Hi everybody! I hope you enjoy this chapter!
(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)
Chapter 12:
Dear Mr. Miranda
"Harry tried to wave the owl out of the way, but it snapped its beak fiercely at him and carried on savaging the coat.
'Hagrid!' said Harry loudly. 'There's an owl -'
'Pay him,' Hagrid grunted into the sofa.
'What?'
'He wants payin' fer deliverin' the paper. Look in the pockets.'"
"Disapparate!" she said, suddenly arriving at the park. It was always an auspicious sign when she didn't have to get a ticket - especially since her mother had taught her Apparition from her mother's cell in Azkaban.
When her vision cleared, standing just behind the wall into Diagon Alley (why would there be a wall that you could just walk around? she thought. What's the point of a wall, then?), she could see a group of children - the four who had come back to present day for vacation.
"What did you think of Big Hero 6, Mackenzie?" said the one with a neat, brown bob.
"Oh my god, it was incredible!" said the girl with short pinkish-brown hair - Mackenzie, presumably. "I cried when Baymax died."
"I KNOW!" the brown bob girl said. "I even KNEW about it and I cried!"
"Why did you spoil yourself, Molly?" said the girl with curly, dirty-blonde hair. "Don't you want to be surprised?"
Molly shrugged. "I don't know, Ava - I just want to know if I need to bring tissues or not."
The last girl - one with blonde highlights in her hair - said, "It's a Pixar movie. You bring tissues. End of story."
"Disney made this one, actually," Mackenzie said. "Although, Zoë, it reminds me of something that Pixar would make."
"Yeah," Molly said. "Pixar almost killed the toys in a fire a few years ago."
"And they're putting out that emotion movie in June," Ava said. "So that's gonna be sad."
Molly giggled.
"Okay, you guys," she said. "Are you ready?"
Everyone nodded.
"Okay, let's huddle!" Zoë said, and the group huddled together. This was her time.
She pointed her wand at the sky. Almost immediately, it began to rain.
"Perfect," she whispered. She snuck up to the children, grabbing Molly's ankle. She let out a little cry of surprise, but didn't look back.
"Disapparate," she whispered, and everyone was tugged to London. Before the children could look up and see that they were, indeed, in modern-day London, she took the Time-Turner out of her pocket and pressed the button on it.
The world turned black for a split second, until the world cleared up to show the world of January 1992.
"Disapparate," she once again whispered, and the children vanished from her sight.
"I'm gonna send him a birthday letter," Stella told Beatrix in the hall on her way to Herbology. "His birthday's tomorrow, I know, but I want Molly's owl to make it to America and back safely -"
"You're WHAT?" Beatrix said. "You're not supposed to send letters to -"
"Please don't call him a Muggle," Stella said. "He's a confirmed Slytherin."
Beatrix rolled her eyes. "If anything, he goes to Ilvermorny."
"No," Stella said. "He goes to Hunter College Elementary School."
Beatrix stifled a laugh. "Of course. You know everything about him, don't you?"
Stella laughed - for real.
"Are you going to see the play that just premiered at the Public that he wrote?" Beatrix said.
"Probably - I heard it's going to Broadway this summer. Maybe I could go down for Easter break?"
"That's a good idea," Beatrix said. "Tell him I said hi."
Stella laughed again. "I'm at your service, madam."
Beatrix smiled as they parted ways, Stella heading for Herbology. Hardly any of the children were there yet, so she reached into her bag for a piece of parchment and a quill, along with her little jar of ink. She took off the jar's top and dipped her quill into the ink, putting her hand firmly on the parchment and writing, in her neatest (yet largest) cursive:
Dear Mr. Miranda,
I am a huge fan of your work and I just wanted to say happy birthday to you! Congratulations on the Tony for Best Musical, too - I really want to see that show live, maybe on tour or something like that. I'm a Muggleborn at Hogwarts (yes, Hogwarts is real), so if this arrives by owl, don't panic. Thanks and, once again, happy birthday!
Paciencia y fe,
Stella Martinez
Carefully, Stella blew on the ink to dry it without smudging it. With some of the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors arriving, she motioned for Molly to come over, and Molly obliged.
"What is it, Stella?" she asked. "What's on that parchment?"
"A birthday letter," Stella replied, "for a certain Lin-Manuel Miranda."
Unlike Beatrix's frantic reaction, Molly just sighed. "You're obsessed with that guy, aren't you?"
Stella giggled. "Well, I wouldn't say obsessed - I mean, he's a married man - I'm just a big fan of his work."
"You do know this is probably not going to arrive at the Public, right?" Molly said. "It's probably going to...uh, wherever he is right now, in January of 1992."
Stella's eyes widened, reminding Molly of herself whenever she realized that she had forgotten one critical fact.
"Oh, poop, you're right," Stella said. "Oh, well."
Molly laughed. "You probably want to borrow Madison for a bit, don't you?"
"Exactly," Stella said.
"Well, that's fine," Molly said. "Just make sure she gets back here before the weekend gets out.
"Great, thanks," Stella said. "Where is she?"
"In the Owlery," Molly explained. "I realized that I had kept her in my room the entire first part of the year, and I wanted her to meet some of the other owls."
"Did you feed her?" Stella queried.
"Of course I fed her," Molly said. "I'm not evil."
Stella smiled. "I'll get her after class."
"Sounds good," Molly said.
She got a letter back two days later.
Dear Stella,
Thanks for the birthday wishes. My mom saw the letter fly into our window while I was at school, and she showed it to me when I got back. I was really excited - I finally have proof that Hogwarts is real! I'm not sure what work you were referring to, but I hope someone likes the work that I'm doing! (We've been really hard at work in school.) Thanks again for wishing me happy birthday, and tell Harry and the crew I said hi!
I have the honor to be your obedient servant,
Lin-Manuel Miranda
(P.S. The "your obedient servant" thing is something I learned about in school. We're studying colonial times - and the first few years of America - and the letters that people sent at the time.)
(P.P.S. I was really excited that The Will Rogers Follies won Best Musical, too! Julie Andrews and Jeremy Irons were awesome as the hosts.)
"OH MY GOD HE WROTE BACK!" Stella screamed as she ran into the Gryffindor common room with the piece of parchment in her hand.
"He what?" Molly said, coming out of her room. (She could hear Stella from all the way upstairs.)
"He wrote back!" Stella repeated. "I have a letter in my possession from the Lin-Manuel Miranda."
Molly arrived in the common room. "Let me see!"
She grabbed the letter and read it.
"OH MY GOD HE WROTE BACK!" Molly screamed, jumping up and down like a schoolgirl.
"I know, right?" Stella said. "And he's exactly what I imagined he'd be like!"
"He seems really sweet," Molly said. "I told you it would go to 1992, though."
"I knew that."
"I know. Now I want to see that show at the Public you were telling me about."
"It looks good," Stella said. "It's opening on Broadway soon, too."
"Nice," Molly said. "See you in Herbology."
Stella smiled and walked out the door.
Thanks for reading! Here are this chapter's behind-the-magic fun facts:
1) This chapter is more lighthearted than other chapters - mostly because last chapter was kinda emotional, and next chapter is even more emotional.
2) This chapter also is the first hint at who/what is sending the children back and forth between Florida and Hogwarts. If you have a guess on who it might be, send me a PM with the subject line "Shine On Rainy Day Prediction."
3) Stella's inspiration actually gave me the idea for her to write a letter to Lin for his birthday - and I came up with the idea to have it be delivered to 1992-Lin instead of 2015-Lin.
4) My "I'm not evil" line while talking to Stella was meant as a reminder to some of my friends that have input in the story that I did, indeed, take care of Madison the owl. Stella's inspiration told me that she had to disagree, giving me examples of scenes that I had written for this story and for another (right now, the only two I can reveal that she mentioned are Madison and Opa), and I reminded her that she forgot one (another one that I can't reveal). Then Opa's inspiration told me, "You did forget your owl even existed and kept it in a cage." So...maybe the point I was trying to make didn't work...
5) The detail about Stella's largest cursive is from real life - Stella's inspiration prides herself on having the largest handwriting in school.
6) The Will Rogers Folies is an actual musical that won the Best Musical Tony in the summer of 1991. I did some research to figure out which musical won at that time, and I stumbled upon an interesting tidbit - right before Wormtail revived him, Voldemort won a Tony for his performance as the main character in Hamlet! (I'm not even joking - look it up.)
Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!