Chapter 23 (I can't think of a good name for this one atm…lol)
That afternoon
Jareth sat in his office alone. Well, except for Numy.
"Little Jareth, where is she?" He asked, rubbing the puppy's back. Numy stretched, yawned and jumped into the air.
And stayed there.
"Well look at you!" Jareth said excitedly.
Numy flapped his wing energetically, yapping and pawing his feet at the open air beneath them
"Maybe you can do me a favour then." Jareth said, standing and taking a quill and some parchment.
"Go and take this letter to Sarah," He said, scribbling a quick note and tucking it into the Fleagle's collar. The puppy barked again eagerly, before spreading his wings even further ands flying out of Jareth's window.
On the quidditch field…
"Come on Sarah, you've almost got it!" Ron called from his place at the Goals. He was acting as the goalkeeper, while Harry and Ginny were other catchers, and Fred and George were beaters.
Sarah laughed as Ginny threw the ball to her and she raced down the field, avoiding the ball Fred had hit in her direction, and throwing the quaffle into the goal past Ron.
"Another ten points to Gryffindor!" She cried, throwing her hands in the air, balancing on her broom.
"Great work Sarah! You've certainly got the…" Hermione started to say, but stopped when she saw a black object flying towards them. "What in the world is that?" She cried, pointing.
Sarah turned to look. "I don't know. I'll check it out. Come on broom" She cried, flying towards the object.
"What the hell?" She cried, pulling up the tip of her broom to slow it down. "Numy?" She asked
The puppy yapped, running in the air as his feathery black wings carried him closer to Sarah.
"You silly puppy!" She cried, laughing as he leapt into her arms. "What's this?" She asked, pulling the note from his collar and reading it.
Dear Sarah
Apparently you have found someone else to teach you how to maintain your use of crystal magic. Congratulations to them.
However, if you merely missed our lesson today due to some feeble wizarding thing, then maybe you should find someone else to teach you.
Upon receiving this note, you have ten minutes to come to my rooms, otherwise I will ask Professor Snape to take my place as your teacher, and let you answer any questions he has.
Kind Regards
Jareth
When Sarah finished reading, she almost fell off her broom
"Sorry guys, I've got to go!" She called, before racing off towards the castle. "Ok Numy, which one is his room?" She asked. Numair yapped and flew towards a large glass window, Sarah following.
Sarah flew close and, hovering next to the window, opened it, before flying in and landing gracefully on the floor.
"Good afternoon Professor." She said to Jareth, Who was sitting in his chair, arms crossed, trying to ignore Numair, who had come up to him, wagging his tail and trying to jump onto his lap.
"Nice of you to join us." He said grumpily. "I suppose you have an explanation as to why you are so late?"
"Well I was totally looking after my baby brother, and I was telling him a story, when suddenly this random guy showed up and told me I had to run a labyrinth to save my brother, who had disappeared. So I totally ran this labyrinth and made it, even though he cut off, like, 3 hours of my time, and almost got me killed a couple of times. And then when I got home, all these people were like 'you have magical powers' so I had to come to this Hogwarts School. And then the random guy showed up again and told me I had another sort of magic, which I had to learn how to use as well." Sarah said, pulling up a chair and sitting on it backwards.
"I told you, the labyrinth wouldn't kill you. And I asked for an explanation for why you were late, not why you were actually here." He said, pulling Numy onto his lap and rubbing his ears. "So why were you late?" He asked absentmindedly.
"They were teaching me how to play Quidditch, which is why I flew in through your window." Sarah said, pointing to her broom
"Who's they?"
"The Weasley's and Harry and Ginny."
"But what about Hermione? What happened to her? I don't think she's been in class for a few days." He said, looking at his role.
"I can't believe you actually keep track of that. I didn't think you were that organised of a teacher." Jareth rolled his eyes. "She's been completely freaked out because Harry told her… Well, you probably don't need to know this." He raised his eyebrows. "But I suppose you want to anyway… Anyway, Harry loves Hermione, and she loves him back," Sarah said.
"Riiiight. And that's a problem why?" He asked incredulously
"But she's only just realised it and she doesn't want to ruin their friendship of it doesn't work out, etc, etc"
"Ok then…" It was then that Numy, noticing that Jareth had an empty plate from dinner on his table, decided to jump up onto the table. "Is that normal?" Jareth asked, moving his cup of coffee from Numy's reach.
"Yeah, I think my friend had a beagle who did that all the time. He also climbed onto the back of their couch using her as leverage." Jareth burst out laughing, Sarah joined in. Numy stood on the desk, his tail wagging, his nose on the surface, searching for crumbs.
"Right, so what were we talking about?" Sarah asked.
"I don't recall… Oh that's right, I'm meant to be teaching you." He said, chuckling. Sarah laughed. Numair turned in a circle twice, then lay down and proceeded to sleep in the middle of Jareth's desk.
"I think we may need to relocate though," Sarah said.
"Indeed, wouldn't want to wake the puppy." Jareth said.
"I have an idea." Sarah said. "Can you fly?" She asked.
"Umm, not exactly." He said.
"Don't worry, you'll be fine!" Sarah said, grabbing his wrist, her broom, and racing to the window. She climbed onto the windowsill, sat astride her broom and said
"Get on."
"Where?" he asked. "This looks incredible unsafe." He was nervous.
"Behind me, grab my waist. Come on, before the last of the daylight is gone."
Jareth slowly did as she said. The moment he was settled on her broom, Sarah walked towards the window, and jumped.
As the fell, Jareth opened his mouth and let out an ear-piercing scream. Sarah laughed the whole way down…
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE'S AUTHOR NOTE!
Hey all! I took today off school because my throat was all swollen, and I got this done during the day… as well as making a cake and crapping around with my animals…
I hope you enjoyed it! I'm starting the next chapter the moment I post this, because I'm on a really good train of thought with where I'm going…
Monte-Charlo, Queen of the Nymphs
PS WC1,187 words