A/N: Sorry this one took a little longer again; I've been pretty busy, but here you are. Thanks to all my readers, and Isi, my beta-reader.
- CHAPTER FIVE -
Kathy and some of the other children were playing in the school playground when one of the Muggle children came sauntering along outside the fence. Most of the Muggle children were alright, but this one always sensed that there was something different about the children who always went to Mr Reeves's house on Sundays, and he had seen their parents wearing strange clothes.
He jumped over the fence into the playground and walked up to David, who was sitting on the swings, and grabbed a chocolate bar from his hands.
"What else you got?" the boy grunted.
"Nothing," David said meekly.
"Well, give it to me then, if it's nothing."
"We know something you don't know," Jackie Greenwood called out. The boy span around.
"We know something you don't know," another girl called.
"We know something you don't know. We know something you don't know," the wizarding children began to chorus.
The boy grabbed Jackie, threw him to the ground and twisted his arm behind his back. "What d'you know?" he growled.
"Give over," Jackie squealed.
"What d'you know, then?"
"Give over," Jackie repeated.
"Tell us what you know first."
"Get off, man," he moaned.
"What d'you know that I don't know?"
"Get off me."
"Tell us what you know first."
"Get off!"
"What do you know that I don't know?" the boy raised his fist.
Jackie gulped. "Merlin! We've seen Merlin!"
"You what?" The boy let out a roar of laughter.
"I just told you, we've seen Merlin."
"Yeah, and who else, the Weird Sisters?"
"No, honest, we have."
"You haven't, have you?" he chortled as Jackie grew more red in the face.
"Yes!"
"Have you?"
"Yes!"
"Have you? Have you really?"
Tears were beginning to dribble down Jackie's cheeks. "No…"
"Say it, then! Say, I haven't seen Merlin!"
"I haven't seen Merlin," Jackie whispered.
"Again! And louder!" the boy shouted.
"I haven't seen Merlin..."
The boy let him go, and turned to the other children. "All right, who else has seen him? Who else? Come on, which other one of you freaks?"
Kathy whispered from behind him, "I have."
The Muggle bully whipped around, glared at her for a second, then slapped her hard across the face. Tears welled up in her eyes and her cheeks began to burn, but she stood her ground.
"Leave her alone!" the other children shouted.
"She has seen him," one girl called, "we've all seen him."
"And I've seen him as well. So you know," Jackie said.
The boy scowled at them. "You're a bunch of loonies you are! Think you've seen some old wizard that people made up? No one cares! You're all freaks!" Kathy continued to stare at him, unflinching. He laughed at the stone-faced children and ran out of the playground.
Kathy made her way back to the farm, her cheek still stinging. She met her sister and brother at the gate, who went up to the barn to see the Kneazle kittens, but she didn't go with them.
Nan and Charlie rushed into the barn, anxious to see their kittens. Nan found hers hiding under a wheelbarrow but Charlie couldn't see his.
"Where's mine?" He asked. "Where's mine gone? Hey, where's mine?"
"I don't know, do I?" Nan sighed, stroked her purring kitten.
"Merlin! Merlin!" Charlie called up to the hayloft where the man had been sleeping.
"What is it?" he asked irritably.
"Have you got my kitten?"
"What kitten?"
"Spider, the one I gave you."
"No, I haven't got it."
"But I gave it to you so you could look after it." Charlie lip trembled.
"Well, I haven't got it."
Charlie rooted around in the barn for a little longer, and eventually pulled a limp form from the straw. "Dead. It's dead, he let it die! He let it die! He let it die!"
Tears seeped out of his eyes as he shouted accusingly up to the hayloft. He ran out of the barn, still crying.
Nan bent down and picked up the dead kitten, cuddling its cold body against her own warm chest. She gazed sadly up to the silent hayloft, where the man was no longer in sight.
xXxXx
Charlie was sitting at the edge of the quarry, throwing stones into the water when Kathy walked up and sat beside him.
"What's up?" she asked kindly.
"He's just ordinary," Charlie sighed.
"Who?"
"Merlin; he does things for other people, but he won't do anything for me. 'Cause it isn't him. It's just a fella."
"It is him, Charlie."
"It isn't. 'Cause I gave him my kitten to look after and he let it die. It was my kitten, not his." Charlie began to cry again and Kathy gave him a hug.
"He can't stop everything from dying. Nobody can. Not even the most powerful wizard. There must...he must have had a reason. I'll find out for you, shall I? Shall I find out for you? Shall I? Let's go and find Mr Reeves, he knows everything about Merlin."
Kathy and Charlie ran off to Mr Reeves' house, Mrs Reeves directed them to the teashop in the village. They ran in and Kathy bought a bottle of orange juice for Charlie before they sat down and Charlie started on the juice immediately. Mr Reeves was sitting nearby, reading a Muggle book.
"Mr. Reeves?" Kathy said quietly.
"Hello …Linda?" Mr Reeves said, looking up from his book.
"It's not Linda," Kathy mumbled, "I'm Kathy Bostock."
"Oh. Oh, yes, is it. Kathy, that's right."
"Can I interrupt you for a minute?" she asked.
"Yes, of course," he said kindly.
Kathy pulled up a chair at his table. "You know how he used to cure people? Merlin, I mean."
"Well, I suppose so," Mr Reeves replied.
"And he could bring people back from dead, too?"
"Well, in his own way… I think Morgan le Fay did more healing than Merlin though, Katie."
"It's Kathy," she muttered. "Only he must have let some people die, mustn't he? Why did he let those people die?"
"Well, uh...you see, uh, people...babies are being born all the time...and, uh...those of us who are here already have got to make room for them, haven't we?" he looked at her anxiously.
"Yes, sir."
"Is this about your mother?" Mr Reeves asked.
"Oh no, sir, it's nothing to do with that." She looked confusedly at him.
Then she went back to the table where Charlie was sitting. Charlie looked up from his empty orange juice and she led him outside.
"He doesn't know, does he?" Charlie said sadly.
"No, Charlie, I'm sorry." Kathy shook her head.
As they were walking down the street, they passed the Law Enforcement wizard who had been talking to Mr Reeves on Sunday, except he had lost his navy robes, and was wearing a Muggle police officer's uniform. He was putting up a notice on a shop window, Kathy and Charlie took no notice of the poster which showed the man's face, and read, "Murderer Wanted - Have you seen this man? Severus Snape."