Kaez Alexandrov
Head Administrator
Posts : 1101
Join date : 2010-09-19
Age : 31
Location : Knockturn Alley
 | | Subject: Close Encounter :: DTAC Short Story Wed Feb 24, 2021 11:25 pm | |
|  August 31st, 1971
The shadow of the giant willow tree in the backyard danced across my bedroom’s ceiling, I stared at them deep in thought as I lay in bed.
Tomorrow would be Noah and I’s first day at Hogwarts, and to say I was nervous would be an understatement. All I had known so far was being home schooled with Sahar and Noah by our grandmother; until Sahar turned 11, then it was just Noah and me. But tomorrow everything would change, tomorrow we would meet other students, and brand new professors. And for the first time in our lives we would be away from our family-- well, except for our great aunt Adriana but we wouldn’t be seeing much of her until our third year according to my sister.
Tomorrow would be the first day of the next 7 years of our lives; and though we come from a long line of powerful seers, neither of us knew what the future held for us.
I bit my lip as the fear of the unexpected hit with a pang to my stomach. I took my blanket and wrapped it around myself before getting out of bed. My owl Rose gave a soft hoot as she stared at me with her big black eyes, I smiled and walked towards her opening the door of her cage.
“You can come with me, but you have to keep quiet. Alright?”
As if she understood me she climbed onto my shoulder and nuzzled against my cheek. I smiled and scratched the top of her head before walking out the door.
I tiptoed down the hall making sure I didn’t wake anyone and made my way to Noah’s room. I gently knocked on the door.
“Noah,” I spoke softly, “are you awake?” I pressed my ear against the cool wooden door and could hear his faint snoring. I rolled my eyes, “of course not.” I jiggled the door handle but it was locked; why’d he have to make this more difficult? I reached up to my hair bun and pulled out one of the pins that kept it in place and inserted it to the keyhole; after some careful jiggling I managed to unlock it and opened the door. “Noah,” I whispered after shutting it behind me, I walked over to him and shook him, “Noah.”
He groaned and slowly opened his eyes, his brow furrowing. He looked at the clock, then back at me.
“What in Merlin’s name are you doing, Morgan? It’s 2am.”
“I can’t sleep,” I sat next to him.
He rubbed his eyes.
“How’d you get in here? The door was locked.”
I shrugged.
“Are you surprised? You’ve seen me pick Sahar’s lock plenty of times.”
“If I have bags under my eyes in the morning, I’m going to kill you,” he sighed, “what’s on your mind?”
“I’m too excited,” I smiled at him, “and nervous, admittedly… Everything’s changing, how can you sleep so peacefully.”
“I’m quite good at it when I’m not interrupted,” he sat up wrapping his arms around his knees, “but now that you mention it, I am a little nervous. Specially about the sorting, I’ve no idea what it’ll be like.”
“Sahar says they put this old hat on you that can read your mind and it shouts out what house you’ll be in.”
“And you believe her?” He raised an eyebrow, “I’m sure it’s got to be something more elaborate than that.”
I chuckled and looked out the window, my eyes widening. I stood from the bed and ran to it.
“Look, Noah, there’s fireflies in the garden!”
“Bit late for them to be out, isn’t it?” He blinked and got up, indeed there were fireflies dancing about.
“What if we go catch them one last time before we go to school?” I smiled at him.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea…”
“Oh come on,” I gave him a nudge, “it’s not like we’re walking past the protection line.”
He shook his head.
“I’m going back to sleep.”
“Fine,” I shrugged, “I’ll go alone.”
He groaned.
“You know I’m not going to let you go alone.”
“Cool, let’s go!” I smiled and twisted my arm with his pulling him with me.
We grabbed a couple of jars trying to not make too much noise in the kitchen, and we made our way out to the backyard where the small orbs of light swayed. But the closer we got to them, the more apparent it was that that’s all they were, orbs of light. My brow furrowed, if these weren’t fireflies someone had to make them.
My eyes scanned across the tree line, spotting a man hiding in the shadows. He smiled at me.
“Noah Warren and Morgan Alexandrov,” he stepped into the moonlight, “I’ve heard so much about you.”
Rose screeched and flew back into the house.
“How do you know our names?” I took a step back, “who are you?”
“My name is Tom,” he gave a bow, “I’m a friend of your father’s.”
“You knew my father?” My eyebrows raised in surprise.
“Knew? I know him,” he grinned and extended his hand, “he’s asked me to take you to him, he wants to see both of you before you head off to school.”
“Morgan…” Noah took my hand, “don’t.”
“How do I know you’re not lying?” I raised an eyebrow.
“He thought you would be skeptical, so he told me he had a message for you.”
“And what’s that?”
He extended his hand further.
“Tea party.”
My heart skipped a beat, there was no way anyone outside of our family knew about the tea party my father promised me before he disappeared. I took a step forward.
“Reducto!”
We turned around to see grandma Cassie run out the door, mother and aunt Elizabeth following close behind.
“Morgan! Noah!” Mother yelled, “get back in the house!”
Before I could react Noah wasted no time in pulling me in with him. We both stood by the window seeing the battle that ensued outside now, flashes of light going back and forth. In a puff of black smoke Tom rose up and disapparated; and they began to fortify the protection spells that kept the estate safe.
“Now we’ve done it,” Noah sighed slouching on the couch, “I told you we should have gone back to sleep.”
“He knew dad,” I looked at Noah, “he was going to take us to him,”
“He was lying.”
I jumped seeing Sahar standing in the doorway.
“Dad’s been missing for 7 years, do you really think he would have sent someone else?”
“He mentioned the tea party,” I crossed my arms, “how do you explain that?”
“Do you know how many people mum said that story to when dad went missing?” She raised an eyebrow, “a lot. It’s not hard to get ahold of that information.”
Before I could argue, mum, Elizabeth, and grandma walked in, all of them looking equally displeased.
“The two of you are going to be grounded when you come back for Christmas holiday,” Cassie looked at us sternly, “you’re lucky you’re both going to Hogwarts or there would have been serious consequences. Do you know how dangerous it is to be out this late with all that’s been happening?”
“We saw fireflies…” I looked down, “I thought it would be fun to catch some to celebrate…”
My mother walked over to me and kissed the top of my head.
“Dark times are close, my little firefly; you need to be more careful. The both of you do.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Noah and I said in unison.
“Now off to bed before you get into more trouble,” aunt Elizabeth ruffled Noah’s hair.
I sighed and walked back to my room and climbed into bed, attempting to fall asleep with even more thoughts running through my mind. Who was Tom? If he didn’t know father, how did he know where we were? Who we were? I drifted to sleep and saw him in my dreams, being swallowed whole by the snake man... | |
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