"Robert Williams…." An older regal voice declared across the bedroom. Robert pulled his wand from his inner pocket and brought it to bare while quickly taking in the changes to his room. His wife was partially undressed but frozen in time, the television as well sat as if it was paused. All of this he could explain away easily, but the man standing just inside the window was not something he was prepared for.
It was a Goblin King. Big 'G' type of goblin, the ornate clothes and proud manner matched the elegance of the last one he had dealt with.
"Robert Williams, I know what you did. I'm here to put it right." He said as he slowly stalked forwards. He pulled a crystal orb out of the air and started to spin it around his hands. He wasn't afraid of a simple wizard with a wand.
"I was a fool last time I made a deal with your kind; I won't be that foolish again."
"Now come, come my foolish Wand-bearer. I am here on your daughters behalf. You will tell me the King you dealt with or I will make your life here a living hell. Do you really want me to turn your own daughter against you? She loves me after all."
"What have you done to my Sarah?" Robert started to lower his wand. This Goblin was completely right; his spellwork would not harm him as it would lesser goblins, and he had been out of practice for years now.
"Nothing. I'm here to undo your mistake. Now what King did you deal with?" This King stood barely an arms length away spinning that crystal ball around on his hands, such a simple object, but more dangerous then anything else he had ever seen.
"What do you plan to do with this knowledge? You can't break the contract. My half has already fallen through, it can't be returned."
"I will return to her what was stolen."
"That's all? Just undo what I did?"
"For being a wizard you really do seem rather slow." He said as he turned away and slowly wandered back towards the window. "Your daughter will no longer be a squib, and you can return to the world you were born into. I'm just asking for the Goblin you dealt with." He said turning to look at him over his shoulder.
"The Goblin King was back in Britain, Rashad is its name." As soon as the name left his lips the room started to move again, the Goblin King turn to the window and shifted into a barn owl and was out the window.
"Are you ok? You look like you seen a ghost." Irene asked him as he stared out after him. It took a few moments for him to recollect himself.
"Yes I'm fine. I'll be just a minute. I want to check the house over quick." He left the room, tossing every defensive curse, incantation, or jinx he could think of on the house, and checking to make sure his son and daughter were okay.
_...-~-…_
Jareth walked down the Ivory tower gripping his side as token dribbles of blood flowed out. His blood though just drops splatter all over the steps as he left Rashad to recover. Hundred of goblins watched from the base of the tower after hearing that Jareth was going against Rashad over the love of a single squib girl.
At the bottom several of his knights sat atop there steeds waiting his return. They were holding back the rabble that wanted to go and help there king. Only the best of his subject would become knights, and he had almost found it laughable when Sarah had befriended one of the Knights that were cast out for incompetence.
As he approached the crowd he changed his clothes to a nice blood color and stood tall, no one would look upon him and see any form of weakness.
"All of you, go tend your an excuse of a King, I have what I came for. Remember what I did this day if she seek retribution, I was kind enough to let you all live." Jareth marched forward with his knights' fanning out around him as he left this pitiful kingdom, contract in hand.
_...-~-…_
It was barely a week after her trip to the labyrinth. Each night Jareth had appeared in her dreams, watching her, never interfering until just last night. Sarah had woken with a start after he had approached her carrying some old scroll. He ripped it to small pieces and tossed it over her, letting it all fall in little pieces of glitter.
"You wish to be with your friends, now you have the power to be with your friends, my Sarah." Was all he said, and it was the only part of her dream she could remember.
Sarah looked about her room, and called for her friend, she was surprised and furious when Jareth appeared in her vanity mirror.
"I didn't call for you! I called for Hoggle, Ludo, and Sir Didymus!" She quickly pulled a blanket around her as she stood to face him properly.
"Now come, come Sarah. I have done so much to earn your trust and this is all the thanks I get? Hoggle is a Prince in my kingdom now, Didymus has returned to my knights full service and that oaf Ludo is helping to rebuild damages to my Labyrinth. Could you give them a bit to finish there work?"
"I didn't realize they all were so important now." She said taken back.
"But my dear, precious Sarah that is not the greatest news; you should go downstairs and talk with your father, I bet he has a real surprise for you!" His image that had been lounging on her bed behind her vanished. Never trusting Jareth, she got dressed in haste to get downstairs.
No matter what she would have dreamt up she would not have imagined her father dressed in dark green robes, crying into his sleeves with his head down as nearly a dozen letters written on what looked like parchment scattered across the kitchen table. Toby was sitting in his high chair making a mess of his breakfast and Irene was no where to be seen.
"Dad, what's wrong?" she asked as she rested her hand on his back. She just noticed a nice pair of barn owls sitting on little wooden stand on the counter. One of them looked very familiar. She tried to glare daggers at it cause she was sure it was all his fault.
"I'm sorry Sarah but I have good and bad news." He said quietly through tears.
"Um, lets go with the bad news first…"
"Well Irene has left me, and we are moving at the end of the school year." She was shocked that her 'evil stepmother' that she was finally trying to get along with just up and left her father. They had seemed so happy together.
"What going to happen with Toby then?"
"You are a great big sister, always looking out for your brother first." He said looking up with a smile. She felt a tinge of regret after what almost happened to him, but she didn't want to try and explain all that to her dad. He would never believe her. "I told her a few things that she wasn't ready to hear and we are splitting up. I'm getting full custody of Toby and we are going to where my family lives."
"We are moving to London?" She asked surprised. This seemed like such a sudden change of events that she was started to believe she was still sleeping, and Jareth had done some kind of glamour trick on her. "What's the good news then?"
He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. Instead of explaining he searched through the stack of papers and handed her one of the letters. Written in a fine tiny neat scrawl it said;
I'm so glad to hear from you after all this time! I understand raising your daughter up amongst Muggles cause of her problems but you could have wrote more often. Hearing she can do magic now make me so glad that we will all get to finally meet her! Do you think they will let her get into Hogwarts? She is a few years late, the other children will probably be in there 4th or 5th year by now. If not I'm sure we can as a family help her catch up and still find a decent job around here somewhere. All the family is looking forward to seeing both of you at the end of her school year! As soon as she gets here I want to be the one to take her to get her own wand. My granddaughter finally found her magic!
All our loves!
Mom
"What's a Muggle?" Her mind hadn't really wrapped around the magic part yet. Her father believing in stories of magic and wands seemed incredible.
"It's what Wizards calls people that can't do magic. When wizard's have children that can't do magic it's normally called a squib, which is kind of a bad word." He said keeping his eyes downcast like he was hiding something else.
"How do you know I can do magic now? Despite all the stories I've read I have never actually tried to do magic!" She started pacing back in forth through the kitchen. She was about to just call Jareth on all this and see if she could wake up, or maybe this was some little area of the labyrinth that he set up just for her.
He father pulled out one of his chopsticks. He said they were lucky, and never went anywhere without them. Some time ago he lost one so there was just the one. It was really to long for a chopstick, closed to 11 inches and thicker but she had never said anything to her father about it. Now seeing how he was holding it and how the handle looked she realized it looked very wand like, same as many of her storybooks. He handed it to her, handle first.
"Just say Lumos."
"Lumos" a bright light erupted at the tip, it didn't do a whole lot as the kitchen was already lit. She dropped it and Robert caught it before it hit the ground, saying 'Nox' to put the light out.
"That was a spell wasn't it?" she asked after a moment. This seemed a lot different then the kind of magic Jareth had used during her time with him. She was starting to think that she wasn't dreaming.
"A very basic spell."
"How did you know it would work now? What changed?"
Her father stood up as she took a seat now. He started to pace around his half of the kitchen. One of the owls watched him intently.
"It's a bit of a story. You see… Well I'll cut it short and say that a Goblin King I had met tricked me. It ended up with a promise that she could take the magic from my first child. After you were born, when you where just turning four I realized that it wasn't just a con. I believed she really did take your magic and I moved with you out here to America so you could grow up away from the entire magic world that I knew. Being a Squib is really hard thing to deal with and I didn't want you growing up like that."
She sat quietly for a few minutes before putting a few things together. "Was the goblin's name Jareth?"
"No. He… well he dropped by a little before you woke up. He won back your magic."
Sarah stood up and started to storm around the kitchen pointing vindictively at the Owl that was watching them closely. She was quietly screaming about owing him, and not wanting to be in debt to such a douche bag.
It took a while to calm her back down. The owl took off as her father started to give her a crash course in the basic of wizardry and what she had missed over the last decade. Why she had been so obsessed with magic and fairy tales as she grew up. But most of all, he tried to not let on that there was more to the story then he told her.
_...-~-…_
Sarah had spent a little time in the American Wizarding Community before she moved with her father Robert, and little brother Toby back to England. The next few years were extremely eventful as she was homeschooled as much as her extended family could help with. She had been after all too old to start up any of the nearby Wizarding schools.
As she came of age in three years she was able to land an apprenticeship under Ollivanders, while she was studying to become a teacher. She had grown up amongst Muggles and thought it was probably the best subject she could teach. She didn't seem to have the proper knack for making wands, though her wand (9 ¾ inches, Willow, Phoenix feather) seemed to hate and accidently break her projects.
She was just returning home after her interview Dumbledore. She would be taking up the post of Muggle studies in the coming year. Her little brother Toby met her at the door waiting for the outcome.
"So? You're going to get to be one of my teachers some day?" He asked as he caused a swarm of little paper cranes to fly about his head. The Aunts, Uncles, and Grandparents were astounded at the kind of magic he could do without a wand. The cranes weren't flapping or alive, it was just a variation of wingardium leviosa but he always loved showing off what little he could do.
"Yep! I'm going to be a Professor! You won't be able to pick up my class until your fifth year though, and I won't make it any easier on you." She said as she got all the way into small mansion they lived in. Nearly everyone in her family lived on the grounds, and they had put together a small party to celebrate. Toby set a group of cranes he had folded out of tinfoil to fly around her sister as everyone started to swarm around her delivering congratulations.
The party lasted late into the night. Toby had passed out on one of the sofa at some point and his Father carried him up to bed. As he was still just 9 he would enter Hogwarts at the start of the following school year.
Sarah finally escaped her family and made it up to her room. After closing the door with a smile as she thought about how well the day had turned out as voice that sounded like it could belong to a rock star called out to her in the darkness of her room.
"If there such a thing as a good wizard, this Dumbledore is one of them. You'll be much safer at the castle under him."
"Jareth…" She turned and embraced him in the darkness. Over the last 8 years she had grown quiet fond of him, and thankful for all the things he tried to do for her even if he hid them behind seemingly cruel acts. He was still a goblin at heart and saw the world different then wizards.
"If you would just let me stay by your side at all times I could defend you from the encroaching darkness." He whispered to her.
"Wizards don't get along that well with goblins, and many don't even know about there kings. What would you do? Hide with me as an owl, and I pretend you're my pet?"
"I already feel like your pet, chained here by your love! Why not make it more literal? Only allowed to show myself when no one else is around? I would almost believe you were ashamed of me."
"Ashamed?! After everyth-" He placed a finger to her lips to quiet her. It was an old argument already that they had many times before. Neither had ever won, but Jareth still acted as if she relented. Jareth ignored the conversation up to now as if it never happened as he kissed her.
"Will you be at Hogwarts with me?" She asked when He finally let her come up for air, not something he was found of doing when he finally got her alone.
"I am a very busy King, but I'm sure I can find the time."
_...-~-…_
"She wrote!" Toby exclaimed as he dug through the owl post in the morning. He couldn't stand reading the paper yet, but did listen when the grown ups talked about it. The year hadn't been going over that well for Hogwarts as the Ministry in response to hearing about the return of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was putting a bunch of nonsense laws into effect to restrict things going on there.
Some of the letters had been Sarah fuming about some Delores Umbridge causing mischief in class or the like. Toby didn't care; he searched the letters for the tidbits she gave about Hogwarts itself. It seemed she wasn't teaching Harry Potter, as he grew up with Muggles like Sarah he didn't need the class.
Sarah spent a good deal of the summer keeping him in contact with the Muggle side of the world as she said a lot of wizards don't seem to have a lot of sense, and they just use magic to fix all there problems. He was already seeing problems with this as he couldn't take his video game systems with him. No computer either.
He finished skimming through the letter. It said that Dumbledore had left.
"Dad! Dumbledore left Hogwarts!" he screamed at the top of his lungs to make sure everyone heard the news. Like he expected everyone in the house came out of the woodworks to check the letter and grab the Daily Post to see what it said about it. While they discussed it he slipped out with a bit of food and found his path.
Sarah never went to the Labyrinth, but she had told him this story about a girl who had accidently give her little brother to the Kng of the Goblins and she had to go rescue him. It had taken him a few years, and a trip to Gringotts to find out her story was true.
His Aunt had gone postal when she lost tack of him as he had convinced one of the goblins to show him how to get into the labyrinth. Since then he visited when ever he could. Armed with only one of the wands he sister had made but hadn't worked to well he stood before the billow fires once again.
The goblins here had thicker skin and where constantly at work to make the finest armors. This room was deep under the castle and Sarah had never mentioned it during the stories.
"Toby your back." One of the nearby goblins said. He had gotten over how the blacksmiths always seemed to have a hint of malice in there voice, or that there words felt poisonous. It was just how the talked.
"You think I can work on the Forge today? I'll be really careful!" he asked pushing the wand deep into his pocket. They didn't like the wand, but he was careful to not let himself go unarmed around them. They could be dangerous if they wanted.
"Jareth wants to see if you can make a dagger. Think you're up to it?" The goblin said as he approached. His name was Urdrog, and he was the Master Smith of this foundry. He was the only goblin allowed to give him lessons.
"I smelted the silver just find didn't I?"
"That you did, you'll make a fine smith some day if you keep this up." He motioned towards the foundry and they got to work.
The end result was like nothing he had ever seen. The silver seemed to flow and meld with his thoughts as he had worked on it. The blade was sharp and was already tested against a troll's strength. His name was carved into a spot just below the hilt to show off his work. Today was different though, as he went to go home Urdrog stopped him.
"Master Toby, King Jareth wishes to see you, and the work you've done." He was directing him towards the stairs. He had never gone up after a day of work before and was a little weary, but showing off the dagger did appeal to his pride.
As he ascended the stairs his clothes magically replaced themselves with a clean outfit that reminded him of 200 year old stuff. The tights were rather uncomfortable, but it would save him from a bath when he got home. Feeling clean and awkwardly dressed he walked into the throne room.
He knew from the stories he had spent most his time when he was captured in this room, but for now it was empty. Empty besides the Goblin King. Urdrog didn't follow him in, and he stepped forward and stood before Jareth.
"Didn't the goblins teach you any manners? You bow before your betters." He said, trying to sound as insulting as possible. Toby smiled and pulled the dagger from its leather sheath. It held it up by the very tip, carful to not let it cut him.
"Goblin King, I have crafted this silver weapon, who could possibly be my better?" He said trying to not start giggling. Jareth stood with anger etched across his features. He stepped forward and took the dagger, slowly examining the edge, the length, the intricate handle that showed a serpent wrapping around the handle before it seemed to be trying to swallow the blade from the hilt side. The eyes shone with a beautiful jade jewel. There were bits of gold inlaid to accent the underbelly or the etches in the handle. Jareth stabbed the dagger into one of his crystal balls and let it hang in the air next to him as he brought his attention back to Toby.
"You dare bring a weapon of such quality into my presence? You do know what this means?"
"Yep." He was nearly laughing.
"Now you are truly a Goblin Prince!" Jareth smiled picking him up under the arms and twirling him around. Hundreds of goblins appeared laughing and singing. The smiths all crowded out of the stairwell and were clapping. As he set him down he looked to the assembled. "Spread the word far and wide! Toby has mastered a silver dagger. My Heir has come into his own at last!"
It had been a long day again already, and as all the different goblins partied, he fell asleep on the throne where Jareth had set him down; holding tightly to the blade he forged.
_...-~-…_
"Are you sure I need a new wand? I kinda like the ones Sissy made." Toby asked as he entered Ollivander's. It had been a few months since he forged a goblin dagger and he was finally getting ready to go to Hogwarts.
"Ah, the wand chooses the wizard Mr. Williams. The ones your Sister made where fair enough, but none of them really had a soul to them if you can grasp what I mean." The old man said as he came up; a tape measure already floating next to him.
"I heard a similar settlement before Mister, and like him I'll bow before your greater expertise." He said as he nodded his head and did half a bow to the old wand maker.
Ollivander got right to work as he had been looking forward to this young man when his sister had been trying to learn the trade. She hadn't had the raw talent but an apprentice had been helpful around the shop. He was surprised though when it came time to start the search the boy asked for a moment. He pulled a silver dagger from his satchel and looked like be performed the four point spell. He followed where the dagger pointed as he went around the boxes.
Ollivander was so surprised about this that he sat back and just gaped at him. An untrained wizard able to do this complicated of magic without a real spell focus? Maybe the dagger itself has a powerful magical property was all he could come up with.
The boy searching through the many shelves took just a few minutes to find the box it had been pointing to. He nimbly took it down, it was a very old wand. His own Master had made this one, and it with others of the similar style never seemed to pick wizards.
"Mr. Williams, This wand is 12 ¼ inches long, willow like your sisters, and it has an unusual core." He said as he took it out and handed it to him. It immediately fired a shower of red sparks.
"It seems to like me, what special about the core?"
"You see Mr Williams, I find hair to be temperamental to work with, you sort of have to be attuned to the magical beast to use it properly. That wand uses Merfolk hair." Ollivander explained while handing him the box, Toby put away his dagger as he excepted the wands case.
"Well I can't breath underwater so that out of the picture." He said smiling and walking back to his father, who was counting out the cost of the new wand from his coin pouch.
"Send me an owl here and again to tell me how that wand works for you." Toby agreed and they left out of the shop as three large men walked in. Robert held his son close as they passed by. Outside of the shop he pulled him along towards Madam Malkin's to get his robes.
"Dad, what kind of wand do you got?"
"Huh? Oh, I got a Maple, 10 ½ inches, with a Dragon's heartstring."
"Do you think the core really matters? You got a dragons and I got a merfolks."
"Personally I've never used another wand so I really couldn't tell you. Now mind your manners in here. Malkins will be making your robes for all of your schooling, and you don't want her to make them look funny."