Maya
slowly opened the door of the long ago abandoned house, watching as the rats
and other small rodents scurry into hiding as the old wooden door creaked on
its hinges.  She walked inside slowly,
allowing her eyes time to adjust to the darkness of the old building. The room
smelt of dust and rotting furniture, but it didn’t bother Maya, who just walked
towards the kitchen, avoiding holes in the floor.  She walked carefully over to one of the
cabinets and opened it, searching through the contents until she found what she
was looking for: a small bag with some kind of fine powder inside.

  With
that in hand, she walked back towards the living room, and looked around
quickly before walking up to the old brick fireplace. I might as well use a little to see if what I dreamed about as a child
was a dream or not, Maya thought, as she threw a few of the floorboards
into the fireplace and struck a match. Throwing it into the pile of planks, she
silently hoped that it would work. The fire was enticing and warm, as always,
and she glanced at her letter once more before putting it into her pocket.
Sighing, she opened the bag and grabbed a small amount of the powder, throwing
it into the fire.

  With a
flash, the fire went from red, orange, and yellow to varying shades of green.
Maya’s eyes widened as she witnessed this change. Shaking it off, she stepped
into the fire, trying not to be surprised that it wasn’t injuring her, and
chanted to herself silently, mouthing the words ‘Diagon Alley’ over and over.
She squeezed her eyes even tighter shut once she felt the comfortable air
inside of what used to be her home dissipate, replaced with the sensation of
being on a rollercoaster and getting her shape forcibly changed many times
over.

  Directly
after those feeling went away, she hit a floor and rolled once before stopping.
She laid there for a second, regaining her breath, before standing and glancing
around her. She appeared to be inside a shop, and there was an old man with
scraggly hair staring at her, along with two blonde boys, one very much younger
than the other. She allowed her normal smile to cross her face, and bowed
towards them before turning and walking out the door.

  I knew that the name sounded familiar. My
mother brought me here before… Maya cut off her own thought quickly,
looking around her and seeing a large building off in the distance, with a sign
that read ‘Gringotts Wizarding Bank’. Nodding once, she began walking down the
street, toward the sign. Once there, she pushed the door open and heard a large
man say something about how of course he had the key, it was with him
somewhere, he was sure of it. She looked at the back of the large man, seeing
that he had long, curly black hair and a large coat that he was currently
searching through. She also observed the boy with him. Short black hair,
glasses, old hand-me-down clothes, a nervous and disbelieving manner. He must
be new, just like her.

  She
pulled out her notebook and began writing, quickly outlining everyone that she
had seen and what they looked like, before she was startled by the large man
shouting. “I found it! See, I told you I had it.” Maya chuckled slightly at her
own jumpiness, then watched as they were led away by the small wrinkly person.
“How may I help you?” She turned and saw another person next to her, looking at
her expectantly. She glanced after the people before her, then slowly pulled
out her necklace. On the small chain was an old key, along with a few other
heirlooms that had been saved. She carefully pulled the key off of the chain,
then handed it to the man. He examined it carefully, then looked at her with
slightly warmer eyes.

  “Are
you one of the Savtons?!” He said, seeming very surprised. Maya nodded, and
pointed at an engraving of her name on a small cube that was also on the
necklace. “Oh! You’re Maya, are you?” Maya nodded again. “Well, you’re just as
quiet as you were the last time I saw you! Your father and I were good friends
back in the day, you know.” The small man said as he walked toward the door
that the others had gone through. Maya nodded along, listening to him as he
told her all about how he knew her family. “The name’s Jazqex Copperflare, by
the way. I’m sure you don’t remember me, but I met you when you were just a
little kid.” Maya nodded, slightly remembering a thing that looked like him
somewhere in her deeper memories.

  “You
probably have a lot of questions that you need answered, like where to find
things, how to get from place to place, things like that. Now, I would help
you, but I’m on duty right now, you see, so I can’t show you around. I can,
however, tell you where and what things are. Your parents didn’t tell you much
about the wizarding world because they didn’t want you to end up completely
detached from the Muggle world. Muggles are normal people, people who can’t do
magic. Get in this cart here, come on.” Maya seated herself inside of a small
cart on the train tracks, and nodded as Jazqex continued to explain to her the
ins and outs of the wizarding world, where to find the shops for her things in
Diagon Alley, and a little bit about who to trust and who not to trust.