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A New World
David, tall with brown hair and brown eyes, now approaching his 41st birthday, drove slowly home from the hospital where he worked as an oncologist. He worked long hours and the load never seemed to get any smaller, but he was happy with his job.
He pulled into the driveway of his modest home and went inside.
"Kathryn? Courtney? Michael? I'm home!" he called out.
There was the sound of scampering footsteps and his five-year-old son appeared in the hallway.
"Dinner's ready David, come on in and let's eat." Kathryn, his wife of twelve years said.
Picking up the little boy, David walked to the kitchen to find his eleven-year-old daughter helping her mother set the table.
Setting Michael down, David kissed his wife and then hugged Courtney.
"So how did everything go today?" he asked as he dug savagely into his lasagna.
As his family told him about how they had spent their midsummer's day, he thought happily about his life. After Courtney and Michael had described their trip to the park that morning, they then started pestering their parents with questions about their vacation.
The next morning dawned bright and clear, an auspicious beginning to David's month long vacation. He was taking his family to Wales, Scotland and Ireland for the entire month of August. The children were going to miss the first week of school, but it was worth the time together.
They had to go into London to pick up a few items before they left though. As they walked from the subway up onto the street, Courtney eagerly ran ahead (acknowledging with a nod her mother telling her to meet back in an hour), in order to spend a few minutes in her favorite store: a used bookshop. The store had recently moved to a new, and larger, location. So, she was excited to see the new building.
However, as she approached, she saw something strange; there was a small place situated between the music shop and the used book store that Chris, the owner of the store, had not mentioned. He had told her exactly where the new shop was and said there was a music store on one side and a Pharmacy. He hadn't mentioned this place.
She stopped, looking curiously at the sign "The Leaky Cauldron."
What an odd name for a place. She thought. Curiously enough, she noticed, she seemed to be the only one who saw the establishment. This peaked her interest. She forgot all about her plans to go to the bookshop and instead entered the Leaky Cauldron.
It was dimly lit, with candelabras mounted on the walls. It seemed to be a restaurant pub and inn all combined into one. She looked around in wonder at the very strange clothing exhibited. And what was with the pointy hats?
She slowly continued further into the place, so as not to block the door. The people, however, seemed more interested in the back door, rather than the front door, which puzzled Courtney because all that was back there was an alleyway.
She wandered over to a corner in the main room and sat down, staring at everything in wonder. After a minute, her curiosity got the best of her and she followed a few men and women to the back of the building and out the back door.
It lead to just an alley. A surprisingly clean alley, but an alley nonetheless. Then suddenly the wall moved. Courtney couldn't see how they did it, but it was no longer just an alley.
She slipped through the opening and onto a crowded street with shops lining each side. The people here were all dressed strangely too.
She set off walking, noticing that people were looking at her Levi jeans and Route 66 shirt in consternation. She saw things, however, that confused her even more. All the adults seemed to have sticks in their hands, for what purpose she couldn't fathom. And the shops had the weirdest names! "Quality Quidditch Supplies" (Quidditch? What was that?), "Eeylop's Owl Emporium," (An owl pet shop?) "Magical Menagerie" (Magical? MAGICAL?), and "Ollivander's," were only a few.
She continued walking and found herself at the steps of a great white marble building. Inside the doors were the strangest creatures she had ever seen. They were definitely not human. The closest thing they looked like to her was a Ferengi with Vulcan ears, shrunk down to three feet tall.
She slowly walked up the steps and past the creatures into the lobby of the building. There were more strangely clad men and women and it looked like they were taking gold nuggets from the strange creatures. She stood there staring for a little while until one of the non-human things came up to her and said in a disapproving voice, "No loitering, if you don't have any business to transact in the bank, move along."
Speechless, she just nodded and walked out of the building. She turned back to stare once again at the huge building, which she now knew was a bank, wondering what was going on. She'd never met a creature that wasn't human that could talk (well, except for her friend Abby's parrot, but it didn't work at a bank).
She turned back around and ran smack into someone.
"Sorry!" she gasped as packages went flying in all different directions.
"It's quite alright, I couldn't see where I was going with all these packages in my arms," said a man's voice, who sounded an awful lot like her Grandfather Taylor. Courtney scurried around helping him retrieve his packages. Then she got a good look at him.
He was a very old man, with long white beard and hair. He had a somewhat crooked nose and was wearing spectacles. The man was wearing…robes that were the same color light blue as his eyes. The eyes actually reminded Courtney of her mother.
The man shifted his packages and freed a hand, "Thank you, Miss…?"
"Barnes, Courtney Barnes." She shook his hand.
"Albus Dumbledore, Miss Barnes. Do you mind if I inquire as to where your parents are? You shouldn't be out alone."
Courtney flushed, "Well, I was running to the bookshop and I saw a little place called 'The Leaky Cauldron' I decided to check it out. I followed some people and found this strip of shops." She explained.
The man looked concerned, why though, she couldn't figure out.
"How old are you, child?" he asked gently.
"I turned eleven in May."
"Ah, I see," a twinkle lit his eyes, "Miss Barnes, I would like to welcome you to the wizarding world."
"The what world?"
"Wizarding world. You are a witch, you're magical."
"There is such a thing as magic?" she asked in awe.
In response, the old man set his packages down on the steps and pulled a stick out of his pocket. Courtney looked at him, confused.
"This is a magic wand. Here, give it a wave." He handed it to her she grasped it and waved it around a bit, not really expecting anything. To her surprise, red sparks shot out …and lit the man's beard on fire.
He chuckled and quickly patted it out. Courtney, however, was mortified, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!" she hastily handed the wand back to him, before she could do any more damage.
"It's okay." He reassured her, he then pulled something else out of his pocket and tapped it with the wand. It looked like some old parchment paper. "Here, take this. I suspect that you would be receiving it in the next few days anyway."
She looked at it. It was a letter, addressed in green ink, to her. As she turned it over in her hand, she caught sight of her watch and gasped.
"I was supposed to meet back with my parents five minutes ago!" she said.
Albus Dumbledore quickly picked up his packages again and said, "Allow me to escort you back to them then."
Courtney gratefully accepted this offer, as she wasn't quite sure how to get back through the Leaky Cauldron.
"Sir?" she asked while they walked, "If you have a magic wand, why don't you just…do something to those packages, rather than lugging them around?"
He chuckled, "You're a quick thinker, Miss Barnes. I happen to have some items in here that would react badly if I levitated them or shrunk them."
"Oh," she had never thought about that before.
She followed the man through the crowds and back through the pub out onto the London street.
At the door the man turned to her and said, "It was a pleasure meeting you, I look forward to meeting you again."
"Good-bye!" with that, Courtney practically ran to the subway entrance as the man went back into the pub trying to figure out who the red-haired, blue-eyed child reminded him of.
"Where have you been, young lady?" her mother demanded as Courtney breathlessly approached them.
"Sorry! I lost track of the time."
"Where were you? I called the bookshop on my mobile, but Chris said he hadn't seen you," her father said, mentioning the bookshop owner, who had developed a fondness for Courtney, since she was such a frequent customer.
"Well, I found a strange little place I'd never seen before and so I took a look at it. I just forgot to look at my watch."
Her mother looked curious now, "What do you mean a place you 'never seen before'? We've been coming over here since before you were born."
"No Mum, remember the bookshop moved. It's a little restaurant and inn called 'The Leaky Cauldron.'" She decided it might not be the best thing to mention to her parents that it was also a pub, "It's right beside the bookshop. Anyway, Mum, I found out the most amazing thing! Magic is real. I'm a witch." As the family walked down to the subway Courtney babbled on, "You see at the back of the Leaky Cauldron there's an alleyway and you tap the bricks or something like that and an archway appears and it leads to a road. It is lined with the funniest little shops. I wandered around there a little bit and then I bumped into this old man who said his name was Albus Bumble-something-or-other. He told me that I was a witch." Courtney's eyes lit as she remembered, "Oh! He gave me a letter." She took it out of her pocket and quickly peeled the wax.
She opened the letter and read over it eagerly.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
Dear Miss Courtney Barnes,
It has come to our attention that you are a witch, a being in possession of magical powers. We are pleased to invite you to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, one of the most prestigious schools of magic in the world.
We have scheduled for a representative from our school to come to your house at 7 o'clock tonight to answer any questions you might have.
You will find enclosed your school supplies list; all items listed can be found in Diagon Alley. Please note that the school year starts September 1. The Hogwarts Express leaves London's Kings Cross station at 11 o'clock from Platform 9 ¾.
We congratulate you on your acceptance and hope you have a pleasant summer.
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress.
Courtney then handed the letter to her parents. Her mother looked skeptical. "Honey, there is no such thing as magic," she started to say.
"Oh, I thought the same thing at first, but then Mr.," she glanced quickly back at the letter, "Dumbledore handed me his wand. I gave it a wave and I accidentally set fire to his beard!" Courtney giggled.
Her father humphed and said, "We are supposed to be leaving on vacation!"
"David, I think we can hold off another day. I want to see what this is all about. We can greet whoever is coming tonight and then leave in the morning." Kathryn said reasonably.
Dr. Barnes, however, did not look happy in the slightest.
A/N: Next chapter will be shorter- a David/Harry point of view on Courtney's little adventure into Diagon Alley. Chapter after that will be the visitor to their house to explain about the wizarding world.
Important note:
Comment on Harry/David "approaching his 41st birthday": Although it is early August and Harry's birthday has already passed, no one but Harry knows that. David Barnes' birthday is in late August, so he and his family celebrate it while on their yearly vacation.