Not Your Average Gathering

Prologue:

Ben Castump was your average nerd. Huge-rimmed glasses hung over a pair of darting eyes. He was shy and scared of everything, from peanut butter to ghosts. Ben tended to bombard his peers with useless facts, though they never listened any way. His skinny build and shaking frame was a target for bullies. Even his teachers were tired of his stutter. So Ben surprised everyone, if there were anyone, and himself when he followed Nell de France. To school. Well, he hoped it was.

***

Nell glanced at her parents sleeping frame as she shoved her applewood, phoenix core wand in her pocket. Her rich green robes swished around her as she groped for her keys. Sliding down the steps, she nearly collided with the door, but a good timed “Shadelink!” sent her through. Crisp air and falling leaves greeted her. Nell started chewing her lip as she looked around. There were hardly any jack o'lanterns, fake ghosts, or even lights in this almost all adult neighborhood. Only her house had a little pumpkin on the porch. She heard a swish once or twice but pushed it away, then started demolishing her lip again. Where was the signal? Charlotte said she would send it now! Nell panicked, but then, an identical witch wearing hot pink robes slammed into her. Gasping for air, Nell immediately went into attack mode.

“Snarkhari!”

The pink-robed witch was tangled up in thorny vines. But she laughed.

“Sissy, it’s me!” 

“Charlotte! You made me jump ten miles! I’ll free you! Cacturne!”

Charlotte sprang up and hugged Nell.

“Sissy, come on! The meeting started!”

The green gloved hand and the pink gloved hand grasped together and set off at a gallop towards the town over the cacti. Nearing a glowing sign that said “Wel ome,” (because the “c” was missing), they sprinted towards the skyscrapers, then turned and spun into an abandoned ally. Wheeling in, Nell shouted the code “Ncdecs Interna!” 

With Charlotte at her heels, Nell pinched her nose and slid down the gunk covered sewer she just opened. 

“Why did we pick a spot that's so close to the garbage disposal!?” Nell screeched to Charlotte, who responded with a grimace. Kicking off the globs and garbage that covered her feet, Nell glanced at Charlotte, who was squinting behind her, and not running to their base. 

“What's wrong? You can tell me.” Nell socked Charlotte in the stomach. Charlotte brushed her off with a half amused, half exasperated look. 

“Sissy, I think we're being followed.” 

Nell cocked her head and sighed. “We are the only ones who know this place!  Come on! They're going to start, then I can’t show them my news-”  

“Ok, ok, let’s go and stop blabbing!”

 Charging down the goo-covered floor, the breathless girls flinged themselves in a brightly light room. Ten or so girls looked up expectedly, all wearing different colored robes. Most of them offered friendly smiles. The place was white, dirty, bland and smelled like mold, but Nell happily smiled at all the girls. This was the only place she felt accepted in. 

Like father, like daughter.

“Hello, and sorry for being late. Let’s start! Talk to a partner about your magic! Your unique magic!” Nell beamed at the girls. 

Then, as voices started to bounce around, a girl with blonde hair that hung to her waists and periwinkle robes blinked at Nell. 

“Hello Nell! I have been working on my art magic! Nice speech, and it helps with Redroots! Oh, and you brought a… a boy!”

 The whole room gasped. Was Everleen crazier than usual? All the girls knew that after the Great Battle of Hogwarts, the wizarding school closed and witches had to learn by themselves. Nell was very distraught at this news, especially because her mom, Ginny Potter, had told her to not show her powers to anyone and her dad, Harry Potter, had reprimanded her for showing Muggles magic and had to wipe their memories. Everyone knew that and she got too much attention from it.

But Nell thought that she could make a group of her own, and teach each other magic. So, she gathered her friends and made a group, called Hogwarts Legacy. They had strict rules, most of them made up by Nell herself, as she was the leader and founder of the group. Each person had to wear different robes, to distinguish each other. No one could tell their Muggle friends. 

Most of the girls in Nell’s group were daughters of a famous person that had gone to Hogwarts, and knew this rule to heart. Everleen was Luna Lovegood’s daughter. Autumn was Hermione’s daughter. And Dorothy, Nell’s trusted BFF, was Cho Chang’s adopted daughter. 

Everyone was sworn to secrecy, but Nell trusted most of them. There were a few exceptions, but she was never challenged. Lastly, no boys allowed. Nell made this rule because she was mentally hurt by a boy once. She just never knew that it was Gellert Grindelwald’s grandson. Watching him alone in his yard, inviting him to her small club, watching him murder Allison Grandheart, one of the earliest members, with “LBAKC!” and then turning his wand on her, him yelling “Crucio!” and then everything fading… 

“Nell! Nell! Nell! Are you still with us!?”

 Giving a start, Nell locked eyes with Dorothy, who had called her name. She vaguely wondered why she was on the floor, then realized that she had one of her panic attacks again. 

“Y-yeah, I’m f-f-fine.” she choked.  

Just then, a scrawny-looking boy stumbled into the room. A clearly heard noise of disdain emitted from some girls, as Ben, who Nell recognized as the boy who bumped into her during class and asked her about leopard-tail iguanas, stood frozen in fear and shock. The hostile girls were not about to let a boy get away after what happened to Allison. 

“It’s a boy! Kill him!” Zoee yelled.

“No! Erase his memories! We must not fight!” Everleen glared at Zoee.

Nell promptly ignored her, while quietly agreeing with Everleen. Zoee was a failing witch, who was the daughter of Pansy Parkinson, complete with an upturned, pug-like face that was now maroon in anger. Nell had brought her in, as she felt pity in seeing her terrible magic, but she was reconsidering her choice, as she winced at her hard words. Some other witches were agreeing with Zoee, while some that were standing near Everleen looked hesitant as the voices in the room swelled and billowed, followed with scowling and shouting and the screeching of minor spells.

“Nobody’s gonna finish him? Fine, I’ll do it myself! FadeFire!”

Almost everyone acted at the same time, with Nell and Dorothy screaming “NO!” and Charlotte lolling on the floor to a pale Ben and a horrified Everleen.

And then, just as Nell reached for her wand, Scarlett fell on the floor, on fire, because she had clearly jumped in front of Ben, writhing and yelling “NO!!! DO NOT FIGHT!”  

Dorothy hurled herself to Scarlett and then, the girls did the exact opposite of what Scarlett had said. Nell pointed her wand at Zoee, but smart, shy and quiet Autumn was faster.

“HOW DARE YOU DISOBEY THE RULES! YOU ARE UNWORTHY OF BEING A MEMBER OF OUR GROUP! AIMCG!”

Zoee looked surprised as she toppled over, but then found out that she still could fire spells. She then immediately started a one-on-one jinx battle with Dorothy, who was countering just as quickly, while covering a whimpering Scarlett.

“ShineToil!”

“MuddleShinx!” Dorothy shot back.

“FlareFlip!” an enraged Zoee wailed

“Tawter!” answered Dorothy just as quickly.

“LIKHIMER!!!!” Zoee howled, throwing the Killing Curse at Dorothy.

As Nell looked at the blur of green light beginning to appear, she saw Allison again. She saw her burn away, saw Gellert’s grandson’s insane face, saw her losing Allison, saw Allison’s mom’s face when she told her, saw her weeping. NO! I can’t lose another friend! I have to stop Zoee!

“Oungeocke!”

Zoee’s eyes grew as wide as plates as her mouth worked but made no sound. The green lights disappeared.

The battle was over.

As everyone lowered their weapons and looked at the traitor Zoee, they realized that she was causing no more harm, but she had provoked everyone to fight a battle that was avoidable, so any friendliness in the witches quickly dissipated and they angrily shoved Zoee out of the room, declaring her a “fraud” and “destroyer of rules and peace.” Then they all went in and told Nell, who was clutching the arms of Dorothy, that Zoee had been taken care of. Then the witches laughed and broke into conversation again.

“Thank goodness Nell! You stopped Zoee!” Charlotte rejoiced.

“Yeah! Yeah..” Nell felt proud at stopping Zoee, and sadness for Allison. But at least she could save her legacy. 

“Now, what about Ben?” Everleen gestured to the shaking silhouette.

Nell grunted and picked herself off the floor, only to be pushed down by Dorothy.

“You need rest. You’ve had enough trauma, so sit!” Dorothy demanded in such a Ginny-ish way that she and Nell burst out laughing.

“Okay ‘Mum’!” Nell saluted at Dorothy, but remained on the floor.

Dorothy walked up to Ben. She took out her wand and grinned at Everleen. 

“Erase his memories, right?”

Everleen nodded her approval as she made a peace sign.

Dorothy took a deep breath, then calmly said “Desufnoc!”

Instantly, Ben stood up. He grinned confidently, then ran out of the room. Nell wondered what Dorothy had done to the poor geek.

“I made him a jock and a big head and brain, and made him forget that we were here. Oh, and the teachers will love him,” Dorothy confirmed.

Nell shook her head and laughed, then stretched and walked together with Charlotte and Dorothy out the door to meet with the other witches that had decided to move outside.

All right. Nell thought. 

Allison, everything is alright.

***

Epilogue:

Ben tossed a paper into the trash can and winked at his teacher, Mrs. Frayes, who winked back in return. He waltzed to his seat and relieved all the good moments in the past week: his newfound courage and popularity, scoring a home run, tackling countless players, getting an A+ on the history test, the list went on and on. Ben laughed to himself, and he wondered how he got so cool. It was just another day… 

It was then that he locked eyes with the girl across from him, and he wondered why he felt so weird around her, like… like she had changed him. Maybe she had. Ben shrugged and resumed his work. He thought: If ya can’t beat em, then ya join them!

Nell nearly burst with laughter at his smug face and smiled to herself. 

Everything is amazing. Ben and his popularity, and me with my friends. Black people, white people, pandas, unicorns, we are all the same underneath. 

Everything truly is all right.