Author's note: Author has nothing of note to say.
Disclaimer: I own nothing related to any copyrighted figures, plots, story lines, characters, etc.
Jess woke up in a strange room. It was white and clean like a hospital, but everything else was off. The most immediately apparent was that one of the room's other occupants was sleeping soundly, seemingly unbothered by the fact that he was wreathed in fire, and that the pictures in another boy's newspaper were moving. Aside from that, the smell was all wrong, and the tall man from before was standing near the door talking to three grumpy men dressed similarly and an even grumpier one dressed a little nicer and whose leathers were more decorated. That Harry was there meant Jess hadn't dreamt the whole thing, which was concerning to say the least.
"...So let me get this straight," The grumpier man was saying, "The girl somehow sent a panic message to the boy, who accidentally apparated himself the better part of twenty miles, leaving behind two fingers and a chunk of his leg, ran two miles on a splinched leg, cracked his kneecap and tore a gash down his back saving the girl, fought off nearly a hundred relatively minor but still dangerous magical creatures, and stabbed a shade with a faeblade. Did I miss anything?"
Jess checked his hands and leg, but found both whole. If he had lost fingers or chunk of leg, they had been reattached somehow, and for that matter aside from an all encompassing ache he felt remarkably well for someone who had just survived the laundry-list of yesterday's events.
"Him, the girl, and his dog are all fae touched." Harry supplied. "And apparently the local seelie fae have been feeding off their magic for most of the year."
"Of course! How could I forget?" The man said with biting sarcasm.
"Look chief, I know it sounds unbelievable, but-"
"It doesn't sound unbelievable Dresden, it is unbelievable. And I saw the aftermath. I know it happened, and I still can't believe it. Christ, what faerietale did you pull this kid out of? Don't answer that, just... just handle it, Dresden. I'll take care of the politics, but you handle his parents and get him somewhere safe."
With that the strange "Chief" turned and strode away, his three lackeys following.
"Sooo..." Dresden said as he approached, "I'm guessing you heard all that." Jess nodded.
"Where's Leslie?" He asked.
"Don't worry, your friend's fine, she's a few rooms down the hall with my friends Chamani and Zander. You can visit her later... or actually it would probably be better if she visited you, but I suppose it doesn't make much difference. Anyway, I bet you're very confused right now, so I'm gonna drop the basics on you real quick and we can iron out the details after, okay?" Jess nodded again. "Alright, number one. Magic is real and you and I are both wizards. So's your friend and, in a strange way, so's your dog. Number two, magic is a secret; non-wizards, usually we call them muggles, aren't supposed to know about magic with few exceptions. This started to stop things like the Salem witch trials from happening and for the most part keeps things running smoothly. There are a few exceptions, though, such as the families of wizards without wizard parents. So it's important that you don't tell any of your friends about this stuff. You with me so far?"
"I think so."
"Good. Next up, most wizards don't really develop any power or control over their magic until about your age. Typically they start attending special schools for magical children on the year of their eleventh birthday. For you and your friend that will be next year, now that yesterday has put you on our radar as being magical. You two are a bit of an oddity; usually magical children display occasional outbursts of uncontrolled magic from an earlier age, which we detect and it gives us plenty of time to prepare to introduce them to our world, but for some reason neither of you did. It's hard to say for certain, but I think it's at least partially related to what happened yesterday. Regardless, we haven't had any time to prepare for you two, so things are gonna be a bit hectic until we get things sorted. Which brings us to yesterday."
Harry scratched the back of his neck, ostensibly thinking of what to say.
"Yesterday was weird, even by wizarding standards. To start with, I'm a warden, which is like the police but for wizards. When you, ah... Teleported yesterday, we heard about it quickly and my team got sent to investigate. Your teacher-who was quite distraught, by the way-" Jess felt a flash of guilt for how his disappearance must have affected Miss Edmunds. "Told us what happened. We managed to follow your trail and found you fighting off those creatures."
Harry paused for a minute again, then shrugged to himself and continued.
"As I understand it, you and your friend have been going to that forest often, right?" Jess nodded. "Well, it seems that the forest is an important gathering place for the local seelie fae-good faeries, if you will, though even that isn't really accurate- and the not-so-good faeries, the unseelie fae, have had them in a sort of siege, mostly using low level magical creatures to surround and harry them with a few trolls for support. Those would have been the ugly rats and little men with red caps, and, well, the trolls. Since you've been going there, the local seelie queen has been using you two indirectly to fight the unseelie, mostly by using your awakening magical power. About the same time, however, big dark and ugly that you stuck with that blade started showing his face in the area. Mostly he stayed out of things at first. The seelie queen says she doesn't know what he's after, but her wording was slippery and I'm pretty sure she actually does. Anyway, yesterday the unseelie somehow knew you wouldn't be there, probably by sensing your magic leaving the area, so they decided to mount an attack while the defenses were weak. This caused some havoc around the border, which probably would've snapped that rope if it weren't ready to snap on its own anyway. When your friend fell, her magic called out to you, causing your own accidental magic adventure, arriving in the middle of the siege. Then we showed up, and then shadow-pants decided to crash the party. Seemed to me like he was after either you or the girl, or something you had with you. Could've been anything really, but the plan is to keep you both safe and under watch until you start going to a wizarding school, which will have a whole slew of protections to keep his sort out. I think that's the major points. I need to get going, so I can't really answer your questions now, but I'll swing by your girlfriend's room and send her over if she's awake."
"She's not my girlfriend." Jess protested weakly, but his heart wasn't in it.
"Sure, kid. Sure." Harry said with a smirk, and then left.
Jesse waited patiently, but Leslie didn't come immediately. He was starting to drift off to sleep when he heard the door open and watched Leslie enter the room. She looked around, her bright green eyes searching the beds until they lit upon him and lit up, and she rushed over with a cry of
"Jess!"
"Les." He croaked, his voice stumbling past the lump in his throat.
Leslie stopped short of him, cringing,and Jess said, "Come on, it can't be that bad. I feel fine."
"You look like hell warmed over, Jess. I heard... I heard you fought the Dark Master and his minions."
"Come a little closer, would you?" Jess asked.
"Why?" Leslie said, but she was already stepping closer, and Jess answered by ensnaring her in his arms and pulling her in tight. "Eep." she squeaked in surprise, but hugged him back when she recovered from her initial shock.
At first Jess said nothing, and the silence between them began to stretch into awkwardness.
"I thought... I thought..." Jess said, trying to put words to the jumbled mess in his mind and failing. "Lord, never mind what I thought, I'm just glad you're alright, Les."
"I'm glad you're alright too," She said, pulling away gently and sitting in the chair by the bed. There was a slight red tinge to her cheeks, but she was smiling. "I heard you were hurt pretty bad..."
Jess nodded. "Thats what I heard, too. Didn't really feel most of it, I guess. Everything was so hectic I didn't really have time to think about anything. And when I woke up here I only sorta ached all over."
"They told me I almost drowned, and came close to bleeding to death. It's... It's sc-scary to think about." Leslie said, her voice hitching. She closed her eyes as a tear escaped and choked back a sob. It nearly broke Jess's heart, seeing his best friend like that. Jess reached out and took her hand.
"Shhh, don't cry my queen." Jess said, finding himself having a hard time breathing clearly. "It's over now and we've proven once again: Nothing crushes us."
Leslie smiled in spite of her tears and squeezed his hand tightly. Neither of them said anything else, but the silence was comfortable so they killed some time just taking comfort in each other's presence.
"They told me magic was real..." Leslie mumbled after awhile.
"Me too." Jess said, "Harry said we're supposed to go to some fancy school next year to learn magic."
"It feels like something we'd make up while playing in Terabithia."
"Yeah. I suppose... I suppose we'll have to stop going there now. To Terabithia." Jess said somberly.
"What? Why?" Leslie asked, surprised.
"It's not safe, Les. You were there, but you weren't awake. Even with all the help of the faeries, PT, and three adult wizards with magic we've only ever dreamed of, we almost died. All of us, not just me and you. I'm not saying stay away forever, but... We at least have to get stronger first."
"I guess you're right. I hadn't thought of that." Leslie said sadly, already feeling the loss. Jess couldn't blame her, he would miss Terabithia too. But at least they would still be together. He tried not to think about the glimpse he'd caught of her being forced downstream by the current, or of her limp form as pale as new snow stretched out on the pine needle strewn forest floor... and failed miserably. Jess shook his head, and forced himself to think of better things.
"Look on the bright side, Les, we'll be learning real magic! The kind you always read about."
Leslie's face brightened instantly, her infectious smile forming on her face. "Yeah! And we'll have all sorts of new adventures, too!"
"I hope not." Jess said half in jest, "Lord, I'm about all adventured out for a while."
Leslie slugged his arm playfully.
A few minutes later a nurse came to collect Leslie and return her to her own bed, but not before Leslie promised to come visit again if they were both still in the strange hospital tomorrow.
Jess slept for a while, and only woke when the nurse came by with dinner. The food was so tasteless Jess couldn't even remember what he'd eaten ten minutes later. Not long after that Harry returned with Jess's parents in tow. His mother fussed over him for a while, and his father seemed at a loss for words, but they didn't stay long. Harry told them he'd bring them to take Jess home tomorrow. Harry returned again without them a few minutes later.
"Your father's not very talkative, is he?"
"No sir."
"Most people give some kinda reaction upon learning magic is real, but I might as well have made the revelation to a wall. His eyes barely twitched, and that was it."
Jess chuckled. "That sounds like him."
"Anyway, I'll get out of your hair shortly, there's just something you need to start thinking about."
"What's that, sir?"
"Enough with the sir stuff, it's just Harry. Or Dresden, if you must."
"What's that,Harry?" Jess amended. It still felt odd to him calling an adult by their first name, but he was a bit used to it now with Bill and Judy.
"Better. You need to start thinking about what school you'll go to. There's a few options, and you should be able to get into most of them. This book should cover it, give it a read with your friend when you have the time." Harry said, handing Jess a thin leather-bound book with the title Magical Schooling in the Americas stitched into the cover.
Jess flipped through the book idly and asked, "Where did you go?" Remembering the impressive sight of Harry wielding fire.
"I ah, I'm a bit oldschool. I apprenticed under a master rather than attend a school. I won't say that's not an option, but any one of the schools is going to be safer than that. Considering you and your friend have apparently got the attention of this Dark Master bozo, I'd highly recommend against it. In any case, you don't have to decide right now. Talk to your family and your lady friend about it and try to have an answer by the end of the school year."
After Harry left Jess felt tired again, so he turned in for the night. Lord, he'd slept most the day and still felt tired. He wondered if it had something to do with how healing worked, like maybe healing borrowed resting time from later so you could get your wounds all rested up right quick now and then sleep it off. Jess didn't wonder long, for before long sleep took him.