Chapter 2
A week after the incident, Brenda sat Wendy down in the living room one morning and informed her she would be starting school that coming September. Wendy didn’t know whether to be pleased or not.
On one hand, it would give her a chance to leave their wretched apartment. On the other hand, who was going to look after Robbie? Wendy was all he had at the end of the day, and she really didn’t want to leave him alone with Brenda and a drug-riddled apartment. Who knew what sort of things he would manage to get into.
She couldn’t tell if this development was in response to what she had done to that man. She didn’t think she wanted to know.
“Who’s going to look after Robbie?” asked Wendy.
“What do you mean who’s going to look after him?” scoffed Brenda. “You were perfectly fine being left alone at that age.
“He’s one!”
“Fifteen months, really.”
“He’s almost seventeen months old, actually.”
Brenda scowled.
“Watch that tone, I’m your mother” she snapped.
Wendy huffed, unimpressed.
The two continued to eye each other from where they were sat.
“You’re going to school and that’s final. I aint having no workers coming round asking why you aint going, it’s law you know! I’ve already put your name down an’ all.”
And that was that.
It was mid-July, so Wendy only had a month and a half before she had to go to school every day. She had to come up with something for Robbie by then.
For the first time since she had found herself in this body, she left the apartment by herself. The only other time she had left was when Robbie had been born in the Hospital. She took Robbie with her, of course. Brenda was out who knows where.
She knew they wouldn’t be able to go far. She wasn’t strong enough to carry him, and Robbie’s little legs would only last for so long. She took his hand as they exited the apartment, and Robbie was wide eyed and hopping up and down, giggling all the while. It would be his first time leaving the apartment in his memory.
“Are you ready for an adventure, Robbie?”
“Yeah!”
They made their way to the ground floor and out the door. She made sure to keep him close and had a tight grip on his hand, although not so tight as to hurt him.
They wandered the streets for a while, all the while Wendy was keeping her eyes peeled for any lost change left of the ground. Eventually, they came across an open green space. A park! Wendy made to sit down on a bench and watch her brother play in the sandpit for a while.
She sat peacefully and watched the people flit about her, the various mothers watching their children playing and the birds’ cheerful chirping. The people in this park were diverse – her ears were noticing quite a variety of languages. She was lucky to find this place, she thought. A place where people of different backgrounds gathered.
She was just that bit less likely to witness any of that 60s prejudice here. It was a relief. It gave her a chance to relax and think for a bit.
So. Harry Potter.
She’d tried repeating her experiment a few times, and after a firm Lumos had made the tip of her finger glow, she was forced to conclude that she did not, in fact, have telekinesis.
No. She was a witch. A wand waving, broom riding witch. Not that she had any interest in riding a broom mind you.
It had been a while since she’d actually read or watched any of the source material for the Harry Potter universe. It would be when she watched the first Fantastic Beasts film when it first came out actually, she hadn’t seen the sequels and she’d generally fallen out of love with the books.
She had read a few fanfiction works however in recent years, though not too many. She’d gotten too caught up in work and hadn’t had time for much else. She’d spent the last few days trying to drag up all of her memory of the Harry Potter series, and she’d actually remembered far more than she would have expected, especially when she tried chronologically reciting the entirety of the events out loud.
The first Harry Potter book was set in the year 1991, when he was 11. If she had the math right, then she would be going to Hogwarts at the same time as his parents, give or take a few years. She was going to reach adulthood amidst a war. Or was the right term a civil war? Perhaps it would just be called civil unrest, she didn’t know how big a community had to be for something to be considered war and she wasn’t sure how vast Britain’s magical population was.
Her plans would have to be adjusted.
She just has to do what she always does. Pros and cons.
The cons always come first. She hates to end on a bad note.
Well, she’s a Muggleborn.
She was about to be a Muggleborn during a war fought over blood-purity. She was going to end up dead before she reached majority, she could see it now. If she showed up at Hogwarts as a super-smart, ambitious girl ready to take magic by storm then she would be lynched within the year.
She also didn’t know what to do about Robbie. If she left for boarding school when she turned eleven, Robbie would be seven by then. Did she really want to be leaving him alone with Brenda for months at a time? Was not going to Hogwarts even a viable scenario here?
She watched as Robbie shyly handed the shovel he was using to another little girl, and blushing at the bright smile he was given in return.
Whatever happened, Robbie was going to be her priority.
Another con was the fact that magic was going to make keeping her secrets much harder. She was a very private person before, but now her secrets would actually mean something to people other than her. Reincarnation was heavy. And magic had ways of pulling secrets out of people. Truth spells, truth potions. There were plenty of new ways to torture secrets out of someone – how lovely was that. Not to mention the mind reading.
Yes, she remembered all about legilimency. She had no clue how common it was, or how it worked. All that Wendy remembered was that it existed, and that was enough to strike fear into her. If the wrong person got hold of any of her knowledge pertaining to the future, Britain as she knew it could basically be over.
Her eyes darted between the various people in the park, their laughter and chatter filling the air. The vibrant scene before her only heightened her anxiety. As far as the Death Eaters are concerned, these people are all marked for death. Fear crept into her heart. She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know how she was going to protect herself, or Robbie, or anyone at all. She didn’t know whether she should intervene at all, whether that would make things worse. Whether her mere presence would make things worse.
Wendy took a deep breath. Enough of the cons for now. Pros. She needed pros.
She exhaled.
Magic. Magic was real, and she could wield it. It was as if the world was at her fingertips. She would get to go to Hogwarts! She wouldn’t have to trudge her way through the same standard British education again – she had completely new subjects to study, new challenges to face! She would still be sure to take her GCSEs or the time-period equivalent when the time comes, of course. There was no reason not to.
Teleportation was a thing! Apparition, it was called she thought. If she learned to do that, she could go anywhere she wanted. Live anywhere she wanted. She could work for a London salary whilst living in a cheap cottage in the countryside, middle of nowhere! There was so much opportunity.
She’d also always been in love with the idea of shapeshifting. To be able to turn into an animal sounded like a dream. To be honest, when she’d first come to terms with being reincarnated, she’d been a bit disappointed that she hadn’t been reincarnated as some other creature. A cat maybe, or a bird. Life as a human could be stressful. Yes, she would have to look into becoming an Animagus. Could she become a magical Animagus? Honestly, turning into a dragon or a phoenix sounded wicked.
She was also a bit relieved. Magic would explain the reincarnation. She’d been getting nervous about her lifetime of atheism.
First things first, she was going to have to find the Leaky Cauldron. There was a magic bus – the Knight bus – but she didn’t remember how to make it appear. No, she was going to have to find the pub by herself. Unfortunately, she had no recollection of the street name. She knew it was in the central area of London, she would just have to find it.
The length of her walks with Robbie increased. It didn’t take her long to find the Thames.
Wow. She hadn’t realised how close to it they were. They literally live in central London. She doesn’t want to know how expensive their apartment would be 50 years from now, no siree.
Robbie began to whine. Wendy did her best to hold back her frustrated huff. She wasn’t going to get anything done when she had to take him with her.
Fortunately, on one of their many trips to the nearby park they did meet a wonderful middle-aged black woman who was all too delighted to watch Robbie a few days a week. Her name was Ada Williams and she had two children of her own, both already grown. Her son moved out not 3 weeks past, and she was suffering with a strong case of empty-nest syndrome.
Mrs. Williams, being a nurturing and compassionate woman, had noticed Wendy and Robbie’s frequent visits to the park. One day, seeing Wendy struggle to lift Robbie up from where he had fallen over, Mrs Williams had approached with a smile. She offered to watch Robbie while Wendy got the chance to go play with the other children. They ended up striking conversation instead.
She was a God save, truly. She only lived a block away from their apartment, meaning Wendy would easily be able to walk Robbie over in the morning before she made her way to school.
Mrs. Williams was a blessing in disguise, but Wendy couldn’t help sensing a lingering concern in the woman’s gaze. As they chatted about their families and park visits, about Wendy starting school that coming September, Wendy felt a gentle probing, like Mrs. Williams was tiptoeing around a delicate topic. She skilfully avoided direct questions about their parents, and Wendy appreciated it. It was as if Mrs. Williams knew there was more to their story but didn’t want to push too hard.
She met them at the park every day for a week, to get Robbie used to her, and on the last day they went back to her home and spent the afternoon there drinking tea and chatting while Robbie napped.
The very next day, 9am sharp, she left Robbie alone with Mrs. Williams for the first time. He was weepy and clingy at first, having never been without her, but she knew it was best to rip it off like a Band-Aid. They couldn’t remain attached at the hip forever.
She spent days wandering London, interspaced with park-days here and there, and on more than one occasion she found herself leaving as the sun rose and only returning as it set. With her perseverance, it was three days before her first day of school that she finally found it.
Charing Cross Road. The Leaky Cauldron was on Charing Cross Road. She’d been uncertain at first whether searching the other side of the Thames would be worth the effort, but it paid off in the end.
Finally.
She slipped into the bar and walked up to the counter, dipping past the various patrons and lifting herself up onto one of the barstools with a huff.
The man behind the bar raised his eyebrows, observing Wendy with a mixture of curiosity and concern.
“Aren’t you a bit young to be up here by yourself, little miss?”
“Grandma went through to the alley but I got distracted and it closed before I could go with her. Could you let me through? She’ll panic if she notices I’m gone.” Wendy gave him her best puppy eyes and flashed him a sweet, reassuring smile. Nothing to see here.
The bartender softened. “Well, alright then. But you stay close to your Gran from now on, I can’t have little ones wandering off on their own in here.”
He ducked out from behind the bar and took her over to the side door of the pub, leading to a bricked up alleyway. He took out his wand and tapped at the bricks in what seemed like a predetermined order. She made sure to memorise which bricks he tapped.
She flinched when the bricks started to peel away towards the sides, forming an open archway into a bustling street.
“There’s Gran!” she chirped, pointing off into one of the more crowded shopfronts.
“You go and catch up with her quickly and stick by her side from now on. Understand?”
Wendy nodded earnestly, her innocent expression still firmly in place. “Yes, sir! Thank you!” With that, she skipped her way into the Alley and disappeared into the crowd, slowing down once she was sure she was out of the bartender’s sight and making sure not to draw too much attention.
The first thing on her to-do list was to find the bank, Gringotts.
On the non-magical side of things, she needed parental permission to open a bank account. She wasn’t sure whether Brenda herself had a bank account. As it turned out, the right for women to have a bank account was something that only came about this decade, and even then, many banks still refuse them, and the rest require their husband’s signature.
Misogynistic bastards.
Wendy was hoping the rules are even slightly different on the magical side of things. Before magic, she hadn’t had a clue how she was going to earn herself any money before she reached her teens. She had considered pickpocketing for a brief time, before determining that it wasn’t worth the risk.
When Gringotts came into view, she was in awe. The snow-white marble building towered over the surrounding businesses. Two Goblin guards stood either side of the door, backs straight and in uniform position, eyeing everyone who walked in and out of the bank suspiciously.
Wendy made her way inside and up to one of the tellers at the service desk. She grasped onto the edge of the desk and pushed herself up onto her tiptoes so that her eyes could peer over at the Goblin on the other side. “Hello!” she chirped.
The Goblin stared back at her.
“Could you tell me about the services Gringotts offer please?” she questioned.
The Goblin huffed, reaching under the desk and pulling out a small pamphlet, before sliding it harshly across the desk towards her.
“Thank you, Mr…” she trailed off as she eyed the nameplate that was on the edge of his desk. She squinted a bit. Whatever language that was, it wasn’t English. Either that, or Goblins have really bad handwriting.
The Goblin gave her a strange look. “Grizznak.”
“Thank you, Mr. Grizznak!”
She gave him a beaming smile, and she hoped he could see it in her eyes because she wasn’t anywhere near tall enough for him to see her smile over the desk, and proceeded to skip right back out of the bank again before plopping herself down on the steps outside, far enough over so that she wasn’t in anyone’s way.
She got to reading the pamphlet, and really, she didn’t know what she had expected.
Gringotts was not just a bank the way it was presented in the Harry potter books, but it also wasn’t the gateway to everything the way she had seen in fanfiction.
According to the pamphlet, Gringotts in its early days specialised in security. They weren’t a bank in the traditional sense, more so the vaults were like overlarge safety-deposit boxes. People could store their belongings and valuables in the Gringotts vaults and the Goblins would protect them, for a price.
There was a reason that Gringotts was considered impenetrable.
It was only over time and as society underwent more changes that they began offering more traditional banking services – such as exchanging money, asset management along with a loose stock market type of system.
According to the pamphlet, Gringotts also sponsored events, providing curse breaking services, and they also handle the inheritance of vaults and assets, although only if they were already being paid to manage the assets in question for the previous owner.
What the pamphlet didn’t answer was all of her burning questions. Great.
She slipped back inside of the bank and up to Grizznak’s desk.
“Mr. Grizznak, do I need to have an adults permission to open an account or a vault?”
“For a minor wizard or witch to open a bank account, a magical guardian is required.”
Well, fuck. That wasn’t the answer she was looking for. Half her current and best plans hinged on her being able to get this account. She didn’t want to keep any money in the apartment where Brenda could find it.
...Wait.
“But my guardian is a muggle, I don’t have a magical guardian,” She replied.
“What do you mean you don’t have a magical guardian?” Grizznak questioned with a frown.
“I’m a Muggleborn.”
Grizznak raised an eyebrow and stared her down contemplatively. His long fingers tapped his chin.
“Upon accepting their invitation to Hogwarts, the Deputy Headmaster or Headmistress of the school is awarded magical guardianship of the minor in question, should they not already have a magical guardian,” He answered. “After the sorting, the guardianship of those students is transferred to their Head of House, remaining that way until they reach their majority.”
“Yes but I’m only 5, I haven’t even been invited to attend Hogwarts yet, so I don’t have a magical guardian. I just have my mum, and she’s a muggle!”
“The permission of a magical guardian is required for a minor witch or wizard to open an account” Grizznak snapped, beginning to lose his patience.
“…a minor witch or wizard, you said?”
“Yes!” he snarled.
“What about a minor muggle?”
The Goblin blinked at her.
Wendy blinked back.
She returned to Diagon Alley the following day with Robbie in tow in a pram she’d borrowed from Mrs. Williams and began the process to set up a bank account in his name. She added herself to it as someone who could both deposit and withdraw money from it and proceeded to hand over all of the change she had accumulated over the last year.
She’d been collecting all of the change that people had been losing to the depths of the couch cushions, as well as sneaking a few pence from Brenda’s purse here and there. The bulk of her money however, came from all of the coins she had collected from the street whilst wandering London. On one occasion, she even found a purse with more than 3 pounds in it. Overall, once the Goblin counted out all of her money, she had seven pounds, 13 shillings and 4 pence.
She decided to turn 5 pounds into galleons and keep the rest as muggle money.
She had deposited half on her new wizarding money into the new account (luckily, they could do that at the desk, no rollercoaster ride necessary), and returned the rest to the pouch in her pocket.
Grizznak seemed to be amused by her and the absurd loophole she had found. He smirked at her and even nodded his head when she wished him a cheerful hello. Robbie didn’t seem to know what to make of the Goblin, but she made sure to introduce them to each other all the same.
After that, they made their way to a quaint second-hand bookshop that she had spotted the day before. She could afford four books with the limited money she had, so she had to choose wisely.
She held tight onto Robbie’s pram as she browsed.
In the end, she settled on Practical Household Magic, The Standard Book of Spells Grade 1, Legislative Guide to the Proper Use of Magic and Ancient Runes Made Easy.
The book on household magic would save her money on cleaning supplies as well as save her time at home. She was hoping there would be some spells for sewing and mending in the book as well. A book of general beginner spells, a book on the laws around magic and a book on runes.
The runes book she was most excited for. From what she read on the blurb, Ancient Runes were a way of using magic without a wand by inscribing and carving them into things. It wasn’t like she’d be able to use a wand for another 6 years, and honestly trying to learn potions on her own sounds dangerous.
She’d tried looking for any books on mind magic or occlumency. The closest she came was Living with Legilimens: Choose Your Minds Wisely, which upon a brief perusal turned out to be more of a self-help book for coping with living with a legilimens, less learning to protect yourself from it.
When paying, she’d asked the teller about any libraries and found to her horror that there weren’t any. Academic institutes had libraries, otherwise wizards would have to start their own home-libraries.
What on earth was wrong with these people? The whole thing left Wendy perplexed and frustrated. A magic library would have saved her a lot of funds.
With her purchases stored in the pram and her brother buckled in, she made her way out of the magical district. She stopped at a few muggle shops on her way home, buying some new clothes and toys for Robbie. She also bought some toiletries as well as an extra school uniform for herself (Brenda had only bought her one, the bitch).
She made it home, hid the pram and her purchases under the bed, and settled into reading. She had tonight and tomorrow to get through these books, and then on Monday she would be attending her first day of school.