The Shopping Trip.
Shadows slowly stretch as the sun sinks behind the rocky mountains, amid Hogsmeade’s bustling street stand two young girls strolling while carrying bags full of seeds and fertilizer.
“I think that’s everything, this year's herbology curriculum is quite some hefty work isn’t it? Did you get that mandrake seed yet Willow?”
The dark-skinned girl looks at the redhead next to her, the latter seems to be lost in thought.
It has been three months since sixteen-year-old Willow Rosenberg found herself stranded on the village doorstep of England, weaken with rugged clothes and in her high school body. It’s not like the powerful witch never foresaw that someday she’ll meet her demise, in fact, she spends a portion of her life trying to decipher what happened after one closed their eyes forever. She knew that her best friend Buffy get to “heaven” until, well, Willow herself drag her friend back to Earth.
But she never knew where is It. How to get there? The answer remains a puzzle she most regrets not being able to crack on her journey as a witch. Fortunately for Willow, seem like the higher being granted her the answer she seek, even if it cost Willow her own life as a hunt go wrong and fell victim to a powerful killing curse she extracted from her young friend Dawn.
Young Willow was granted a new chance, and she questioned how her memories were still intact. Before she can answer that however, the witch found herself quickly surround by cloaked figures suddenly emerging from the shadows. In the blink of an eye, the quiet neighborhood was no longer in front of her. She was instead, accompanied by these cloaked figures throughout a medieval-looking hallway, of what seemed to belong to an ancient castle.
The series of events that happened afterward was definitely not what Willow's vision of an afterlife be like. Seem like the sudden burst of magic energies encircling the young girl was quite alarming to the “Ministry of Magic” or at least what they claimed to be. Apparently, the magical community here is “a bit” massive compared to the world where she came from, and frankly, the people in charge find the idea of a witch bursting with magical energy walking down the non-magical people's neighborhood not very appealing.
Despite the cold welcome, these people aren’t that heartless, they can’t just leave a child with no memories (or what Willow makes them think) back to the street. After some initial tests, Willow quickly finds herself transferring to Hogwarts, a boarding school for Witches and Wizards, with some special funding from the school said to be for “children in need”.
If it was any normal person they would’ve to combust with the number of things that happened but thankfully, compared to the number of mystical affairs the redhead have to deal with since her days at Sunnydale. The past few months were considered to be quite uneventful, to say the least.
Naturally, once everything settles, Willow drowns herself in history books, despite many similarities. It is not much of a surprise that this world isn’t the same as the one which she hails from, no watchers, no witches society that she was aware of. In fact, this isn’t even 2043, she ponders whether they would hang her at the stake, not for being a witch but for liking girls. Thankfully that doesn’t seem to be a problem here, at least within the wizarding community. And of course, since this is the 18th century, It’s safe to say that not a single trace of the scooby gang was found in those books, really emphasized books because a certain someone is starting to appreciate her laptop a bit more.
Circling back to the present, Willow once again surged her undeveloped brain on the theory of what was to come of her. Luckily, her memories of magic are still intact, and the magic ripple that flows throughout the land is sufficient for her spell, so she can cross giving birth to another Seed of Wonder out on her to-do list.
“Willow? You're still here with me right?” - The other girl nudged her shoulder.
“Oh, I’m sorry Natty, thanks again for helping me with these silly groceries.” - Willow quickly regain her focus, while pulling out her wand to enchant a Floating Charm on Natty and her bags of seeds.
It is amusing to her that some practitioners here struggle without a wand, at least some still doing just fine, Natty does, and of course Willow herself too. The former Sunnydale resident does find the wand to be a delightful addition to her witchcraft, waving the brand new wand from Olivander in her slender hand proves nothing but a decorum to her sorcery proficiency but it does however, bring a sense of witchiness to her newfound life at Hogwarts.
“No problems, just helping out a fellow Gryffindor in need. By the way, I heard the new fifth-year defeated Sebastian in a duel, I heard the look on Sebastian’s face was priceless. He never lost a duel before”
“Oh, that must have been quite a show, who are they again?” - Willow frown, obviously clueless as to who these people are.
Natty chuckled.
“Sometimes I forgot you’re also a transfer student, you fit yourself quite well in a new area, unlike myself.”
“Just try my best to fit in, that’s what having muggle parents feel like I suppose.” -
“To answer your question, Sebastian as in Sebastian Sallows from house Slytherin, and the other new fifth-year is Yuri Liddell, also a Slytherin like Sebastian.”
“Oh must have been fun then, I never had a chance to duel with anyone since I get here.”
“It’s definitely a practice commonly shunned by others for its vulgarity, but with the rise of Rookwood and Harlow’s men, It’s safe to say we need to hone it more than ever.”
The names have crossed Willow more than just once or twice for her own sake, either from mister Moon, the caretaker, or a few gossiping students in the main hall. One can hardly be surprised that even 1800s Europe fell victim to the authority of evil men, even by the wizarding community standard.
The black girl slightly fixes her messy hair as she helps her fellow witch store all the school supplies, which mostly consist of books from all kinds of categories. Ranging from “History of Dramatical Enchanter” to “Hierarchy of the Damned Demons”.
“You’re a history bluff?” - Natty can’t help but marvel at her friend's collections that the redhead manages to purchase by winning bets from those poor clueless younger kids with rich parents.
“I enjoy some light reading, if you wanted I can lend you some-”
Needless to say Willow’s time at Sunnydale has given her sights of all kinds of magical creatures, and a troll is no exception. Even a magical-items-shop-destroying troll is something that the witch is unfortunately already witnessed.
So when a thirteen-feet troll charged straight from the Brood and Peck to interrupt the two young girls' shopping chat, one of them is hardly phased by the appearance of the monstrous figure heavy breathing before her.
“What?! Why would a troll be in Hogsmeade?” - Natty takes a step back. As light-footed as her movement is, the troll already turns its attention onto the two Gryffindors.
Its lumpy body started to move, and with a giant pebble in its hand, the creature clumsily hurl it directly at Willow. Physical prowess was never something Willow take great pride in, what the witch lacked in strength and reaction she compensated with her magic. But even a power-hungry person like Willow knows that it’s not wise to suddenly bring herself to fly without the need of a broomstick in this newfound world.
Lucky for her, as the pebble traveled on its way to crack Willow’s skull, her companion already flung a wooden box filled with moonstone accurately straight at the rock. Successfully stop the horrendous beast's murderous attempt.
“This isn’t an annual thing isn’t it?” - Willow frowned her eyebrow as the two girls quickly regrouped.
“Mountain troll! How did one get into Hogsmeade?”
“When you told me we should get more dueling experiences to protect ourselves I didn’t know you meant like right now.”
“Let’s split up, we can focus on offense from two sides by diverting its attention, troll are famously known to be unintelligent creatures.”
Without any further words, both girls divided their formation right after. Natty starts the fight right off with a series of nonstop magical blasts from her wand. The witch's agile physics easily sidesteps as the bulky beast charges straight at her. On the other side of the road, Willow also made sure to go full-on bombarding mode as the troll's attention draw away from her.
The creature's botched attacking pattern proves no match to Natty’s swiftness, but as the two slowly wither down the troll. As a homicidal attempt, It suddenly roars in terror. The sound caught Natty off guard, so much that the witch didn’t realize the club-holding hand of the troll was already cast directly at her with full force. The force that even the strength of Natty's strongest Protection Charm isn’t even potent enough to deflect.
Yewla Khash... Teska Neik
In Willow’s hand was no longer her wand, but rather instead a bunch of small rocks she gathered when the building crumbled. As if time already freezes by itself, one moment, Natty’s life was threatened, and the next second, in front of her was no longer a blood-thirsting monster but a harmless frozen statue of what once a hideous troll.
“Are you okay?!” Willow run back to her friend, who was still panting from what just happened before her. That was no magic she ever saw before, even back at Uagadou when wandless magic was common practice that she never witnesses a spell of such power, that even the sheer force of magical energy tingle her back hair.
“Let’s get you out of here okay? Before the troll is back to normal.”
Unbeknown to Willow, not too far from where she was leaving. A white-haired boy was looking from the distance, his gaze fixed on the frozen troll still immobilized where it stood.
“Hey man, you still good. Officer Singer called, she want to ask us more about the troll attacks.”
“I’m fine, thank you, Sebastian.”
“Didn’t expect professor Weasley's little playdate for us to be this eventful don’t you? And what are you looking over there, wait, is that another troll?!”
“It is”, the white-haired boy nodded, trying to brush off the cement dust from the broken debris stuck on his Slytherin Robe. “And seem like someone has already taken care of it.”
What was in front of Sebastian Sallow was a thirteen feet tall mountain troll completely paralyze, but to his friend, that said troll was practically bathed in a burst of ghostly blue light. So much that It’s almost blindly oneself to look at.
“What with Hogsmeaede and the tendency of troll attacks today. I say we should treat ourselves with some butterbeer, that is the least we can do after all those stretching activities don’t you think?”
“After you.”
“Pleasant to be your favorite tour guide.” - the other boy smirks.
As the two were heading toward The Three Broomstick, the new fifth-year can help but look back at the crime scene, officer Singer and the others already surround the immobilized troll trying to dispatch it away. Blue light still engulfs the creature.
“There was no mistake, that trace, It’s ancient magic” - he thought to himself.