Disclaimer: I still own nothing…except a…ok never mind. I own nothing.

Chapter 2:

Natalie got no reply the next three days and then on the day that school let out, she finally got one.  The owl zoomed towards her with a letter dangling off its leg.

She grabbed the owl before it had even landed and ripped off the envelope so fast that she even ripped the letter in two and had to put it together to read it.

Hello Natalie! It's great that you have changed your mind! The publisher has informed me that we need to be there tomorrow because he wants me to write an article that is to be in next week's newspaper.

You won't be taking any exams today. You need to pack all of your belongings because I will be there to pick you up at 11:00. I have already spoken with your headmaster about this. Thank you so much sweetie! I you'll like it in London!

See you at 11!          -Mum

'It's a good thing I already took my last exam yesterday' she though to herself. Natalie couldn't believe what she was reading. It seemed as if her mom had everything already planned out as if she had just been waiting for Natalie to say it was ok to do all this.

Only two more hours of this wretched place! Natalie tore upstairs to her dormitory and packed her things as quickly as possible. She was ready to go an hour before he mom would be there.

An hour finally passed and her mom was walking through the door into the common room.

"Ready to go?" She asked happily as she pulled Natalie into a hug. She nodded.

Her mom had apparently come by broom and they rode that way for about 10 minutes until they reached a small field with one single car parked in it. When they landed, she put the broom in the trunk and they drove off to the Canadian airport. At no time at all, they were on an airplane, headed for London.

Natalie watched with amazement and fear as the city lights blurred beneath her. She didn't quite know what was so interesting about them, but she watched until the last few lights trickled away and soon left only darkness beneath them; which Natalie guessed was the ocean.

Natalie slowly drifted off to sleep and what seemed like minutes after, her mom was already waking her.

"Get up honey! We're here!" She mom shook her slightly and Natalie wiped some sleep out of her eyes.

"How long have I been asleep?" She asked wearily.

"Maybe three hours. You'll never be able to get to sleep tonight." Her mom smiled and grabbed the small bags that were on a rack above them.

Natalie followed her mom through a passageway that led into the airport where they would do all that boring signing stuff. As her mom went to the counter, Natalie found her a comfy chair and threw herself into it.

She played with her fingernails for a few minutes and then she heard someone say, "Hello!". She didn't look up because she thought it was just a friend saying hi to another friend that just got off a plane or something. Anyways…why would anyone say hey to her?

"Hello!" She heard again. This time it was accompanied by a shake of her chair as someone sat down heavily in the chair next to her. Natalie looked up this time.

"Hi." She said nervously. "Who are you?"

"My name is Hermione Granger! And you might want to hide that." She said pointing her finger at Natalie's bag. Her wand was sticking out where the zipper had opened. Then she turned her head slowly to Hermione.

"Are you a-"

"Yes." Hermione replied cutting her off before she could say it. "So where are you coming from? Are you on vacation or moving?"

"I..uh…I'm moving to London." She replied slowly.

"Great! Do you know what school you are going to yet?" She asked happily. Natalie had never seen anyone so happy to talk to her and get to know her…except for her mom. She started to feel like she's never felt before. She felt like she could say anything at all to Hermione like she was her…friend.

"No, I'm not quite sure yet. I don't even know if it is going to be a school in London, but I hope it is!"

Hermione made a grunting noise and looked as though she was upset. "I'm sorry! We are having a conversation and I haven't asked your name!"

"Oh! That's ok!" Natalie was quite amused how Hermione took everything so seriously but she still thought she was pretty cool. "I'm Natalie Cook."

"Cool! So.."

They soon engaged into a conversation about almost everything. They had been talking for about 45 minutes when Natalie's mom came over and said that it was time to go.

Hermione gave Natalie something called a 'fone-number'; a way of communicating by muggle devices or something, they hugged and said goodbye.

"Hold on," Natalie said to Hermione before she left, "You're not moving are you?"

"Oh no!" Hermione laughed. "I'm just going on vacation with my family. I'l be back in  a month or so."

They waved goodbye and went their separate ways.

"So who was that?" Natalie's mom asked as they got into a cab.

"Hermione Granger. She just walked up to me and started talking. She's really cool! She's a witch, too. Oh, and she gave me this…" She pulled out the phone number and showed it to her mom.

"Will you help me use the telp-a-fone?"

Her mom just laughed and nodded.

As they drove around Natalie looked out the windows at all the sights. London was a very dark, wet place filled with people walking allover the streets, making it very hard to get to their apartment in less than an hours time.

They finally found a run down apartment building with the number A67 on the front. They walked inside and were hit in the face by a strong odor or mold.

It was a very boring place with white walls, beige carpet and some very tacky furniture that looked like no matter where you put it, it would have looked horrible.

It was damp, but cool inside, making it bearable. There were some nails in the wall where some pictures had hung previously, and some wires that they were randomly taped to the wall connected to nothing as if some family had used it as decoration.

They brought in all their stuff from the car and used the rest of the day to get situated and organized. They finally finished and decided to watch some TV.

"Decent place." My mom commented looking around.

"Yeh…it's not bad." I lied.

It was actually much better than our old apartment that had loads of stains in the light brown carpet and bugs and rats crawling all over the place. This place was about three times bigger than their old one, too.

She was quite surprised when her mom pulled her into a hug.

"Thank you so much for doing this. You were right. We really needed this."

Natalie hugged her back tightly and gave her a smile. Then it suddenly dawned on her; her new school!

"Mom, what school am I going to?" Natalie asked.

"Oh! I forg-" She suddenly paused and stared at her, as if seeing her for the first time. "Honey what happened to you?" She asked looking at the bruises and cuts.

Natalie looked down quickly as if it would hide something.

Her mom lifted her chin gently so she was facing her, but Natalie was still looking at the ground.

"What happened?" She repeated.

"It's nothing, I just uh…fell…down some stairs."

Her mom gave her a skeptical look. "Is there something you need to tell me?"

Natalie sighed. "No, mom. I swear, I just fell downs some stairs!"

She still looked a bit worried but she didn't press the matter. Natalie would hate to have to explain to her mom that all these years she was being treated like that. Natalie decided to break the awkward silence.

"So what school am I going to?" She asked again.

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Her mom answered proudly. "And you'll be under that finest headmaster; Albus Dumbledore!"

"Where is it? Here in London?" She asked excitedly.

"Of course! I'm not sending you to Durmstrang or Buexbatons!" Her mom answered as if Natalie knew what she was talking about. "Your schedule and supply list will all come later in the mail."

Natalie hoped that this was the school that Hermione was going to.

Her mom plopped down a large book in front of her.

"What's this?" Natalie asked as if her mom was mad.

"A book Dumbledore sent to you in case you wanted some background information on your school."

"Hogwarts, A History." She read aloud. "Great! I'll read it tonight when I go to bed."

Natalie set the book aside, grabbed the remote and began to flip channels.