Chapter 1
The Dream
"Tara, what the heck are you doing?" Natalie Carlton asked a diminutive senior girl staring out the window.
"Oh, um.nothing," Tara Foster answered, quickly looking away.
"It has something to do with Harry Potter, doesn't it?" Natalie pressed.
Tara sighed. "Yeah. I was just thinking how totally awesome it could be to meet him."
Natalie sat on Tara's bed next to her best friend. "Tara, you don't even know the guy. He lives in England, across the ocean. Besides, no one over here even talks about him anymore, anyway. But they are talking about the Weird Sisters concert tomorrow night. I heard that Christina Garza has two extra tickets. Do you want to go?"
"Not really," Tara sighed. "And I doubt that Christina would give them to me. I am the biggest loser in school, you know."
"No, you're not," Natalie said automatically.
"Natalie, you're my only friend. What does that say to you?"
"At least you have one friend," Natalie pointed out. "Now, come on, get Harry what's-his-name out of your head and let's go find Christina."
Tara nodded reluctantly, looked out at the school grounds, made a silent wish, and followed Natalie out the door.
The next night.
Tara gave a feeble cough. "No, seriously, Natalie, I really am sick."
Natalie raised an eyebrow at her best friend, who was lying in bed with the covers pulled up over her chin. "You were fine this morning."
"It was probably something I ate for lunch," Tara pressed, looking at Natalie with huge, pleading green eyes. "You go on to the concert without me."
"Tara, I ate everything you did for lunch."
"No, you didn't eat eggs."
Natalie sighed in exasperation. "Neither did you!"
"Sure I did. You.weren't looking." It was a terrible excuse and both of them knew it. Still, Natalie shuffled toward the door.
"You sure you'll be all right?"
"Yeah. Have fun. Give someone else the ticket. Believe me, I don't feel like going." And this was the truth.
Natalie cast a last look at Tara and left.
Tara waited until the sound of Natalie's footsteps faded down the hallway, and then she scrambled out of bed and made a beeline for her desk. She thrust open a drawer so hard that it came out of the desk entirely and all the contents spilled out on the floor. She didn't bother to pick them up, though; she grabbed a leather-bound journal and opened it up.
She had bought it from a thrift shop. It was a Harry Potter Fan Club journal. Teenage wizards from all over the world could correspond with each other with it. And right now she had an ongoing message correspondence with a girl who actually went to Hogwarts.
"Hello? Natalie? It's me, Tara. Are you there?"
"Yes," came the reply. "How are you?"
"Good, I'm good. How's Harry?"
Deep inside somewhere herself, Tara felt ashamed. She was, in essence, spying on her hero through a girl three years younger than herself (and Harry). And one with the same name as her best friend, who was out at a Weird Sisters concert right then, worrying about Tara.
"He's good, I guess. I saw him sitting in the common room today, and I thought, 'Natalie McDonald, you go over there and introduce yourself. Then you can tell Tara about it.' But Hermione Granger walked up to him and started talking about some idiotic Defense Against the Dark Arts assignment."
The seventeen-year-old-girl sat back in her chair and breathed heavily. Although Harry hadn't really had a girlfriend since his fifth year (Cho Chang, of whom many pictures had been received and immediately destroyed), Tara was jealous beyond belief of one Hermione Granger. Natalie had repeatedly informed her that the two weren't an item, but Tara knew that it was only a matter of time.
"So you can't really tell what he's up to?" Tara wrote, her question mark drooping a little.
"Not really. I'm sorry, Tara."
"It isn't your fault, Natalie. Tomorrow night okay with you?"
"All right then. Talk to you tomorrow."
Tara bitterly snapped the book shut and began to gather up her spilled belongings. If only Hermione Granger had a Harry Potter Fan Club journal. Then Tara would have all the inside scoop.
After a few more hours of fantasizing, dreaming, and fervent wishing, all of which involved Harry Potter in some way, shape, or form, Tara was feeling decidedly sleepy. She crawled back into bed, wondered vaguely if Natalie was having fun at the Weird Sisters concert, and fell asleep.
She was on a skeletal horse-like creature, galloping through a dense, dark forest. Then.ahead, light! She reached the edge of the forest and saw a hut nearby.
There was a figure moving toward her. He was much taller than she was, but he looked the same age. He had a mass of untidy black hair, glasses, and a mark on his forehead indistinguishable at this distance.
Their eyes met, and hers burned. She clamped a hand over them, squinting between her fingers at the boy. He was clutching at the mark beneath his bangs, collapsing on the ground. Then, all of a sudden, he stood up and began to follow the horse, which had begun to move.
They weaved their way into the forest, and, after what seemed like hours, they found their way out. The boy collapsed on the ground once more, and Tara slid sideways off her winged creature, rolled over in the air, and landed.
On her bedroom floor.
Her eyes snapped open, cold sweat running all over her face. What just happened? she thought frantically
Tara sat up slowly, but she dropped back down the ground when she saw something move on the other side. Someone-or something-was over there. Although her heart was pounding wildly on the floor and whatever was over there was surely able to hear it, she lay on her stomach as still as she could, waiting.
After thirty seconds of silence except for two sets of heavy breathing, Tara dared to peek under the bed. Two feet stood there, all by themselves. Then, slowly, with almost no movement detected, they moved upward and disappeared.
Tara jerked her head up. Staring back at her were two bright green eyes under a lightning-shaped scar!
Their owner yelled.
Tara screamed.
"Who's there?" Natalie shrieked.
"H-Harry?" another voice asked sleepily.
The light flicked on. Tara and the boy sprawled across her bed looked around at Natalie, who was quaking in her furry bunny slippers.
"Who are you? Harry, where are we?" the sleepy voice asked. Another head appeared (from behind Natalie's bed this time), and it was covered by a mass of bushy brown hair.
"Oh, my gosh," Tara breathed. "You're Harry Potter and Hermione Granger!"
"And.who are you?" Harry inquired.
Tara seethed with bitter disappointment. What had she expected him to do, look at her and swoon?
"I don't care who you are, but how'd you get here?" Natalie demanded, brandishing her wand inches from Harry's nose. He stared cross-eyed at it.
"I have no clue," Harry replied, turning his head to look at Hermione. "Hermione-ow!"
His cheek had brushed the tip of Natalie's wand, which left a Galleon-sized welt on his face.
"Oh, my gosh, I am so sorry," Natalie apologized, quickly withdrawing her wand. Tara reached out with her own wand to heal the wound, but Hermione got there first.
"Lewelt," she pronounced carefully. The mark disappeared.
Harry placed himself carefully on Tara's bed. "I was having the strangest dream. I was out walking on the grounds, and I see this girl on a thestral. Right then, I feel really weak and fall on the ground. But then, it's like that never happened. I follow the girl and the thestral through the forest and then I collapse again, and the dream ended, and I woke up here."
"That wasn't a dream, Harry," Hermione spoke up. "You started sleepwalking in the dormitory, and Ron came to get me, and we followed you all the way through the forest."
"Wait a minute. Both you and Ron followed me?"
Hermione nodded.
"Then where's Ron?"
Two roars sounded from down the hall, answering Harry's question. All four of them dashed out the door to the hallway, where two seventeen-year-old boys were scooting out a nearby doorway, scared out of their wits.
"Harry!" the nearest cried out, spotting the foursome. "Where are we? And who are they?"
Tara suddenly realized that Harry didn't even know her name. But before she could speak, the other boy bellowed like an angry rhino.
"Hello? I'm the one who should be asking you that! You just drop into my room like you own the place, and-"
"Believe me, I could think of a billion other places I would have rather dropped into!" the first one exclaimed, his eyes shining with anxiety beneath a mop of red hair.
"Look, I'm Tara Foster, this is Natalie Carlton, and he's Josh Prior."
"Don't give my name to these strangers!" Josh roared.
"Josh, do you know who this is? Harry Potter!"
Josh blinked stupidly.
"Obviously your fame didn't survive the trip overseas," Hermione whispered to Harry.
"Defeated You-Know-Who?" Tara said.
Natalie cleared her throat. "Tara, what did we talk about? It's okay to say Voldemort's name."
Both Tara and Ron inhaled sharply.
"TARA! It's no big DEAL!" Natalie shrieked.
"Oh, yeah, I remember you!" Josh interrupted. "Aren't you British? And don't you go to Hogwarts?"
"Yes, I do," Harry replied.
"Then why are you here?"
"We're still trying to figure that out," Hermione cut in, looking at Harry.
"I think we should go to the Salem Witches," Tara suggested.
The Dream
"Tara, what the heck are you doing?" Natalie Carlton asked a diminutive senior girl staring out the window.
"Oh, um.nothing," Tara Foster answered, quickly looking away.
"It has something to do with Harry Potter, doesn't it?" Natalie pressed.
Tara sighed. "Yeah. I was just thinking how totally awesome it could be to meet him."
Natalie sat on Tara's bed next to her best friend. "Tara, you don't even know the guy. He lives in England, across the ocean. Besides, no one over here even talks about him anymore, anyway. But they are talking about the Weird Sisters concert tomorrow night. I heard that Christina Garza has two extra tickets. Do you want to go?"
"Not really," Tara sighed. "And I doubt that Christina would give them to me. I am the biggest loser in school, you know."
"No, you're not," Natalie said automatically.
"Natalie, you're my only friend. What does that say to you?"
"At least you have one friend," Natalie pointed out. "Now, come on, get Harry what's-his-name out of your head and let's go find Christina."
Tara nodded reluctantly, looked out at the school grounds, made a silent wish, and followed Natalie out the door.
The next night.
Tara gave a feeble cough. "No, seriously, Natalie, I really am sick."
Natalie raised an eyebrow at her best friend, who was lying in bed with the covers pulled up over her chin. "You were fine this morning."
"It was probably something I ate for lunch," Tara pressed, looking at Natalie with huge, pleading green eyes. "You go on to the concert without me."
"Tara, I ate everything you did for lunch."
"No, you didn't eat eggs."
Natalie sighed in exasperation. "Neither did you!"
"Sure I did. You.weren't looking." It was a terrible excuse and both of them knew it. Still, Natalie shuffled toward the door.
"You sure you'll be all right?"
"Yeah. Have fun. Give someone else the ticket. Believe me, I don't feel like going." And this was the truth.
Natalie cast a last look at Tara and left.
Tara waited until the sound of Natalie's footsteps faded down the hallway, and then she scrambled out of bed and made a beeline for her desk. She thrust open a drawer so hard that it came out of the desk entirely and all the contents spilled out on the floor. She didn't bother to pick them up, though; she grabbed a leather-bound journal and opened it up.
She had bought it from a thrift shop. It was a Harry Potter Fan Club journal. Teenage wizards from all over the world could correspond with each other with it. And right now she had an ongoing message correspondence with a girl who actually went to Hogwarts.
"Hello? Natalie? It's me, Tara. Are you there?"
"Yes," came the reply. "How are you?"
"Good, I'm good. How's Harry?"
Deep inside somewhere herself, Tara felt ashamed. She was, in essence, spying on her hero through a girl three years younger than herself (and Harry). And one with the same name as her best friend, who was out at a Weird Sisters concert right then, worrying about Tara.
"He's good, I guess. I saw him sitting in the common room today, and I thought, 'Natalie McDonald, you go over there and introduce yourself. Then you can tell Tara about it.' But Hermione Granger walked up to him and started talking about some idiotic Defense Against the Dark Arts assignment."
The seventeen-year-old-girl sat back in her chair and breathed heavily. Although Harry hadn't really had a girlfriend since his fifth year (Cho Chang, of whom many pictures had been received and immediately destroyed), Tara was jealous beyond belief of one Hermione Granger. Natalie had repeatedly informed her that the two weren't an item, but Tara knew that it was only a matter of time.
"So you can't really tell what he's up to?" Tara wrote, her question mark drooping a little.
"Not really. I'm sorry, Tara."
"It isn't your fault, Natalie. Tomorrow night okay with you?"
"All right then. Talk to you tomorrow."
Tara bitterly snapped the book shut and began to gather up her spilled belongings. If only Hermione Granger had a Harry Potter Fan Club journal. Then Tara would have all the inside scoop.
After a few more hours of fantasizing, dreaming, and fervent wishing, all of which involved Harry Potter in some way, shape, or form, Tara was feeling decidedly sleepy. She crawled back into bed, wondered vaguely if Natalie was having fun at the Weird Sisters concert, and fell asleep.
She was on a skeletal horse-like creature, galloping through a dense, dark forest. Then.ahead, light! She reached the edge of the forest and saw a hut nearby.
There was a figure moving toward her. He was much taller than she was, but he looked the same age. He had a mass of untidy black hair, glasses, and a mark on his forehead indistinguishable at this distance.
Their eyes met, and hers burned. She clamped a hand over them, squinting between her fingers at the boy. He was clutching at the mark beneath his bangs, collapsing on the ground. Then, all of a sudden, he stood up and began to follow the horse, which had begun to move.
They weaved their way into the forest, and, after what seemed like hours, they found their way out. The boy collapsed on the ground once more, and Tara slid sideways off her winged creature, rolled over in the air, and landed.
On her bedroom floor.
Her eyes snapped open, cold sweat running all over her face. What just happened? she thought frantically
Tara sat up slowly, but she dropped back down the ground when she saw something move on the other side. Someone-or something-was over there. Although her heart was pounding wildly on the floor and whatever was over there was surely able to hear it, she lay on her stomach as still as she could, waiting.
After thirty seconds of silence except for two sets of heavy breathing, Tara dared to peek under the bed. Two feet stood there, all by themselves. Then, slowly, with almost no movement detected, they moved upward and disappeared.
Tara jerked her head up. Staring back at her were two bright green eyes under a lightning-shaped scar!
Their owner yelled.
Tara screamed.
"Who's there?" Natalie shrieked.
"H-Harry?" another voice asked sleepily.
The light flicked on. Tara and the boy sprawled across her bed looked around at Natalie, who was quaking in her furry bunny slippers.
"Who are you? Harry, where are we?" the sleepy voice asked. Another head appeared (from behind Natalie's bed this time), and it was covered by a mass of bushy brown hair.
"Oh, my gosh," Tara breathed. "You're Harry Potter and Hermione Granger!"
"And.who are you?" Harry inquired.
Tara seethed with bitter disappointment. What had she expected him to do, look at her and swoon?
"I don't care who you are, but how'd you get here?" Natalie demanded, brandishing her wand inches from Harry's nose. He stared cross-eyed at it.
"I have no clue," Harry replied, turning his head to look at Hermione. "Hermione-ow!"
His cheek had brushed the tip of Natalie's wand, which left a Galleon-sized welt on his face.
"Oh, my gosh, I am so sorry," Natalie apologized, quickly withdrawing her wand. Tara reached out with her own wand to heal the wound, but Hermione got there first.
"Lewelt," she pronounced carefully. The mark disappeared.
Harry placed himself carefully on Tara's bed. "I was having the strangest dream. I was out walking on the grounds, and I see this girl on a thestral. Right then, I feel really weak and fall on the ground. But then, it's like that never happened. I follow the girl and the thestral through the forest and then I collapse again, and the dream ended, and I woke up here."
"That wasn't a dream, Harry," Hermione spoke up. "You started sleepwalking in the dormitory, and Ron came to get me, and we followed you all the way through the forest."
"Wait a minute. Both you and Ron followed me?"
Hermione nodded.
"Then where's Ron?"
Two roars sounded from down the hall, answering Harry's question. All four of them dashed out the door to the hallway, where two seventeen-year-old boys were scooting out a nearby doorway, scared out of their wits.
"Harry!" the nearest cried out, spotting the foursome. "Where are we? And who are they?"
Tara suddenly realized that Harry didn't even know her name. But before she could speak, the other boy bellowed like an angry rhino.
"Hello? I'm the one who should be asking you that! You just drop into my room like you own the place, and-"
"Believe me, I could think of a billion other places I would have rather dropped into!" the first one exclaimed, his eyes shining with anxiety beneath a mop of red hair.
"Look, I'm Tara Foster, this is Natalie Carlton, and he's Josh Prior."
"Don't give my name to these strangers!" Josh roared.
"Josh, do you know who this is? Harry Potter!"
Josh blinked stupidly.
"Obviously your fame didn't survive the trip overseas," Hermione whispered to Harry.
"Defeated You-Know-Who?" Tara said.
Natalie cleared her throat. "Tara, what did we talk about? It's okay to say Voldemort's name."
Both Tara and Ron inhaled sharply.
"TARA! It's no big DEAL!" Natalie shrieked.
"Oh, yeah, I remember you!" Josh interrupted. "Aren't you British? And don't you go to Hogwarts?"
"Yes, I do," Harry replied.
"Then why are you here?"
"We're still trying to figure that out," Hermione cut in, looking at Harry.
"I think we should go to the Salem Witches," Tara suggested.
