Sneezy Mouse : Thanks loads for your comments! When I find the time to check out my punctuation in the past chapters I will do so. I admit that I don't use enough time to proofread, will try to rectify that in the future. I appreciate your praise for my writing, and I'm grateful that the story is shaping up so well. I have read your 'Prankster' stories and thought they were great stuff) I never (ever!) tried to write fiction before and I was afraid I'd have it turn all wrong by trying too hard for my first time. (I still think I should have changed some more stuff, but one revision is enough. Maybe after I finish it …)
One other thing. The story here is set in London, however my knowledge of English is more US/Canadian then British. I would appreciate it if anyone sees any blatant Americanisms that they give me a heads up.
The NDE
The girls were feeling miserable. After a week of anticipation to they had really thought they would have gotten to the bottom of the mystery of the wand. They took two seats of right at the back of the bus that was nearly full.
"I can't believe this whole day has been a waste!" exclaimed Xenia, as she looked back to see her aunt turn back and rush back to her office.
"Well I wouldn't say that," said Jo, "We did get an ice cream out of it, didn't we?" she said half-jokingly.
"We didn't come here to eat ice cream Jo!" snapped Xenia. "I want to know where this–this thing came from, don't you!?" she pointed at Jo's bag, which had the wand hidden in it.
"You know I do, but we won't find out anything if you bite my head off." said Jo, calmly.
Xenia sighed. She sat back in her seat, tilting her head up. "I suppose you're right. Its just that I had gotten my hopes up, and when uncle Fred said he'd do a magic trick, I nearly lost it."
"Me too" said Jo, remembering the event, she ran her hand through her hair. "I was sure he was going to pull another wand from the drawer or something like that" she said with an air of disappointment.
The girls spent the next few minutes looking out the windows, as the bus kept moving along its route and past the business district. After a while, as she got bored of it, Xenia turns to Jo and says: "You know, we now have the rest of the day free, and nothing planned."
"So?" asked Jo, puzzled.
"Our parents don't expect us home till late in the afternoon" explained Xenia. "Do you think there is anything fun we can do?"
"Jo looked lost in thought for a second, then said "You know what we should do?" she opened her bag and pulled out a magazine "There's a presentation about the Mars mission at the Blackadder Presentation Hall."
"Where is that?" asked Xenia
Its on Banks Street, we passed it as we were coming over." said Jo. "It's a few stops ahead from us now." she paused. "But I don't know about this." she added, "what if your aunt Ginny calls your mom & dad and tells them we aren't with her?"
"Then lets call them" offered Xenia, "But only after we get off the bus. That way we can say that we'll be just in and out at the exhibit, and they can't tell us off for not calling." she grinned.
Jo grinned back. "Alright, that's a plan. Now let me see which stop we get off" she consulted a tiny map of London she carried in her bag.
"Blackadder Hall is.. " Jo looked at a street sign outside, "6 blocks away from here." Right then the bus slowed down at the bus stop.
The girls got off the bus on Banks Street, and walked up the sidewalk to reach the exhibit. The day was quite sunny and warm for a November day, and there were many people walking around. Xenia got out her phone and called her house, but nobody answered. She tried her parents' mobiles, but they were out of range, and so was mrs. Allington's. "Good. If we can't reach them, then neither can aunt Ginny. Lets go, the exhibit is just ahead."
They reached the hall were the exhibit was, got in past the ticket booth, and entered the main hall. They marveled at the full-sized replica of the Phaedra that greeted them.
"Wow" went Jo, and the gaped mouth on Xenia next to her, seemed to agree with that statement.
The shuttle that stretched for over 110 metres, painted in shimmering light blue, dwarfed the giant hall, which was a feat in itself. The various booths, with exhibits were scattered around the shuttle. The girls walked over next to the stairs that led to the main hatch, which was cordoned off, and read the information written in large golden letters:
Phaedra I
The girls looked at it in awe. Xenia, who was never particularly excited when news about the space programs appeared on the news, was in now in awe as she imagined that the ship she was looking at traveled to other worlds. Jo however had already moved over to the next display. It was a giant sized photo of another spaceship, painted in the same colors as the large ship next and over them, although it looked sleeker and longer then it. The sign under it read Phaedra II
"Whoa, look at these specs Zee!" shouted Jo, clearly ecstatic. The Phaedra II is almost twice as big as Phaedra I! Wow!
Xenia read the summary:
"
BOOM!
The girls were startled by the large sound that reverberated in the giant hall they were standing in, the echo hitting them multiple times. The large sound was an explosion that sounded as if it had happened right outside. This first explosion was followed by other, smaller ones, who were in turn followed by shouts and screams. The few other people in the hall with them had recovered from the initial shock and were running towards the windows to see what was going on. The girls followed suit, overwhelmed by their sense of curiosity. They reached a window near the door, where they had to stand up on a table to reach the window. The window was about 12 metres from the sidewalk, and was curved outwards so the girls had a large horizon to look through. And what they were looking at left them breathless.
The street that they had been walking on a little over twenty minutes ago, was in a total disarray. Smoke was billowing from several fires in the middle of the street; storefront windows were lying smashed and blackened, and people were running, scrambling to get off the street. A bus lay overturned about three and a half a blocks away, close to the bus stop where they had gotten off. There was a bunch of people that were running towards their part of the street. These people however didn't appear to be running for cover. They were all dressed in gray-green camouflage trousers and wore black jackets. They were also wearing large black hoods that seemed too large for their heads. They were in a closely packed group, and were quite heavily armed. Xenia could see that one of them had a row of grenades attached around his waist. A couple of them were holding automatic weapons, and were firing towards the direction they were running from. The girls looked towards the direction he was firing at to see a group of policemen ducking for cover. The attackers however, didn't keep firing, rather they stopped as soon as the police had stopped chasing them. They seemed more intent to get away then to fight. Indeed, one member of the group was shouting at the others, and as they reached closer to Blackadder Hall, the girls could make out his words.
"…accomplished! We regroup at Point C! Scatter! Now! N-Aaargh!"
One of the police that were following them had managed a shot, hitting the speaker, who appeared to be the group leader, on the head. He fell to the floor, face down. The girls gasped at the sight, only to be totally shocked when he pushed himself up to his knees. He grabbed at his cowl and removed it.
If the sight of him getting shot in the head was a shock, seeing the person's face was even more shocking. The entire top of his head was covered with a yellowish foam, that looked like it had been spread all over his head as a helmet, leaving only his face apparent. It was this face that had shocked the girls. For all over this man's face was tattooed the face of a giant skull, its eyes falling on the man's eyes. Its skeletal mouth over the man's own.
The man checked out the back of his head, apparently looking for where the bullet had hit, but apparently there was no injury. The foam covering his head had protected him. He pulled the hood back on his head, and shouted to the rest of his group that were standing in cover near him, having seen him hit, unsure of what to do next.
"I'm not hit! Now go! GO!" she shouted, his voice gravelly.
The group started to disperse, when Jo's eyes widened. She gasped,
"Zee," she whispered. "Look at their wrists!"
Xenia, looked at the people running away from them, and gasped in turn. "Wands!"
These attackers that were now running in separate directions, had, strapped to their wrists, long wooden sticks, that Jo and Xenia would not have recognized if they hadn't been looking at one very much alike ast every chance they got for the last two weeks. She tried to look and see if they all had one, but they were rapidly running away and she couldn't get a clear view anymore. She turned towards Jo to ask her what she thought of it, when a large deafening explosion rocked them both. They both suddenly decided that sitting around talking next to bombs and grenades exploding might not be such a good idea. They ran down through the large hall in a straight line, going through exhibits without any resistance, as most of the security guards had gone to the main door to stop any of the attackers, should they attempt to take refuge in the hall. They nearly ran down an old woman before they stopped at the opposite end of the hall where a sign said "Phaedra II – Space Capsule". As soon as they caught their breaths, they looked at each other, not quite knowing what to say. Jo was weirded out about seeing those people with wands, but that seemed so unlikely, she wondered if she had imagined it. Xenia had been rattled by the revelation, as well as all the explosions, but a tiny part of her felt a thrill, knowing that a piece of the puzzle she was trying to solve had fallen into her lap.
"Did you see those wands Zee?' said Jo first, still breathing fast. "They were wands right?"
"Yes they were." replied Xenia. "They looked just like ours. I can't believe they had wands. Why would terrorists have wands?" she said flushed with excitement.
"I don't know, I'm still shocked by seeing them there." said Jo in a shaky voice. By the way, Zee, next time we hear a big boom, let's run the other way!"
"Oh don't be a killjoy," scoffed Xenia. "Nothing happened to us, did it?"
"Well I don't want to wait till it does, ok?" Jo retorted. She opened her bag, and pulled out the wand. She twirled it between her fingers. "What is your secret, little twig?" Suddenly she froze, grabbing the wand, stopping it in mid-twirl. "Zee, what if this thing is some kind of weapon made by the terrorists?"
"Come on!" laughed Xenia, "What do terrorists need sparks for? To see in dark passages? Or is it to do magic shows on the side to pay the bills? No, I don't think our wand is a terrorist wand"
Jo laughed as the image of the men in hoods outside doing a magic show on a street corner came into her head. "Okay, this isn't one of theirs." She held out the wand up high so they could both see it in the light from the window. "So what is it?"
Xenia suddenly looked at her watch. "Oh zonk! Look at the time! We have to go!"
Jo looked at her own watch and said "Now Zee? We still have a good hour before we need to go home."
"We had an hour, when we had a bus line waiting 5 minutes from here, now the street is so trashed that it will take hours for it to get cleared."
Jo's face went white. "Omigod, you're right!" How are we going to get home?" she stuffed the wand back in her bag and slung it over her shoulder. She took out her map. "I don't have bus routes on this map."
"Don't panic. I think I saw a bunch of bus maps next to the ticket booth." said Xenia calmly " We'll get one and see were we go from there.
Jo nodded and the girls started walking quickly towards the exit.
She had done it, as they knew she would have. She understood that this was the
only way for things to be right again. And she would have been a part of it.
No one could doubt her worth now, not when her actions had reversed the traitorous
betrayal of that Potter whelp. The indignities she had suffered, the tasks her
new commander gave her that made her sick at times, all that would be worth
it, when the whole world sees what her suffering had brought them. She would
then be rewarded. Yes, she would be rewarded handsomely. And then all those
foul traitors will be shunned like she was, ridiculed as she was, mocked as
…
Her train of thought was broken as something bumped into her, nearly knocking
her to the ground. She looked around to see the rude person that had ran off
without even apologizing. She saw two young girls, maybe eleven years old stopping
about 20 feet from her. "Filthy children, no manners at all, I should take them
down and give them a lesson I should" she thought. She didn't like children,
but she stopped herself from doing anything. It was imperative to her mission
and her position that she is never associated with this project, and the last
thing she needed is to be dragged off by the muggle police. Instead she just
stood there looking at them muttering curses, but stopped that after a while,
as she remembered that she couldn't make the curses work anymore. She just glared
at them for a while, until she decided that it was of no use to stay there,
so she looked hard at their faces, to remember them if she came across them
after the project was finished and started to leave.
She froze.
One of the girls took out of her backpack what was unmistakingly-- a wand! She
instinctively brought her hands over her face as to protect herself, until she
remembered again that wands were still powerless. The girl had taken the wand
and was twirling it like a bandleader twirls his baton. For a while the old
woman couldn't comprehend the image before her. The image of a wizard or witch
so casual with their wands in a public muggle place was unheard of even before
the Unmaking, for it was against the Section 13 of the International Confederation
of Warlocks' Statute of Secrecy. Afterwards those that didn't throw their wands
away, never carried them with them. As the initial shock passed she started
thinking more clearly. These were clearly the children of a former wizarding
family. In fact, now that she was looking at them, she saw that the other child,
the one not holding a wand had an uncanny resemblance to the ones her commander
had sought for years. She felt a smile creep up her wrinkled lips. "This was
turning out to be a better day then I had expected. A two-in-one. Splendid,
splendid!" Then, as she saw the girls walking quickly towards the exit, she
let a small distance and began walking after them, a slight limp apparent in
her left leg.
The girls took a bus map from where Xenia had seen them, and discovered that
if they took the underground they could reach within walking distance of Jo's
house, so that Xenia could take her bike home, and they wouldn't even be late
at all.
"But how are we going to get to the station?" asked Jo, still a bit unnerved.
"The station we need is here," she pointed at the map. We just have to walk
past Derrington Rd, take Baldrick lane to the left and walk for about 15 blocks.
"That's a long way to walk, what if those masked people are still out there?"
she said, her voice shuddering.
"They're not, or you'd hear more explosions, but those stopped a while ago."
said Xenia trying to calm Jo down "Now let's go. The sooner we leave, the sooner
we'll be home."
They went past the gates of Blackadder hall, that were still covered by 4 security
guards, who smiled at them as the were going out. The street was a mess. The
fires had died down, but there was still a large amount of smoke in the air,
and there were cars overturned everywhere. A TV van was stopped on the other
side of the smashed bus, apparently reporting on the attack. The girls got to
the street quickly, as the sidewalk was littered with smashed glass from storefront
windows. Their way was on the opposite side of the reporter's van, and they
were walking with a quickness in their step, partly due to their surroundings,
and partly because they didn't want to be late going home. Behind them, trying
to hurry as well, was the old woman that they had bumped into in the main hall.
"Here it is!" said Xenia looking at a sign that said 'Baldrick lane.' They turned
to it and walked down it, as the noise and voices coming from the TV van died
out.
As they went on down, Jo started to shiver. Baldrick lane might have seemed
the shortest way to the underground station, but as they walked down it, both
the girls wished they had taken a busier street, with more people walking around.
It was quiet, almost too quiet compared with the ruckus in front of the Hall.
Jo looked behind her, trying to decide if it would be better to double back,
when she saw her.
"Zee," she said keeping her voice low, "we're being followed." She grabbed Xenia's
shoulder as she began instinctively to turn. "Don't turn around like that! Be
slow!"
Xenia turned around slowly. She saw the old woman limping away towards them.
She turned slowly back to the front, and said to Jo, "That old woman? Are you
sure?"
"Yes!" said in a voice straining to stay low, "She has been following us since
the Hall." She looked back again. She gasped. "Oh no! she's catching up!"
The woman had apparently realized that she had been spotted, and suddenly put
on a rush of speed. The girls, moving as one started running. Their pursuer
was moving quite fast for an old woman, and the girls weren't making as much
progress as they'd like. Suddenly Jo tripped over something and fell down. Her
knee struck the ground first as she was running.
"Ow!!" she cried. "My knee!" She doubled up holding her knee with both her hands
wrapped around it. Xenia, hearing the cry of pain turned around and saw Jo lying
on the floor, rocking on the concrete, the old woman getting nearer. She suddenly
felt a touch of panic as a shiver ran down her spine.
"Jo! Come on, get up, she's catching up!" She helped her up. Jo was limping,
her left leg unable to support any weight. Xenia, looked over to the end of
the street. They weren't going to make it to the corner before the old woman
caught up with them; She looked all around, her heart thumping wildly. She saw
a passage in a building to their left, Left without any other way out, she decided
quickly, then guided Jo through the passage. They walked as fast as they could
but it was not fast enough. The woman behind them was catching up fast. The
passage turned sharply to the left, then to the right, then opened to a large
open area, that was half full of large boxes. Xenia had a flash of an idea.
She let Jo to lean on a wall, then went and pushed at a stack of boxes that
were near the opening. She could hear the sound of steps going near them. She
pushed harder. The boxes toppled covering the entire opening, effectively blocking
it.
"Come on Jo," said Xenia, taking Jo around the shoulder. "We're okay now, but
we better put more distance between us and her."
The girls started walking away from the toppled boxes, each looking back once
towards the toppled boxes that blocked their pursuer from following them. There
was no noise coming from there at all.
