Rebecca Warren and The Third Wizarding War

Chapter 3: New York City

New York City was much different from London. There were huge buildings that were called skyscrapers in the Manhattan borough. Kate said the view from the tallest one was spectacular, but both Rebecca and Isabelle had been higher than it on brooms.

On the ride to Kate's house, she and Isabelle engaged in a number of topics both muggle and wizarding world. Sometimes both. However, Rebecca was quiet the entire ride. She looked out the window. Muggles were everywhere. Walking, talking, eating, playing music, some fighting, yelling, begging, on their phones. It looked like chaos and if things continued to stay bad back home, she would have to live in this even longer.

"Is that true, Rebecca?" Kate asked.
"Huh?" Rebecca snapped out of her thoughts.
"Did you win an award in the Charms club?"
"Um. Yeah. That's right." Rebecca said quietly and turned back to the window. Rebecca was one of the best at Charms in her class back at Hogwarts. She was taught by Professor Flitwick from first to third year. Then her father took over as Charms Master and taught her fourth year. It seemed that Charms ran in the family although Ray, Rebecca's older brother, was terrible at anything but quidditch. Isabelle was well rounded, but adored Care of Magical Creatures.

They arrived to Kate's house. It was an apartment complex called The Luna Apartments in Queens.

"Here we are." Kate said as she pulled out the luggage. They headed up to the fourth floor, the highest level. Apartment 416. Kate opened the front door and let in the girls before closing it back. "Welcome to my home."

It was a lovely scene. A kitchen with an island. The countertops had a white marble finish. The cabinets were a light stained wood. The living room was beside it with a large comfy sofa facing a big rectangular thing Rebecca recognized as a television. There was a coffee mug and a stack of papers with a muggle pencil on the coffee table.

"Oooh!" Isabelle said. She ran over to a picture that was hanging on the wall. It was a bridge with two identical towers. "That's a cool picture."

"I took that picture when I was about sixteen." Kate said. "I took it three days before they fell. I submitted it to a newspaper and they declined it. A few days after, they called offering ten thousand dollars."

"Wow." Isabelle said, still looking at the picture. Rebecca was intrigued by the story, but she didn't bother to go look at the picture. Instead, she asked Kate, "Where's the bedroom?"

Kate seemed reluctant to speak, but said, "Down the hallway and to the left. You two will have to share it."

Rebecca grabbed her luggage and headed to the bedroom. She had been eager to get some alone time. She enjoyed the company of her sister, and she didn't hate Kate nor even disliked her. She just wanted to collect her thoughts without all of the distractions.

She opened the bedroom door and was welcomed to two twin beds on either side of the room. One had pink bedcovers while the other had purple. Kate had done her homework on Rebecca and Isabelle and got their favorite colors.

Rebecca placed her luggage onto the purple bed and unzipped it. Inside it were her Hogwarts Slytherin robes. She wouldn't be able to use them at the new school unfortunately. Over the years she had slowly began to feel like she belonged in the house whereas to start with, she was scared. Her father was a Hufflepuff and done good things during the Second Wizarding War while at school. He had enlisted himself into Dumbledore's Army and fought alongside the Golden Trio known as Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger.

And now the new war had put him in a position to fight alongside them again. In short, he had made Hufflepuff house proud. Rebecca's brother was sorted into Gryffindor. He too was looked up with high expectations and delivered on quidditch as a Keeper. Then Rebecca was sorted into Slytherin and it felt more like a burden than anything else. Isabelle was without a doubt, sorted into Hufflepuff and Rebecca was quite sure her sister packed her canary yellow and black robes as well.