Chapter Two
The Hideout

"The Dark Mark," Mike muttered, as he came over to Kelly Anne.
"Hey, what if this was their hideout?" said Sarah. "It looks like He had supporters even here."
"You-know-who?" said Kelly Anne.
"His closest ones were in Britain. The ones who escaped the Ministry here were said to have fled back there," said Mike knowledgeably. "We should get out of here. It gives me the creeps."
"Do you think we should tell anyone?" said Kelly Anne.
"No, we'd be in so much trouble. We're breaking the law right now already, being on this side of the mountain. Besides, it's not that big of a deal. After all, it's not like they're coming back anyway," said Sarah. "Let's just go and forget about it all-" but she stopped, hearing dull clunk echo loudly outside the hole where they entered.
"What was that?" she whispered.
"Almost go' it," they could hear a voice say gruffly as if through a wall. "Just hope nobady's in there that we haff to kill..."All three stood motionless and silent, color draining from their faces. Fear burned in Sarah's stomach as she heard another dull clunk. "Let's get outta here, quick!" she whispered quickly to them, and they nodded. Quickly they climbed down the rope ladder, and back down the path from which they had came. They heard a third dull clunk echo threateningly at them, and they quickened their pace. The fourth clunk was the last, followed by the sound of huge rocks falling and hitting the ground on the path behind them. It was the fissure that had been caved in with rocks, they had seen earlier.
"Ah! Found it, Diego!" they heard the gruff voice say outside.
"Great, work, Duran. He will be pleased."
Sarah looked over at Kelly Anne and Mike, who looked too terrified to talk. "Let's go!" she whispered, and they came back to their senses. They ran as fast as they could, hearing the people climbing in over the rocks, and then "Hurry up, Duran, I haven't got all day you know!"
They ran faster than ever, trying not to trip on any rocks or anything to catch the stranger's attention. Finally they reached the entrance where they had entered, and launched towards their brooms, which they had left there basking in the sun. They mounted and looked back.
"Hey! Who are those kids?" a voice echoed towards them.
"Who knows," said another voice. "Kill 'em anyways."
Sarah glanced and saw the outline of a huge man way inside the cavern, jumping in, and then looking sideways at them.
"My ring! I dropped my ring somewhere!" said Kelly Anne suddenly, rubbing her finger nervously. She was about to turn back, but Sarah turned her about.
"What are you crazy, Kelly? GO!" cried Sarah, as she took off into the sky, flying as fast as she could with Kelly Anne and Mike behind her.

They didn't stop flying until they reached the safety of the other side of the mountain. They stopped and landed somewhere in a small mesa, and all three exchanged glances with each other, not knowing what to say. They had just found a death eaters hideout, or it must have been, and had not known that death eaters had even come to their city of Hillcrest.
It was Mike who had broken their silence. "Should we tell anyone?"
"I don't know," said Sarah. "We shouldn't have even gone in there."
"But what about what we found? They won't care if we should have or shouldn't have been in there," said Mike. "Someone should know about it, Sarah."
"First of all, we shouldn't have found that, period," said Sarah, glancing at the mountains. "Second, since we did find it, we put ourselves in danger when we explored it. Third, we broke the frickin' law there! Muggles could've seen us! We could've been in danger in the mountains and nobody there to help us. Those men that broke through could've caught us. We could've stumbled upon some dark magic and awakened it. That's what the grown-ups will be yelling at us, Mike. We'll all get into some pretty deep trouble, and gee, Mike, I'd love to tell them the truth and get into trouble like you do, but it's not going to look good when I go to Hogwarts in September."
Mike went silent. Taking away the rest of his summer was the last thing he wanted.
"What do we do then? I can't just leave my ring back there," said Kelly Anne abruptly.
"You're still going on about that stupid ring?" cried out Mike.
"My dad gave that to me. Said it cost a pretty Galleon for it, and if I ever lost it he'd probably disown me! And what's more, he'll wonder where I lost it," Kelly Anne yelled back at him. It was the first time Sarah had ever seen Kelly Anne snap at Mike like that, and she stood staring at her friend in wonder. Shaking her head, she looked back at the mountains and then at each of them.
"We'll go back tomorrow, when those other guys are gone, and get it back, and then no one will ever know what we saw or what we did. Alright?"

Kelly Anne and Mike went home before the end of the day. Sarah's family and relatives were going to have a big barbecue that night for dinner, and they were planning to have it at the nearby park. All twenty-three cousins there, and none of them was a girl or a boy her age that she could actually have a decent conversation with; Alex wasn't exactly talkative at the moment. Actually, all he ever did was stare, which caused Sarah to be a little anxious.
So she sat drinking coke on a park bench next to a group of her much older cousins who were at least eighteen or twenty, talking about how their lives are so far since they've graduated from school.
"How about you, Sarah?" asked one of her cousins, Jake.
"What about me? I haven't graduated," said Sarah.
"We know, but you're going to Hogwarts aren't you?" said another cousin, Tonya. Sarah nodded.
"What are you going to do as soon as you graduate?"
Sarah looked thoughtful a moment, and then replied. "I dunno, I haven't really thought about that," she told them.
"Well, you'd better decide soon, huh? You've only got- what, three more years left of school?" said Jake.
"Anyone for a game of Quidditch?" called out one of her oldest cousins walking up with Sarah's brother at his side. Everyone but Sarah, of course, all nodded and shouted with approval. "Joe and I will be team captains. You can choose first, Joe."
"I pick Sarah of course. You know what position to play," said Joe giving Sarah a grin. She was about to tell him that she didn't really feel like playing, but then she saw Alex glaring at her across the park. She nodded, and picked up her broom.

The next day, Sarah, Kelly Anne and Mike set out in the afternoon to the other side of the mountain to retrieve Kelly Anne's ring. Cautiously they looked in to make sure that no one was there and started to retrace their steps through the caverns.
"We should stay close to each other, just in case," Sarah warned, taking out her wand and lighting it. She saw Mike shiver and look around anxiously.
"I just want to get out of here as soon as possible," said Mike. "I've got a bad feeling about this place."
"We went this way," Kelly Anne pointed into the darkness of the cave. Sarah wasn't sure they were even in the right cave at first. It seemed to look a lot gloomier than it had yesterday. A chill ran through it that hadn't been there before. She looked up and along the walls of the cavern, seeing the familiar Indian paintings.
They walked until they had reached the abrupt wall that loomed before them, the rope ladder dangling against it, leading up to the abandoned Death Eaters hideout.
Sarah stopped, and listened, searching for any indication of movement from above. Finally she declared quietly that she didn't think anyone was up there, and started to climb up the ladder. Kelly Anne and Mike followed after her when she told them it was safe, and appeared behind her in the den. Lighting up their wands too, they started searching around for the missing ring.
Curiosity got the better of Sarah, as she found a wooden crate plied open. She looked inside and found only battered old books that had lain in the wooden crate for years, covered with a layer of dust and cobwebs. And something else that was oddly familiar lying next to the crate; a two headed Muggle coin with a hole right in the middle. Pocketing the coin, she reached into the crate, brushed the cobwebs aside, and pulled out one of the books.
"I think I've found it! Is this it Kelly Anne?" Mike's voice suddenly echoed from the other side of the den. Sarah absentmindedly stuffed the book into the pocket of her robes, and crossed to the other side of the room to have a better look at the ring that Mike held in his palm. A relieved Kelly Anne nodded, and eagerly shoved the ring back onto her finger.
"Alright, let's get outta here," said Sarah.
Quickly and quietly as possible they descended back down the ladder, and ran back towards the entry of the cavern, wanting to get away as far as possible from the eerie, dismal caverns. When they reached the welcoming light of the outside, and mounted their brooms and took off, without a single stranger in sight.
"Hey Sarah, what do you got in your pocket?" Mike asked as he saw the lump weighing down in the pocket of her robes. For a moment, Sarah stared at him confused and reached into her pocket. She felt the worn leather of the battered old book she had picked up from the crate in the den, and pulled it out showing it to Mike.
"A book I found," she said, shrugging. "I guess I accidentally put it in my pocket. Oh well."
She stuffed the batted, old book back into her pocket, and forgot about it once again, as they approached her house. Waving good-bye to Kelly Anne and Mike as they flew away towards their own homes, she walked through the front doors, and into the festivities of the family reunion that was still going on.
Alex sat staring at her at the bottom of the steps, and Sarah then remembered what else was in her pocket: the two headed Muggle coin with a hole right in the middle. There was only one person she knew who had such a coin...
"You lost this," she said, and flipped the coin at him. He caught it with his right hand automatically, and stared at her as she continued to walk past him. She wondered if he knew where she had found it, and dismissed the thought immediately.

A week later Sarah was laying on her bed, remembering the first day when she went to wizarding school, as she listened to the soft purring coming from her kitten, Din. She smiled, remembering how nervous she was about fitting in. Lucky for her, Kelly Anne and Mike were enrolled in that school too. She remembered how excited she was to finally have a wand; redwood, ten and a half inches long, with dragon heartstring.
She was going to be a fifth year this year, but not at the Academy anymore. A letter was sent to her all the way from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that wanted her to attend there this year. She'd have to leave her friends and school in America to go there. Even though this was practically the best school in the world to go to, this was something that she didn't look forward to too much.
Getting up, she looked around her room, some of the unmoving movie posters still hanging from her walls (she lived near a Muggle city, and got used to doing Muggle things like watching movies and TV and going to the mall, etc.), except for one, given to her by Kelly Anne, of the famous witch band, the Wicked Witch Lady's. By her bed side, there were a couple of doodles she had drawn of her friends, Kelly Anne having a really perky smile and wearing extremely stylish robes while posing like a model, and another of Mike, with a huge toothy grin, and flexing muscles that weren't there. Taped next to the drawings was a photo of Kelly Anne, Mike and Sarah all together, Mike in the middle, being the boy. They all had their arms on each other's shoulders, laughing and smiling, their school in the background.
Sarah yanked the picture off the wall and stared at the smiling, happy, Sarah in the picture. Her hair was dirty blondish brown, and went down to her shoulders. Her cheerful gray eye's stared back at her. That Sarah in the picture had no idea that that was going to be the last year she would ever spend at the Academy.
Looking around her room some more, she saw a bookcase showing dozens of fantasy novels, and little spell books she collected over the years. All her favorite little nick knacks and candles were placed along the shelves above her desk and bookcase. A trunk packed with clothes and her school supplies, not to mention her broom, the Infinity, lying inside it's leather broom case, was sitting near the door, ready to be taken downstairs for tomorrow.
Kelly Anne and Mike were waiting for her outside when she came out to get away from her house.
"It'll be alright, Sarah," said Kelly Anne, smiling, "you like trying new things, remember?"
Sarah didn't look remotely cheered up by this. "At least you're not going to the Salem Witches' Institute," said Mike, and that did cheer her up.
"We can just send owls to each other every day," said Kelly Anne.
"Yeah, and tell me what Quidditch is like down there," said Mike excitedly. "I wonder if it's any different from America." Typical, thought Sarah, trying to look as though she hadn't noticed what Mike said.
"I'll buy you guys something at Hogsmead when we go, and send you my doodles and drawings and letters about what's happened every day," promised Sarah. "But it won't be to interesting reading about me falling asleep in class everyday."
"I doubt you'll be that bored in class," said Mike. "There's rumor that Harry Potter's goes to that school. He's supposed to be in the same year we're in."
"Right," said Sarah, rolling her eyes "and I bet You-Know-Who will be there too."
"Will you stop joking around about You-Know-Who?" cried Mike. Sarah, and Kelly Anne snickered. Seeing Mike ticked off was there way of getting good humor, because he was almost never mad at anything. "It's not funny. What if he hears you, or something, making fun of him? And that cave we found?"
"Shhh!" Kelly Anne and Sarah snapped at him.
"Sorry, its just You-Know-Who's a real physco path-"
"True. I'd go crazy too if I was called that," muttered Sarah. "How ya' doin' You-Know-Who? Hey You-Know-Who, can you pass the potatoes? You-Know-Who, wanna go to the dance with me?" she imitated out loud, moving her arms energetically.
"Will you stop it?" said Kelly Anne laughing. "You're making Mike think!"
It wasn't until the sun went down that Sarah left them, and gloomily walked upstairs to her room. She had to be up tomorrow at three, so that she could get to King's Cross in time. There was a seven-hour difference from London and New Mexico, where she lived, and she needed to be at King's Cross at eleven o'clock for her train to Hogwarts.