Chapter 2: ***All Notes at the bottom of the page; see them!!***

After enjoying the rainy, fall day, Charly left to go back home late at night. She didn't live too far away from Anna, but it was still a bit of a walk. The rain had since stopped, but there was fog and everything was damp. She got a chill, and wrapped her coat tighter around herself. She couldn't help the feel of being watched, but she couldn't find any traces of anyone or anything. She continued walking, hearing only her footsteps on the cold, black pavement covered in fallen leaves. She walked through the neighbourhood, forgetting about her feeling of being followed and enjoyed the peace of the quiet, abandoned street. Finally, she reached her house and entered through the wooden door to the foyer. The vestibule was warmly decorated. It had an older feel to it. It felt like it had a history to it; like it has seen so much. It had dark wooden paneling and rustic furniture. A mirror and some candlesticks were the biggest decoration and there was a thin layer of dust covering everything. Not enough to be blatantly noticeable, but enough for it to seem forgotten and unkempt. -I need to take a Swifer to this place. I don't see why I have to do it though; Dad and Mike are just as capable as I am. - She thought as she kicked her shoes off in the small closet by the door and moved to turn up the Thermostat. She was way too tired and lazy to do it at that moment. -I'll do it tomorrow- She seemed to keep saying that to her self, and things never seemed to get done. She went up to her bedroom and closed the door. She looked around; her room was rather untidy, but she liked it that way, it made it feel like her own. The walls were painted a lighter crimson colour, and her bed was made of a dark wood. She changed into her pajamas, and crawled into bed. She turned off the light and laid there. The time just before she went to bed was her favourite time of day. It was her time to sit and think and turn her life into whatever she wanted it to be. This night, she began to think about the trip again. She still was trying to figure it out. - Something they discovered? What could it be? I'm never going to find out though, I'll never win- After laying there for about and hour, just thinking, she finally drifted off into sleep. Her dreams that night were laced with her fantasies and the possibilities of the trip. She was so happy in her night of sleep she never wanted to wake up. * * * *
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Two weeks later

"Charly!!! Hey!!! Up here!!!" Anna was shouting to Charly from one of the stadium seats at their high school. It was the night of the big game, Homecoming. They were playing an easy team, so they were pretty sure they were going to win. Charly made her way up to where Anna was sitting. Trying to make her way up the stairs loaded with drinks and food, she stumbled a few times and came close to dropping it all because she had forgotten that she had snack duty that night and wore her mittens. Inside she was kicking herself. Finally, she made her way up to the top and dumped the cans and the candy and the pizza (they liked to eat at the games; it kept them occupied. They weren't huge American football fans: it was too pointless for their tastes) into Anna's lap and sat on the wooden bench with a huff and a shiver. The autumn nights had become unbearably cold, but they had to be there, it was the social night of the year. Not that they really cared, because they pretty much stuck together at all times, but they still didn't want to feel left out. "So Char, have you gotten a call about the trip?" Anna had obviously not forgotten the trip and it was still first thing on her mind. "No, I haven't. Actually I had totally forgotten about it! When are we supposed to get a call, if we get one?" After that night she had signed up for the contest and thought about it, she had totally forgotten about it. "Well..., we're supposed to get a call either tonight, or tomorrow. It's been two weeks." "Oh well, whatever. I'm probably not gonna get a call anyways." "You might, Charly, you never know. I might, I never know!" "Haha," Charly laughed at the silly face that Anna had put on, "Sure, Anna, whatever you say, whatever you say." The two girls spent the rest of the game talking and comparing the cute football players' butts since they all stood in a line facing the field in spandex. Very lovely view, in most cases, but then you had the linemen, not too pretty a picture, but there were only six or seven of them, so they just skipped over them, gracefully. After the game, the two went back to Anna's house and had a sleepover. They spent the night chatting and doing the usual. The night went well and the girls were having a lot of fun until the phone rang. The girls looked at each other quizzically, it was really late, almost 1 in the morning, but it was obvious that they had been thinking the same thing; the contest. They sat and looked at each other for awhile longer until Anna jumped up and ran to the phone. "Hello?" she answered in a small voice, laced with a little fear, "Yes, one moment please." She looked at Charly, and held out the phone. "It's for you." Charly got up and walked slowly over to where Anna was standing frozen. "Hello? This is Charlene" "Hello, Charlene," an old grumpy man's voice came from the other end of the phone, "I am calling to congratulate you on your place as winner in the contest set up by the Harry Potter Researchers Foundation for the free trip." "I won?" Charly asked the man in a quiet voice, somehow this whole thing didn't seem right to her, "you mean there really was a contest?" "Of course there was a contest! We actually if you want to get technical, then there was no contest, since you were obviously the one meant to win. If a million other people had sent in their applications, then, you still would have won; it was meant to be." The man replied in a matter-of-factly- you're-quite-stupid kid of voice. "Umm. huh?" was all that Charly could say in response to his theory. "Never mind it now, .you'll know it someday," the man said prophetically, "meet us on the morning of the 31st of October. DO NOT BE LATE, or you will miss your chance." His voice had changed to a more of a threatening growl rather than grumpiness. Charly was now scared; she didn't know what to do. She just agreed and said the first thing that came to her mind. "Okay," Not too brilliant, but hey, at least it was something. She hung up the phone, and turned to Anna who was grinning broadly towards her. When Anna saw the frightened look on Charly's face her grin slowly fell. "What's the matter? Aren't you excited?" Anna questioned Charly. "Ya, I guess so, but that man wasn't exactly welcoming. He seemed a little mysterious, and strange. I can't really describe how he was. He yelled at me, and told me not to be late. I was scared." "Well. I guess you shouldn't be late then! Huh?" Anna added to lighten the situation, but Charly just looked at her with a lopsided grin and went back to a thoughtful stare. "Maybe I shouldn't go on this. Maybe you should take my place." "No hun, you won this, you deserve it! Take it, I doubt that you would regret going, you would only regret staying back. I know you, you do it all the time. I won't have you sitting here feeling sorry for yourself because you let me have fun instead of you!" Anna looked at Charly hopefully, and gave her a warm smile and a matching hug. "I guess you're right. Maybe I should go. The guy kept talking about how I was meant to win; maybe I was" Charly nodded and shrugged then returned the smile to her friend, "Thanks." "No problema mi amiga! Anytime!" For the rest of the night they continued the conversation for two weeks ago, and discussed the possibilities, and how it was really weird that they had called at the time they did and how they knew that she was there.

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On the morning of Halloween, Charly woke up later than usual. She looked at the alarm clock on her bedside table and freaked. - OMG OMG!!!! I'm gonna be late!! And he's gonna yell at me again!!! Ah shit!! I still have to pack my bags, and I have eat breakfast... oh screw breakfast! OH NO!!! I still have to say good bye to Anna!! I'll stop by her house on the way. ARGH!!!-So she ran around her room throwing clothes and books (all the Harry Potters) she got all her toiletries from the bathroom after she ran a toothbrush over her teeth, and then she ran downstairs said goodbye to her dad and ran out the door. As she lugged her suitcase down the street to Anna's house she longed for a car. Finally, upon reaching Anna's house with wind burnt cheeked and stiff hands, she rung the doorbell and waited for an answer. When she heard Anna thumping down her stairway followed by Ms. Loatis telling her to 'stop dong that or you'll break a leg one day,' she gave a smile and relaxed. The door opened and she was invited in. "Charly!! Come in!! You must be freezing!!" Anna said with such a warm heart that it warmed Charly up immediately. "Thanks Anna, but I really should get going. I have no idea how late I am. I just wanted to stop by and say good bye before I left. So, goodbye!! And I'll miss ya lots! And thank you for convincing me to do this, I really appreciate it." "Charly honey, you deserve it. I just home you have a great time! I mean there really is no need for a teary good bye; I mean it's only three days!" Anna said cheerfully. "I suppose you're right. As always. Chow mein!" "Of course I am!! Toodles!!" And said these last words and closed the door in front of Charly. Charly Turned around and stepped off the front stoop and headed down the street once again. After a few steps, she remembered how late she was and she set of at a sprint, or at least as fast as she could go carrying luggage. After running precariously down the street past several dog walkers that stared her down as she galumphed past carrying her bag and her backpack, she at last reached her destination, the bookstore. She walked up to the old whitewashed brick store and pushed the heavy wooden door open. She stepped in side to see Mrs. Rankert standing there, obviously waiting for her. "Good Morning, dear," She said in a cheery voice, "Are you ready to prepare for the trip?" Breathing heavily, Charly sucked as much air in as she could to respond, "Mrs. Rankert, I am SOOO sorry I'm late!! I woke up la..." "Whoever said you were late, dear?" Mrs. Rankert interrupted. "The man, the one who called, he warned me not to be late this morning! He said that if I was I wouldn't be able to go and the trip would be wasted!" Charly replied in absolute horror. "Well, darling, I don't believe there was any way you could have been late except for being here past noon. I don't believe we set a time for you to be here, just to be here in the morning!" Mrs. Rankert replied logically to Charly who was looking at Mrs. Rankert with a look of disbelief. She couldn't believe that she didn't ask what time she was supposed to be here.

"You're shitting me. I RAN here with all of my luggage. It is also cold outside, in case you haven't noticed." "Well, I wouldn't say I was shitting you, you brought it upon yourself you know. You should be a little more respectful towards someone who's giving you a free trip. And of course I know it's cold outside, that's why I have the door closed, silly!" Charly put on a false smile and said, " Yes, of course, how stupid of me. I do offer my apologies Mrs. Rankert, please accept them," with her lips pursed, but still curled upwards. "Of course my dear, no use crying over spilt milk, but we really should be getting into the basement, the rest of the Foundation is very eager to meet you. We also have to give you your lectures on everything you need to know for you time there." "Whoa, whoa, lectures?" Charly inquired with a bit of attitude. "Yes, of course, you don't want to show up there without any expectations or knowledge or anything at all, do you?" Mrs. Rankert responded in a way that was the long form of 'Duh!'. " No I suppose you're right, considering I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE I'M GOING !!!" Charlie surprised her self with this outburst, she kind of felt bad for being so rude, but well, hey, it was true. "Yes, that's right! You don't even know what it is!!! Ho ho! Well, the sooner we get downstairs the better. Come along then!" And with that the old widow and the curious teenager walked down the well worn steps to the basement of the bookstore. As they stepped onto the floor, Charly looked around and saw a room whose walls were covered in books. These books were different though. They were much older than the ones Charly had seen upstairs. The room had a mystical feel to it, like there was something so unknown that was about to be discovered. After admiring the walls of books, she looked down to find a table surrounded by older men. Most of them were about the age of Mrs. Rankert, but some were a little younger, not much though. Most of them bore thick glasses, and mostly bald heads, they looked like the Harvard crew united after about 50 years. -This is a little scary- Charly thought as she was ushered around by Mrs. Rankert to meet them all. Most of them responded in awe of her, saying 'it's an honour to finally meet you.' Charly responded with a quick grin followed by a head nod, being to frightened to say anything. She was also curious as to who the man who called her was. That's when she saw him. A grumpy looking man sitting in a corner with his arms crossed over his chest. He was leaning back in his Capitan's chair wearing the typical garb of an old man. He looked to be the same age as Mrs. Rankert, maybe older, but Charly figured that stress must have added to his age appearance. He was the only one that didn't come up to greet her. "Rodger Wilby! Ain't cha gonna come here and meet our traveler?" Mrs. Rankert said in an impatient southern voice. Charly realized that she must hide her true accent from her customers, because at that moment it was very thick. "I've met her before" the grumpy man in the corner grunted. Now Charly was sure that this was him. "Well, come an' meet her again! She don't know who you are!" she said with a bit more edge than last time. But it worked because he started to jack him self up from the chair and hobble his way over to where they were standing; grunting the whole 20 feet it took to get there. "Hello..." and that was all he said. He turned right around and hobbled right back to his chair and slowly plopped down into it.

"Well then, I guess we had better get started!" Mrs. Rankert exclaimed trying to clear up the situation, "We'd better start teachin' this child what she needs to know!" After saying this, a chair was brought up for Charly, as well as a Legal pad and pencil for her to take notes. The youngest (but yet old) men brought out a projector and a bunch of slides and placed the out onto a table. Mrs. Rankert took a few books of the shelves and placed them in front of herself at her seat next to Charly.
After organizing her pile of notes and books, Mrs. Rankert stood up and made her way to the front of the room in front of the projector. She looked ready to make an announcement, a very long one. In fact, you could call it a series of lectures with a couple of brief guest speakers from the audience.
"Well Charlene, the time has come for a few explanations. I'm sure you have been quite curious as to where you are being sent. I'm also sure you have quite a few other questions. If at any point in time you have a question, please hesitate to ask. I hate interruptions. And with that...we shall begin!!" * * * * * * well... how was that?? I promise it will get better.. I'm just trying to ease into the main plot. I made this chapter longer than the last. and I must say.. it was easier that I thought It would have been. First of all. I would like to thank CHIMICHANGA for being my first and ONLY reviewer... thank you for everyting.. and if you like Sirius.. you're gonna love this story. It deals heavily with all of the marauders.. minus peter. I don't like him much, so I avoid him. hehe. I also realize that in the last chapter I forgot a disclaimer.. SORRY!!! So here it is:::::
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything you recognize. the rest is mine.yup yup!!! Well. that's all for this chappie.. I'm finally finding my footing in this story.. so it should move along pretty quickly. I'mm probably working on the next one right now. so PLEASE review.. I can't stress that enough. all these other people have had their stories up for a lot less than I have and they already have 10 those freaks. hehe jk. but really.. I find it hard to write If I have no reason. Love you all LOTS for actually reading it even though I'm a sucky writer!! The next one should be up tomorrow!!