The feeling

Jane Smith sat in her office cubicle sipping lukewarm, stale coffee and staring at her computer. Some days, she was content. She had a good job, a fair sized apartment and a loving boyfriend. At 33 years old, there was really nothing to complain about in her life. Except that it was so excruciatingly... well... ORDINARY. Jane knew she OUGHT to be content, but for some reason, there always seemed to be a niggly feeling at the back of her mind that she couldn't quite place. A feeling that things shouldn't quite be so entirely ordinary. Everyone else seemed happy enough to go to work, happily slave away at their desks and then return home to cook, shout at their children, and stare mindlessly at their television. Every. Day. Rinse and repeat. But somehow, it just wasn’t enough for Jane. She didn’t quite know what the MORE was that she wanted from life (or how to get it), just that she wanted MORE. Jane tried to concentrate on the spreadsheet in front of her. Oh, how she wished that she could find this part of her that always seemed missing. She was blissfully unaware of it, but her wish would soon come true.

Jane had had a great time at Venessa’s birthday party the following night, and it had been good to get out for once. James - Jane’s boyfriend - had also let her go by herself since he’d wanted to watch the football match on the television. Jane hadn’t realised how late it had gotten and she had needed to catch the underground home. So here she was walking the last bit of the way in the early hours of the morning. As she neared the small street where her apartment’s entrance was, she thought she saw flashes of green and red light. She wondered absent-mindedly who would be watching telly at such an hour. But as she rounded the last corner, she stopped dead in her tracks. Two men were standing about three meters apart, aiming something at one another. Jane couldn’t tell what it was they were holding, and just as she was wondering, the man furthest away from her shouted what sounded like “Stupefy!” to Jane. The other man fell (more like “flew”, Jane thought) a few meters backwards and released whatever he was holding. It rolled towards Jane.

It was a stick. A wooden stick. The man who had shouted was now walking towards Jane. She picked up the stick to take a closer look at it. It seemed to warm up in her hands. It was hard to make out in the dim light, but Jane thought she saw patterns on the stick. The man on the ground moved. As she turned the stick over, suddenly, a yellow surge of energy shot out of the stick and incinerated a nearby bush! Jane got such a fright she nearly dropped the stick! The man on the ground stopped moving, and stared, terrified, at Jane. The other man was now next to Jane.

Jane felt very confused. What in the world was happening?

“Hogwarts or Ilvermorny?” the man asked.

“What?” Jane asked dumbfounded.

“Well, you don’t look like a Beauxbatons girl to me, so it must be either Hogwarts, or Ilvermorny. Stupefy!” the man said again and pointed a stick at the man on the ground, who now fell unconscious.

“I’m Henry Timms, by the way, ”the man said, tying up the unconscious man’s hands and feet as he spoke. “Auror.”

“Jane Smith.”

“Nice to meet you, Jane.”

Henry had now tied up the other man and extended a hand to Jane, which she gingerly shook.

Jane was now sure she was dreaming. She must have fallen asleep on the tube on the way home.

“So, Hogwarts or Ilvermorny?” Henry repeated.

“Um, uh, neither,” Jane mumbled, wondering what in the world a ‘Hogwart’ was.

“Okay, then. Don’t tell me. But I’m going to need this fellow’s wand,” Henry said.

“Of course,” said Jane as she handed the wooden stick to Henry. So it was a... wand. But, it couldn’t be a magic wand, could it?

“Look, since you basically helped me to capture Gerald here, I think it’s only fair that we share the reward. But I’m taking him to the Ministry right now. If you come along, you can get half the reward money.”

Jane couldn’t understand how she could come up with all of this in order to be dreaming it. Maybe she wasn’t dreaming, maybe it was some elaborate prank that James had thought up. But then, James wasn’t one for pranks. So what was happening to Jane? If this WAS a dream, it wouldn’t matter anyway. And going with Henry would certainly not be ORDINARY.

“Sure, let’s go,” she said aloud to Henry.