Chapter 10: The End and the Beginning

            Jason and Martha woke up, finding each other hugging each other tightly on Jason's bed. 

            "Um… good morning," they said at once, both faced turned into bright scarlet.

            "I think we really should talk about this," Martha said.

            "You're right, we should," said Jason as he tried to untangle himself from Martha.

            Jason gave a long stare out the window, and then, a brilliant conjecture came to his mind.  He quickly leaped out of bed and rummaged through his trunk.

            "So I thought!" he quickly said, "My tennis racket does have magical abilities… it seemed to be able to walk, and last night, I heard footsteps going out of my room…"

            "And the tennis racket isn't here, which means all this time… someone transfigured into a tennis racket… but for what purpose… how does this concern us?" Martha continued.

            "That means, our dreams do have meaning,…" said Jason carefully, but looked at Martha, knowing her nightmares had an intimate relation with her.

            Jason grabbed a sweater, while putting it on Martha said, "Our dream… that might be the dungeon of Hogwarts!"

            "Right!  That means… oh… our parents… we must save our parents!" Jason said.

            "We will Jason, but as they say, patience is a virtue, we should have a good breakfast and be prepare to face such perils!"

            "Martha, you want to be patient at a time like this!"

            "No, Jason, I just… just don't want to take any chances, and I want to plan it out, we should do it over breakfast…"

            "Alright," said Jason as they walked out of the boy's dormitory.  Just then, Jasmine was walking upstairs and saw Martha and Jason walking out. 

All three blushed furiously while Jasmine kept on going, "Oh my Merlin!" over and over again, swiftly walking away as if trying to keep her dignity.

When no one was in earshot, Martha whispered to Jason, "How the hell do we explain… this?"

"We'll tell them the truth, I guess… but when word gets out, they won't believe us… come, we have more important issues to worry over."

After perhaps might be their last breakfast, they skulked down the most lower dungeon.  This level had a very acrid smell indeed, with rats and gossamer webs all over the place… the shadows flickered with the sporadic flames of the torches.

Jason and Martha readied their wands.

Suddenly, they heard a painful moaning sound coming down from one of the corridors.  Their hands trembled furiously as they trepidly tiptoed near the horrid noise.

When Jason thought it was close enough to see, he signaled Martha to lean against the wall.  He turned his head at the ledge of the wall and saw what might have been the most horrific deplorable sight he ever saw in his life.  Had he had a slightly weaker stomach, he would have thrown up.

Martha's mother and his dad was tied up to a pole of some sort that ran through a huge chamber, their faces were disfigured from burns and blood, their bodies limp and lifeless.

Then, Martha's mother moved her head up and gave Jason a quick glance as Jason swiftly pulled his head back.

"Your dad and I will try to channel our remaining energy and summon our staffs to you," a voice inside Jason's head said.  He looked at Martha, and she also had the same quizzical look, but it seemed to each other that they both received the message…. But staffs.  Staffs weren't used but the most powerful of powerful wizards back in ancient times.

"What did you see bitch!" a terrible voice said as Jason heard a slap going across Martha's mother's face.

"No..nothing…"

"Oh, but I can saw you head up, as if looking for something!"

Hearing this, Jason and Martha quickly hid in a small hold in the wall.

Their hearts were pounding so hard, it was a wonder the man didn't hear them.

Another voice resonated in their heads now, it was that of Jason's dad, "I know what you know about staffs, we did not use these, this man… he was looking for them, but what you don't know is that Your mom, Martha's mom, and I are the guardian of the three ancient staffs for the Ministry of Magic.  They can only be summoned by our will alone, that is why this man had not ventured to kill us yet, but do what you must, do not worry about our lives, just stop this man… give us a bit more time to summon them for you, when they are in your hands, trust your instincts, for it will instruct you."

In about half a minute, a two magical staffs appeared, one in Jason's hand and one in Martha's.  Jason's was a metallic looking object with a ball on top of it.  A beautiful swirling flame lived inside this orb.  He immediately realized it was the Staff of Fire.  Martha's was a wonderful blue length with what seemed to be waves moving on the top.  This was obviously the Staff of Water.

A sudden bravery came over these young souls, for it appeared they mastered the power of fear, and pushed it aside.  They jumped out of the hole and walked towards the man.

The man, looking surprised, still remained his calmness and said, "Martha… my sweet daughter, I know what this might seem, but it's not like that… please give daddy that stick your holding."  He said as he held up his own staff, it was that off a gnarled tree, with a great rock at it's apex.  However, the evil that processed this once wonderful artifice made it squalid and ugly.  This, however, was evident to be the Staff of Earth.

"No!" Martha yelled defiantly, then her rage really brought her forth, "You raped my mother… and conceived me…. I suffer torments each day knowing this fact!  I shall see that you do not get what you sought for you dirty evil man!!"  Jason looked at her in awe.  It was one thing to stand up to a man so clearly defined as evil, but to stand up to ones father and say such things… required not only courage of the heart, but a strong will to do so.

"Very well, daughter, prepare to feel my wrath!"  the man said.  He lifted his staff and yelled, "Horresco terraquasso!" 

In an instant, the ground around Jason and Martha started shaking, and a crevice began to form under their feet.

Before the chasm could get any larger, Martha pointed her staff at him and commanded, "Coacto aquaassilio!"

A powerful beam of water emerged from Martha's staff and hit the man squarely at his chest, and knocked him towards the wall.

"Alright Martha, here's your last chance to do what daddy says, or he'll not let you go! Ever!" the man demanded

"NO!" Jason and Martha replied at the same time.

"Arrescosilex beullua!"  he yelled nastily. Suddenly, a brown light emanated from his staff and a huge brute made out of rocks appeared from it.  It swiftly walked towards Martha, then with a powerful swipe, it hit Martha on the head and she flew to the wall and fell, her body all limp as if dead.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!"  screamed Jason!  He ran towards her as the man laughed.  Then, quickly recovering from the shock, he pointed his staff at the monster and said, "Ignis ballista!" A huge fiery fireball hurled into the monster and it crumbed to ashes.  He then swung his staff towards the man, and yelled, "Repello!"

An invisible force swept the man off his feet and threw him towards the opposite wall.

This gave a minute amount of time for Jason to check out Martha.  She was still alive, but barely.  He held her head with his arms, and tried to give her a weak smile.

She opened her eyes and smiled back.

"Martha no!  You will survive this!  You must be strong!  You came this far!  You stood up against your father, we will finish this task!"

She smiled that wonderful smile and said, "Thank you… Jason… but… I feel very weak… but… before I go… away… I… I really like…. You… you were the best… thing that ever… happened to me…. I… think I love you…"

Jason then replied, "My darling… I… love you too…"  He lifted her head and passionately kissed her.  Then, coldness seemed to go over her.

"NO MARTHA NO!!"

"Repello!" Jason heard the man yell and he felt himself flying in air.  A pain shot through his back as he flew into the cold stone walls.

"Ruinosossilex!" the evil wizard casted as rocks began to fall from the ceiling onto Jason.

"Ignito contego!"  Jason said in reply.  A bubble of nebulous flames surrounded him.  The rocks that were supposed to hit Jason turned into dust.

When the flames and the rocks subsided, another strange man appeared out of nowhere next to Martha's father.  But how did he apparate to Hogwarts, nothing was suppose to apparate to Hogwarts.  The second man said, "Here is the Staff of Wind as you wished for, my master."

NO!  That must be my mother's staff!  Jason thought in rage.

Then, the master ordered his servant to kill Jason after he got hold of both staffs.  The second man whipped his want towards Jason and gave out a nasty growl, "Advara Kedavara!"

As Jason saw the green beam charge towards him, he pointed his staff towards the second man and barked, "Ignis ballista!"  A fireball rushed towards the servant consuming the green curse into its flames.  It hit the man and he immediately caught on fire, running around like a wild animal.

"Now, you will truly pay the price for that," the master said to Jason.  He raised up both staffs mumbled some horrific phrase.  The ground started to shake as a huge fissure began to open between him and Jason.  A hurling wind came out of this ever-opening chasm.  Jason tried counter spells, but it would not work, his one staff could not even challenge the man's double staffs.  Then wind, and flaming rocks began to hurl towards him.  Jason was hopeless, his magic was failing him…

Suddenly, as if a miracle, Martha stood up, she gave a profound stare into Jason's eyes.  They immediately realized what to do.  They both barked, "Ignitoaqua potencia contramale!"  A bright red fiery sphere surrounded Jason as a watery blue one enclosed Martha.

From these two spheres, a consistent bolt of magnificent energy charged upwards meeting each other.  Then, from this mergence, a huge tidal wave and wall of fire rapidly closed in on the strange man and engulfed him.

This depleted Jason and Martha's vital energy, and they quickly collapsed to the ground hearing Dumbledore's voice.

They woke up in the hospital wing confused but later realized what happened.  They noticed that they were still holding their staffs and Martha's mother, Mr. And Mrs. Frek was smiling at them along with Dumbledore.

"Merry Christmas!" they all said.  Jason and Martha smiled at each other and smiled at them.

"Can you tell us what happened?"  Jason and Martha asked at the same time.

"Well, I suppose we should have your parents tell you this story," Dumbledore said.

Thus, Jason's father began, "Well, as I have told you we are—were the keepers of the Staffs.  There were four ancient staffs of power, two wielded by the good and two wielded by the evil.  The good was the ones you had—Fire and Water.  The evil ones were Earth and Wind.  We kept these staffs with out hearts, and as I said before, only our wills can summon them; if we die without summing them, the staffs will die with us."

Then Martha's mother continued, "My husband was suppose to be the keeper of the Staff of Earth, but he was corrupted by its power—he wanted to use the power; he wanted to become more powerful than Voldemort himself.  We were once lovers, when we were young, but he wasn't strong enough to withhold such evil in him.  That's when he used me, and that, unfortunately was how you were conceived…" Martha's mother began to cry.

"With the Staff of Earth, he still continued to force Jennifer (Martha's mother) to live with him in the Muggle world—where he made a living as a tennis coach; he forced her to act as if nothing happened.  When he decided that Voldemort was gone for good, he ran away from both Wizard and Muggle world."

"He tried to steal the Staff of Water, which was my staff, luckily he failed." said Jennifer.

Mrs. Frek continued: "That was why you, Jason, saw him that day coming to our house, because he was looking for us.  That day when you went to restring your racket, Jason, he transfigured himself into your racket.  That was why you never missed, because he was actually the racket and he wanted you to keep it…. Remember that day with, what's her name, Samantha?"

"How did you know mom?"  Jason blushed.

"Well, it was He who told us," Jason's dad continued, "He said that he thought that girl, Samantha was a messenger of some sort, so he used the memory charm on her so she cannot complete her task, well, he was obviously wrong," Mr. Frek chuckled, "During the Wimbledon, I found out that your tennis racket was Him, but you know, how should I tell you?  And during your matches, he actually tied to transfigure back to himself and kill everyone, imagine the damage that would do to both the Magic and Muggle world…  Thus, I had to contain him."

Jason thought of his dad always fidgeting in his matches.

"But what about your dreams?  And your wallet?"  Martha asked.

"When we are keeper of the staffs, we can send physic messages in the form of dreams or words," answered Jennifer, "We tried to warn you with the nightmares we gave you, We're sorry if it disrupted your sleep, but we wanted to keep you on your toes.  As for my wallet, well, I did accidentally dropped it.  I was also on the Hogwarts express with Jason's father and mother.  We wanted to corner Him in Hogwarts where there was plenty of good magic."

So that was why I missed that day when we played at Hogwarts, thought Jason, His magic wasn't as strong here.

"Well, then he finally outsmarted us, and that's where you guys came in.  You would be very proud of yourselves… I think your bravery and heroic deeds has even matched up to Harry Potter's!"  commended Mr. Frek.

It was a lot to take in, and many debates in the Ministry of Magic over the Four Ancient Staffs, but in the end, Jason and Martha were the new keepers for the Staffs of Fire and Water.  Mrs. Frek still kept the Staff of Wind.  The Staff of Earth was appointed to the no other Jennifer.  However, this was only tentative, for there was a good chance for the Staffs to be destroyed, but that's another story at another time.

For now, Jason and Martha were celebrating their newfound love for each other.

In New Years, when these two went to Hogsmeade to celebrate.

"For us," Jason held up his butterbear mug.

"For us," replied Martha.

Author's Note:  Thank you for your kind reviews!  For that, I finished this story, I hoped you enjoyed it.  The new spells I made up were taken from Latin, which JK Rowling too it from.  However, if you happen to know Latin (which I don't), the might not make sense, but oh well, you get the picture.  Please review!