Closed Not Just Ordinary

[Calliope Cartwright]

Calliope Cartwright gazed down the busy wizarding street, at the colourful shopfronts, at the men and women hurrying along in smart robes, at the broomsticks propped up against a nearby wall, at the poster advertising miniature dragons for sale - at all the irrefutable evidence of magic around her - and still she wondered whether it was all a big practical joke. She'd seen those prank TV shows; the set-ups could be pretty elaborate. If Riordan Keyes, the famous illusionist, could trick a woman into believing she'd entered a parallel universe, then tricking Callie into believing she was a witch would be a piece of cake. Only, Callie was sure these people were made to sign consent forms, and nobody had asked for her signature. And the man in the hat who'd come to explain her powers had seemed very genuine. If he was an actor, he deserved a pay rise immediately.

Callie crouched to pet a ginger cat that was mewing for her attention. She'd always wanted a cat. Her school letter said she could bring a pet of her choice - but what would she do with it during the holidays? Nana would never let a cat in the house. Allergies, she said, although Callie knew better. Allergies was just code for, 'if I see a single cat hair on my nice clean settee, I'll pass out on the spot'.

She didn't want her nana to be right. That was what it was. She could deal with being humiliated on public television - if nothing else, it would be a good story to tell when she went back to 'muggle' school - but she couldn't bear the thought of admitting that Nana Ruth had been right about the man in the hat all along. That it was all a cruel ruse. That Callie was just ordinary, and there was no such thing as magic, and she was foolish to believe otherwise. Callie had said some spiteful things in response to that. How silly would she feel when the cameramen burst out and sent her on the first flight home?

The cat spotted something across the street and darted off. Brushing her hand on her jeans, Callie stood up. Well, prank or not, she couldn't stand around here all day. She had shopping to do. Speaking of which - was that a shopping list blowing along the pavement toward her? Callie caught it under her shoe and picked it up. As she returned it to the young girl who appeared to have dropped it, she said, "Oh! I have the same list as you." For some reason, it had only just occurred to her there might be other children here doing their first year shopping. She had truly begun to convince herself they were all actors. "Sorry to bother you. Do you know where to buy all these things?"

 

[Christa Langley]

It was weird right?

Surely she wasn't the only little girl in the world this had happened to. The witch who'd come to tell their family about everything had said there would be others, and that this was a big opportunity for her, but she'd never really considered that she would be going to school on a different continent - well maybe Aotearoa isn't really a different continent, but it's not Australia either. She'd been enjoying her life in Parramatta, only for things to be turned upside down when they'd been visited her just recently on her birthday last week to tell her she was a witch, and she could go to a magic school that would teach her all about everything she needed to know to be a witch. Her parents couldn't come with her because they weren't witches but they could sort of hover around in certain areas with Ministry permission just so she wasn't walking around on her own, so, her parents and her sister Sabrina had accompanied her to this... Obsidian Harbour, but she had asked if she could do some of it alone. They'd agreed to meet her at one of the cafe's along the street and they could sort of watch her running around in and out of the stores.

Nothing was what she thought it would be. Everything was so old, like stone and brick, like it had been there for like three, four hundred years. She was much more comfortable with the modern conveniences of living in central Parramatta. She wasn't sure she liked the cobbled streets so much either, she felt like if she wasn't careful she was going to trip over them, but that was more to do with her fact she was clumsy than anything else. It was all so... weird. They told her it was normal, that this was how all wizarding society looked, and that was fine and all, but how was she supposed to do her assignments if she didn't have a laptop to do them on, and how was she supposed to contact her family or let her friends know she was okay if she was without her phone? They would all think she'd just disappeared - well, she was going to have to work that one out. Hmm.

The thought made her pause for a moment, she didn't know what she would do about her friends, or how she would let them know she was still around, perhaps she could talk to her teachers at the school, or maybe the Principal? That might be her best bet. Whenever she'd gone to school before she'd always talked to her Principal about keeping in touch with her parents, she'd spent a lot of time at School of the Air too, it wasn't really what it was used for really, but her parents had moved around a lot in most of the time she was growing up, so it had just been easier, sometimes they would be out camping whilst her mum climbed a mountain to get great shots, so she and Sabrina would sit in a tent and do their schoolwork. It was nice, she was going to miss it. "No! My list!" A strong breeze, had plucked it right out of her hands and she rushed after it. "Oh thank you! Yes, I'm supposed to buy everything. I barely know where to start, though I did see some older girls stepping out of that shop over there with books," She said, pointing in the direction she'd just come from. They were supposed to buy a supply of first year books, it felt a bit weird to call it first year, she'd been in fifth year just recently! Honestly this felt a bit like a downgrade.

Books, of everything, seemed the most normal of things to get, surely they can't be that different to normal, mundane, non magical books, right?​