The Light in the Dark | Neville Longbottom

Epilogue: Part 1

Once I felt as though the flames had consumed enough of my past, I stepped outside the cabin and focused on the destination of my oasis: New York City.

I've never apparated this far before. Honestly, I wasn't sure if anyone has, not even Dumbledore himself. Maybe it wasn't possible. But in the moment, anything felt possible. The impossible became easy. Whatever I wanted to do was happening. I wasn't struggling. And that was how I knew for the first time in my entire life I was finally free.

I focused on my destination and arriving there, closing my eyes to do so. And what was once a dark, somewhat-stormy, wretched shack on fire in the middle of the forest became a loud, bright, bustling train.

When I opened my eyes I had appeared on an underground train of some sort with my trunk in my hand. A sign above the doors indicated that the contraption I was currently on was called a "subway"... Whatever that meant. It wasn't empty either. Separated across the cart, three muggles sat completely unaware of their surroundings and the fact that I had just appeared out of thin air. Or maybe they were aware, but just didn't care because odd stuff was normal to them. They were in fact Americans, so it was quite likely.

Observing this supposed subway some more, I noticed that the muggle closest to me was a scrawny old man wearing a large dirty coat. He was hunched over with his nose pressed into one of the seats like he was sniffling. From what it looked like, he was sucking some sort of white powder into his nose. Unfortunately, he seemed to notice me staring at him, whipping his head towards me and narrowing his eyes.

"WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?" the old man shouted in a very odd and thick accent, "MIND YOUR OWN FUCKING BUSINESS, YOU UGLY ASS BITCH BEFORE I KILL YOU!"

I jumped back, slowly inching myself away from the old man as he returned to the mysterious powder upon the seat. I looked towards the other side of the train cart, where a young man and woman sat; neither of whom seemed fazed by the terrifying thing that just insulted me and threatened my life. But maybe... That was just normal here and was something I'd have to get used to. I just kept telling myself that at least I wasn't getting hunted by a hate group, or dealing with Harry Potter anymore... Just odd-looking, old men on the subway who liked to sniff mysterious powders from seats, which seemed a lot less scary than one would think.

I was also caught off guard by his accent, and then the accent of the lady's voice in the subway's walls as she announced our stop. Before today, I wasn't sure if I had ever heard an American talk, or if I did... it definitely didn't sound like this.

Before the old man could follow through with his threat, I very quickly shuffled out of the subway, navigating my way towards the stairs. The subway was very disgusting. It kind of reminded me of Kings Cross Station, except it was much dirtier.

But what lay above was absolutely breathtaking. As I stepped into the open, I was quickly met with tall buildings, spectacular displays, and life bubbling with excitement. It looked just as amazing as it did in my dreams. I made it... I made it to New York City.

It felt like I was in a movie; I could've sworn that the birds were swinging. I stepped into the middle of the road, twirling around in a circle to take it all in. I never truly imagined myself making it all the way here. This was just some sort of fantasy I liked to escape to when things got hard. So, being here and seeing it with my own two eyes seemed surreal. And what made it unbelievable was that it was just as I imagined... Maybe even better! I felt like I was on top of the world.

HHHOOONNNKKK

The noise caught me off guard. For a moment, I thought I was on the Hogwarts Express since the sound reminded me of the train's horn, but I knew that couldn't have been correct. I whipped around and was met with a small yellow moving-vehicle that was also known as a "car", according to Ron, whose father used to own a flying-version of the contraption. Then, a man leaned out the vehicle, scowling at me.