The Footsteps of my Father

The Footsteps of my Father

Chapter Eight

-Fire and Time-

The first day of school for Ari came quickly, with a fresh bout of snow along with it. As her father drove her to her school in Lewisham, the city where he worked, she looked out the window at the passing hills and villages. Lewisham was only about a half an hour from Croydon, Surrey, the town in which they lived, and since her father began work about the same time she had to be at school, he drove her. She glanced down at the clothes she wore: a knee-length dark gray pleated skirt, a white long-sleeved shirt, and a dark green vest. Her school colors. Though Lewisham Secondary School didn't require a uniform, they had dress codes, and one was that they could wear anything but it had to be in their school colors. There were certain restrictions, such as the length of skirts, but it wasn't too bad.

Slytherin colors, Sindaria thought with a smile. She sighed softly. I wonder what it's going to be like. My father took me to the school on Friday and it looks very nice. The teachers were all there, working on their lesson plans, and they had all been very kind. I just hope the students are the same, but I suppose I won't be that lucky.

"Are you ready?" her father asked, glancing at her, smiling.

She looked at him. "As ready as I can be, I suppose."

"You'll be fine," he said reassuringly, placing a hand on her shoulder.

She smiled. "Thanks."

"After school, I'll be waiting for you in the front to take you home."

She nodded. "Alright, but how did you manage to get off of work by four?"

"Most of the things that I have to do involve administrative work, and they won't take me too long to do. Seven until four is plenty enough time."

"Did you get my permission form signed?" she asked. In two weeks, they would be going to the London Zoo for a field trip, and everyone had to have signed forms from their parents allowing them to go.

"Yes, yes, don't worry," he said with a laugh. "The London Zoo sounds fascinating, and I'm sure, with your gift with animals, you'll be in heaven."

Sindaria laughed. "I suppose I will be."

Her father smiled and she pulled her school bag onto her lap. Inside were her books, paper, and pencils. She opened the flap and pulled out the letter that she had received that morning from Dominic.

She broke the wax seal and took out the letter.

Ari,

Well, I'm back at Hogwarts and I know that the professors will be dumping another load onto us as soon as classes start, so I'm not sure how often I will be able to write, but I'll try. I spoke with my parents about how you could speak to Lora, and they said that it is not very common among the wizarding population. They suspect that you might be what, in the wizarding world, we call an Earth Natural. Part of that gift is that you can speak to animals, and if you have a chance to see other animals, I would suggest trying to speak with them.

Also, if what they suspect is true, you could possibly be an Animagus, someone who can transform into an animal at will. This is very far-fetched though, but there is a book in our library that I think you should look at. If you show it to my parents, they'll know where to look. It's called Legendary Wizards and there's a passage in there about Merlin that I think would greatly interest you.

Well, I hope you have a good first day, and you're welcome anytime at the estate. I'll be home for the spring holidays, so you can come by then. There's something that I want to show you. Draco's calling me, so I'd better go. We're going to dinner. Hope to talk to you soon.

Dominic

Sindaria smiled, folding the letter and placing it back in her bag. Thank god for them. Dominic is so great; I'm really glad I became friends with him. And it's good that I know him, because he'll be able to introduce me to all his friends and some of the other students at Hogwarts during the World Cup. I can't wait!

The car stopped and Sindaria realized that they had arrived at Lewisham Secondary School. "Have a good first day," her father said and hugged her.

"Thanks. Have fun at work."

"Always," her father said with a smile.

Sindaria smiled and climbed out of the car that her father had purchased over the weekend. She closed the door and looked up at the towering school in front of her. The walls were stone and there were many arched windows. Broad stone steps led up to the large, double-door entrance way, and students milled around the snow-covered lawn, talking amongst themselves and entering the school; a bright mass of green, white, and gray. She took a deep breath and hoisted her bag over her shoulder. She began walking up the sidewalk, mingling with the other students.

When she entered the school, she looked around wide-eyed at the large entrance hall. Steps went up in either direction, leading to the upper floors. She walked across the flagged stones, her Mary Janes clicking on the stones. Once she was through the archway in the back, she saw that there were lockers lining the hall. She took her schedule out and looked at it. "Number 271. Okay." She looked around at the numbers on the lockers and walked until she found hers. Using the combination on her schedule, she opened her locker and placed her bag into it, taking out the books she would need for her classes before lunch.

"Are you new here?" a voice asked.

Sindaria shut her locker and turned to see a tall red-headed girl looking at her, a look of interest on her face. Two other girls were standing on either side of her, shorter and dark-haired. She noticed that they were well-dressed, and she was glad that the clothes she wore were brand-new. "Yes, I am. I'm Sindaria Olsen, but you can just call me Ari."

The girl nodded. "My name is Valerie Kesington." She motioned to the girls beside her. "This is Carrie Swanston and Mabel Rommsel. We're in our fourth year here. Which year are you?"

"I'm in my fourth year," Sindaria replied.

The girls smiled. "Brilliant," Valerie said. "Which class do you have first?"

"Um . . ." Sindaria glanced down at her schedule. "Math."

Valerie nodded. "That's what we have; you stick with us, and you'll be fine, Ari."

Sindaria smiled. "Thanks!"

As they walked, Sindaria noticed the looks that the other students gave Valerie, Mabel, and Carrie. From the looks of it, they were very popular, and Sindaria was grateful that she had made friends rather quickly. She just hoped it would last.

"So, Ari, where did you transfer from?" Mabel asked.

"Oh, I used to go to school called Carson High; it was in New York City," Sindaria answered.

"OOhh!" Mabel said, her eyes wide. "You lived in New York City?"

Sindaria smiled. "Yep!"

"That explains the accent, then," Carrie said.

"Do I sound that odd?" Sindaria asked, looking at her.

Carrie shrugged, giving her a smile. "Just different. Nothing to worry about. You'll be sounding like us in no time."

"I hope. First, though, I have to get used to the different terminology."

"Like what?" Valerie asked.

Sindaria looked at her. "Well, for one thing, we say 'cool' or 'sweet', and you would say 'brilliant' or 'wicked'." The three girls nodded. "Do you have anything else that I need to know how to say right?"

"You don't say 'toilet', you say 'loo'," Mabel said.

"And we say a lot of 'rather', and instead of 'kind' we say 'sort," Valerie said.

Sindaria nodded. "Right. Thanks."

"No problem," Valerie said, smiling. "Oh, here we are."

Sindaria looked around as they entered the large classroom. The desks filled the left side of the room, facing the teacher's desk. Large, arched windows covered the far wall, letting in the bright sunlight, illuminating a few dust bunnies in the air. A number of the seats had already been taken, but Sindaria followed Valerie to a cluster of wooden desks right by the windows. Sindaria took a seat between Valerie and Mabel.

"The teacher isn't bad," Carrie said and Sindaria looked at her. "His name is Professor Xavier and he's quite good."

"Brilliant," Sindaria said, smiling.

At that moment, their teacher strode in, a tall, dark-haired man in a crisp black suit. He looked around the room, smiling. Maybe school won't be that bad, after all.

"Good morning," he said brightly.

"Good morning!" the class chirped.

"Well, today as you know, we'll be doing a bit of review, since I'm sure all your brains have gone to sleep during the break." There were a few chuckles at this. "Can anyone tell me about long division?"

"It's long?" a boy said, invoking laughs from the class.

Professor Xavier smiled. "Very true, but it's a little bit more complicated than just that, Brandon. Now, I am going to write some problems up on the board and I will be calling on some of you to come up and complete it." At some of the students' worried looks, he said quickly, "Don't worry; this will not count on your grade. I'm just making sure that you remember so that we can continue on." With that, he turned to the chalkboard behind him and began scribbling some problems up on the board. Turning around, he glanced around the room. "Okay . . . Brandon," he said, looking at the boy who had made the comment earlier. The boy groaned, but stood and walked up to the board, beginning to work on the first problem. "Carletta." A tall girl with long, flowing red hair stood and walked up to the board. "And . . ." His gaze landed on Sindaria. "Oh, you must be new," he said. He looked down at his sheet. "Sindaria Olsen?"

Sindaria nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Why don't you come up and try the last problem."

She nodded and stood, walking up to the board. She bit her lip and looked over the problem. Finishing way before the other two students, she quickly wrote down the answer, only doing a bit of work.

Professor Xavier walked up beside her, examining her work. "Excellent, Sindaria. And you hardly did any work." He quickly scratched out another problem next to her completed one. "Why don't you try this one?" She walked over, glanced at it, and then wrote down the answer, doing absolutely no work. She looked at Xavier, who was nodding, smiling. He quickly wrote down a problem, this time not long division. Scanning it, she quickly wrote down the answer. Xavier pursed his lips, thinking, and then wrote down a problem consisting of 'x'. "Solve for 'x'," was all he said.

She looked at it, her eyes looking at the problem, the numbers spinning through her head. After a moment, she quickly wrote down the answer. "Is that right?" she asked, looking at Xavier, whose eyebrows had risen.

"You just did Algebra," he said, looking at her. "That was very advanced."

Sindaria shrugged. "The numbers just made sense. I don't know why."

"I would like to speak to you after class."

"Yes, sir," she said, nodding.

"You may return to your seat."

She walked back to her seat, sitting down. Those numbers had just made sense! But, that was really advanced, how did I manage to do it?

"How'd you do that?" Valerie asked in awe.

"I don't know," Sindaria said softly, looking down at her desk.

* * *

As the next few days flew by, Sindaria managed to surprise all of her teachers by surpassing the other students rather quickly. Professor Xavier had begun to teach her advanced math, a subject in which she was particularly skilled in. "Keep up at that rate, and you'll be top of our class in no time!" Carrie had commented after school one day.

"Your day went well?" her father asked as they drove home.

"Oh, yes," Sindaria said, smiling. "I really love it here. And I'm doing very well in school."

"Yes, the headmaster called today, just before I left from work," her father said, smiling.

"What'd he say?"

"He told me that you are flying through all your classes and that you are a very exceptional young lady." At this, Sindaria beamed with pride. "And, he also said, that he is going to move you up a few grades, because this is much too easy for you."

Her eyes widened. "Which grade?"

"Eighth."

"Blimey," she whispered. Eighth grade! "Will I have to go to a different school?"

Her father nodded. "You will be enrolled in Lewisham High School in a few days."

"But what about the trip to the zoo?" she asked. She had been really looking forward to it.

"You still will be able to go."

She smiled, relieved. "Brilliant!" she exclaimed. Then she saddened. "But what about my friends?"

Her father squeezed her shoulder reassuringly. "Don't worry, Ari. You'll still be able to see them."

"But it won't be the same."

"But think, Ari, you can make a load of new friends and you might even get a bit of a challenge in school!"

"True," she admitted, but she was still feeling slightly sad. It was true that I haven't known them for that long, but . . . well, it is a new school, and even though I love my teachers here, I suppose that I ought to give it a go. "Okay, father."

"Good," her father said, smiling. "Your mother and I are very proud of you, Ari."

Sindaria beamed with pride. "Thanks!"

* * *

"Now, today we will be working with polynomials," Professor Tetara, her Algebra I teacher explained to the class. As the professor explained about polynomials, Sindaria glanced around at all the older students. It was really strange, being here and being the youngest out of the entire class. Several of the students had given her odd looks, but hadn't said anything thus far. However, she could tell that they were interested.

Suddenly an alarm rang shrilly throughout the classroom, making everyone jump at least six feet into the air. "What's that?" Sindaria asked, looking around.

"Alright, everyone, file out. You know the drill," Professor Tetara said calmly, herding the students out of the high school and into the courtyard. Sindaria's eyes widened as she saw the flames covering half of the building.

"What happened?" she asked, staring at the flames.

"Something about a gas leak in the chem lab," an older girl said. "That's what I thought I heard the teachers talk about."

Sindaria, along with the rest of the school, crept closer to the side of the school where the fire was burning brightly. Where was the fire department? As Sindaria watched the flames crawl around the sides of the school, a sudden realization hit her. Fire! I can . . . no, I don't know. I only did it that once, and that weird enough! But, maybe, I can do something to keep it from spreading. Sindaria closed her eyes, having absolutely no clue as to what she was doing, and just tried to think of the fire.

"Look at that!" someone cried. "The fire's not spreading!"

"How odd!" another exclaimed.

Sindaria opened her eyes and smiled. How had I done that? She wondered, looking at the fire, which now seemed to have decided to stay in one place.

Screams broke her out of her happiness of halting the fire and she looked to see someone waving up in one of the upper windows, the fire very near to that window. Oh God! There's someone up there! She heard a huge 'CRACK!' and watched in horror as the building began to crumble, the person now holding onto the window frame, screaming louder as the building began to collapse.

She heard a siren wail, but she knew it would be too late. Without thinking, she screamed, "STOP!" And, much to her surprise and shock, everything froze around her. She looked around wildly. What just happened? Why is everything frozen?

"Oh, my God!" she cried, clasping a hand over her mouth. Did I do something? She looked up at the figure that was nearly falling out of the collapsing window. What do I do? If only this fire hadn't started in the first place, then this wouldn't have happened. But, of course, I can't change that, so what do I do?

A wave of dizziness washed over her, making her vision go black. She reeled backwards, hitting a frozen person and knocking them over. She collapsed onto her knees, a blinding flash filling her vision. . . .

"Your papers on the Civil War will be due in one month," she heard a voice say.

Sindaria opened her eyes and they widened into rounded saucers. She was in her History class, but that was impossible! And . . . Professor Verban had told them about their papers earlier that day, so why was he telling them this again, and why . . . why was she in History in the first place, when she had already taken it?

She looked around and watched as the bell rang and the students clamored out, eager to get to lunch. Sindaria didn't move; instead, she stared down at her desk where her books were piled, her Latin book on top. What was going on? She looked up at the clock and, sure enough, it ready 11:30.

"Professor?" she asked, standing and collecting her books.

Professor Verban looked at her. "Yes, Ari?"

"What's the date?"

"January Twelfth," her teacher said slowly, giving her a strange look.

"Okay, thanks." Sindaria hurried out of the classroom, walking through the halls in a daze. January Twelfth, that's today! But how can I be back in History? I would have had to . . . no, that was impossible! You can travel through time . . . but obviously something to that effect had just happened. But how? Did I do something? But how could I? Then a thought struck her, making her halt in her tracks. The fire! It's going to happen! Now I can prevent it, perhaps.

She sped down the hall, racing for the Science Wing. Rushing into the Chem Lab, ignoring the stares that she received from the other students, she rushed up to the professor's desk, where he was standing, rifling through papers. "Professor?" she said breathlessly.

The professor looked up at her. "Can I help you?"

"There's going -" She stopped. How could she tell him there was going to be a fire without making her sound like a completely insane? "I think there's a gas leak. It's imperative that you check all the pipes around here."

The professor looked at her strangely, but nodded. "If what you say is true, that's very dangerous." He looked around the laboratory. "Everyone, please remain where you are. I'll be right back." He hurried out of the classroom, Sindaria at his heels. "Do you have any idea where?"

"Somewhere in the Science Wing."

The professor nodded and within a few minutes, he had collected a large group of professors and the searched the entire Science Wing. To their surprise and Sindaria's shock, they did indeed find a gas leak. It was very small and was in one of the pantries. Is it possible . . . it just might be. I can move in time? That's another thing I'm going to have to speak to Gabriel and Sarah about. This is just all too odd.

"Sindaria, you have just saved the school from a very serious fire," Headmaster Carloton said.

Sindaria, who was now standing in front of the Headmaster's desk, nodded. "Yes, sir."

"How did you know?"

"I -I - um . . ." She couldn't very well tell him that she could move through time. He would take her for a loony and lock her up! "I don't know, sir. I - I thought I smelled something funny." Nice one, Ari. Brilliant. He's going to think you're crazy for sure.

But the Headmaster didn't say anything like that. He merely nodded, gave her an odd look, and nodded to the door. "You may go," was all he said.

* * *

As Sindaria waited for her father, she thought about the day's events. This had to have been one of the strangest days of her life, except, for course, when all those odd things had happened. So she could speak to animals, control fire, and move through time. What next? She could fly? She rolled her eyes, shaking her head. Hopefully, Gabriel and Sarah will know what's going on and can answer all these questions flying through my mind.