescue's getting some ice cream. You can go get some money from Gringotts."
"Good idea," Amanda said. "Maybe I'll get some ice cream…" She looked hopefully at her mother.
"I don't mind, Amanda" Mrs. Bustamente said.
"Yay!" Amanda cheered. Then, they left the Leaky Cauldron, opened up the wall in the back, and walked through to Diagon Alley.
Kara waved as Amanda and her mother went up the steps of Gringotts, then headed toward the ice cream parlor. Going in, she waited in the line for a minute, ordered a sundae with a whole bunch of toppings on it (because she was a greedy little girl…haha…), and carried it outside, sitting down and starting to eat.
When she was about halfway done, Amanda got there and said, "Well, my mom has turned us loose. Took some money for herself and said she'd meet us by Gringotts."
"Yes! Free at last!" Kara said in a kind of whisper-yell, so that she wouldn't get stares by randomly yelling, and watched as Amanda went inside the ice cream parlor and came back out a minute later. Kara got up, and they walked down Diagon Alley, eating their ice cream.
"Hey…you know how I took a while going by Floo Powder?"
"Yeah…"
"Well, actually, this is what happened…" And she filled Amanda in on her meeting with Jenny Chapman.
"So she fell off a cliff and drowned? How clumsy do you have to be? And she was Lily Evans' cousin?"
"Yep. And give her a break. She was probably distracted somehow when she fell off that cliff…"
"Ha. As if."
"Her advice wasn't very informative, but I guess we can try to follow it."
"Aah! Informative…why do you have a big vocabulary?"
Kara sighed.
****
First, they decided to get the boring thing over with, and went to the apothecary first, to get some more potion ingredients. The beetle eyes freaked Amanda out, and Kara enjoyed picking them up, just to hear Amanda's disgusted comments. She actually had some of them bought and paid for, for exactly the same reason.
"Why do you need those?" Amanda asked. "Think about it. Those are eyes."
Kara just laughed.
****
Next, they went to Flourish and Blotts. As they stepped inside, Kara frowned suddenly.
"Whadda we need again?" She emptied out her pockets, and a few coins, some string, and a pack of gum fell on the floor, along with a folded piece of paper. "Oh, there's the list!" She picked up the folded piece of paper, which was the list, then put the coins in her bag ("Wouldn't want my mom to get those from the wash," she muttered), and started knotting up the string while chewing some gum.
"Uh…interesting, Kara."
"Thank you!" Kara said, bowing low.
Amanda laughed, while Kara looked at the list. "So…okay, we need the Grade 3 Standard Book of Spells, um…and our books for our new classes…Divination and Ancient Runes for me, and…" She took a look at Amanda's list. "Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures for you. Aw, 'Manda…you're not taking Divination with me?" She put on ridiculous puppy-dog eyes and looked at Amanda.
"Oh, God…" Amanda laughed. "Quit the puppy-dog eyes! Anyway, I'd rather avoid Divination, just in case that Trelawney is still teaching."
"Oh, come on, she sounded old in those books! She'd have to be immortal or something!"
"Maybe she's younger than she looks," Amanda said, in a I'm-trying-to-creep-you-out voice.
"Right. Anyway, if she is, I can act like a total fraud too and become the teacher's pet, so that I don't get homework!" Kara said brightly.
"You need to get help, Kara…"
"I'll look into that. I hear there's a couple empty spots at St. Mungo's…" Kara shrugged and started looking for her books. "Maybe you can fill the other one! Then we can be…mental hospital-mates!"
"Oh, shut up…" Amanda muttered, going to find her books as well.
****
About ten minutes later, they were out of Flourish and Blotts, and Kara had purchased Unfogging the Future and The Ultimate Runes Textbook, both of which were now in her bag. The Ultimate Runes Textbook would probably be The Ultimate Boringness. Anything with the word "Textbook" in the title was sure to be boring. Kara hoped the teacher wouldn't be boring too.
Next, they went over to Madam Malkin's. Both Kara and Amanda had shot up a few inches over last year, being the same height, and they needed to get longer robes. Madam Malkin greeted them warmly when they got there. "Needing new robes, dears? Let me measure you both and I'll point you in the right direction."
Ugh, Kara thought. Dears? I am not a dear. I'd rather be called a…uh…hippogriff. However, she did let Madam Malkin measure her for robes, and went over to the right section and got some okay ones…black, of course. Kara wondered if people wanted the school to look like a funeral or something.
After Madam Malkin's, they were done. They found Amanda's mom wandering down the alley, told her they were ready, and then all three went back to the Leaky Cauldron. When Kara got in the fireplace this time, she concentrated hard on saying the words correctly.
"Sparrow's Perch!" And she whirled around, and around, and around, and around…and I think you get the point. And bang, she crashed down in the fireplace at Amanda's house.
*************************************************************************************************
A/N: Yay! I'm done! AND I AM OUT OF SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BRING ON SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hehe, sorry about that…I'm just REALLY HAPPY!!!!!
And as I said in my bio, since it's summer, and I have absolutely NOTHING to do (Yes! FREEEEEEEEDOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), I'll probably be able to get more writing done. Any people reading this can probably expect faster posting, unless I decide to be a lazy bum, which is my usual occupation in summer, or I get writer's block. But I'll try not to do either…
And actually, there's not any purpose for Jenny being Lily's cousin, at least at the moment. If I get inspiration, there will be. But right now, I just feel like it!
Review! *puppy dog eyes*
~Hermione2
^_^
