Reality Bites Harry Potter

Shayla meets Her Idol

I couldn't believe Newt Scammander was in front of me right now! Internally I was losing my shit but externally, well I was trying to hide it. The pounding migraine was helping me a bit I think. My dreams had been very dull in color, so much grey and black, that the real world felt like too much right now. "I'm so happy to meet you, you're kind of my role model" I say and he laughs. "Me? A role model, what I do is hardly respectable. I'm practically a criminal, what with all the animals I own" he says and I wiggle excitedly. "Can I see them?" I ask, reaching towards his case and he moves it quickly out of reach. "I don't think you're ready for that, dear. They can be a bit temperamental" he says and I sigh but nod. "Not that I don't love getting to meet you but how did you end up here now? Isn't it way too late in time for you" I say and he nods, frowning. "I was trying to use my time turner to investigate a dragon's den, I was trying to prevent an extinct line from being killed off but I got my dates way wrong and I ended up here" he says. I frown because that really didn't make sense, you couldn't mess up by entire centuries just with a time turner, but I also was only 14 so I guess I could be wrong. "You picked a great year to show up. There's the tri-wizard tournament that's actually a quad-wizard tournament because of Harry, Charlie and the dragons, Rita Skeeter the roach of a human, and of course the Yule ball with all the beautiful people" I sigh and he blinks at me. "How do you know so much about what's going to happen?" he asks and Pyper smacks me in the head. "You dummy" she mumbles before sighing. "We technically know everything because someone wrote about this and we found the books and read them before attending Hogwarts. We know 80% of the timeline before it happens with only a few changes because we now exist. I wonder what changes you'll be responsible for" Pyper asks him and he smiles slightly. "I'm afraid, my dear, I bring a lot of change" he says softly. There's a knock on the compartment door and Theo looks in and waves. "I think that's my cue to leave, I need to talk to the conductor anyways" Newt says and heads towards the front of the train. Pyper gets up and follows Theo back to the others and I stretch back out, closing my eyes and easily falling back asleep. Dream world is actually a little easier right now, sure it's loud and it seems like there's always a fight going on in the background but at least the grays and blacks keep it from being too bright. I just wish the migraines during my waking hours would go away. It seems like no time at all passes when I'm gently being shaken awake. "Shayla, you need to change into your robes we're approaching the castle" Angelina says softly and I rub my eyes but sit up, quickly getting changed and heading to find the others. "Your hair is a mess" Pansy says, quickly braiding it so it looks a little more manageable. We head off the train and to the carriages. "You should sit with us" Angelina says, leading me to a carriage with her and Fred. I see Pyper with Theo, Harry, and Draco so I shrug and follow Angelina. Alex catches up to us and hugs me. "I haven't heard from you all summer, are you ok?!" she asks and I nod, hugging her back. "I'm fine, I just am trying to find a balance so I spent my summer relaxing a lot. I missed you so much though" I say and she smiles, taking the last seat in our carriage. "I can't wait to see what adventures we go on this year, I never thought I'd say this but I missed your dramatics." Fred laughs when she says that and I flip him off. "I know I'm not going to be perfect at it but I'm really going to try to have a laid back year" I say and Angelina smiles. "I believe in you, we'll make this your best year yet" she says, reaching over and squeezing my hand. "I don't really think that's how it works. It falls on me to make it a good year" I admit and she shrugs. We get to the castle and everyone heads to their house tables. Alex holds my hand as we head over and I smile at Hannah and Susan as we approach them and they wrap me in a hug. I knew that no matter what happened this year I at least had my girls on my side. Dumbledore starts talking and I try my best to listen but honestly he never shut up on the first day of school so who could blame me. It wasn't until I heard everyone talking at once about the Tri-Wizard Tournament that I realized I may have tuned out for a bit too long. I smile, trying to join in on the excitement and not let on just how much I was dreading the actual name drawing. Harry deserved better and somehow I knew, even with all of our changes, that he still was going to get the crap end of the stick. But for now I relax and just enjoy the feast with the rest of my friends. After all, we only got so many celebrations when I wasn't throwing parties.