Crossroads of Two Worlds

35- What a World

"What do we do now?"

Maya and I walked out of Gringotts with money and I felt the comforting weight of my grandmother's necklace on my chest with each step I took.

We'd already purchased my robes for this next year, as I'd wildly outgrown the former set. As we walked down the cobblestone street, I heard a distinct and familiar cry from behind me. I didn't even flinch when Astra landed on my left shoulder and nuzzled her face into my hair, more like a dog than an owl.

Maya snorted and shook her head, "That owl is really strange."

I scoffed, "Uh, no. She's just really smart."

I may not have flinched when my owl landed on my shoulder, but I definitely did when someone embraced me from behind. I relaxed and turned around as soon as I recognized the muscled arms of Gryffindor's beater, James Potter.

"James! I've missed you!"

He squeezed me really tight before he stepped back to look at my face, "I thought you'd disappeared off the face of the planet,  my only source of information was Rose and even she wouldn't tell me much! I'm so glad you're alive!"

I laughed, "Why would I have died? James, I missed you too."

A large, familiar grin appeared on his face, "Ready to kick some arse this year?"

I held up my hand for a high five, "Hell yes!"

Maya, in the meantime, looked very confused as to who this boy was and why we were talking about kicking "arse".

I pulled her forward by her arm and gestured to James, "Maya, this is James Potter, the beater on the Gryffindor quidditch team. James, this is Maya Jackson, my first best friend."

A look of understanding dawned on Maya's face, as I'd told her about how I thought the beater was going to figure out who and what I was. She managed to cover it up, "That's the one that carries around the bat and hits the violent bowling balls right?"

I laughed at her description of James' quidditch position but shrugged, "I guess, that's pretty close to accurate."

James grinned in his usual cocky fashion at Maya, "It's a pleasure."

From behind James, I heard a loud voice yelling at him from across the alley... his mother.

"JAMES POTTER! We've talked about this running off!"

The teenager in question groaned loudly but turned to face the forty-something red-haired woman that was Ginny Potter.

Ginny's face softened as she saw me standing with her son, her frown melting until she grinned at me and reached to embrace me in a hug. I knew this woman wasn't one to be argued with, so I just accepted the hug with a smile.

"We were so worried!" Ginny exclaimed, her son rolling his eyes in the background.

I smiled at the red-haired woman, "I've been well, Mrs. Potter, I promise you. Though, I guess there was no way for me to tell you to stop worrying."

Despite the fact that both Potter boys claimed that their mum was "overbearing, overwhelming, and invasive," to me, she seemed to be exactly the mother I'd always wanted. Sure, my mum was better now that the demigod secret was out, but Ginny Potter had a relationship with her children that my mother and I had just begun to build.

Just as I was about to ask how the Potters' summer holidays were going, Ginny's ebony-black wand leapt from her pocket to hover vertically in front of her face. It vibrated heavily until a wedge of blue light emerged from the tip, a sort of projection. The projection showed an older, scarred face that nearly mirrored Albus Potter's.

It had to be Harry. I was proven correct when the image of Harry Potter moved and he spoke, "Dearest wife, if you have succeeded in gathering up our children like berries from the forest, would you, ever so kindly, henceforth adjourn with me in front of Eelops. Ever yours, Harry James Potter."

The blue projection was sucked back into Ginny's wand.

I admired the spell work required to send the projection, but I was confused as to why he talked like that.

I looked at James where he stood next to Maya (who, I realized, hadn't said much through this whole thing and looked very bewildered), and James laughed.

"Mum accused Dad of not being as gentlemanly as when they first got married, and this is his comeback. Every message or letter he sends, sounds like it's from the seventeen-hundreds."

Ginny rolled her brown eyes, "Firstly, James, that was not how that encounter went. I said that he was more gentlemanly to the Prime Minister than to me and I mentioned how I felt his wife deserved better than a sixty year old slouch in a suit."

I laughed at Ginny and tried to picture Harry interacting with the Prime Minister.

Maya snorted, "He would get along with my dad."

Harry Potter and Percy Jackson together? What a disastrous pairing that might be. I tried to picture the two back-haired, green-eyed men next to each other and could barely hold in a laugh.

What a world I live in.

.....

Maya and I continued down the street after our encounter with the Potters, and purchased the rest of my school supplies that were provided on the list.

Now all we had left was to visit the book shop that Maya had spotted earlier and was determined to enter.

The door of the used book shop rang when we opened it, the small bells over the door frame tinkling as they hit each other. The shop smelled exactly how I expected it to: like old books and ancient parchment. As much as I didn't need to read books that often, and sometimes couldn't because of my dyslexia, I would always love that smell. It reminded me of my grandmother.

"Come in! Just holler when you are ready to purchase!" The voice coming from the back of the shop was ancient and gravely, though I could somehow tell that it was a woman.

I turned to look at Maya but found her already gone, immersed in a bookshelf somewhere in the shop, no doubt. I was lucky to have a friend as accepting as Maya was, not everyone got that, and I wasn't entirely certain that I deserved her. But if she'd heard my thoughts just now, she'd have tossed them aside in an instant. So, probably, should I.

I should be content to know how lucky I am to live in a time with so many supportive people. Despite all of the hardships that have fallen upon me and those yet to come, I was a lucky person to live in this world.