Storybook Island

Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix

*Abigail*

"Find anything good?" I asked Meghan, watching her dig through the chests of books. 

"A lot. But I'm trying to find the least dangerous story to enter." 

"Boring. Ooo, what's this?" I asked, picking up a beautiful copy of Harry Potter.

Meghan looked at it and immediately shook her head. "Nuh-uh. The Order of the Pheonix? That's a death trap. There's the Inquisitorial Squad, remember? And Umbridge? And Voldemort? The Ministry?" 

"It'll be fine." 

"No way. If anything, let's enter The Prisoner of Azkaban. Or The Goblet of Fire. Much safer." 

"Right but there's so much more of just Hogwarts life in The Order of the Pheonix. We can be regular students, Meghan! Please!" 

"No!" 

"You can pick next, anything you want," I promised. 

She squinted, eyeing me. "Carry On by Rainbow Rowell?" 

"Yes!" 

"But you have to read it before we go." Meghan had been trying to get me to read that book for forever. It was her favorite. I didn't know why I was procrastinating, but I was. 

I nodded quickly. "Yes, yes, sure!" 

A pause. "Fine." 

I cheered and ran over to the portal, pushing the book inside. The space between the branches began to swirl and light up blue, sparks flickering in it. Taking a deep breath, I grabbed Meghan's hand. "Ready?" 

"Let's go." 

We stepped through the portal together and toppled out onto the grass of Number 4 Privet Drive. Beside us was a shimmering puddle, our way back. I scanned the setting, spotting Harry Potter under the open window to the house. He had his back to us and, luckily, hadn't seen anything. 

I grabbed Meghan's wrist and pulled her off of the Dursley's property toward the street. "That was a close one." 

"Yeah. Okay, how long until Hogwarts starts?" 

"I don't know, a while. Like, ten chapters. Harry has the whole hearing and there's Grimmauld place, the Order, yadda, yadda, yadda at the start. It takes some time before he goes to Hogwarts. I think we should go find Diagon Alley and get a room at the Leaky Cauldron or something. Plus, we can get our stuff for school." 

Meghan slapped her forehead. "We don't have letters! How are we supposed to-" 

An owl swooped down from the sky, dropping letters into each of our hands, then continued toward Number 4 as we continued walking down the street. Hastily, we tore open our letters. I read through the letter happily and found the list of items we needed for school. 

"That was really convenient." 

"Guess that means we're magic." 

"Guess so." 

***

Finding the Leaky Cauldron was the worst. It wasn't marked so Muggles wouldn't find it, and we tried to use our extensive Harry Potter knowledge that told us it was on Charing Cross Road, but I had never been to London and Meghan didn't remember going when she was very, very little, so that wasn't very useful. It didn't help that, turns out, the English people aren't as polite as they were portrayed in the movies and cussed about twenty times more. Maybe we were just in a rough area. Worst, there was no cell signal since smartphones didn't exist in 1996, so Google Maps didn't work. But eventually, with a lot of signs, our memory of the books, and a crapload of luck, we found our way.