Chapter 3:
Don't you just love to wake up with a cat on your head and your friend poking youi with a hotel coathanger, because i sure do! NOT. Charlotte turned the light toward me so it was shining directly into my eyes. I closed them tighter and rolled over so my face was buried deep in the pillow.
"I'm asleep!" I said
"Sure you are......." She said. I could hear the sarcasm in her voice and could almost see her smiling.
"Give me ten minutes!" I said, it would take a miracle to get me back to sleep now, but I'm stubborn.
"No. Get up now!" she said jabbing me harder with the coat hanger.
"I thought that Hufflepuffs were supposed to be patient." She jabbed me again
"and kind!" I said trying to keep myself from laughing at the scilence that followed. I could almost feel her conflict at not poking me.
I heard her walking away and lying back down on her bed. 'Just a few more minutes then i will get up and get ready.' I thought to myself. then my next thought was 'Diagon Alley.' I couldn't hold back any longer. I sprung up from the bed and grabbed the coat hanger from the coffee table. Now it was my turn with the coathanger. I poked her in the back with it.
"Time to get up!" I said in a singsong voice.
"Five more minutes mom!" She said.
I poked her again.
Charlotte sat up. "Stop poking me!"
"I'm being nicer to you than you were to me!" I said indigantly.
"Fine! I'll get up!" She said.
We probably got dressed 90% faster than we would have normally in the morning because we were so excited.
I unlocked the door that I thought led to my parent's room. Oops...... In the next room there was a kid that looked about 17 that was getting attacked by a 6 year old. Kind of sad, I know. THeir parents were stitting on the couch eating a bucket of fried chicken. Normally I wouldnt have cared about that but I mean, who eats FRIED CHICKEN for BREAKFAST??? I slammed the door really fast and turned to Charlotte.
"Wrong door"
I opened the one on the other side of the room. My parents were both awake and ready to go.
"Why didnt you tell us you were ready?"
"Well the problem is, you locked the door to our room and when we tried to open it you had piled furniture on the other side of the door." My mom responded.
"you told us to."
"yes but not on the door leading to our room!"
Behind me I heard Charlotte edge over to the other door and begin piling furniture on it so my parents thought that we had done both doors.
"Well pack up your stuff. We will be staying at the leaky cauldron untill school starts." Charlotte and I raised our eyebrows at each other. I was bursting with exitement. "then I have to take both of you over to the Ministry to get the trace put on both of you." My face fell.
"can't we just go without it?" Charlotte asked. I was surprised that she said anything at all, she normally just stayed quiet and obeyed my parents.
My dad jumped in. "all the forein students have to get the trace put on them before starting at Hogwarts."
"But I dont want it!' I said.
Mom glared at me. "you dont have a choice Leanne! It's just not one of those things!"
I groaned.
"how are we getting to Diagon Alley?" Charlotte said trying to change the subject.
"Apparating." Mom answered simply.
To tell the truth, I wasn't that thrilled about apparating.I hear its not all that fun. Charlotte on the other hand was ecstatic. Dad grabbed my hand and I grabbed my bags.
"ready Leanne?" he asked
"Hmmm. as ready as I'll ever be." I answered nevously.
I squeezed his hand to let him know I was ready. All the sudden I heard a crack, and I felt like I was being shoved into a pipe. Wind whistled through my ears and I flipped and spinned through the "tube" I held onto dad's hand like it was my lifeline (it may have been)
As soon as it had started, I heard another loud crack and my feet touched solid ground. I plunked down on the ground and put my head betweeen my knees.
"How do you stand it?" I cried.
"you get used to it after a while." he told me, and with another crack he was gone. I curled up in a tight ball and groaned.
I would not throw up, I would not throw up, I would not throw-----
CRACK
Charlotte laid down next to me.
"that was not fun!" she said.
"tell me about it."
A moment later, mum arrived. Either she had a stronger resolve than us or she was used to it already. Finally I raised my head and observed my surroundings. As far as I could tell, we were in a dirty alley somewhere in london.
"Where are we?" I asked shakily
"In the alley near the Leaky Cauldron." Mom answered.
"we have to rent our rooms." Dad told us.
"oh yeah." Charlotte said. She still had her eyes squeezed shut.
I got up on wobbly legs and took a practice step. I walked over to charlotte and nudged her with my toe.
"don't you want to go see Diagon Alley?" I asked
"I dont want to do anything right now." She said.
"Come on Leanne, we can go get our room while Charlotte recovers." Dad said.
He waved his wand and our bags floated up into the air. I tried to act like I saw things like that every day, it didnt work. We walked down out of the alley way. There were Muggles walking around everywhere. They didnt seem to notice us or the floating trunks.
"I can just wonder how much goes unnoticed by them." i told dad. He nodded.
We walked untill we came to the front of a beat up building that looked as though it had been there for ages.
"sure this is the right place?" I asked.
"Positive." Dad replied confidently.
He pushed open the door and I was hit by the smell of alchol and coffee. Not my favorite smell I can assure you that. There were at least twenty people in the bar, most, drinking ale. Most looked as though they needed a good bath, but one woman, i noticed was sitting alone in a corner drinking coffee. She looked extremley out of place and clean. Her nose was wrinkled up like she smelled somthing bad, but then again so did I. She didn't look unkind but she didnt look like the most welcoming type either. All the sudden she turned around, her black hair swinging. She caught my curious gaze with her hard grey eyes. All the sudden when it looked as though she would jinx me she winked and a small smile curved her lips. My face burned and I looked down. She just smiled even more and looked at me as to say, Its ok. I know I'm out of place. I turned my head and changed my gaze to the barman. He looked familiar.
"Hello Justin!" My father called. "would like a room."
"Sure. Room 21." He said, levitiating the keys and pushing them toward my father. He caught them and said thank you. We walked up a few flights of stairs and got to our room. Not the cleanest place. Well whatever. I couldnt help but feel like I should know who that woman with black hair was. I got settled and we waited for Charlotte and mum to get back to the room. When they finally got back, we were told that we had to delay our shopping untill the next day. That was disapointing. I wanted to eat in Diagon Alley but mom and dad insisted that we wait to see everything till tomorrow. Let me just tell you, The Leaky Cauldron does not make good food!
