Harry Paper and the Ori-Marauders

HARRY PAPER AND THE ORI-MARAUDERS

Written by SF Guillermo 

PRELUDE 

In a pub in Leeds, a city not far from the Ilkley town, a small, quite wide kid comes through the doors.

He is uncertain, for he does not know anyone, really. His parents were asleep in the hotel they had booked for the weekend vacation for the first days of November. He just wanted to take some air.

“What can I order you, young man?” The bartender asked him when he sat on the edge of a table.

“I- I,” He mumbled, “Coca Cola for me.” 

The bartender nodded and headed straight to the inner workings of the kitchen to bring him what he had ordered, and came back a couple of minutes later.

The boy took it and started drinking without hesitation. Until three boys and a girl sat down in front of him.

“Well, well, well,” A tall, muscular boy patted him on the shoulder. He hadn’t seen him before, “If it isn’t Peter Chadwick here with us today.”

Peter tried to smile, but he was more scared than actually desperate to know what these guys wanted from him.

Then the girl sat down. He DID know her. She was Miriam Hazel, the girl they saved Eva from at the beginning of the summer.

Peter swallowed, and almost choked from the fear.

“Can I buy you a drink?” Miriam kindly asked Peter, who looked at his Coca Cola.

“A real drink,” Miriam insisted, “I’m sure the guy won’t mind.”

The muscular guy went to the bar and made the order. Peter tried to make the best of a bad situation and started talking.

“What do you want?”

“Let’s discuss this over a few drinks.” She smiled.

“Actually, I’m already late, y’know.”  

“No, you’re not.” Another guy got him by the shoulders and pulled him back down. The sudden bravery in Peter’s acts slowly faded away with this. He was trapped.

The muscular guy came back with some beers.

“Now,” The guy said,” What do you know about the kid who got William Michaels expelled?”

Peter swallowed once again. This was going to be a long night. He took a sip of the beer.

“Dennis Walker?”

CULPRITS AND ASSEMBLY 

By Dennis Walker 

Safe it is to say I almost got scarred for life because of the incident on Halloween where I got trapped in a room with a boy two or three years older than me with red eyes, a sinister smile and plans to destroy my presence in the school which he so foolishly unveiled without looking around to see if someone was recording him.

Not to mention his origami Voldemort puppet which made me back off.

Traumatic experiences such as these can be avoided by following your instincts: If someone sends you a letter telling you to meet them somewhere, then your best course of action would be to ignore the letter. If someone likes you they will say it to your face.

Reuben Yeates and Alyson Monreau kept a close eye on me throughout the next couple of days (probably something Mrs Eagle told them to do). It was partially annoying but I was glad I finally had someone watching my back all the time in so long.

Looks like I could say I finally felt at home.

After some Rugby tryouts, Mr Peltier sent us all back to school away from the pitch because the weather was already getting cold, and the ground were getting covered with frost (an excuse for somewhat else if you ask me, because this guy doesn’t seem to care most of the time whether it’s rainy, sunny as heck, stormy or freezing outside to stop us from playing).

We were called for assembly right before lunch. I was starving after Rugby class, so it’s not really my fault I didn’t hear much of what they were talking about.

“Bullying has been a problem in school right from the first day this place started. Not only here, but in every part of this world, and it’s my duty, our duty to stop it,” Heather Harrington, a year 12 who I’d heard a lot from was saying.

“Honestly, I don’t know where these guys get the excitement in doing speeches like these.” Reuben joked, and his two older brothers, Dregen and Jack Yeates laughed along too. Alyson rolled her eyes, on the other hand.

“And, that’s how it goes.” Jack started clapping when Heather paused to breathe, thinking her speech had ended (or maybe he had done it on purpose), and the rest of the auditorium followed.

“No, wait!” Heather started waving her hands, but settled down and waited until the public went silent again, “Alright. Now that I’ve got all of your attention-“

Now it was Dregen Yeates who started clapping. I noticed a finger puppet on his finger, a red haired guy. Might as well be a Fred or George Weasley.

Heather grabbed the microphone and tried to bring silence, but it took Kevin Harrington, his twin brother and wielder of Remus Lupaper to quiet them all down.

“Silence!” He yelled. I had seen take in one or two times since I had started learning in Ilkley Grammar School, but I had always thought he was a quiet kid with hardly any temper. All I say is that looks can be deceiving.

“Three days ago a student was harassed by a year 12 student. A student no one suspected anything from, a student whose ego only led him to win the loyalty of those foolish enough to follow him, and the hatred of those around him,” Heather finally continued, “This student’s brother was charged for setting fire to a friend of his, something that cost him the friendship of the people he knew in this school and his family as well, but most of all… something that according to William Michaels, he was not responsible of.”

A hand quickly rose, and everyone in the room looked at him, teachers included.

He carried long, curly and messy hair, brown eyes and ugly pointy shoes (part of the old uniform but no one wore them anymore).

“Yes, Alastor?” Heather asked him, easing her tensed brows.

“So are you saying Henry Walker was innocent?”

‘Alastor’ I thought to myself. Yes.

Alastor Bismarck was a friend of my brother’s. He had come to my house on several occasions.

In other words, I knew this guy, only he didn’t look the same now as he had looked last summer.

It brought a warm and fuzzy feeling to see I wasn’t the only one who had been sad about my brother being sent to Tuckerton prison. Alastor had been in a period of depression as well.

“Yes, Alastor,” Heather replied, “From what Michaels said, Henry is indeed innocent.”

“And we’re just supposed to believe what this guy says?” Another random voice yelled in the crowd.

“William Michaels was an excellent student in this school, loved by his teachers and exceeded in everything he put effort in. It’s hard to believe he would do something like this, but he confessed his plans to a boy here among us, and we’ve got the recording.”

Another hand rose through the crowd. It was Dylan Yeates, Reuben’s older brother.

“And what gives us the certainty that this won’t happen again?” He sounded worried, “Last year it was the paintings and stolen computers-“

“Cassius DeNogaret was taken down by Tim Baker, the rest of the team and I.” Heather interrupted.

“Yeah, how about the internet trolls that attacked the site barely at the beginning of this school year?”

“Those were taken care of…” A tall, blonde boy with curly hair and a purple tie set foot on the stage and took Heather’s microphone. He was carrying a puppet on his finger, something he was seemingly proud of, “By me. Hehe.” He laughed.

Heather took the mic back to her possession.

“Mia Green was the culprit, and she was expelled for a couple of months. I doubt she’ll ever do that again.”

“And if she does-“ The guy with the puppet announced, “Oliver Allen and Guilderoy Lock-art will be there to save the day!!”

He lifted his hands and gave enough confidence to the crowd for them to start cheering.

There was something about this guy I couldn’t put my finger around.

LUNCH

By Reuben Yeates 

The assembly ended when neither Alyson nor Reuben nor me could take anymore. The mic was passed to the school headmaster Doctor Marshall, and then back to Heather, and all wrapped up with a speech from the President of the Minostry of Folders, whose name I can’t remember.

“I’ll have, ehm,” I glanced at the food. It was the same as yesterday. Don’t they ever change it? “Pasta, meatballs and cheese, please.”

The got a plate and served everything but the cheese.

“Cheese, love?”

I blinked in perplexity.

“I- I just said cheese.”

She put loads of cheese on top.

“Thanks.”

I went to pay, but I could still hear the conversation behind.

“Pasta, meatballs and cheese.” Dennis said.

“Cheese, love?”

I snorted, and Dennis snorted too. At that moment came my brothers Dregen and Jack.

“We couldn’t help-“

“-overhearing.” They both said one following the other. No wonder they had taken up the roles of Fred and George Weasley.

“And, oh, boy-“

“-are we glad to see you.”

“What for?” I asked them. They never showed any major interest in me, so I wondered if that had changed.

“Not you, the other guy who just got served A LOT OF CHEESE, MAN!!”

“YOOO!!”

I put my hands on my head while they both clapped for Dennis- he carried a large tray filled with macaroni, meatballs and a ton of cheese.

“Don’t you two ever grow up?” Alyson said annoyingly.

“Well, you’ve only just met us.”

“Yes , indeed,” Jack said, “So you wouldn’t know if this could be how we behave when we grow up.”

“I hope not.” I took my fork and started digging into my pasta dipped into a lot of tomato sauce. 

“Why so grim, my dear brother?”

“Can’t you both just leave us?”

I bet Dennis and Alyson wouldn’t speak that way to my brothers, but they sure felt the same way. We three were tired and these two looked like they got energy from where there was none.

The twins looked at each other, and then at the door. There was an inaudible dialogue between the two, and then:

“Dennis, there’s someone outside to see you.” Jack noticed.

“Where?” Dennis asked, although the real question that could be really going through his mind was who?

Dennis quickly finished up what he could. He didn’t know if the guy outside was patient or not, or if the message he wanted to tell Dennis was urgent or not, but one thing Dennis never did was to leave his lunch unfinished.

“Who is it?” He asked Jack, but the question was answered by the guy himself, who had come inside the cafeteria.

“Oliver Allen, of course.” Alyson snorted.

“Dennis!!” He exclaimed, “So, so very happy to finally meet you in person.”

“You’re- I know you!”

“Oh, do you?”

“Aren’t you the one who uncovered the secret of the internet trolls?” I was excited to finally meet the guy, “Wow. How did you do it?”

“Ah!” He clapped his hands together, “Secrets will be revealed! He, he!”

Some people were captivated by this guy’s looks and stories, but Dennis wasn’t one of them.

“What do you want?”

Oliver patted Dennis on the shoulder. “Let’s take a walk, shall we?”

THE WALK 

By Oliver Allen 

As soon as I got my hands on dear Mr Walker, I started asking him about the stuff I wanted answered as soon as possible so I could write my very own case file on the matter.

We sped through the hallway and crossed a couple of groups of kids, who were unusually quiet at the time of the day.

Dennis tried to speed walk to catch up with me until we reached the borderlines of the school, where K block (literature area) proudly stood.

“So, Dennis,” I decided to approach my talk in a familiar way, of course. He felt comfortable by this, “If you could describe what you felt by being trapped in that room-“

“Not to sound rude,” Dennis very rudely interrupted me, “But many people have asked me about this. I don’t know how but everybody knows me, people I haven’t talked to in my whole life.”

“People who even ignored you before?” I raised an eyebrow as I asked.

“Yes. Now everyone thinks I’ve unveiled a deep mystery that this William guy was hiding.”

There was more he was hiding, I could tell. His voice cracked and I could see his eyes turning red.

“Bye.” He said and left.

“You can’t leave!”

“Heck yeah, I can. You’re not a teacher.”

HARRY PAPER AND THE ORI-MARAUDERS

By Dennis Walker 

Over the course of the next few days, I totally forgot about the weird conversation with Oliver Allen due to all the homework we were sent in class.

We were only in the first term and the homework was three times what it was in my previous school.

I don’t know about the others, but I was intimidated by how Alison took her homework too seriously to be true. Nobody else was as exhausted in the first two months of the year as she was, and at the same time nobody got as high a grade as she got in every subjects mid-term assessment, which were just after the Halloween holidays.

I managed to get a 70% in Chemistry, and Doctor Marshall thinks I could do better. 

I spent the whole day wondering what he could mean, but then I remembered when Henry came home after school saying he only got 96% in Chemistry.

Sometimes I think people, students and teachers have high expectations of a boy who doesn’t really know what he’s doing.

Thinking about this, I got Harry Paper out of my pocket.

“Honestly,” I muttered to myself in my apartment not far from school, “I don’t even know what this puppet is for.”

I lifted myself up from the bed with the rest of the strength I had left. I had to revise maths or it would suffer more teacher comments.

There was a knock on the door, and a regular sized fair brown haired boy was standing at the door. 

I couldn’t tell who he was at first, then I remembered he was the one who had helped Heather during the speech. He was her brother.

“Can I help you…?”

“Kevin.”

“Can I help you, Kevin?”

He nodded, looked back to make sure no one was looking, and tilted his head as he smirked.

“No, but I can help you,” I noticed a chocolate7 bar in his left pocket. He touched it gently, “Do you know the way to Alastor’s Bismarck’s house?”

“Yeah. I hope so. It was my brother’s friend’s house.”

“Then please, meet me there at seven. Make sure no one’s following.”

I nodded, although a sense of insecurity overcame me faster than my bravery stepped in.

“Wait- How can I know I can trust you?”

Kevin Harrington took out a piece of paper from his pocket.

“This is Remus Lupaper, and I was a great friend of your brother’s,” He exhaled, “But we can’t talk here. Not now.”

“Alright, alright.” I looked behind me, as if inside the building there was someone listening to our conversation.

Big surprise: there wasn’t.

“I’ll meet you there.” 

He nodded and I closed the door to finish up with my homework and get there.

Suddenly, the small amount of homework Doctor Marshall had sent became huge as time passed and I only finished one activity.

“Aww, man.” I clicked my tongue and looked at my watch.

18:45

I should go. It’s been ages since I’ve crossed that street and I should get going.

No- another part of my brain said.- Finish the homework first, and then go.

“Just one more exercise,” I looked at my watch again as if looking at it would give me five more minutes.

Guess what? I was late, I was so very late.

I got dressed as quickly as I could at 19:15 and hit the road. Now let me tell you.

I don’t know where you live, but in Ilkley at 19:15 it’s pitch dark in November. You can’t see a thing.

The train station was just around the corner. If I didn’t remember wrong, Alastor lived in one of the houses of Mayfield avenue, crossing the bridge from the station where my brother had gone on a camp the summer before.

It all seemed to be happening way too fast.

I entered the station to cross the bridge that led to Mayfield Evenue, but instead of crossing the bridge I went through an open door. Why? Because I was lost that’s why. I should have told Kevin I was gonna need some help to get there.

During the day I could find anything, but during the night… finding something was impossible for me.

I was totally lost. I heard some voices on one side, but I couldn’t see anybody.

“You lost?” A kid with messy hair asked me from the other side. My first instinct was to run, but a quiestion struck.

“Have I seen you before? What are you doing here?”

“I… don’t… know.” He replied with a face of disgust.

Yes, I had seen him before. He was the one who almost knocked me to the ground when he collided against me on the hallway at the beginning of the year.

“What’s your name?”

“Alan,” He violently got my arm and pushed me in the other direction, “Where to?” He sounded nervous.

“I-“

“WHERE TO?”

“Mayfield Avenue! A treehouse.”

I don’t know if it was real or my imagination, but I saw a gleam in his eyes like the name actually rung a bell to him.

“This way.” He spedwalked. He was still holding my arm.

“What are you doing? Let me go!” I yelled, but he kept his focus and kept running.

The voices from the other direction kept getting closer . There were also flashlights going around, probably looking for something… or someone.

What that someone me?

“Let me go!” I demanded the messy haired guy. He was getting on my nerves. Once we got out of the station, I pushed us both and Alan collided against a trash can. That set me free.

I ran back to the station where the flashlights and voices were coming from.

“Not that way, you moron!” Alan yelled and ran after me.

“Help! There’s a crazy dude following me!”

“Dude, shut up!”

“Alan?” The unrecognisable voices from the other side called, “Alan, did you find him?”

“Help!” I yelled, but I quickly realised that had been a mistake. What did they mean, whoever the others were, by Alan, did you find him?

The others came to where Alan and I were.

I recognised Mia Green’s look at first, and then Miriam Hazel, another girl with her concerning rage face. A muscular guy took me from Alan’s hands and almost broke my arm. With this, I would have given anything just to be in Alan!s grip again. I just wanted to go home.

“Is this him?” Mr Muscles said.

“Yeah. Dennis Walker.” A small, petty guy emerged from the shadows where he was unseen before. Out of the rest, he was the only one who looked even more scared that I was.

“What do you want with me?” I asked them furiously.

“Does the name William Michaels ring any bells?” Miriam Hazel replied with another question.

“A few, yeah. What do you want?” I repeated. The encounter with William Michales had scared me, but these guys looked seriously nervous, and that wasn’t very threatening.

However, my leg lost balance and I fell to the ground. I was very tired.

“Go to your dear Doctor Marshall,” Mia laughed, “Then tell him you made everything up, tell him William is innocent.”

“Alright. We might as well stay here all night,” I found my courage, “Want to bet?”

“Wow. He’s got some nerve, hasn’t he?” Mia Green laughed mockingly.

“Oh, like you wouldn’t know, you [CENSORED].” 

Mr Muscles, Mia, Miriam, Alan, Peter and I all turned around to find two boys who looked menacing.

“Well, well, well,” Miriam Hazel started, “It’s been a while since we had an encounter like this, Alastor and Kevin,” Her smile, highlighted by the flashlight in the night, was more irritable than ever, “Only… you’re two members short now. Two to go.”

The short guy behind the fight squealed.

“Peter…” Kevin Harrington called, “Nice to see where your allegiances lie.”

“I- I didn’t mean to. I-” The Peter guy tried to talk.

“No, please, shut the [CENSORED] up,” Alastor cut him off with a heavy hand movement to the side, “A friend of yours has been framed for something he didn’t do and the best thing you can do is give them information about his younger brother Dennis?”

“Not surprised to see you here, Alan Rawlins,” Kevin noted with a tone of sarcasm, “Sad to say you are predictable.”

“We’ll see about that.” Alan smirked.

“I wanna go home. Can you hand Dennis over to us, please?” Kevin kindly asked, and got his origami Lupin out of his pocket. As did Alastor with his origami Sirius Black.

“No way, and… Oh, so we’re playing puppets now?” The muscular boy pulled out an origami Fenrir Greyback, the scary main werewolf from the Death Eaters.

“Suits you, Jake.”

Alastor drew a first punch and hit Jake in the face. I was freed and joined them.

“Wow, I’ve been waiting a long time for that.” Alastor laughed.

The two girls tried to kick Kevin, but Alan (very unexpectedly) brought them both to the ground before they got to Kevin.

By the time we four looked where Peter had stood, he was far gone.

“Great. We have a coward on the loose.” Alan Rawlins joked.

“I’m sorry, do you think you’re part of the team now?” 

“Umm… No.”

“Good,” Alastor arched an eyebrow, “Because I was getting the impression you did. And you aren’t.”

“Glad to hear. I don’t want to be part of the group.”

“Then why did you help us? Maybe you’re the coward after all.” Kevin joined.

“You know. I hated… and still hate Henry with everything I’ve got… I told them about the treehouse, and where it was. I used my anger to try and bring down one of the things Henry Walker loved the most, his group of friends with finger puppets. I, on the other hand, ended up hurting the only person in the school I loved.”

Kevin exhaled.

“Please don’t tell me so,e of all this was because you were jealous.”

“Eva was my only friend, and Henry took her from me. Now I’m going to have to carry the guilt. Eva doesn’t want to be found, wherever she is. And even though it’s my fault I won’t forget it was William Michales who set fire to the treehouse that night,” Tears were coming out of Alan’s eyes and his hands were flying around, “I don’t care if you guys win. I just want William Michaels to lose.”

Alastor and Kevin looked at each other. I somehow knew what they were thinking.

“I won’t forgive you, Alan, because you broke the team,” Alastor held out his hand, “But let’s just say we’re fighting for the same cause. Can we trust you?”

Alan looked at the hand but didn’t shake it.

“You said it yourself. We’re not friends,” He turned around, “But call me when you have a trace on William.”

“William’s in prison!” Kevin yelled.

Alan slowly turned around, like for dramatic effect.

“That’s the neat part. He isn’t. He’s been running away since last week. He needs a way to come back to school.”

“He’s been expelled!”

“There’s more than one way for a person to come back to school. After all, no one knows better than dear Tim Baker how Cassius DeNogaret fooled everyone in the last Tri-Chemist tournament.”

Alastor silently nodded and turned his back on Alan. Then turned to me.

“Dennis, it’s better if you go home.”

I knew he was trying to help me and that he was totally right, but I was actually getting very sick from the special treat,ent everyone was giving me.

“Alastor, you don’t have to talk to me like I’m 5 years old. I know what I have to do, and I know the risks.”

Kevin grunted in agreement (sort of ?), which was more than I could ask for.

“I know you want to help,” I tried to explain myself, “But I’m capable of making my own decisions.”

“You’re right, sorry,” Alastor apologised, “I just wanted you to know that I’m here. Kevin and I are here to help you with whatever you may need.”

“Thanks.” I gave him a hug. Honestly, I really felt like I needed one.

“But don’t trust Alan,” Kevin added, “Not yet, at least.”

“I don’t want to scare you, but the truth is, Kevin and I are scared,” Alastor continued, “The reason we brought you here is because we got told by Doc that you’ll receive a letter tomorrow. Your brother will be attending court to declare his innocence. Hopefully he’ll be back with us.”

I looked back. There was no one listening. It was dark and it was cold, only one streetlamp illuminating our way. We were far from the town centre.

“We’re few in numbers,” Alastor continued, “And while some think that William Michaels-“

“-Foldemort.” I interrupted him. I got the shivers by only saying the name. Sounds foolish, but there, in the cold darkness, it was creepy.

“Foldemort. While some think that Foldemort is gone forever, those who know Ilkley Grammar school’s  history know that no one with a mission really ever quits. And Foldemort really has it with you and your brother.”

 I nodded once more. They took me home to make sure nothing else happened, and then they parted ways to their homes. I didn’t sleep very tight that night, so to say.

REUNION OF PARTNERS 

By Dennis Walker 

As Alastor promised, I got a letter from the headteacher which specified that Henry Walker, my older brother, would be attending a hearing to declare his innocence.

Unfortunately. Not me nor anyone I really knew from school attended the hearing. Only Eva Taylor; the victim, and William Michaels; the victor (From what I heard, he failed to show up. In fact, he hadn’t been seen since the day we met in that classroom).

He had been declared innocent. The proof that William so foolishly gave away was more than enough to declare him guilty, I bet. I was right.

What I heard was that my brother was going to be preparing his stuff to come back. While they found a place for him to stay in, he was going to have to wait in Juvenile prison.

He also had to sort out some amends before he came back to school, one of them being meeting Eva again.

A week after, I felt confident enough to talk about what had happened that night at the station to Reuben and Alyson.

“Dennis!” Alyson was even more preoccupied than I was, “Why didn’t you say anything before? Why didn’t you tell a teacher? Tell someone! They’ve got to get Mia, Miriam and that Jake guy out of the school!”

“Woah, woah WOAHH!” Reuben faked falling off his chair, “Hang on, girl.”

“Reuben! What would have been of Dennis if his brother’s friends hadn’t come to save the day?”

“I-“

“And why didn’t you tell us to come with you?

I didn’t have time to tell you – I wanted to say – I thought I was going there and an hour later I would be leaving, but it was a trap. It ‘s not my fault.

“Look,” I breathed, “I messed up, alright?

“Alright,” Alyson looked like a totally different person and seemed to comprehend, for a change, “But count on us next time.”

“I would never leave you out of the action,” I smirked and looked at Reuben, “You guys know that.”

The smirks faded away. A paper airplane collided against my Lemony Water X-treme and knocked it off.

“Jeez. Is that a metal airplane?” Reuben exclaimed in surprise.

Alyson scoffed and rolled her eyes as I unfolded it. It wasn’t a prank. It was a note. 

A note from Alastor.

Harry Paper,

We don’t know who might be watching, so we can’t be seen together.

We don’t know who to trust, we don’t know who could be following you home.

We don’t know why they are so keen on following you now, 

But what we do know is that they won’t stop. William Michaels is persistent, arrogant and selfish. If he gets you, I don’t know what he’ll do to you.

For a person with no morals, for madness to kick in, it only takes a little push.

Can we meet at your house tonight? Bring your friends.

• Sirius Black Paper

“So,” Reuben started, “What should we do now?”

I fixed my gaze on him. Did they know about the treehouse in Alastors backyard?

If not, I guessed it was about time they knew.

“Meet me at my house, tonight.” I told them both, and they nodded. I’d show them the way.

If what William Michaels wanted was a fight, he better be ready for it. 

Now it’s coming to him.

That night we met at the treehouse. Alyson and Reuben both came to my apartment and the three of us safely walked towards Alastor’s Bismarck’s house (for a change). There was no one in the track.

I wasn’t sure how we were supposed to go up there, but surprisingly, we quickly found a ladder and went up.

The inside of the treehouse was larger than I actually expected. 

I could still see some burn marks from the incident a couple of months back (the one which innocently took my brother to prison) on the wood, but the rest had been repainted to look nice.

There was a small puff couch on the side, two sleeping bags to the side, a nightstand with a totally wireless lamp which probably worked on batteries and a table in the middle with some chairs.

Alastor Bismarck, Kevin Harrington and the guy who rescued me from William called Cammy were seated there. We sat down.

“Woah, guys,” I looked around, totally feasting my eyes, “This is incredible. I would have never imagined it like this.”

“It’s so… clean.” Alyson added, taking a seat.

Cammy got up and brought three Nestea bottles and handed them to us. He happily got a hold of them.

“I figured you guys were thirsty,” He smirked, “Anyways, welcome to the place where we used to hang out.”

“Yeah, before we were dissolved,” Alastor finished mockingly, “Amd I’m glad you guys are here, because from now on, you work with us.”

“Cool beans.” Reuben leaned on his chair.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Alyson asked.

“You two are safe, your friend Dennis is not, and William Michaels is not sane. So we will each have our backs on this matter. No matter what happens, we have got our backs, got it?”

“Deal.” I agreed, and took a sip out of my bottle as I looked at a wooden sword hanging on the wooden wall. That made me smile.

I had a refuge, three more friends, safety, a Nestea bottle, and on top of all my brother was soon coming back.

What could possibly go wrong?

TO BE CONTINUED…

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