Chapter 1*~Hogwarts~*
I stood nervously in front of the great oak doors waiting for McGonnagal to call us in. I could still remember getting my acceptance letter to Hogwarts 4 years late. It was July 31st and I was in my room reading. I heard a tap on my window figuring it was probably just the tree out side. Then I realized, "Wait the trees far from the window." I got off my bed and walked over to the window and pulled back the blinds. Outside sitting on the windowsill was a tawny owl w/ a letter in its beak. I stared at it, as I was speech less. It made a muffled hooting noise at me with the letter in it's beak, I was shaken from my daze I slowly opened the window and it flew in and landed on my desk. When I picked up the letter it had dropped it flew off out the window. I turned over the letter and there was the familiar red wax with the Hogwarts emblem stamped into it that I had read about so many times from the Harry Potter books. With a shaking hand I broke the seal and pulled out the letter inside. It said:
"Dear Ms. Drown,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please excuse us for missing you for your first 5 years. You are one of the first Americans who will be going to this school also. We will be sending one of our teachers, whom will be arriving shortly, to help you in getting your supplies, which is enclosed inside.
Term begins on September 1.We await your owl as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonnagal"
When I finished reading I pulled another piece of paper out of the envelope which stated the exact same list as I had seen so many times in Harry Potter. The list was similar but changed for this year we needed most of the same things and some items I had never even heard of before such as:
A book about, "Alomancy" which I had no clue what it was but thought it might have to do something about Divination (Borrring!). I suddenly stopped realizing "What am I thinking?! Someone's got to be playing a joke." As I thought this I heard a knock on the front door. As I was the only one home I ran down stairs and pulled open the door and gasped for standing there was one of the people in this world I'd hoped I'd never meet. Professor Serverus Snape was standing out side my door with a sneer on his face. He looked at me expectantly while I stood there with my mouth hanging open wondering if he was real. "Can I come in?" He asked in his greasy voice that matched his hair. I still stood there with my mouth hanging open but shuffled backwards to let him through. As he walked in he said. "From the way you seem to be staring at me, I assume you've gotten your acceptance letter?" I closed my mouth and nodded my head realizing that I still had it clutched in my hand. "Well," he said nastily, "what are you waiting for? Let's go!" I jumped in surprise and managed to croak out a few words, "Are we going to THE Diagon Alley? By Floo Powder?" He looked at me surprised. I wasn't sure how till he said, "How do you know this? Aren't you Muggle born?" then to himself, "Of course! Dumbledore told me.the books.right."Shaking his head he said, "Never mind. Just go get whatever money it is you have." Looking back at me with a sneer, as I hadn't moved, he said, "What? Why aren't you moving? Are your feet glued to the floor?" At this I jumped again and started walking back up the stairs as fast as I could without running. I grabbed my weeks allowance and part of next weeks, which I had already spent some of and turned to go back down the steps. I stopped and looked at my posters on the wall. Several of them had Harry Potter things on them. I looked at each of them and smiled then said, So, I guess you are real." then turned and bounded back down the steps with a little more energy then when I had started with. The smile on my face disappeared a little at the sight of Snape sitting of my couch but I continued down and he got up and beckoned for me to follow him to my living room where my fireplace was located. As we passed the kitchen table I saw a note written in black ink that was addressed to my parents. I assumed it explained every thing that was happening and where I was so they wouldn't worry but I guessed Snape wouldn't have cared if I had dropped off the face of the earth. Snape handed me a small pouch at which I was instructed to take a small pinch of the "dust" inside and throw it into the fireplace. I did so and bright green flames exploded from nowhere. I knew what I had to do without Snape even telling me/ So, I stepped into the green flames rather nervously and said/shouted, "Diagon Alley!" I spun through the green flames with my eyes tightly shut. I could feel myself slowing down so I opened my eyes a crack and peered through them ready to catch myself if I fell. When I was "thrown out" of the fireplace I stumbled and almost smashed into a wooden table. I straitened my self up and looked around me. I saw a crowded pub almost fit to burst. The air was filled with smoke and I knew I was ready to have an asthma attack. Just then Snape came whizzing through. He didn't stumble or fall like I wished he could have but simply stood up and brushed an invisible piece of dust off his robes. He started walking through the pub so fast I could barely keep up with him, mean while I was having more trouble breathing. But when I had finally made it through the heavy door to the back I was able to breath the fresh air again and was soon fine. Meanwhile Snape stood in front of the wall and tapped a few bricks and soon I heard a clacking noise and the doorway to Diagon Alley was open at last.
I looked behind me and there it was..Diagon Alley, open to me at last. "Wow," I breathed. Snape chuckled and said, "I'm sorry but I must leave and do some other errands that do not include you. I trust with your knowledge of the books you will be able to find your way around." And before I could say anything he walked away, his black cloak billowing around him. I stepped quickly through the gate as it was beginning to close and looked around me, astonished at what I saw. The building and people were unlike anything I had seen before. I realized that this was exactly how Harry had felt when he came here for the first time. I looked around for a few more minutes wondering where I should go first. Five minutes later I found my self in the closest store, which was Flourish and Blotts..or what ever the name of it was.. I just wanted to look at all the books here. As I was looking around the room dazedly, I suddenly crashed into someone making books fall everywhere and I fell onto my butt. I looked up and gasped for standing in front of me was none other then Draco Malfoy. As we looked each other up and down one thought came in to my mind, "Damn! He's even cuter than I thought!" He looked at me appraisingly and I blushed at his gaze. He smiled a little and he reached out his hand (I realized) to help me back up. I grabbed his hand and a small, quick shock ran through me. I looked down immediately to avoid meeting his inquiring gaze as I was blushing so hard I thought for sure my face looked like a tomato. I looked down and realized that his books were still strewn on the floor and I bent down to pick them up. As I started picking them up, I realized that several of the books had the same titles as the books that I had on my school list. "Of course!," I thought, "He's still in school! I wonder what year?" Finally picking up the courage to speak I said, "Um, sorry for crashing into you, I wasn't watching where I was going." He stopped me then and said with a small sly smile, "That's ok I was too busy watching you to realize we'd crash." I blushed deep red and said, "I noticed that you have some of the same books I have or rather am going to get...are you going into your 6th at Hogwarts?" "yeah," he said looking surprised, "Why haven't I seen you before? I know I wouldn't miss such a pretty face as yours." I blushed again and managed to mumble that I was from America and that my name was Chelsea. He grinned and said, "I'm Draco, Draco Malfoy. Have you just finished your shopping or just started?" "I just started. Why?" "Well," He said, "I would be honored if you'd come with me and I can show you around." "Okay," I managed to mutter. " I just need to get my books first." He nodded and said he'd wait out side for me while I wandered around searching for the titles I needed I even got a few books that seemed interesting though they didn't seem to have any relation to the other books I had. I bought them quickly and walked out the door, noticing the bell tinkle loudly above my head. I found Draco outside waiting impatiently for me. His face brightened when he spotted me and he walked over and offered me his arm. I took it and we started our tour of Diagon Alley. As we walked through the winding roads of Diagon Alley, Draco told the wizarding world and me all about Hogwarts. Even though he didn't tell me ALL about Hogwarts because as he said, "It should be a surprise." I could tell that it was exactly like the books. I knew I could never tell Draco of this as it would be a very big shock to him and all witches and wizards everywhere. We walked through the shops, arm in arm, Draco helping me get the things I needed and telling me about them. Soon, I trusted him. When we were walking towards Ollivander's and Draco looked at the strange watch he had on his wrist, which looked like Dumbledore's, and yelped in surprise. "Oh jeez!" He said, "Dad's going to kill me if I'm late! I'm sorry Chelsea but I've got to leave!" He started to run off but suddenly turned around and ran to me said, "Thank you." and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I watched him run off my mouth hanging open in shock and the spot where he kissed me seeming to burn. Not painfully but in a pleasant way. I was still standing there watching where he had disappeared around the corner when I realized that I still needed to get my wand. I looked around me and spotted the old shop a few feet away from where I stood. Still in the window was a wand still lying on a dusty cushion just like it had said in the Harry Potter books. I walked in and heard the small bell above my head ring loudly. I looked around at the dusty, sagging shelves and at the cashiers desk in front of me and saw a small service bell. I walked up to the desk and rang it a few times. When no one appeared I rang it again and called, "Hello? Anyone here?" When no one answered I reached out my hand to ring it a third time but some one clapped their hand over the bell making me gasp and jump in surprise and look at the person behind the counter. Mr. Ollivander was standing there, looking just as he had in my imagination and partially as he had in the movie. "Hello my dear," he said in a wheezy-like voice. I looked at him warily. "Are you looking for some wand polish? We have plenty in brown and auburn." I looked at him and blinked in response then a smile came on my face as I realized he already had thought that I was in school. I chuckled a bit then said softly, "I'm sorry sir, but no, I'm not looking for wand polish I'm looking for an actual wand.." He looked at me sharply and said, "You haven't lost your first one have you?" He said in a rather menacing voice that I was not expecting. "No, I'm new, I just transferred here or rather will transfer to Hogwarts but I'm from America and this is the first time I've been to a wizarding school.." I trailed off while Mr. Ollivander continued to look at me shrewdly. "Well, then lets see," He said walking to one of his high shelves and taking down a wand., "Hmm, try this one, Oak, 10 inches unicorn hair." I waved it around feeling very foolish. Nothing happened. "Hmm ok, guess not" Mr. Ollivander said as he went back to his shelves. A half and hour later I had tried every wand in the whole shop and no progress was made and my arm was getting quite tired. Finally Mr. Ollivander looked at his window at the dusty wand sitting on the cushion. He looked back at me curiously and said, "I wonder.," he walked over and carefully picked up the wand and walked slowly back over to me my gaze following him the whole time. He stood in front of me and held it out to me. I looked at him questioningly and reached out my hand. As soon as I touched the wand I knew that there was immense power behind it. I snatched my hand away but Mr. Ollivander motioned for me to pick it up once again. I reached out my hand shaking slightly and picked it up.
I stood nervously in front of the great oak doors waiting for McGonnagal to call us in. I could still remember getting my acceptance letter to Hogwarts 4 years late. It was July 31st and I was in my room reading. I heard a tap on my window figuring it was probably just the tree out side. Then I realized, "Wait the trees far from the window." I got off my bed and walked over to the window and pulled back the blinds. Outside sitting on the windowsill was a tawny owl w/ a letter in its beak. I stared at it, as I was speech less. It made a muffled hooting noise at me with the letter in it's beak, I was shaken from my daze I slowly opened the window and it flew in and landed on my desk. When I picked up the letter it had dropped it flew off out the window. I turned over the letter and there was the familiar red wax with the Hogwarts emblem stamped into it that I had read about so many times from the Harry Potter books. With a shaking hand I broke the seal and pulled out the letter inside. It said:
"Dear Ms. Drown,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please excuse us for missing you for your first 5 years. You are one of the first Americans who will be going to this school also. We will be sending one of our teachers, whom will be arriving shortly, to help you in getting your supplies, which is enclosed inside.
Term begins on September 1.We await your owl as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonnagal"
When I finished reading I pulled another piece of paper out of the envelope which stated the exact same list as I had seen so many times in Harry Potter. The list was similar but changed for this year we needed most of the same things and some items I had never even heard of before such as:
A book about, "Alomancy" which I had no clue what it was but thought it might have to do something about Divination (Borrring!). I suddenly stopped realizing "What am I thinking?! Someone's got to be playing a joke." As I thought this I heard a knock on the front door. As I was the only one home I ran down stairs and pulled open the door and gasped for standing there was one of the people in this world I'd hoped I'd never meet. Professor Serverus Snape was standing out side my door with a sneer on his face. He looked at me expectantly while I stood there with my mouth hanging open wondering if he was real. "Can I come in?" He asked in his greasy voice that matched his hair. I still stood there with my mouth hanging open but shuffled backwards to let him through. As he walked in he said. "From the way you seem to be staring at me, I assume you've gotten your acceptance letter?" I closed my mouth and nodded my head realizing that I still had it clutched in my hand. "Well," he said nastily, "what are you waiting for? Let's go!" I jumped in surprise and managed to croak out a few words, "Are we going to THE Diagon Alley? By Floo Powder?" He looked at me surprised. I wasn't sure how till he said, "How do you know this? Aren't you Muggle born?" then to himself, "Of course! Dumbledore told me.the books.right."Shaking his head he said, "Never mind. Just go get whatever money it is you have." Looking back at me with a sneer, as I hadn't moved, he said, "What? Why aren't you moving? Are your feet glued to the floor?" At this I jumped again and started walking back up the stairs as fast as I could without running. I grabbed my weeks allowance and part of next weeks, which I had already spent some of and turned to go back down the steps. I stopped and looked at my posters on the wall. Several of them had Harry Potter things on them. I looked at each of them and smiled then said, So, I guess you are real." then turned and bounded back down the steps with a little more energy then when I had started with. The smile on my face disappeared a little at the sight of Snape sitting of my couch but I continued down and he got up and beckoned for me to follow him to my living room where my fireplace was located. As we passed the kitchen table I saw a note written in black ink that was addressed to my parents. I assumed it explained every thing that was happening and where I was so they wouldn't worry but I guessed Snape wouldn't have cared if I had dropped off the face of the earth. Snape handed me a small pouch at which I was instructed to take a small pinch of the "dust" inside and throw it into the fireplace. I did so and bright green flames exploded from nowhere. I knew what I had to do without Snape even telling me/ So, I stepped into the green flames rather nervously and said/shouted, "Diagon Alley!" I spun through the green flames with my eyes tightly shut. I could feel myself slowing down so I opened my eyes a crack and peered through them ready to catch myself if I fell. When I was "thrown out" of the fireplace I stumbled and almost smashed into a wooden table. I straitened my self up and looked around me. I saw a crowded pub almost fit to burst. The air was filled with smoke and I knew I was ready to have an asthma attack. Just then Snape came whizzing through. He didn't stumble or fall like I wished he could have but simply stood up and brushed an invisible piece of dust off his robes. He started walking through the pub so fast I could barely keep up with him, mean while I was having more trouble breathing. But when I had finally made it through the heavy door to the back I was able to breath the fresh air again and was soon fine. Meanwhile Snape stood in front of the wall and tapped a few bricks and soon I heard a clacking noise and the doorway to Diagon Alley was open at last.
I looked behind me and there it was..Diagon Alley, open to me at last. "Wow," I breathed. Snape chuckled and said, "I'm sorry but I must leave and do some other errands that do not include you. I trust with your knowledge of the books you will be able to find your way around." And before I could say anything he walked away, his black cloak billowing around him. I stepped quickly through the gate as it was beginning to close and looked around me, astonished at what I saw. The building and people were unlike anything I had seen before. I realized that this was exactly how Harry had felt when he came here for the first time. I looked around for a few more minutes wondering where I should go first. Five minutes later I found my self in the closest store, which was Flourish and Blotts..or what ever the name of it was.. I just wanted to look at all the books here. As I was looking around the room dazedly, I suddenly crashed into someone making books fall everywhere and I fell onto my butt. I looked up and gasped for standing in front of me was none other then Draco Malfoy. As we looked each other up and down one thought came in to my mind, "Damn! He's even cuter than I thought!" He looked at me appraisingly and I blushed at his gaze. He smiled a little and he reached out his hand (I realized) to help me back up. I grabbed his hand and a small, quick shock ran through me. I looked down immediately to avoid meeting his inquiring gaze as I was blushing so hard I thought for sure my face looked like a tomato. I looked down and realized that his books were still strewn on the floor and I bent down to pick them up. As I started picking them up, I realized that several of the books had the same titles as the books that I had on my school list. "Of course!," I thought, "He's still in school! I wonder what year?" Finally picking up the courage to speak I said, "Um, sorry for crashing into you, I wasn't watching where I was going." He stopped me then and said with a small sly smile, "That's ok I was too busy watching you to realize we'd crash." I blushed deep red and said, "I noticed that you have some of the same books I have or rather am going to get...are you going into your 6th at Hogwarts?" "yeah," he said looking surprised, "Why haven't I seen you before? I know I wouldn't miss such a pretty face as yours." I blushed again and managed to mumble that I was from America and that my name was Chelsea. He grinned and said, "I'm Draco, Draco Malfoy. Have you just finished your shopping or just started?" "I just started. Why?" "Well," He said, "I would be honored if you'd come with me and I can show you around." "Okay," I managed to mutter. " I just need to get my books first." He nodded and said he'd wait out side for me while I wandered around searching for the titles I needed I even got a few books that seemed interesting though they didn't seem to have any relation to the other books I had. I bought them quickly and walked out the door, noticing the bell tinkle loudly above my head. I found Draco outside waiting impatiently for me. His face brightened when he spotted me and he walked over and offered me his arm. I took it and we started our tour of Diagon Alley. As we walked through the winding roads of Diagon Alley, Draco told the wizarding world and me all about Hogwarts. Even though he didn't tell me ALL about Hogwarts because as he said, "It should be a surprise." I could tell that it was exactly like the books. I knew I could never tell Draco of this as it would be a very big shock to him and all witches and wizards everywhere. We walked through the shops, arm in arm, Draco helping me get the things I needed and telling me about them. Soon, I trusted him. When we were walking towards Ollivander's and Draco looked at the strange watch he had on his wrist, which looked like Dumbledore's, and yelped in surprise. "Oh jeez!" He said, "Dad's going to kill me if I'm late! I'm sorry Chelsea but I've got to leave!" He started to run off but suddenly turned around and ran to me said, "Thank you." and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I watched him run off my mouth hanging open in shock and the spot where he kissed me seeming to burn. Not painfully but in a pleasant way. I was still standing there watching where he had disappeared around the corner when I realized that I still needed to get my wand. I looked around me and spotted the old shop a few feet away from where I stood. Still in the window was a wand still lying on a dusty cushion just like it had said in the Harry Potter books. I walked in and heard the small bell above my head ring loudly. I looked around at the dusty, sagging shelves and at the cashiers desk in front of me and saw a small service bell. I walked up to the desk and rang it a few times. When no one appeared I rang it again and called, "Hello? Anyone here?" When no one answered I reached out my hand to ring it a third time but some one clapped their hand over the bell making me gasp and jump in surprise and look at the person behind the counter. Mr. Ollivander was standing there, looking just as he had in my imagination and partially as he had in the movie. "Hello my dear," he said in a wheezy-like voice. I looked at him warily. "Are you looking for some wand polish? We have plenty in brown and auburn." I looked at him and blinked in response then a smile came on my face as I realized he already had thought that I was in school. I chuckled a bit then said softly, "I'm sorry sir, but no, I'm not looking for wand polish I'm looking for an actual wand.." He looked at me sharply and said, "You haven't lost your first one have you?" He said in a rather menacing voice that I was not expecting. "No, I'm new, I just transferred here or rather will transfer to Hogwarts but I'm from America and this is the first time I've been to a wizarding school.." I trailed off while Mr. Ollivander continued to look at me shrewdly. "Well, then lets see," He said walking to one of his high shelves and taking down a wand., "Hmm, try this one, Oak, 10 inches unicorn hair." I waved it around feeling very foolish. Nothing happened. "Hmm ok, guess not" Mr. Ollivander said as he went back to his shelves. A half and hour later I had tried every wand in the whole shop and no progress was made and my arm was getting quite tired. Finally Mr. Ollivander looked at his window at the dusty wand sitting on the cushion. He looked back at me curiously and said, "I wonder.," he walked over and carefully picked up the wand and walked slowly back over to me my gaze following him the whole time. He stood in front of me and held it out to me. I looked at him questioningly and reached out my hand. As soon as I touched the wand I knew that there was immense power behind it. I snatched my hand away but Mr. Ollivander motioned for me to pick it up once again. I reached out my hand shaking slightly and picked it up.