Harry Potter and the Other Kind of Magic
Chapter 2
Soon came the day where Cackle's Academy will be heading over to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The girls all lined up in their Form groups with their hat and cloaks on, their broomsticks on one hand and their luggage on their other hand and their cat baskets filled with their black cats, except for Mildred who owned a tabby cat, stayed on the ground.
"Alright, girls, prepare to take off," announced Miss Cackle.
The girls ordered their broomsticks to hover, place their luggage and cat basket over the end, sat down on their broomstick and away they flew.
The journey to Hogwarts was quite long and halfway through the journey the girls took a pit stop and had some lunch.
Soon they continued their journey and finally made it to the school.
They entered the castle and were greeted by Professor Mcgonagall.
"Miss Cackle, I presume," said Professor Mcgonagall.
"You presume correctly," said Miss Cackle, "And you must be Professor Mcgonagall."
Miss Cackle and Professor Mcgonagall shook hands.
"And this is my deputy head, Miss Hardbroom," Miss Cackle introduced Miss Hardbroom.
"Please to meet you," said Professor Mcgonagall, shaking Miss Hardbroom's hand.
"Likewise," said Miss Hardbroom.
"And these are our students," said Miss Cackle, introducing the girls, "Girls, say hello to Professor Mcgonagall."
"Good evening, Professor Mcgonagall," chorused the girls.
"What well-behaved girls you all are," smiled Professor Mcgonagall, "Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We hope you'll enjoy this new experience and I'm sure our students will enjoy your presence here."
"Where shall we leave our belongings?" asked Miss Cackle.
"You may leave them over here," Professor Mcgonagall directed them to a small area in the corner of the entrance hall. "They'll be brought up to your rooms later."
The girls walked over to the corner and placed their stuff as instructed.
"By the way, Miss Cackle," said Professor Mcgonagall, "Has the "surprise" for our students been prepared?"
"Oh yes," said Miss Cackle, "It's all been set."
"Alright now, girls," said Professor Mcgonagall, clapping her hands, "Please line up into two straight lines and follow me. Miss Cackle, Miss Hardbroom, you both shall follow after the girls."
The girls did as instructed and Miss Hardbroom quickly walked over to Mildred.
"Mildred," said Miss Hardbroom, "Remember, after we've had our feast, Professor Dumbledore will announce the surprise and that'll be your cue to get up on stage. Everything has been set up. Are you ready?"
"Yes, Miss Hardbroom," said Mildred, cheerfully.
The girls followed Professor Mcgonagall into the great hall. The great hall was a lot bigger than the one at Cackle's Academy and there were a lot more students. Mildred noticed that there were four tables set up in the great hall and whole bunch of students sitting there.
The girls and Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom arrived at the end of the great hall where they saw Professor Dumbledore and the other teachers of Hogwarts sitting at a long horizontal table on a raised platform, staring down at them.
Dumbledore stood up and spoke, "Welcome, Cackle's Academy. We are delighted to have you here at our school and we hope you enjoy your stay. Now you may sit down at the tables with our students and enjoy a wonderful feast."
Mildred, Enid and Maud found three empty spaces at the Gryffindor table and went over to sit there whereas Ethel and Drusilla went over to sit at the Slytherin table.
"Hello," said Hermione as Mildred, Enid and Maud sat down at the table, "I'm Hermione."
"Hi, I'm Mildred but you can call me Millie."
"Hi, I'm Enid."
"Hi I'm Maud."
"Hi I'm Harry."
"Hi I'm Ron."
They all introduced themselves.
"So Cackle's Academy, what's that like?" asked Hermione as they ate.
"Well….I don't know where to begin." Said Mildred.
"Let's start with teachers," suggested Harry, "What are they like?"
"Well, our headmistress, Miss Cackle, is quite nice," said Mildred.
"Except when she's cross," said Enid, "That's when she's completely terrifying."
"And Miss Hardbroom…" said Mildred.
"She's absolutely terrifying," exclaimed Maud. "She's always going at us when we get our potions wrong, giving us detentions. And she's always appearing and disappearing and you're never quite sure whether she's gone or not."
"Wow! That sounds a lot like Snape, our potions teacher," commented Ron.
"Yeah. He's basically exactly the same minus the appearing and disappearing part," said Harry, "He's always scowling at us when we mess up our potions."
"I bet he would get along great with Hardbroom." Said Enid.
"Yeah, I bet he would," said Harry.
"Does your school play any quidditch?" asked Ron.
"No, we don't," said Maud, "In fact, we never even seen or heard of it until recently."
"What?!" exclaimed Ron as if they were mental, "How could you not know quidditch?! It's only the best game in the wizard world!"
"Oh calm down, Ron," said Hermione, "You're scaring our guests."
"I'm sorry," said Ron, "I overreacted."
"That's alright," said Maud.
"We do want to know more about quidditch," said Enid, "It sounds like such a great game. I hope we get a chance to play a bit while we're here."
"If you'd like, I've got quidditch practice tomorrow and you can come down and watch and I can explain the game to you." Harry offered.
"That sounds great," said Mildred, "We'd love to."
"Great, it's all set then," said Harry, "I'll meet you guys in the great hall and we can go down to the quidditch fields."
"Great," smiled Mildred.
The sound of the clinking of a goblet caught everyone's attention and they all turned their heads over to Dumbledore.
"Now, Hogwarts, it's time for the surprise we have all been dying to see," announced Dumbledore.
"Finally!" exclaimed Ron, "I've been on the edge of my seat, waiting for this. What is it anyway?"
"We don't even know what it is," said Maud.
"I do," said Mildred, smiling, getting up and walking up to the front.
"Hey, where are you going, Mil?" asked Enid.
Mildred walked up to the front where Dumbledore stood, waiting for her.
"Ah, so you are the gifted student Miss Cackle told me about," said Dumbledore as if Mildred were the most fascinating thing on earth.
"Yes," said Mildred, blushing, "I suppose I am."
"Are you ready for the demonstration?"
"Yes, I am."
With that Dumbledore signaled Professor Mcgonagall and she walked over, presenting a painting of butterflies of various colours and patterns to Mildred.
Mildred concentrated hard on the painting and brought the butterflies out of the painting and directed them across the great hall.
Everyone in the great hall stared in amazement.
There were exclamations of, "Wow, I've never seen anything like it," or "How did she do that?" or "She didn't even say anything."
Mildred continued her demonstration with different paintings. Ones with flowers, animals and even people. Of course they couldn't stay around and Mildred had to return them to the painting.
The entire hall was filled with applause for Mildred.
Mildred blushed and quickly rushed back to her seat.
"Wow, that was amazing," exclaimed Hermione.
"How did you do that?" asked Ron, his eyes wide opened, "Did they teach you how to do that at Cackle's Academy?"
"No," answered Mildred, "It's just something I developed while studying magic for the past 2 years."
"Well, it was fantastic," said Harry.
"Thanks," smiled Mildred.
"Alright now," said Dumbledore, "Off to bed now. Prefects, lead your houses back to their dormitories. Cackle's girls, come up to the front where Professor Mcgonagall will lead you to your dormitories."
The girls did as instructed and Professor Mcgonagall led them to a special guest dormitories and common room. She lead them to an empty hallway with no doors. She explained that the door will appear when they say the password which was "Phoenix Fire".
She demonstrated by doing so herself and a door appeared on the empty wall.
Mcgonagall led the girls inside the common room which was obviously decorated for their school's sake because there was a banner over the fireplace with the school's symbol on it, which was of a black cat sitting on a yellow moon.
"Miss Cackle, Miss Hardbroom, your rooms are on the left and right side of the room and girls, your dormitories are just up those stairs. There are plenty of beds for all of you and you'll find that all your luggage has been brought up for you."
Mildred shared a dormitory with Enid, Maud, Jadu, Ruby, Drusilla and Ethel.