READ THIS EVEN IF YOU HAVE ALREADY READ CHAPTER ONE!
I have updated Chapter 1 five times now and believe it to be significantly better. Even if you have already read it, I hope you will read it and be very proud of me for making it so good. Just kidding. It's kind of bad, sorry. Tell me if I put too many details, please.
*Disclaimer: I do not own or come up with any of the content (Characters, plot, or anything at all from the Harry Potter series) that appears in this story. J.K. Rowling came up with it all… I am not that brilliant.
A/N: This is my first FanFiction story so if you have any comments, suggestions, or ideas for me please review. You are allowed to say whatever you want if you think it will help me, just as long as its not really mean! Thanks!
Chapter 1: The Tree
I really need to learn fluent Spanish, I thought to myself. The washer girl was babbling rapidly to me about something… "Sí, sí, yo… er…. Quieres todo él, uh,….emm… ropa para la casa. Si" I said hopefully. The washer girl luckily understood and dropped the huge pile of clean clothes into my outstretched arms.
I huffed up to my grandmother's house and yelled while marching up the stairs, "LAUNDRY! I WENT AND GOT THE CLEAN LAUNDRY!" I heard a muffled "Thanks!" from the top of the stairs. When I reached the landing, Marley, my little sister, scurried over to help me. "Just dump it on that chair, Nellie" Marley instructed.
After I did as she had told, Marley fished through the pile of laundry, picking out her clothes. I looked over at Sarah, Marley's twin sister. Her eyes were glued to the computer screen, and she was squinting in concentration. "Dang it!" She whispered.
"Sarah?" I called, amused. She was practically addicted to some online game called "Yoda Sushi Cutter" or something like that.
"SHH!" She said angrily, not taking her eyes from the screen. "I'll get her clothes, too" Marley said as she rolled her eyes.
"C'mon Sarah" I walked over to her. "We're leaving tomorrow! You need to get packed!" She looked up at me. "I'm already packed," she told me, annoyed that I had interrupted her holy game. "Plus, I'm already on level 23! I only have to beat the Mooshoo and then I just…" Sarah trailed off, looking back at her game.
"Fine. If you leave anything in Costa Rica, don't say I didn't warn you." I sighed. If my mom was still here, she would have been able to get Sarah to listen. But my mom had had to leave a week early for work.
"I need to go back, honey. My job doesn't allow me unlimited vacation" she had told me when I had asked her why she couldn't stay. I missed her, but I was glad that we had been able to stay so long in Costa Rica. Vacations were not to be taken for granted, as we hardly ever did anything with our father.
An angry noise escaped from my throat at the thought of my father, scaring a small lizard in the corner of the room. My good old' Dad wasn't exactly the "parent of every child's dreams". He and our mom had divorced four years ago, because my dad had cheated on her. He then married a young woman and seemed to like to pretend that his children didn't really exist.
That's why we were all so reluctant to leave this peaceful paradise. We had surfed in the Caribbean, took trips in the jungle, jumped into a waterfalls… We felt lucky about spending so much time in Costa Rica, for when we were to go back to the U.S., we had to visit with our dad for two weeks. None of us were looking forward to that.
"Nellie, what are you doing?" I looked up from my musings and realized I had been sitting on the floor and flicking a pebble. I stood up quickly and felt a little nauseous. Looking down at the huge pile of clothes to pack made me feel even worse. I groaned, causing Marley to look at me. I shook my head and told her "I feel weird. Gonna go take a walk." Marley nodded and went back to her packing.
I stepped out of my room into the windowless living room, where Sarah was still staring at the computer screen and clicking away. Turning away from her, I stepped down the stairs into the front garden, seeing a very large spider spinning a web. It was amazing, the labyrinth of silk the spider made so fast. The labyrinth! I remembered my grandmother telling me about a labyrinth of short hedges somewhere down one of the paths in the backyard.
I leisurely walked to the back of the house, enjoying the sounds of the monkeys and birds in the jungle. There were two paths in her yard. Not knowing which led to the labyrinth, I took the one on the right.
The path was longer than I had expected, and although I thought many times of turning back and trying the other one I felt that it was faster just to go to the end and see where this one led. Plus, I really did not want to get back to the stuffy bedroom and keep packing.
I continued down the path for what felt like forever, but then reached a clearing. It was a small circular area in the middle of the forest, empty except for a tall, large tree. I looked around and saw where the path continued, and my muscles ached at the thought of walking longer. The labyrinth can't be out this far… I thought uneasily, realizing that I had carried myself quite far into the jungle. Resolving to rest and then walk back before darkness, I saw that there was a little niche in the wood of the tree for me to sit in. I checked for ants and then settled comfortably on the cushy ground. My head was spinning a bit and my legs were tingling from walking so long.
I looked around at the clearing and shivered. Something was a little odd about it. I couldn't put my finger on it, but something was different than the rest of the jungle. Maybe it's just my tired brain imagining things, I thought uneasily. Suddenly, the afternoon sun was covered up by a cloud and the little light that had been shining through the trees of the jungle lessened.
The clearing's temperature had dropped quickly with the disappearance of the sun. I shivered as a chill went up my spine. Chills? In Costa Rica? Am I sick? Something must be wrong with me. I was probably just tired, so I closed my eyes for a moment and imagined myself next to a warm, cozy fire.
I had dozed off, but opened my eyes a little to see an extremely bright clearing. Squeezing my eyes shut again to wait until I got adjusted a little to the light, I thought that the sun must have come back out. Opening my eyes again, I realized that the brightness was not caused by the sun.
I shrieked and jumped up and away from the burning tree. "I could've burned myself!" I exclaimed, as if the tree could hear and be ashamed of itself. Backing away, I examined my skin for burns, expecting to see blackened skin on my arms, which had been touching the tree. Although I had been sitting in the fire for at least five minutes, I had not one burn. I looked at the tree, curious and confused. How had it caught on fire, anyway?
I rechecked myself, my clothes, my hands, arms, legs, hands again. I thought I saw a flicker of something, but it must have been my imagination… Still, I watched my hands for a few more seconds. So quickly that I could've imagined it, my fingertips sparked.
Bewildered and disbelieving, I watched my fingertips for longer. Every few seconds they'd let of a little spark of electricity at random, every time causing me to jump. I whimpered and didn't know how to react. "Please, please, just stop!" I whispered, scared. Very abruptly, the tree ceased its burning and my fingers stopped sparking. I blinked, surprised. What was happening was just… not possible. I looked around to make sure no one was there. Afraid for my sanity, I quickly located the path I came from and ran all the way back to the house.
Finally arriving at the house, and running as though I was being pursued, I sprinted up the stairs and sat down across from Sarah who was still immersed in her game and didn't even look up while I was sat there, still panting.
"Nellie?" I heard Marley call from the other room. "Yeah?" I squeaked. For some reason I felt guilty, as if I had done something wrong. Marley came of out her room. "I finished packing! Did you have a good walk?" she said happily. "Mmhmm..." I said quickly and then added "But I'm going to go to bed now… I'm really tired…" I stood up and pretended to yawn, when in reality, my heart was still racing. Now, being so far away from it, the burning tree seemed less real.
Marley looked surprised and skeptical. "Umm… It's only 7:30, Nellie. Normal fourteen-year-olds don't go to bed or even get tired, at 7:30." She smirked. Uh-oh, I thought, Little miss I'm-cooler-than-you-even-though-I'm-younger wants to make fun of her "dorky" sister.
"Marley, I just don't feel well, okay? Goodnight." I said, annoyed, and hurried into my bedroom. I shut the door quickly, but not before I saw Marley's little smirk and heard her say softly, mockingly; "What's the hurry, Nell, past your bedtime?"
I grunted angrily and turned around. Prissy, my grandmother's cat, was lying on my bed. "Why is she such a brat?" I asked Prissy while petting her on her head. Prissy closed her eyes and said "Mowww".
I sighed and put on my P.J's, got into bed, and tucked the mosquito net under my mattress. My thoughts drifted back to the burning tree. Did that even happen? HOW did it happen… I'm not crazy,I told myself uncertainly, it was just a daydream, a figment of my imagination…Wasn't it? Tomorrow I'll forget all about it. I drifted off to sleep, only to have some very strange dreams.
A/N: I'm sorry if this is a boring chapter for you, I just needed to explain everything and start the story. Yes it will get better. Yes it will start having more to do with Harry Potter. (I implore you to pay attention to the fact that Nellie was ON FIRE, so technically, she did magic. It does relate to Harry Potter somewhat.)