(no subject)

[salt-and-burn.livejournal.com]

Dean woke up feeling a little weird. Not hungover-weird, which he could deal with (actually, which he'd almost enjoy at the moment, as it would imply a recent consumption of alcohol), but... wanting-to-take-a-walk weird.

He hadn't had any particular desire to explore previously, but he could just be getting stir-crazy or something. That made sense. Maybe he'd go look for roller coasters.

...Except that when he stepped outside, he found himself heading straight for the entrance of the park, where he was pretty sure there were no roller coasters to be found. He tried changing courses a few times, but kept getting the sense that he was supposed to be heading toward...

He blinked when he finally came to the door he'd been inexplicably drawn to. An ice cream parlor?

Maybe his subconscious liked him, after all. Shrugging, he opened the door and stepped inside.

Comments

[notpotteryet.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Lily said, almost sheepishly. "Magic school." He sounded sarcastic, disbelieving, but she couldn't really blame him. The poor bloke looked almost frightened, but for a Muggle, he was still taking this rather well.

"I... I guess this must seem pretty strange to you, huh?" the girl continued quietly.

Where she came from? Did he mean London? Lily nodded. "Well, yes, I guess so. The Muggle still outnumber us, so we have to stay hidden, but there's enough us to have a school and a town and a Ministry."

[salt-and-burn.livejournal.com]

"Muggles?" he repeated. Oh, no fucking way. "Please tell me you learned that word within the past... Say, 10 years?" he asked hopefully.

Like, from a book, maybe? A book about--he paused, almost reflectively. Magic school. Not that he'd read the damned books, but he was a conscious human being living in the modern world, after all.

And no, he wasn't quietly freaking out. Not at all.

[notpotteryet.livejournal.com]

Lily bit her lip. Math wasn't her strong point. "I, uh, I guess so?" she said. "I was eleven when I learned it and I'm seventeen now, so really..."

"Hey, are you okay? You don't look very good, Dean." Maybe he was having the weird dizzy feeling now.

[salt-and-burn.livejournal.com]

Eleven? Well, fuck, that didn't prove anything. And regardless, it wasn't like he was going to find out that she was actually just a perfectly normal human girl--he'd just seen her summon a chair.

He took another deep breath. There was no sense getting all... panicked about this. "I'm fine," he said, smiling. "Just--uh, surprised. I've never met a witch before." He realized belatedly that his ice cream was rapidly melting, and he licked some of it away. "So--um, tell me about this school you go to," he ventured, not entirely sure he wanted to know what she would say.

[notpotteryet.livejournal.com]

Lily nodded understandingly. "You're taking it a lot better than my sister did," she told him, "if that helps at all." She could imagine it was a lot to take in for someone who'd never encountered magic before.

"Hogwarts," said Lily, blinking. "Why do you ask?"

[salt-and-burn.livejournal.com]

Dean slowly felt the last shred of mental stability he had been clinging to slip away.

"Uh..." he tried to respond, but there really wasn't anything he could say to that. Maybe--maybe Harry Potter was real in a parallel universe, or something? Just when he'd thought he was getting good at the whole supernatural thing, something like this had to happen.

"No reason," he finally managed. "It's not important." He smiled. He needed to get away and find out what the hell was going on, here. "You know, I should probably be going... It was nice meeting you, and thanks for the ice cream." He stood up to leave, got almost to the door, and was suddenly overcome with dizziness and nausea.

What the hell? He turned around and stepped back toward Lily, and the symptoms went away. "Did you...?" he asked vaguely, not sure what he was even trying to ask.

[notpotteryet.livejournal.com]

Lily, feeling dizzy herself, swayed a little until Dean was closer to her. "No," she said. "I felt it too. And I felt it earlier, when I went to get my wand. I don't know what's causing it."

She hoped whatever it was would go away. It was an unpleasant feeling, to be sure.

[salt-and-burn.livejournal.com]

Dean frowned, beginning to feel uneasy about the situation. It seemed almost as if it happened whenever they got a few feet away from each other, although he couldn't imagine...

He walked over until he was directly in front of Lily, then slowly began to take steps backwards, counting. One... Two... Three... Four.. Five... Si--

Somewhere between the fifth and sixth step, the nausea hit again, and he quickly stepped forward. "Looks like we're going to have to stick together for a while," he said, leaning on a nearby table for support from the recently-passed nausea.

[notpotteryet.livejournal.com]

Lily puts a hand to her head. "Why is this happening?" she asked Dean, although she didn't really expect him to know anymore than she did. "I don't understand what's going on."

[salt-and-burn.livejournal.com]

"No idea," Dean responded gruffly. "Some kind of curse, maybe?" A temporary one, he hoped. Lily seemed like a nice girl, and there were definitely less attractive people whose company he could be stuck in, but--five feet? That was going to be a problem.

"Got any ideas?" he asked. She'd been here longer than he had, after all--maybe this sort of this was to be expected. There wasn't too much that could suprise him, now.

[notpotteryet.livejournal.com]

Lily looked thoughtful. "I guess we could look around and see if this is happening to other people or just us," she said. "I mean, that might give us some insight as to why..."

She blinked and her mouth formed a little 'o' as she remembered something she'd been told upon her arrival.

"Mr. Crowley said sometimes weird things happen here. Like, one day he woke up with dreadlocks? I wonder if that's what it is..."

[salt-and-burn.livejournal.com]

"Crowley with dreadlocks? That'd be something worth seeing," Dean said, grinning. "Yeah, I wouldn't put it past this place..." He shook his head, annoyed. "Does that mean it should just... wear off, then? Or did he have to do something to fix it?"

[notpotteryet.livejournal.com]

"He said it was gone the next day," said Lily with a shrug. "Maybe this will be the same way?" The nervousness was evident both in her voice and on her face. She really hoped it would go away. Dean was very nice, but she didn't want to be stuck so closely to anyone forever.

[salt-and-burn.livejournal.com]

"A day, huh?" Well, that made sense as much as anything, Dean figured. "Alright, then. We'll just... stick together for the day, I guess."

[notpotteryet.livejournal.com]

"Sounds good," Lily told him, with a slight sigh. But then she smiled once again. "Where do you want to go first?"

[salt-and-burn.livejournal.com]

Go? "Uh..." he said, scratching his head. "Well, I was trying to go look for roller coasters this morning, but I ended up here instead." He shrugged. "You like roller coasters?"

[notpotteryet.livejournal.com]

"Yes!" said Lily cheerfully. "I love them! You want to go?"

((So sorry. >< I thought I already replied, but I guess not.))

[salt-and-burn.livejournal.com]

So they knew what roller coasters were in whatever freaky Harry-Potter-world Lily was from. That was a good sign, Dean figured. "Yeah, alright," he agreed. "I haven't really gotten a chance to look around much, though. You know where to go?"