Choices: Part 1

Chapter 4

The first few of days here in Professor Fig's wife's family home were...rough to put it lightly. With Professor Fig as my only company (his wife dead and so too is the rest of her family), he has been getting the full blunt of my misery. I hardly slept, spending most of my nights crying wishing for home, and refused, at first, to train in anything magic related. I just wanted to go home. Who cares about Hogwarts or magic or anything in this world when I don't belong here? After many arguments, though, Professor Fig finally did convince me that the best course of action to find an answer to what happened to me would be to study magic since this may be why I'm here. There are just too many unanswered questions. Professor Fig also promised to do some research himself while I am at school, which is what honestly fully convinced me in the end. And it's not like I could go anywhere else anyway. Professor Fig advised me to never leave this house. When I asked why, all he said was "The Ministry would like to keep this all hush, hush." No matter how much I probe, Professor Fig would not explain any further. Defeated, I decided to focus my attention on learning magic.

I always thought magic was just that, magic. You wave you wand and it just does what you want. Turns out there are different kinds of magic. Such as Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, and even Potions! Some are harder than others, depending on wizard/witch. Professor Fig, who teaches Magical Theory at Hogwarts, has been able to teach me a variety kind of magic. For me, it was easy learning different Charms such as Accio (which is a Summoning Charm that summons an object to you) and Wingardium Leviosa (where you can literally make objects fly!). Most of those spells took me just a few tries to master. But then there was Transfiguration, which turned out to be the hardest for me to learn. In short, they are spells that change the form and appearance of an object. You would think turning a match into a needle would be easy, but it took me a whole week to make any difference. Outside of practicing spells, Professor Fig also taught me the ways of the Wizarding World. This turned out to be fascinating since all this was so new to me. I spent many late nights in my bedroom not able to tear my eyes away from the pages of books Professor Fig provided on their history and even some textbooks that students are required to get for their first four years at Hogwarts.

With the temporary wand, I never felt fully comfortable using it, but after a couple of weeks here, Professor Fig finally announced that we could go and buy me my own wand. I almost panicked when I realized I didn't have any money but turns out the Ministry provides funds to children who don't have a family to support them. Now I have a bank account full of money at this wizarding bank called Gringotts and a bag full of odd coins (Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts) that wizards use to last me the year. We went to this shop called Ollivander's where an older gentleman with big round glasses introduced himself as Mr. Ollivander. After a few attempts of wands that either flew out of my hand or pulled stuff off of shelves, Mr. Ollivander finally found the wand for me. Hornbeam wood and phoenix feather core, Mr. Ollivander explained. Supposedly wands were made out of different animals and wood. When I held the wand in my hand, a warmth spread through my fingertips and I just somehow knew it was mine. It was unsettling if I'm being honest.

Outside of studying, Professor Fig also gave me lessons in today's society. The day after we had arrived in France, Professor Fig made it very clear that I should not go babbling around about my – situation – as it may draw unwanted attention. So to not draw any suspicion, Professor Fig taught me the ways society works in this day and age. The clothes I would wear, how certain phrases are said, and what does/what does not exist right now. Professor Fig was fascinated when I explained how computers work.

According to Professor Fig, this has never been heard of. Whether it is time traveling or something about dreams becoming a reality, we are still not sure what exactly is happening to me. Professor Fig still believes that my brain has just accepted these "dreams" as a reality. I still refuse to believe on the latter. Professor Fig only brought it up a couple more times, each time I would either storm off or cause something else to explode, but eventually he realized that it was better to just not mention it anymore. I know he means well but accepting that everything you once knew is somehow "not real", isn't as easy as one may think. My money is still on the time traveling explanation even though it doesn't explain what happened to the Other Erin or why we have the same exact name and birthday. I hope, once I arrive at Hogwarts, to explore the library Professor Fig mentioned to see if I could find anything explaining what happened to me. Despite Professor Fig's denial of any book being there explaining my situation, I still want to try. I just want to go home.