The usual green and tidy gardens of Penders Drive were now parched and yellow. The typical glistening cars that the neighbours liked to show off were now dusty. This was due to the heatwave sweeping across Mercia. It was so bad that hoses were banned from use until the drought was over. Most people were staying indoors which was fortunate for one particular resident of the street. Silver the Hedgehog was hiding in the bushes under the window to his Aunt and Uncle's living room. It did keep him out of sight although it was very uncomfortable sitting in the hot, dry dirt. It was still better than the alternative. Multiple times over the last few days Silver would come down to the living room to watch the news with his Aunt and Uncle, something that upset them both greatly "As if a normal boy watches the news. Menniker hasn't got a clue what's going on, doubt he knows who the Prime Minister is! Anyway, it's not as if there'd be anything about your lot on our news" a suspicious Menthor would always say to him. So now Silver had to hide under the window to get any information on the goings on in the world. The only risk was getting spotted by Mrs Rosie. She would occasionally pass the house muttering to herself. Silver always made sure to duck his head down extra low when ever she passed, she had recently taken to asking him around for tea whenever she met him in the street. Silver's previous experiances at her house compelled him to deny these offers. Silver then heard his Aunt and Uncle "Menni out for tea?" "He's at Ripper's house. He's got so many little friends. He's so popular" Cynthia said proudly.
Silver had to hold in a snort. He knew perfectly well that Menniker wasn't having tea at Ripper's. He's been claiming to be eating at friends houses almost every night over the summer, but it was always a lie. He and his gang spent every evening vandalizing the play park, smoking on street corners, and throwing stones at passing cars and children. Silver had seen them at it during his evening walks. He had spent most of the holidays wandering the streets, scavenging newspapers from bins along the way. Silver heard the opening notes of the seven o'clock news. His heart skipped a beat, maybe tonight after waiting all summer would be the night. But no, the first thing they talked about was some strike going on. Silver gave up, if there was anything he was looking to hear, it would be the first thing on the report. He had been asking the same question every day all summer. Why hasn't anything happened yet? No disappearances, no mysterious accidents, nothing. Every day he's had to hear about droughts, strikes and some actress getting a divorce "As if we were interested in their sordid affairs" Cynthia said as if she wasn't following this actress' life in every magazine she could get her hands on. Silver knew there was no point staying, he got on his hands and knees ready to crawl from under the window when there was suddenly a loud whip like sound. Silver had heard that's sound before. He leapt to his feet and raised his hand when something grabbed him from behind "Put it away! Now, before someone sees" it was Menthor, "Get off!". Silver fought himself free from is uncle's grip and fell froward into the bushes.
He quickly got back up and scanned the street, there was nothing. He slowly lowered his hand as Menthor spotted someone looking out from their window across the street "Lovely evening! Did you hear that car backfire. Gave me and my wife quite a scare". The neighbour narrowed their eyes and got out of sight. Menthor's fake grin turned into a grimace and beckoned Silver closer. Silver did so but made sure to stay out of arm's reach. Menthor pointed at him "What the hell was that about?" "What?" "That noise". Silver rolled his eyes, of course he was getting blamed "It wasn't me" "Then what were you doing at the window" Cynthia said appearing behind Menthor. Silver shrugged "Listening to the news" "The news? Again?" "Well it changes it everyday, you see?". Menthor's face contorted with rage "Don't get smart with me, boy. What're you really up to. We know your-" "Careful, Menthor" Cynthia said staring at the other houses. Menthor lowered his voice "We know your lot don't appear on our news" "That's all you know". Cynthia stared at Silver as if he slapped her "You are a nasty little liar! What are all those-those Flickys doing if not bringing you news?". Silver hesitated, the answer was painful, so he just said "They're not brining me news" "I don't believe it. We're not stupid you know" "Well that is news to me". Silver's temper was raising so he quickly spun around and walked away down the street. He was in trouble now; he just knew it. But that wasn't important right now. He knew what that sound was, Chaos Control. A wizard was watching him. So why, Silver wondered to himself, was he walking out in the open instead of going inside. He didn't even know where he was going, he's walked around this place so much over the summer that his legs were practically on autopilot. Maybe he wanted something to happen, something that might force the Ministry to remove him from Penders Drive.
Then a bad thought entered Silver's head, maybe it wasn't Chaos Control. Maybe he's had so little contact with the Wizarding World over the summer that he's just jumping at loud noises. The feeling of hopelessness washed over him. If nothing did happen then he would have to go back to his usual routine. Getting up at six in the morning to get his delivery of the Daily Prophet but most likely the same thing as usual would happen. He would throw it at the wall after reading the front page. He knew once those idiots found out about Finitevus' return it would be headline news and that was the only thing he cared about. If he was lucky he might get some letter from Coral or Razor although if their previous letters were anything to go by it wouldn't be that helpful. "We can't say much about you-know-what, obviously" "We've been told not to say anything important in case our letters go astray" "We're quite busy but I can't give you details here" "There's a fair amount going on, we'll tell you everything when we see you". But when were they going to see him? Nobody seemed too bothered with a precise date. Coral had scribbled "I expect we'll be seeing you quite soon" inside his birthday card, but how soon was soon?". As far as Silver could tell from the vague hints in their letters, Coral and Razor were in the same place, presumably at Razor's parents' house. He could hardly bear to think of the pair of them having fun at Deerwood when he was stuck in Penders Drive. In fact, he was so angry at them that he had thrown both their birthday presents of Josef's chocolates away unopened, though he had regretted this after eating the wilting salad Cynthia had provided for dinner that night. And what were Razor and Coral busy with? Why wasn't he, Silver, busy? Hadn't he proved himself capable of handling much more than them? Didn't he prove that at the end of last year? No, no, he shouldn't think about that. The events of that night were already haunting him in his sleep, he didn't need it torturing him during the day.
Silver eventually found himself in a familiar park, he saw a skunk woman happily playing with her son. It was such a simple and yet saddening sight to Silver. He then looked across the road to a group of bushes. The same bushes he saw Elias for the first-time in. His letters were a little better than Razor and Coral's. He at least seemed to understand what he was going through. "I know this must be frustrating for you" "Keep your nose clean and everything will be okay" "Be careful and don't do anything rash". It was still quite galling to be told not to be rash by Elias of all people. At the very least Silver obeyed, he was half tempted to get on his Psychic Wave and just fly to Deerwood. Silver thought with how angry he was, it was a miracle he was being as sensible as he was. He suddenly felt a bit of pain in his head. This wasn't new, ever since the graveyard it had been occasionally hurting and he knew what it meant, Finitevus was on the move. And all his friends knew it and yet were telling him nothing. They wouldn't have even known if it wasn't for him. And his reward was to be stuck here being told to wait like a good boy.
The woman in the park picked up her son and started to leave. Silver glanced at her walking down the road and spotted someone coming the other way. It was Menniker. Silver quickly got into the bushes out of sight. He looked a bit different than last summer, a bit bulkier. You see, a year's worth of dieting helped him discover a new talent. As Menthor told everyone who would listen, Menniker had recently become the Junior Heavyweight Inter-School Boxing Champion of the Southeast "The noble sport" he called it. Silver wasn't remotely afraid of his cousin, but he still thought him learning how to punch harder wasn't worth celebrating. The Neighbourhood children were scared of him. Even more than that "Silver boy" who they were told attended St. Brutus's Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys. Silver watched Menniker lean against one of the swing sets. He was clearly waiting for his gang. Silver smirked, if he showed up when Menniker's friends showed up they'd go right for him and then what. Menniker would have to save face, but he was also terrified of Silver. He would love to embarrass Menniker in front of them and then if any of them tried anything he could use his Talismans. Vent some of his frustrations on the boys who made his life a living hell. Suddenly Elias' advice didn't seem that valuable. He got out of the bushes and approached the park "Hey, Ker!". Menniker spun around and sighed "Oh, it's you" "They're still calling you Ker, then?" "Shut it!".
Silver couldn't help but grin "It's not a bad name but you'll always me Ickle Menikins to me" "I told you to shut it!" "What about Popkin or Minky Middydums? Can I call you that?". Menniker said nothing, he was using all his self control to not hit Silver. This amused the Hedgehog even further "Heard you beat up another ten-year-old" "He deserved it. He cheeked me" "How? Did he call you an arsehole? That's not an insult, Menni, that's a fact". Menniker was now right in his face. He glared into Silver's eyes and then smirked "You feeling all brave when you have those, do you?" he glanced down at Silver's gloves. Silver nodded "Not as stupid as you look, eh, Menni? But I s'pose if you were, you wouldn't be able to walk and talk at the same time" "You can't use it. You'll get expelled from that school?" "I can when I'm in danger which means you can't hurt me either". Menniker rolled his eyes "I got more guts then you then. At least I don't need one of those" "No, you just need four mates behind you before you can beat up a ten-year-old. You know that boxing title you keep banging on about? How old was your opponent? Seven? Eight?" "He was sixteen, actually and he was out cold for twenty minutes after I'd finished with him and he was twice as heavy as you".
Silver then heard multiple footsteps behind him. He turned and saw Menniker's little gang coming towards them "What's going on, Ker?" the front one, Ripper said. Silver backed away "Just let one of them throw punch. Go on, do it" he begged in his head. The gang joined Menniker and stared at Silver. He just smirked "Ripper, it's been a while. You still having nightmares about that snake?". Ripper's expression turned angry but then he smirked "You're one to talk about nightmares, Hedgehog? What was it you said about him, Ker?". Menniker smirked "Yeah, you're not that brave at night are you" "It is night, Menniker. You see how the sun's almost gone, that's what we call night" "I mean when your asleep". Silver paused, what was he talking about "What? You watch me sleep?" "I can hear you from my room. 'Don't kill Sonic! Don't kill Sonic!' Who's Sonic? Your boyfriend?". His gang laughed and Silver was now the one trying to control himself "Shut up, Menniker!" "'He's going to kill me, Mum! Help! How's your Mum going to help, Silver? Isn't she dead?". Silver lost it at that. He strode forward pushed the palm of his right hand against Menniker's chest. All his friends started laughing, wondering what Silver was doing. Menniker however was frozen in place. Silver was breathing heavily, his heart was pounding. He had never been so angry but then something happened. His anger was leaving him, instead he felt despair and grief, where was this coming from? It wasn't just him, Menniker's gang had all stopped laughing. They looked very uneasy. Then above them as if from nowhere dark clouds covered the sky. They started to panic "Menniker, let's go!" "Let's get out of here!". Menniker didn't move, he was staring at Silver "What're you doing?" "I'm not doing anything!" Silver stared at the sky.
He knew this feeling; he's felt it before. "Come on, Menniker! Hurry up!" Ripper yelled as he and the others were already running away. Menniker and Silver both watched the sky before running together. They went through the field by the park, it was quickest way back to the house. Once they reached the road they went through a long underpass. But when they reached the centre Silver stopped and put out his arm to stop Menniker as well. The lights around were flashing. Silver got closer to one, ice was forming on it. He turned to talk to Menniker but there was something else standing right in front of him. A crocodile Prelate grabbed him by the throat and pinned him against the wall so high his feet were off the ground. Menniker backed away, he couldn't see the Prelate, but he could see Silver hovering in midair clasping his neck. He stepped closer and raised his arms as if trying to decide if pulling Silver down would stop it. "Menni… Run!" Silver got out. Menniker hesitated but then ran down the underpass but then at the end appeared a bat Prelate. It flew forward and was inches from Menniker's face. He couldn't see it but it being so close was enough to make him collapse to the ground. He was panicking, he put both hands over his face as if to shield himself. The crocodile's metal face started to melt away revealing the horrifying dead face of a Mobian underneath. "Expecto Patronum!" Silver said but only a small wisp of smoke came out of his hands. He couldn't do it, not with the voice in his head, the voice of Finitevus laughing and mocking him in the graveyard.
In his fear he tried to hit the Prelate. Something happened, a spark came out of his hand as it impacted with the side of it's face. It staggered back dropping Silver. The metal face reformed over the Prelate and it slowly walked towards him. Silver crawled away, he didn't have the energy to get to his feet, the Prelate was draining it all out of him. He was about to pass out and then that would be it. It would take his Core, he'd be gone, he'd never see Razor and Coral again. Razor and Coral! There faces appeared in his head. He shot around, raised his hand "EXPECTO PATRONUM!". A cyan Nightmare shot out of his hand and charged the Prelate forcing it to retreat. Silver turned and saw the other Prelate slowly prying Menniker's hands away from his face, almost lovingly. Its face melted away and it was about to descend on him. Silver made a gesture and the Nightmare in an instant had gone from one end of the tunnel to the other. The Prelate swooped up out of the underpass and disappeared. The Patronus dissolved leaving Silver and Menniker. Silver was drenched in sweat, Prelates were here in the middle of a Muggle Suburb. He ran over to Menniker who was curled up in a ball shaking. Silver kneeled down to try and help him when he heard footsteps. He looked up, a familiar old chipmunk was staring at him "Mrs Rosie?". She was shaking "Don't let your guard down, Silver. They might come back!".