Wishing Gone Awry

Expecting us. Besides this being a major cliché, it made me nervous and slightly irritated. I was fine with Professor Dumbledore expecting us, but there was always the off chance that that meant Voldemort would be, too . . . which would not only make us akin to Mary-Sues, but also put us in danger. "I don't mean to be rude, sir, but how . . . why were you expecting us?"

"Why, I saw you out the window heading towards the castle," Dumbledore said, amused. I sighed in relief. Then Voldemort neither knew nor cared that we were here . . . or that we existed at all. "Perhaps the two of you should sit down and tell me how you seem to have Apparated onto Hogwarts grounds."

"Oh, we didn't Apparate," Lei said enthusiastically as we took our seats. "We don't know how. We just dropped in from an alternate reality where this place is a book."

I sighed, shaking my head softly at my older sister's statement. "You see, sir, where we come from it is August 28, 2003, and there is no such thing as magic." I paused, cocking my head to the side. "Well, except I think that's how we got here. However, the rings didn't necessarily come from our reality."

"Interesting. Here it is July 9, 1996. May I see the rings?"

Lei and I handed over the rings, my sister smirking at me. "I told you that time runs differently here, Lie!"

"No, the skew is just not exactly seven years, Lei. Just roughly."

My sister stuck out her tongue at me and Dumbledore chuckled at our antics, handing the rings back. "They are no longer magical, and so I see no danger in you keeping them. Please continue, misses . . . ?"

"Oh! Of, course. I'm Emylie Xylon, and this is my sister, Lei." I continued to recount what had happened with the rings while Lei looked around the room in fascination. "And then, well, we found the Room of Requirements, and it had a Way for us to get to the gargoyle. I guessed something really stupid for the password, and my sister called me a goober, and the gargoyle opened, and now we're here!"

Professor Dubledore smiled bringing his fingers together into a steeple. "Very well, what do you intend to do now?"

"Well, I think we should try to get jobs somewhere, Diagon Alley probably, and in the fall we'd like to enroll as students here. Emylie's sixteen and I could pass myself off as her twin, so we'd be in sixth year and we'd study all summer so that we'd be caught up. Is there any way we'd be able to take O.W.L.s before classes started?"

"That's quite possible. Testing is available at the Ministry of Magic for home schooled students." I started to mutter about the Ministry of Magic in general and Cornilius Fudge specifically and only stopped when Lei calmly smacked me in the back of the head.

"Ow," I complained, glaring at my sister. She stared straight ahead, ignoring me and pretending she'd done nothing whatsoever.

Dumbledore nodded in consent. "Very well." He stood and walked over to the fireplace. "Are you familiar with the usage of Floo Powder?"

Lei gave a hyper nod and I grinned. "Of course."

The professor pulled out a bag of Floo Powder and offered it to us. "I look forward to meeting you again at the Sorting Ceremony this fall."

We threw the powder into the fireplace, then one at a time we stepped into the green flames, calling out, "Diagon Alley!"