I have to start off by saying this is the fourth book in my next generation series so if you haven't read the first three it is very necessary that you go to my profile page and find The Muggle's Trap, the first book.
Now for those of you who are caught up, Hey guys, long time no see right? Well, hi. Welcome to the fourth book in the JAL (James Albus Lily) series, The Hogwarts Tournament. I'll let you read the preface and then join me at the bottom of this page for a little chat, okay?
Preface
Fear.
It controls you. It baits you, and you're stuck. Then it gives you a little slack, let's you think that escape is possible but that's just false hope. It just reels you right back in and never lets you go.
Being fearless is impossible. No matter where you run, where you hide, fear will find you.
It found me here, in this dark scary maze. But I should have known that. I should have expected that.
Hell, if I were in a happy sunny field filled with lilies and sunflowers, fear would still find me.
Fear was doing a good job of rendering me hopeless. There was no more⦠anything. No more running, no more hiding, no more pretending it didn't exist. And fear wanted to show me that. It was like it had a hook in me and right now I was completely reeled in. I was staring fear in the face and there was nothing I could do about it.
"You'll never get me," I whispered. Then, sounding slightly delusional, I repeated loudly, "You'll never get me! You hear that? Never!"
There was no response except the echo of my own voice.
"I'll fight," I challenged. "You'll have to kill me. I won't give up!"
I would take pleasure in killing you.
I froze. He couldn't be in my head. Not now. Not here. As if I wasn't already going insane. What about the Occlumency? Sure I wasn't perfect at it but it should have helped.
"Leave me alone you murdering idiot!" I yelled.
I think you and I both know this is too much fun for me to do that. The sick twisted laugh that followed echoed around my head and made my insides squirm.
And suddenly I was no longer in the maze. I was somewhere scarier than that. I wasteland of a world where I stood on a pile of ashes and dead bodies.
"Let me go!" I yelled not sure if I was talking to Ryan Code or fear in general. Both had a firm grip on me and both were my mortal enemies.
As if in response the world around me changed and I was surrounded by bodies of my friends and family.
And that's when I knew there was nothing to do. There was no escape. It didn't mean I stopped fighting, I'd go until the very end, but I knew now that it was pointless. Fear had won.
Fear.
It got to know you. Played around with you for a little bit. It looked inside your mind and never forgot what it saw.
The worst part about fear was that evil and fear were best friends. They joined together and when they did they were unbeatable. They would use any weapons, any means necessary to get what they wanted.
Even two innocent children.
"Stop!" I begged the killer. "Just leave them alone."
It wasn't fair. They were being used to target me. It was me she should be attacking not them.
"Please, it's me you want, leave them out of this!"
"Now, why on earth would I ever do that?" asked the killer a malignant grin on her face.
"Take me instead," I pleaded, "They're just-"
I didn't finish my sentence. They're just kids? Yeah, but so was I. So were my brother and sister but just about everything that went wrong we were dragged into. It's like some evil force, perhaps fear itself, enjoyed targeting kids. The hostages, me, my siblings, even the killer was just a kid.
"That's right, you're just a kid too. And so am I." She smiled her sadistic little grin again and briefly stopped torturing the hostages. "We all are. This is a cruel messed up world. No one is safe."
With that she returned back to the torturing and the room echoed with screams. Whether it was mine or the hostages I couldn't tell.
A/N: Hi, again. So did you enjoy? I hope you did. Did it leave you on the edge of your seat? Ha, you'll have to wait until the end of the book to see what the heck is going on with the Potters this time.
So I'm afraid I've been having writer's block. I always do at the beginning of a new book. So I'm not actually as far along as I'd like to be. In fact I'm not going to lie, I'm not even done chapter two. According to my schedule I should be on at least chapter eight by now. So yeah, really far behind. I apologize but I won't be able to do weekly updates as of now. Starting from mid September to begging of October I'll start the weekly uploads. For now I decided I'd at least give you the Preface. Sound good?
I do have some good news though. I've been taking a lot of time to think about the characters. And there are certain characters that are especially hard to write like Jacob Cadler, Marlo Green, and Ryan Code. Well, things are starting to make sense. I actually understand those characters now. This book will definitely shock you and it will explain things you didn't understand before.
To end you off I'll leave you with a few questions you can ponder. What are the Potter kids going to get up two this time? Will Ryan Code be involved? What about Stony? Will Lucius Malfoy stay in Azkaban? Who will be the new headmaster? What's the deal with the caretaker, Mr. Joe? What the heck has Code been up to? What's the deal with Biscuit? How will Jacob's sister play a role in this book? How will Hugo be more involved in this book? Will James ever get over Cassidy? Will Albus get more interesting? All these and more will be answered in the newest edition if the JAL series, The Hogwarts Tournament.
Until next Time,
-Monkeywoman14
