THE GOLDEN KEY AND THE BOOK OF ANCIENTS
Dream or not…
Weird things happen in life but this was by far the most weirdest and most amazing. Now there is only two problem; one: they had no idea how to go back. Two: were they really doing the right thing? Four ordinary girls suddenly find themselves stranded inside the world of Harry Potter. Harry Potter and associated characters belong to J K Rowling.
Sayuktha groaned as she sat up in her bed. Yesterday she had a really weird dream. Not that this was her first time having weird dreams. She had her fair share of weird dreams, but mostly such dreams were Ahalya's forte.
She rubbed her shoulder slowly. Her whole body felt sore. God what had she been doing last night? She wondered. She rubbed her eyes to get rid of her persistent sleep. Why had she waked up anyway? Her body hurt and she had a genuine reason for staying in bed (not that she needed any). And her bed felt oddly comfy today.
So she slowly slid back into the bed with a sigh, not bothering to even check the time, someone will wake her up if it's too late. She had not paid much attention to her surroundings but she did notice the person sitting in the bed besides her staring at her. She simply closed her eyes and tried to go back to sleep, but then her mind helpfully asked what a kid was doing in her room, heck what was the kid doing at the hostel. She blinked and looked at the kid to make sure that; yes there was indeed a small girl sitting there staring at wide beautiful emerald eyes.
Sayuktha stared at the girl without blinking and the girl stared back. A few moments passed in silence. Sayuktha's brain slowly woke up and her eyes widened.
Where the hell is she? Who is this kid? She looked around at the grand room lined with many white bedded cots similar to the one she was in and two other kids occupying the beds on the other side. The room was somewhat familiar but she had no idea from where. She turned her attention back to the only other conscious person in the room.
"Good morning." The girl chirped with a small grin which looked decidedly cute.
She could only nod back dumbly. The girl was also somewhat familiar; she had an uncanny similarity with the Ahalya's childhood photos if you exclude the green eyes.
"What's your name?" the girl chimed in her melodic voice.
"Uh… Sayuktha." Sayuktha replied which caused the girls eyes to widen momentarily but then the girl nodded to herself seemingly having come to some conclusion in her mind.
"Who are you? And where are we?" Sayuktha asked glancing around the room warily. This whole situation was very weird. The room felt oddly huge to her.
"What was the last thing you remember?" the girl asked calmly.
"Uh… I was in my hostel room with my friends… That book!" she gasped as her brain provided useful images of what happened or was it a dream? She was confused.
The girl simply smiled gently at her causing her rampaging pulse to calm down.
"Well Sayu we are at the Hogwarts infirmary. And I am Ahalya."
Sayuktha gasped.
"What are you saying? Hogwarts! So it wasn't a dream?! Wait how can you be Liya? You are just a kid." Sayuktha was almost screaming. The let out a huff and pouted, even in her panic she noticed it was very cute, dangerously cute.
"Am not the only kid sis. You too are an eight year old."
One look at her body showed that the girl, her Liya, was telling the truth, with a scream Sayuktha fainted.
Ahalya sighed, damn…
"How they managed to sleep through all the commotion I'll never know." Ahalya muttered looking at the sleeping forms of who she hoped was Sonu and Avanthika.
They had been turned into eight year olds. And they were in Hogwarts. It was sure a lot to take in for the four eighteen year olds.
After her other friends too had their fair share of screaming and fainting, they all sat on their beds wide awake still not processing what was happening. Ahalya was the calmest of the four.
"So what's going to happen now?" Sonu asked quietly.
Just then Madam Pomfrey came in.
"How come she didn't come earlier when we were screaming our lungs out?" Sonu whispered to Sayuktha.
"Oh all of you are awake. You children should be more careful while using magic. I shall call the headmaster immediately."
"No need Poppy, I am already here." Announced Dumbledore from the other side of the room.
When the hell had he came in? The four girls wondered. Poppy as well looked rather shocked.
Poppy left the room soon afterwards. Dumbledore looked at them smiling a rather twisted smile. The four girls tensed, something was not right. Then in the blink of an eye in front of them stood the same woman they had caught a glimpse of at the fair.
"YOU!" Sonu was the source of the outburst. All of them were shocked at seeing the woman who they recognized as the one they saw at the fair. Their memories slowly becoming clear.
The woman laughed mockingly and waved her hand silently casting a silencing charm in the infirmary.
"Me." The woman laughed again.
"What's going on? Who are you and what did you do to us?" Avanthika asked troubled. Sayuktha unconsciously pulled Sonu closer and held her tightly. Ahalya silently stood by Avanthika, holding her hand. They were scared and confused, they needed each other.
"Too many questions…." The woman sighed. "I'll tell you what you need to do. Help them defeat Voldemort and I'll take you all back home."
"What!" Sayuktha spoke dumbfounded.
"Did I stutter?" the woman mocked. Sayuktha growled.
"What the hell do you want?" Sayuktha yelled.
"Exactly what I said." The woman's arrogance was visible.
"Look, why exactly do you want us to do that? And why should we listen to you anyway?" Ahalya asked.
"Isn't that kind of obvious? I am your only way home."
At first silence, then, "You bitch, just who the hell do you think you are kidnapping us and ordering us around?!" To say Sayuktha was pissed was an understatement.
"How rude… Look I told you what I want, now do what I say if you want to see your family anytime in the future."
The four of them were fuming. The woman saw this and sighed.
"Look I'll sweeten the deal for you. Whatever you learn here, you will be able to use when you get back home and by the time you get back not more than an hour would have passed. Think about you got nothing to lose."
"Sweet deal… very tempting… But," Ahalya began
"What's the catch?" Sonu finished for her.
"And what's in it for you?" Sayuktha asked still suspicious, this all sound way too good.
"The catch? None for you actually. And as for me… I kind of…might have… gotten something in return for you helping them in the war…" The woman giggled.
Sayuktha's brow twitched, "So you sold our services without even asking us?"
"Why us? If you know about our world and all, you already know what's going to happen in the Harry Potter series… Why not just sell the information? If you can do all that you said, then you don't really need us…Wouldn't that have been easier, instead of kidnapping us?" Ahalya asked quietly curious.
The woman smiled innocently,"Easier? Yes. But entertaining? No… This way is more fun to do."
"What? Kidnapping people?" Avanthika asked sarcastically.
"No… Maybe… Now that I think about it, it is fun kidnapping people… I got to do that more often…" The woman giggled.
"Way to go genius, now you are giving the crazy lady ideas." Sayuktha grumbled.
Avanthika face palmed. "Oh god… Hey lady, stop daydreaming and tell us who you are… you might as well tell us what exactly you sold us for?"
"I am not gonna tell you my name… it gives me a mysterious air that way… and am not gonna tell you what I sold you for either… it's a secret." The woman said petulantly.
"Oh my god…. We were kidnapped by this, this, lunatic?!" Avanthika screeched in outrage, "Why can't we have a cooler kidnapper…" she wailed, while Sonu patted her shoulder.
"Can you at least tell us why you turned us into eight year olds or was that also for fun?" Sayuktha asked exasperated.
"You are seven not eight and I have a very good reason for de aging you…" The woman said seriously. They all grew silent.
"Because you all look so cute like that…" The woman said with a straight face. Then squealed like a fan girl.
"Really…" Sayuktha drawled.
"I figured as much…" Ahalya said in resignation.
"Not really surprising…" Sonu shrugged.
"You're crazy…" Avanthika nodded sagely.
The woman pouted.
"And the eye colour? Wait… Don't answer… we can already guess your answer…" Sayuktha said.
"Actually I had nothing to do with the eye colour. It's simply a reflection of your magical core that I activated when you entered this realm. You four have very different inherent magic cores, it wouldn't have activated in normal circumstances, but I gave the push that it needed to activate. Your magical cores are unique, that's why I chose you four. You might not know it, but it was the attraction between your magical cores that pulled you together, an unexplained feeling of familiarity when you first met, you all felt that didn't you? The feeling of trust ever since you first met…"
She looked at the surprised faces. But to her surprise they soon turned sour.
"You mean to say that our friendship exist simply because of our magical cores?" Sayuktha asked angry, but couldn't hide the pain. The woman smiled gently much like a mother, surprising them. She knelt near the four girls and pulled all four of them towards her in a gentle hug.
"Silly, What are you saying? The existence of your friendship is because of your heart and nothing else. You magical core can only help you recognize someone of similar origin, whether to become their friends or enemies is entirely up to you. Even if you see that they are good person, whether to trust them or not are up to your heart and no one else."
She pulled back and looked at the four teary girls (being in a seven year old body, really mess with your emotion control… at least that's what they told themselves.). She playfully ruffled Ahalya's hair earning grimace but that soon turned in to a smile.
"Now are you ready to save the world?" Getting three cheerful nods and one nonchalant shrug (Which completely failed to hide the excitement).
The woman turned serious once more, "You need to know something… You understand the concept of parallel realities, right?" She got four reluctant nods unsure the direction in which the conversation was heading.
"Then you should know that, this is not the reality that J K Rowling saw."
"What?" Ahalya asked curious.
"Some people in many of the dimensions are seers. They often get visions of events that occur in other dimensions. Those seers exist as connections between the dimensions, creating a web of reality. So you see this reality we are in is actually a parallel version of what J K Rowling saw."
They nodded thoughtfully.
"What happens differently here?"
"I cannot say, conveying too many details of future are against the rules…" the woman said solemnly,"But, what are rules for if not to be broken…" She did a 180 turn in mood and became cheery.
"At the end of the war, Harry Potter and Voldemort died fighting. But too many of the dark forces had survived, with so much of the strong wizards on the side of light lost, they didn't stand a chance against the dark forces. It was a massacre and the end of Hogwarts."
The four gulped.
"Well I am leaving, have fun you four… And kick some death eater ass." With that she vanished leaving four grinning girls.
Meanwhile,
"What are your plans for those children, Albus?" asked Minerva.
"It would prove disastrous to let the children go uneducated, if they did use accidental magic to cross the Hogwarts wards that means that their magic is very powerful. The sooner they learn to control their powers the safer it is for them and people around them."
"But we will have to send word to their parents. We cannot just take them in without permission."
"We will wait till they wake up."
"But aren't the children a little too young to start studying here?"
"I am more worried what will happen if their magic is left unsupervised, Minerva. Poppy already informed me that the children have unusually large magical cores and considering their age it could lead to disastrous outcomes." Of course, Dumbledore had no choice but to let the children stay.
"But is it wise Albus to let them stay near our children with their rather sudden appearance? And their age also might cause problems." Severus Snape made his presence known.
Dumbledore nodded thoughtfully. Many of the wizard families had requested to let their children join earlier than required, so they could have child prodigies to gloat around. Dumbledore always turned down such requests. But now if he chose to let these four join, it could cause dispute. He would have to tread carefully.
"It seems that our guests are awake." Dumbledore said standing up to leave to the infirmary.
The three professors left to see the mysterious four.
"Ah… it seems all of you are awake… I hope you had a good sleep." Dumbledore spoke kindly and cheerfully.
The four of them nodded timidly.
"Do you know where you are?" Dumbledore asked kindly. The four girls shook their head in negative.
"Well you see, you are at Hogwarts, a school where we teach magic." The girls did their best to act surprised.
"Magic?" the green eyed girl spoke timidly.
"Yes. And my name is Dumbledore, I am the headmaster. This here is, Professor Minerva McGonagall, she teaches transfiguration. And this is Professor Severus Snape he is our potions master." The girls kept staring wide eyed. They were still wary of the strangers and perhaps didn't even understand everything the headmaster just said (At least that's what Minerva and Snape thought. Dumbledore knew better).
"So what are your names? If you tell us your names I'll show you some magic." Minerva said trying to make the girls more relaxed.
The girls looked nervous for a moment, but the green eyed girl stepped forward and spoke.
"Hello. I'm Ahalya. I'm seven; but I'll be eight soon." She said shyly. This prompted the other children to act as well.
The violet eyed girl stepped forward next, "Hi, I'm Sonu. I'm eight." The girl chirped with an adorable smile.
"Avanthika. Eight." The blue eyed girl that stood at the back said while looking intently at Snape. Snape for his part glared right back. Much to Snape's ire, the girl seemed to have trouble holding in her giggles after seeing his glare. Snape felt rather insulted and even more surprised; was his glare really that hilarious?
The last to speak was the golden eyed girl who stood observing all of them, "Sayuktha. Seven, soon to be eight."
McGonagall seemed very happy with the improvement. The males of the room were not really that excited, both for different reasons.
McGonagall waved her faithful wand to display what she had promised the children.
And just like that, one of the chairs turned into a little pony.
The children looked very excited, although Sayuktha really tried not to express her excitement. Snape approved the girl for her attempt at hiding her emotions.
"We can do magic too." The words that tumbled out of Ahalya's mouth made them all surprised, including Ahalya who hadn't even meant to speak.
Ahalya's body acted without her permission; she waved her hand in the air with a frown of concentration and lo and behold, butterflies made out of wisps of sparkling green energy erupted into the air. Fluttering around in a mass, the butterflies effectively concealed her panicked face. Her body had just acted without her control, but before she could really start pulling her hair out, a familiar face appeared among the butterflies with a mischievous smirk and a wink. It was only visible to the four girls.
As Ahalya sighed, not in relief, but in annoyance, the three professors were caught up on thinking about the consequences of what they were seeing.
Wand less magic, that too in a child so young! It was obvious to the professors that Ahalya was able to do magic consciously (a misconception on their part); unlike accidental magic that wizard children were prone to. If what the child said was correct, then all four of them knew how to use magic. As they thought about the consequences of this; Dumbledore decided that this was the perfect reason to let them stay at Hogwarts.
"Could you tell us your family names?" McGonagall asked sweetly trying to figure out which wizard family the four were from.
"We don't have any." Sayuktha said lowering her head. "We grew up at the orphanage. All the people at the orphanage called us names because they thought that we were weird." Sayuktha knew the instinctive lie was implanted in their head by the crazy witch. Sayuktha thought that she heard a growl of indignation after she thought that.
McGonagall looked at the four sadly. Magical children in muggle orphanages were always tragic.
"They kicked us out of the orphanage… And we don't have anywhere to go." The four professors looked surprised and angry at the silent statement from Sonu. How could anyone do that to such young children?
Minerva gave Dumbledore a perplexed look; this made things both easier and difficult.
"Don't worry, the four of you can stay here at the school. There are lot of kids here who could do magic, like you." Dumbledore said to the four wide eyed children.
As he turned to leave, he spoke to Minerva and Snape; "It seems that I have to have a talk with the minister."
Minerva flashed a smile at the children; "If you need anything, just ask Madam Pomfrey."
"Who?"
"The kind woman who treated you."
"Oh! Okay. Will you come back, professor?" Avanthinka asked.
"We will."
With that all three professors left the room.
"That went better that I thought." Sonu muttered as the doors closed.
"When you said that you would send help, I thought it would be more that just four children." Dumbledore said as his office door closed.
"Believe me, they are more than just children." The honey sweet voice answered from the shadows.
"I guess I have not much of a choice. How do you expect me to keep the four of them here without causing too much trouble?" Dumbledore had the urge to rub his forehead sensing an incoming headache. The woman stepped out of the shadows with a smirk.
"With these." She showed the old man four wands that took form in her hand.
One wand was made of pure crystal with the three dimensional image of a golden serpent visible inside the crystal wand.
The next one was so black that it put darkness to shame with intricate blood red and golden runes decorating the wand.
The third one was golden brown colour and had sapphire blue runes written in such a way that it resembled blue flames decorating the wand.
The next one was another crystal wand; a pale glowing violet in colour, something similar to molten lava was visible at the core of the wand.
Dumbledore's eyes widened in recognition as he saw the four wands. "Are they…"
"Yes and no." She answered before he could even finish the question. "These are not the originals, but these are just as much, if not more, powerful than the originals. And since no one knows much about these four particular wands; there will no question about their powers and no one find out that they are not the real ones."
"And how do you expect me to explain how I got hold of four seemingly legendary wands? And you know what will happen if the wands do accept the children, right?"
"Just say that they appeared out of thin air. And don't worry, these wands will accept them." With that the woman vanished leaving the four wands on the headmaster's table.
"Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful." The headmaster said more than a little frustrated.
Well that's it for now.
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