Disclaimer: It should be mine. I know you agree… right? You better… J/K

A/N: Presenting the amazing chapter two!

"BLOODY HELL!" Hallie cursed as she ducked out of the way of another screaming pedestrian. Was this how everyone acted in a crisis? Hallie felt like the only sane person left.

This was just not her day. First, Aunt Petunia had decided to wake her up an extra two hours early, just to help prepare Dudley's special birthday breakfast. Then she had to watch her dear cousin open his presents… all thirty-seven. Back in her cupboard once more, Hallie was anticipating a calm, Dursley-free afternoon, albeit one filled with musty cats and stale biscuits. Unfortunately, luck was not on her side. Mrs. Figg had broken a leg, ironically, after tripping over one of her numerous cats.

Most people would be happy for the chance to join their family on an outing to the zoo. Hallie Potter wasn't most people. Her desire to be as distant from her relatives as possible was probably a side effect of her upbringing. After all, if your family locked you in a cupboard for ten years, fed you table scraps, forced you to work like a slave, insulted you constantly, and made you wear your overweight cousin's ragged hand-me-downs…! There was something very unhygienic about that. There was no telling how often Dudley bathed...

The trip to the zoo had turned out worse than anyone could have imagined. Not even Hallie would have anticipated that things could go so wrong, and she was generally a pessimist when it came to the Dursleys. Events always turned unpleasant when they were involved and, somehow, Hallie always ended up with the blame. Seriously, though, how likely was it that every enclosure in the immediate vicinity would suddenly unlatch, unleashing hundreds of creatures, right after her cousin and his rat-faced friend took it upon themselves to taunt her? It was pure coincidence! Or more of Hallie's miserable luck...

At the time, Hallie had been ready to tackle her cousin, regardless of his much greater size, after what he said about her parents. She got enough of that rubbish from Aunt Petunia, and she didn't need it from the pig-in-a-wig, too. One minute she was preparing herself for a rather one-sided pummeling, and the next she was blinking in disbelief at the iron doors swinging open and the sturdy fences falling over. Now the three dozen people, who had been enjoying a leisurely outing at the zoo, were screaming in panic as they fled in all directions, at the same time trying to avoid the crazed animals underfoot. Hallie wondered just how much worse her day could get.

"POTTER!"

"Spoke to soon…" Hallie muttered.

"When I get my hands on you- ARGH!"

Just as her enraged uncle made it within five feet of her, his hands outstretched as though to wring her neck, a brown chimpanzee leapt onto his head, grunting in fright at all of the commotion. Vernon gave an unmanly shriek and ran off, trying to pry the monkey from his head. One of the unhappy zookeepers stopped to give him a hand. This task proved more difficult, though, when the monkey's grabbing paws found Uncle Vernon's walrus-like mustache perfect for balance.

Hallie silently thanked the animal before taking off through the crowd. The chimp might delay Uncle Vernon, but he was sure to be out for her blood later. She shook her head angrily. Just because Dudley happened to be leaning on the lion's cage when the bars disappeared, and fell in, before they reappeared again, didn't mean it was her fault! Besides, he was fine… While the boy had squealed like the pig he greatly resembled, the lion just twitched its nose in annoyance before going back to sleep. As long as Dudley didn't make any sudden movements, he should be fine… And again, it wasn't her fault! Not at all…

Hallie sighed when she left behind the disaster area, emerging into the reptile house they had visited earlier. Her relief was short-lived when she realized that she still had no idea what to do. The voice of her inner child, scared and whipped into obedience, pleaded that she go back, 'Maybe Uncle Vernon will calm down by the time we get home? He won't do anything permanent, lest the neighbors see. It'll be extra chores, a little less food, and a smack or two… that's all…' The independent and slightly irrational side of her screamed, 'Move you idiot! Get away while you still can!'

'Hmm,' Hallie mused, 'beg for forgiveness, or run like hell?' Neither decision was all that appealing. Hallie supposed her best chance was to start walking home now. After all, the Dursleys were likely to take off without her, anyway, once they extracted Dudley from the lion's den, pulled the chimp off Uncle Vernon, and coaxed Aunt Petunia away the gift shop where she and several others had taken refuge… Yes, walking home was best… Maybe Hallie could spend the night in the park as well, and give her relatives some time to cool down before she returned? Hallie had the feeling that she and her cupboard would be seeing a lot of each other in the next month. Maybe she could squirrel away some food first? The hunger pangs could get so tiresome...

Hallie gave an aggrieved sigh and looked around the dimly lit glass house, empty of not only humans, but also the reptiles. Obviously, whatever was going on here had affected more than just the feline and primate enclosures. Actually, she could have sworn she'd spotted a giraffe walking around the other side of the zoo… Personally, Hallie hoped that none of the creatures she had seen in the reptile house were still around. As Dudley had so eloquently put it, one of those boa constrictors had the ability to wrap around Vernon's company car, twice, and crush it like a soda can.

"Now where was the exit?" Hallie pondered aloud. She recalled entering with the Dursleys through that door on the right… but it was difficult to remember which direction they came from originally when Dudley had insisted on backtracking to half the ice cream stands around the zoo.

"Hiiiisssss…"

"What was that?" Hallie squeaked fearfully. She spun around when she heard a noise coming from around one of the tanks. Her eyes widened when the shadows moved, and she caught a flash of poisonous green.

This was really not her day.

Hallie took a nervous step backward as the snake slithered into the light. Figures, it had to be the boa…

Eerie yellow eyes stared up at the girl as she backed into a wall. The snake just watched her, almost unnervingly, as she stood there.

"Vai essssa maneira…"

"What?" Hallie blinked. The stress must be getting to her. For a moment, she thought the snake was actually talking to her, and in some kind of Spanish.

"Go that way…"

She gasped in shock. Yes, the snake was talking to her. 'At least he was nice enough to translate…' Hallie thought with a hysterical giggle.

She decided to ask him, just in case. "What did you just say?"

"Você fala inglês?" If Hallie wasn't so stunned, she might have recognized the flick of its head as the snake's version of an eye roll. "I sssaid, go that way. You wanted to know the way out?"

Hallie just nodded dumbly.

"The humansss leave that way, menina." The snake pointed its tail towards a silver door she had not seen earlier that was labeled 'maintenance.'

"Uh, thanks…"

The snake didn't reply, instead continuing on its way out of the reptile house, and toward the distant sounds of pandemonium. There was no doubt in Hallie's mind that the sounds would drastically increase in volume once he showed up.

With the snake's departure, Hallie took only a moment to assess the situation. One, Uncle Vernon was going to kill her. Two, she just held a slightly bi-lingual conversation with a snake. Three… What she going to do again? Oh, yeah, leave… Hallie didn't know how much more of this she could take. At least the day was half over…

Shaking her head in frustration, Hallie went out the side door. It was pathetically easy to get out of the zoo afterwards, regardless of all the commotion. No one paid attention to one unattended child in the midst of all the chaos and she arrived at the parking lot without interference.

Hallie groaned in dismay. Her eyes focused on every step of her trainers to avoid the glaring sun that was in the midst of setting. For once in her life, she was free of the Dursleys. The downside? She was wandering around London by herself, one unnaturally short eleven-year-old being jostled by the crowds as she trailed down the seemingly endless sidewalk. London had never seemed so large before, and Hallie didn't have an inkling toward which direction would lead her to Little Whinging.

Her independence had felt great for the first hour… until she realized that she had no idea what to do next. She couldn't- no, wouldn't go back to the Dursleys yet, and she didn't know anyone else. Most of the people who met her soon learned to stay away from 'that deranged Potter girl.' It probably didn't help that her family spread the word of her supposed insanity, at the same time vehemently claiming it came from her father's side of the family. Hallie snorted at the thought. Sure, she was a little odd, but if mental illness ran in her blood, it was sure to have come from her mother's side, and straight down to her aunt. At least it would explain the obsessive compulsive cleaning urges, and Dudley's inability to stop eating once he started…

She wondered what the Dursleys were doing right then… Probably celebrating, if Hallie knew anything. They were probably well aware that Hallie was lost somewhere, and more than likely hoped she would stay that way. Aunt Petunia would have wasted no time in reclaiming her cupboard. After all, she had moaned for years about 'the brat taking up precious space for her cleaning supplies.'

'Of course,' Hallie thought bitterly, 'they could have just moved me into one of the empty bedrooms… But, no, can't have the freak contaminating the guestroom, and Dudley would throw a fit if he had to share his second bedroom.'

Where most people would have called the police by now, sent out a search party, even put up fliers for the return of their precious niece… the Dursleys probably went out for pizza.

'Ah, I have such a wonderful family,' she thought sarcastically. 'Makes you wonder what idiot decided to put me with them in the first place. Better yet, why did the Dursleys ever agree to it? There must have been some sort of bribery involved…'

Sometimes, Hallie wondered what her life might have been like had her parents survived the car crash. Would they have even stayed in contact with her mother's side of the family? She hoped not. Maybe by now, Hallie would have had tons of friends, and gone to a school far away from Dudley and his stupid lackeys… Hallie reached a hand up to her forehead, pulling aside the long black hair that hung over half of her face. Her fingertips found the familiar scar, shaped like a lightning bolt, that she had received the night her parents died.

'Why did they have to leave me here?' She bit her lip as she held back tears.

The blaring of a car horn broke Hallie from her mournful reverie. She started when she noticed the line of vehicles waiting for her to move out of the crosswalk. "Oops…" Hallie ruffled her already untidy hair sheepishly as she stepped onto the sidewalk. "Sorry!"

Hallie glanced around at the different shops as she headed further into the city. Her stomach grumbled at the occasional glimpse of a McDonalds. An hour later, she finally recognized a high-price clothing store to her left. It was the same one she had visited with her aunt only a week ago. Of course, the whole point of the trip wasn't for her. (Hallie was to be the proud owner of a few soggy bits of elephant skin. She just knew it would be all the rage among her peers...) No, it was so Duddykins could get measured for his school uniform. It was to Hallie's endless amusement when they discovered that no shop sold anything even remotely big enough for her whale of a cousin. Instead, the Dursleys had to resort to hiring a tailor, and for twice the price, at that.

Both Hallie and Dudley had finally reached an age to change schools. While Hallie was being sent to the local one, Stonewall High, Dudley was going to his father's old private school, Smeltings. It was considered a very prestigious academy, one that provided boarding and was only affordable to the upper class. Only the best for Dudley. Of course, if the Dursleys were a little less cheap, they would have gladly sent Hallie off as well. Neither she, nor her aunt and uncle, found the seven-hour school day enough respite from each other. Dudley, of course, would be missed terribly once they pried him from his mummy's clinging grasp. Hallie decided she would celebrate that day, maybe by trashing her cousin's room and raiding the stash of sweet he kept behind the bookshelf...

As Hallie continued forward, searching for other familiar landmarks, something caused her to stop in her tracks. She paused, and scanned the street in confusion. There! She heard a slight buzzing in her ears, and the hair on the back of her neck stood at attention. It felt like something was calling to her, some invisible force tugging relentlessly. Hallie turned toward the direction she felt it coming from. She came face to face with a deserted lot.

It was nothing more than a small plot of dirt and litter fluttering in the breeze, pressed inconspicuously between a large bookshop and a music store. Shaking her head, Hallie turned to leave. However, the buzzing didn't stop. In fact, it was giving her quite the headache with its insistence. Snarling in frustration, she spun back around on her heel, emerald eyes glaring until they widened in surprise. There, in place of the vacant lot, was a dingy-looking pub. A single door led inside, with no windows to be seen. Overhead, a sign with faded letters spelled out The Leaky Cauldron.

Cautiously, Hallie walked toward the pub, not daring to blink on the off chance it would vanish again. Strangely, none of the passerby she cut through seemed to take any notice of it. It was almost as if they couldn't see it at all… Thinking back on the past few minutes, Hallie had to wonder if that were true.

After a moment's hesitation, Hallie pushed open the door, wincing as it swung on rusty hinges. The inside of the pub wasn't exactly worth the anticipation. For a building that could appear and disappear at will, the interior was dismally unassuming. The atmosphere was rather slow and lazy, just what one might expect from a tavern at this hour of the evening. Hallie entered the dimly little room, scattered with wooden tables and with a large fireplace to the right. A balding old man leaned over the counter, wiping with a rag as he conversed in undertones with a customer. Was it her imagination, or did the barman's eyes flicker toward her for a second?

Trying to seem nonchalant, Hallie crept inside, taking a seat at one of the empty booths. She nearly wilted in relief as she leaned back into the soft upholstery. She hadn't had a chance to rest her feet since getting out of the car that morning. Unfortunately, she still had some walking to do if she expected to get anywhere today. Not that Hallie knew where she was going, but it was easier to delude herself into thinking there was progress. She would probably buckle under the pressure otherwise if she focused too much on the situation.

"'Scuse me, miss?"

Hallie's head whipped around to find the barman standing behind her chair. 'Where did he come from?'

"Can I get you anything?" he asked, raising a bushy grey eyebrow.

Hallie blushed, hoping she wasn't about to be evicted. "Oh, no, I'm sorry- I don't-"

"Ah, not to worry, lass!" He grinned suddenly, to her utter confusion, displaying a mouthful of crooked or missing teeth. "I know just what you need… Here, c'mon…"

Before Hallie could protest, the man was hauling her up and out of her chair and toward a wooden door at the back of the room. She squirmed a little, but he didn't release her hand.

"Um, w-what are you…?" Hallie stuttered, tripping over her own feet to keep up with the strangely energetic old man.

"Welcome to The Leaky Cauldron," he spoke as though from rote, ignoring her feeble questions. "It's a pleasure to have ye here. If you're ever in need of any 'elp, just ask for old Tom." Hallie wondered just where Tom was taking her as they stepped through the door and into an ominously empty back alley behind the pub. "Now, you'll be wanting to head right through here, Miss...?"

"Hallie," she supplied quietly, wishing she had stayed away from the creepy building to start with.

As he pulled her toward the trash bins against the sturdy brick wall, Hallie's thoughts raced. 'How stupid can I get, walking into some m-magic tavern in the middle of London! Bloody hell, what if he's some kind of kidnapper or a rapist?'

When she was younger, Hallie recalled hearing her aunt lecture Dudley about never talking to strangers after an old woman on the street offered him some candy. Of course, when Hallie asked if the same rule applied to her, Aunt Petunia had mumbled something about saving them the trouble.

'Such wonderful people, the Dursleys,' Hallie reflected sourly. 'I can't believe I'm in this mess, and they are the last thing I think about!' As Tom reached for something in his back pocket, the only words that seemed proper to Hallie at that moment were, 'I'm too young to die!'

Rather than any one of the painful weapons that Hallie was expecting, such as a gun, or perhaps a knife, he pulled out a thin, wooden stick. That sounded like a slow death… Hallie stood frozen to the side as Tom used his vicious weapon to tap on one of the bricks above the trashcan, muttering what sounded like chess board directions as he did so.

Hallie was just considering the ramifications of making a break for it when the unbelievable happened. The solid, fourteen-foot high brick wall moved. A long, jagged crack appeared directly down the middle as the two halves of the wall pulled apart, the red bricks seeming to melt into each other. Hallie watched in shock as an entire village came into view behind the strange portal, full of bustling men and women dressed in clothing right out of the middle ages.

Misinterpreting Hallie's light-headed swaying for an eager bounce in her step, Tom gave the girl a small push through the archway, making her stumble onto the cobbled street. Grinning, he waved goodbye as the wall rematerialized between them, and Hallie was left stranded in a completely new world.

Hallie stared dumbfounded at her surroundings, and the expletives that slipped out then would have made even Vernon blush shamefully. Pinching her arm almost desperately to wake up, Hallie wondered if this day would ever end…

REVIEW!

And so Hallie has found the Wizarding World!

Next time: Be prepared for the introduction of my other main character for this story. He didn't show up much in my original version, and I plan to remedy that.

Oh, and if anyone was offended by my attempt at Brazilian Portuguese, I was using an online translator. Sorry!