Again, I don't own Harry Potter, no matter how much I wish I did.

Chapter 2:

Jane Explains

Emma

You would think that after some weird guys in cloaks tortured her and Jennifer blew up her favorite restaurant, Jane would be emotionally scarred for life, or at least show some sign of insanity. But, other than the fact that she was talking nonsense, she seemed fairly sane.

Jennifer whipped out her phone and called her mom, who gave us a ride to Jane's house. Jane's mother is a little bit odd. Her father's perfectly normal, but whenever we come over, her mom seems overly fake, and sometimes she looks amazed at everyday objects like an Ipod.

Not that my own life hasn't been weird enough. Like, back in second grade when Ernie Mitchell made fun of my clothes, he went home with a nose bigger than his head. I still have no idea how that happened. And when my parents wouldn't let me go to Delphine White's sleepover, I woke up in the middle of the night outside her door.

Well, anyway, after we had eaten, we went up and slept in sleeping bags on the floor of Jane's room. When I fell asleep, I had nightmares. A few involved killer bunnies, but one of them was very vivid and scary.

I stood in darkness. I couldn't see anything. I walked around for a while, confused. "Jane? Jennifer?" I called, unable to see in any direction. Suddenly, I heard a voice. "Where do you think you're going, Mudbloods?"

I whirled and found myself staring at...my own back! On one side of me stood Jane, and on the other, Jennifer. I gasped. Facing them were the men in masks we had seen at Divee. Then Jane spoke, and her voice rang clear as day.

"For the record, I am a half-blood, and 'Mudblood' is a very offensive and politically incorrect term." Was it just me, or was I having a supreme case of déjà vu? All this had happened before, in Divee diner, earlier that night.

I zoned out while thinking that, until I heard that one word. "Crucio!" Jane flew into the air. She screamed and writhed in pain...no, I couldn't see this again... the man in the mask holding his stick, and suddenly, I ran forward and ripped off his mask. He payed me no notice. In fact, he couldn't even see me! And his face was so full of hate and joy. He liked watching her scream. She yelled loudly, and the man began to laugh. Laughing...laughing at her pain...

"No!" I yelled, and sat up straight in bed. Suddenly, I realized that there was no dark room. No laughing man. I was safe, at Jane's house. I looked over at Jennifer. She had slept through it. She looked like she was dreaming peacefully. I had a sudden urge to draw a mustache on her with a Sharpie. She wouldn't yell at me. She's too nice. But then, I was too nice to draw it, anyway.

I looked over to see if I had woken Jane, when I realized she wasn't there! I crept downstairs to see where she had gone, and immediately froze. I heard Jane talking to her mother.

"Toadell will have you girls go early, it seems." said her mom, and I heard her slurping something, probably coffee, seeing as it was somewhere around midnight.

"Wow. That's good, right? It means I don't have to wait as long. We'll only have two days to prepare, though." Jane sounded really excited, and I wondered who Toadell was and where we would be going.

"We'll have to take you to London tomorrow, to buy your books. I really hope Floo powder can take us all that way. I must say, it was a lot easier to get to everything when the U.S. wasn't within the jurisdiction of the British Ministry of Magic."

There was that phrase again. Ministry of Magic? I decided that both Jane and her mother were incurably insane. I continued listening to them, though.

"Wait." said Jane's mom, stopping for a moment. "Somebody's listening to us." I scrambled to get back upstairs, but I was too late. Jane and her mom had found me. I sighed in defeat and walked downstairs.

"Emma?" said Jane, surprised. "Oh wow... We didn't mean for you to hear that... how much did you hear?"

I shrugged. "Only enough to make me sure that you are both off your rockers!"

She looked unfazed. "Emma, would you get Jennifer? I think you both deserve an explanation."

In a moment, all four of us were seated in beanbags in her living room. Jennifer looked thoroughly confused, although I was pretty sure that this was because she had just been woken and dragged downstairs, and all of us knew that Jennifer wasn't a morning person. Her short brown hair was flying every which way, and her eyelids were half closed over her brown eyes.

Jane cleared her throat. "I'm sorry for waking you guys up so late, but I think you ought to know what's going on. I guess I should start at the beginning, with what we are."

"Jennifer." She grunted, still half-asleep. "Tonight, you blew up a diner. I know you didn't do that on purpose. That was your powers as a witch awakening." Jennifer opened her mouth to say something, but Jane cut her off.

"It's actually rather late for them to manifest. Emma, strange things have been happening to you since you were two. Anyway, you, me, my mom... we're witches.

Under normal circumstances, I would have called her a liar, or crazy. But after this explanation, everything else that had happened that night made sense. "That man at the Divee. He called us a name."

Jane spat on the ground. "He was a Death Eater. They used to follow this Dark wizard named Voldemort, before a guy named Harry Potter killed him. Anyway, he called you a Mudblood, a seriously offensive term for a muggle-born." I raised my eyebrows. "That means your parents aren't wizards."

After this, she returned to explaining. "So the U.S. and England are both under the Ministry of Magic. They regulate the use of magic so Muggles don't find out about us. Anyway, in two days, we're going early to a school called Hogwarts."

"Wait, why are we going early? It's not even September yet!" I exclaimed. This was very true. It was only August 26.

"I know, but Headmaster Toadell wants us to start early so we don't get attacked again." She explained. I could see why it might be safer if we didn't stay here.

"So when are we leaving?" asked Jennifer. She was clearly excited.

"We leave for London tomorrow morning." replied Jane. "Now go back to bed."