Once more unto the breach [Challenge 3: the Whittakers] “S**t, Philip!” came the call from their bedroom upstairs, and Philip Whittaker jogged up the stairs, rolling his eyes as he did so.
“What is it this time, dear? Have you broken the Statute of Secrecy again?”
“Oh shut up,” replied Anna fondly. She smiled, his comment reminding her of the slightly unfortunate circumstances of their first meeting.
---
“Oh Merlin,” Anna cursed as the rain started pouring down even harder, soaking her and all the contents of her satchel as they lay sprawled on the pavement. Bits of parchment, jars of potions ingredients and the odd fizzing whizbee were all scattered on the ground as a result of the spell that had split the bag open.
“Tarantallegra!” she shot back over her shoulder, the spell knocking one of the boys over into the other one. Hastily she started gathering up her belongings, wanting to get out of the rain and away from her bullying schoolmates as quickly as possible. She was just reaching for the last jar when a hand closed over it, picking it up, and all of a sudden she was being helped to her feet by a handsome young man with startlingly green eyes.
“I-They-” she started, finding herself rather inarticulate in the face of, well, his face, and resorting to gesturing at the boys, who would be wanting revenge for her jinx any minute.
“Yes, I saw,” replied the man. “And I’m assuming we should vacate the premises?”
She nodded, and he started moving along the street, pulling her along with him as he was still holding her arm. “My place is just this way, we’ll be out of the rain in two minutes and I doubt they’ll bother us inside."
He was right; the boys had just started to follow them as they reached the block of flats that was their destination, and Anna caught a glimpse of them turning back angrily as the door swung shut, obviously not wanting to follow them into what seemed like a muggle building.
“So what was that?” asked the young man, leading the way up a flight of stairs. “I’m Philip, by the way.”
“My name’s Anna,” she introduced herself automatically, still not quite having caught up with what was going on. She wasn’t entirely sure she should follow Philip, but he seemed nice enough, probably a few years older than her but she was sure she could take him in a fight if need be. “Sorry about that. Those boys are in my class at Hogwarts, and I had the misfortune of bumping into them in Diagon Alley. They’re a bit stuck-up, really, and the most awful bullies.”
“Hogwarts? That’s a bit of an unusual name for a university – or school, whichever you go to,” Philip replied, and Anna felt a sense of horror wash over her. He didn’t recognise the name Hogwarts.
“Oh f**k, you’re muggle, aren’t you?”
“Potentially?” Philip responded cheerfully. “I can’t say I’ve come across that term before. Talking of things I haven’t come across, what exactly was happening earlier? If I believed in fairytales I’d say it was some sort of magic…”
“You could call, it that, yeah,” said Anna, part of her brain panicking about the Statute of Secrecy and how on earth she was meant to explain it, whilst another part managed to take the time to appreciate Philip’s bum as he turned away from her to unlock the door they’d stopped at. Focus, she told herself firmly.
“So if it was magic, what does that make you?” Philip was still hypothesising about the magic he’d seen earlier. “You can’t be a witch, they’re meant to be all old and ugly and green, and you’re definitely not ugly.” She glared at him as he winked at her, but was fairly sure it came across as half-hearted. He really was too handsome to be properly glared at.
“…and fairy godmothers are supposed to be dainty and wear floaty dresses, but your leather jacket isn’t really giving out the right vibe-”
“Actually I, uh, am a witch,” she said, interrupting him before he came up with any more ridiculous theories. “We’re not all old with warts. There’s actually an entire magical community, we just keep ourselves hidden from muggles – non-magic people, that is.” She reasoned that she owed him at least part of an explanation. Besides, he didn’t seem to be overly worried by the situation as yet.
“An entire community? Wow, I guess I’m even more unobservant than I thought,” he mused. The idea of another world living in tandem to his sounded fascinating to Philip. Especially as it was where Anna came from. “Fancy staying for a cup of tea? You could tell me more things that muggles aren’t supposed to know,” he suggested.
Anna took a second to think it over. She probably shouldn’t tell him any more than she already had, but in for a penny, in for a pound. Besides, she decided, she’d quite like to keep him if she could.
---
“I still maintain you’re using a spell to hide the warts,” said Philip, coming into the room behind her and knowing exactly what she was thinking about. “Now, was there some great emergency or did I just run to the rescue for nothing?”
“Oh, yes, that,” said Anna, pulled back to the present day and her greying (but still just as handsome) husband. “I appear to be pregnant again.”