-1It was the last day of summer for them, the last time they would see each other before college drug them away. They were sitting around Liz's kitchen table quietly, trying desperately to laugh. Jessi was browsing through a magazine, stroking the cat in her lap. Katie stared into her glass of water while Amanda stared out the window at the hot August day. Liz surfed through the web on her laptop. They had been sitting quietly like this for over an hour with no end in sight. The silence as awkward as when they barely knew each other, like that of strangers. A cat suddenly jumped onto the table, looking at them intently, not surprising as there were four of the beasts roaming around.
"Did you get a new cat?" asked Jessi. She was quite familiar with Liz's cats and she didn't remember one with spectacle like markings around it's eyes.
"That isn't one of mine. Scat!" said Liz and the cat leapt off the table sending the vase tottering. Four sets of hands reached out to catch it and as they clasped onto it there was a sudden tug behind their navels. Katie looked around as they were whisked away in a blur of color, Jessi bobbing along beside her looking stunned, Amanda had her eyes tightly closed, fearful, Liz looked more amused than frightened. Suddenly with a jolt they landed.
Only Jessi was standing, eyes wide, hair standing on end, dressed in swirling dark robes and clutching the handle of a large old style trunk. Liz was dumped over the top of another trunk wearing identical robes. Amanda's feet could be seen from behind a third trunk. Katie raised her head a fraction of an inch from the grass, clutching something in her hand. It was the handle of a fourth trunk.
"Yer alrigh there?" called a booming voice. A large, hairy man came striding towards them. "Rubeus Hagrid," he said as he hoisted Amanda to her feet. Jessi's eyes got even wider before she turned to help Liz to her feet. When she turned back, her eyes had lost the stunned look and had become calculating. Katie struggled to her feet and tightly grasped Amanda's arm. She looked up towards the sky, noticing for the first time how cold it was, and gasped. The other three looked up. They couldn't put their finger on it but there was something wrong. The sky wasn't quite right, the wind was a little different.
"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore," said Liz softly.
"I don't think we're on Earth anymore," said Amanda even softer. Hagrid hoisted their trunks under his arms, and led them towards the looming castle.
"An that's Hogwarts," he nodded towards the castle. Katie croaked something like "Hogwarts" but no one else made a sound.
"I assume it was McGonagall who arranged out transportation?" said Jessi suddenly, looking at Hagrid.
"Yeh, not often we get transfer student's. Ye'll be from America by the sound of your voice."
"Mm-hmm," murmured Jessi absently. With that, they all trudged up towards the school with Hagrid explaining about the sorting to them, the houses. Amanda looked like she was on the edge of a panic attack, Liz seemed bemused, Katie constantly looked around as if for an exit sign, and Jessi was deep in thought, far removed from her current surroundings. They strode through the massive front doors and into the great hall behind a timid looking group of first years.
"Welcome all to a new year, in what I must say is a new world. Voldemort's defeat has given us all new hope, but not without it's casualties. Four examples of this can be found in our new exchange students from America. Please welcome them into the fold as if they had been here all along. Now for the sorting." The speech came from a silver bearded man that could only be Dumbledore.
A long line of first years were slowly sorted, until finally McGonagall cried out, "Saunders, Jessi!" Jessi turned and marched towards the hat, still apparently lost in thought. The hat took along time, and Jessi quietly nodded her head as if listening intently before the hat cried out "Gryffindor!" She stood up and clutched her head for a second before walking towards the cheering table and sitting down next to a red headed boy. "Kay, Amanda" was next and the hat took just as long with her as it had Jessi before finally calling out "Ravenclaw!" Amanda too clutched her head before moving to the applauding table, sitting down beside a wide eyed girl. "Nicols, Katie," and Katie moved forward to be sorted.
"I'm afraid you have been chosen, not sorted," whispered a faint voice in her ear, "but fear not, I won't leave you helpless." With that, a sudden stream of information flooded into Katie's mind. More spells than she would ever need, memories of a life she hadn't had, knowledge of this world… She only vaguely heard the hat cry out "Slytherin" and felt a soft 'thump' on the top of her head. Reaching up she found a ring with the house crest on it; a silver serpent coiling across the surface. "To keep in touched…" echoed the hat faintly. Katie moved towards the sullenly clapping table and sat down next to a handsome blonde boy.
Immediately in her head came Amanda's voice, "Katie has her ring, CAN YOU HEAR ME KATIE!" Jessi's tired voice said, "if you'd allow me to explain…" Katie had the feeling Jessi's had asked a lot more questions than she had thought of. In a similar manner "Washam, Elizabeth" was sorted into Hufflepuff. Afterwards the feast began in earnest.
"So you're a half blood, all Americans are," commented a snobbish looking girl. Katie and the blonde guy beside her looked at the girl.
"Hmmm, well Voldemort himself was a half blood and he was the last descendent of Salazar himself… so I think it should be okay. He owes me that much after killing my parents." Katie called on her knowledge of Slytherin's from Rowling's books and the false memories the hat had given her. That shut them up nicely, and Katie didn't let it show how unnerved she really was. The boy next to her turned and said, "I'm Draco Malfoy, I think we'll get along."
Nearly two surprise filled months had passed. Snape, due to a constant barrage of question and thinly veiled threats, had comes to terms with Jessi conducting research in the potions room. When she wasn't there she was in the library, or hanging around with the golden trio. Liz was often seen helping Jessi in the library, or frequenting the gobstones club. Amanda, to great surprise, had tried out for and made her house Quidditch team. Katie was often seen in the company of a certain blonde haired Slytherin, who was gradually falling in love with her kindness.
One morning in mid November, Jessi came bursting into the great hall and nearly sprinted towards the Hufflepuff table. Bending down she murmured something in Liz's ear, who stood and ran towards Amanda. Jessi hurried over to the Slytherin table.
"What do you want Gryffindor?" snapped a boy. "Bite me," Jessi said calmly, " before turning to Katie, "we need to talk, now." Without further ado, both girls rushed into the hallway.
"What's going on?" Amanda asked, but Jessi merely shook her head. There were dark circles under her eyes
The came to the door of an unused classroom and stepped inside. Papers littered many desks, books were stacked all around, and drawings covered the blackboard. Jessi pointed towards a picture of a gateway on the board, "that-- that's how we got here. Ptolemy's Gate. It connects worlds, but…" she took a deep shuddering breathe, "we are in all the worlds. A mirror of ourselves, and for us to be here that mirror cannot. These memories, the other selves, they are dead. They died or we couldn't be here. We shouldn't be here anyway." They stood in silence, wondering why they were here.
Christmas came and went. They had all spent it with the Weasley's. Amanda had met with the new captain of the Chudley Cannon's who she could only describe as "he's damn hot." Katie had written to Draco so much it had been like instant messenger with a slowly angering owl. Both the twins had become smitten with Liz, or maybe with her quirky ideas for jokes. Jessi had curled up a huge tome entitled Spells of Old: Alchemy more than Gold and had swapped theories with Percy. She ended up describing the entire holiday as "quite the experience."
"I think Jessi is trying to get us home," Amanda told Katie one day in Care of Magical Creatures. Katie had merely nodded and continued reading a pamphlet on becoming a healer. Liz leaned over, "I think we are here because those girls weren't supposed to die." It made sense, after all she had helped with much of the research.
Jessi was the first it happened to, she was washing her face and glanced into the mirror. A man in old fashioned clothing, he smiled and said in a strange language, "it has to be done, you know, and we need strength." With that molten silver tendrils sprang from the mirror pulling her in. Through the connection the rings provided she sent a last strangled cry for help.
They heard her voice down in class and turned to each other. They hadn't used the rings in months. Without asking permission, they sprinted towards the castle. Amanda was the first to notice that the reflections that raced along side them in the windows weren't their own. A dark looking man, a wise looking woman, and a kindly lady stared back. Shimmering strands reached out towards them. "We need heart," said the kind woman, pulling Liz in. "We need mind," said the other woman, taking Amanda. "We need light," said the man snaring Katie. They screamed, but by the time anyone arrived they were already gone.
Katie woke up in the middle of a large spell drawing and was about to move when Jessi cried out "don't!"
Jessi was seated in a similar circle at the other end of the huge drawing, two shapes sat in similar ones, Katie assumed they were Liz and Amanda still unconscious. Jessi continued, " it hurts if you try to leave, I tried." She pointed at her singed eyebrows. "I think this is a healing spell, assuming that those mirages are the founders, and assuming…" she began muttering to herself until Katie cleared her throat, "I think that the founders are trying to heal the school from Voldemort, our other selves must have had the right magical properties-- but they died-- so they got us, and made us into puppets of the founders and… I think this spell will kill us." She stopped and took a deep breathe, "I think this spell will kill us."
"When will is start?" Katie breathed. Jessi got to her feet as the two shapes began to stir, "when they wake up." Katie rose to her feet too, as Liz and Amanda raised their heads. Liz opened her mouth but the words died in her throat. The drawing lit up, and then all was pain. It was loss and joy, loneliness and friendship, want and denial. Their cries echoed around the strange chamber. It didn't make sense, why they had to be spilt apart like this. And then it was over. Liz and Amanda had never even risen. Katie was back on the ground. Jessi was standing.
'I wonder how she always manages to do that…" thought Katie. She watched as Jessi slumped over, landing outside the drawing, and then all was dark.
They were sitting at the top a of a flowering mound overlooking the lake. It was nearly two months since the spell. Katie had awoken in the hospital wing with a glowing crystal around her neck. It was all that was keeping her alive, she would never remove it. Similar crystals hung from the necks of her friends, she could see them glowing in the darkness. The spell handed needed their lives, it had need their talents. Katie's kindness, Liz's heart, Amanda's mind and Jessi's strength. Not to mention the magical concentration in their blood was perfect and… it didn't really matter anyway.
Amanda finally spoke, "this," she slapped the mound, "is the past. We have to move forward."
"We can never go back," said Jessi quietly. And they all smiled sadly.
Epilogue: 10 Years Later
"Why are you dressed like Indiana Jones?" Liz asked calmly.
"Am I really?" Jessi looked down at her clothes, "hadn't noticed. I work with wizards so they don't really know who Jones was." Amanda sighed, Liz rolled her eyes and gave an infamous "Jessi", Katie laughed. It was ten years later and Jessi had come bounding up to the restaurant dirty with a mummy under her arm. With a flick of her wand the mummy vanished, and she gave them all a sheepish grin.
Mutters of "that's Amanda Wood! The Quidditch player" and "I want her autograph" kept circling around. Amada had become the leading player in the league and had been on the world cup team, 9 out of the past 10 years. Who'd have guessed. Liz had gone into the joke business with Fred and George. She'd married one of them, no one could remember which. Over the past few years her close friends had learned to not accept so much as a smile from her without a certain degree of worry. Jessi worked for the department of mysteries, though they didn't really know, the three guessed that she researched ancient spells. She was always digging around something with unrivaled passion. They hoped she had given up on trying to get them home. Katie had become a healer, and gotten married ( a matter which made Jessi gag, Gryffindor pride and all). Of their past… the crystals still glowed around their necks, warm and bright.