The Other Side: A Harry Potter FanFiction

Chapter I

"Lana, honey," whispered her mother, "Open your eyes. We're about to land."

            Lana's eyelids fluttered a bit before lifting open sleepily. She yawned and sat up straight, then caught a glimpse of the window out of the corner of her eye.

            Excitedly, she pressed her hands and face against the glass and stared out at everything passing below; people smaller than specks in her vision, cars the size of ants, buildings that looked old and fancy, and new and modern at the same time.

            And it was all English!

            "I can't believe we're almost there!" she said as the light overhead that signaled for passengers to buckle up illuminated.

            As the flight attendants started to speak, Lana buckled herself and started to gather her carry-on items; her purse and her backpack. Inside her purse was the all-new digital camera, released earlier that year. She'd gotten it as a birthday present.

            Lana pressed the power button, and the screen lit up with a small tone. At the top-right corner was the date "8/5/2000" and perpendicular to that was the time "10:00 p.m.," the time it would be in Manhattan right about then.

            She held the camera up to the window and snapped a few pictures of London from above as a flight attendant with blonde hair up in a bun and blue eyes asked, "All done with your drink, ma'am?" in a British accent.

            Lana looked over her shoulder at her and replied, "Yup." Then she returned to the window.

            At the very edge of her vision, Lana saw something zoom past her, too fast for her to get a good look at. It was too big to be a bird, and looked almost like a person... flying on a broomstick...

            "Did you see that?" she asked, poking her mother's arm and pointing out the window.

            "See what, darling?"

            "That... thing. I don't know what it was, but it was weird."

            "I think you're still half asleep, Lana," her mother said, "You probably just thought you saw something."

            Lana continued to look out the window for a moment before saying, "Yeah. I guess you're right."

            "Welcome to our humble abode," Uncle Rodger greeted, leading Lana and her parents into the fancy living room. "Please, make yourself at home."

            Lana shrugged and kicked off her sneakers, dropped her luggage on the hardwood flooring and leapt over the back of the white, floral-printed loveseat, landing perfectly on her rear and leaned back so her head was against the armrest. Her feet hung over the other armrest and she took in a deep breath and said, "Home."

            Her mother rolled her eyes and said, "I don't think he meant like that."

            "He said to make myself at home," Lana said, "And now I am." She grinned, her eyes closed.

            "At least take your things upstairs to your room before you takeover their furniture," her father said.

            "No, no, that's quite all right," Aunt Valeria said, "Rodger and I will take care of everything." She looked to her husband and nodded, then picked up Lana's purse and backpack while Rodger took her other two bags full of clothing and held them over the back of the loveseat, and then dropped them.