Chapter 1
The bed of snow was soft, but incredibly cold. Alma woke with a start to find herself in her nightgown, the same one she had gone to sleep in the night before.
Only this was not her living room. She distinctly remembered going to bed as usual on the couch in her living room. But this was not the couch. This was... a forest, by her best guess.
She got up slowly, looking around. She crouched and touched the soft snow, took some in her hand. It was very cold. She also started feeling the cold in her bare feet. “What the actual...?" she thought and stopped, shocked, looking around again because she felt that someone was watching her.
Her eyes grew wider as the pure black figure of the unicorn came into focus in the white snow. Alma sucked in a sharp breath and took a tentative step forward, before apprehension stopped her. Just then, the unicorn disappeared and instead in front of her stood a beautiful, tall, blonde woman, who looked deeply into her eyes.
“Feels like your world is falling off the face of something, doesn’t it?” she asked in a clear, soft, harmonious voice, as she pulled a grey cloak out of thin air and put it around Alma's shoulders. Then she produced a pair of grey boots lined with fur, and crouched to put them on her feet.
“Who are you? Why am I here? What the fuck is going on?” Alma yelled out.
“Easy now, watch your temper. We’re about to enter a school and you don’t want to scare anyone.”
“A school?” Alma looked around, but saw nothing that looked even remotely similar to a building anywhere nearby.
“Yes. A school you know. Or at least have heard of. You’ll see.” She started walking and Alma tried to grab her to get her attention. The young woman spun and spoke in a voice as fierce as the one before had been soft. “You are not allowed to touch me in this form. To do so is certain death.”
Alma backed away silently, and watched as the woman left her side and walked on ahead. She really had no intention of following.
“Who are you?” she asked again. “What makes you think there could be anything in the world that would make me want to follow you anywhere?”
The unicorn woman turned and looked at Alma as if she hadn’t expected her to protest. Then she came next to her again.
“My name is Una. It is not my real name, but it will have to do. My real name hasn’t been said in the presence of another for over a century. I am a unicorn, as you saw.”
"You’ve got to be kidding me.” Alma said, creating a pause, after which she felt a need to close her eyes solidly on the world, as if warding off the bad dream she was now living.
“You’ve been brought here from your own time and place with a predetermined purpose. It will soon be clear to you. Very soon. If you will just follow me.”
"What happened to me? Where’s my family? Are they alright? How did I get here?” Alma started asking rapidly as she moved around the young woman left and right, making sure not to touch her in the process.
“Your loved ones are exactly where and when they are meant to be. All will be made clear soon. Now be patient, please. I will not harm you, and nor will the people with whom I’d like you to meet.”
Alma became silent all of a sudden, and a feeling of awe and anticipation started rising in her. As they walked and came out of the forest, she saw what looked like the outline of a round or oval structure, with low sides and very high towers evenly spaced from one another and flags on top of the towers. Then, as they finished climbing quite a large hill, she looked upon something which until that point had avoided even her imagination.
Hogwarts Castle. She knew at once what it was called, though she had never seen it or pictures of it, she had never been there, nor had she ever heard anyone talking about it. In fact, all she knew about the place was that it existed in a book. A part of some seven-part fiction which had drawn to a close six years before that point in her history.
With the newfound knowledge of where she was, she looked behind herself and named the towered structure as well: The Quidditch Pitch. Again, something she had only ever read about. And yet, there it was. As they approached the gates of the castle, unease swept through Alma like a hot poker. She was not supposed to be there. Under no circumstances would a Muggle be allowed to enter the grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She then shook the idea off. This had to be some kind of stupid dream, induced by her overexcited mind. Why was she treating it so seriously all of a sudden?
As the doors opened, a large flight of stairs came in her view. The entrance hall she had walked into was incredibly tall and decorated with sculptures of soldiers. She thought fleetingly about how these soldiers could come to life to defend the castle and the students there in case of an attack.
Walking up the flight of stairs, always staying behind the blonde woman, she saw teenagers passing her, but made it a point not to look in their direction, until, as she was looking at one of the Hogwarts moving paintings a girl with bubble gum hair bumped into her. The girl quickly apologized and jolted on her way. Bubble gum hair?
The stairs Una took her on led to another pair of very large doors, which she opened with an ample gesture. Inside, basked in the glow of the rising winter sun, stood the Great Hall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, complete with four long student tables, one long teacher’s table and enchanted-to-look-like-the-sky ceiling. It had started to snow softly, and Alma curiously stopped to catch a falling snowflake. It was cold, and melted in her palm. The snowflakes weren’t settling on anything, instead made it a point to disappear mid-way between the edge of the table and the low, long benches that served as seating.
Alma looked up as she heard Una’s voice address a man she had seen sitting at the teachers' table. Quite a young man, with a curtain of greasy black hair covering face. With newfound anticipation, she stared in the man’s direction, as the name Severus Snape rang in her ears. She almost wanted to shout it at him and see if she was right. His sallow face seemed angry as he talked to the blonde woman, and then he moved to one of the side doors to the hall, with Una in pursuit.
Since no one had told her to follow, Alma decided to just stay in that spot. She remembered that she was dressed in her nightgown and wished that the unicorn had given her proper clothes, instead of just a cloak and some shoes. She tugged the coat more firmly around her body for comfort.
Just then Una came back inside and yelled after her. Alma got up and followed, almost involuntarily.
“Do you know where you are?” Una asked her as they were walking, but Alma did not answer, and instead slowed her pace down, until stopping abruptly in the middle of the hallway. The man, Severus Snape, was walking in front of them, and he stopped as soon as he realized there was no one walking behind him anymore.
“Is this for real? Am I being set up or something? Cause if I am this a very lame joke.”
“Come with us, and all will be revealed.”