Holiday From Real

We were slammed down onto cold, hard Earth. We were all dazed and sore from our fall, but eventually got up from our facedown positions. I wasn't the first one to get up, but I was the first one to realize where we were. "Son of a bitch!" I screamed and stomped the ground below me.

Jane slowly rose to her feet. Once she was standing up, she looked around, "Where are we?"

I pointed to the faintest sign of a path about forty feet from us, "You see that?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"I hope to God that I just fell asleep on the plane or something, but I'm pretty sure that's going to take us to Hogwarts."

Jael sprung up and immediately started to freak out, "How could you know that?"

I angrily ran my hands against the sides of my head and wished I dressed normally for the airport. I'm a small woman, I can protect myself, but it always helps to play on societies fears, which is why I'm dressed up "punk." I put my hair up in a faux-mohawk, I decided to wear my mom's brown, tattered jeans, and I wore my rather trashy, female muscle shirt version of a The Distillers shirt. Plus, I wore a fake leather jacket; with a large stencil and red spray paint, I spray painted "Street Dogs" and their logo on the back.

"There," I pointed to the tip of a tower, "we're in the middle of no where because an old diary with a hole in the middle of it sucked us into some random place, and there's the tip of a tower from a castle."

"Well," Jael drew in a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself down, "lets be realistic here—"

"Realistic?" I screamed and bent closer to her from my waist, "Realistic? We got sucked into a BOOK. A book. A book in the airport that looked like the description of Tom Riddle's horcrux diary literally sucked us into… into what?" I screamed and stomped in circles, "We're not on a page, we're in a different plaaaaaaaace!"

Keb Keller, the most relaxed guy I've ever met, slowly approached me; "We should start walking towards the castle then. Maybe someone there can explain why we're here… or if we're really at Hogwarts."

I slid my fingers in between each other and placed the palms of my hands on the back of my neck. I drew in a few deep breaths before replying, "That's a good idea."

"But…" Lauren looked around, "Where's all our stuff?" Lauren is pretty girl; she has long, straight, blonde hair, cute facial features, and an amazing sense of style. Like me, Lauren has perfected haggling and figuring out the best sales so that she can get the cutest things possible for the lowest price possible. She dusted off her red, Victoria Secret sweat pants.

"I don't know," I sighed, "Hopefully they're in the castle. Lets start walking."

"Wait!" Mr. Bozzi shouted out while helping Mr. Abar up. They quickly took roll to make sure that we're all here, in the middle of nowhere, together. Mr. Abar walked in front of the group and slowly led us to the path, making sure that there weren't any dangers for us to come into contact with. We walked in silence; we were all too busy looking at the supposedly fictional world of Harry Potter.

"Well," I sighed as we started to walk up the steps to the large castle doors, "if we can see this place, that means we're not muggles. So at least we have that."

Harper started to laugh, and he laughed loud and hard. We all looked over at him with curiosity; Harper was the lead and main singer of advanced choir, but other than that, he was a very quiet, keep to himself sort of guy. He gently patted my back a couple of times before saying, "As long as we can find the bright side of things, I think we're going to be okay until we get back."

"Yeah," I weakly smiled and nodded to show that I agreed, "Until we get back."

Mr. Bozzi and Mr. Abar did their best to open the doors, but it was to no avail. Mr. Bozzi was ready to start slamming against it with his left shoulder, but Mr. Abar told him to wait. Mr. Abar knocked loudly for a minute or so, then we waited on the steps for three minutes. Just when Mr. Abar was about to knock again, an old man with a long, white beard opened the doors. Jael shouted, "How'd you do that?"

Lilly rolled her eyes and shouted, "With magic, dumb ass."

"Hey!" Beth slapped Lilly's arm and said, "Don't use words like that, we don't know what's acceptable here."

Lilly stared Beth down, but didn't say anything further. The older man adjusted his wizard hat and looked at our group of thirty or so random people. "Is it your luggage that's in my office?"

"Oh God!" Lauren tilted her back and slammed her hands on the area of her chest that covers her heart, "Thank you! I knew you wouldn't let me lose my good clothes!" Most of the group laughed at her while I walked up to the older man. I extended my hand for a handshake; after two or three seconds of looking at my clothing, he shook my hand.

"My name is Karma, Karma Kinzek." I let go of his hand, "My classmates here, and well myself to be honest, am terribly confused. Could we please speak with you in your office?"

The old man smiled, "Of course, please, follow me." Once we were all in the castle, the doors magically closed themselves; we followed him in silence, we were gawking at all the magical things happening around us. The paintings were moving and talking with one another, the suits of armor walked around, and ghosts were walking into rooms through walls. We walked up a very twisted staircase, but we ended up having to run up the last half because it was starting to go to another hallway. Those of us on the boxing team shot up the stairs, but the kids who are just in band almost didn't make it.

After a few more minutes of walking, the old man brought us to a door in the middle of five very close ones. I thought he was going to lead us into a broom closet, but the second I walked in was the same second I gasped. The room was huge; it was filled with his things, and to the right was a small staircase to another door, probably his bedroom. There was a sleeping phoenix by his desk, and a few talking portraits behind him. He sat down on the chair behind his desk and waved his wand in front of him a few times. Pencils, papers, and numerous other things transfigured into the necessary amount of chairs for our group. I sat down next to Mr. Bozzi, who sat down next to Mr. Abar.

The old man smiled, "My name is Albus Dumbledore, how may I help?"

Mr. Bozzi and Mr. Abar were silent with shock, so I quietly cleared my throat and rushed out how we ended up getting here, then I asked him, "What year is it?"

"It's nineteen forty-two."

"Aww man!" Lilly shouted.

I shushed her and leaned forward towards Dumbledore, but then Lilly said,

"Don't you tell me to be quiet!"

I turned my upper body towards her, "You best be quiet soon so we can hurry up and get out of here."

"Who made you the boss?"

I stood up and locked gazes with her, "Every year I am the winner at state championships. The only time I lost was my first year, and even then I was just the third placer. You wanna fight me? Then c'mon," I extended my hands towards her, and then into my chest, "fight me, we can fight, and I'll knock you out. So unless you wanna lose some teeth, you best be gettin' quiet."

Lilly shifted a little bit in her seat.

I continued to stare her down for thirty seconds before she blinked and looked away. I sat back down and drew in a deep breath. I looked into Dumbledore's concerned, curious eyes. "We need to get back to our own world in our own time, is there anyway you can help us?"

Dumbledore tapped the fingers on his left hand on the top of his table, "From what you've told me about your travels, it seems like your arrival isn't a mistake."

I was silent, opened my mouth an inch or two, and then tilted my head.

"Finding a diary that was a horcrux, and it have send you back into time," he chuckled, "and into a place that wasn't supposed to exist, well, that's no accident."

Mr. Abar gulped while Mr. Bozzi asked, "What do you think we were sent back here for?"

Dumbledore gently shrugged, "I couldn't make a proper assumption without knowing about the diary."

"Well…" Mr. Bozzi looked at me, "I didn't read the books."

I sighed and leaned forward, placed my head in my hands, and rested my elbows against my knees. "In the world we come from, your world is in a series called Harry Potter," I paused.

Dumbledore nodded.

"Harry Potter is the main character, he's born in nineteen eighty, and Tom Riddle, a student here now," I pointed to the floor to emphasize my use of time, "starts messing around hardcore with the Dark Arts in his sixth year, maybe even the summer before he starts his sixth year."

Dumbledore leaned back into his seat and looked at me with concern, but not with surprise.

"He eventually becomes the Dark Lord Voldemort, and he creates decades worth of pain and fear, and he tries to kill Harry because he's pretty much immortal but Harry keeps getting in his way of world domination, but Harry is good so Harry ends up defeating him in the last book and the wizard world goes back to being a happy place."

Dumbledore stroked his beard with his right hand.

I leaned a little bit closer to him, "Do you have any ideas?"

"Well," he breathed out in a way to show that he was thinking, "have you considered that perhaps you are here to save the, what'd you call it?"

"The Harry Potter World?"

"Yes, yes," he smiled, "perhaps you are here to save the Harry Potter World."

I just looked at him.

"Didn't you start off by telling me that the author of these books got the idea in a dream?"

I was silent for a moment, "Yes."

"Well," he held his hands and leaned forward, "Not all dreams are fiction. Perhaps she was lucky enough to just catch a glimpse of a different world."

"Like what?" Jane spoke up and slowly rose out of her seat, "Like a parallel universe?"

Dumbledore shrugged and smiled, "I don't know. Maybe a parallel universe, or maybe we really are just a very well hidden secret. I really don't know."

I didn't say anything, and Dumbledore stayed silent. The silence allowed us all to hear Greggor and Ifan's conversation. Greggor, or as we call him, Greg, is the most talkative person in history. He always talks, he often makes us behind in history class; if he wasn't so into singing he'd probably make us behind in choir, too. Ifan, also known as "If And", always needs to question things. When they are together, no one can get in a word unless you scream it at them.

I slowly turned and stared at them, I kept my stare for a full minute before Greg looked at me. "What?"

"Did you hear that?" I laughed and smiled, but not in a good way. When I get extremely angry, I smile and I laugh, but you can obviously see that my eyes are not pleased. "We, we! We get to save the Harry Potter World!" I stood up and did a circle with my index finger to show that I'm talking about the whole group, "We are going to be saviors. Us. A random group of kids from Chicago are going to save a world that's supposed to be fictional."

Mr. Abar slowly rose to his feet, "This is going to quickly become a fight." He eyed Greg, and then looked into my eyes, "The time we spend fighting over what we can't control is just going to make us stay longer."

I put my hands on my elbows and hugged myself; I slowly nodded my head up and down. Mr. Abar looked at Dumbledore and offered his hand; as they shook hands, he said, "My name is Lamar Abar, I am a history teacher."

Mr. Bozzi stood up and shook Dumbledore's hand next, "And I'm Roho Bozzi, I teach choir and musical instruments."

Dumbledore stood up and said, "Being how you two are not the appropriate age to be students, would you like to become professors while you are here?"

They looked at each other before replying in unison, "That would be great."

"I imagine that you'd like to teach your usual subjects?"

"Would that be possible?" Mr. Abar asked, "I… I can't teach wizard history."

Dumbledore looked at him with some concern, "I wouldn't have you teach something you didn't know. I, of course, will have to speak with Headmaster Dippet, but I am confident that he will approve, given the situation." Dumbledore walked around his desk and then said, "As you've already seen, your luggage seems to be at my left." he pointed at it with his left index finger, "Your wands are on top of your bags, please grab them, and then follow me to the Great Hall; you'll need to be sorted. What year are you kids in? Fifth year?"

I quickly did some math in my head to figure out what year Tom Riddle is in, "Yes, fifth year."

Mr. Bozzi looked over at me, so I mouthed, "Trust me." He nodded up and down twice before whispering something to Mr. Abar.

"Our wands?" Jane whispered to me.

I shrugged and started to look for my bags, "If we have to be sucked into a world that's supposed to be fictional, we can at least have the break of a wand."

She nodded her head, "True, true."

It took the group about ten minutes before we all figured out whose things were whose, put our wand in a secure place, and followed Dumbledore out to the Great Hall.

-------

The sorting hat literally just finished sorting the last first year when Dumbledore brought us into the Great Hall. He told us to wait where the first years were just waiting as he walked up to Headmaster Dippet. They spoke too quietly for anyone besides the other teachers to hear, but Headmaster Dippet's facial expressions showed that things weren't going normally, or as planned. After several long minutes, Headmaster Dippet stood back up and somewhat happily – he was mostly confused, but he trusts Dumbledore –shouted, "Bring back the stool and the Sorting Hat!"

We made eye contact with each other for a minute or so before we all silently decided to form a line. Dumbledore took the hat and said, "Hogwarts students," he smiled and scanned the confused room, "this year, we are welcoming a new group of students to the school. They are all beginning their fifth year; please do your best to help make them feel welcome."

I looked at Jane and breathed out, "Not embarrassing."

She laughed until Buenaventura walked up to the stool; he was the first in line. After a few minutes, the house shouted out, "Slytherin!" Buenaventura shrugged and flashed us a half smile while the Slytherin's clapped and cheered. Next up was easily the most irresponsible guy I know, Paz Peters. He too was sorted into Slytherin. Next was Keb Keller, he was sorted into Gryffindor. After him was Jane, the hat took a few minutes, but decided that she should go into Slytherin. My turn was next, and I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't totally stoked. I made myself comfortable on the wobbly chair and scanned the room while Dumbledore placed the hat gently on my head.

"Hmm…"

I was shocked for a second, but then I realized it was the Sorting Hat. I didn't really pay attention to its voice when it was sorting the others; I was too nervous to listen.

"You're very smart, and very ambitious…"

I smiled proudly and tried to look up at it, "Aww yeah, I'm gonna be in a house with my two best friends, huh?"

"Oh no, no, no. You're much too brave and willing for me to put you anywhere but—"

"Whoa! Whoa! Lets talk this out."

"GRYFFINDOR!"

In a high-pitched voice, Jane shouted, "Say what now?"

I laughed and looked at her and Buenaventura. While shrugging my shoulders, I said, "I tried. I even thought about the mean stuff I do."

Jane laughed as Dumbledore took the Sorting Hat off of my head. I slightly turned to get off of the stool, when I looked at the hat it said, "Nalo."

"Whaa—?" I couldn't ask the hat anything since Greg walked up. I quickly shuffled away and to the Gryffindor table, but I sat so that I could look at Jane and Buenaventura. About half an hour, maybe a little more time passed before we were all sorted. Annie Veela and Lilly Pavine were the only other two to get into Slytherin. My friends Jeff, Doug, Lazy Legs, and Lauren soon joined Keb and I at the Gryffindor table. Tyler, Fredrick, James, Natasha, Leena, Ann, Dave, Harper, Ifan, and Greg were sorted into Ravenclaw. The rest were sorted into Hufflepuff, the rest being: Kayla, T'uan, Karen, Nikola, Beth, Caitlyn, Tesla, Eva, Pandora, Luna, Caroline, and Alice.

Once everyone was talking again, and people were almost finished eating, I walked over to the Slytherin table and sat down directly across from Jane. She looked up at me while I sighed; with a mouth full of mashed potatoes, she said, "Whaa?"

I slowly and subconsciously started to rock back and forth, "Nalo."

Jane swallowed the potatoes in her mouth.

"Is time still moving forward without us? What's going to happen to Nalo?" I bit my bottom lip and fought back tears, "He's going to think I abandoned him."

Buenaventura looked over and leaned closer to me, "Karma."

I looked at his caring eyes.

"Nalo would never think that. He's going to know something happened; he knows that you love him way too much to just leave him."

Tears started to flow from my eyes, but I didn't make a sound. Just as I was sure that I had control over my voice, Dumbledore walked over to us with the group we originally came here with behind him. We looked up at him as he said, "Being how you don't have any uniforms, there are two tailors waiting in the Slytherin common room to take your measurements. All the uniforms will be ready by Saturday evening," schedules magically appeared in our hands, "for now, you'll have to wear the clothes you came here with." Dumbledore than stepped aside, "This is Tom Riddle and Abraxas Malfoy. They are Slytherin Prefects and will walk you all to the Slytherin common room."

Don't get me wrong, I love the Harry Potter Series, kudos to Jo, but… words did not do Tom justice; saying that he was gorgeous would saying the very least. His hair is short and dark brown, his eyes are dark, and his skin is pale, but it still has some color. His lips are medium sized, but bordering on thin, and his nose is perfectly straight. He's easily six feet tall; he has broad shoulders, and a strong, masculine jaw line. And he… he has a vibe about him, perhaps you've been near someone with the same, "It's okay, we can get naked" vibe.

Abraxas wasn't too hard on the eyes, either. He was just as tall as Tom, maybe an inch or so more, with blonde hair and cold grey eyes. His skin was pale, his lips were thin, and his shoulders were broad, too. His whole body looked powerful, both physically, and magically; he looked like he knew how to control magic very well.

When Dumbledore walked back up to the professor table, Tom cleared his throat and scanned our group. Us who were seated almost immediately stood up; he looked us over with curiosity and then said, "Follow me." Abraxas didn't say anything; he just walked by Tom's right side. We all walked behind him in silence, but once we were out of the Great Hall I made eye contact with Jane. I made an obvious head turn towards Tom, looked back into her yes, and did a humping motion. She immediately laughed out loud; I stopped two seconds before Tom looked over his shoulder.

Once Tom was focused on reaching the Slytherin common room again, Buenaventura walked in between Jane and I, made eye contact with both of us and then pointed at me, then at Tom, and then waved his finger left to right.

I shrugged my arms into a "W" as if to say, "Whaaaaaat?"

Buenaventura smirked and pointed at Tom, then at himself, and then did a few elaborate hip thrusts. I made eye contact with Jane and howled with laughter. Buenaventura glared at us while Alice power walked up to us and looked at him. She whispered, "Sorry kid-o's, but…" She smirked and then pointed at Tom, then Abraxas, then to herself before doing very elaborate hip thrusts that showed her three–way idea.

Everyone who saw her do this laughed; we laughed until Tom reached what looked like a brick wall. He tapped it in a certain way; he only tapped on certain bricks for about thirty seconds before a door suddenly appeared. He walked in while Abraxas said over his shoulder, "This is the Slytherin common room, hopefully you new Slytherin's memorized the way down."

It was very dark and cold down here, well, there were a lot of lights, but it was still dark. To tell you the truth, it was rather creepy. The floating candleholders were in the shape of skulls, and for every two regular lights, there was one green one. The room had a low ceiling, and it looked quite a bit like a dungeon. We all scanned the room's design before a tailor stood up and cleared his throat. We looked over to see two tailors standing about five feet a part, and behind round, small stool like things. The objects were obviously meant for us to stand on; they were perfect, three by three circles, and extra lightening was provided floating above it.

The two closest to the tailors stood on it first; I didn't pay much attention to what the tailors were doing, I was talking with Jane and Buenaventura about my Nalo worries. I didn't stop talking about it until it was time for Buenaventura and I to get fitted; Buenaventura stood on the one to the right, and I stood on the one to the left.

"Get in position," the tailors sighed in almost perfect unison.

I immediately put my hands behind my head and spread my legs to shoulder width; Buenaventura laughed at me. I looked over at him, "What?"

He laughed for thirty more seconds before saying, "How many times do you have to be searched for you to do that automatically?"

I realized my position and laughed too, "What can I say, Bueno? Those rich folks don't like me much when I'm not in the book store." I looked at how he was standing and stretched my arms straight out from my shoulders.

Bueno – we'd call him Buena, like his name would be shortened to, but he said that emasculated him – looked at me just as I was about to start talking about Nalo again.

"Take your jacket off, I can't get proper measurements with it on."

"Oh…" I quickly looked at the tailor working on me before taking my jacket off and tossing it into Jane's arms, "Sorry."

"Mhm."

I thought to myself, "He's quite the pleasant fellow." I looked back over at Bueno, but he tapped his foot and started to talk before me,

"Well, I'm running down the road tryin' to loosen my load, I've got seven men on my mind,"

I laughed, "Four that wanna own me, two that wanna stone me, one says he's a friend of mine."

Jane quickly started to air guitar and join in on our random session of song. Our tailors told us to turn around, allowing me to make momentary eye contact with Tom while singing, "Lookin' for a lover who won't blow my cover, he's so hard to find."

Bueno saw me do this and laughed, forcing Jane take his part of the song. The tailors finished their taking of measurements just as we finished the song. Jane quickly took my place while handing me my jacket. As I put it on, I saw that her luggage and guitar case was down here instead of in a room. I quickly walked over to it and took it out; Bueno saw his and did the same. We looked at an excited Jane, and then looked at each other. Bueno swung his arm up, and then back down while strumming a few notes. I fought back a laugh, locked gazes with him, and did the same.

With a very serious tone, he asked, "Street Dogs rock off?"

I strung a few notes for dramatic affect. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

Bueno started us off, but I quickly joined in, and it didn't take us long to start jumping and thrashing around; our rock off quickly changed from our talent to how loud we could be. It also didn't take long for the Hogwarts kids to stare at us, or for those who were just walking in to stare at us either. When Jane was done being fitted, see squatted down, slammed her hands down as if she was playing the drums and sprung off to join us in our pogoing. Jane pogoed around and sang perfectly on time with us, but we stopped so she could have the part,

"Hey, I was always just another average kid, looking up to the Pistols, idolizing Sid! I guess my parents never really felt the same!" she pulled on a shoulder of my jacket and shouted, "Spikes and leather jackets hurt my family name! Now I'm on the streets! Now I've been locked out! Friends and punk rock music were the only way out!" We started to jump straight up and do three hundred and sixty degree spins into our energized crowd of friends; they started to shout and thrash around with. Most of the Slytherins looked either horrified or shocked, but some joined us in our jumping around.

Our rock off didn't end with the end of the song, nor did it end when the tailors were done. Our rock off ended when Professor Slughorn – Rowling's description was very true to him –walked into the Slytherin common room and shouted, "What is all the racket?"

We immediately stopped and looked at him. Bueno dropped his guitar and pointed at me, "She was the one who started it."

I rolled my eyes and told him, "No wonder you're in this house."

"Shut up."

I laughed and made eye contact with Professor Slughorn, "I'm sorry, Professor, we quickly got into… our rocking."

Jane and Bueno laughed at me while I flashed Professor Slughorn a charming smile. He looked me over and said, "I can see you're one of the new students, so I'll let it go this time." He drew in a deep breath, "But next time you and your friends behave in such a way at such an hour, I will give you all detentions and take away points from your houses."

I nodded my head up and down a few times, "We understand, sir. Thank you for the break, we won't rock so loud so late again."

Bueno and Jane smirked in a way that showed they refrained from laughing.

"You're welcome," he nodded once, "now go to your own houses, everyone. Lessons are tomorrow, you'll need rest."

"Yes, sir."

He nodded once more and walked back from where he came from. Once he was gone, I started to lightly play again while looking at my friends who are in Gryffindor. "I guess we better get out of here." They nodded and started to follow me while I played a bit louder and walked backwards towards the entrance and exit door.

Jane laughed, "Who are you, the Pied Piper?"

I laughed too, "You know it."

Keb grabbed Bueno's guitar and joined me in my guitar playing.

When Bueno realized that we were leaving with their instruments, he shouted, "Hey! You can't take our things!"

I laughed while leaving, "We're Gryffindors, we do what we want."

"No," Jane put her hands angrily on her hips, "You guys do what's best. We do what we want."

"Whatever," I saw that Jane was positioning herself to grab her guitar from me, so I didn't step out of the room until she lunged for me, but she ended up out of the room, too. She was going to grab it away from me anyway, but she stopped when she realized that she couldn't get back in. She had her wand, but she didn't know the way to tap at the bricks. I laughed as she banged her right hand against it,

"Bueno! Open the door for me!"

Bueno snickered, "If you can't open the door yourself, you can't enter."

"Argh!" She shouted; us Gryffindors were going to start walking away, but we decided to stay for the laughs, "Bueno! Open this door or I'll never open it for you when you're stuck on this side!"

Bueno laughed, "Sorry, Jane—"

"Damnit, Bueno! I want to go sleep, let me in!"

He loudly sighed, "Janie, I'm sorry, but—"

"Don't call me that! Just open the door."

"I can't—"

"Can't what? Stop being a dick?"

"You can't say that in this time, Jane."

She nodded to show she heard me. "Bueno! Stop being an asshole—"

I slowly stopped playing her guitar, "You can't use that word either,"

"AAGH! BUENO! YOU DOUCHER—!"

"You can't—"

"I KNOW!" She banged both her hands against the wall, "OPEN THIS DOOR OR I'LL KILL YOU TOMORROW IN CLASS!"

Bueno was going to let her in, but he was going to have some fun with it first. I was quickly starting to become tired, so I started playing the guitar again and led the group to where I imagined the Gryffindor Tower would be. I didn't go there off pure intuition, though, I asked the paintings along the way for directions; it didn't take us too long to get there. Once we were there, the Fat Lady wouldn't let us in because we didn't know the password, but one of the paintings near her told us, "Wingleworms."

I looked at it with a curious, slightly disgusted look before looking at the Fat Lady and said, "Wingleworms."

She sighed angrily, gave the painting that told us the password the evil eye, and then swung open.