Fan Fiction ❯ Chaos Factor ❯ Americans in Diagon Alley ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimer: If I was J.K Rowling, this would be cannon and I would be rich.

~*~Chapter 3~*~

Juline was impressed that the house was still standing. The casual observer might have thought World War III was taking place within the old Victorian estate, but it wasn't a smoking pile of rubble…yet. Two of the four witches had a tendency to explode things when pissed off, which had resulted in this being their fifth house in as many years.

Chris had cursed Voldemort, and Fudge to the very bottom of the Nine Hells. Emily and Rini, having a longer fuse than their sister and friend, were a little less colorful in their anger, though no less venomous. Then Juline told them about Dumbledore's "request"…and the fact that she agreed.

"What?!" Chris practically shrieked. "How the bloody hell did that happen? You didn't even want to meet with him!" She fixed Juline with a glare that could melt steel. "I. Don't. Want. Anything. To. Do. With. Moldyshorts." She ground out between clenched teeth.

"And you think I do?" Juline spat as she paced in front of the study's fireplace. "We don't have to deal with him. We just do what we do best: go in, get the goods, and get the hell out of there. That's it. We have a choice, those kids don't. We could at least do this for `em."

Chris' eyes narrowed as she watched Juline fidget, "Alright, what did he offer you?" Juline mumbled something as she sat on top of her dark oak-wood desk and riffled through papers.

"Excuse me? I didn't quite catch that."

"Potions Master!"

This time, even her sisters swore. Juline was a very talented witch, as were they all in their own ways, and potions was one of the things she really excelled at. She loved the arcane art to a point beyond obsession and was always hunting for rare ingredients and lost recipes. About three or four years ago, Juline had stumbled across an incredibly complex potion, called La Drought de Immortallia, in an ancient tome on a `job' and naturally, wanted to try it. Unfortunately it required a lot of extremely rare ingredients and the procedure itself was so complex it required two high-level potions masters to complete it successfully. She'd some how managed to scrape together all the ingredients, including the elusive Vampire's Drop of Love, however trying to find a potions master somewhere near her level had proved…difficult. Thus her bizarre interest in Albus' offer.

"Juline…get help! You are obsessed! And I thought you two were supposed to go with her!"

Emily shrugged, "She didn't want us to."

"Yeah," Rini said, defensively. "Besides, how were we supposed to know he had that kind of ace up his sleeve?"

Chris threw her hands up in disgust and frustration. "This is just wonderful. So what mess have you and your hobby gotten us into this time? What exactly does the old man want us to do?" Chris made her way to the mini-bar in the corner of the room. "I think I need a drink…"

Juline watched Chris prepare herself a shot of Black Magic as she thought of how to explain Albus' plan to the other witches in a way that wouldn't result in her death and/or dismemberment. Figuring that choking on alcohol would distract Chris long enough for her to make her escape, Juline decided to just spit it out. "He wants us to enroll as students so we can snoop around with less suspicion." Juline dashed out the study door as Chris sprayed the shot she was about to down across the room.

The younger girls glanced at each other with a `what just happened' expression. Eyes widening in realization, they took off after their elder sister to wring some answers out of her, leaving Chris behind to recover from her choking fit.

A few minutes later, a panting Juline poked her head back into the study. "Is it safe to come in?" she asked, pouting at her best friend's glare.

"I have decided to let you live, rather than deal with house hunting. At least, long enough to explain. I mean Rini, and maybe Emily could pass as students but there is no way on God's Green Earth that the two of us could pass as high-schoolers. And if you make one height crack I will kill you…"

"How generous of you," Juline said as she rolled her eyes. "I already thought of that problem and asked Albus why we couldn't go as professors and he said he only had two positions open: one was already filled and the other is Defense Against the Dark Arts. 1) That position is rumored to be cursed and 2) that only gets one of us on the campus. Not to mention the fact that neither of us has a teaching certificate." Juline held up her hand, stopping Chris before she could interrupt. "And yes, I know we could forge those documents, but apparently the Ministry has been keeping an annoyingly close watch on Albus lately and I really don't want them poking too closely into our pasts. Students aren't as closely scrutinized as the faculty, especially when the `parents' of those students make large donations to the Ministry's finances." Juline smirked.

"That still doesn't explain how we are supposed to pass as sixteen year olds. Unless you've suddenly become a shapeshifter without telling me, or do you have a de-aging potion on hand?"

Juline conjured a crystal and proceed to fiddle with it. "He said that was up to us, as he was sure that with our resources we'd come up with something. I thought about a potion at first, but age-influencing ones are unstable and you have to keep retaking them at certain intervals. Plus the results can vary from batch to batch. We could start out looking like 7th years and end up looking like 1st years by Christmas." She flipped the crystal to her other hand, and suddenly there were two.

Chris collapsed into her favorite chair with a resigned sigh. "So what did you come up with after ruling out potions?"

Juline managed to look uncomfortable, "Well I haven't quite figured that part out yet…. but we've got until September."

~Late August~

"I've done it!" Emily announced as she scrambled into the kitchen and skidded to a halt before the table.

"Done what?" Juline queried, glancing up from a book entitled, "So You Want to Be Young: Spells and Potions to Defy the Centuries." Disgustedly she closed the book and threw it into a rather large pile behind her chair and turned towards something more productive…namely her cornflakes.

"Yeah Em, nothing is this important before I've had my coffee. Did you want some French toast before I cancel the spell?" Chris commented from her perch before the two-gallon Mr. Coffee machine.

Rini, barely taking the time to swallow her French toast, grumbled something unintelligible as she glared at her sister for being so cheery so early.

"Is the solution to our little age problem a good enough reason to interrupt your breakfasts?" Emily asked the three seated around the table. "It was so simple; I don't see why none of us thought of it before. Glamour Charms! All I had to do was adjust the gaderffii of the chromasheath and-"

"Stop! It's too early for us to wrap our minds around your Charms jargon. Just the basics please, at least until Chris has finished her coffee." Juline interrupted, glancing at the giant mug Chris was filling with the hot beverage.

"Fine," Emily sat down and pulled over a stack of French toast. "Basically I adjusted a standard Glamour charm to copy the images out of that photo album Grandma gave us. We were trying to actually make ourselves younger without making it permanent, which is why we were getting nowhere. This way we don't actually change our ages, we just LOOK like we're younger."

"That's so simple it's brilliant! I knew we kept you around for a reason, Em." Juline praised. "Are you ready to test it out? We don't have much time if we're going to buy school supplies and finish setting up our fake backgrounds. Chris, where'd you put those acceptance letters and supply lists Dumbledore sent us?"

"I put them in my filing cabinet; since I figured we'd loose them in the chaos you call your desk. Under "H" for Hogwarts, or Hair-Brained Ideas, I couldn't decide which."

"Hey! I resent that remark!" Juline sputtered.

"Your desk resembles that remark. I said nothing about you…"

"Um, guys?" Emily cut in. "There is a slight technical difficulty. The only pictures I could find of you camera-phobes were candid shots taken when you were Rini's age. So you're going as fifth years. I found a picture of myself from when I was fifteen so I'll be joining you. Rini's going as-is, so we can stick her in either fourth or fifth with us."

Rini, swallowing the last of her breakfast, volunteered, "I'll go in fourth year. Three people from one family will be too weird going into the same year, and I doubt we could pass as triplets."

"Now that we've decided those details, we need to let Albus know what to expect and start preparing ourselves. Accio Hogwarts' Letter!" Chris said, waving her hand in the general direction of the study.

"Shit!" Juline exclaimed as the others looked at her curiously. "I just realized this means we need to get wands. All that time studying to get rid of the damn things…"

"Who studied?" Chris asked innocently as the letter dropped softly into her outstretched hand.

"Shut up you fairy." Juline rolled her eyes at her friend then began to speak in a mocking tone. "Oh, look at me! I'm part of the all-powerful LeFaye Clan! We gave Arthur the magic sword. We rule Avalon. We pioneered wandless magic. Aren't we special?"

"That's Fairy Princess to you, mortal."

"You wish…"

"This coming from the person who wants to brew La Drought de Immortallia."

"I never said I didn't wish."

Emily and Rini just sighed as the old argument between the lifelong best friends reopened. "And there goes the peace accord between the Belmonts and the LeFayes… again."

~Later that day~

"Video, Vidi, Visum!" Emily chanted, passing her hands over Juline, Chris, and herself. Rini saw the air shimmer between herself and the trio on the other side of the room. She watched all three changed subtly. Emily and Juline each lost an inch or two in height, Chris' hair got a little longer and a little darker, curves became less defined, and the laugh lines disappeared from Chris and Juline's faces.

"Are you sure this worked? I don't feel any different, and you two don't look any different." Juline complained.

"What do you mean you don't look different? It wasn't exactly a major change, but you do look younger." Rini commented.

"It appears that if you are under the glamour you are immune to its illusion power." Emily theorized.

"That's nice, Em. But what I want to know is what did you anchor the spell to and how do we get rid of it?" Chris asked. "In laymen's terms please."

"The spell is tied to your wills. It won't break until and unless you really want it to. If you do break the illusion, repeating the incantation will restore it."

Juline shook her head. "There is no way people are gonna fall for this…"

~Diagon Alley, The next day~

"I don't believe they're buying this." Juline said dropping her forehead into her palm in disbelief as they stood outside Madame Malkin's Robes for All Occasions where they had just purchased their school uniforms. "I have completely lost faith in the intelligence of the human race."

"Well, they can't all be as good as us. Well done, Em." Chris smiled as she placed her purchases into one of her earliest experiments: a bottomless book bag that could hold a near-infinite amount of stuff and yet be completely weightless.

"All we need are books and wands. Where to now?" Rini asked, giving a longing look towards Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor.

"Let's get our books first, and then take turns at the wand place. From what Dumbledore said, it could take a while. The rest of us can get ice cream while we wait, I guess." Juline suggested.

Rini cheered. "That sounds like a plan. To Flourish & Blotts!" she raced off towards the bookstore, leaving the other three to follow at a more reasonable pace.

As the youngest Belmont approached the door, it swung open allowing an older woman with red hair to pass through. Unable to stop in time, Rini plowed right into the lady, sending the woman's packages flying. The other girls dashed over to try reducing the chaos. Between the four of them, they managed to collect the large number of parcels the woman had been carrying.

"Are you alright, ma'am?" Emily asked the redhead.

"I'm sorry about my cousin," Juline apologized, "sometimes we just can't take her anywhere."

"I'm fine, girls, no need to apologize. Accidents happen. I have several children just as full of energy and mischief." The woman stated, smiling warmly as she began to gather her packages back into her arms.

"The least we could do is to help you with your parcels. Where are you headed Mrs.?" Chris asked

"The Leaky Cauldron, if you don't mind, dears. My name is Molly Weasley."

"I'm Juline Belmont, and these are my cousins Emily and Rini the human cyclone. And this is Chris LeFaye. We are transferring to Hogwarts from Salem Academy in the States."

"I thought it odd to hear American accents in Diagon Alley. What year will you dears be joining? Four of my children are still at Hogwarts." Mrs. Weasley asked as they headed towards the tavern at the far end of the street.

"Rini will be a fourth year, while Emily, Chris, and I will be fifth years."

"You will probably have classes with my Ron, then. He's a fifth year. And my Ginny is in fourth like you, Rini. Both are in Gryffindor."

"I guess we're going to be sorted into the Houses along with the new first years, at least that's what our transfer letter said," Emily told Mrs. Weasley as they entered the tavern.

"I'm sure you dears will be sorted into good Houses and I know you'll just love Hogwarts," Mrs. Weasley bubbled as she lead the way over to the fireplace. "I can manage from here, my dears. You'd better hurry and get back to your parents. I'm sure they're probably sick with worry, wondering where you four have got to."

They said good-bye to Mrs. Weasley and headed back towards Flourish & Blotts. Then Emily and Chris went to get their wands while Juline let Rini drag her off to buy ice cream. Two hours and four Death By Chocolate Suicide sundaes later, Chris and Emily came back.

"Your turns," Chris said a little too sweetly. She walked past the table and over to the counter to place her order, twirling her new wand.

Juline arched an eyebrow, and then turned to her sister. "Is the place still standing?" She asked wearily.

"Barely. She must have tried at least fifty different wands before finding the right one. I'm lucky I made it out alive, now I need chocolate." Emily followed Chris' path to the counter.

Juline dropped her head into her hands. Rini patted her eldest sister on the back. "Come on, let's go finish off the rest of Ollivander's, I hope he's got a really good insurance plan," Rini laughed as she pushed the eldest Belmont down the street.

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Lady Knight3: Well another chapter done. And we've actually met another person from cannon! *audience cheers* Gee, thanks. Next chapter: Chaos on Hogwarts Express! Harry, Hermione and Ron finally make an appearance! Along with Sirius (in dog form), and…. what's this? Lucius and Draco too? REVIEW!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!