one
the discovery of the witch
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QUINN WIDENED THE palm of her hand and hovered it over the candle before watching the flame appear. Quinn sighed as she stood up from her seat, the flame still lit. This was all new to her. The 'magic' as she liked to call it was an accidental recent discovery. She honestly didn't mean to read her mother's old diaries. It was an honest mistake. She simply didn't notice the words 'ADRIENNE ALLARD'S DIARY - PRIVATE!' written on the front cover.
Quinn simply thought that inside would hold her deepest darkest secrets and about how she snuck out that one time to hang out with her boyfriend and go to a party. Something stupid like that. Spells and incantations were not one of the things that crossed her mind. If anything, when Quinn first read it she thought that her mother must've been high when she wrote it. It seemed to be the most logical thing - or else her mother was crazy and believed that Hogwarts existed.
Although, after finding out her mother's secret, she did feel like Hermione Granger for a while - minus the wand. Quinn has been non-stop studying her mom's diary - if anything it was more a spell book, but considering it also mentioned how her mother found out and blah, blah, blah, Quinn considers it a diary. Literally, the top of page three in her mom's diary read the words: 'LIST OF SPELLS!'
After a while of trying to figure out what the actual fuck was going on, Quinn figured out that maybe something real was happening here and maybe she could do the same. Although she felt ridiculous trying to utter the Latin words that were written on the page, she soon managed to get the pronunciation of them and now can kind of memorise and stutter out something before getting confused and feeling like an idiot.
The entire process of learning 'magic' was long and boring. It was mainly boring because she couldn't tell anyone, obviously, people would think she needed to be sent to a mental hospital or that she needed to stop reading the Harry Potter books before it got to her head, thinking that she was actually the next Hermione Granger.
Quinn felt more alone than ever before. At first she thought that it would be a great idea to try and help people, be the next Scarlet Witch, but that failed because either it was too late or she said the wrong incantation and rather than blast them away she either caused a mini earthquake, causing all of New York to freak the fuck out, or the spell backfired and all of a sudden she was backed up into a wall.
If anything, Quinn felt stupid. She honestly thought that she could make something good out this abomination that has cursed her life. But, no, if anything she just made everything worse by trying to help. At first, she kept repeating the same words to herself, 'At least you tried, right?', which made her feel crazy because she wasn't just saying it in her head. No. She was saying it aloud causing people to give her odd looks.
The freakish thing was that a month after she had discovered her powers, a new superhero was roaming the skies, swinging from webs and attempting to help people in a onesie. Quinn thought that it was adorable at first but now, she was just curious as to who the hell he or she was and how they could become best friends.
After being lost in thought for what felt like seven months - because she was reliving that the things that had happened to her - she suddenly felt as if she woke up from a dream to the sound of a knock on her bedroom door. Now, normally, Quinn would simply say 'come in' and allow the stranger - or in this case, her dad - to come in. But, considering moments ago Quinn was practising magic, she was in an obvious state of panic.
"Quinn! Someone's here to see you!" Her dad called out.
Shit, shit, shit, was all that was racing through her brain and she began to panic and throw things underneath her bed, her closet and possibly out the window. At this point she didn't even know where everything was going because she was simply throwing things around, trying to hide them in the best way possible without this new mysterious someone noticing.
"Uh - one moment, dad!" Quinn yelled back.
In the distance could hear a deep voice through the door causing her to pause and pressed her ear against the thin walls. There was a man in her living room conversing so naturally with her father. She couldn't help eavesdropping, but in doing so, she didn't realise that she was so lost in thought that she didn't hear the mysterious person enter the room. Automatically thinking it was her dad, Quinn panicked. "I said one moment! I - uh - I can explain..."
Quinn quickly spun around, from looking at the wall, to see a man that was most definitely not her dad. Instead, the man standing in front of her happened to be a man of average height, wearing a, possibly, hundred-million-dollar suit and had a bruised face, almost as if he was in a fight, which caused Quinn to furrow her eyes. Well, she furrowed them after she had a mini-inner-freak-out with her eyes widened and mouth agape.
"Close your mouth, you might catch flies," he said snarkily as he began to walk around and study her room. Quinn closed her mouth and spun around and stared at him as he walked around her room. "Y-you're Tony Stark," Quinn blurted, obviously still in shock at the man who was standing five feet away from her.
"And you're Quinn Allard," he said turning around and pointing to the young girl, who had a small scar on her cheek after she was attacked by a rock when she was blown back from her own spell. The scar was beginning to scab over as it did only happen less than a month ago. Quinn simply blinked, shocked that the Tony Stark knew who she, a pathetic newbie witch from Queens, was.
Quinn opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Tony seemed to realise that she was trying to ask how he knew who she was and simply answered the unasked question, "It was easy. Earthquakes, odd 'magical' occurrences happening...here in Queens of all places. Not great at covering your tracks though."
Quinn gave him a short nod before turning her head to see her mother's diary, laying open with multiple spells written down. Tony noticed the object sitting on her desk and went over to have a look at it, but Quinn was quick and slammed the diary shut after Tony had read possibly five or ten spells. Tony raised his eyes at her as he held his arm close to him. "Why are you here?" Quinn asked, slightly agitated that he was snooping.
Tony waved his hand and turned away from her, looking at the herbs and candles littering her room. "I'll talk about that in a bit." Tony's eyes were glued to the herbs and candles that were laying on her floor. Some tumbled over after her throwing some of them out of the way in a frenzy. Tony pointed to the items on the floor and looked at Quinn. Quinn caught on to what he was wondering and sighed leaning against her desk.
"In my mom's diary, it mentions that you need herbs and lit candles to amp up the mojo. I don't really understand it, but it helps, somehow," Quinn explained causing Tony to give her a small nod. All was silent for a few more moments before Tony sat down on the girl's bed. Quinn pulled out her desk chair and sat down. "So, why are you here?"
Tony didn't answer and simply shrugged his shoulders, leaning forward and pulled out his phone. Tony began to tap it for a moment causing Quinn to furrow her eyebrows, glancing at the device. After a moment, a video appeared on the phone showing Quinn throwing a guy, who tried to attack an elderly woman, against a wall using her magic. The wall left a dent where the body was as he fell to the ground with a groan. The next video showed Quinn's spell backfiring and throwing herself against the wall.
Quinn sighed when she saw that and clenched her jaw as she saw her face on the video. It was reckless to show her face and she knew it, but this was still when she didn't really know what the fuck she was doing. This was her merely practising and failing - miserably. "This is you doing your witchy thing, right?" Quinn gave Tony a slow nod, cringing slightly at how terrible she was at magic.
"It's cool, I mean showing your face, probably not the best decision considering you nearly killed someone and yourself there, but it's a work in progress..." Tony trailed off before shutting the phone off and placing it back in his pocket. "How the hell did you figure out you could do this?" Tony said gesturing to the candles, herbs and made a hand movement, similar to what she was doing in the video causing Quinn to let out a small chuckle.
"I found my mom's old diary and it said that she was a witch, I mean it had spells and incantations inside. I was really afraid that my mom was insane until I read the end, where it mentions me doing weird magic things when I was three, so I thought what the hell, let's give it a try...and I did," Quinn explained, standing up and holding up the diary. Quinn began to flick through a few pages before finally finding the page where it mentioned her.
Tony stood up and walked over towards her. He gestured to the diary obviously asking if he could take a look. Quinn sighed and at first hesitated before she handed it to him. Tony began to flick through the pages before landing on the list of spells. Tony's eyes scanned the list before he closed the diary and placed on the desk in front of him.
"Do you have a passport?" Tony asked after thinking for a moment. Quinn gave him an odd look, wondering why the hell he was asking this. "Uh, yeah, but it needs to be renewed-" Quinn was cut off by Tony who simply nodded, "That's fine," he said quickly before turning around and stepping closer to the door. "Have you ever been to Germany?" he asked.
Quinn's eyes widened at his question before shaking her head, "No," Quinn let out a shaky laugh. Tony smirked before glancing at the door, "So, your dad, he doesn't know, does he?" Tony asked causing Quinn to shake her head. "No, but I doubt many people do, even after the video, it's not that popular," Quinn said causing Tony to nod in agreement.
Tony began to head for the door but after he opened it, Quinn slammed the door shut before locking it using her magic. Tony's head spun to see her with a worried expression, "How the hell am I gonna convince my dad about any of this - going to Germany?" Quinn asked with raised eyebrows causing Tony to nod.
Quinn's dad would never let her leave. The girl was turning sixteen in a month, her dad was already a nervous wreck whenever she left the house, considering all the violence that was happening in Queens currently, he had a right to be. But, since he had no idea about what she can do, he didn't know that she is capable of defending herself, with or without her newly discovered powers.
"Already sorted it out with your dad. You applied for an internship and congrats you've got it," he told her causing her to smile. Tony began to unlock the door before she stopped him, "Oh, and can you please not tell him, or well you know, anyone?" Quinn asked causing Tony to nod slowly, "'course, kid, now am I allowed to leave now?" Tony asked gesturing to the door.
Quinn cracked a smile and stepped back, nodding. "Right, yeah, of course, go ahead," Quinn said quickly causing Tony to nod before leaving. Quinn let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding before allowing a smile to grow on her face. "Oh, my God, I just met Tony Stark..." Quinn said to herself, shocking at what had just happened.
Bored, Quinn began to levitate objects that she had thrown before Tony entered the room and gather them up and place them in a small basket that could fit under her bed. This was honestly the most insane day ever.
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