The New World

A wonderful world awaits beyond the crowded
cities, you just have to be brave enough to look for it.

Walking off the horrendous smelling bus, where
candy wrapper littered the ground, 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, a small cottage
home that was tearing at the seams, and 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 days.

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
did step inside, I quickly realized how it got its
name. It was breathtaking.

Once you get through the first layer of
thick, dark, trees, you forget the noisy city
behind you. The sounds of the forest were like
a symphony in my ears, I heard sounds I had
never heard before, and they blended
beautifully with each other. The small
creatures at my feet acted like a bustling city
themselves.

There were poisonous frogs and toads of
various colors, red, bright blue, and even a
sunflower yellow, there were insects of every
kind, turtles with spiky and pointy shells, and
turtles with smooth and soft shells. The
feisty red squirrels were 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.

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

my desk. 11:00 p.m.

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 one 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.

Kind

Worthy

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 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 the 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
“Yes, and by the way where am I?” I
managed to squeak out,
He replied calmly “You are in Diagon
Alley.”
“Dragon what now?” I asked.
“I see something in you, what is your
name,” he asked me, ignoring my question
completely.
“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,”

Diagon Alley

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

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…