Close Encounters of the Fictional Kind

by: Ismira Daugene & queenoftheslayers

Chapter 33: Of Lochs and Castles

"Achk! This wa'er is bloody cold!"

"Elise… stop… just stop."

Elise shrugged. "When in Rome."

"Well we're not in Rome. We're in Glasgow, and the natives are going to know you're not Scottish! You sound nothing like one!"

"I do too! I sound so Scottish you could tell me to beam you up!"

"Oh my god," Marie turned and just started walking away up the street towards their bus stop.

"Marie? Hey! Wait up!" Elise scrambled to hitch her backpack up higher and catch up with her friend.

There was a steady rain coming down in Glasgow, and the two girls were waiting for a bus to take them farther north and west. They were headed towards Loch Ness this time. They were pretty sure it was mostly a tourist trap, but with all they'd seen (vampires, fae, demons, witches) it wasn't completely out of the question that there was a Loch Ness Monster.

The bus ride to Fort William lasted about three hours. Then it was another hour to Fort Augustus on the southern tip of Loch Ness. It was there that the girls got to see the famous body of water for the first time. However their journey wasn't finished yet. They continued to travel along the A82 up to Urquart Castle. It was here that they finally got off the bus. They weren't scheduled a ride back for another three days. In their free time they were planning to hike in the area, camp, check out the castle, and just maybe spot the Loch Ness Monster.

The first day, they made camp and went to see Urquart Castle. The 16th century ruined fortress was a fantastic site on the shores of the loch and the girls took the whole morning exploring. There was no sighting of Nessie, but they hadn't really counted on the monster showing up.

The second day was spent hiking the area surrounding the castle. It was cold and misty, but they had a lot of fun in the unfamiliar territory. Especially when they stumbled on some old ruins that looked like it might have been a fort or something similar. "Ohh! Let's go explore!" Elise said moving towards the ancient stone architecture.

"Um, in case you didn't notice, there's a sign that says Danger. Usually that means that it's dangerous to enter because you might die."

"YOLO!" Elise called back as she ducked under the chain holding the sign.

"Oh. My. God." Marie shook her head slowly before following her friend into the ruins.

However they had only gotten about ten feet inside when they suddenly found themselves back out in front of the fort. "What the hell just happened?" Marie asked bewildered.

"Um… I'm thinking magic? Time travel? What time is it?" Elise checked her watch only to see that it was still 3:25 in the afternoon.

"What kind of magic?" Marie asked, taking a step back.

"The non-killing kind, thankfully," Elise commented. "Hang on, I wanna try something."

With that, she took off running into the entrance. "ELISE! Damnit!" Marie was about to follow her friend when the brunette girl reappeared once again beside her resulting in Elise running straight into Marie. Both girls toppled to the muddy ground.

Elise had the decency to look ashamed at least as she got up before helping Marie to her feet as well. "Sorry," she said, unsuccessfully trying to brush mud off her jeans.

Marie rolled her eyes and moved cautiously toward the ruins, examining the Danger Keep Out sign more closely. Elise meanwhile had given up trying to get her jeans clean. She looked up just in time to see two people come walking out of the ruins a few feet down from where they stood. "I should've known it was you two," the dark haired man with glasses muttered.

"I told you we shoulda wiped their memories, Harry!" the ginger man exclaimed.

Marie whipped around, her dark hair flying behind her. "What the hell? HEY! No memory stuff!"

"EEEEEEE!" Elise's squeal echoed off the surrounding valley walls. "MARIE! MARIE!" she exclaimed pointing at the two wizards who had stopped about six feet away. "Oh my god!" Elise gasped. "Does that mean…? Did we find…?"

"Yeah, and it's a bloody good job that we were the ones who were sent to deal with you," Ronald Weasley said crossing his arms over his chest.

"So there's like no possibility of seeing Hogwarts as a wizard does, is there?" Elise asked casually.

"No," Harry deadpanned.

"Oh come on! It would be awesome!" Elise pleaded while Marie slowly shook her head.

"We really shouldn't even allow you to keep your memory of this," Ron commented twirling his wand between his fingers.

"Whoa, we had this conversation before," Marie stepped forward, raising her hands in a halting motion.

"That was when you were in college and could cover things up for us. Now you're not and there's really no use in having you as a liability," Harry pointed out.

"Will you let us see Hogwarts if we agree to have our memory wiped?" Elise pleaded again.

"Elise!" "No." Marie and Harry said at the same time.

Elise slumped and looked longingly at the stone ruins. "Come on, Harry," Ron turned to his partner. "You know what we have to do."

Harry sighed and nodded.

"Right, here you are, Miss," the kind black haired man with glasses smiled. "This is the platform for the train to Paris."

"Thank you!" Elise replied hitching her backpack up a little higher.

"No problem! Have fun in Paris!" the ginger haired man with a mass of freckles waved as the two men turned back to the main entrance of St. Pancras International Train Station.

"What nice guys!" Elise commented.

"Yeah… Why were we going to Paris again?" Marie replied with a confused look on her face.

"Because Paris… come on, Marie. Do you need any more reason?" Elise said as they took their seats on the Eurostar.