Sorry for the long wait, I've been pretty busy with uni. I had an oral exam today and I think me and my partner passed it, but we'll see, and next week I'll be busy working on a project and then I have the end-exam for this course (statistics and probability). But I've got the weekend free and I will try to write and post as much as possible (hope you don't mind being bombarded with this).
Also I've become a member of Archive Of Our Own and will be posting this series there as well, but I'll try to update the wikia with every new set of chapters that I put up there, so it will take some time to post all of the chapters there. But yeah, just so you know :)
"Get the others to come here", Indira ordered. "We'll close the café and hold a meeting here. If Godric had his phone with him our numbers should be among his contacts, so we might get called to the hospital. In that case..."
"What the hell is going on?" the blonde woman exclaimed, making the four friends turn and acknowledge the presence of their two customers.
"You know that man?" the one with the pixie cut demanded to know. "The one in the accident? Is his name Godric?"
"Godric?" her blonde friend asked. "As in Godric Gryffindor?"
"Okay, this is going to get complicated", Rachel said and ran a hand through her hair.
"I don't think we have time to explain anything right now", Arianne said. "Just... could you two just... trust us that everything's going to be alright?"
The blonde opened her mouth to object, but a sharp glare from the other woman made her close it again.
"Fine", she muttered.
"Just tell us what we need to do", the woman with the pixie cut said.
"At the moment it'd probably be for the best if you two stayed calm and didn't freak out when the rest of our gang suddenly shows up here", Rowan replied. He had just gotten off the phone with Ella and it did not take long before people started appearing seemingly out of nowhere all around the café. As apparition was required to get there they arrived in groups, clinging onto Toby, Catriona, Ella or Wolfgang, as they were the only ones with an aptitude for the subject. The two women not part of the group stared at them.
"That was absolutely terrible!" Jade said, leaning against one of the chairs as she tried to catch her breath. "How can you guys go through that so easily?"
"Apparently Jade is part of the group that experiences nausea when going through an apparition", Wolfgang remarked.
"What's happening with Godric?" Maryse asked. "Rowan said it was..."
"Urgent?" Indira suggested. "Bad? Worse than anything we could have anticipated?"
"Something like that", Toby replied, gazing out the window. "Why did he crash?"
Indira glanced at Rachel, who looked equally conflicted about the whole thing.
"You're not going to like it, Toby", the Indian girl said. Toby narrowed his eyes at her.
"I like not knowing why he crashed without there being any obvious reason for it even less."
"Zelena", Rachel said after taking a deep breath. Toby visibly paled and spun around to look out the window again.
"Impossible", he then said. "She's in Storybrooke, or possibly still left in the Enchanted Forest. She cannot be here."
"No, but one of her monkeys is", Arianne explained.
"That's also impossible; there were no portals open."
"Actually", Clarissa said, "Emma told me that there was a monkey here. She was dating it."
"Wait, she had no memories of the Enchanted Forest and she was dating a flying monkey?" Chris asked with a frown.
"It took human shape", Clarissa explained. "Emma did not find out about the fact that he wasn't a human until she had regained her memories and told him that she was leaving to help her family; then it changed shape and attacked her."
"So Zelena stationed a monkey here to keep Emma away from Storybrooke?" Catriona summarized.
"Who's Zelena?" the blonde asked, unable to keep silent any longer.
"Sorry, who are you two?" Wolfgang asked.
"I'm Laura", the woman with the pixie-cut responded, then pointed at the blonde. "That's my sister, Blaire. And I think there's quite a lot more to this café than we first thought."
"Well, you got that right", Rachel sighed. "I promise; we'll explain everything as soon as possible, but right now..."
"How did Ollivander take it?" Rowan asked. He kept his voice quiet as he spoke to Clarissa, but somehow everyone still heard it.
"Ollivander?" Blaire exclaimed. "You people are..."
"Silencio", Indira said, drawing her wand and pointing it at the blonde. The woman kept moving her mouth, then realized that no sound was coming out of it anymore and promptly shut it. Her sister, Laura, stared at her, then turned to look at the rest of them.
"That's... not supposed to be possible", she said.
"I think that qualifies as a definition of everything we've experienced in the last year", Toby said, "and remove that spell at once, Indira; there are rules against such magic."
"In the books, yes", Indira agreed, "but we're not in the books."
"Just remove it", Toby ordered, his voice uncharacteristically sharp. Indira blinked at him before she shrugged and flicked her wand again, undoing the silencing spell.
"Now", Toby continued, "we need to figure out what is going on here. Again. Godric's being taken to hospital and some of us have to either follow the ambulance there or answer a call from his phone that asks us to come there. I think you all know why we can't go down there right now."
"I'm not quite sure about that", Jade admitted.
"Because if that monkey's still around he might realize we're allied with Godric", Ella clarified, "and come after us too."
"And leaving the café out of it all would be a good idea", Miranda agreed. "It's a safe house as of now, hopefully."
"Precisely", Toby said. "Now, who's the last person whom Godric called, or who called him?"
"I called him twice this morning", Maryse said.
"Once right before lunch", Chris announced.
"Anyone else?" Toby asked and looked around. No one replied, causing him to nod.
"Maryse and Chris are probably the most likely candidates if the hospital is to call one of us, then. Even if they don't you should still head there; pretend to be relatives or something like that."
"Maryse should work as a relative; you've got about the same kind of hair", Tessa said.
"I don't know if I should see that as a compliment or not", Maryse admitted, "but right now it might be a good thing."
"But won't they check those things?" Miranda asked. "They do check their files for relatives, right?"
"Not if we destroy the files."
Everyone turned around to look at Blaire.
"I've faked these things before", she continued, taking a step forward. "IDs, family trees, records..."
"Wait, you've been a criminal for how long?" Laura asked, frowning at her sister.
"You and mum wouldn't give me permission for anything, so I created them", Blaire replied with a shrug. "Point is I can help."
"You mean you can hack into a person's hospital file and change things there?" Arianne asked. The corners of Blaire's red lips turned upwards in a smile.
"Piece of cake."
"Alright, do what you can do", Toby said. "Filipi, Tessa and Wolf, you help her get what she needs."
The trio nodded, then escorted Blaire into the backroom of the café. The others could hear her surprised gasp when she realized that the kitchen was nonexistent.
"I'd suggest Maryse and Chris, and possibly someone else who wants to go to the hospital, head back to the hotel and start from there if they're called", Ella said. "The less activity around here the better if we want it to remain a safe house."
"You guys are staying at a hotel?" Laura asked.
"Well, sort of", Clarissa replied. "It's located inside a hotel, but it's not really part of it."
"You've read the Harry Potter-books, haven't you?" Rachel asked. Laura nodded.
"Of course I have."
"And a Fidelius Charm, does that mean anything to you?"
Laura's eyes widened.
"Seriously?" she asked.
"As serious as we could ever be", Jade answered with a grin. "Do you want to come?"
"I can?"
"We should all head back there", Toby said. "That goes for those of you in the kitchen as well!"
"It's not a kitchen, you know", Blaire said, popping her head out through the door, "so no point in calling it that."
"Very interesting", Toby sarcastically replied. "Let's continue that discussion later."
Then with a series of pops the group left the café, leaving no trace of it having been in use that day other than Blaire's half-empty cup of coffee on the table by the window.
Chapter 14 coming in a little bit as well!
