Chapter 4: Time to get used to magic

It was late evening when Carlisle arrived at the place in London where he was supposed to meet his contact.

Her name was Emma Bright and she worked at St. Mungo's. Carlisle already had a brief talk with her during his last visit and knew that she was a nurse that usually took care of nervous children and little brats that would throw fits in the waiting room. A task he only could respect, for he knew the struggle himself. She was young, maybe at the end of her 20s or early 30s and had natural red hair and a friendly freckled face.

He scanned the crowed of people with his eyes for the red hair to catch his attention. After only a few moments he found her fighting through a moving mass of humans, to get to the entrance area, where he waited. Quickly he danced through open spaces in the crowd, not even his bags knocking anyone off, to reach her and put her struggle to an end. "Good evening Miss Bright." He said in his melodic, deep voice.

Emma jumped at the sudden approach, she didn't see him right next to her, but then remembered what he was. A cold shiver ran down her neck, as she tried to shake off the creepy feeling that took over her for a second. She reminded herself, that this was a nice person and she knew him…..at least a little. "Hello Doctor Cullen. Please we already established, that you call me Emma." She greeted and scanned his many bags for a smaller one, she could carry for him. Do women do that? Is that good manners? She wasn't sure. Such situations made her feel awkward, always. She picked one of the smaller bags, that he only pressed against his body with one elbow and pulled it from him. "Here let me help you. You sure have a lot of things with you." She smiled, and tried to come off rather friendly than nervous.

Carlisle laughed. "I have a feeling this project, we are going to work on, will take longer than three weeks and wanted to be prepared, just in case." He let the young woman take his bag, to make her feel more comfortable if anything. He didn't really need the help, but he made the experience, that humans often felt uneasy when they didn't have a task on hand. Something he could relate to as well.

The woman turned on her heel, deciding that this welcome talk was over and walked in the direction she came from. Carlisle followed her amused. She was really suited to work with kids, as most ppl were, that acted so awkward around grown-ups. "Where are we going now?" he asked, more excited than was normal for him.

Emma looked at him over one shoulder, puzzled. "I thought Doctor Lucas talked with you about the details." She turned a bit angry, probably because of the lack of communication between her colleagues. Now she felt rude for not telling their guest where they went, like it was her fault he didn't know. "We got a room for you in one of our most favored taverns." She grimaced a little, as she remembered that 'tavern' was somewhat of an outdated term for someone like him, living in this modern muggle world. "I hope you like it old-fashioned" . As soon as she realized what she had said and to whom she blushed. "I mean…..ugh…..oh god….I am sorry."

Again Carlisle laughed. "It's alright I know what you mean." He gave her one of those calming smiles he used quite often while he was around nervous humans "Yes I do have a liking for the old-fashioned" he said with a wink.

The woman slowed her pace so she would walk next to him instead of leading the way. "I am really sorry. I guess we all have to get used to interacting with a vampire." No need in avoiding the word, she thought, brave. "Anyway it's a good bit away from London." She tried to not let him sense the actual understatement of her words, until she realized that it was pointless, since she had to tell him anyway.

A little disappointed he asked "How far away?". He liked London, and he always enjoyed coming back to it, especially now, that he knew of even more secrets about it.

By now they stood at a lonely Sidewalk. Carlisle was amazed how they could go from a crowded place to such an abandoned street. Emma put the bag, she held, down and motioned him to do the same. "Well" she started a bit nervous "Scotland to be exact." She saw the confused and somewhat disbelieving expression on the vampires face. She had to laugh out loud. Neve would she have guessed, that it was possible to see such a deadly creature this startled.

Her laugher shook the man alive again. "Scotland? But that is more than an 8 hour drive. How do you expect me to do that?" He knew he was missing information here and it annoyed him, but he was too interested in everything around him to let his annoyance take control. "What am I missing here, Miss Bright?" he asked defeated.

As soon as Emma caught her breath again she forgot her awkwardness around people and started to explain the procedure to the poor man. "We have faster ways of travel no worries. I will show you as soon as we get there. It's a good place to stay at. We thought you would rather enjoy staying in a small magical community rather than the muggle crowded London." Now she held this friendly tone, that she used when talking to frightened children.

Carlisle pulled his eyebrows up questioning "Muggles?".

"Oh I keep forgetting, how much I need to explain!" She exclaimed.

Carlisle felt a little stupid and uneducated for the first time in centauries.

"That's what we call non-magic humans." She explained patiently. They both heard a distant noise of squeaking wheels. "I hope you like fast travels. This is another thing, we thought, you would like to see. We are going to travel with one of the wizarding worlds most uncomfortable ways of transportation" she joked, as a blue bus with two decks came to an abrupt stand in front of them. Carlisle barely saw it coming even with his vampire abilities. "The Knight Bus."

Amazed he followed his Contact into the Bus, as she paid for two tickets and told the driver their destination. In fascination, he walked slowly into the vehicle. It seemed bigger on the inside. Instead of seats there were Beds. And there were things hovering in the air all around him. Tea cups, Newspapers even a pair of shoes. Several persons were chatting silently or being sound asleep. A voice pulled him out of his wonder "Find a place before we sta-" Emma was interrupted mid-sentence when the Bus suddenly got into motion and she failed to keep standing on her feet. Carlisle would have fallen to the same fate, if it weren't for his faster reaction. He caught himself at a near pole and grabbed his companions elbow to keep her from falling face flat on the ground. But his bags rolled all over the place. He flinched a little, as he thought of all the things that could be broken inside his bags now.

Once the Knight Bus was up to full speed, the world around them was stable again. Emma got her balance back "I am sorry! I never get used to this." With a flick of her wand, that Carlisle saw for the first time now, she let his bags levitate to a storage-net above their heads. Then motioned him to follow her to a little coffee-table in the back of the 'room', that magically stayed in place the whole time. They sat down, while the man still looked around in wonder. If only his family could see those wonders.

Emma pulled him once more out of his thoughts. "So as I said before, we assumed you would like to stay in a smaller magical community. The place you will be staying at is called 'The Three Broomsticks', and is located in Hogsmeade. A little wizarding town with a lot of history to it. Since we assume you want a few days off to explore our world this would be a nice place to start. Right next to the town is the most famous and greatest school of witchcraft and wizardry!" She exclaimed proud, puffing her chest out a little as if it were her own institution. "Hogwarts. We already spoke with the headmaster and he gave his promise to let you have a look at it, if you want." She smiled brightly. "You should take the offer it's the most magical place, of magical places"

Maybe Carlisle was foreign to the wizarding world, but he knew how pride looked and he knew how his kids were behaving when they felt as if they did something great, and he saw both behaviors in front of him right now. So it didn't take a detective to come to one conclusion here. "I assume, you went to this school as well?" He didn't need to ask, he just let it sound like a question out of politeness.

She nodded eagerly. "Most of St. Mungo's staff went there. As well as nearly all Children with magical talent in Great Britain and Ireland and sometimes even from further away. It has an outstanding reputation." She explained and Carlisle had a feeling that it didn't matter who she explained it to, she just was excited to talk about it. It was somewhat catchy, he nearly took onto her excitement for the topic.

He didn't think of it yet, but of course to this whole secret society had to be a schooling system as well. That really was interesting. He wondered how they made the children understand that they had to keep things secret in front of hum…..muggles. he corrected himself, trying to pic up the local manners.

The two of them chatted away a while. Emma explained to him the differences in the origins of their people. What it meant to be Pure-Blood, muggle-born or half-blood. Something Carlisle could understand but not really support. She also gave him a short explanation of some of the greater families, that still had a lot of influence and it reminded him a little bit of medieval times, which wasn't all that unwelcome. He did his homework and already was reading about important families and the political system. He wondered how he couldn't stumble across Hogwarts in all his research so far.

After what seemed like only a few Minutes, while it was nearly 3 hours, they reached their destination. It was well past 11pm now and Carlisle noticed that his Tour-Guide was exhausted and tired. So instead of shooting more of his questions at her, he let her help putting his things in his room. She decided to get a room herself instead of going home yet, since there were more things to organize in the morning, when she had more energy.

He wished her a good night, being aware of how unaware she was of the fact, that he didn't need to sleep. He didn't want to make her feel bad for it, so he pretended to go to sleep as well. After a while of exploring his own room and taking in the ancient furniture, he decided to explore the tavern until his adventure could continue.