Chapter 2

The Salem Witches

Natalie and Josh stared at her in disbelief, the other three in complete confusion.

"Are you insane?" Josh cried.

"Nobody wakes the Salem Witches in the middle of the night, nobody!" Natalie agreed.

"I think we have an urgent matter here, don't you?" Tara told them.

"Hang on, who're the Si—the So—the Se—the Witches?" Ron asked.

"The Salem Witches. You know, Salem, where we are now?" Tara offered. This only made Ron more confused.

"Where's Salem?" he asked.

"Ron, it's in America," Hermione told him exasperatedly.

Ron blanched. "How'd we get all the way across the ocean?"

"That's why we're going to the Salem Witches!" Tara told them.

Ron obliged, as did Harry and Hermione, and the six of them crept through the maze of hallways to the Witches' room. When they got there, no one seemed to want to touch the door. Tara hesitantly rapped on it with her knuckles.

A raspy voice croaked, "Who disturbs the resting of the Salem Witches?"

"Please, ma'am, or, um, ma'ams, it's an emergency," Tara squeaked.

"Come in," a higher-pitched wheezy voice said.

"But be warned," the third and last voice, sounding like nails on a chalkboard, said ominously. "If it is not the most urgent of matters, you shall be in violation of our much-needed rest."

All the others looked ready to run at this, but Tara gave them a look as creepy as any of the Witches' voices, and they all followed her inside.

Three beds lined the opposite wall. As one, all three witches sat up in bed, looking...well...old. And they all looked the same.

"Who is it? Ah, young Tara Foster and company."

"And a few strangers."

"What is it you want?"

"Er—Professor, er..."

"We are—"

"—the Salem—"

"—Witches, boy," they said to Harry.

"Yes, um, I'm Harry Potter."

The three witches looked pleased.

"Ah, Mr. Potter."

"What has brought you here to visit—"

"—especially in the middle of the night?"

"We were hoping you could answer that," Natalie squeaked, speaking for the first time.

"Yes, Harry was sleepwalking out of Hogwarts and me and Ron followed him. I'm Hermione Granger."

"Ron Weasley," Ron choked.

"Charmed—"

"—I'm—"

"—sure."

"And Ron, or whatever his name is, showed up in my room!" Josh cried angrily, having conveniently forgotten his fear of the Witches in the night.

"Yes, and Harry was on the other side of my bed, and Hermione was next to Natalie's," Tara offered.

"Hmm."

"Yes."

"Most interesting."

"So...what do you make of it?" Ron inquired uneasily. It didn't seem like the Salem Witches were getting the whole picture.

"We'll need—"

"—to contact—"

"—Dumbledore."

The Hogwarts trio and Tara breathed a sigh of relief.

"Who's Dumbledore?" Natalie and Josh chorused.

"Our headmaster," Ron answered.

"Please sit over there," one of the Witches said, pointing at chairs on another wall.

"And feel free to talk."

"We won't be able to hear you."

The six of them sat nervously. The Witches grasped each other's hands and began to hum, but the tune was haunting and certainly not melodious. When they stopped, they began talking, and Tara knew that Dumbledore had to be doing the same thing.

Harry was sitting on one end with Hermione, and then Natalie and Josh, and Tara, and finally Ron. Josh was talking to Natalie and paying no attention to Tara, so Tara took the opportunity to gaze dreamily at him like she had on so many other occasions.

Ron, feeling very left out, poked Tara hard in the back. "Ow!" she said softly, not taking her eyes off Josh. Ron waved his hand in front of her face. "Wha—Oh, sorry, did you say something?"

"Not yet," Ron told her. "You fancy him?"

"What?"

"Do you fancy him?" Ron repeated.

"Oh, you mean, like, like him?"

"Yeah."

Tara sighed. "Let's just put it this way. We definitely weren't meant for each other."

"What happened?"

"What do you mean?"

"What happened between you two?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"He pretends I don't exist."

"Oh."

Silence.

"What about you?" Tara spoke up.

"What about me?"

"I know from a very reliable source that you exhibit signs of a crush toward her." Tara motioned her head toward Hermione, who was talking to Harry.

Ron's eyes narrowed. "Who told you that?"

"Natalie McDonald."

"Really. You know her?"

"Know her, have had conversation with her, talk to her daily through my Harry Potter Fan Club journal, it's all the same."

"They have Harry Potter Fan Club journals?"

"Yeah." Tara looked ashamed.

"So you have your real-life crush and your celebrity crush."

"Guess I'm busted."

Ron looked puzzled but didn't ask.

"Back to the topic at hand...you and Hermione?"

"Oh, that. Well, I guess I'm beginning to come to terms with the fact that she's madly in love with Harry," Ron answered sarcastically.

"Yeah, the picture Natalie painted of Harry's life kind of gave me that impression, too."

More awkward silence.

"No, no, Dumbledore, I suspect your first theory was correct," one of the witches said loudly. Everyone turned to look.

"Yes, this has nothing to do with Voldemort," the second one agreed. Ron and Tara cringed.

"Or rather, the reason they're here isn't because he sent them," the last one said.

"Tara and Harry!"

"Come here—"

"—now."

Tara and Harry nervously stood up and approached the three aged witches, who gave no impression that they knew the two had moved until they said together, "Sit down."

They obeyed.

"Complete the circle, children," the witches said simultaneously.

Harry and Tara took each other's hands and each grabbed a hand of each witch at the end. Immediately, they could hear Dumbledore.

"Harry? Miss Foster? Are you there?"

"Yes, Professor Dumbledore," Harry answered.

"Miss Foster?"

"Um...yessir."

"Good."

"Albus, please proceed, the witches asked politely.

"Professor what will you do?" Harry inquired.

"Ah, Harry, this event must be a result of a mystic connection between you and Miss Foster. I must search your heads for this connection. Now, some memories that have had some impact on your life may show up during this procedure if you don't clear your head, and you'll be seeing each other's memories, too. Now, if you want to share memories, so be it. Are you ready?"

"No," Tara whimpered.

"Go!"

A rush of emotions flooded Tara's chest, some of them that she never felt before. Memories flashed before her eyes in rapid succession. A baby with tufts of brown hair in a basket was being placed on the doorstep of a large building. A little girl was being teased incessantly for being small. A rather large woman was picking up the same girl two years later. A different crowd of children was ignoring that little girl's pleas to join in the game they were playing. An eleven-year-old was tearing open an envelope, eager hands snatching up the acceptance letter within. A blonde boy was ignoring a fourteen-year-old girl (that one showed up repeatedly). A fifteen-year-old girl was purchasing a Harry Potter Fan Club journal. That same girl, over two years later, was talking to a redheaded someone.

Tara shook her head, and the vivid, flashing pictures changed. A shadowy figure pointed a wand at a tall, slender, red-haired woman. An old man with a long, silvery beard was placing a baby on the doorstep of a house while a large man and a frail-looking woman looked on. A large child held down a small boy with one hand and hit him with the other. A boy with decidedly unruly hair was on a roof, looking down at five very angry adults. That boy was jumping up and down in a shower of enveloped as a large, angry man tried to snatch as many as he could from the boy. The same boy ran through a brick wall, boarded a train, and met a boy with red, red hair and a girl with a mass of bushy brown tresses. He was looking through a mirror while a mad two-faced man looked daggers at him. He stuck a fang in a diary and a sixteen-year-old boy disappeared. He helped a gaunt man onto a hippogriff and watched as they flew away. He saw a handsome boy keel over in a graveyard. That same gaunt, skinny man fell through a dark, eerie veil. The boy was running, running after a brown-haired girl, who seemed to be in a trance, trying to stop her from approaching eminent death. He was following a girl on a thestral, and then he was on the other side of her bed...

Then, a light. A blinding white light, surrounded by a restless darkness. Tara could see Harry at the far end of the light; the beam seemed to be only between their eyes. Harry's eyes had a set determined look about them. Tara could feel her eyes crumpling into the look they wore when people teased her, or Josh didn't notice her. It was how she felt most often.

Then it ended.

Tara felt like an angry bee was buzzing around in her head as she heard Dumbledore speak. "Ah. Most interesting, indeed."

"See, Dumbledore?"

"You should listen to us."

"We told you."

"Tara, Harry, you share the same birthday, July 31, 1980."

"That's it?" Tara asked incredulously. All that for Dumbledore to tell them they shared a birthday? She could've asked Harry without getting all dizzy and confused.

"And you parents died on the same day, same moment."

Well, that was a shocker.

"And you two are connected by an ancient, mysterious magical power."

Tara's mind was reeling. Too much information in such a small space of time! Next to her, Harry tried and failed to swallow.

"Does that mean—"

"Yes, Harry. It might not be you to kill Voldemort. It might be Miss Foster."

Tara tried to regain her breath. She didn't want to kill anyone! She was content with her normal, invisible existence. Well, that would be not exactly truthful.

"So I have decided to let Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, and Miss Granger remain at the Institute until the purpose for this visit has been fulfilled."

"What?" Harry choked.

"I must go now. Goodbye." Dumbledore's voice seemed to echo.

"No, wait!" Tara cried. But the connection had been broken, and Tara could suddenly feel eight pairs of eyes boring holes in her.

"You may leave, children."

"Take care of yourselves."

"And take care, Tara Foster."

Ron shut the door behind them.

"You know, they're sort of like Dumbledore themselves," Harry said before anyone had a chance to say anything.

"In female form," Hermione agreed.

"And there's three of them!" Ron shuddered. "How can you stand them?"

Natalie, however, wasn't getting the hint that neither Tara nor Harry wanted to talk about it. "Yeah, okay, but what happened?"

Ron shot Tara a look, while Hermione did the same to Harry.

Tara said, "Well...it was weird."

"You can say that again," Josh interrupted. "You and Harry were yelling at the top of your lungs."

"We were?" Harry said.

"Yes," Hermione admitted. "Harry, you were saying something about Cedric, and Tara, you were yelling, 'Let me play!'"

Tara reddened. That must have been during the memory of her brothers and sister all ignoring her when she wanted to play with them.

"Tara," Harry said, " can you tell me what was going on during your memories?"

Tara sighed. "Sure. Tell me which ones."

"The first one."

"I guess that was me right after my parents died, when they left me at the orphanage."

"How did your parents die?" Ron asked.

"They...they drowned. Someone pushed them off a pier. No one knows who."

"Ah," Ron said uncomfortably. There was an awkward pause.

"How about the one with all the kids picking on you?" Harry continued quickly.

"That was at the orphanage. Everyone made fun of me for being so small."

"And that lady?"

"She is my adoptive mother."

"Oh. And the other kids?"

"My adopted siblings. I had the same problem with them as I did with the ones at the orphanage."

"And I bet the one with the letter was—"

"—my acceptance letter to the Institute," she finished for him.

"And the boy—what is it, Ron? Oh..." Ron was pulling faces and pointing to Josh, obviously realizing what Tara had been remembering. Josh was oblivious.

"And yes, I did purchase a Harry Potter Fan Club journal. Don't ask."

"All right. And the last one was you talking to Ron."

"Yeah. Don't know why that showed up."

"Mm," said Ron indifferently.

"So..." Josh said.

"Oh, yeah. Dumbledore said we share a birthday and our parents died at exactly the same moment," Tara told them.

Harry added, "And we share some kind of ancient power."

"Strange," Hermione said. "If you've been connected for over seventeen years, how come you've only met once?"

"Maybe they're long-lost twins or something!" Ron put in enthusiastically.

"Don't be an idiot," Hermione told him.

"We can't be related, Ron," Harry said as they continued down the hallway. "Remember what McGonagall said last year? She told us that when Dumbledore brought me to the Dursleys, he said they were the only family I have left, now."

"Oh, yeah," Ron said sheepishly. "I forgot about that."

"I guess Hermione could stay in our room, huh, Tara?" Natalie said, changing topics at the speed of light. "But where will Harry and Ron stay?"

All eyes turned to Josh, and Tara knew he was feeling as she had, like they were boring holes in him.

"Aw, all right. Keep your hair on," he consented.

When they reached Josh's room, Harry's and Ron's trunks were already there.

"Dumbledore," Harry guessed.

The girls said goodbye to them there, and Natalie and Tara led Hermione to their room, where her trunk was waiting for them too.

Natalie expertly conjured up an extra bed, and she and Hermione fell asleep presently. But Tara's thoughts and memories chased themselves around her head, keeping her awake.

Why were she and Harry connected like this? Why had she never met him before? Why did Harry have to see all her memories, including the ones about the other children making fun of her? And why had her conversation with Ron popped up in those memories?

These thoughts kept her awake until she realized how tired she was, and then she fell asleep.