Chapter 27: The Missing Key

"I remember a scene from watching one of the Harry Potter movies. Harry and the rest of the class were trying to impress Professor Slughorn.", Annie excitedly explained.

"Who's Harry Potter?", The wand asked, "This is the second time I've heard that name from your mouth."

"Umm.. if you didn't know already, I come from another world.", Annie said, "Things were different back there. You have to just keep up with me."

"Wait! Another world?!", The wand asked with shock in its monotone voice, "How did you come here?"

"Okay, I'll tell you about that later. We have other things we have to take care of first."

"Fair enough."

"As I was saying, I remember something extremely important. Something that just slipped my mind for no reason. Which was weird since everything regarding Harry Potter was imprinted in my mind the first time I laid my eyes on him. Anyway, what I remembered was that most potions require a potion-making spell. This is what completes the potion. This spell is the reason muggles like me can't brew potions. Otherwise, people would just throw in a bunch of ingredients, and then the potion would be complete.", Annie explained to the wand with a smile glued to her face.

She was relieved. Because, finally, she had an explanation for her failures. Even though it was a small one, it gave her relief. This was much better than not knowing where she was committing a mistake during the process.

"Wow! I must say that even for a.. 'Muggle', you remember quite a lot about this world.", the wand said, rather impressed with her.

SQUEAK

Teddy, who was also listening to her keenly squeaked as if to say, "I agree with the wand."

Annie looked at the wand and Teddy whose snout was still in the blanket but his snout was poking out of it and said, "Thank you!"

"Getting back on track," Annie said, "In the case of our previous brews, which were ruined, I followed the instructions precisely. I did everything by the book. But, I didn't even think about including any potion-making spells. So, that is the reason why we didn't get anything done."

"Yes... but how will you conjure the spell?", the wand asked.

Annie got silent while the wand continued, "You are a Muggle, remember? Muggles can't do magic. Only wizards can."

"Of course, I know that!", Annie whispered to herself which couldn't escape the wand.

"Then how do you intend to conjure a potion without having an ounce of magic inside you?", the wand asked sarcastically.

"I don't know. I.. forgot about that.", Annie sighed and fell back on the couch.

She put her hands on her forehead and gritted her teeth in frustration, thinking, 'Fuck! Fuck! How fucking foolish I was to think that I had found the solution in the first place. Even though I have realized that the potion-making spell was the most important thing I forgot that was making the potion turn into poison, there seems to be another problem on top of it. It's like a road-block after a road-block.'

The wand said, "Honestly, kid, this sounds more to me like you want to show yourself how far a person can go even when it's impossible. Think about all the chances you took after you came into this world for no reaso-"

"HEY!", Annie shouted at the wand angrily, "Don't you fucking dare say that I came here for no reason! Don't you fucking dare say that my parents, my younger brother died for no reason! What do you know about that? Huh? What do you know about having to live with the guilt, the pain and just quietly suffer inside your heart? You don't! Because you are a fucking wand!"

Teddy's eyes widened in shock because it was the first time he had ever seen her getting this angry.

"I believe that there must be a reason why I am here. I just have to figure out what it is. And, trust me, my world wasn't a fairy tale. It was filled with crime and blood and drugs and people that like harming others for fun...or.. power...or revenge.

So, every fucking thing that is happening right now is better than what I had back there, for Merlin's beard.", Annie finished shouting at the wand who only kept quiet.

Breathing heavily because of the continuous shouting, Annie simply stared at the wand.

After a couple of seconds of an uncomfortable silence, the wand apologized.

"I'm sorry. That was wrong of me. I shouldn't have said that."

"It's alright. Just.. make sure you don't say that again.", Annie brushed it off and forced a small smile.

"I promise.", the wand said sincerely.

Annie didn't say anything back and just kept silent.

"But..", the wand did something that could only be explained to be a sigh and said, "We can't stop at a dead-end. You can only conjure the spell only if you somehow, turn into a wizard. Which is impossible.", The wand emphasized on the impossible to be clear to Annie in hope that she doesn't lose sense.

Thankfully, she didn't.

But instead, she closed her eyes, clasped her hands together, and started thinking.

Wondering what kind of grandiose action, Annie would make up, the wand stopped lecturing her about the facts and patiently waited for her reply, glancing at Teddy who was staring at her with his wide-open eyes.

Suddenly, Annie opened her eyes and excitedly, exclaimed, "I HAVE AN IDEA!"

The wand and Teddy only looked at each other, neither understanding what she meant.