On the other side of the portal, there was a lot of greenery and hardly any mountains. The ground was covered in grass and a few green plants here and there that Willow didn't recognize. She saw a few molehills and the earth was muddy, making Willow deduce that there was a lot of rainfall here. Small puddles were everywhere.

She looked straight ahead and noticed that the flat areas were separated by small, irregular ravines. In the near distance, she saw three, maybe four igloo-like houses, but instead of ice, they were made of metal. Or maybe tin? Willow wasn't sure.

At the edge of the horizon, she saw a structure she had never seen in real life before. She had seen drawings of similar buildings in books. It was very tall, but not like a house. It looked more like a vault. Maybe even a tomb? The thought made Willow feel sick. What if Rookwood was already dead in every universe? What if his death was inevitable? She hadn't even considered that.

Hurriedly, she turned to the portal she had just come through. She was about to wave Sebastian and Ominis over when she heard a panicked shout.
"Willow!" was all she heard. Sebastian's panicked face was all she saw before the portal vanished.

Suddenly, she felt a chill. Her palms began to sweat, and her breathing quickened unnaturally. She was alone? What had happened? This wasn't supposed to happen! With a perfectly brewed potion - and then it dawned on her.

"I hope the argument was worth it," Ominis had said.
What argument? How had she missed that? She should have been more attentive! She felt a cold sweat. Now she was here, and she didn't even know where here was. She was stuck, and panic spread through her like wildfire. She wanted to call out Sebastian's name, but no sound came from her throat. Desperately, she ran her hands through her shoulder-length hair.

What now? Could she go on without Sebastian and Ominis? Or should she use the spell to return to Hogwarts? To go back home.
Willow took a moment to breathe. She stroked her left eyebrow, the small indentation having a direct effect on her emotional state.
With her thoughts a bit more organized, she weighed her options.

Yes, she could go back to Hogwarts immediately. But when would they have the next opportunity? School would be over soon, in a month they would be deep in exam preparations. And after graduation? Well, who could say for sure that they would all stay together?

On the other hand, if she stayed here now, she couldn't contact her friends. She couldn't let them know about her decision. Her friends would be left in the dark, depending on how long Willow's adventure took.
But maybe there was still a chance of finding Rookwood here? Maybe nothing had gone wrong, and she could find him here.

She made a decision. She couldn't leave it untried, if only for Sebastian's sake. God, how many times had she had this thought in the past. As soon as Willow would see Sebastian again, he would get a huge lecture from her. But for now, she was here and had to make the best of it. Internally, she set herself a deadline of one week. If she hadn't made any progress in a week, she would return to Hogwarts. In the quiet hope that at least the spell would work.
Unfortunately, she couldn't test it beforehand; the book had made it clear that both the potion and the return spell were one-time uses until the next leap year. So this had to be a precise landing.

Willow glanced at her wristwatch. Just to be safe, she wanted to keep track of the time. It was 5:34 PM. Okay, so in seven days, on a Tuesday, at exactly this time, she set her mental deadline.

Since standing around wouldn't give her much information, she started moving. She turned around on her own axis for more clues that she hadn't noticed until now.
And indeed, she discovered something that didn't seem to belong to the surroundings. Even from her fairly distant position, Willow found it huge, like a car made of several metal plates. Only, it didn't have wheels but stands, like the modern airplanes whose flights only the rich could afford. It had a long nose and a kind of fin at the rear. This... thing was silver-bluish and looked very futuristic. But more so, and Willow almost felt ashamed for the thought, scrap-futuristic. It looked old and worn out. And only now did she notice a very small ramp leading into the inside of this thing.

Willow shrugged indifferently. It can't get much worse than my current situation.

So she moved toward the thing. With every step closer, she could make out two people standing in front of it. A woman with short, curly hair stood on the ramp, talking to a tall boy, or man? Willow couldn't quite tell yet. The closer she got, the more she was wary of sudden movements from the people. But they didn't seem to have noticed her yet. Unobtrusively, she let her right hand wander towards her wand, which was well hidden under her school robe.

"You passed the test," Willow heard the woman say.

"So you knew about BD-1?" the young man replied. Willow estimated him to be around her age.
Now that Willow was closer, she saw a small robot sitting on his shoulder. Confused, she raised her eyebrows. A robot? Are we really that advanced already?

"Come on Board. We'll talk-" the woman broke off in mid-sentence and abruptly turned towards Willow.

Willow, who was still too fascinated by the little robot, didn't notice at first.
It was only when she was addressed sharply that she snapped back to the present.
"Who are you?"

Willow needed a moment to register that she was actually being addressed. Sure, who else.
"Uh..." was all she could manage awkwardly. Only now did she realize that she should have prepared a few sentences. The two people in front of her grew more tense with each passing second. She noticed how the young man took on a ready-to-fight stance and realized that she had to act immediately.

She raised her hands defensively, consciously deciding not to draw her wand yet. Maybe she was naive, but anyone with such a cute robot on their shoulder couldn't have a bad heart.
"My name is Willow. I'm looking for Victor Rookwood," she said as confidently as possible.
Her interlocutors didn't seem satisfied with her answer, which increasingly worried Willow.

If they attack, I need to be faster, she thought, unconsciously taking a defensive stance.

"Never heard of him," the woman replied, eyeing Willow critically.

"Where am I?" Willow dared to ask. She knew the question was risky, but maybe it was a chance to let them know she wasn't a threat.

"You don't know where you are?" the young man asked, looking like he didn't know whether to believe her.

Willow's heart was pounding loud in her chest. The uncertainty of what would happen next was driving her mad. She shook her head slightly. With all the thoughts racing, she would probably choke on her voice if she tried to speak.

After a silence that felt like minutes, the woman began to speak again. "This is Bogano," she said tonelessly.

Bogano? Willow had never heard of that; she was sure of it. And she was just as sure that she hadn't simply forgotten it if she had ever heard of it. Back at the orphanage, she had read geography books cover to cover. Memorized every country, every continent, and every tiny island, not to mention the seas. So where the hell was she?

"Bogano? What is that? Is that- is that a country? A huge island? A state?" she rattled off, watching as the faces of her interlocutors became more and more puzzled.

"A... country?" the young man asked, running a hand through his red hair. He seemed so confused that he dropped his fighting stance.
"Bogano is a planet."

With that statement, everything spun for Willow. She could almost feel the color draining from her face. She simply couldn't believe what she had just heard. Willow pulled out her wand and took in an offensive stance.
"Sure," she snorted, her voice taking on a threateningly calm tone, "A planet? Don't mess with me."

She saw their still puzzled looks fall on her wand. To Willow's dismay, they didn't seem to take her very seriously.

"What's taking you so long?" she heard another voice. Coming down the ramp was a... yes, what was it actually? Now it was Willow's turn to look puzzled. It had a male voice, so she assumed it was a he. He was small, pudgy, and had four arms. His face was broad, and his mouth was surrounded by small stubbles. He had hair, but the middle of his head was bald.

As he stepped out, he began speaking again.
"I think we should really-" he broke off when he saw Willow. "Who is that? And why is she threatening you with a stick?"

Suddenly, Willow felt insulted. Did he seriously call my wand a stick? She felt her stance slowly weaken, and her facial features faltered at the term, but she couldn't help it. She just stared at the alien man, as she decided to call him, in front of her in shock.
And everyone stared back as if she were crazy.

"Okay kid, where do you come from?" the woman spoke up again, raising her hands as if Willow were a wild animal that needed calming.

Willow took a deep breath and fully relaxed her defensive stance. "I come from Hogwarts. That's in Scotland. Well, Europe," she began, but seeing the puzzled faces, she realized how pointless her answer was. She should have figured that out when they said she was on another planet not even in her solar system. Willow didn't want to accept it, but she finally conceded. "I come from the planet Earth," she said, falling back in resignation.

She felt more helpless than ever as she looked at their still questioning faces.

"Never heard of it," the alien man replied with a shrug, confirming Willow's fear. Feeling defeated, she let her head fall back. In all the excitement, she hadn't noticed it had started raining. She closed her eyes and let the light raindrops help her forget for a moment where she was. She only vaguely noticed the three in front of her whispering among themselves. No wonder, they think you're crazy. Bravo, Willow.

"Willow, right?"

Willow nodded and looked at the woman in front of her silently. The woman sighed deeply, approached Willow, and extended her hand. "Cere Junda," she said. Then she pointed to the red-haired young man with the robot on his shoulder, "This is Cal Kestis. And our captain, Greez Dritus." She indicated the gruff alien man, and Willow was glad to finally not have to call him that anymore.

"Nice to meet you," Willow murmured, shaking Cere's hand.

"Would you like to come on the ship? Then we can discuss everything further inside," Cere said, and Willow nodded absentmindedly. Ship? Willow thought. The ships I know look different. And Willow was simply proud of herself for keeping that thought to herself. She didn't need to make herself seem any weirder than she already did. And so, she followed the other three silently into the interior of the ship.
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