Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not mine. There, are you happy now? I said it.

Harry Potter and the Talismans of Life

Chapter 2: Reliving Memories and Preparing to Move On

After a very sleepless night in the hollow of a giant tree, Sydney Teport returned to find her house a smoldering pile of ash and her mother dead. Sydney bowed her head in and said a prayer in Japanese, and then she translated it into English and said it again. Then she closed her mother's eyes and removed the wedding ring from her finger and the family heirloom necklace from about her neck.

Then with a heavy heart, Sydney started to search for anything that might be salvageable from her charred home. She started to cry as she walked through the remains of her once very welcoming house, but she felt a little better when she saw, through her blurry, tear filled eyes, that her bedroom was virtually untouched. Right then she was extremely thankful that the largest storage space for family keepsakes was underneath her bed.

"Wow," Sydney said to herself, "it sure was lucky I picked up that universal shield charm as quickly as I did." Sydney laughed as she remembered her master, an old monk she called Myouga-san or simply, master, teaching her the charm.

wavy wavy flashback

"Now, Sydney-kun, this is a rather difficult charm, in fact, I did not master it for three weeks." The small, elderly, Japanese, wizarding monk stated in a slightly high voice. "Now watch what I do." The small monk raised his wand and made a strong movement with his hand as he spoke in a very loud, powerful voice, "Protoge!" the master Myouga-san began glow bright white then said, in a slightly magnified voice, "Well, go ahead, attack me."

Sydney raised her wand and bellowed "Expelliarmus!" A strong beam of light erupted from the end of her wand and flew towards her master, bounced off of his shoulder, and came zipping back at her. Sydney jumped out of the way just in time. The spell slammed into a large tree trunk, which was followed by a huge flash of light, and left a burn, smoking singe on the tree. Sydney looked back at master Myouga-san with wide eyes and a questioning look.

"Aaah, yes, good," Master said, still with a magnified, echoing voice, as he walked towards her and raised his wand, he muttered, "Relestion," the white glow surrounding him faded quickly and he was normal again. "And that, my disciple, is exactly what should happen when you are attacked and this charm is in place." His voice sounded as it ordinarily did.

"Now, do as I do." As the small monk repeated the powerful hand movement, Sydney mirrored him. "Good, good, now voice the incantation, 'Protoge'." Sydney preformed the arm movement in a very self assured way while speaking the spell with equal self-esteem. She, just as Myouga-san had, glowed a brilliant white. "Now, it may not have worked properly, so prepare your self, Sydney-kun." Master instructed. "Yes, master Myouga-san." Sydney replied with respect and braced herself for the impact of a spell.

She watched master raise his arm and bellow "Expelliarmus!" As the streak of light came streaming towards her, Sydney braced herself for impact, but as the spell contacted her stomach, she only felt a slight tickling sensation. When it ricocheted back at her master, she saw that he was wearing a shocked expression, complete with eyes the size of saucers. Apparently, he was so shocked that Master Myouga-san didn't see his own spell streaking straight back at him. When the spell collided with his chest, he was thrown backwards out of his shock. When he righted himself, he was still in shock, though not as much. When he spoke, he stammered. "Aaah, yes, g-good, Th-that was very g-good, Sydney-kun."

wavy, wavy reality

"That was funny." Sydney chuckled to herself in a very nostalgic way, "I'll never forget that."

Sydney started to sort through her room. She opened two wooden trunks both very large and with elaborately carved with a vast array of symbols. In one of the trunks, she placed (with the use of magic, mind you) clothing both of wizarding and muggle cultures from around the world.

In the bottom of that trunk, she placed a jewelry box, made of wood, with a strange symbol carved on the top of the lid, a symbol which Sydney knew meant 'breathing'. Filled with magical jewelry from countries the world over, this jewelry box and its contents were her most valued treasures, so she placed it in the upper right hand corner on the bottom of her clothing trunk wrapped in a sweater that was her mother's.

She continued to fill the trunk with clothes; the final piece that she placed in the trunk was a woven blanket with the image of the African god of the sun emblazoned upon it. Sydney smoothed out the blanket that lay on top of all her neatly folded clothes.

She gave a weary smile as she pulled down then locked the lid, pulled her seven and a half inch wand, made of a very light colored wood and a very rare, female, silver phoenix tail feather for a core, with a small strip of leather wrapped around the thicker end for grip, from behind her ear and used it to tap three of the engravings on the lid. The trunk started to quiver and glow light blue then it began to shrink smaller and smaller. Then when it stopped shrinking, Sydney picked up the miniscule trunk and placed it in the right front pocket of her denim shorts.

She then began to pack odds and ends into the second large wooden trunk. Things such as books, shoes, parchment, quills, ink, and keepsakes from every continent were packed into it.

Gingerly, she placed on top of everything else, a photo album that looked to be at least one hundred years old. On the worn black leather cover, written by hand with gold ink, the name Potter. Sydney, ever so gently and just as slowly, ran her finger tips over each letter, soundlessly pronouncing each of them in turn. The feeling of the leather beneath her fingers tips was soft from years of cherishing. A small tear slipped out of one of her, once again, very moist hazel eyes. Rolling down her tanned nose, it fell then landed just above the space between the 'E' and the 'R'. Sydney swiftly removed her hand from the book and wiped her eyes with the back of that hand.

With a sharp intake of breath, she turned and picked the final thing that she would place in the second trunk. A custom made one of a kind, broomstick. It was the fastest broom in the world. Her broom was made of three different kinds of wood, from three different corners of the Earth. Each tree had amazing magical properties, the broom's stick was once a branch of a mighty California Redwood representing strength, and stamina which the rider gains, the twigs of the tail were that of a great and ancient Japanese Ginkgo tree that gives the rider wisdom and good judgment while in flight, the twine that connects the broomstick and the tail was a part of an Australian Eucalyptus or gum tree which supplies the rider with agility and flexibility in the air. Only a witch who had traveled the world could own this broom, and that is exactly why Sydney did.

Her father had made it for her, before he was killed by the evil one. The evil one who had killed her mother and wanted to kill her, as well, and he was still out there. The one with the evil, blood red snake eyes who had hated Sydney's entire family since before she could remember, and wanted them all dead, and Sydney knew that she and Harry were the only two who were left to stop him.

Sydney closed the lid of the trunk and latched it. When Sydney tapped three of the engraved symbols on its lid, the second trunk, just as the first had, glowed light blue and shrunk. When it was finished shrinking, Sydney picked it up and placed it in the left front pocket of her jean shorts.

With a final look around her nearly empty room, she twisted her hair into a bun and stuck her wand through it to hold it in place. She drew her deep purple traveling cloak about her fit body and, with a final tear rolling down her cheek and hitting the hardwood floor of her old bedroom, she spun on her heal and left to begin a long and lonely journey to London, England.

A/N Well what do you think? Do you love it? Do you loath it? Do you wish it would vanish off the face of the earth? Can you not wait for me to update? Well then, tell me with a review! Thanks, Rae