Aasha was new in town and had no friends. She felt
very lonely and cried every day.
One day when she arrived at school she found a really
big, but still very light gift in her desk.
She obviously
found this suspicious as she knew no one in this school liked her.
But there was a card on it which read her name. Inside
the card it read “This will make you love what you hate. And you will
also never be lonely again.” She
slipped the gift in her bag.
When she arrived home she went to her room and quickly
unwrapped the gift.
It was a book. It was brown in color and had the words
‘The Book’ written in gold.
It was the fattest book Aasha had ever seen. Just
looking at it she felt tired.
Did I mention that she hated to read? Well, she did.
But she still opened it.
All the pages were empty except for the contents,
titles and page numbers.
She was going to keep the book down when she
remembered the last words on the card.
Thus she began reading the contents. It was very
boring until she came to chapter 14 ‘Kids: Fantasy’.
She flipped the pages to chapter 14. But it was
obviously blank.
She just touched the paper and then everything went
black.
When she opened her eyes she saw a boy of around 17.
He had round glasses, messy, black hair and a lighting shaped scar on his
forehead.
She tried to believe that she was dreaming but knew
very well that she wasn’t.
“Hello,” said the boy. He had a British accent. “I am
Harry Potter.”
Aasha began to laugh. “That is the funniest thing I
have ever heard.”
“Everyone who comes from the mortal world thinks I’m
joking,” said the so-called Harry Potter. “Look,” he continued, “you have come
in the world of The Book you were reading. The book you were reading is the
house of all the characters from stories. Get it?”
“Um Yeah,” Aasha said. She didn’t know why she
believed him, she just did.
She sat up and saw that she was in a really weird
house. It was fairly big, the steps that
lead upstairs were decorated with differently shaped candles and the window
pane had flowers made out of old CDs.
“Where are we?” Aasha asked.
“Oh! This is my friend, Luna Lovegoods house.” He
replied “We are here because my house just like all my friends have
disappeared.”
“Disapperared?” Said Aasha really surprised.
“Yes, But now I know how this happened.” Said Harry “But
I don’t know if I will be able to get them back.”
“Okay, back up a little, now.” Said Aasha, “Has
everyone disappeared?”
“Well, no.” replied Harry, “I don’t know about the
other cities.”
“Okay, dude. You got to give me a little more explanation.” Said Aasha really annoyed
“Well, for starters,” began Harry, “The book world is
divided into countries like fantasy, mystery, biographies etc. At the moment you are in kid’s fantasy. Now,
there are a lot of fantasy books for kids, so we are divided into cities and
you are in the city of Potter.”
“Okay,” Said Aasha, “So, Where’s this Luna friend of
yours?”
“Luna has disappeared too.” Said Harry
“You said you know where everyone has dissapeared to,
right?” Questioned Aasha.
“I don’t know where they have gone.” Admitted Harry
“But, Luna did leave a note before she disappeared.”
“What did it say?” Asked Aasha desperately she didn’t
know Harry nor did she know Luna or any of the others who had disppreared but
she still wanted to help them.
Harry put his hand in his pocket and removed a note
and handed it over to Aasha. Aasha took the note. It read
“Harry,
I know I will disappear soon but
you will not. I know why this is happening; people are rarely reading books and
have lost faith and hope in us. that is why we are disappearing. Get people to
read books again. I know you will be able to do it.
P.s: watch out for nargles
Love,
Luna.”
“What in the world are nargles?” asked Aasha
“No idea.” Said Harry grinning
“What are you smiling about?” Asked Aasha
“I know how to get my friends back” Said he
“How?” Aasha asked excited
“It’s simple.” Replied Harry “You will have to help
me. Which I know you will do.”
“Of course I will help,” said Aasha, “but how do I do
it?”
“Make people read books,” Said Harry,“I mean, tell
your friends, neighbours and everyone to read books.”
Aasha looked at him guiltily and said “Sorry.”
Harry looked puzzled. “Sorry? Why?”
“To be honest,” she admitted, “I have never read a
book in my life and do hate myself for it now.”
Harry laughed and said “It is never too late to
correct your mistakes. You can begin reading books now.”
Aasha smiled and said “Yeah.” But then she realized
something and her smile disappeared.
“What now?” Said Harry
“How am I supposed to get back?” Asked Aasha
“Follow me.” He said.
A while later they were standing near a huge tree.
“You will go through this tree. It is like platform 9
¾.” Said Harry
“Platform what?” said Aasha
“Nothing,” said Harry, “Just walk through the tree.
Believe me.”
For some reason she did believe him and walked through
the tree.
Next thing she knew she was standing in her room. She
ran out to her mother and screamed “Take me to the bookstore.”
Her mother was shocked as she knew about Aasha’s
hatred for books. But as her mother was very fond of books she took her to the
bookstore.
Aasha obviously bought Harry Potter.
She finished reading the series in 3 months and made
her friends read them too.
You must be wondering ‘what friends?’
Well, after reading Harry Potter and a lot of the
books she had developed confidence in herself and this made it easier for her
to make friends.
After a few
months everyone in her school began reading books and became obsessed with them.
That is when she decided to go visit an old friend.
When she reached the city of ‘Potter’ she was not surprised to see it filled
with all the characters from her favorite book series ‘Harry Potter’ she met
everyone personally and returned to her world with a big grin.
One day, during recess when Aasha was reading a book
her English teacher came up to her and asked “I do not mean to disturb you
Aasha, but can I talk to you?”
Aasha stood up and said “Of course Ma’am. What is it?”
“You must be wondering who kept that gift in you
desk.” Said her teacher
“Was it you Ma’am?” Asked Aasha surprised.
“Yes.” Replied her teacher “You see when I was your
age no one read books. But then I found ‘The Book’ in a book store and went to
the city of Roald Dahl there I met Matilda and she told me that all her friends
had disappeared and I was the only one who could help her. So I did. And when I
saw that kids nowadays were not reading books, I knew that everyone in the book
world was disappearing again and that is why I gave you the book.”
“But Ma’am why me?” asked Aasha.
“Because my child,” answered the teacher politely, “I
know you would care.”
“Yeah Ma’am,” said Aasha “But why didn’t you go
yourself?”
“You ask a lot of questions my child.” Said the
teacher but still answered “only kids can enter this world as kids have more
imagination than we adults.”
Aasha smiled at her teacher and went back to read her
book.
