Chapter IX

"The Glidestorm Sorcerer"

(August 31, 2011)

Three weeks had passed and it was on that very day when Winter finally found the missing wand, the wand stolen by Mort, the wand called Glidestorm. The strange thing was that, Luis Lester Levyrienthine has it, and he's using it during the transfiguration class. Winter felt intensely angry thinking that his uncle's wand has been on somebody else's possession, especially to the second cousin of Mort. Winter told Sphintrrix and asked for his help to take the wand. Even if Sphintrrix realized how hard work must be done, since Lester is in Ravenclaw, in the first place and not in Slytherine, neither that they didn't know much about each other, still he promised Winter a help. It was late in the afternoon when the idea struck sphintrrix like a spark of lightning. He told Winter to meet him at the edge of the forbidden forest before 8 in the evening, and none other thing or instruction he said to Winter.

After the Muggle Studies class ended, Lester went to the restroom. In the front door he saw Sphintrrix pointing his wand at him and put a sleeping spell on him. The next thing he knew was that he lay on the floor slept for just about a minute, found his bag and check if something's missing... When he finally made up his mind that that Lestrange was just making fun of him, he directly went to Ravenclaw common room and took his Defense Against the Dark Arts book to study, he placed his wand on the top his bed and opened the book on the first chapter. At the first page of the book he saw a piece of parchment with an untidy black inscriptions saying;

"Good evening, Mr. Levy...

I hope you're not offended about the Sleeping Spell,

But we just have a few questions for you...

To be sure that you'll come, I took your real wand with me.

Meet us at the edge of the Forbidden Forrest..."

Yours,

S. Lestrange =0)

Lester quickly looked at the wand on his bed, he took it and placed near lamp, then suddenly melted into a brownish fluid that seemed to be a chocolate... "Crap!" he screamed at the empty room. Jonathan Lockjoe, went inside the room and asked what happened, but Lester didn't tell him, the only thing came from his mouth was Weasley's Wizard Wheezes' Fake Wands!.

Lester waited a few hours, and those hours seemed to torture him with worries and anger. When the chronometer finally nailed the VIII sign on the center top and found that everyone's already asleep, Lester quickly grabbed his robes wore it on and descended from the Hogwarts castle. The air was damp and cold, but his anger made him warm and walk faster, he travelled down to the edge of the forbidden forest with the aid of his Lumielle, a crystal ball that glows and brings light when dark. When he reached the first rows of giant oaks, he paused and listened to every unfamiliar sound, he took a successive sniffs as if trying to smell some unfriendly odors.

"Lumos!" A voice came with the gleam of the ball of light on the distance. He walked towards it and two human figures materialized in his view. The Lestrange guy, with his spiky hair and black tattered robes that made him look like a dementor for a quick glimpse, his holding his wand with the light on the tip of it. In his left side was a shorter boy, with a wavy hair that makes his head looks bigger and unproportional to his skinny body. Then he identified his face, the boy was Paul's fraternal twin.

"Good Evening, Mr. Levy!" Sphintrrix greeted with a smile, but the boy Lester didn't seemed to have a nice evening, in fact he looks more like being exhausted from a walk.

"Where's my wand?" The boy growled. His stare suddenly fell on Winter's left hand holding his own wand. The Lumielle's light died out after he placed it on his pocket and continued to interrogate the two.

"Just what exactly do you need from me?" Lester's voice never showed any sign of fear or uneasiness even for the fact that he doesn't have a wand and the two guys he's confronting has three, too much to kill him with just one single curse.

"This..." Winter replied and took one step forward. He raised his left hand, with Lester's wand.

"Are you trying to play tricks on me?" Lester's voice had grown more furious. He was already on the tip of his patience, but he took a deep breath and proposed an idea. "Alright, hand me my wand, and nothing's happened this evening..."

"No!" Winter shouted. "This is mine! You stole it."

Lester approached him quickly and attempted to snatch the wand from his wand, but was too late, his left hand with Lester's own wand was already pointing at him with a severe determination on his face. Lester finally felt the urge to be serious in facing the guys.

"How dare you, point my own wand at me!?" Lester enraged.

Winter felt stupid threatening Lester with the Glidestorm wand rather than the acquiflux which he's currently using in school. The wand felt heavy and slippery in Winter's grip, probably because of his sweaty palms. He tried to adjust his grip but suddenly a thin ray of yellowish light burst out from the tip of the wand and struck Lester's Left cheek, creating a diagonal cut. Winter felt nervous and quickly lowered his wand down. Winter wanted to apologize but the gleam of the fresh droplet of blood stole his courage to speak.

Lester grew angrier than a while ago. He breathed heavily, Lester stared at Winter violently, that Winter fancied that his both eyes were burning... But Lester's eyes did really glow, his pupils strangely, started to contract until it became into a tiny black slit on a bluish, color-changing, irises. White whiskers started to grow rapidly on his face just as the sharp claw dispatching from his fingers. Just a few seconds and the man named Lester turned into a huge white cat, striped with black. Sphintrrix grabbed Winter and together they run away from the beast, deeper in the forest.

"Just what the heck did happen to him?!" Winter asked Sphintrrix while running.

"Well, it seems that our dear friend there is a metamorphmagus." Sphintrrix answered gasping.

"What the heck?"

"We can talk later, just keep on-" Sphintrix looked back and saw the huge albino tiger chasing them. Sphintrrix was mindlessly running without looking on the path. He didn't noticed the low branch which he bumped with, and stumbled down against the damp ground, his wand bounced away on the foot of a fern infested tree. Winter stopped running after a few inertial steps and looked back at Sphintrrix, lying on the ground as though he's on his whimsical status of being drunk.

"Don't bother! Keep running!" Sphintrrix ordered just before Winter could get closer to him. "Just find my wand," Sphintrrix Requested. Winter was struck dumb and confused what to do. The white tiger was already looming in the distant darkness.

"Whe-where is it!" Winter asked.

"There- Somewhere in the bunch of centipede plant!"

"What?!"

"I said in the centipede plant!"

"Why won't you just stand there in show me where the heck is that centipede plant you're talking about!"

"I can't... my leg was cramping. Just find it there!"The conversation was very fast that they didn't realize they were already shouting at each other. Winter looked at the direction where Sphintrrix was pointing, and realized that the centipede plant he's talking about was the ferns.

"This is called ferns! Not centipede."Winter mumbled, while scanning the thick ferns, luckily he found the Voltstring and looked at Sphintrrix, "I'll just-" before he could finish talking, Sphintrrix ordered him to run away and just keep his wand with him.

"Lumos!" Winter cast the spell and the point of his wand glowed. He stood up and started to run again, his legs seems to be confused whether to return back to Sphintrrix or continue running away from the approaching Animagus. It's almost funny to think that he is running away from a single metomorphmagus knowing he was armed with three wands, but thinking in the midst of dominating terror seems to be difficult to be properly done. While Winter was running, he noticed that the light from his wand was almost dying out for certain reason. He nervously looked at it. He didn't see the large protruding root on the path that his legs where leading him to, he tripped off from it and stumbled against the solid ground, his arm collided with something solid which stole away his grip from his wand. His wand fell off followed by the other two and together the three wands settled on the ground criss-crossed. The white tiger, Lester, came roaring and paused in just a few meters from Winter as he lay motionless and grinning with pain on his arm. He turned and saw the tiger, walking towards him. Its slavering teeth are as white as its fur. As this was happening, the three wands started to glow, each with different colors. The Voltsting is glowing fiery red, the Glidestorm, yellowish light, and the Aquiflux, neon blue. Winter became preoccupied with the wands that he forgot about Lester the Tiger. The white tiger stepped upon his left hand and continued to walk towards the wands without thinking why it was glowing. The tiger took the Glide storm using its mouth. It walked lazily backwards and started to stand with its hind legs, as the tiger did it, its head transformed back to a head whose features represents a young wizard in a suppressed annoyance mood. Its front legs started to turn back into arms and lastly its hind legs turned into that of a human. The tiger had fully turned back into the Lester they are more used to perceive. He is taller than Winter, he has a short black hair and a pale complexion. His bodystructure is of an athlete who sometime makes Winter and Sphintrrix think that he is an overqualified member of the Banelocks. Lester took the wand from his mouth, the details of the wand looks grimier in the faint glow of the place and the motionless shadows. The wand's handle design which looked like worms or strange entangled roots seemed to slither under Lester's grip. He waved his wand and out from nothingness emerged a robe which cloaked itself to his body. He turned around and raised his wand, light exploded out from the tip of his wand and showed some details of the place including a Winter who's fainting yet slowly trying to stand up.

"You'll pay for this, you know?" Lester finally spoke, and his voice sounds as terrible as it was magnified by the silence of the place into growling echoes. Winter was finally facing Lester, he was holding his left arm as it sting with pain and little needles started to dance all over it.

"That is my wand!" Winter bravely replied and was replicated by the shadows. He continued speaking in a more calm tone; "Your cousin Mort, stole it from the library, the day you visited the house."

"He may be. I don't know. I saw Mort using this wand and only offered his mess in their manor. He tried to destroy this but I asked him if I could try it."

"That is left to me by my late Uncle. That is still mine!"

There was a brief pause before Lester made another counter.

"Not this time Versyrick, and as I have told you, you'll pay for this." Lester raised his wand, pointing on Winter's direction. Winter closed his eyes for despair and only thought of his beloved uncle. This would hurt a lot, he thought.

"Agitus incantatum!" Lester roared. There came a flash of orange light and an explosion, followed by weak trembling of the ground. After casting the spell, he lowered his wand down and went away, back to the castle. Winter opened his eyes and turned to were the bellowing was coming from. Just a few meters behind him lay a huge creature with sing long hairy legs and multiple glimmering red eyes. It was lying on a huge oak, motionless except for one leg which was twitching violently. The other legs started to twitch when Sphintrrix came limping.

"What happened? Where's the bad Cheetah?" He asked innocently. A shrug was Winter's reply to it, as his eyes where fixated on the huge creature slowly on its legs. Sphintrrix looked at the direction from where the creature was almost standing tall in front of them.

"Wooohhhoow! Wwwoooohwait! What is that?" Sphintrrix looked back at Winter and back to the creature. "Did that thing swallowed the poor Lester?" He asked with awe and pure disappointment.

"That's an Acromantula." Winter whispered.

"A what? You're kidding me, it's a spider!"

"It is... Now slowly get your wand and let's move out of here." Winter ordered as he slowly picked the wands. The Acromantula bellowed and started to stomp one of its legs and almost struck Sphintrrix. Because of an abrupt terror, he grabbed Winter's right hand and (luckily not the wounded left,) and they run as fast as they could. The Acromantula chased them.

"THAT was a SPIDER!" Sphintrrix shouted with horror.

"It is!"

"But aren't they supposed to be tiny? I mean really tiny?"

Winter became so annoyed and stopped, he raised his wand, pointed it towards the Acromantula as it crawls towards them. Sphintrrix stopped after a few steps and turned back to Winter.

"Now don't tell me it's your pet and you'll bring that spidy with us!" Sphintrrix commented seriously.

"Petrificus Totallus!" Wenter cast the spell and the Acromantula froze from its position. Winter kept his wand and continued to walk back to the path leading them to the castle as Sphintrrix followed quietly.

As they reached the edge of the forbidden forest, Sphintrrix felt so uneasy with Winter, knowing that he reached his level of annoyance. Sphintrrix started to talk about the wand to break the dead air between them;

"He took the Glidestorm back, did he?"

"In the most unfortunate incident, yes he did." Winter sadly replied. Which Sphintrrix least expected. He sighed and continued to cheer him up.

"Well, maybe Lester the Tiger, is the Glidestorm sorcerer."

"The what?"

"The Glidestorm Sorcerer. The owner of the glidestorm? Shouldn't we just be happy with that, be happy for the wand at least?"

"And how did you know it's called the "Glidestorm?"

"Well, you see, I have used it once, yet it didn't choose me. And yeah, I know, even if Uncle O. Doesn't talk that much with me, I loved to sneak and listen to your wondrous conversations, including the stories which he used to tell you." Sphintrrix paused and took ah deep breath. Winter stopped and looked at Sphintrrix. "I'm just sad that he's really gone."

"Me too. Maybe he wouldn't like to see us having our faces sag on the floor because of his death won't he?" Now it was Winter's time to cheer Sphintrrix.

"Yeah, that would probably right."

Sphintrrix and Winter continued to walk towards the entrance of the castle, both light-hearted despite the constant stings on certain parts of their bodies.

When the two walked down the corridor leading to the common rooms, Winter and Sphintrrix were shocked to see Mr. Daemon Von Detritus, standing with a stern expression, under the silhouette of shadow, as though he was expecting a bad new from the two. Winter was speechless and couldn't find words to say. Bad ideas started to sprout from his mind. Ideas like being punished in imprisonment in the underground chambers and being expelled in particular.

"Good evening Professor." Sphintrrix greeted with severe confidence.

"This is your first year in Hogwarts, and yet you made an impressive violation of one of the school rules." The Professor pointed out sternly as his facial expression loomed clearer from the shadows." He stared at Sphintrrix and then to Winter. "You are lucky enough to get out alive. Thirty Points demerit for Slytherin and as well as for Griffindor." Sphintrrix's mouth dropped and couldn't say anything." Now follow me." The professor commanded. Winter and Sphintrrix was really devastated with that proclamation that they just followed the professor without any word at all. Both of them thought so much about punishments; Winter continued with his dungeon tortures, while Sphinttrix thought about being jailed in Azkhaban, never thinking that it was too much for a punishment for a school rule violation. If there was something common in their horrible imaginings, it was their parents being disappointed with them and the idea that they both will never be in the school forever after. With such mental tortures, they did not notice that they already arrive in the front door of the place where Professor Detritus led them. Sphintrrix bumped at the professor and Winter bumped at Sphintrrix, and caused a very painful sting on his left arm and basically pulled him back from the present situation. The professor knocked at the door, and it opened in just a few minutes with the man with pleasant facial features, far opposite from the professor, as he was in his white uniform.

"Oh! Good Evening Professor! What may I help you?" The man politely said. Sphintrrix and Winter looked at the man and realized that it was Mr. Celdric Curespeak, the school doctor. When he saw the two he greeted them as well, and the two students politely greeted him back.

"Good evening. Mr. Blackthorn here needs a few skin-stitches I suppose, and a rest."

"Oh! Well please come in! What happened?"

"Long story" Winter commented.

Professor Detritus turned to the two students behind. "Mr. Blackthorn, it would be better for you to make that arm be fixed. And to you Mr. Lestrange, you may go to the Slytherin Common room after Mr. Curespeak checked if there isn't any of your body part is missing." The professor walked away leaving them behind.

The two students entered the hospital room and talked about what the Professor did.

"I think he isn't that bad after all." Sphintrrix said after Mr. Curespeak has finally declared that he's fine in the common room."

"But he still gave our houses Demerits, even if he's the head of Slytherin!" Winter contradicted.

"Sorry." Mr. Curespeak apologized absentmindedly.

"Well, now that you brought that up, I think I'll go ahead. All the Slytherins would be buzzing if they'll find my bed empty."

"A'right! See you tomorrow."

"We'll see." Sphintrrix replied and said goodbye to the Doctor. Before Winter reached for the door knob, he turned back at Winter and left another thought; "You know? I think it was a joke. What do you think?"

"What do you mean?" Winter was puzzled.

"Well, the last thing that Professor Detritus said before he left. I think that was a little funny. Right?"

Winter shrugged. "I don't know."

"Well anyway, I'll be going..." Sphintrrix opened the door and went out.

Time seemed to crawl lazily in the shadows of the night compared to that of the Acromantula that has chased them for real a little while. Winter felt more comfortable with the bed and the silence of the hospital yet drowsiness seemed to be a distant away from him. Perhaps, it's the thinking that kept him awake.

Lester is more probably the new master of the wand. Luis Lester Levyrienthine from Ravenclaw owns the Gladestorm now. Winter thought. There was a part of him which wanted to accept the fact yet on the other was a contradictory thought and severe doubts. What if he's not? Winter whispered yet another thought and question came in his restless mind: Besides wands normally go with their true masters in the grave. But how come they search for another masters?

Winter fell asleep without the recollection of drowsiness. He was visited by an unlikely dream that was innocuous enough that even when he woke up, he almost believed it.

He stood motionless under the Petrificus spell, with Sphintrrix and Lester. Their wands where taken from them by a figure whose seemed to be cloaking with a crimson mist. Its eye glimmer in the shadows as it stood in a huge ring of crimson flame and was conjuring a spell that was entirely new and long while having grotesque gesticulation. Sphintrrix suddenly gained movement and walked forward bringing another boy with him, Winter couldn't identify who it was or any resemblance of the boy to his classmates or any other acquaintances. He held the boy with his right and the strange figure gave him a dagger which Sphintrrix used to open the palm of the boy and pulled out the bones within it.

"That's it, my child..." It said. The boy shrieked with excruciating pain...

Then Winter woke up gasping with air.