The Uninvited Guest
My brother and I have lived alone for years; our father was killed in the Thousand Years War and our mother died a few years after that. Our father was a brave soldier that served the King at the time and my mother was a lonely peasant living off the land; when they met, they knew they would marry or so the story goes. Another version of the story was that my mother killed my father to gain his "power" and take over the world or something like that. Whatever version is true, I refuse to believe the latter; my brother and I have been fine for years. After the war, our government fell and suddenly everyone was on the run from something; either their past or some great evil. Then he took over; our wonderful dictator who wanted to prove that the Potter line was still alive and had everyone tested. No one came up as a positive, but he still has his suspicions; he's been ransacking people's houses for years and everyday it's someone new and everyday someone dies. I packed up me and my brother and moved to the outskirts of town so we couldn't be tracked; we learned to grow our own food and dig for our own water and we have been alright for the last hundred years. We are not ordinary humans; we look human, eat like humans, breed like humans, but how we age is much different. We are a hybrid of elves and humans; the only elvish trait we possess is how we age. A human who is eighty years old is considered toward their end, but at eighty we are considered young and have centuries ahead of us. On record, the longest living human was one hundred three years old; the longest living huelf (which is what we are called) is still alive at one thousand forty and has just started to gray over.
"Did you pick what we need for dinner tonight?" Ben asked me.
"I was just about to go do so," I answered going outside. It was dusk out and the sky faded to purple-pink as I bent down to pick our vegetables for dinner; as I loaded the veggies in my basket, I heard a noise from the trees. I could've sworn I heard my name, but I brushed it off for the fact my stomach needed food. I ignored it, and went back inside to prepare dinner.
"So what are we having?" Ben asked me sitting at the table with his reading book.
"Stew," I said looking at him reading the book, "Don't you ever put that book down?"
"Because I like to learn," Ben said smiling.
"That book was from over a hundred years ago," I added, "How new can the information be?"
"It's a book about Hogwarts," he said, "it's definitely not new information. I found this when I went exploring."
I stopped stirring and stared at him, "You went into that cave again?"
"No," he said, "I went into the cave next to it."
"Jesus Ben," I said rubbing my forehead, "You know those caves are dangerous. Why was a book in a cave?"
"I have no idea," Ben said checking the date, "this was published in 2030. It details the Last Battle and the history of the castle."
"Don't you have books like that already?" I asked confused as I went to to stirring dinner.
"Yes, but this book is different. This also gives history on something else. A stone."
"A stone?" I asked pouring our dinner into our bowls, "that sounds boring."
"It's something called a Lightning Stone," Ben said as I stopped and stared at him. "What?"
"The Lightning Stone?" I asked in astonishment as I gave him the bowl of stew. "That book details about the stone?"
"You've heard of it?" Ben asked with a mouth full of food.
"Heard of it? It was practically ingrained into our brains when I was in school," I said getting excited, "The Lightning Stone, as legend goes, is passed down through one family from one child to the next. The stone holds great power. The power is used to defeat the greatest evil that will ever stand upon the Earth. But it's just a legend."
"According to this book the stone is real," Ben said showing me the book.
"Ben it's a book written by a crazed author who thought that the stone was a legitimate object," I said as Ben shut the book.
"You spoil everything," he said with a grumpy face.
"I'm being realistic," I said as there was a knock on the door. I got up to answer the door, but realized that something was wrong and so did Ben; I grabbed my hunting knife from my leg and Ben grabbed his long bow and arrows. I reached for the door knob as Ben drew back his bow and as I opened the door and saw nothing; I searched outside and saw nothing, but when I went back in the house a tall black and purple mass was holding Ben by the neck and dangling him in the air. I picked up Ben's bow and arrow and pointed it at the creature.
"Where's the stone?" the creatures asked in a low ground rumbling voice.
"What stone?" I asked standing my ground.
"Where's the stone?" it asked again.
"Put down my brother," I said, "and I will give it to you."
"Hand it over," it said, "or your brother dies."
"Let my brother go and I'll give it to you," I negotiated.
"I don't bargain with peasants," it said as it squeezed my brother's neck tighter. Suddenly there was a bright light from behind the creature and it burst into a million pieces; Ben dropped to the ground almost unconscious. I ran over to him as he picked up his head, coughed, and rubbed his neck.
"Damn he was strong," Ben said rubbing his neck. He looked behind him at the mysterious woman that saved his life; she was tall (from where he was sitting on the floor), but by normal standards she was medium height, but her features were covered by a dark maroon cloak that hung over he face.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"You don't know who I am?" she asked as she took off the hood to reveal who she was.
Ben and I looked at each other in astonishment; we immediately recognized her face.
"Hermione Granger?"
