Home | Members | Help | Submission Rules | Log In |
Recently Added | Categories | Titles | Completed Fics | Random Fic | Search | Top Fictions
SS-Centric

Charm Away the Storm by TrillianAstra [Reviews - 3]

<< >>

Would you like to submit a review?

I'm sorry this has taken so long; my beta-reader is being unreliable! But here it is, and hopefully the next few chapters will be a bit speedier.



- CHAPTER THREE-


Mr Reeves stood on the doorstep on his large house, scanning his eyes up and down the street for any latecomers. There was a loud crack to the side of him and he rolled his eyes.

"Hello, Mr Reeves," said the portly man who had just appeared next to him.

"Good morning, Mr Thurstow." Mr Reeves cleared his throat. "Please remember that there are many Muggles living in this village; they're not used to people Apparating up and down their High Street."

"Well it's a Sunday, isn't it? They'll all be at church. Isn't that why wizarding communities all have their classes on Sunday mornings?"

"Maybe twenty years ago; things are different now." Mr Reeves nodded at a rushed looking witch pushing her small son towards him, and opened the door behind him. The boy went in and his mother hurried back down the street. "Dangerous times to be living in."

"Yes, well that's why I'm here; when you’re looking for a murderer, you’ve got to move fast." He nodded at the door. "Especially with children around; you’ve got to close in quickly. I mean, the Law Enforcement Squad were slow off their marks for a start. They should have closed in, but they didn’t."

"No, no," Mr Reeves said, absent-mindedly looking at his watch.

"‘Course, Teesdale’s a very good man. And there’s your Albert Wilcox, he hasn’t been to bed for three nights."

"Yes, yes, Wilcox, yes." Mr Reeves was watching a boy splashing in a puddle on the roadside. He turned back to Thurstow. "Yes, I’m still waiting to hear from him about the quantity of quills that went missing. Get out of that puddle, boy!"

The boy ran under Mr Reeves's arm and into the house. He went into a back room, where a group of children were seated around a young witch.

"Hello, David." She frowned at the boy. "Well, I think you had better go find Mrs. Reeves and get those clothes dried. Go on. Hurry up."

"Miss?" Kathy said quietly.

"Yes, Kathy?" she said, turning back to the children.

"What would happen if Merlin came back?"

"Well, Kathy." Miss Lodge looked slightly taken-aback. "Of course, Merlin has never really left us, has he? He’s with us all the time; here in this room, at home, everywhere. Isn’t he?"

"Yes, Miss. Only, I mean if he came back in person, like."

"Well...well, for one thing, he’d find a great many changes, wouldn’t he? Now, that’s a good one. What sort of changes would he find? Hmm?" she asked the children hopefully.

"Quidditch World Cup," Jackie Greenwood said bluntly.

"What’s that, Jackie? Speak up."

"Quidditch World Cup, Miss."

Miss Lodge fluttered her eyelids. "Anybody else?"

"Cup Final, cloth ears," Jackie muttered under his breath.

xXxXx


In the barn, the man was awake. He was sitting with his back against the timber walls, pulling his black cloak tighter around him as a gust of wind howled into the barn through a couple of broken planks in the wall. He scrambled around in the straw for the loaf of bread someone had brought him; he assumed it must have been the girl he'd frightened last night. He picked up the loaf in his pale, clammy hands and brought it to his mouth. Suddenly there was a sharp crack like a whip from outside and he froze. He put one eye against a hole in the wall and watched a well-built wizard in navy blue robes walk up to the door of the house. He knocked and Mr Bostock opened the door; they talked for a few minutes, before the wizard turned on his heel and Disapparated, leaving Mr Bostock standing anxiously on his doorstep. The man's chest heaved with relief and he slumped back down against the wall.

xXxXx


The children arrived back at the farm an hour later and rushed into the yard. Kathy opened the gate and shut it behind her; Nan glared at her but climbed over it and jumped down into the muddy puddle on the other side with a grin; Charlie decided just to crawl under the gate, covering himself with mud in the process.

Nan peered up at the sky. "It's stopped raining. Do you think he stopped it, Kathy?"

"Yes, he can do anything, Merlin."

"Do you think he could make me a nice chocolate cake for me birthday?" Charlie asked.

"I don't know, I think he normally does magic on big things." Kathy said.

"Are we going to tell anyone?" he asked her.

"No, not 'til he’s ready," Kathy replied. "Not 'til he’s better, then everybody’ll know. They’ll all come and see him."

"Who?" Nan asked.

"Oh, everybody!" Kathy exclaimed, "Kings, queens, knights, wizards, witches, and people. Maybe even the Chief Warlock of Burnley. There’ll be thousands of them around our barn before he’s finished. You just wait and see, I’ll bet you anything you like. Come on, let’s hurry."

They ran into the barn to find the man backed up against the wall, holding out a piece of broken plank defensively.

"Oh hello," Kathy said, "are you feeling any better then? We brought you the bread, was it alright?"

"Oh you did, did you?" he said hoarsely, as if he hadn't forgotten how to use his voice; he cleared his throat several times.

"Mmm," Kathy replied, "sorry it wasn’t very much."

Charlie brought his kitten over to the man, "Sorry, we didn’t bring you any dinner, but I brought you my kitten. Its name’s Spider."

"We’ve not told anyone," Kathy said to the man, "You don’t want us to tell nobody, do you? 'Til you’re better."

"No," he said forcefully, "you are not to tell anyone."

"We know who you are, and we’re going to look after you." Kathy smiled at him. "We’ll try and get you some better stuff next time."

The man nodded and went to sit down in the straw again, his deep black eyes set like tunnels in his chalky face. The children left the barn quietly; Kathy gazed back anxiously to him and then shut the door.

xXxXx


"Did you come straight home from Wizardry School today, Kathy?" Mr Bostock asked as he served his children their dinner.

"Yes, Dad," Kathy answered.

"You didn’t hang about anywhere."

"No, Dad."

"No? Well, there's a good girl. I don’t want you hanging around talking to people and that. You didn’t talk to anyone, did you?" he enquired nervously.

"Well I talked to Mr Reeves, Dad, and Miss Lodge."

"No, I mean strangers, like. You didn’t talk to any strangers?"

"No, Dad."

"Well, I don’t want you talking to strangers. There are some very funny people about these days; funny men and that, I don’t want you to be bothered with anyone you don’t know."

Kathy nodded, whilst slowly pulling a piece of bread off her bread and onto her lap.

"Kathy, what are you doing?" her aunt demanded.

"Nothing, Auntie."

"What have you got under the table?"

"Nothing, Auntie," she said as she passed the bread to Nan.

"Well, there’s sommat going on between the pair of you." She frowned at them. Nan passed the bread to Charlie, and Auntie's eyes fixed on him. "You know sommat about it, too. What have you got in your hands?"

"Nothing, Auntie," Charlie said as he put the bread on her lap.

"Well, eat your tea properly." She shook her head and went back to her food. Charlie whipped the bread off her lap, and it made its way back to Kathy.

"Now, mind what I say. I don’t want you having anything to do with strangers. Just mind what I say," Mr Bostock said anxiously to Kathy.

Kathy gulped as the bread landed in her lap. "Yes, Dad."

Charm Away the Storm by TrillianAstra [Reviews - 3]

<< >>

Disclaimers
Terms of Use
Credits

Copyright © 2003-2007 Sycophant Hex
All rights reserved