5/11/15: Just a heads up, this story is really freaking old, and definitely not my best work. (The very first fanfic I ever wrote, actually! Way back in middle school.)
I.
Why, Jamie thought desperately, had they chosen this night? Why, on the night of June twenty-fourth, did Brett suggest that they go down to the old town church and hang out all night? He supposed it was because it was the first day of summer holiday. Why didn't Jamie try to convince him otherwise – to go to the pizza parlor instead?
But, Jamie supposed, he wasn't nearly as frightened or as pale as Erin MacMillian, Ernie's eight-year-old little sister. Jamie did not know how Erin had convinced them to let her come along—he supposed it was because she was Ernie's little sister, and Ernie was one of his best friends.
Ernie had been gone from September until June for the past four years, and the kids of Little Hangleton wondered where he had gone. Although Erin and her parents insisted that he went to a private boarding school off in Kent or some other place, Jamie was not convinced.
When he had been over at Ernie's house nearly four years ago, he had seen a piece of parchment that had the heading "Hogwarts School List" and an assortment of very strange objects listed beneath it on his desk. Who in the wide world would bring a cauldron to school? And James was sure he had never heard of the book titled "1,000 Magical Herbs and Fungi". And even stranger, when they had gone downstairs to get a snack, Jamie could have sworn he saw the dishes washing themselves before Mrs MacMillian hastily picked up the dishrag. In fact, the MacMillians seemed so strange that it was as if they were from another planet!
Jamie, Brett, Erin, and Patrick had all agreed to meet at the Little Hangleton church an hour before dusk on the twenty-fourth of June so that they could have the whole night to party. They all arrived as the sun was just starting to set, and had a good time telling ghost stories and cooking s'mores, debating about who to prank call next, deciding that Erin would be the first to fall asleep…
But of course, the others fell asleep first, for they were unaware of the dangers that would be brought up because of what happened that fateful summer night. Mr and Mrs MacMillian had warned Ernie and Erin early on not to tell anyone about where Ernie went to school or about their powers, and they had not yet broken their promises. After all, who would believe Ernie if he told them that a giant snake had gone around his school two years previously trying to kill the students? And who would believe that the reason the town's power went out for a day was because Erin had a temper tantrum?
And, Erin thought as she lay shivering in the cold night air, who would believe that she had actually seen Him return after thirteen years, call himself Lord, and then, to his fury, let a fourteen year old boy escape while he was trying to kill him? The townsfolk would call her insane, and then lock her up in an asylum or something…no, she thought, it isn't worth it. But I can tell Mom and Dad, and Ernie when he comes home next week. Of course, he may already know…
For Erin had heard the boy's name before, even though her friends had not…it was a name all children like her knew, and her brother Ernie personally – Ernie had been bragging to Erin about it for the past three years, and now Erin had seen something Ernie had not…evil's rebirth…and magic.
Of course, she had seen magic before; it helped around the house with her mother's cooking and cleaning and her father's job. But Erin had never seen magic used like this. To torture and kill another person…that was simply mad…