Many hours ago Marissa had tried to go back to sleep after she had sent off her signed reply before dawn, but she wasn’t able to.  All the day her head was full of questions.  Now that she had said yes to witch school, what happened next?  She knew she should practice reading and writing a lot before she went, but what else should she do?  And Professor Merrythought had said her school was hundreds of miles away.  How was she even going to get there?   Would the professor just magic her there the same way she had taken her to the top of the Italia skyscraper?

Marissa looked again at her acceptance letter. ‘ Semester begins the evening of Monday February 14th ‘, it read.  That was a long time away.  Tomorrow was New Year’s Eve, then it would be January before February.  The second page she hadn’t read before was a list.  It said she needed ‘robes’ and a lot of books and a wand and a ‘cauldron’, whatever that was.  She had the ten Reais to buy a white shirt and black shoes that schoolgirls wore, but how would she get all these other things?  Professor Merrythought must know she had no money to buy books and witch stuff.  Didn’t she?  Maybe she would find Marissa an old robe that someone had outgrown or throw away.  And a wand was just a piece of wood.  Maybe she could use a stick from a tree if she found a straight one and rubbed the bark off.

Marissa tucked the letter back into her faded pink backpack.  The swallows, now full of bugs, circled in the air above her as Paulinho tugged at her wrist.  He wanted her to play flying with the three birds so he could follow too.

“Okay,” Marissa said as she stood up and spread out her arms.  But the little blue bodies circling about suddenly scattered away as a blur of dappled brown wings streaked straight towards them.  It tried to bank and turn to follow the rapid swallows, only to tumble to the grass in a tiny heap of ruffled feathers.  A small folded page poked with tiny claw marks floated down near it.  “Hoo hoo,” the little ball announced its return.

“They might not like to play with owls,” Marissa remarked.  But as Paulinho bent over to pick up the parchment the three swallows glided back down to sit beside Tesimal.  Maybe they knew a pygmy owl wouldn’t eat them like big owls might.  Paulinho handed her the message then jumped down on the grass after something else as she unfolded it.

Please meet me at Parque da Luz next Monday morning so we may shop for your school supplies.  The Department of Education has provided funds for the items you will need.

Marissa was relieved.  The professor was going to help her get ready. And she was kind of sure ‘funds’ meant money to buy stuff.  With a pencil she wrote ‘OK’ on the bottom of the letter then called for Tesimal who had flown off with the swallows.  As they returned, Spero performed an agile loop and roll before gliding onto her shoulder.  The little owl tried to follow the same pattern but thumped lightly into her chest then dropped into Marissa’s open hands and shook his dizzy head.

“Are you okay?” she asked.  Tesimal simply popped back up and took the message in his tiny claw, unfazed by his attempt at stunt flying.  Then he perched on her finger, waiting.

“I’m sorry, Tesimal,” she explained.  “I don’t have any food to…”

Paulinho held up the wriggling grasshopper he had just caught.  The tiny bird considered it, swallowed it, then fluttered into the sky and disappeared over the buildings.  Marissa smiled at Paulinho as he waved goodbye to the departing owl.

--------------------------------------------

“Good morning, Marissa,” the lady in the long cloak said as she appeared before the little girl sitting beneath a tall tree in her hidden place at Parque da Luz.  “Have you been waiting long?”

“Good morning,” Marissa smiled as she put down her book and jumped up.  “We were here at morning like the letter said.  So I wouldn’t be late.  The boys walked with me but they’re going to the bus station now”

“You certainly can't be late if you’ve been here since sunrise,” Merrythought confirmed.  “Are you ready to go?”

“Oh yes,” she said excitedly and pulled on her backpack.  “Hey!” she shouted to the barefoot boys playing soccer in the grassy area beyond the hedges. She waved at Pipio to say she was leaving and all of them waved back.

“Are you going to disappear us to someplace?”  Marissa asked.

“No.  We’ll be walking so you’ll know how to get there when you leave for school.”

“Know how to get where?”

“To the Wizards market of course.  We can't buy wands and cauldrons at Daslu,” she stated.  That was good because Marissa knew Daslu was a rich people store that they would never let her in anyway.  “Now let’s clean you up a little before we go.”

“But I washed before…”

“Tergeo,” Merrythought’s wand waved, and her shirt and shorts brightened much cleaner than a rinse under the alley faucet had ever made them.  “Scourgify,” she directed, and Marissa felt a tingle ripple down her skin until she hopped up as it tickled her bare feet.  She looked to see her always soiled soles scrubbed pink and clean and she felt like she had taken a soapy bath like kids with homes do.  No one could call her dirty now.

“Maybe something to make you less boyish,” the professor suggested.  People always mistook her for a boy because of her short cropped hair, but Marissa liked that no one could grab hold of it in a fight.  With a circular motion a twirling pink ribbon appeared from the tip of the wand.  It rippled through the air and tied itself snugly over Marissa’s head.

“Shall we go then?” Merrythought asked.  Marissa smiled and nodded.  The swallows glided down from the trees to follow.

“I never walked anywhere with a grown up before,” the little girl stated.

“Really?” the young lady in the long cloak replied in a surprised tone.

“Well, ‘cept with Sister Angelica in the churchyard,” she added.  She meant to say it was nice to walk with her.  Since she had pulled her down from the ledge that day they met, Marissa felt almost like Professor Merrythought cared about her.

Avenida Tiradentes was crowded with morning traffic.  Cars and buses roared and horns honked as they crossed Rua De Lima then walked some blocks further north.  It was an area that Marissa was familiar with but she didn’t remember any market in this direction.  Professor Merrythought turned west and led them along another street of older buildings.  Above the din of traffic another noise grew louder, the noise of rhythmic joyous music.

“Here we are,” announced Professor Merrythought loudly as she stopped in front of the small building the music came from.  The birds landed on a window ledge.  On the wall above the entry was a large bright sign of dancing people.  “Can you find your way back here when school begins in February?”

“Yes,” said Marissa.  Of course she could.  “But this isn't a market, it’s a samba school.”

“Oh it’s more than just that,” she said opening the windowed door.  “Come in.”

Marissa followed her into a very small front room with a desk and some chairs.  On a stool in the doorway to the next room sat a little dark-skinned lady tapping a gnarled wooden cane to the music. A glowing assortment of earrings dangled along her thin neck and her head was wrapped in a tower of multicolored scarves that swayed as her wrinkled old face turned to see them.

“Grace-grace Merry-merrythought,” the old woman sang the professor’s name to the music as a smile brightened her face and she reached out a fragile wrinkled hand. She looks like a real Macumba witch, Marissa thought to herself.

“Miss Julieta,” Merrythought replied and took her hand in greeting. “This is Marissa. She’ll be a first year at Witness Stone.”

“Marissa-rissa-rissa,” she sang and motioned the little girl over to her stool.  “This is your first time through the samba school.”

“Um…yes,” Marissa answered as the music blared from the next room and she could feel the floor shake beneath her feet.  She was still confused as to why they were here.

“Then you must dance for me.”  She slowly raised herself from the stool and pointed her cane. “Twirl through the doorway.”

“It’s her custom,”  Merrythought explained when Marissa gave a puzzled look.

Marissa shrugged and wondered how many more strange ‘customs’ she might have to learn.  But it was just like spinning around when she played with the swallows, so she started turning circles as she moved into the next room.  A room that couldn’t be there because it was ten times bigger inside than Marissa knew the small building outside was. She stopped twirling and gasped.  Spread throughout the expansive hall, dressed in flowing sun-colored costumes, more than a hundred dancers moved to the music of the samba band. As the lines of performers twirled in unison the costumes of one row of them erupted in sparkles then completely changed from bright yellow to burning orange.  Then each following row sparkled and changed until like a wave the whole group had transformed colors.  As she watched them shifting through every shade of the rainbow Marissa knew it must be magic.  And the music must be too, for she saw at the front of the room a tall long-armed black man who seemed to be the sole musician making every instrument of the band play.  While he swayed and drummed a wand upon the air the pandeiro kept a rhythmic base as floating drumsticks tapped the fast excited beat upon a line of deep bass surdos and the high, piercing repinique.  Hovering tamborims and cavaquinho played along.  Marissa smiled as she realized that right here in old downtown was a secret witch place!

With a resounding yell and stomp the performance suddenly ended.  Marissa clapped as the dancers caught their breath.  “That was good!” she said to Professor Merrythought.  But the wrinkled little black lady had a stern frown on her face.

“Five minutes rest then practice once more!” the old woman directed as she rapped the gnarled cane on the floor.  “That’s not good enough for Carnival yet.”

“Miss Julieta’s leads to the market,” Professor Merrythought said as she took her along the front of the dance room to a door on the opposite wall.  She opened the door.

“Off with you now,” Miss Julieta smiled.  She touched the tip of her cane to Marissa’s side.  “Very nice twirl, young lady.”

“Thank you,” she replied as the door closed behind her.

They  entered a dim back room lit by streaks of  colors cast upon the walls.  It seemed to be a storage room or a loading area since there were many costume boxes stacked along one concrete wall and cluttered piles of old instruments and parade decorations against another.  But instead of a rolling steel door that might open for trucks in an alley, Marissa saw the opening on the far wall was filled with a tall stained glass window letting in streams of light.  It showed a panorama of street carts overflowing with colorful fruits and produce, breads and hung poultry.  At the center, facing away as if walking into the scene, were glass shapes of four of the sparkling Samba dancers.  It was very pretty but what she did not see was another door out of the room.

“There are seven colors in a rainbow,” Professor Merrythought stated as she stepped to the stained glass and touched her wand to it. “Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and…” Having tapped each of the colors, the professor paused for Marissa to name the last.

“Um…Purple.” Marissa replied hesitantly as her finger touched grapes of purple glass.

“Yes. But we’ll call it violet,” she said and tapped her wand upon Marissa’s finger.

CRAASH!  The entire pane shattered and fell to the floor.  Marissa was running for the door to get away when Merrythought shouted “Stop!”

Slowly she turned to see the totally destroyed artwork in a million pieces at the lady’s feet.  Police chased kids for breaking little plain windows.  They would lock her in jail forever for breaking that one.  “I’m… sorry.”

“It’s made to do that,”  Merrythought explained with a wide smile.  “A joking glassmaker’s spell.”

“But won’t Miss Julieta be mad?”

“I don’t think so,” she said as she walked through the opening to the other side. “Come and see.”

Marissa tiptoed around the shattered glass. She stepped over the empty window frame and out onto a bright open plaza.  Suddenly she heard the sound of breaking glass again and turned back to see all the broken pieces falling up into the window frame. As she watched, the stained glass amazingly reassembled itself completely.  Except now the scene showed not the samba dancers but a glass likeness of the last two people who had stepped through.  Professor Merrythought and her!

“Now you know the way to the Wizards market,” the professor stated.  “Welcome to Mercado Trocado.”

“I never saw this street before,” Marissa said in surprise as she looked around at strangely angled buildings and many unusual pedestrians passing by.  She thought it must be walled off from other streets.

“Mercado Trocado is hidden from Muggles by concealment charms,” the professor explained.  “Even from their tall offices or in their airplanes Muggles could look down and not see it.  Remember, we keep magic secret.”

Marissa gazed about to see a busy plaza filled with oddly dressed people in flowing capes and tall pointed hats.  The middle of the plaza was a long grassy parkway dotted with groups of trees, flowers and stone benches. Running along either side were two wide cobblestone lanes lined with dozens of peculiar shops, some small and some large but all with funny tilts or twists to the structures.  More beautiful stained glass windows framed in stone arches stood between every four or five buildings.  At the far end of the plaza, some four blocks away, the dome of a tall white marble building loomed above the trees.

“Have you had breakfast?” Professor Merrythought asked.

“We never have breakfast.  Just lunch and dinner,” Marissa replied.  “Sometimes only dinner.”

The professor insisted she help her eat some bread and butter so they sat at a little round table outside ‘The Snidget Nest’.  Marissa had a slice of toast and small glass of orange juice even though she didn’t feel right eating when she knew the boys had no meal yet.

“The underprivileged student fund provides you four vouchers for school items,” Merrythought said as Marissa took a sip of orange juice and looked at her school list.  “One for textbooks, one for uniforms, one for classroom supplies and one for your wand.”

“Does ‘underprivileged’ mean poor?” she asked and the professor nodded.

“In the Wizarding world every child, rich or poor, has the opportunity to come to school.”

That meant the witch people gave her a chance and didn’t think she was nothing just because she was a street kid.  That was nicer than ‘Mubbles’ ever treated her.

“Is the Wizardings helping any other homeless kids that are witches?”

“I’m sure there have been others,” she replied. “But this year only you.”

“Oh,” said Marissa, slightly disappointed. She took the last bite of toast except for the crust which she put in her pocket.

“Now let’s plan your shopping,” Professor Merrythought said.  “I told Professor Katupya you might need more clothes.  He said we can find used books at school and arranged for an extra uniform voucher instead of the textbook one.  I think we should begin with shoes.”

“I have money for shoes!” Marissa exclaimed as she unzipped her backpack and took the ten Reais from a hidden pocket inside.  “The boys saved it for me.”

“You can only use wizard money in Mercado Trocado,” she replied pointing at the strange coins she had laid on the table to pay for their meal.

“But I have to use this money,” Marissa protested.  “So the boys will know they helped.”

Professor Merrythought smiled.  “Very well,” she conceded.  “I’ll cover it and we can exchange that at Gringott’s Bank later.  Now let’s find some shoes you can show off to Sports Club da Luz.”

She found Longtoes Shoemakers by the giant copper colored boot hanging over its entrance.  It wasn’t metal copper but a shiny texture like scales on a lizard.  A very, very large lizard.  She followed the professor inside and saw people browsing through aisles of finely crafted boots, shoes and even sandals.

“This is a new shoes store,” Marissa whispered desperately to the professor beside her.  “I don’t have enough for new shoes.”  She thought maybe she should wait and find some in the piles at the used shoes table outside the secondhand store in Santa Efigenia.

“Let’s ask Mr. Longtoes what you might afford,” Merrythought replied.

Marissa informed the kind twirly-mustached store owner that she didn’t know her size because she had never worn shoes before.  From the shelves of colorful footwear he helped her select a perfect pair for school.   “Standard shiny black, brass buckles, nice solid heels that click on the stone and echo down the halls,” he said.  He also chose six pairs of brand new white socks with frilly lace on top.  The shoes felt tight and uncomfortable even though Mr. Longtoes assured her they were absolutely the right size.  But she very much liked the smooth slippy feeling of the socks as she wriggled her toes in them.  He even let her pay with the ten Reais since he told Professor Merrythought that his Muggle daughter-in-law sometimes used their currency.  Marissa was sure it wasn’t enough money for such pretty shoes and the socks but Mr. Longtoes insisted it was.

“Thank you very, very much,” she said gratefully.  It was the first time in her life Marissa had been allowed inside a real store to buy something.  No one had chased her out and called her ‘filthy thief’.

“I have new shoes,” she said to herself with pride as they stepped out the shop door.  The heels made a wonderful ‘click-click’ on the stone doorstep, just as Mr. Longtoes had said.

She glanced up the wide walkway and a puzzled expression came to her face.

“Um… something changed,” she uncertainly told Professor Merrythought who was behind her talking with the twirly-mustached store owner.

Marissa was sure there had been a bookstore right beside Longtoes Shoemakers.  But the racks of magazines and Daily Orb newspapers outside were gone, replaced by large wheeled carts of fresh fruits and vegetables beside a grocer deftly juggling five dozen apples.  She looked about and found the giant book sign of Sabedoria Tomes & Scrolls now hanging across the plaza on the other lane.  A few doors down from that was the gold straw nest sign of the little cafe she had breakfast at.  That building wasn’t in the right place either.

“Why certainly it did, my dear,” Mr. Longtoes confirmed.  “Shops never stay in one place in the Changed Market.  They always pop up again somewhere else along the plaza though.  Except for Fragrancia Flowers that relocated to Praca Republica somehow that once.”

“Everything moves?” Marissa questioned.  “Don’t people get lost?”

“Ending up somewhere you didn’t know you were going is part of the fun,” he stated.  “Of course the parkway and the Floo stops stay in one place.  And Gringott’s.”

“Can I watch when it changes again?”

“Oh, it never changes while you’re looking.  But each time you step out a front door the shops will be somewhere different again.  Just look for a sign to find what you need.”

“Like the giant’s boot,” Merrythought pointed to the sign hanging above them.

“Hard to miss a size one hundred and thirteen,” Mr. Longtoes added.

They waved goodby to the nice shoemaker and walked down the lane in search of Cansado’s Robes.  As she looked, Marissa noticed that each business did have its own uniquely shaped sign.  Tangled Lines Seafood was a flipping net-wrapped fish,  Corujapolis a huge birdcage, and Fragrancia Flowers (which must have found its way back) had its name spelled in blooming vines rooted in the old brick storefront.  Many other people walked about, going in and out of stores carrying packages, shopping bags, little metal pots and even cages with owls!   She saw many boys and girls with mothers and fathers and decided they must be shopping for witch school too.

Marissa paused to watch one of the stained glass windows between the buildings.  Steps led to a wide ash-filled stone circle at its base that the masonry arch covered above.  The stained glass image showed two metallic dragons chasing each others tails through the sky. And they were really moving!

WHOOSH!  Marissa leapt back in surprise as the fire pit erupted in a tower of flames and a pudgy red robed woman jumped out.  Whoosh!  Whoosh!  Whoosh!   Three older boys followed behind her as they all walked off up the lane.  The flames flared once more, smaller this time, and a tawny owl with a wrapped package glided out.  There were just magic things happening everywhere.

“That’s a public Floo station,” Professor Merrythought explained.  “Another way to come to and from Mercado Trocado.  Or wizards can travel like that too.”  She pointed to a grassbare spot where a dozen assorted brooms leaned on a wooden rail between two stone posts.  As Marissa watched, a short white-bearded man in a curled pointy hat took hold of one, placed his leg over the long handle, then zoomed up into the sky.  That was the best magic she had seen yet!

“Will you teach me to fly on a broom at witch school?” she asked excitedly.

“I won’t, but Mr. Cavaleiros will,” the professor replied.  “Now where has Cansado’s hidden itself?”

“There it is,” Marissa pointed, spotting the shabby little shop across the parkway. Letters on the blowing oversize robes across its rooftop spelled out C-A-N-S-A-D-O-S.  As they crossed a stepping stone path to the opposite lane Marissa admired the old, old train cars displayed at the center of the plaza.  They weren’t like the huge diesel engines or metal walled freight cars that she’d seen rolling through Sao Paulo.  These were ornately trimmed wooden passenger coaches with long rows of windows and tall entry doors, whitewashed in the colors of billowy clouds.  Without tracks away from them, she thought maybe they had sat there a hundred years.

“Gracie!” cried a deeply tanned grey haired old Indian woman in a long skirt who wobbled out from Cansado’s with shopping bags that dropped to the ground as she hugged Professor Merrythought.

“Gran Arating,” replied the young lady.  “So nice to see you.”

“We not see you with gatherers this past summer.  Villages missed you.”

“I was travelling in England.”

“Ah, to lay grandmother to rest,” the elderly woman nodded sympathetically.  “She say many times her friends in last years, when her home rid at last of their dark wizard she wish her soul rest there.”

“Yes. She's in Hogsmead now,” Professor Merrythought replied.

“Villages hear you to teach at Witness Stone this year.  Ubiratan choose well.”

“Thank you, Gran Arating.”

“New first years Tiquinho, Beraba, Potira and Iara.  I buy clothes today,” she said, then gestured to Marissa.  “And this young one?”

“Yes, she is a new student also. This is Marissa.”

“Hello,” Marissa said to the old woman who reached out and pinched her cheeks.

“Small for first year,” she remarked.  “And who is her family?”

“She’s not from a Wizard family. She is new to our…”

"Ahhh," Gran Arating responded as if with great joy. “A wildflower.”

“Yes,” Merrythought smiled.

She took a small object from a pouch on her waist and placed it into Marissa’s palm. “Good wishes, little wildflower,” she said softly to her, then said goodbye to Professor Merrythought as she wobbled off across the plaza.  Marissa looked at the tiny carved wooden parrot the old woman had given her.

“Why did she call me a wildflower?” Marissa asked.

“Because a Muggle-born is like a flower that blooms by chance where no one expected.  We all know magic children will grow from magic families, as we know daisies will grow from daisy gardens.”

“But I growed by myself without a magic family.  Without a garden.”

“Yes.  Like the flowers in the wild that wizards of the rainforest tribes collect.  Some magical plants bloom only in the deep forest and can’t be grown in gardens.  So Gran Arating’s people believe it is great fortune to find one.”

“Look what she gave me,” Marissa said holding up the wooden charm.  “Is it magic?”

“No. But find a magic plant on your herbology field trips and Gran Arating will turn it to silver for you. Like this.”  Professor Merrythought leaned over so she could see the little shiny figures in her long braided hair.  They were all different animals and one was a small parrot the same shape as hers.

“You must have found a hundred flowers.”

“Mostly roots, really,” she replied as Marissa tucked the charm safely in the hidden pocket of her backpack before they continued.  “I always liked to dig in the dirt.”

Inside the busy Cansado’s Robes, New and Gently Used,  Professor Merrythought told a teenaged salesgirl that she had vouchers for uniforms.  While the unsure assistant went to check with Mr. Cansado about those, they reviewed her school list.  It said three robes and five uniforms.  Marissa thought that was probably how many rich children had, but that wizardings would help poor kids buy one of each with the voucher. 

“Students wear playclothes after classes,” the professor said.  “How many outfits do you have Marissa?”

“Just this and the other shirt and shorts I wore,” the little girl replied.  She hoped there weren’t rules she had to have more.  If she wore a witch robe no one would see what she wore under it anyway.

“Hmmm.  If we buy secondhand robes it will leave more funds for other clothes.”

“That’s good,” Marissa agreed. “I never had new new clothes before anyway.”

The salesgirl returned with approval for the vouchers and led them to the children’s used robes.

“Youre a Muggle-born, right?” she asked Marissa as they walked down the aisle.

“Um… yes.”  She wondered if she had to wear different clothes because of that.

“It’s okay.  I am too,” the older girl assured her.  “Isn’t the wizard market exciting the first time?”

“Yes, it is!” Marissa replied more positively knowing the salesgirl was someone like her.  “I have new shoes!”

“They’re lovely!” she remarked.  “And don’t be too afraid your first day at Witness Stone.  Professors act real scary but most of them are nice if you behave.”

Professor Merrythought smiled behind them as she heard this.

“I’m not afraid of a school,” Marissa said strongly.  “Only babies get afraid.”

“I just mean it’s okay to be… nervous at first,” the salesgirl said.  “I know I was.  I’ll be a sixth year soon and Professor Guerra still scares me.”

The student robes weren’t completely black, but had dark grey collars and cuffs.  The salesgirl selected one of the smallest size from the rack and handed it to Marissa to try on.  Her arms were lost in the wide sleeves and the length fell below her feet.  Merrythought took two more robes.

“I’m sorry,” the salesgirl said.  “There’s custom tailoring on new fashions only.”

“Oh, Tatiane, that’s but a six inch hemming spell,” Mr. Cansado noted, hurrying to assist another customer.  His wand swished as he passed and a speeding thread and needle began sewing rapidly along Marissa’s  upfolded fabric then did the same to the robes held by Professor Merrythought.

“Thank you, sir,” Merrythought called to the shopkeeper as she took the robes to the counter.

In a dressing room Marissa tried on the bright white shirt and black skirt girl’s uniform.  The shirt was a little loose but looked perfect to her in the tall mirror.

“It fits good,” she stated as she stepped from the dressing room. “If I can buy one more I can rinse one out each night like I do my t-shirts.”  The professor had said they might have more ‘funds’ if she bought the used robe, but she knew the list said she needed a cloak too so maybe she wouldn’t have enough for another white button shirt. She didn’t understand why witches needed so many layers of clothes.

They returned to the secondhand section where Merrythought chose five white shirts and five black skirts, three colored t-shirts and three shorts.  In the girls aisle she added underwears and a nightgown to a floating shopping basket that conveniently followed behind them. Then she had Marissa try on a flowing rainforest green rain cloak

“This is all for me?” Marissa asked in surprise.  Professor Merrythought dropped a wide-brimmed pointy hat upon her head to check the size.  It was black to match her robes, but turned inside out it was green to match the rain cloak.

“I believe that will use all the funds of your vouchers,” the professor confirmed.  The shopping basket overflowed with twice more clothes than she and all the boys together had.  At the counter the young salesgirl folded and bagged all three robes and all the other clothes, then wished Marissa good luck at school as she handed her two stuffed bags.  Marissa thanked the salesgirl in return before they stepped out to the cobblestone walkway.  The professor waited as she stuffed one shopping bag into her backpack.

“Look who’s found you,” Professor Merrythought pointed.

Fides, Spero and Amor sat along the roof of one of  the antique train cars in the parkway.  Once again every building along the lane had moved somewhere else.  Castilhos Brooms (the flying kind) was now next door where Bludgerboys Quidditch had been.  On the other side, past a Floo stop with a stained glass of galloping unicorns, Bella de Barros Potions International took up a half  block.  Mercado Trocado was like a big thinking game.

“If I just think where Gringott’s and the unbroke window are then I wont get lost,” she said to herself but out loud.

“How do you know Gringott’s?” Merrythought asked.  “We havent been near it yet.”

“Mr. Longtoes said ‘Gringott’s’ stays in one place,” she replied.  “So it has to be the big white building at the end.  The window from Miss Julieta’s stayed at the other end.”

“Excellent reasoning,” the professor commended.

Professor Merrythought asked her to find Lost Cities Apothecary.  Its sign shape wasn’t a big magic thing like the other stores, but the statue of a tall native man with a bare chest and grass skirt.  His tattooed face looked down sternly from a ledge above the door with watchful eyes that seemed to follow Marissa as she entered.  The professor visited with two dark-tanned Indian women who wore striped blouses with skirts like the statue man.  When they came out a short while later, Marissa carried a round metal pot to brew potions in, a folding brass scales to weigh things, and twelve little glass tubes (the professor called them vials) in a round stand that fit right inside the cauldron to carry it all.  The scowling Indian statue was watching her again.

“Who is he?” asked Marissa.

“That is Jaguating,” the professor told Marissa.  “The last king of the wizard tribes.  Over a thousand years ago he vanished cities and destroyed his own throne to save his people.”

“He looks mean!”

“When he fought evil pajé he had to be mean.  But his people loved him and still do.”

Marissa wondered why people would love someone who had been dead a thousand years.  He couldn’t even feel it so why waste love on him when there were alive people that nobody loved?  But she really didn’t care anyway.  Love was just something people cried about when it hurt them.  She wouldn’t cry again because nothing hurt her anymore.  She was stronger than that.  Then she thought maybe Jaguating looked so mean to show everyone that he was strong.

WHOOSH!  A man with a large toad sitting in his hat brim burst into flames and disappeared at the Floo stop.  Past the stained glass of splashing mermaids was her last place to visit.  Bella de Barros Fine Wands was a tall narrow building with tall narrow lead glass windows on either side of a tall mahogany door.  Panelled and framed in dark and richly detailed woods, the storefront was the most elegant Marissa had seen.  A tiny brass bell on the door did not jingle but echoed with a deep gong as they entered.  Inside the shop lofty shelves stacked with long thin boxes stretched to a high ceiling.  Polished wood floors reflected her new shoes and a long glass-fronted case displayed select examples of the wandmaker’s work.  ‘Finest Quality Woods, Old World and New World’, read a sign behind the glass.

Marissa saw that each wand set upon a little stand was different in length and shape and color.  One was dark red and finely grained, one grey-white with curling vines about it, one twisted and knotty with a light tan finish, and one deep brown one even had a shiny metal leaf design laced around its base.  The shopkeeper was with another person so Professor Merrythought directed her to chairs where they could sit until it was her turn. As she passed the counter something flashed behind her.

“Away from the display case, little girl,” said the tall white-haired man behind the counter whose eyes caught the burst of light.  He nodded to greet  Professor Merrythought before turning back to a tall young girl who stood beside him.  Her long blonde hair and pale lovely face reminded Marissa of fashion models in magazines and she wore a beautiful dress like one too.  The white-haired man, also well dressed in a fine black robe with gold threading, handed her a wand from a few that lay atop the counter.  Unwillingly the blonde girl waved it and a stream of red and gold sparks trailed from it.

“There now, see how this wand has chosen you?” he said with satisfaction.  “A fine European ivy.  With unicorn tailhair, just as your sisters.”

“But Tio, I want the silver lace wand.  It goes with the necklace and earrings I bought.”

“My dear, a wand isn't selected to match jewelry,  it’s selected to match you.   What good is a pretty wand that can't cast a spell properly?”

“But Tio,” she persisted, “if you love me you would…”

“The filigreed wand is a jungle wood.  A village apprentice made it.”

“Ew!” she responded.  “The other girls will think I’m a native.  But you can put silver on this wand for me, Tio. Or gold!”

“Metals disrupt a wand’s balance, dear,” he said.  The girl made a sad-faced pout.  “But perhaps we can inscribe your name in it.”

“In fancy cursive letters,” she directed.

“Yes,” he agreed.  “Now go find your sister.  She’s probably still in Brilhante Fashions buying out the store.”

The beautiful blonde girl came out from behind the counter. She glanced at Marissa in her shirt and shorts and gave a disdainful smirk as she passed before leaving the wand shop.  It was a look Marissa was used to ignoring.

Professor Merrythought stood and took her to the counter.  The tall white-haired man put away the other wands then turned to face them.  He gave Marissa a curious stare followed by a sidelong glance at the displayed wands she had passed.

“Mr. Bella de Barros, this is…”

“Voucher?” he interrupted.  “Muggle-born?”

“Yes,” she replied.  “Marissa is a…”

Not bothering to hear the rest of her words, the old man pulled a case from under the counter. It contained a half dozen long cardboard boxes and he set one on the counter.

“Standard wand, nine inches . Perfectly good oak/poplar composite with demicorn hair.”

“Demicorn?  I’ve never heard of such…”

“Crossbred unicorns.  The North Americans have a domestic herd to reduce hair costs.”  He took the varnished black stick from its box and handed it to Marissa.  It was straight and plain compared to the others.  Eagarly she took the wand and held it carefully as she didn’t know what it might do.

“But you haven’t measured her,” the professor said with surprise.  “Or tried any others.”

“This is approved issue for welfare vouchers Miss Merrythought,” he coolly instructed her.

“It hasn’t even chosen her,” she stated. Marissa thought that meant it didn’t sparkle like the other girl’s.  “Surely you can find a better…”

“For another five galleons she can purchase whatever she likes,” he interrupted again.  “The Department of Education voucher credits four and this is what it buys.  Perhaps a junk shop could donate a battered worn wand you’d like better, but I run a business not a charity Miss Merrythought.”

“This one’s fine,” Marissa said to the professor.  “I like it.”  She was quite satisfied that she had been given any wand and didn’t need Professor Merrythought to argue for a different one.

“It will spark with practice,” the white-haired man stated.

“Very well,” she conceded and handed him the voucher.  He took the wand from Marissa and replaced it in the box, then sealed it with a ‘USE ONLY IN SCHOOL’ label before handing it back to her.

“When she learns some magic,” he snorted as if to imply he found that unlikely, “she can work to buy herself  a better one.”

Professor Merrythought turned to leave without even a thank you.  As Marissa neared the display case on her way out she jumped when the silver laced wand exploded with a giant burst of red and gold flares that ricocheted inside the case.  The professor was already out the door and saw nothing and Marissa rushed after her to avoid the white-haired man scolding her again for getting too close to his glass case.  She called “Thank you” as she closed the tall door, but did not see the astonished face of Mr. Bella de Barros as he stared in disbelief at the still glimmering wand.

“He wasn’t very pleasant,” Professor Merrythought commented.

“He’s just grumpy,” Marissa said. She saw people like him every day who looked down on her because she had worn clothes.  If she had bare feet he wouldn’t even have let her in his store.  “But I liked all the other wizarding people!”

“You’ll see them again soon,” Professor Merrythought replied.  “Did you enjoy shopping?”

“Yes!  It was the best day ever.”

“Tell me what day school begins.”

“February fourteenth,” she repeated the date from her acceptance letter.  “With the Welcoming Banquet,”  Marissa added.  Whatever that was.

“You’ll need to be here at Mercado Trocado at 8.a.m. to board for Witness Stone.  Do you remember how to get to the samba school and how to open the stained glass?”

“Yes.  I touch all the colors,” she said.  “But I don’t know how to unbreak it.”

“Don’t worry, it does that part itself,” the professor assured her and handed her a small printed card.  “This is your ticket.  I can't bring you because I’ll already be at Witness Stone, but you can ask Miss Julieta or Mr. Longtoes if you need any help.”

“I won’t need help.  I can take care of me.”

“In the Muggle world you can.  The Wizarding world has dangers you have yet to learn about,” she asserted.  “Now hold your bag tightly and take my hand.”

--------------------------------------------

Marissa took a deep breath as she unsquished and reappeared with Professor Merrythought on an empty corner in Santa Efigenia.   She sat on the curb and slipped off the black shoes, then tucked the frilly socks inside them.

“I have to keep them shiny for when I go to school,” she said.  The professor would think she was weak if she admitted the tight shoes hurt her feet from walking in them all day.

“Is your alley near?”  Professor Merrythought asked.

“Yes,” she replied. “Just down three blocks.”

“I’ll walk you there,” she said.

As they passed an empty building, Marissa saw three children she knew huddled in a doorway.  Two homeless boys tried to comfort a girl crying between them.  Tears streaked down her dirty face as her frail body trembled.  The sorrowful boys were visibly shaken also.

“Sofia, what’s wrong?” Marissa asked.

“It’s Marta,” the girl sobbed,  pointing past the end of the building.  “She’s bad sick.”

“Where is she, dear?” said Professor Merrythought bending down to the girl.  “Maybe I can help her.”

“No one can help her.  The… the dark thing came.”

Marissa leaped up and raced around the corner.  “Where are you go…” the professor started to ask but Marissa was already gone.  She ran after her down a dirty littered alleyway.  At the end she found Marissa kneeling on the ground beside an older girl who lay there unmoving.

“Let me look at her,” Merrythought directed as she lifted the girl’s limp cold body.  She patted her cheek with no response then looked into her face.  The child’s eyes stared past Merrythought empty and unaware as if there were no feeling within her.

“Dear lord,” she cried. Instantly her wand was in her hand, held high and ready. “Marissa, get behind me.”

She shielded Marissa as she cautiously scanned the alley and the roofs above, then circled her wand about the whole area and called out “Vestigum revelio!”  Five misty black lines formed to show trails of what had roamed through the alley.

“Bad dream monsters,” Marissa told her.  “Other kids only feel afraid and see dark, but I…”

“Dementors,” Merrythought whispered in disbelief.

She knelt back down and held the girl’s head in her lap.  Marissa saw tears on Professor Merrythought’s face but knew there would never be tears again in the empty eyes of Marta.

“You can't help her, can you?” she said.  She knew this wasn’t like scraped hands and a black eye.  She had seen emptied ones before and they never got better.

“No.  It’s too late.  No witch can save a person after… a Dementor’s kiss.”

“They’re magic things, aren’t they?” Marissa realized.  “Evil things just witches can see.”

One of the young boys now stood at the head of the alley, afraid to come closer.  Professor Merrythought laid the girl down and stepped over to him.  “Tell me what happened,” she said gently.

“Last night the scare found our sleeping place.  Then I feeled afraid I’d starve forever.   The scare was all around us.  Marta tried to protect us but the scare took her.  It killed her alive.”

“There were five of them,” Merrythought said, though knowing the children had felt only one dark blanket of terror.  “How did the rest of you escape?”

“We didn’t,” he answered.  “A silver light chased the scare away.”

“Silver light?” she questioned.  “A Patronus.  Then there must have been Aurors.”

“What’s ‘Aurors’?” Marissa quietly asked.

“Wizards that fight dark creatures,” the professor told her.  “And Dementors are the most vile dark creatures that exist.  They breed in places where there is misery, despair and hopelessness.”

“Places like Boca do Lixo.”

Two men from Nossa Senhora da Luz came and gathered Marta.  Her friends followed to say goodbye to the sick girl who would die soon.  No will to live remained inside her.  When they were gone Marissa quietly picked up her bag and walked on to her own alley, hiding the sadness that could help nothing.

“It’s too dangerous to stay here until we are sure those creatures are gone.”

“I’ll be okay if Mr. Palito is there,” Marissa replied.

“You don’t understand, Marissa.  I don’t care how well you pretend nothing scares you.  These are Dementors!  They steal souls!”

“I know what they do!” she shouted back.  Marissa was a little surprised that  Professor Merrythought didn’t understand they were just another part of life in the poor slums. “I saw kids like Marta die before.  And I can see… them.”

“They’ve been here before?” she demanded unbelieving.

“They’re always here.  Always looking for kids who feel too hurt and too hungry and too worthless.  Kids with no more hope,” she stated.  “I keep the boys away from places the monsters are.  But… I can't help everyone.”

Marissa turned the corner and saw the cardboard box with the faded curtain.  Mr. Palito’s boots sat outside.  She knew the boys would be home in a few hours and she could show them her new shoes.  But she would have to tell them about Marta too.

“I’m okay,” Marissa assured the professor.  “They never come in our alley.”

“Marissa, you can't possibly have unknowingly cast magic against Dementor perception,” she said as she raised her wand again to trace their past presence.  But instead of any misty black trails, the length and height of the alley filled with a faint glittering light that faded back as she lowered the wand.  A stunned but questioning look crossed her face.

“You are safe here,” Professor Merrythought confirmed.

“I said that,” Marissa reminded her.

“Although I am not sure how,” she added.  “Always remain here at night, Marissa.”

“We do.”

“I will see you at Witness Stone in February,” she said placing her hands upon Marissa’s shoulders and looking down at her.  “Now I must go to speak with someone about why dark creatures are loose in Sao Paulo.”

Merrythought turned and vanished again,  and Marissa wondered again if she had made the right choice to leave the boys and go to school.  Or was learning magic more important than ever now that she knew what the bad dream monsters truly were?