Chapter 2
Alice sighed and leaned back against the firm wall. The cement felt rough and cold, even through her jacket and blouse. So this was it then, the final proof. Her parents must be so disappointed. How could she face them when they came back? She pulled her knees up to her chest and dropped her head. "Ouch." She had forgotten about the new bump on her forehead, and the scrape on her knee. Lifting her head a little, she stared at the hole in her tights. She was bleeding again. Taking a deep breath, Alice bit her lip and watched her knee become hazy as tears filled her eyes. She might have stayed that way until her parents came back, hunched against the wall, watching the blood ooze slowly through the fabric. At that moment, however, someone spoke to her. "Are you alright?" Maybe if she ignored whoever it was, he would go away, besides, hadn't Mum always taught her not to talk to strangers? "Hello? I said, are you all right, there?" A drop fell on her knee and her vision cleared for a moment. She could the scab starting to form. "Look, I don't mean to bother you or anything, it's just that, you're sort of, well, in the way..." Alice almost smiled at the desperation in the youth's voice. She looked up, seeing the tall red- haired boy for the first time. "I'm s-sorry," she told him. "I'll just... umm... I'll go..." Where would she go? Did it matter? Alice straightened her skirt and stood up. The boy still fairly towered over her. She hastily wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and shuffled away from the barrier. "Er, thanks!" he called after her.
"Who are you talking to, sweetheart?" Alice recognized the voice of the woman that had asked after her earlier. Glancing back she saw her making her way through the crowd with a trolley full of luggage. Perched on the top trunk was a cage like Mestra's with a small owl inside. A girl who looked just a bit younger than the boy - his sister, she assumed - followed their mother with another trolley.
"No one, Mum, there was a kid sitting in front of the barrier..."
"A little girl? With brown pig-tails?" asked the woman, looking around. Alice stepped behind a large man waiting on Platform Ten. "I saw her when I was looking for you... I think she was hurt."
"Well, she got up, Mum, so she can't have been hurt badly." The boy took the trolley from his mother. "Ready Ginny? I'll race you!" His sister smiled and got into position behind her own cart.
"Ron! I want no trouble this year! You behave yourself or you'll never graduate! You have a real chance to make prefect for next year... and look after you sister!" Alice heard both students laughing as they disappeared through the barrier. Great. They were a wizarding family, and the mother had seen her run into the barrier. She felt her cheeks growing redder and turned away in case the woman could see her glowing. The man she had hidden behind wandered off towards a candy machine and she suddenly felt very exposed. Mingling in with the crowd on the platform, Alice tried to form a plan. She wasn't ready to face her parents yet. She looked back and saw the woman follow her children to Platform 9 3/4. That was how her family should have been. Two magical children with magical parents, magically walking to the magical platform and magically leaving for a magical school. She knew that she was just feeling sorry for herself, but she couldn't help it. She didn't belong in her family any more than she belonged with the family with the red hair. Flattening her dark fringe over the bump on her head, Alice squared her shoulders and resolved to find out where she did belong. Muggle London seemed like a good place to start. She shoved her hands deep into her pockets and walked resolutely toward the sign that read "Way Out". She paused for a moment before stepping out into the sunlight. "Alice?" She heard her name called, faintly. Hundreds of people now stood between her and the barrier, a second impregnable wall. Her parents were back on the platform, looking for her. "Alice?!" Louder this time, they were getting closer. Taking a deep breath, she stepped out of the tunnel and onto the sidewalk. It was better this way. She couldn't embarrass them if she wasn't there. Maybe she could disappear after all. Once outside she started to run, her heart pounding in time with her feet. She ran until her legs were numb and she could no longer feel the sting in her knee. Until she was out of breath. She ran until she fell.
"Look out!" She saw the boy at the last minute, but couldn't stop herself in time. She was on the ground again. "I told you to look out." The boy glared at her.
"Well, well, you should have looked where you were going!" Alice yelled. "If you hadn't-"
"Me? You're the one who-"
"You jumped out in front of me!"
"What were you doing running so-"
"None of your business!" Having declared that undeniable proof of her rightness, Alice stood up and smoothed her skirt. The boy stared up at her from the pavement.
"Who do you think you are?" he grumbled, rubbing his shoulder. Alice stuck her tongue out and started to walk past him. "Wait a minute!" he grabbed her leg, nearly pulling her down again.
"Hey! Geroff me! Let go!" Alice shook her leg, but he the boy's grip on her ankle was too strong.
"Aren't you going to say you're sorry?" The boy was smiling now. He was still sitting calmly on the pavement, her ankle in both hands, grinning up at her through his messy blond hair. Alice began to fume. What was this boy thinking?
"Let go of my foot!"
"Say you're sorry!"
"Stop it!"

"Say you're sorry!"
This was getting her nowhere. She stopped struggling and looked down at the boy. He was right. It wasn't his fault that she's run into him, or that she couldn't get to Platform 9 3/4, or that she couldn't turn the cat purple. She started to cry again. "Please, let me go," she asked softly. The boy dropped her foot. "I'm sorry I ran into you."
"See, then? Not so hard, was it?" He stood up, wiping the dirt off his trousers.
"Just leave me alone," she said, starting to walk away again. The boy followed her.
"Hey, what's the matter with you? It didn't hurt that much." He matched her stride as she walked faster.
"Leave me alone, I want to be-" she stopped. She'd come to the end of the street.
"Look, I don't know what your problem is but-"
"But it's not your problem, is it?" she shot back. She turned around and started walking back the way she'd come, looking for a different turn. The boy watched her go for a moment before running up beside her.
"Hey, I'm Ben, what's your name?"
"Alice."
"Well, Alice, d'you think we could slow down a little? I mean I don't know about you, but I'm getting a bit winded."
"Nobody... asked you.... to follow me..." Alice panted, speeding up. If she walked any faster she'd be running again.
"Well, I guess that's right, but as we're just goin' round in circles I reckon I could stand in place and you'd still think I was following you." As if to prove his point, he stopped right where he was.
Alice stopped too. He was right. Again. This boy was starting to get on her nerves. "What do you want?"
"Nothing."
"Then what-"
"I was just-"
"Why were you-"
"Benjamin!" A tall woman stepped out of a pub across the street. "What are you doing over there? I told you to wait for me inside-"
"I'm coming, Mum. I was just-"
"Benjamin Kyle Brodie, so help me..." she shook her head and put her hands on her hips.
"I'm coming!" He turned to Alice, "Look, do you want to come with me? Mum won't fuss as much if you're there," he paused for her answer. Alice shrugged her shoulders and glanced at the stern woman waiting across the street. Then she looked back at the boy and frowned, trying to decide what to do. "Thanks," he said. Without waiting for her answer, the boy grabbed her wrist and dragged her across the street. His mother was standing in the doorway of a tiny, grubby-looking pub, under a sign that read "The Leaky Cauldron".
"And who's this, Benjamin?" his mother asked as soon as he was next to her.
"This is Alice. She's lost and I'm helping her."
"Are you now?" She seemed skeptical, but after a moment she turned to Alice and smiled kindly. "Hello then Alice, I am Mrs. Brodie. You've met my son Benjamin, I see, and aren't yet the worse for it." Here she shot her son another stern look. "You're lost, are you? Why don't you come inside then and we'll see about finding you."
"Thank you ma'am." Alice allowed herself to be led inside and was soon seated comfortably in one of the pub's booths. Mrs. Brodie ordered the children a plate of chips and listened as they talked. Alice told them that she had been shopping with her parents and somehow gotten separated from them. It wasn't a lie, she figured. She had gone shopping, she had the bags to prove it - except that she'd left the bags on the platform. Still, she had definitely been separated from her parents. There had been a firm barrier between them. Besides, her mother had told her not to let on to Muggles about her wizard family. When they finished eating Ben's mother stood up.
"Let me just speak to Tom and then we'll have a chat about finding your parents, alright, lass?" Ben's mother folded her coat on one of the benches and went up to the bar where Tom was setting a bowl in front of a large owl.
"Whew, that was a close one!" Ben slumped down next to his mother's coat. Alice looked at him curiously across the table.
"What are you talking about? Your mum is lovely!"
Ben looked at her as though she had suddenly sprouted a third eye. "Are you mad? If you weren't here... well you'd think a howler exploded the way she yells." Alice giggled. She'd only seen one howler, when her father had done something that particularly annoyed his mother, but Mestra had told her about a friend at camp who tried to hide one. Apparently it had started to smoke and emitted a foul smell before finally combusting like a firecracker. It was hard to imagine anyone making so much noise, but remembering Mrs. Brodie's tone when she called her son, Alice admitted that if anyone could do it, she could.
"Well, what did you do to make her so angry?" she asked.
"You wouldn't understand." He became very interested in the napkin holder.
Alice crossed her arms. "Fine. Don't tell me." She looked up as Mrs. Brodie nodded to Tom and turned away from the bar. "I'll just ask your mum."
"You wouldn't!" His mother was coming to the table.
"Mrs. Brodie!?" Alice called.
"Shut it!" Ben was shaking now.
"Mrs. Brodie, I- oww!" she cried out as Ben kicked her under the table. She glared at him. "You great prat! That hurt!"
"Shhhh!" he was desperate.
Ben's mother sat down beside him and looked inquisitively at her son's companion. "Well then, lass, you've been keeping secrets from us, it seems."
"Me? I, no, I just-"
"It's all right, hon, you're in good company. You've no cause to hide what you are from us. Particularly not in here." She waved at the pub's occupants. Looking around, Alice noticed some things about this pub that had seemed normal to her, but which she now realized should be strange to a non-magical girl. A boy at the table next to them was poking a rather large frog with a long stick. He muttered a few words and sparks flew out of the end of what she now recognized as a wand. A crowd of men near the back were all dressed in long robes of different colors, and one wore a tall pointed hat. In fact, several of the pub's customers wore similar hats and cloaks. This was a wizards' pub. She looked back at Mrs. Brodie, who was staring at her intently.
"Now then, Miss Grey, how about the truth?"