The Landing
Gen had never driven before. Not even around the block in her dad's car. Her dad's car was a Ford Mustang. If she was to harm his car in any way she would end up on the street. At the moment, Gen thought how easy if must be to drive a normal car. She was gripping to the steering wheel of the car for dear life. If she was to let go it would fly about wildly, sending her body jerking about. Outside her window everything was a blur, and as there was no glass in the window she felt certain that at any moment her whole body would be thrown into the blur. Why hadn't she installed seatbelts? If only Gen could slow down for just a moment she would be able to tell where she was, but it seemed almost as if she was in a black hole, that was pulling her to some unknown destination.
Gen remembered how strange it had felt when she had touched the image she had seen, and wondered if whoever's thoughts she was now in felt as she had. She imagined that they must feel ten times stranger, as she wasn't just touching their thoughts but was being hurdled through them. It seemed that things were moving steadily and steadily faster, until all of a sudden the car jerked to a halt. Gen's body flew forward with the whiplash of the stop. She was dizzy, and felt tremendous pain from being thrown forward. Her head had hit the steering wheel.
When she got her senses back she realized that the car had not only stopped, but it had stopped on a street, much like the one she had started on. It was night, the street was empty, and she was in the middle of what looked like a downtown area. She looked about to make certain that no one was there, and no one had seen before opening her door, and getting out. Unfortunately someone had seen her. Standing on the sidewalk, in the blind spot of Gen's car was a rather short, funny looking man. He stared at her for a moment, before walking to where she stood, in horror of what he might say.
"Excuse me," he said in a rather pert, and mouse like British accent, "but I was wondering what that was, and where you got it." The man looked at the car fascinated.
"Er," Gen bit her lower lip, "what do you mean?"
"Well, it's a bit embarrassing, but," the man looked back and forth down the empty street, "I've been looking for a flying car, and yours is gorgeous. I was just wondering if you might inform me as to where I could find one like it. It being illegal and what not, I've been afraid to ask around." Gen gave him a strange look, deciding whether or not this was a step in the right direction. After a few minutes she responded to his strange query.
"I built it," she said slowly, "it's, er, custom made."
"Tuts!" The man seemed utterly furious with her answer.
"Excuse me," Gen pleaded as the man started to loose interest in talking to her, "but I'm new, and I was wondering if you could tell me exactly where I am."
"Well," The man said, "I don't really know how to explain the exact coordinates. The bank is that way, and the pub is that way. Say, you're American aren't you?"
"Yes," Gen frowned; the man's directions hadn't helped her at all.
"How fascinating. I've never met an American witch before. Are you from Salem?"
"No, I'm from Greenhills, Michigan. Did you say Witch?"
"Yes," The man seemed a bit taken aback by her answer and question, "you aren't a witch then?"
"Er," Gen thought fast, "well, what it is, is, where I'm from they call us Wizardesses."
"Fascinating! I'd love so much to talk more with you. Would you be willing to come with me to the Cauldron? I'll buy you a drink, and we could talk."
"Okay," she was slightly hesitant with her answer, but she had nowhere else to go, "what'll we do with the car?"
"You could shrink it," the man said.
"Shrink it?" Gen was curious, but couldn't conceal the tones of shock in her voice, "it's just that I've never shrunk anything before."
"What do you mean?"
"Er… I don't know a spell for shrinking."
"Oh, well allow me." The man pulled a wand from his pocket, and whispered some words in magic. Within a moment the car fit in the palm of Gen's hand. She tucked it carefully into her pocket, and then followed the man down the dark road. They didn't have to walk long before they confronted a solid brick wall in their way. The man took out his wand, and began tapping the bricks on the wall. When he finished the bricks shifted, and a great opening appeared in the wall. The two walked through. Everything was so familiar to Gen, but she couldn't place where she had seen this before. The man opened what looked like the back door to a restaurant, and the two stepped in to what looked like a pub, but this inside was quite as dark as the outside, and Gen couldn't really see much.
The place was empty, except for what looked like a vampire sitting at a table alone, drinking a distinctly red liquid from a wine glass. Gen tried to ignore the horrifying image, and the thoughts that went along with it, as she and the man, who she decided to guess was a warlock, sat at a table near the bar. A strange looking man with a toothless smile walked over to where the two sat.
"What'll it be Herman?" the man asked.
"The Usual," the man answered. His name is Herman, Gen thought, almost wanting to laugh.
"And you?" the man looked at Gen.
"Thanks, I don't drink," Gen didn't want to even try to order a drink. Goodness knows what people of the sort would put into it. She didn't really want to end up drinking a martini with an eyeball floating in it. Plus it wasn't really a lie. She didn't drink. It was illegal, plus it was against her parents' rules. The man walked away, and Herman turned to Gen.
"I'm Herman Teacup, by the way."
"I'm Genevere Bangle," Gen smiled, trying not to laugh.
"How old are you?"
"Fourteen," Gen said, her smile vanishing, as she realized how strange it must be for a fourteen year old witch to be talking with a middle aged Warlock. She should have lied.
"Hmm… I thought you must have been older. Do you go to school then?"
"Er…"
"The school year must be starting soon. It is a Hogwarts anyway."
"Hogwarts," Gen got a brilliant idea, as she realized where she was, "yeah, that's why I'm here. I'm a foreign exchange student, coming to go to Hogwarts.
"How splendid. Then you came to buy school supplies? The time delay must be what caught you at such a strange hour." Gen nodded, a yes, not wanting to say the wrong thing, just letting him do all the talking. The man came back, setting a large mug in front of Herman.
"Speaking of new Hogwarts students," The man said with a grin creeping onto his face, "guess who came through today, to get his school supplies?"
"Who?" Herman asked, not even mildly interested.
"Harry Potter!" Suddenly Herman was very interested, and the two men began gossiping. They said a great deal, most of which was information that Gen wasn't really interested in hearing; she knew almost everything there was to know about Harry Potter, though it had been a while since she had read it. After a time of the two wizards, as she was now certain they were, gossiping, the bar tender (what was his name again? Oh yeah, Tom) left Gen and Herman at their table. Gen wasn't very good at lying, but she could do it if she had to.
"So, tell me, what do American wands look like?"
"Well," Gen bit her lip, "we don't use wands."
"Really?"
"Yeah, we, uh, use our hands."
"How fascinating!"
"And we cast spells in the form of chants, rather than a few words."
"Could you show me?"
"No! I mean, its very secretive, and we never show our spell casting to people outside of the clan."
"Clan?"
"I'm in the BeauBroom Clan. We're expert fliers. Each clan is good at one thing in particular."
"Fascinating. So this clan of yours must play Quiddich."
"No, we play Air hockey," she laughed inwardly at her own joke, "its like muggle hockey, only we play it in mid air."
"I've never heard of it before. What kind of currency do you use in America?"
"We use the same currency as the muggles do, its far less confusing. We don't have a place like diagon alley to buy wizarding things; we have to go to shops in the muggle world. Fortunately there is a number of muggles in America who think their wizards, and find it perfectly normal that there are wizarding shops in the middle of their downtowns."
"Really?"
"I'm actually quite frightened about shopping in an all wizard place like this. I don't know that I'll be able to handle the blatant-ness of it."
"Well, I could help you. I wasn't planning on staying the night, but its almost morning already, and I might as well help you. Let me see your list."
"Er, I don't have one, I lost it."
"Oh, well then we'll have to make a guess as to what to buy, but I remember most of it from my Hogwarts years. First thing you'll need is to exchange your American money for our money. How much do you have?"
"Some, not much, but, it should do. I don't really know the exchange rate."
"That's all right, we'll find out when we get there." Unfortunately, they wouldn't find out when they got there. There was a problem, namely that the bank refused to exchange American muggle money for English wizard money, but Gen had an idea.
"Are you sure you can do it?"
"Yeah, it's just muggle money."
Gen watched as Herman tapped the fifty dollars from her wallet with his wand. Instantly the money doubled, so far so good. They had realized that 50 dollars wasn't enough to buy Gen school supplies, so they would have to make it into more. In a few minutes four hundred dollars rested on the palm of Herman's hand. The two walked casually into the city bank. It was a muggle bank, and thus Gen understood it, while Herman didn't. She walked to the counter, and asked the women to exchange her dollars for pounds. It was a strange twisted plot, but Gen was sure it would work. The muggle banker took Gen's money, and gave her back British currency, without so much as a thought that the money might be counterfeit.
Gen and Herman left Gringotts. Gen's coin purse was bulging with wizard coins that she had never seen before. It was early in the morning. Six or Seven, Gen didn't really know, or care. They walked down the alley, until they came to Madam Malkin's. Gen stood on a pedestal as a tailor measured her, and altered a set of robes she had been forced into. Gen didn't like the school uniforms at all. Part of it was a skirt. Gen didn't wear skirts. As she stood there Gen wondered why her visit to diagon alley was so uneventful, when Harry had met all kinds of people while there for the first time. Suddenly a girl, much younger than herself, walked in with her parents. The girl had bushy brown hair, and large teeth. In an instant Gen was positive that this girl was Hermione Granger. The two didn't speak the whole time, and Gen disappointedly gave into watching Herman fiddle with his wand that seemed to be acting up.
After getting three sets of work robes the two moved through the alley to the cauldron shop where they bought one standard sized 2 pewter cauldron, and then went to Ollivanders. Gen tested wand after wand, and none chose her. She began to fear that Ollivander would recognize that she wasn't really a witch when finally he decided that she would take a phoenix feather, ebony, twelve inch twelve inch wand that made a book on the desk move an inch when she held it. Gen was relieved.
Following their misadventure at Ollivanders they went to flourish and blotts, which was the first place they met a problem. Over the years the book list had changed, and neither of them knew what books she would need. "I'll ask the clerk, I'm sure he's been helping Hogwarts students for days now. He'll know." Gen left Herman at the entrance of the shop, and went to the clerk that seemed to be struggling with getting a hold on a book that was dancing about a table of its own accord.
"May I help you?" the clerk said as he frustrated slammed his hand down on the book, and picked it up, holding it tightly.
"Yes, um, I'm here to get my books for Hogwarts, and I've misplaced my list."
"Hmm, what year are you?"
"First." Gen said though she had meant forth.
"Good thing, I've helped more first years than anything, its all I remember."
"Oh, good" Gen gave a sigh of relief at how well her blunder had helped her out. The clerk guided her around the room, taking books of the shelf at what seemed like random. By the time he was finished she was laden down with "The Standard Book of Spells," "A Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi," "A History of Magic," "Magical Theory," "A Beginners Guide to Transfiguration," "Magical Drafts and Potions," "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," and "The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self Protection." Gen was glad that she didn't have to buy this many books for regular school. When they were finished paying for the books Gen still had plenty of money to exchange back, should she want her 50 dollars back.
Herman took Gen to the station. He showed her how to get through the barrier, and helped her load her things onto the train. "Geez Herman, I've grown attached to you, sort of like you were a father to me," The sad fact was, Herman was nicer to Gen than her parents ever were, "what will I do without you?"
"You'll be fine. Oh, I wanted to give you something. I picked it up at the apothecary, and I thought it might help you out. It's spell absorbent, white sand. You just cast a spell on it, and instead of the spell acting on the sand, is acts on whatever you sprinkle the sand on. Here." Herman handed Gen a bottle of sand, and asked her to pour some into a little leather pouch. He pointed his wand into the pouch, and whispered some words. The sand turned blue, "This sand will make your car shrink." He had her pour some into another pouch, and then did the same. The sand turned purple, "This sand will make your car grow." He tied the pouches tight, and handed them to Gen.
"Herman, this is such a good idea!"
"And you can cast any spell you want on the rest." Gen hugged Herman, and got onto the train, saying goodbye before disappearing into the Hogwarts Express…
Do you like the Third Chapter? I thought I would introduce at least one of JK's charaters, so you got to see Hermione for a second. Please R and R. The next chapter will be up by Friday, if not by Wednesday. Much Love!