A/N: Hope that last cliffhanger kept you biting your nails ehehe. Thank you everyone who has ever reviewed and thank you so much for reading! Enjoy :)
The first thing that reached her ears was a huge gasp and then a very long coughing fit. Shaking and tense, Mia slowly opened her eyes. The room she was in was warm and yellow and smelt faintly of apple and body spray. Alice was doubled over, trying desperately to get her breath back, something that Mia could really sympathise with. Mia dropped the wand and as Alice wrenched herself upright and they gripped each other as tight as possible. Mia savoured Alice's warm and dry clothes and didn't ever want to let go.
"Mia..." Alice mumbled into her wet hair, "What the fuck is going on."
"I think I apparated." Mia gave a sad chuckle.
"Alice?" Came a distant shout, followed by the sound of the stairs creaking, "Are you alright in there?"
"Quick - in the cupboard!" Alice shoved Mia behind some winter coats and closed the door over.
"Alice?" A tall white haired man burst in.
"Dad!" Alice exclaimed, "You can't just keep bursting in!"
"Oh, God...sorry." He recanted, "I just heard something and thought you were...kind of...dying. It sounded pretty bad. And anyway, you should be resting."
"Oh, yeah, my drink went down the wrong way. Don't worry."
Alice's father quickly scanned the room, "What drink?"
"Ah, just get out." She pushed him backwards and closed her door, briefly leaning her forehead against the wood. "Oh yeah." She remembered, letting Mia out and taking in her appearance.
"I thought you were...gone." Mia mumbled, shivering in her wet clothing.
"I thought you were too." Alice admitted. She was wearing thick jogging bottoms, three t-shirts and a cardigan. But that couldn't disguise her bruised hands, face, and neck, the red scratches across her cheek and her wrist which was in a protective fabric cast. When she turned to close the windows Mia noticed a distinct bald patch at the back of her head which looked red and inflamed.
"What the fuck are we gonna do?" Mia started, "I don't even know what happened- I...what day is it?"
"Ssh." Alice dug out some of her larger clothes, passed them to Mia and gave her a notebook.
"What am I supposed to do with this?" She asked, holding the book up.
"Read it." Alice instructed, "I've written what happened down in chronological order. Just to refer back to. I need something solid to ensure I'm not losing my mind. It's not what I told the police. I told them we'd been mugged on the way there and came back, and that you were round a friend's house until you'd recovered. But I didn't know which one, of course."
"Okay. Yeah, good idea."
"I'm going out to get some stuff. Then we'll sort the rest out."
Mia went to say 'don't be long' but stopped herself.
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We won the competition to see the characters. The actors. We chose Scabior and Greyback. Charlie dropped us off on the 25th of November at 11:30am. Sometime around there. I remember we were late. They were there, just in the car park. There were 6 men. At first I wasn't sure, but later on I knew it wasn't the actors. Nick Moran is paler and shorter, and I've never seen a man as big as Greyback. The werewolf. They chased us like in the film. Mia sensed something was wrong and she made us hide behind a bush. We ran into them and Scabior got Mia and Greyback got me, like we'd always imagined together. But it was too real. I've never been so scared. They had us on the ground and I knew they were going to rape us. They apparated us back to their camp and Greyback took me into his tent and Mia into Scabior's. And when Greyback was about to bite me, Mia came in and stopped him. I tried to run but Scabior caught me. He brought me back to the camp and they swapped us over. Greyback started drinking with me tied to his bed, and thank fucking God he was too drunk to rape me so he passed out on top of me. He must have weighed around 17 stone. I stayed awake until I was sure he was comatose. Then I snuck out and walked until I couldn't feel any part of my body. I can't really believe what I'm writing here but there was the Knight Bus. Three stores high. Purple. Just like the books and the films. I got on for free and they gave me a bed sheet to walk home in. I don't know how they got from the wizarding world to the next village on from mine but I really didn't care. I still don't. I must have looked lost or mentally ill because the bus I get for college pulled up and let me get on for free. Before I knocked on my door I figured out a story which didn't sound too weird. My parent's believed me. I begged them not to go to the hospital and it was alright because Louise is a practicing GP and she cleaned me up well enough to avoid suspicion. Then today, November 26th, they phoned the police and I told them we'd been mugged and that Mia had gone to stay at a friend's house. I didn't say which friend. I said I would phone and check up on her, and I told her parents that Mia was staying with me and not to worry. I don't know what to do, or where she is. In the wizarding world or the muggle world.
Mia stopped reading. 'Today, November 26th'. They'd only been gone one night. It had seemed like a week.
"Time flies when you're having fun." She muttered, stripping out of Scabior's sopping wet clothes and pulling Alice's on. She hadn't removed her underwear from the day before but threw the pyjama jumper and bottoms on top. She huddled up next to Alice's radiator and eyed the wand suspiciously. She threw a nearby cushion on top and the room seemed to get a little warmer. Trying not to look in the mirror on her vanity table, Mia took a fresh makeup wipe and removed the dirt and stray eyeliner from her face.
Twenty minutes later, when Mia's hair was halfway dry, Alice reappeared.
"Got you some stuff." She murmured, passing her a full Tescos' bag. Inside was a sandwich, two bottles of water, the contents of a first aid kit and a packet of pork scratchings.
"Oh my God. Pork scratchings. I fucking love these!" Mia whispered, stuffing them into her mouth and chugging the water down just as fast.
"Yeah, when I came home I had like 3 packets of salt and vinegar crisps." Alice said, hugging her knees to her chest.
When Mia had finished the crisps and the sandwich, she drunk another bottle of water and said, "I can't believe you got the Knight Bus."
"Yeah, but it made me want to throw up. It was so fast and I swear we nearly ran over like 4 people."
"My parents think we got mugged?"
"Yeah, they'll be expecting you home soon so don't wait too long. You can get out by the window. I'll phone a taxi."
"I live ten minutes away." Mia said, trying to plaster every open wound and swallowing 3 ibuprofen.
"Just to be safe." Alice retrieved the notebook and a nearby pen.
"What are you going to write now?" asked Mia.
"What happened to you, so we can figure out what happens now. We need to keep everything in check to make informed decisions." Over the years, Alice had developed a 'horror film' mentality. She didn't want to be one of the white people if things went wrong. They always died.
"Look, nothing happened. I mean, I passed out in Scabior's bed and then in the morning he said I smelled bad so he threw me in a lake. But what is much more important, is this fucking thing." She reached over and held up Scabior's wand. It was black and long and smooth and looked like the ones you could order off the internet. But unlike those pieces of plastic, it was more detailed, and didn't have the trademark logo on the side. It also felt heavier in her hand, even though physically it probably wasn't.
Alice's eyes widened. "How...did you get that."
"I took it...look, it doesn't really matter. But he'll want it back, and to be honest I just want rid of it."
"No!" Alice snatched the wand and inspected it in awe. "You apparated with this. Haven't you wondered what else you could do with it? You could kill him with this. Wait, never mind. Don't do that. You can't kill a book character."
"I wasn't gonna kill him. But remember he is real. He was there. They all were. You saw them!"
"Yeah but I've been watching the news all day and looking out for anything and there was a broadcast that the people involved in the competition had loads of fun. The ones who got to meet up with Harry And Hermione and Ron were interviewed on Daybreak or something like that. Might have been This Morning. I can't remember. But for all we know it could have just been some men dressing up as those monsters. I can't believe I thought Greyback was attractive. But then I'd never smelt him before."
"Alice! What you're holding in your hand I have fucking apparated with! It's all real! It has to be." Mia took the wand back and waved it around to prove her point. A poster fell off the wall. "See?"
"Okay, so imagine it is real. What the fuck are we supposed to do now?"
"I don't know. Scabior said that You Know Who has some stuff planned for the muggle world. I think he might just Imperio the Prime Minister or something. I hope to Christ he doesn't kill anyone.
Alice's worry lines appeared, "He'll be wanting his wand back."
"I've got a plan."
A/N: I know this chapter wasn't very interesting but the next should be :)