a/n: As you might have noticed by now, I gain a strange, odd pleasure out of writing children and house-elfs. I'm not sure why this is, but they are very fun, perhaps because of their insanity and unpredictability. You might (or might not) be interested to know that 11 Venus Road, where it is mentioned Siandra lives in this chapter, is an actual place in London, right near the river Thames.
I feel rather sorry for the poor cab driver.
T H E C A B D R I V E R
W
hen the Hogwarts Express slowed to a stop, Siandra rushed to where the Ravenclaw girls were still sitting and talking. She then attempted to grab her luggage from the overhead bins without much success. All she ended up with was a very hurt toe.
"Yow! I'll add that to the list of things attempting to land me in the hospital wing today!" she said as the trunk landed with a thud on top of her foot. Then she wrenched her foot out from underneath of it and picked it up off of the ground with some difficulty. Once she found the way out, she had to wait in a long line while a harassed-looking guard waited at the gate was issuing people through so as to not startle the muggles. Once she got through, she pulled the letter that her dad had written to her. It had a drawing of something called a "cab" that she was supposed to take. It looked like a black lump. She looked for a black lump and soon she found one. There was a man standing outside of it. She walked up to him.
"Are you the cab driver?" she asked, careful to pronounce every syllable.
"Well, yeah. What did yeh expect, a donkey?" he asked.
"Actually," Siandra continued, "I, er, did think there might be one since Dad told me that there were no horses, but that doesn't matter now. Is this cab for Siandra Lorington?"
"You thought there'd be what? Oh, yer not still on about them donkeys are you? I really don't have time to play foolish games. Your parents told me to take you right to their home. Yer trying to scare me off with this nonsense, aren't ya? Not want to go home, do ya?"
"I want to go home!" she said indignantly, "I just thought that there'd be a donkey!"
Then she gave that laugh that means something like "that was silly, but now all is well". However she must not have done it right because the cabby gave her a confused look, asked what century she lived in, and told her to get into the car.
"So, you going home to visit yer folks for the Christmas Holidays?" asked the driver politely.
"Yes, most of the people in Gryffindor are staying, but I wanted to visit my parents." Siandra replied, fondling the letter that her dad wrote.
"So, where do yer go to school?"
"Hogwarts."
"Never heard of it. Where's it at?"
"Oh, I think it's unplottable."
"What are you learning about now?"
"Levitation."
He seemed to be trying to get a normal answer out of her, but he didn't have very much luck at it.
"Er, do you go to a special school?" asked the cabby hesitantly.
"Well it's very special. Only certain people get to go there." Siandra answered promptly.
"Ah, I see why she's got problems, the lass goes to behavioral school," he muttered to himself.
"Not that kind of special school! I am outraged! If I wasn't so bad at transfiguration, you would be a mouse right now!" Siandra yelled.
And as if some odd magic were happening, the cabby lost control of the wheel for one moment, as it seemed to turn to rubber and then back again. His eyes widened.
"This is your house, right?"
"No."
"Is this it?"
"No."
"Is this it?"
"No."
"Is this it?"
"That's the same house."
"Oh. Is this it?"
"That's a tree."
"Oh."
"Why don't I just give you the address?"
"Erm, sure."
"Okay, it's 11 Venus Road."
"But — but, that's so — so far away!"
"Oh, now I know what's up with you. You're scared of the magic, aren't you? Now you can just pull over on the side of the road and I'll perform a memory charm on you. I haven't learned them yet, but I think I'll do just fine. I don't think I'll make a mistake."
"It's just that I've, er, not really had a teenage witch perform some sort of charm …wait, you said memory charm? Oh, no yeh don'! I want me memory!"
"Did I say memory? I meant money. Now just pull over here and I'll fix you all up. Then you won't be scared anymore. Anyway, my birthday's in April so I'm not really a teenaged witch quite yet."
"Har har har. I'm not getting out of this here car. Nobody is gonna fool me!"
Siandra then reached inside of her robes and pulled out her wand.
"Even if you're not going to stop the car, I'm doing it anyway because it needs to be done. Okay, you stop the car if you want."
"OBLIVIATE!" she yelled just as the driver slammed on the brakes.
"Do I know you?" he asked dreamily.
"Not really, I'm just your passenger. You're a cab driver. You are driving me home." Siandra explained to the bewildered driver.
"Do I know how to drive?" he asked her in puzzlement.
"Yes, of course you do!" she said hurriedly. What if he had forgotten?
"So tell me your address." he commanded.
"It's 11 Venus Road."
"I know that address…I've been told it before…" he mused as he revved up the engine, "Oh, I know now. It's the little lass with the special school!"
Siandra let out an exasperated sigh and let her face fall into her hands.
"Eleven Venus Road! Out yeh go!" he yelled and Siandra hurriedly exited the cab and grabbed her trunk from the boot.
As the cab sped away down the street, Siandra examined the house that was her own. It looked perfectly normal to her. There was a small apple tree in the front lawn and a tall bamboo hedge leading to the front door. It looked like only one story, but it could have a basement. Siandra lugged her trunk through the hedge to the door. It looked like just a garden door, so she didn't think it would be imposing to just open it. It was locked.
"Alohamora," she whispered as she drew her wand out from her robes. The gate swung open long enough for her to drag her trunk thorough it. Then it closed softly. She was lead into a garden on the side and a little door that lead into the house. The garden looked ordinary enough. That was until you saw exactly what was growling at you: the stone gargoyle by the door. She set her trunk down and knocked gingerly on the front door with a piece of stained glass positioned over the handle.
"I'm coming…" was the muffled response from inside the house. Siandra supposed that it was her mother.
The door swung open revealing the glowing face of her mother.
"Welcome!" she beckoned Siandra into the house. "I'll take that," she nodded, indicating Siandra's overlarge trunk and drawing out her wand. "Wingardium Leviosa," she commanded as the trunk flew upward, directed by her wand. Her mother lead her throughout the house and down a hall until it stopped. There was a closet built into the end of it. Her mother pointed to the room on the right. "This is your room," she said. Then she pointed to the left. "That's my room, if you need anything. Oh," she pointed to the closet, "That's where we keep the games. We even brought gobstones and wizard's chess, but they're in the back of the closet."
Suddenly her mother looked at her watch and looked crestfallen.
"Oh no!" she gasped, "I have an important ministry meeting in three minutes, but I promised to take care of Reney's little girls…I promised the ministry that I wouldn't use my time-turner for anything like this…"
"I'll take care of the kids for you," offered Siandra.
"…oh, and that must be them right now…would you? Gotta apparate, good-bye honey!" she said and with a little pop, she disappeared.
Siandra ran to the door to open it up for the visitors. She had a little trouble with the lock, but she eventually got it.
"Hello, I'm…erm…" she said, trying to think of a muggle name to call herself. She didn't know how suspicious muggles were about their names. "Andrea. My mother isn't here right now, she had to go to a meeting, but I'm going to take care of your kids," she said, until she realized that she was giving her speech to the gargoyle because no one was there yet. Then two little girls came skipping in through the door.
"Hi, I'm Andrea, come in. My mom's at work so I'm taking care of you. Isn't that just hanky-panky?" She tried to throw in what she called "muggle vocabulary".
The two yellow-haired girls walked in, looking up at her.
"I'm Calandra. I'm the youngest. This is my sister Penelope. She's the oldest."
"So, what would you like to do?" asked Siandra, collapsing in the bean bag chair by the window.
"I want to play a game. I know lots of games." boasted Calandra.
"Erm…I can clean your windows?" suggested Penelope.
"Okay, Calandra, you can stay here for a minute while I set up Penelope with the windows. Okay?" she asked.
Then she walked over to the kitchen where there were a bunch of cupboards. She opened the one under the sink and in it there were a lot of cleaning supplies. Two spray bottles were in the corner. She looked at both of them and picked up the round one.
"Here you are, Penelope, you can start over there." Siandra said, indicating the windows by the beanbag she just sat in. Holding Calandra's hand, she walked over down the hallway and to the games cupboard and opened the door.
Calandra gave the cupboard a good, long stare and then said, "Hmm…what's that?" she asked pointing to the game on the bottom of the pile. She tugged it out and with it came all the games stacked upon it and more. It was quite a mess. One toppled out onto the top from the back. It was the chessboard.