Elizabeth felt Remus' hand jerk away from her making her grip harder. She could not see the alleyway any longer, yet she could see just darkness. She felt pressure on all sides of her and was having trouble breathing. She felt like someone was tying rope around her body and squeezing so hard. Suddenly she felt her feet slam to the ground as she fell to her knees vomiting.
Remus stood behind Elizabeth holding her hair. "Yes, unfortunately, anyone who experiences apparition the first time tends to vomit."
"I wonder why," Elizabeth, said with annoyance as she got off the floor wiping her mouth with the handkerchief Remus handed her.
"Well," Remus said, "Welcome to London." He added smiling as he helped her walk out of the alleyway onto the sidewalk of the cobbled road.
Elizabeth looked around already knowing that she was not in America anymore. The street was cobbled instead of paved. The shops looked very different, even the people were dressed differently and carried themselves differently.
"It is almost eleven so we best get to the Leaky Cauldron to get rooms and have some dinner."
~*~*~
Remus and Elizabeth sat at a table in the dining area of the Leaky Cauldron. They both had ordered Shepard's pie. As they sat eating, Elizabeth had a million questions going through her head. Just a few hours ago she was sitting on the curb out in front of Pierce's home in New York thinking about what to do with the rest of their summer. Now, she was sitting in a pub in London, England starting school the day after tomorrow.
"Remus," she said clearing her throat, getting the man's attention. "What is Hogwarts going to be like?" she asked, playing with her shepherd's pie.
Remus swallowed and set his fork down. "Well," he said, thinking of where to start. "Hogwarts will be the best seven years of your life. At least they were mine." He said with a smile. "You make friends at Hogwarts that stay your friends for life."
"I'm not good at making friends," Elizabeth said, cutting Remus off.
He smiled fondly, "You'll make friends don't worry." He sighed and began to reminisce his years at Hogwarts telling Elizabeth the best of them. He told her about the classes and the professors, the feasts, and the occasional balls. Then a thought struck him.
"Elizabeth," he said, "Do you know that your father went to Hogwarts?" he asked. Elizabeth shook her head 'no.' "He did." Remus replied, "He was very bright and also a troublemaker. I was at Hogwarts with him." At this Elizabeth brightened up.
"You went to school with my Dad?!" she asked smiling. "What was he like? What did he look like? Am I anything like him?" she asked all these questions so fast that Remus did not know where to start from.
He chuckled. "Calm down I will answer all your questions. It's late though. You best get up to bed, we have a lot of shopping to do and then we will talk about your father."
As Remus watched Elizabeth reluctantly trek off to her room he couldn't help but smile. She had grown so much in the past ten years. Every time she opened her mouth and spoke in that American tone he was taken aback.
~*~*~
After begrudgingly going to bed the previous night, Elizabeth could not wait to have all the questions she had ever had answered. It was 8 am and even with a time difference, she was wide-awake. She was dressed and ready to go down for breakfast, yet was not sure if Remus would come to her door to get her. After waiting for as long as she could she left her room to go into the dining area alone. When she descended the stairs she saw that Remus was already there reading a paper that had moving pictures on it.
"Good morning, Elizabeth." He said from behind the moving paper.
Elizabeth slid into the chair next to him crossing her hands on the table in front of her. "Good morning." She sighed. "Why are the images on that paper moving?" she asked curiously. She couldn't tear her eyes off of an image of little elf-looking things moving about in a dungeon.
"Yes, another fun fact about the Wizarding world is that our pictures move. They can be in frames or in newspapers or in books and they will move." He smiled putting down his paper.
"Interesting," Elizabeth said shaking her head. She was beginning to get restless and wanted to know when the information about her father would start flowing.
"Do you want some breakfast?" Remus asked.
"I don't really eat breakfast," Elizabeth replied. "I never get hungry in the mornings."
Remus shook his head and decided that they would go to Gringotts bank first and then off to do her school shopping.
~*~*~
Elizabeth followed Remus to the back of The Leaky Cauldron. She looked every which way and did not find a door to go through. She watched Remus approach the brick wall and take out his magic wand. She gasped as she had never seen a real magic wand before. As she watched, Remus tapped the bricks in a pattern. When he was done the bricks rumbled and started to move away as if making a doorway.
Remus turned to Elizabeth who had an expression of awe written all across her face. "That was your first experience with a little bit of magic. Wait until you learn about all the other things possible to do with a wand." He gestured for her to come to stand next to him. When Elizabeth stood next to Remus and looked at what the bricks had open up to she gasped in surprise. It was an actual alley bustling with shops and a crowd of people, that she could only guess were all Witches and Wizards.
"Welcome to the Wizarding World Elizabeth," Remus said putting his hand on her shoulder and leading her into Diagon Alley.