The Mediator : Harry Potter
Ghostly Magick
Prologue
Susannah Simon laughed as she and her friends Cee Cee and Adam sat on the beach, watching the sunset. They had just met up for their weekly visit to the Coffee Clutch and today they decided to watch the sunset together.
Sharing jokes and complaining about homework, they had fun until Suze checked her watch. Exclaiming in panic, they all hurried back into Adam's red VW bug and drove off. When they pulled up into her driveway, she sighed in relief – she wouldn't be late for dinner.
Waving to her friends, she walked up the porch steps. For some reason, she thought of Paul Slater. He had gone to Britain for a summer trip and should have come back a week ago. It was mysterious that he had never come back. People were now thinking that he had gone missing.
Shaking her head, she approached the door. Surprisingly, it was ajar.
Frowning, she pushed open the door and walked into the house. Everything was dark and she could barely see in front of her.
She thought she heard a rustle in the kitchen and she grabbed one of her stepbrothers' surfboards and approached through the door.
BANG.
She jumped and snapped her head around to look at the back door. It had just opened and slammed of its own accord.
Scared now, she whirled around and rushed into the living room. She tripped over something soft.
Getting up, she groped along the wall for a light switch. When she found it, she flipped it on.
And stood, frozen.
Her mother's eyes stared up at her unblinkingly.
No……
Backing away into the kitchen, she whirled around, not wanting to see her mother like that. And instead, she was greeted with her stepfather's unmoving gaze, one hand holding a spatula.
Running back into the den, she noticed Brad lying face down in front of the TV, a game controller held loosely in his hands. The screen flashed 'GAME OVER' – again and again, relentlessly.
Hand clapping over her mouth, she ran upstairs, only to trip again over the body of Jake. Running blindly, she finally got to the room of her youngest stepbrother.
She opened the door, hoping to find David hiding under the bed, shaken but safe. Instead, she saw the redhead lying on his bed, curled up in a ball, face contorted into one of pain.
His glasses lay broken on the floor.
She ran over to him, shaking him roughly by the shoulders, trembling.
"David? David! This isn't funny! Come on… stop it! STOP IT!"
When her stepbrother still laid there, body limp as a rag doll and glassy, unseeing eyes staring at her, she knew somewhere in her mind it wasn't a joke.
Unbelieving, stifling a scream, she ran outside just in time to hear, "MORSMORDRE!"
Something vast, green, and glittering shot out from behind the house and into the air above it. Suze's face was bathed in green light as she stared in horror at the large shimmering skull in the air. A snake was protruding out of its gaping mouth.
She had nowhere left to go. She did not know if the people who killed her family would be after her next. She searched her mind for the nearest safe place she could think of.
The Mission.
Afraid, she ran down the hill, ears open to listen for the sounds of pursuit. When none came floating to her ears, her face fell into one of relief.
That is, until she heard the heavy footfalls of someone running behind her.
She sped up, her thoughts firmly focused on getting to the Mission, to Father Dominic.
Father Dominic would know what to do.
She thought the footsteps fell closer, more heavily. She sped up, heart racing, almost ready to burst. Finally, she saw the Mission's entrance coming up. Without stopping to look back, she ran around it to the back. She hurriedly hid in some bushes and took deep breaths, looking out to see her followers.
Instead, she saw a runner from her neighborhood peer curiously behind the Mission where she was hidden. Eyes wide, she watched as he jogged away.
With a last burst of speed, she hurled herself through the entrance and ran for the direction of the rectory.
She knocked frantically at the door of the rectory, crying, "Father Dominic! Father Dom!"
As her fear blinded her, when a nun opened the door Suze pushed past her. She looked around frantically and finally seeing the concerned face of Father Dominic, she rushed to him, grabbing his robes and hanging on tight.
"Father D… Father Dom…" she gasped, shaking.
And as the sun set beyond the horizon, the last thing she saw was Father Dominic's alarmed face and a shimmer of blue light out of the corner of her eye before darkness claimed her.
"Susannah!"