The wind howled over them as they made their way along the edge of the forest toward the lake. Buddy believed he could find the place again where he'd lost his wand by the unusual shaped rocks behind which he'd been hiding. As they passed the castle, they could see Gryffindor Tower lit up like a Yule log against the night sky. It seemed everyone inside was wide-awake now. Each window was lit and the boys could make out shadowy silhouettes rushing to and fro inside.
"Aw, no!" Buddy said to himself.
"They must've caught someone up out of bed!" Scorpius yelled above the wind, "They're doing a room check!"
"Well, we're dead, aren't we?" Buddy howled back.
"What do you mean, we?" Scorpius retorted, "They don't have any reason to check OUR dorms!"
"We'll come up with something," Albus assured Buddy, "But you WILL be dead we don't get that wand back!"
"I don't see what the big deal is," Buddy complained as the icy wind began to sting their faces with precipitation, "I'll probably just have to buy a new one out of my pocket money or something!" Scorpius looked outraged.
"What sort of wizard are you anyway?" he demanded, "You can't just lose your wand!"
"Go easy, Scor, he's muggle-born," Albus cautioned, but his expression clearly revealed that even he thought it was a pretty stupid thing to say.
"Well, what happens if we don't find it?" Buddy asked, still struggling to be heard over the wind.
"You have to report it missing and the Department of Magical Object Recovery has to go after it," Albus explained.
"And you get a massive fine," Scorpius interjected, "And if you do it more then once they may take your wand away and give you a restricted wand!"
"Why can't I just get a new one?" Buddy whined.
"Because, you can't just leave them lying around!" Scorpius explained, "I mean, what if a muggle got a hold of it or something?"
"Yeah, I guess so," Buddy agreed reluctantly, "I guess it's kind of like a gun. If you lose it, you gotta report it missing. Otherwise, someone could use it to blow someone's brains out and then you'd get blamed for it." Albus and Scorpius grimaced at the gruesome analogy but nodded their accord.
The surface of the lake was wild with the storm. The extreme wind sent fierce waves crashing against the rocky shore.
"I was right near here when I fell," Buddy informed them, "Look for a big root in the path." Scorpius and Albus lit up their wands as they searched under the bushes. Buddy pulled out a small device that emitted a strange, blue light.
"What is that thing?" Albus asked.
"A mobile phone," Buddy explained, "My mom gave it to me so I could call her, but it doesn't work here. It still lights up and tells time though."
"That's the light I saw in the pumpkin patch," Albus told them, "I thought you were cursing us!" They continued to search up and down the path.
"Hey, you," Scorpius addressed Buddy. Buddy looked up, confused.
"Me?" he asked.
"He has a name," Albus informed Scorpius from the darkness on the other side of the path.
"Buddy, then," Scorpius corrected, "Are you from California?" Buddy blinked.
"No," he said hesitantly, "I'm from Vancouver."
"Oh," Scorpius replied, sounding a little let down.
"I've been to California though," Buddy added, hoping to please him.
"Did you ever ride on one of those long boards? The ones that people ride across the water on?"
"Surfboards?" Buddy asked and Scorpius nodded.
"No," he confessed, "But I've seen people surfing before."
"When I turned eleven, my dad took me and my mum to New Zealand and I saw those boards there. I wanted to try but, of course, my dad wouldn't let me."
"Well, that's not cool," Buddy sympathized, trying to be supportive.
"No," Scorpius disagreed quietly, "I was being stupid. I don't even know how to swim!"
"I can't, either," Albus said, trying to make his friend feel better. Buddy looked amazed.
"But you live on a big island! What would you do if you fell from a boat or something?" Al shrugged.
"I reckon I'd hope and pray someone would fish me out before I drowned. But I don't really go on boats too much. I don't live anywhere near the seaside."
"I do!" Scorpius informed them, "It's about two kilometers from my house to the ocean. Of course, the last forty meters of that is straight down, so it's not exactly popular with the beach-goers." They all snickered.
"Of course, you know who it IS popular with is the jumpers," Scoprius continued. Buddy and Albus looked up from the bushes.
"People go there to jump off?" Albus exclaimed incredulously. Scorpius nodded solemnly.
"On purpose?" Buddy cried, "Don't they get hurt?" Scorpius rolled his eyes.
"Of course they get hurt, they're suicidal!"
"I think I'd move," Albus commented, "Do you remember which side of the path it fell on, Buddy?"
"My mum used to make my dad and I have a walk after dinner. She read in a magazine somewhere that it was healthy. One evening we saw a muggle trying to jump off the cliff, so my dad used a levitation spell to bring him back up. Then he started to scream up at the sky!" Scorpius fell to his knees and his arms and eyes shot heavenward.
"Thank you, Lord!" he cried in imitation of the depressed muggle.
"I bet your dad was glad," Albus said, "He saved that muggle's life!"
"Yeah, but that isn't the main part yet," Scorpius continued, "The next week, the bloke showed up with about twenty other muggles! They stood up there on the cliff side and started wailing and singing." Scorpius put his arms up again and began to sway and moan as the muggle congregation had done.
"Then what happened?" Buddy asked, temporarily forgetting the search for his wand. Scorpius put his hands down and regarded him seriously.
"Then they all leaped over the side like lemmings." Buddy gasped.
"Are you serious?" Scorpius nodded.
"After that my mum didn't think after-dinner-walks were so healthy anymore."
"Merlin's beard!" Albus exclaimed.
"Hey," Buddy said thoughtfully, "How come your dad didn't erase the muggle's memory in the first place?" Scorpius shot Buddy a murderous look.
"Why do you think?" he responded sarcastically.
"I don't have the first clue, why," Buddy retorted, matching Scorpius' sarcasm, "That would be the reason I asked."
"Everyone knows my dad's wand is restricted," Scorpius said coolly.
"I didn't," Buddy explained.
"How much longer is it restricted for?" Albus asked him. Scorpius shrugged.
"Forever."
"What? Why?" Albus asked, sounding surprised.
"No real reason," Scorpius said scornfully, "He goes every year to request that he be removed from restriction. His parole ended almost ten years ago and he's never done anything even slightly questionable, but there's still enough people in the ministry who hate us and they always come up with a reason not to grant him a release."
"But that's not right!" Buddy exclaimed, "Don't they have a law that says how long a person can be restricted?"
"I guess not. Anyway, they are the ones who make up the laws."
"But I bet there is," Albus said brightly, "I could ask my Uncle Percy. He works for the ministry. He's got every law there is memorized. Maybe he could…
"Percy Weasley, you mean?" Scorpius interrupted, "He's the one who signs off on all the random raids on my parents house. You can ask him, but I doubt he would help."
"I'm sorry, mate," Albus said, really feeling quite sorry.
"Well, if that's the way it is, that's the way it is. My dad says that within a year, I'll be able to more spells then him! Speaking of which, why are we grubbing around on the ground?" Scopius held his wand out and cried, "Accio, wand!" Nothing happened.
"You forgot, mate. You can't summon someone else's wand," Albus explained.
"Oh, yeah," Scorpius said sheepishly, "Here." He thrust his own wand into Buddy's hand.
"Accio, wand!" Buddy cried, and the wand came hurtling out of the woods, straight into Buddy's out-stretched mitts.
"Good job," Albus said to them, "Now we just need to sneak back into the castle without getting caught."
"And think of a good excuse why I wasn't in bed tonight," Buddy added.
