Yay! Now I've reached chapter 15, that's a bit awesome! Haha, thanks for the support and please leave me some more! What did you like, and what did you not like? Leave a review and tell me!

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Chapter 15. The muggle experience

As soon as I came to the train station I called my mum. She was a bit chocked at first, but promised she would come pick me up as fast as she could though it was quite late and sometimes strange people were hanging out around here. I sighed as I sat down on a bench to wait for her. As soon as I had left the grounds of Hogwarts everything just felt so empty. After all, it had been the best place ever, and also, it had been my home. It was a big step to make the decision to leave, and I would regret it forever but at the same time I told myself it was for the best.

What was even harder to be apart from was of course Sirius. It was an awfully ugly trick, trying to convince me in the very last second that my feelings for him was answered, and it made me hate him. As I sat there I imagined him in my mind I felt a single tear fall from the outer corner of my eye. He was the one who had brought my feelings back to life, after being so well hidden for such a long time. Even though he would forget me in no time, I would never stop loving him now, and that made me hate myself too.

Mum arrived shortly after that and we hugged for a very long time before we got into the car and she drove back to her sister Rachel and her husband Henry's house. They had welcomed mum with open arms when dad died though mum could not take care of a whole house just by herself. Rachel and Henry were both muggles, and mum had made up a lie for what had happened to my dad. She said that he had had a heart attack, and they did not manage to get his heart to start again after that. I some ways it was true, though the heart had not stopped by itself in reality.

As we parked at their driveway, Rachel came out to greet me as soon as I stepped out of the car.

"Ah, Izzie", she said and pulled me into a big hug and then released me and put her hands on my shoulders. "How are you, sweetheart?"

"I'm fine", I lied and gave her a small smile. She hugged me one more time before she helped me and mum to get my things out of the car and into the house.

"You're getting Oliver's old room, hope that's okay. Your mum has William's."

Oliver and William were my older cousins and they had both moved out a few years ago. I was quite glad I got the only bedroom on the ground floor so that we did not have to lift all the stuff upstairs. I decided I would unpack it later and went to the kitchen to greet Henry. He seemed to be glad to have me here and that was comforting. He and Rachel always called me the daughter they never had. He tried to offer me some food but I said I was not hungry. It was about 9:00 pm, and I should probably have eaten something but I felt like I really needed to go for a walk and take some air. I told mum I would be back soon and walked out through the outdoor and down the street. It was still light outside and the sun was just about to go down for the day. Rachel and Henry lived in a nice suburban place, just outside London. All the houses in the streets were white and the lawn in front of everyone was green and trimmed. Just like a normal human village. For muggles.

I passed by the last house at the third street I had walked through and was planning on crossing the drive way to come to the next one, but I was not really paying attention if there was any traffic coming from the right though I thought no one would be out driving at this time. Foolish of me. A sudden frenetic sound of a bell that belonged on a bike made me freeze in position and turn my head the way the sound came from.

"WATCH OUT!", someone shouted and in the next second I was on the ground with both a bike and a stranger on top of me. Thanks to god, he had not been driving too fast, but I still hit my back and my head pretty hard in the ground.

"I'm so sorry!", he apologized as he got up and removed his bike from me. "Are you hurt?"

"I'll probably feel a bit sore tomorrow, but I'm fine", I answered, a bit dizzy and tried to focus with my eyes as he leaned down at me, reaching out his hand to help me get up on my feet again. I took it and managed to get up in a very non-graceful way.

"I really am sorry. The breaks don't work on this scrap-heap and I've been way too lazy to fix them", he explained.

"It's okay, I should probably learn to look both ways before walking over roads so it's not entirely your fault", I said and looked up at him for the first time. He was tall, dark and very handsome. If my knees were not already weak, they definitely were now. He chuckled, and that only made him more desirable. I could only think of one person who could beat this guy in looks, and did not want to rest any of my future thoughts on him ever again.

"Thanks for making me feel less terrible. I'm Joshua by the way, or call me Josh."

"Izabel."

"I haven't seen you here before, not that I live here but someone like you… I would've noticed", he said and gave me a warm smile and I felt my cheeks began to burn.

"Er… Ahem. I moved in here today so that's why you haven't seen me."

"Okay, is it close from here? Youre house I mean."

"Yeah, just a few streets away from here, I should probably head back now, I bet they're expecting me to be home any minute."

"You want me to follow you home?", he asked and I felt a tickle in my stomach. "You never know what kind of monsters or idiots on bikes you can meet on the way."

"I chuckled and so did he. "Yeah, that would be nice."

We began to walk together towards Rachel's house in silence, the only thing that could be heard was the ticking sound from the bike and some birds that was sitting in trees in some of the gardens we passed by. It was not really an awkward silence, not at least in my opinion.

"So where did you move from?", he asked as we had come halfway.

"I wasn't living so far away from here actually", I said and told him where our house was located.

"You kidding me? That's close to my neighbourhood!", he said, looking at me very exited. He told me where he lived, and I realized we had grown up at the same place and went to the same primary school before I was accepted to Hogwarts. But even though how much we shared from before, none of us remembered the other one at all.

"Maybe we weren't meant to meet until today", I said when we arrived outside my Aunt's house.

"Like some gravitational power has forced us apart, but we've now been released by another supernatural power!", he said and gestured wildly when he spoke. I chuckled a little because he almost sounded as if he was serious about it. When he continued even after he had stopped talking I began to laugh.

"Okay, stop it!", I said and tried to get him to stop by locking his arms along his body.

"You don't believe in the supernatural? Magic?", he asked and grinned teasingly. I just shook my head at him.

"Did you lie when you told me your age?"

"Yeah, a bit. Physically I'm 16 but mentally… Well, what do you think?"

"Not older than seven. No eight year olds believe in such things as magic", I said and made a glance at the house and saw my mother and Rachel looking out through the kitchen window. I froze in my whole body for a second before I turned back to Josh with horror in my eyes.

"What's wrong?", he asked, looking at me worried.

"My mum and my Aunt are spying on us!" I said it as if it was the end of the world, and for me it actually was but Josh just laughed.

"Am I in trouble?", he asked and looked their way. I did the same and saw them both wave happily back at us.

"Doesn't seem to be so, but I should go inside and scold at them for embarrassing me like this", I said and began to move towards the door.

"Okay. But hey, we'll see each other again, right?"

"Yeah, if you want to." I was a bit surprised, though I felt the chemistry between us.

"Of course! School's ending at 3:00 pm tomorrow; do you know where it is?"

I tried to picture the school building and the way there in my head. "I think so; otherwise I'll ask my Aunt."

"Great. See you tomorrow then", he said and smiled as he got onto his bike. I waved as he started rolling away, then turned around and took a deep breath before I walked up to the door.

After mum and Rachel had asked me everything I knew about Josh I was finally allowed to go to bed. I changed to my pyjamas, brushed my teeth and slid down under the thick cover in my cosy, new bed. I could feel in my whole body that this had been a really long day, and even though it had been tough in the beginning I was very happy now because of how it had ended. I already longed for yesterday afternoon when I was going to meet Josh again.

I went up early so that I would have the chance to ask Rachel how to get to Josh's school before she headed off to work. I came into the kitchen and found both her and mum there. Rachel was making breakfast and mum sat at the table with a cup of coffee and I decided to sit down next to her.

"God morning", I greeted them.

"God morning, honey. Henry found a letter for you on the doorstep when he went to work earlier", mum said and gave it to me. I looked closer at it, trying to figure out who had sent it.

"Do you know who it's from?"

"No idea, maybe someone from school?"

I stared at it for a moment and then gave it to her. "Open it and tell me who it's from."

"Okay…", she said, a bit confused but ripped it up and took out the parchment and unfolded it. She directly went to read the last sentence and lit up before she handed it back to me.

"It's from Sirius, Izabel!", she said, obviously happy about it, a feeling I definitely did not share with her. I took the parchment and rose from the chair to throw it in the trashcan without even looking at it.

"Hey Izzie, what's wrong sweetie?", Rachel asked and gave me a worried glance.

"Nothing", I muttered and marched out of the kitchen, suddenly not hungry or interested in finding the way to that damn school. I had slammed the door to my room if it had been my real room at home, but I did not want to break anything in this house, at least not the second day I was here. I threw myself down at the bed and punched the soft mattress. Why could he not leave me alone? It was not like we had known each other for years and really had to solve this… Not right now at least. I needed my time, and so did he too probably.

I did not get out of my room until I heard both mum and Rachel leave the house. I decided to eat breakfast and then begin to pack up my stuff. I had to find a place to hide all my magic stuff in; I did not want to make up any bad lies about the strange clothes or quills and ink bottles for Rachel and Henry. If they ever found these stuff they would think I had been bordered at some frivolous LARP camp for four years until now when I finally had grown up. So when I had finished my sandwich I began directly. I had not brought every single thing with me, though there still was a chance for me to return later on. But there was one special thing I searched after, that I knew I had put down in my trunk, but as I reached the bottom, I remembered I had given it away. My wand. Why did I do that? Not that I would need it now but still, I really liked it. It was mine, after all. It had chosen me and nobody else. God damn, after only one day I already had a reason for returning back, but at the same time I also had a reason for not doing it. His name was Josh, and as I thought about him I glanced down at my watch.

"Oh, crap!", I shouted out. The time had run away from me without me even noticing it at all. It was already 2.45 pm and I was stupid enough to not know the way. I closed the trunk and pushed in under my bed and then headed for the door. I decided to run to the right, though I had been taking the other direction yesterday and not seen anything familiar that way.

Maybe I was still having the slightest bit magical blood still running in my veins because I found the right way and entered the schoolyard at 3.00 pm exactly. Of course I went the wrong way a few times, but I was still very proud over myself. Just as I stopped in the middle of the yard the door opened and a herd of students came out. I tried to search for Josh, and found him along with the last ones that passed out through the door. He looked up, searching for me too and when our eyes met he smiled knowingly and waved at me. I waved back and saw his friends look at me with big eyes, which made me feel a bit uncomfortable. And when I noticed them, I also noticed that many of the other students also stared at me like they had never seen a human before. Strange behaviour, some muggles had. Or what was I saying? I was one of them. Not to forget that fact, and soon I would stare exactly like they did on someone that did not entirely fit in.

"Hey!", Josh said when he came up to me.

"Hi", I said, suddenly feeling a bit shy. I glanced at his friends, who were still looking at us. Josh followed with his own eyes and chuckled when he saw them too.

"That's my mates; they're interested in the mysterious girl that came to meet me up after school today", he said and when I glanced at him, he gave me a wink and as a response, I blushed. "Any bruises by the way? From yesterday I mean."

"Er, ha-ha, no, just a bit sore but that was expected."

"I'm sorry-"

"It's okay!", I interrupted him and smiled convincingly. "So, what's up for today? Any ideas?"

"Well, what do you want to do?", he asked me as we began to walk towards where bike racks were.

"I'm up for anything."

"Okay" He took out his bike and stopped in front of me. "Get on and we'll see where we're ending up."

I stared at it, terrified by the thought of riding something that you could not stop whenever you wanted to. Josh chuckled, and I glanced at him, still worried about this craziness.

"I'll be careful, I promise."

I believed him, but I could not find anywhere to put myself onto it. It was a regular mountain bike, one-seated, like bikes usually are. I doubted he knew that I used to have powers enough to fly before.

"Where am I…?"

"Here." He patted the handlebar and I stared at him with big eyes. He got onto the bike and waited for me, obviously amused. I took a deep breath and jumped up. I had been doing way more dangerous things than this.

"Okay, choose one side to lean down on, I need to see where we're going and you'll get better balance", he instructed me and I turned to look down at him with an unsure expression and he chuckled once again.

"Oh, don't laugh at me! I haven't ride a bike since I was eleven!", I said and cautiously leaned down against his left shoulder, but just enough to make sure I did not touch him.

"Haven't you been close to a guy either since you were eleven?", he murmured in my ear. Luckily for me, I was already blushing.

"For your information I actually have."

"Then I don't see any problem with this, just pretend you're a witch flying your broom to a Halloween party", he said jokingly and we started rolling. I had been a witch flying my broom, and this was nothing like it.