The New World

The New World

Written by: Megan & Mati

Walking off the horrendous smelling bus, my bag weighing
heavily on my shoulders with what felt like a dozen pounds of
homework, my brain crammed like all the kids in the school
lunch line were in my head. I was longing for summer. A break,
a small sliver of freedom.

Just then, I arrived at my house and I headed inside and sat
down on the broken and faded couch. I wanted to disappear, I
wanted all of my homework to evaporate like dust in the wind.
Then I made up my mind. I emptied my bag of what seemed
like endless amounts of homework, and filled it with clothes
and food for the next few days, ready to leave.

Closing the door behind me, unable to turn back
now, I started down the cracked and weed-infested
sidewalk to the Greenway forest.

When I reached the edge of the Greenway forest, its
various shades of green taunted me, as if daring me to
step foot inside. When I stepped inside, I quickly
realized how it got its name. It was quite breathtaking.

Once you get through the first layer of thick trees,
you forget the noisy city behind you. The sounds of the
forest were like a symphony in my ears. And the small
creatures at my feet acted like a city themselves.

There were poisonous frogs and toads of various neon
colors, insects of every kind, turtles with spiky shells and
turtles with smooth and soft shells, feisty red squirrels
fighting over acorns, baby chipmunks playing what looked
like a fast-paced game of tag, and raccoons that were
stealing food from the small and timid animals, reminded
me of bandits.

The Greenway forest was so full of life! All the life
buzzing around made me realize just how tired I was.

Z
Z
Z…

Last night, I went to bed at 11:00 pm because I was trying to
finish my mountain of homework, but just ended up falling
asleep on my desk.

I felt myself drifting off and I leaned my head against a
tall, old willow tree. The leaves acting as if a wall to
block the sounds around me out. My eyes felt heavy and
started to close, and I let them, prepared for a graceful
night's sleep ahead of me. But that feeling would not last
long.

All of a sudden, I heard something coming from behind a
small, deep green, blueberry bush. Then it stopped. Then I
heard it again. It stopped again. Had I gone insane from
just the few hours I had spent in this forest? I heard it
again, there was some rustling behind the blueberry bush,
and it sounded huge.

I thought it was a moose, from all those times my dad had
taken me hunting in the woods, but it didn’t sound right. A
moose behind a blueberry bush? Come on, that doesn’t
sound right! The blueberry bush kept rustling, and one by
one, the blueberries disappeared until there was 1 left on
the very front of the bush.

It was the biggest, ripest, juiciest of them all. It looked
delicious, like the ones from my garden back at home that
when you ate one, it burst in your mouth, and flooded your
senses with delicious sweet juice.

My mind was racing, trying to figure out what this
mysterious creature was, and why it wanted ripe
blueberries. I scanned through the dictionary of my brain
but I could not find a single answer to my question.

The rustling continued until something popped out of the
bush, snatched the blueberry, and gulped it right down.
Then it scurried back behind the blueberry bush that was
now empty of blueberries.

I only caught a glimpse of its brown spotted fur, and its
big, bright, and lively eyes before it disappeared back
behind the bush. I racked my brain for any creature that
had ever looked like that. Maybe a small deer? No, that
couldn’t be right.

Then I remembered the small creature in the Harry Potter
book that I had read when I was younger, the description
matched it exactly. But that couldn’t be right, no one
believed in fairy tales, right?

Then it popped out of the small blueberry bush.

…

I sat there and looked at it for a moment. Then it hit me,
literally! It jumped at me and landed right on top of me, and
knocked me over. Blueberry juice dripping from its snout
and staining my shirt. Its tremendous eyes staring down at
me curiously. Then I figured it out, it was a baby chichilic!

As it stared at me with its great, immense eyes I realized
that it was all alone, an orphan. After a while of us just
gawking at each other, it turned around, acting as if it was
leaving, but then, it turned around again, and bowed to me,
blueberry juice still dripping down her chin.

I had also read about this. When a chichilic bows to you,
it is choosing a leader, a kind and worthy person.

She turned around and headed into the bushes and
disappeared.

I decided to follow her. After a while of following her
through the winding forest, which seemed to never end, I
made it through the wall of bushes, I saw a world I never
thought I’d see.

The wizarding world! A world so amazing it seemed
unreal. I stopped, not believing what I was seeing. Could
this really be happening? I blinked once. Then I blinked
again. Yep, it was real, and everything I had ever
imagined was right before my eyes.

I stepped through the wall of
lush neon green bushes, and
arrived on a cobblestone street
with buildings on each side of
me with things in them that I did
know what they were. All the
people were in black robes with
ties in all different colors, red,
yellow, blue, and green. The kids
were the ones wearing these
outfits though, not the parents. It
was like when people shop for
the first day of school, or maybe
that’s what it was.

The adults were talking about things called muggles, but
they only said that when they looked at me for some
reason that I did not know. Up in the sky were people
flying on brooms. And objects were hovering in the air,
there was magic all around me.

I saw monstrously tall people that didn’t look quite right,
giants maybe? I saw people appearing out of green fire
unscathed. Which I thought was impossible, but
apparently, here, people can do that.

But there was one man that kept watching me with what
seemed like curiosity. But I could not tell, for he kept a still
and calm face. He hid in a dark alleyway. He wore a simple
maroon suit with a red tie. His silver hair was done nicely in
an elegant braid down his back.

He turned and walked farther into the dark alleyway
where there were no lights except for the light
coming from his wand. There were rats scurrying
down the side of the old brick buildings. I decided that
it would be a good idea to follow him.

As I headed down the dark alleyway I heard a noise
behind me and turned around. Only to find the man
standing right behind me. He spoke softly and calmly.

He said, “You are no wizard are you,” I
was awestruck, and at a loss for words
but I managed to squeak out,

“Yes, and by the way where am I?”
He replied calmly, “You are in Diagon
Alley,”
“Dragon what now?” I said completely
confused.
“I see something in you. What is your
name,” he asked me.
“My name is Tom, Tom Riddle, now
what’s yours,” I asked in a cunning way.
“My name is Dumbledore,” he said “
and I have an interesting feeling about
you.”

I stood there so confused that my brain hurt, none of this
seemed real, none of it at all.

He gestured for me to follow him, and so I did, trailing
slightly behind him, jogging, to catch up to his long
graceful strides.

Dumbledore walked away feeling positive about this new
boy, yet small thoughts lurked in the very back of his mind.

Little did he know, he had just met the most dangerous
wizard of all time…

The End