The Uncle From America

Chapter 7

Hermione pov

The Summer School classes were to be taught in a tall building in the middle of New York. Thankfully, Miss Hill had given her very precise instructions as to how to reach it. From the outside, it didn't look spectacular; one mundane building among others. Hermione glanced right, then left. On one side of the school there was a bakery, and on the other side, a plumber's office. Passersby strolled in front of the main entrance without even noticing it. Not unlike the Leaky Cauldron, come to think of it. Still, she held back the urge to roll her eyes; wizards in America were so...weird, to exhibit their properties in the middle of muggle business. At least the Leaky Cauldron was uninviting from the outside –and a bit on the inside.

The front door opened and a woman pulled a small child out behind her and onto the street. She looked perfectly normal, dressed in a pure muggle fashion. The child wore a bright orange and white miniature uniform. It was very school-like, with a badge pinned on the front of his shirt. The logo on the badge was similar to the one on the papers Miss Hill had her sign the other day. This was the right place, she decided.

The inside wasn't much grander either. The walls and decoration were quite simple; no huge portraits or fancy decoration like Hogwarts. The style was far too...modern. Unstylish. Bland. Hermione sighed and continued on. She didn't think these people had any taste. Or maybe Hogwarts' splendors had blinded her too much.

A receptionist sat behind a high desk. Said receptionist, amiddle-aged man, was waving a wand at a bunch of papers, making them twirl into a colorful, harmless, mini hurricane. She waited for him to take notice of her. A name tag pinned on his chest indicated the name 'Usher'.

"Good morning sir. My name is Hermione Granger; I'm here for a late integration into summer classes," She said eventually when he didn't move.

'Usher' raised an eyebrow, mumbled something and stared at the paper hurricane. One piece detached from the others and slid neatly into his waiting hand.

"Hermione Granger, newbie?" Hermione nodded when she realized he was asking for confirmation. "Yeah, that's your face," He added and pointed a corridor behind him. "Third floor, room twelve. Your supervisor's name is Hakker," Pause. "You British?" At her positive answer, he added: "For reminder floor one is ground level here. So you need to go to second. Good day,"

As Usher didn't seem open for further discussion, Hermione went her way and followed his direction. One would think living in a castle that's stairs switched position all the time would give her some sense of orientation, but some details made her definitively rethink the ordinariness of the building. She had climbed one set of stairs before realizing no number had been written on the walls; or rather, thenumbers flickered from 1 to 9 every three seconds. The walls themselves changed color occasionally – and very subtly – barely a shift from clear white to light gray and then beige and pale pink - all this in the time it took her to climb twenty steps.

She reached the third floor quickly, climbing while keeping her eyes on the ground (staring at the walls gave her a headache) and entered a large yellowish corridor with a lot of metallic-like doors.

"Watch out, imbecile!" someone shouted. One of the doors was slightly ajar and a teenage boy barged out of a room laughing, quickly followed by another his age. They both disappeared down the corridor, wands out and casting random spells at each other. A girl stepped out, crossed her arms and leaned back against the threshold with a resigned look on her face. She caught sight of Hermione and headed towards her.

"You're supposed to find room twelve?" she asked straight ahead. Hermione nodded. "You must be the new girl," she added. She had golden eyes that resembled a cat's, especially the pupil. Her light brown hair was tied in a complicated braid at the back of her head. She was dressed like a muggle, with a short-sleeved pale brown tunic, black leggings and combat boots. "I'm Gemma. Gemma Morgen. I'll be the one showing you around."