Chapter 12

Every school year begins with a schoolbag filled with books and good

intentions. For example, Agnes and Emily had both vowed they would promptly do

their homework after school instead of putting it off and....putting it off. The

first week went well; every afternoon found the two of them in one or the

other's houses, studying away. By the second week, however, their diligence was

waning and they spent less time studying and more time messing around.

"Alright," Emily said from her spot on the floor, feet on the back of the

door and staring at Agnes upside down, "Rohan at first seems more powerful than

Gondor but, admit it, if the Ents hadn't destroyed Isengard, they would have

been massacred."

"But that's not the point," Agnes said from her bed. "The Ents DID come to

the rescue. Furthermore, Gondor would have falled had Rohan not come to their

rescue." Emily thought about this for a second. "Okay, so what it boils down to

is that everyone had help from someone else. Remind me again what this has to do

with the War of the Roses?"

Agnes slammed her history book shut in despair. "Nothing at all. I think

we officially stopped studying the moment I tried making that comparison."

Emily laughed. "We're terrible. At this rate, that essay's never going to

get written. Though," she added thoughtfully, "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to be

in tip-top Lord of the Rings shape before the convention, eh?"

"Provided we get tickets to go to it."

"Yes, there's always that." But, cheer up, Agnes! Maybe you'll mee some

new, young fanboy. It's such a shame that other one moved away." Agnes cringed.

She had been avoiding thinking about the wizarding world so well lately and then

Emily had to bring it up. Since the time she had told her best friend about some

problem involving a boy, Emily had grown so obnoxious and determined to meet him

that Agnes had finally broken down and told her that he and his family had moved

to Orkney. The story went something like this: sudden death of some family

member, leaving behind property that needed immediant occupancy or else imminent

foreclosure, etc. Emily bought it but continued to bring it up every chance she

got. Agnes could only hope that time would work its magic and all would be

forgotten.

But it had been fun and so exciting to be in the presence of people

capable of real magic that Agnes doubted she herself would ever forget about it.

And Colin and Dennis had seemed so normal on the outside-until one talked to

them, at which point it became blatantly obvious that they were either not from

around these parts or had been living under a very heavy rock.

She sighed wistfully and opened the textbook back up while Emily recited

some basic facts about the War of the Roses. Did she regret anything? Well, some

things, yes: that she hadn't made them take her with them to Diagon Alley, that

she hadn't witnessed them perform real magic-despite their claim that it was

forbidden, she had never really seen any rulebook saying so. Besidse, that one

day at the park, they'd seemed ready enough to use their wands. Who was to say

they wouldn't? Really, the only thing she fully regretted was the one thing she

couldn't change: the fact she was not magical, that she was a muggle and that

two boys whose origins were as humble as her own had admittance to a whole

world. While she was stuck writing boring essays on long, boring wars and sewing

shoddy pillows in Domestic Sciences, they were learning about Goblin rebellions

and brewing potions of all kinds. Moreover, they didn't seem to appreciate it!

Who cared if the teacher was mean or the class boring? Agnes would have given

her left arm to sit for an hour in either class!

"Agnes!" Her mother called, "If Emily's still up there, tell her her

mother's just rung and she needs to go home! And you're supper'll be ready in

ten minutes!"
Emily groaned and unforlded herself out of her inverse position. "Just

when I was actually getting somewhere, too." She straightened up her school

uniform, grabbed her bag and looking up to say good-bye to Agnes, started in

surprise. "My god! Agnes, look out your window!" Agnes did and, turning, she saw

an owl fluttering outside her window. An OW! Her heart skipped a beat as she

tried to remain calm and offer up a plausible explanation. "Oh, that's er, our

neighbor's owl. He has eccentric tastes in pets."

"I'll say! I've never even seen one before, though I guess that makes

sense, as they are nocturnal." Emily moved to get a closer look, but Agnes,

spying the letter tied to it's claw, burst out:

"Look! Don't you think you should be going? Your mum'll be upset if you're

late and I've got to get ready to eat."

Emily gave her a funny look. "Well if I bother you that much, Agnes, I

don't have to come over at all."

"No, it's not that, it's just that-my mum's been annoyed at me lately for

not helping out as much since school's started and she's threatening not to let

me go to any convention at all and I really, really don't want to make her mad."

Emily's look softened into a more understanding one.

"Oh I'm sorry. Look, I'll see you tomorrow and I swear we will go to the

convention. Even if I have to pay for you." She squeezed Agnes' hand tightly

then picked up her bag and left the bedroom. Agnes heard her on the stairs,

waited a few seconds to be sure she wasn't coming back and then raced over to

open the window.

The owl must have been hovering for some time because it flew around

agitatedly for a minute before letting Agnes remove the letter tied to its leg.

Her name and address were written on it and she opened it excitedly. Her joy

jumped up another notch when a few pictures fell out onto the ground and she saw

her name at the top of this parchment as well.

'Agnes-

Look, I know we didn't leave on really good terms and I just want to say

I'm sorry. There I said it: SORRY. I didn't mean to get mad or to get you mad

but to be completely honest, you did get pretty obnoxious. '

"That's supposed to be an apology?" Agnes said in amazement. She read on:

'You see, it's hard to remember that all this is new to you when it seems so

ordinary to me. On the same token, Dennis and I realized this summer how out of

touch we have become with the muggle world (don't hate that word-that's what it

is!) So, if you're willing, we'd like to re-establish relations with you keeping

us up-to-date on the muggle world, letting us know what's going on and that sort

of thing. For our part, we'll make you an honorary witch of sorts, meaning

you'll get a lot of information most muggles don't see in their entire lifetimes

(Please-don't tell the Ministry of Magic on us!). As a show of our good faith,

we offer you these pictures I took recently at Hogwarts.

We hope to see you again in the holidays,

Colin and Dennis

P.S. Quidditch trials are on the 12th! Wish us luck!-Dennis

P.S.S. Reply by return owl. Sorry, but we don't know how else you'll be able to

get a letter to us. Be sure to feed and water him-he's flown quite a ways.'

Agnes looked at the owl, who was now perched on her footboard. How was she

supposed to care for an owl?

Then she glanced down on the floor at the pictures that had fallen down

and she picked them up. One was a good picture showing numerous carriages

heading up to a castle with people-students, perhaps-inside them, plainly being

pulled by magic.

The second showed a comfortable red and gold room with students lounging

around. Colin's caption read "Gryffindor Common Room" and even pointed to where

Harry Potter was supposed to be, but no one was where he said he was. She set it

aside.

The last was a picture of a very large, hairy man holding a dog with a forked

tail up in the air. The dog glared out of the picture and the trees moved in the

wind and for a moment, Agnes felt like she was there, as though she had been

pulled through the picture and onto the Hogwarts' grounds. At that moment, there

was nothing in the world she felt she wanted more.

"Agnes!" Her mother called, causing her to jump. "Supper!"

"Alright, I'm coming!" Giving the pictures one more wistful look, Agnes

set them down on the bed, vowing to reply to the letter Colin and Dennis had

sent her that evening, before she had to feed and care for the owl too much, and

headed out of her room to supper, shutting the door behind her.

The End.

Author's Note: And that's it! I'm done! No more updates from here on out. But it's probably high time I thanked my reviewers. So here goes: First off, I'd like to thank EyesofEmeralds for your reviewing devotion-when I checked my email and saw all of them I thought I must have had a virus of some sort. I was very pleased to find out that I didn't-and that someone had taken the time to review my story. Thanks! And next, I'd like to thank Wolfawaken (yes, it was fun and no, a muggle is a muggle-I don't imagine she'll ever really get to see Hogwarts. Life is so unfair.), Loquatious, Tessa, LNLisa, Noodlebug, Nuova, Lady Bell (that similarity hadn't occurred to me while writing-an autographed picture of the fellowship just happened to be the most nerdiest possession I could think of at the time.), kateydidnt, Jillie, FanFictionDreamer, and Bland Taste ( I hope your username doesn't reflect the stories that you read )
All in all, it was a fun ride and who knows, maybe we'll do it again some time.