“So, let me get this straight,” Charlie started but paused as she reached for her glass of bubbly. Charlie had arrived not long ago and after the shock she and Tracey had gone to get something to drink. Charlie needed some bubbles.
“You’ve been here since the end of September even though I just saw you yesterday at home. How does that even work?” Waving her hand she didn’t really expect Tracey to answer. “And there are a lot of people from home, I could have sworn I saw Katie Bell walking by.” Charlie side.
“So, tell me everything, dating? Fighting? What exactly are you doing here?”
"Honestly?" Tracey said with a shake of her head. "I have no bloody idea how any of this works." She waved the hand around that held her glass then took a sip. Having Charlie here was better than she could have hoped for. People came and went in Atlantis all the time, but she hadn't really expected her best friend to show up.
"There are loads of people here from home. Bell and Spinnet. Well, nearly all the Spinnets are here. Ginny Weasley, Bole, Potter, Davies, and a handful of others. Plus, Marcus has been here a few months longer than me. Oh, and several others that fought in the first war who are supposed to be dead. Crazy, right?"
Tracey laughed a little. "No significant dating to report so far, though, there are plenty of pretty people here. The fighting... well, I guess you were given the short version already. What they're fighting for here, it's important, and I think I can help. Or I'm at least going to try my best."
"What is it with that family?" She said about the Spinnets shaking her head. "I thought I saw some names that I was pretty sure were dead, and Professor Lupin is around our age here? I can't decide if should be dead people or your should be dead Professor being your age is weirder." Charlie paused as she thought about it for a moment but had no answer.
"Trace, you have to get out there!" Charlie teased as she nudged her friend's shoulder. Her face turned a bit more serious when Tracey brought up the war, it was still hard for Charlie to get her head around the idea that there was a war over creativity and her best friend was sticking around to fight. "So, what's the war like? Because this place seems pretty secure to me."
Tracey nodded mid-drink. “Yup. Lupin is here. Plus, Sirius Black and James and Lily Potter if you can believe it. A lot of them have been here for a while, but several have arrived more recently. That’s one thing about this place. You never know who is going to pop in.” Or pop out, but she kept that to herself. She hadn’t experienced anyone super close to her leaving yet, but she knew it happened all the time.
“Hey, I’m playing the field,” she said with a grin. “I like options.”
The war could be hard to explain. She’d been here a couple months and didn’t fully understand it since she hadn’t been out on a mission yet. “It’s not a typical war,” she started. “I’ve not been on one myself yet, but often times something’s gone wrong in one of our home worlds and teams are sent to fix it and recover any items of creativity. I hear they even sent a group to Hogwarts early on.”
“Wait, as in Harry Potter’s parents? They are actually here? What are they like?” Charlie was really curious about that one, and she didn’t have bad will towards Harry at all, she just sometimes felt like Slytherin got way too much of a bad rap.
“So, wait, they send people to different worlds?” Charlie’s mind started to wrap around what exactly that’d mean and how complicated it would be. “That’s got to take a lot of power, and I mean magical and just power, and some interesting tech too.” She really wanted to get her hands on it and see it.
“Yep. Those Potters.” Tracey shrugged and took another sip of her drink. “I’ve only met them briefly, but they seem nice. Lily is really nice, and James seems alright. And there are a few others from that time, but mostly it’s our mates and those from the second war.”
She laughed a little at Charlie’s reaction to the types of missions but nodded. “Yeah, different worlds. Some I’ve heard about from Muggle television, but some I don’t know.” She smiled. “The city itself can be… strange. I’ve only been here a short while, but lots of strange things happen here. It’s mad but can also be fun.”
“So, it’s basically Gryffindor central here, or at least by what you’ve said that’s how it sounds.” Charlie was never that into the house rivalry, except when it involved making a party more fun, but that was a lot of Gryffindors.
“What do you mean strange?” That got her attention pretty quickly. “I mean the fact we are here period is a little bit strange, but something more?” Oh yeah, Atlantis was starting to seem really, really interesting.
Tracey weighed the thought back and forth and then nodded. “With a few exceptions, but pretty much.” House rivalries for her didn’t really begin until she joined the Quidditch team. And even though she didn’t play with all of them during school years, there were a lot of Gryffindor quidditch players here too.
“Oh yeah,” she said after a drink and grinned. “It’s insanely strange. Shortly after I arrived, the streets were made out of books, cookbooks I believe, but some of them tried biting you as you walked. Um.. sometimes are moments where it seems like someone is using an Imperius curse causing you to do things, but it’s something with this place that happens. Ginny Weasley woke up one morning dressed in vintage clothing and kept reverting between color and black and white.- like, her entire body. Be careful of the food and drinks served at parties and events; they can make some mental things happen to you too. Mostly, it’s harmless or embarrassing for a short while.”
It was a bad time to take a sip of wine because it didn’t stay in her mouth when Tracey said cookbooks were biting people. Luckily she managed to just hit the floor and coughed once before sitting up straight with wide eyes. “Cookbooks trying to bite people? What is this? Hagrids biting books gone kitchen?” She couldn’t believe half of what Tracey was saying.
“It sounds like it’s that muggle show, the one with a zone or something.” It really did. “And I’ll take note to be careful what I eat or drink at parties.”
“Kind of! I’m only starting to get used to it.” Tracey nodded and laughed. There really were so many pieces of Atlantis that were hard to believe even if you experienced them. Tracey was still trying to get used to the place, but it had been a lot of fun and interesting so far.
“You’re going to love it though. The people so far have been nice enough and there are a lot of different types of magic here. Not just those from home or wand magic.”
“What kinds of different magic? I mean,” she waved her hand around. “Everything here would break all the rules at home as it is already, so there has to be something, but how many different kinds? Do you know? And why aren’t you dating here?! It looks like there are a lot of good-looking men around here.” Yes, her questions went all over the place.
“All different sorts; I’m not sure how many exactly.” Tracey remembered the guy who had somehow managed to come into her dreams and how he talked about his magic. She still didn’t completely understand how it worked yet though. “There are other witches and wizards here, but they don’t use wand magic. Other species, like these vampire types, have a mastery over the four elements. I bet you could stop by the Magic Department down at the base and get more information. A few of our lot work there.”
The question about her dating life came up again, and she just shook her head. “To be honest, it’s been kind of a whirlwind since I first got here. I’ve been busy with training and figuring out this place, but we should go out and change that. Soon.”
“That is so cool!” Charlie almost bounced in her chair. “And I can see why people want to stay here, even past the whole saving the world thing, there is a lot of stuff here.” And a lot of things to experiment with, which was where her mind naturally went.
“Okay, so where is the best club so we can go meet people hmm?” Charlie always did want a good party.
Tracey nodded. This was the sort of place someone like Charlie would absolutely love from both the magical aspect and the general atmosphere of Atlantis most of the time. She knew it was a long shot in wishing she would stick around, but regardless, she was going to make the most of the time she had with her while she was here.
Finishing off her drink, she grinned. “Trocution, definitely,” she said. “Let’s go!” They were both already half up out of their seats as she spoke. Partying with Charlie Montgomery was always a blast, and tonight was going to be no different.