A Different Kind of Magic

Chapter 1

I walked down Hogsmeade's main road with my two best friends, Anna Hollingsworth and Mikayla Jones. We had just finished our 7th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was hard to believe that I'd be off on my own in a few years after I finished training to work for both the Auror's office and St.Mungo's, examining bodies found at crime scenes and figuring out what magic was used on them and who did it. My half-siblings from Camp-Halfblood told me the Muggles called those people medical examiners.

I was Claimed in the girl's lavoratory during my second year. I had no idea what was going on. It was a weekend, and I was wearing my beige trousers and a striped jumper. I was about to go back to the Ravenclaw common room to talk to Mikayla while drinking pumpkin juice, when Luna Lovegood told me I had the most peculiar thing above my head. I looked up and saw the glowing image of an owl. I was one terrified 12-year-old.

I began to recall my first ever ride on what the Muggles call and "airplane', then dismissed it. It was too traumatic to endure. My mother-stepmother, I guess- seemed at ease, but I had been white-knuckled the whole trans-Atlantic flight to Long Island.

I touched my clay bead necklace, feeling nostalgic at the thought of never going back. I didn't need the protection of Camp Half-blood since my pure-blood magic covered up whatever "scent" a monster would be following. I loved Camp, though. It showed me that wizards and witches aren't the only freaks in the world, and Muggles can be extraordinary as well. I remembered finding it hard to believe that someone non-magic could be anything out of the ordinary. I saw a boy from the Demeter cabin grow a rose out of nowhere and give it to a girl from Aphrodite's cabin, and I was convinced they just had a different kind of magic.

Mikayla grabbed my arm, jerking me back to the present.

"Oh, Penelope, look!"she said, pointing at some robes in the window of Madam Malkin's. I giggled, knowing she wasn't pointing at the hideous robes she was calling "so cute". She was directing my attention to the boy standing outside the shop, eating a sugar quill from Honeyduke's and laughing with his friends.

His name was Austin. Austin Goulding, a Gryffindor. He had chocolate-brown hair, wavy and not quite as messy as Harry Potter's, as it was much shorter. His skin was tanned and he had piercing green eyes shot with blue and surrounded by the most adorable freckles. His body was as fit as any of the Camp Half-blood boys'. Oh, thank the gods for Quidditch.

"Penny, you're staring," Anna said, laughing at me.

"No, I'm not!" I exclaimed, far too loudly, feeling heat run up my neck.

"She's blushing!" Anna and Mikayla taunted in unison. They were smiling at me with such a smart-ass look on their faces.

"Stop smirking, you two. I thought we had enough of Draco Malfoy," I said, my face turning sour as I said the prick's name. Anna and Mikayla laughed.

"Yeah, it's hard to believe it's only been a year since the battle," Anna said, running a hand through her bright red hair and looking a little sad. Anna was a Slytherin, and she had been rather offended when every member of the house was sent to the dungeons during the battle. She had never understood her fellow Slytherins' need to rebel. She loved Hogwarts and hated Voldemort with a passion. She was clever and cunning, she belonged in Slytherin and she knew it. We all knew it.  She just wasn't the evil little bitch most people assume a Slytherin girl is. Draco Malfoy himself asked her out in his third year. The nerve that boy had! We all knew she hated him. Anna was also one of the few Slytherin who drifted away from the group heading down to the dungeon and fought against Voldemort and the Death Eaters.

"I know! I didn't think we'd have a school to come back to in the fall for our last year. It's surprising how much work they got done to try and get everything back to normal, " Mikayla said dreamily, as if she were thinking out loud. She had been in the same Ravenclaw dorm room as me since we were 11. Ironically enough, she was a spitting image of how Rowena herself would have looked at our age. Long, thick, curly, dark brown hair, nearly black eyes, red lips and pale skin. She was always so much prettier than me, but she always said she'd rather be my friend than Cho's.

I sighed.

"It's hard to believe I've known you two since we were 11 and scared out of our wits. I remember the Sorting Hat coming down over Anna's eyes!" I said as I started to laugh.

"Oh, shut up!" Anna teased, her face turning as red as her hair. She'd always been ridiculously short; I was head and shoulders taller than her. Then again, I am pretty tall.

"I remember you becoming the Hermione  of our year when you answered all the questions in Potions before Snape even finished asking them! He even called you 'Miss Granger' by accident!" Anna was crying from laughing by the end of that, and Mikayla was blushing and covering her mouth. 

My hair suddenly started whipping around my head as the wind picked up with absolutely no warning. It wasn't much  more than a strong breeze, but everyone was looking around and wondering where it came from. Then, there was the strangest sound, a vwoorp-vwoorp sound, and it was as loud as the Gryffindors cheering at a Qudditch match.  It was followed by a bright blue light, and everyone was running to safety in shops, closing doors and windows, and yelling for their friends. I was paralyzed, frozen in...fear? Of what? You-Know-Who was long gone, and no magic did something like this! What was there to be afraid of?

I was the only person left in the street to witness it up close. A blue object was materializing in front of me, slowly coming into focus as the sound grew quieter and the wind died down. A big, dark blue box.  At the top, above the windows, were the words: Police Box. Between them: Public Call. A sign on the left door read:

Police Telephone

Free For Use of Public

Advice and Assistance Obtainable Immediately

Officer and Cars Respond to All Calls

Pull To Open

This wasn't anything wizard-related, and no god or demigod would travel in such a way, so who was to blame for this? The doors opened, and an odd-looking man poked his head out. He had floppy, dark-brown hair and hazel eyes which were more brown than green. He was tall and skinny, and he dressed like  a Muggle's grandfather. He wore a tweed jacket and a blue bow tie. He looked guilty, sad, excited, and happy all at the same time.

He saw me and smiled.

"Oh,hello there!" he said.

I opened my mouth to ask, but he answered my question immediately.

"I'm the Doctor," he seemed proud to say it.

"Doctor-?" I began.

"Just the Doctor." he assured me."What's your name?"

"P-Penelope," I answered.

"Nice to meet, you, Pen-el-uh-pee. Are you really here alone on such a fine day or did I scare everyone off?" he asked.

"I'm afraid it's the latter," I answered.

"Ah, that's a shame," the man answered. "And why should they run off? I really don't bite..."

He sounded serious about the whole biting thing.

"They had good reason, " I answered, keeping it simple. "Why are you here, Doctor?"

A shadow crossed his face, and he sauntered toward me with such a dark look in his eyes I had to step back. His voice was deeper, stronger, older, wiser, and much more serious when next he spoke.

"I know what happened here last year and I know all about the years leading up to it. I know about a young lad who had heroism forced upon him since he was an infant and I know about the darkness and the evil and those who were tortured. I know that great people defeated a terrible man here a year ago, but there is one thing I don't know. One thing I can relate to more than you could understand. One thing that drew me here an entire year after almost the greatest victory in history happened," he said, looking down at me with dark, wise eyes that must have seen absolutely everything.

The Doctor leaned in a whispered a question in my ear.

"Why must he not be named?"