CHAPTER 4: A MUGGLE POINT OF VIEW
Location: Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters, London, England
Time Frame: The end of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."
You'd think I'd be used to this after six years.
Tension knotted Ellen O'Bannon's shoulders as she peered through her glasses at the scene before her. Hundreds of people crowded the station, or platform as they called it here in England. Most were dressed in robes or other clothing that looked straight out of the 19th Century.
Wizards and witches, all of them.
The tension spread throughout her entire body.
Stop feeling uncomfortable. They're just people.
People who can make stuff fly through the air or shrink things or knock you out with a flick of a wand.
Not that this was news to her, and not like any witch or wizard ever tried to do that to her or her husband Douglas. So why should she feel uncomfortable around them?
Ellen figured it had to do with the fact the Diazes and Infantes weren't around, like they always were at Pier SWI in Boston. But even she had to admit sometimes she felt a bit uneasy around them, and she considered them friends.
She let out a long breath. She tried her best to accept this world her son had become a part of. At times, she felt she succeeded. Then this nervous feeling would resurface.
She glanced around at the wizards and witches, thinking of all the things they could do. It made her feel powerless, insignificant. Even worse, after six years of exposure to this other world, there was so much she still didn't understand. When she heard Jimmy or Rosa or Jared or their parents talk about prophecies or the laws of transfiguration or goblin-made weapons that could only be used by certain people, she felt at a complete loss. Sometimes, it made her feel like an idiot, to the point she hesitated asking questions to the Infantes, the Diazes, their children, even her own son. She'd never forget one dinner conversation when Jimmy was thirteen, and he went on about his Care of Magical Creatures class. She had asked him, "What's this hippocampus thing you're talking about?"
"It's like a mermaid-horse, Mom." He said it like she should have known.
Times like that, she feared her son would grow apart from her and Douglas. After all, what advice could they give him about spells or potions or dealing with a hippocampus? She worked for the largest appraisal firm in Boston. She assessed property values. What did she know about magic? Sometimes she considered asking her niece Cassie if she could borrow her Lord of the Rings and Narnia novels. Maybe reading those could help her deal better with the Wizarding World. But those books were works of fiction. Would they really help her better understand a real magical world?
Ellen sighed. Once again, she wished Jimmy was just a normal boy. Part of her felt guilty for wishing that. He had become such good friends with Rosa, Jared and Artimus. They were wonderful kids and she would hate for Jimmy not to have them in his life. At the same time, it would be easier for her to deal with hockey games, proms, driver's licenses and picking a college than charms, potions and divination.
She gazed around the platform again. Her eyes settled on another group of people to her left. These men and women wore normal shirts and pants and dresses. The parents of Muggle-borns. Just like at Pier SWI, they tended to congregate with each other out of a sense of comfort. Usually she and Douglas stuck with the Diazes and Infantes while waiting for the Salem Schooner to arrive, but since they weren't here . . .
"Come on. Let's go over there." She took her husband's hand and led him toward the other Muggles. She glanced over her shoulder at the much larger crowd of magical people . . . and halted.
Her brow furrowed as she scanned the witches and wizards. Several huddled in small groups. Most didn't smile. In fact, they looked worried for some reason. A few shook their heads, and some spoke with emphatic hand gestures.
"Ellen?"
"Huh?" She turned and stared into the bearded face of her husband.
"You okay? Why did you stop?"
She bit her lip. "Douglas. Do you feel like something's wrong here?"
A quizzical look came over his face. "Wrong? What do you mean?"
"It's just . . . I don't know. Look at those wizards over there."
Douglas gazed at them for several seconds. He then shrugged. "I don't see anything wrong with them."
"But just look at them. Don't they seem worried?"
"Oh, come on, Ellen. It's just your imagination."
She started to open her mouth, then shut it. It would be useless to go on. Douglas had never been big on intuition.
They walked over to the other Muggles. A man with an oval-shaped head and receding brown-gray hair dressed in a polo shirt and slacks turned to them and smiled.
"New Muggles? I don't think I've seen you here before."
"Oh no. Our son's an exchange student at Hogwarts," Ellen answered. "He was only going there for this year."
"Oh, you're American." The man stuck out his hand. "Richard Granger, and this is my wife, Patricia."
"Ellen O'Bannon. This is my husband, Douglas."
They all shook hands.
"O'Bannon," Richard said. "Oh yes, I remember the name. You're son's Jimmy, right? Our daughter, Hermione, wrote about him. He put together that hockey game at Hogwarts."
"That was your son who did that?" A slender black woman with shoulder length hair stepped up to them. "My son played in that game. Oh, sorry. I'm Esther Thomas. My son's Dean."
Ellen relaxed as the conversation went on. Eventually they were joined by two other Muggle couples, the Creeveys and the Dobbses. They all asked why Jimmy decided to come to Hogwarts, what he thought of it and how he convinced so many wizards and witches to play hockey.
"I was delighted to hear they beat those Slytherins," Esther said. "Dean's in the same year as that Draco Malfoy. Just an evil, slimy git, Dean calls him. I've run across him a couple times when taking Dean to Diagon Alley. That boy looks at us like we were bugs who should be crushed."
"The father's no better." Patricia Granger turned to her husband. "Remember that time in Flourish and Blotts when he got in that fight with Ron's father."
"How could I forget? That man looked right at us and told Arthur, 'the company you keep, I thought your family couldn't sink any lower.' Next thing we knew, Arthur throws himself at that Malfoy imbecile, books went flying, shelves knocked over. They would have torn apart the entire store if that big bearded fellow – oh, what did Hermione say his name was? – Hagrid, that's it. If Hagrid hadn't pulled them apart."
Ellen scowled and shook her head. And I thought the Mather family back at Salem was bad.
A loud whistle pieced the air. All heads turned to the tracks. A scarlet steam engine chugged into the platform, hauling several carriage cars with it. Excitement raced through Ellen. She scanned the windows, hoping for a glimpse of Jimmy. It had been nine months since she last saw him.
The crowd moved closer to the train as it rolled to a halt. A couple minutes later, the doors opened. Boys and girls streamed out, carrying their luggage. Parents and children greeted one another with hugs and kisses. Ellen's eyes darted back and forth, anxious to find her son.
There! He stepped off the third car behind a pair of tall, lanky redheaded boys. Going by Jimmy's letters, they had to be Fred and George, the "famous" Weasley twins. Her nose crinkled as she recalled the letters she received from Professor McGonagall.
Dear Mr. & Mrs. O'Bannon,
Your son, Jimmy, was caught with Fred and George Weasley rigging dung bombs to the entrance for the Slytherin Dungeons . . .
Dear Mr. & Mrs. O'Bannon,
Your son, Jimmy, along with Fred and George Weasley, received a week's detention after dropping Vulcanus Bombs into the toilets of three lavatories . . .
Dear Mr. & Mrs O'Bannon,
Your son, Jimmy, assisted Fred and George Weasley and Lee Jordan in charming a Muggle device called a "Hoopy Cushion" to make a most foul sound that embarrassed the heads of the two visiting schools participating in the Tri-Wizard Tournament . . .
She shook her head. What would possess Jimmy to hang out with a pair of juvenile delinquents like that?
Jimmy and the twins stood off to the side of the door, and were soon joined by two other redheads, a boy and a girl, another girl with bushy brown hair, and a boy with mussed black hair and glasses. They all stood in a tight circle. Ellen studied them. Like the wizards and witches she'd seen before, Jimmy and the other kids looked rather serious, even a bit worried.
The little pow-wow broke up. Jimmy exchanged vigorous handshakes and/or hugs with each kid. He then caught her eye and waved. Ellen waved back, a smile spreading across her face as Jimmy headed over with the British kids in tow.
"Hey, Mom. Dad." He smiled and hugged them both.
"Hello," she said, hugging Jimmy tight. "Mm, we missed you so much."
"Same here." He introduced her and Douglas to the British kids. Along with the twins, there were their siblings, Ron and Ginny, the Grangers' daughter, Hermione, and Harry Potter. She remembered that name. The boy who killed some evil wizard when he was a baby.
Other boys and girls descended on Jimmy. Ellen tried to keep track of their names as Jimmy introduced them. Angelina Johnson. Something Bell. Something Boot. Someone else named Michael Comber, she thought. A lump formed in her throat. She was so happy Jimmy had made so many friends here. She'd worried about him a lot after his first couple of letters indicated things hadn't gone well for him his first few weeks at Hogwarts.
"Looks like you had quite an interesting time at Hogwarts," Douglas said as they started for the wrought-iron archway that would take them back to the Muggle train station.
"Yeah. Really interesting."
Something in Jimmy's tone made Ellen raise an eyebrow. "So everything was all right there?"
She watched his lips, his whole face, in fact, tighten for a moment. He then smiled and nodded. "Yeah, everything was fine."
Again, his tone didn't sit well with her. She started to open her mouth to ask another question.
"Oh, hello, Jimmy," a soft voice floated over them.
Ellen drew her head back as a girl with long dirty blond hair, yellow, green and purple robes, and, of all things, a hockey puck dangling from her neck, drifted in front of them.
"Hey, Luna." Jimmy greeted her.
"I just wanted to thank you for the hockey puck." She held it up before him. "It's doing a remarkable job keeping the wrackspurts away."
"Er, yeah. You're welcome."
"Well, it was nice getting to know you. Have a safe trip back to America. Good-bye, Jimmy. Good-bye, Jimmy's parents."
With unblinking eyes, Ellen watched the strange girl stroll off, with seemingly no particular destination in mind.
"Who was that?"
"Um, Luna Lovegood."
"You two have something going on?" Douglas asked.
Jimmy winced. "C'mon, Dad. I'm not that desperate."
"What's wrong with her?" Ellen asked.
"A lot."
She watched Luna wander into the crowd of magical people. Ellen caught sight of a few wizards and witches, clutching their sons or daughters by the shoulders, leaning in so their foreheads nearly touched, engaging in what appeared to be very serious conversations.
Again, that uneasy feeling crept over her skin.
She tensed as she followed the other Muggles and their children through the barrier. After a couple seconds of darkness, they found themselves in King's Cross, the Muggle train station. Jimmy said his final good-byes to the Muggle-borns he knew, then pushed his luggage trolley next to her and Douglas.
"Um, Jimmy?" Ellen bit her lip.
"Yeah, Mom?"
"Is there anything going on with them?" She nodded back toward Platform Nine-And-Three-Quarters.
Jimmy's face scrunched in confusion. "What'd you mean?"
"Well, it looked like some of those witches and wizards were, I don't know, nervous about something. Nothing bad happened at Hogwarts, did it?"
She could sense the tension radiating from Jimmy. His hands gripped the handle of the trolley tighter. Worry swirled inside Ellen's chest. She was about to ask him again when he took a quick breath and answered, "No. Everything was fine."
He looked away from her and pushed the trolley faster.
Ellen's jaw tightened. She watched the space between her and her son increase. Worry slithered through her chest. She knew, she just knew, Jimmy was keeping something from her. Something serious.
She wondered if he'd ever tell her about it.
XXXXX
Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Time Frame: The Present
Ellen sneered as the traffic crept along the Mass Pike. Wonderful. I'm going to be late.
She crushed the mini-van's steering wheel as her foot alternated between the gas pedal and the brake. All sorts of nasty thoughts went through her head about superintendent for the Danvers school district. The idiot went on for nearly two hours picking apart her appraisal of the district's old bus depot property they wanted to sell.
"You do realize this district has a budget deficit that needs to be resolved," he had told her. "Given the condition of the facilities, its location, its value has to be much higher than what you have. Fifteen thousand dollars higher, at least."
She told him she made a fair assessment of the property.
He didn't believe her, and let her know it in rather strenuous terms.
Ellen took deep breaths as she came to her exit. She didn't want that idiot superintendent to ruin the rest of her day. She wanted to be happy. Jimmy was coming home.
Her muscles unraveled as the Boston cityscape gave way to the suburbs. She thought back to that day in July when Jimmy told her and Douglas that he would be playing professional hockey. It was a shame he'd have to be on a team halfway across the country, and they couldn't watch him play, but she couldn't have been happier for him. He'd come back from that wizarding war so different. Distant, brooding, prone to mood swings. Rarely did he joke or laugh. She had tried to get him to open up about what happened. The few times he relented, he didn't go into much detail, just that he experienced a lot of "bad things." At least now he was away from that world.
Or so she thought.
She sighed as she rolled up to a stop sign. She thought back to Jimmy's call a couple days ago, saying he'd be coming home, "And if it's cool, I'll be bringing a friend. She's one of those 'special' people."
She could read between the lines. She knew what "special people" meant.
Ellen shook her head. Just when she thought Jimmy was done with that world, he wound up getting involved with a witch. How the hell did he even meet one, living in the normal world, in Indiana of all places? Was this witch his girlfriend? How serious were they?
If he's bringing her home with him, I doubt it's casual.
She wished Jimmy could have found a normal girl. If he was going out with a witch, Ellen feared her son would never get over everything that happened to him during the war.
She approached a red, two-story clapboard house, and saw Douglas' car in the driveway and Jimmy's car parked along the curb. She pulled the mini-van next to Douglas' car, got out and strode toward the front door. As soon as she entered the house, she scanned the living room. Douglas sat in his recliner. Across from him, sitting on the sofa, was Jimmy and . . .
Her eyes widened when she recognized the girl next to her son. None other than that French witch Jimmy had pined over since his year at Hogwarts. Mireet Miradeaux.
"Hey, Mom." Jimmy got up and walked over to her.
She smiled and gave him a crushing hug. "Jimmy. It's so good to see you again. Is everything okay? Did you have a good trip?"
"Uh, yeah. I'm good. The trip was fine. Mom, you remember Mireet?"
"Of course." She had to force a smile as she hugged the French witch. She didn't like feeling this way. Mireet had always come across as a wonderful girl. But she was still one of "those people."
"I'm sorry your team didn't win the championship," Ellen said as Jimmy and Mireet returned to the sofa.
"Yeah, it sucks." Jimmy shrugged. "But, we gave it a damn good shot, and Coach seemed pretty happy with how I played."
"That's good. Well, sorry I'm late. That meeting I had in Danvers went on longer than expected. Just give me a few minutes to change and I'll start dinner."
"Um, actually, Mom." Jimmy held up a hand. "If you could wait a couple minutes, there's um . . . there's something I need to talk to you guys about."
Ellen's brow furrowed. She studied her son. Worry blazed on his round face. "What's wrong?"
Jimmy shifted on the sofa. "Um, you may wanna sit down."
She looked over at Douglas. Her husband stared back at her, concern filling his eyes. Ellen seated herself on the high-back, red cushioned chair across from Douglas, her eyes locked on Jimmy.
"Jimmy, what is it?"
He let out a long sigh. Mireet took hold of one of his hands. Jimmy looked over to her. His shoulders stiffened, as though he was drawing strength from her.
Ellen chewed on her lower lip. "Does this have to do with the war?"
Jimmy's gaze fell to the floor. Mireet squeezed his hand tighter. After another long sigh, he looked back up, his eyes shifting between her and Douglas.
"Yeah. Yeah, it does. Um . . . there was some stuff that happened. Stuff I never told you about."
He drew a slow breath. "You know that I was part of the Guild of the Light during the war."
"Yeah." Douglas nodded.
"Well, I sort of led you to believe that I joined them after I graduated from Salem. That's not true." He paused. "I was working for the Guild over a year before that."
"What?" Ellen's eyes widened.
"Wait a minute." Douglas leaned forward in his chair. "Are you telling us you were fighting in the war while you were still in school?"
"Yeah. Actually, I was recruited . . . well, we were recruited," Jimmy glanced at Mireet, "when were over in England."
"Recruited?" Ellen's voice went up an octave. "By who?"
"Headmaster Dumbledore. Our last night there, he called me and Mireet into his office and asked for our help."
Ellen's mouth fell open. "Why would he want students to fight in a war?"
"We weren't supposed to do any fighting. We were supposed to identify students who may want to join us, and students who may want to join the other side, and try to convince people that Voldemort was really back."
"And Dumbledore made you do this?" Douglas asked.
"He didn't make us do anything, Dad. We volunteered."
"Why?" Ellen turned up her hands. "You were only, what, sixteen at the time? Why would you want to get involved in a war at sixteen?"
"Because Muggle-borns like me were at the top of Voldemort's hit list, along with all Muggles. I wasn't gonna just sit back and wait for him to come get me, especially after he murdered a Hogwarts student at the Tri-Wizard Tournament."
"What?" She jerked in shock. "A student was killed when you were at Hogwarts? You never told us this."
"I know. Because if I did, you would have freaked out."
"Jimmy, this was serious," Douglas said. "If some psychotic wizard killed one of your classmates, I think we'd have a right to know."
"Okay, maybe, Dad. But at the time, I didn't want to tell you because I was afraid you wouldn't let me go back to Salem."
"Well you'd be right about that," Ellen said. "There's no way I would have let you go back to school with that monster killing people." Paralysis gripped her for a moment. "My God. That was it."
"What was it?" A quizzical look came over Douglas' face.
"When we picked up Jimmy in London. I thought all those wizards and witches were worried about something. That was it, wasn't it?" She looked at her son. "That's what they were so worried about. That student who died."
Jimmy nodded. "Yeah. His name was Cedric Diggory. Just wrong guy, wrong place, wrong time."
Ellen slumped back in her chair. "So . . . so you were some sort of spy for Headmaster Dumbledore your last year at Salem?"
"That was the plan. But some stuff happened and I got a little more . . . involved in the fighting."
Her chest tightened. "What do you mean?"
She sat there, wide-eyed, as Jimmy told her and Douglas about an exchange student from Hogwarts infecting Salem with a potion that magnified people's jealousy a hundred-fold, to the point it caused a massive brawl at a school dance. Icy needles crept up her spine as she heard about Jimmy, Rosa, Jared, Artimus and this British woman Tonks fighting Death Eaters in Ovenderburg, how Jimmy was almost killed by a Constrictus Curse, how he wound up with a huge shard of ice piercing his calf.
"All of this happened to you, and no one at school told us about it?" Douglas' face reddened.
Ellen's hands crushed the armrests of her chair. She felt her eyes burn with rage. How could Headmistress Esmeralda not tell her some insane girl tried to murder her son?
"So anything else your headmistress didn't tell us?" Douglas' nostrils flared. "Any other near-death experiences you had that she didn't feel important enough to tell us about?"
Jimmy cringed. "Um, actually, yes."
He related another story where he, Rosa, Jared and Artimus were sent to England by Headmistress Esmeralda and, of all people, Liana Diaz. Ellen lost some of the details after that. Shock overwhelmed her. Liana, Jared's mother, a witch she'd come to trust, whom she considered a friend, sent her son to another country to stop American Death Eaters and monsters from joining Voldemort's army.
How could she? How could she endanger my son behind my back?
She forced herself to focus on the rest of Jimmy's story, and received another shock. That Tonks woman had helped him again. Not only helped him, but the two wound up sleeping together!
"Wait, what! How old was this Tonks?"
"Just a few years older than me."
Ellen just blinked, stunned into silence. Why the hell had a woman in her twenties gotten sexually involved with her then seventeen-year-old son!
Jimmy went on about how they had to knock out a pair of trolls to warn the Order of the Phoenix about the magical tunnel to be used to transport Voldemort's American allies to England. Then came their escape from Hogwarts via broom, and being chased by aurors. Ellen's jaw dropped when Jimmy told her how he deliberately rammed into the auror formation, then crashed into the forest. She shivered when he ran down his injuries. Compound fracture, separated shoulder, broken ribs, ruptured spleen.
"My God, Jimmy. You could have been killed!" she nearly screeched.
"Yeah, Mom. I know that. Thankfully, Tonks came back and saved my ass."
"So this Tonks. How long we're you involved with her?"
"Just during that mission. I mean, we stayed good friends after that, but she wound up marrying Professor Lupin, the guy who taught Defense Against the Dark Arts the year before I went to Hogwarts. They . . ." His head lowered. "They both died during the Battle of Hogwarts."
Ellen swallowed as Jimmy's shoulders slumped. Mireet leaned against him, gently rubbing his hand. Tears stung Ellen's eyes, the pain from her son so evident. She felt her anger subside.
Until he started talking about the war.
Even in his sitting position, Jimmy looked like he wanted to curl up in a ball and weep as he spoke. Ellen heard about some monster called a setagotha attacking their camp one night and injuring one of the children Jimmy and his friends were protecting. They took the girl – Holly, he said was her name – to the healer of a nearby magical village. But the healer refused to help for fear of Death Eaters finding out about it.
"So I grabbed the guy's daughter and . . ." Jimmy trembled. "I threatened to use a Torture Curse on her."
"What?" Ellen blurted.
"You what?" Douglas said at the same time.
"I wouldn't have really used it."
"Jimmy." Ellen placed a hand over her heart. "My God, a little girl. How could you . . . what could have possessed you to . . ."
"I didn't want to. But . . . but Holly was dying, the healer wouldn't help us. I-I . . . I didn't know what else to do! I'm sorry, but I had to save Holly."
Ellen drowned in a pool of disbelief. How could her son have done something like that? He was a good, caring young man. He would never even consider hurting a child.
What did that war do to him?
Just when she thought she couldn't be any more horrified, Jimmy told her about a raid he led on a Death Eater supply base, and how he used a curse to suffocate a witch to death. In another battle, he wound up one-on-one with his old classmate Merak Mather, who'd become a Death Eater. Stripped of his wand, Jimmy had picked up a rock and used it to beat Mather to death.
Ellen used both hands to cover her mouth. Tears slid down her cheek. She glanced across the room at Douglas, who just gaped at their son. Their son who had actually killed people.
My God . . . My God.
She still couldn't fully comprehend that fact when Jimmy started talking about the nightmares he'd had since the war ended. That didn't come as a complete surprise, considering the way he'd acted when he returned home.
"Did . . . did the nightmares stopped when you left for Indiana?" she asked in a hushed, hopeful voice.
Her insides collapsed when Jimmy shook his head. He told her that the nightmares and flashbacks got worse, to the point he started drinking . . . a lot.
"To put it bluntly, Mom, Dad. I became an alcoholic."
More tears streamed from Ellen's eyes. She also noticed the distress in her husband's face before he slowly rubbed a hand over his forehead.
Then came another surprise. Jimmy's drinking had gotten him mixed up with some underage girls who convinced him to buy beer for them, and he got arrested!
It was almost too much to bear. Her son, her only son, a killer, an alcoholic, and a felon!
Thankfully, Jimmy didn't wind up in jail, as Rosa's mother had gone to Indiana to use her magic to make the police forget about his crime.
And Adelaide never bothered to tell us about this?
Why tell us anything anyway? We're just useless, insignificant Muggles to those people.
Mouth agape, she listened as Jimmy told her about the night Mireet came to see him in Fort Wayne. He'd been drunk, and he went into a rage, to the point he actually considered hitting her for a fleeting second, when she started pouring his beer down the sink.
"That's when it hit me." Jimmy shook his head. "That's when I realized I was completely messed up. I just . . . I just fell on the floor, crying like a newborn baby, hating myself for what I'd turned into. Thankfully, Mireet's been helping me through this. I hadn't had a drink since that night, and Lord knows there've been a few times when I really felt I needed one. I got back in touch with Rosa and Jared and Artimus. I don't hate myself any more. I am pissed off that I let things get this bad, that I let my pride get the better of me and didn't ask anyone for help. That's why I wanted to see you. I shut you out of so many parts of my life for the past five years, and I felt it was time to come clean. You're my parents. I love you guys. I just thought you had the right to know everything I've been through."
Ellen didn't move. She just stared at Jimmy, digesting everything he'd told her and Douglas. How could this have happened to her son? How could he turn out like this? They may not be the perfect family. What family is? But Jimmy had always been fairly level-headed. He had a good sense of right and wrong. He knew enough to avoid situations where he could get into serious trouble, as in go to jail or wind up in rehab trouble.
Until now.
She continued staring at Jimmy. Just three years ago he had been a confident young man with a terrific, albeit at times biting, sense of humor. Now . . . my God, she couldn't find a hint of that Jimmy O'Bannon.
What happened to my son!
Tears blurred her vision. Slowly, she pushed herself out of the chair.
"Ellen? Ellen, are you okay?"
She ignored her husband and shuffled out of the living room and down the hallway until she reached the office. She closed the door and let the tears fall freely. Her watery eyes took in the framed photos on top of the desk, the filing cabinets and bookshelves. Normal photos. Ones that didn't move. Ones that showed Jimmy as he had been. Before the war. Before she ever knew that crazy magical world even existed.
Ellen picked up a photo of Jimmy at seven-years-old, in his red and white Little League uniform, smiling as he rested a baseball bat on his shoulder. He looked so sweet and happy and innocent.
How could the little boy in this photo turn into the young man now sitting on her living room couch?
The door creaked open. Ellen turned around, expecting to see Douglas.
Her jaw clenched when she saw Mireet Miradeaux standing in the doorway.
"Mrs. O'Bannon. I just wanted to see if you were all ri-"
"You did this to him."
Mireet blinked in confusion. "I'm sorry?"
"He was supposed to go to Salem to learn about being a wizard. That was it. But then you magical people made him fight your damn war. You turned my son into a killer. Now look at him! Look what you did to him!"
"Mrs. O'Bannon, please." Mireet held up a hand and stepped closer to her.
"I trusted you! You and that headmistress and Liana and Adelaide! I trusted you to look after my son. But what did you do instead? You trained him to kill people. How could you betray my trust like that!
"Mrs. O'Bannon, we never -"
"Get out! I've had it with you damn witches and wizards! Get out!"
Head lowered, Mireet stepped back through the archway and closed the door.
Ellen clutched Jimmy's Little League photo to her chest and sobbed.
TO BE CONTINUED