Chapter one: The Camp
Rain pitter-patted through the iron bars and onto the chilly glass window pane, alerting the occupants in the small flat of the coming storm. Storms in the middle of August, such as this one, were not uncommon. People had trouble explaining the intense and spontaneous torrents. Unable to connect them with the ocean, sun or planets, they just decided that the only possible explanation of the strange weather they had been experiencing for the past fifty years was magic.
“Lottie, dear, could you take the water bucket outside for me?” A rather bony, middle-aged woman appeared in the doorway. Her hair was a thin, graying brown, but her eyes, despite her ripened appearance, were a vibrant green. Rain water squelched under her boots as she took a few steps into the apartment. “I just came from outside and feel as if I jumped into the ocean.”
Lottie looked up from her small corner of the flat, pebbles spilling out of the sides of her hands. “Yeah, sure, okay,” she said, picking out some of the bigger rocks and pocketing them. She carelessly discarded the smaller stones and let them fall to a bare mattress that she sat on. The rocks in her pocket thumped against her legs as she walked to pick up the massive pail.
Lottie Rowe was a fairly average eleven-year-old for a Muggle in the London camp. She had blond hair that probably would have reached her shoulder blades, had it not been so tangled, and hazel eyes that must have come from a grandparent who she never knew, since neither of her parents had them.
Clutching the cold steel chain, Lottie dragged the bucket across the floor, down the hall and into the storm. She pushed the bucket out into the rain, and chained it to the brick wall so nobody would steal it.
“Oi! Lottie!”
Through the heavy rain, all Lottie could see was a blur of reddish hair running toward her. She knew at once who it was. Only one of her friends would be out in a storm like this. “Olive?” Lottie waved. “You want to come inside? You can sit by the fire.”
“Ah, no thanks,” Olive shouted over a thunderclap overhead. “Hey, Melanie and Shawnee are over at the gates. I think they’re trying to get some of the others there too. Want to come?”
Lottie rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet. Her mother probably wouldn’t like her out in a storm such as this, but she knew how to take care of herself. “Okay.” Lottie smiled. “Let me go grab a hat.”
She ran inside and picked up her thick, knitted hat off the ground. As she slipped it over her ears, her mother poked her head around the door. “Lottie, where are you headed to now? There’s a storm outside, dear.”
“Yes, I know.” Lottie ran over to the door and slipped on a jumper. “I’ll be back soon; I love you, mum; bye!” Before her mother could get in another word, she ran out the door to meet up with Olive.
Reaching into her pocket, Lottie pulled out one of her rocks and tossed it to her. “Found this under the bakery.” Olive held the stone up to examine it. “It’s a good one, isn’t it?”
“I s’pose so,” Olive said as they spotted another group of girls about their age.
Lottie and Olive were at a serious disadvantage, considering that there were only two of them, and the other group had at least six people. One girl, with huge blue eyes and thin, short brown hair was running to keep up. She stopped, just short of running into another girl. “What’re you doing on our street?” the tallest girl of the other group demanded.
“Your street?” Olive laughed. “I do think that this has been our street for about a year and a half now, and if anybody needs to leave, it’s you.”
The other group looked as though they might try something, but Lottie and Olive quickly pulled out their rocks. Lottie tossed hers from one hand to another threateningly. The small girl with the blue eyes stood on her toes and muttered something in a taller girl’s ear.
They weren’t leaving. Lottie turned to Olive and nodded. Quickly, both of them threw one rock so they just whizzed over their heads.
After a tense moment, the other group turned around and walked away, grumbling to each other as they did.
“Right.” Lottie stuffed her hands into her pockets and watched them leave. “Which gates are they at?”
Olive pointed straight ahead. “Those ones,” she said. “Last time I checked, the Death Eaters were heading this way. I hid, and I’m pretty sure they passed, so we shouldn’t have a problem with them right now.”
“Good.” Lottie shivered. She hated the Death Eaters. They often walked in packs, robed, hooded and masked, so she couldn’t make out their faces. With sticks that shot jets of colored light, they would parade across the camps, attacking people when they thought were up to something, or sometimes when they were just bored. Lottie especially hated when they would call her Muggle. She didn’t know what that meant, but she assumed that it had to do with the fact that she couldn’t do magic like they could.
She really didn’t understand why not being able to do the same magic made her worthy of being locked up like she was, though. Gates bound her on all sides. Lottie had seen several others try to climb over them; they were always killed by one of those Death Eaters and their sticks.
They saw the gates in the distance, and could make out the blurry figures of a few of their friends. Olive grabbed Lottie by the wrist, and they ran forward, their boots splashing in the puddles of rainwater.
“Melanie!” Lottie called waving to the oldest of their group. “What’re you trying to do, bringing us all out here in the storm?” She glanced nervously at Olive. “Get us killed or something?”
Melanie smiled, pushing her sopping wet, dark hair out of her eyes. “I’ll tell you,” she said, pulling Lottie close into her ear. “But only because you’re you.” Glancing around to make sure that none of the other girls were listening, she whispered, “I’ve got a plan. I think I found a way for us to get back at the Death Eaters and the Dark Lord.”
Lottie straightened up, eyebrows raised. She enjoyed her privilege of always being the first to find out any of Melanie’s plans, but didn’t enjoy the responsibility of telling her when her plans were completely mad. Melanie was the oldest, so she was, naturally, the leader of their group. Lottie, though, was the second oldest, second biggest, and second smartest, which made her second in command.
“You know,” Lottie muttered back, keeping her voice low, “my grandmother tried to get into something like that. This sort of thing never turns out well, mate, I can assure you of that.”
“Yes, but we’re smarter than them, aren’t we?”
Lottie laughed, but didn’t respond. She glanced over at the girls with them. Olive smiled at her, her eyes hidden under her auburn fringe. Shawnee cocked her head to one side, giving Lottie the same curious look as she always did when she wanted information. Lottie mouthed “later” and stood up. “So, are we going to get the others or not?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips.
With a splash, Olive and Shawnee scrambled to standing. “Olive,” Melanie said, “you go get Alexa and Hattie. They’re probably together anyway. Check under the old Turtle Building. They’re probably there.” Olive ran off. “And, you Shawnee, go find Pip. Who knows where she is. Just go look for her.”
Shawnee sighed, tucking a brown ringlet behind her ears. Sulking away, she muttered something that sounded suspiciously like a few swear words.
Melanie sat down again, leaning against the thick gate. “Sit.” She patted the wet pavement next to her.
“So, how are you planning to start this little revolt?” Lottie tried not to sound too amused. She had seen Melanie start many projects like this, all of them nearly ending with the death of one of their friends.
“I found an old bloke.” Melanie didn’t say anything else. After a few minutes silence, she turned to Lottie, waiting for her to ask more.
“Yeah, and?”
Lightning flashed. Lottie sighed and counted the seconds before the thunderclap. “Four seconds,” she said to Melanie after the thunder had echoed through the entire camp. “Not too far from here.”
“We won’t get hit.” Melanie sounded almost too sure of herself.
There was a splashing of footsteps coming towards them. Olive had two younger girls following her, giggling shrilly. With a sigh, she pushed both of them forward. Melanie stood, crossing her arms, causing the two girls scoot in closer to each other.
“What did they do this time?” Melanie tapped her foot.
One of the younger girls grinned, revealing a large gap where her two front teeth were supposed to be. “One of the boys told us that there were coins under the stones of the Turtle Building,” the one who still had her front teeth said. “We didn’t find any, so Hattie tried to bite the stones, to make sure if there were coins in them.”
Lottie’s face broke into a grin as well. “You’re supposed to bite the coin to make sure it’s real, not the stone that the coin might be in,” she said through a laugh.
Hattie, the girl missing the two front teeth, frowned. “Well, Alexa was going to try it too, before Olive found us,” she said defensively.
“Yeah, but I probably would’ve been able to find something!” shouted the girl with the teeth, called Alexa. She shoved Hattie playfully.
Lottie turned to Melanie. “Those are her baby teeth,” she said. “They would’ve fallen out anyway.”
“Oi! You all should thank me!” Shawnee’s voice rang through the empty street. She marched towards them. A much smaller girl who couldn’t be any older than six was running just to keep up. “Do you know where I found her?”
The very little girl giggled. “I was sneaking into the Dark Lord’s home!” All of the other girls groaned. Lottie doubted that the large, gated house actually belonged to the Dark Lord, but apparently people had been calling it that for years.
“Pip!” Melanie whacked the small girl on the shoulder. “I’ve told you a thousand times not to go there! You know what could happen to you if you were caught?”
“Yeah, but I--”
The crash of thunder cut Pip off.
“Okay,” Melanie said, leaning in and getting much more serious now. “Believe it or not, there was a reason why we’re all here.”
“Are we going to go fight some boys?!” Pip hopped up and down, splashing mud on all of the other girls’ pants.
“Shut up, Pip!”
Melanie rolled her eyes. “Anyways, there’s a bloke who said he would sell us some magic, if we could pay him. I was thinking if we all chip in, we can all share the magic, and kill all the Death Eaters.” There was a silence. “So what does everybody have?!”
Lottie knew better than to argue with Melanie, and by looking around at all of the other girls’ faces, she guessed that they were thinking the same thing. There was no way it would work, and she didn’t want to sacrifice the little she had to try.
Pip squealed. Pulling her hand out of a small pouch attached to her waist with a rope, she shouted, “I’ve got half a roll and a coin.” She proudly slapped her offerings in Melanie’s hand.
Each of them continued to give Melanie what they had in turn, until Lottie was the only one left. “Ah… let me see.” She dug through her pockets. All she felt were the rocks she had just found and a few coins. Carefully, she pulled out one of the rocks and two of the coins, purposefully leaving the rest in her pocket. “All I’ve got,” Lottie lied with a shrug.
Melanie put everything in a bag and added a few apples of her own. “Well, it’s not much, but he might give us something small with this.”
She tied the bag to her waist and started walking away from the gates. “Where are we going?” Pip shouted, running to keep up with the much bigger girl’s strides.
“To find him. He was near the bakery last I saw him.”
Lottie sighed and followed anyway. This plan was ridiculous, but she wasn’t about to say that out loud. They walked quickly, passing by empty and overcrowded buildings. They passed by a huge, crumbling green structure, and Hattie shouted, “There must be some coins in there.”
“No, there aren’t!” Shawnee shouted.
Lottie laughed as she looked at Melanie’s exasperated expression, but continued walking with the rest.
“Wait!” Pip hopped in front of the group, her hands on her hips, trying to make up for her lack of height with a very stern expression. “What are we going to do with this magic when we get it? Don’t we need the sticks that the Death Eaters carry around?”
“Don’t be stupid, Pip,” Lottie said, though secretly she agreed.
“Yeah, they just use those sticks because…” Melanie stopped, rubbing her head. “Ah!” she shouted. “Because the Dark Lord doesn’t want them to be as powerful as him, and those sticks don’t let them use all of their magic! If we don’t use sticks, then we’ll be more powerful than them!”
“Oh.” Pip blushed. “Of course.”
Lottie didn’t laugh along with all of the other girls. Unlike Melanie, she noticed the power that those sticks wielded. Melanie stopped, and motioned to the other girls to do the same. They stood in front of a tiny crumbling building. “He said he’d be here,” she said, tapping her foot.
Olive exchanged a glance with Lottie. They didn’t want to be the ones to tell Melanie that it wasn’t usually best to trust creepy looking strangers.
“OI! THERE HE IS!” Pip pointed to a shadow in a nearby alley.
“Pip!” Hattie sighed, and pushed Pip on the shoulder.
The man stopped and turned around. “Z’at you?” he grunted, creeping towards them. Lottie backed up slightly.
“Yes,” Melanie said taking a step forward. “We don’t have much, but it is something.” She offered him the bag.
A thick knitted cap nearly covered the man’s eyes. His trench coat was a faded navy blue, speckled with the rain water from the storm. “You’re right, it isn’t much.” He pulled out the rocks in the bag.
“We’ve got these too!” Hattie pulled out two blood stained teeth.
“Hattie, why would anybody want that?” Olive said, smiling sheepishly at the man.
“Well…” The main threw Lottie’s rocks to the floor, but took the rest. “I s’pose this must be good for something.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a scrap of yellowing paper. “You girls are lucky that you found me. With only this bit of goods, most folks wouldn’t give you a trick like this.” He swung the bag in front of them.
“Oh, thank you!” Melanie said, taking the scrap of paper. “We’ll be sure to use it well.”
The man chuckled and disappeared back into the shadows. “Odd fellow, isn’t he?” Lottie said with a nervous laugh. “Here, let me see that.” She reached over and took the parchment, making sure to keep it out of the rain. As she moved her fingers over the creases, about to open it, Pip spun around and pointed at the sky, screaming.
Above them was a far too familiar shimmering skull with a snake coming out of its mouth. The bright green burned Lottie’s eyes and ran shivers down her spine. “Run!” Melanie shouted. “Go back home! GO!”
They scattered, Lottie running towards her own flat. Panting, she turned a corner to the biggest street in the camp. Because of the storm, she was the only person on the usually crowded road. She turned and looked over her shoulder. Nobody was there. She ran over to a tree and snapped off a stick before hopping off, and hiding behind the large trunk. Hands shaking, she made sure that the scrap of parchment didn’t get wet as she unfolded it. Melanie would probably kill her if she found out that she had tried this without her.
The words on the paper were faded; Lottie had to squint to make them out.
Avada Kedavra
Lottie frowned. The words were odd, and she felt as though she shouldn’t say them out loud. Waving her stick, she hissed “Avada Kedavra.”
Nothing happened.
She tried at least five times, finally getting extremely frustrated and throwing her stick back into the street. Somebody shouted. Pocketing her parchment again, she rose and peaked around the tree to see who it was. A group of Death Eaters crept forward, looking more like one giant black spider than separate people.
Trying not to scream, Lottie began to run back to her flat. She couldn’t let the Death Eaters see her. She ran back through the alley and to the smaller street. There was another clump of cloaked Death Eaters on this street, but they were much farther away.
It felt as though the back of her throat was sticking to the front by the time she was halfway there. She ran though, too scared to stop, taking the familiar route back to her home. The Death Eaters were faster than she was, though, so when she finally arrived at the front door of the building, they were not far off. She pushed open the door and ran down the hall. Before she could open the door to her family’s small room, it swung open.
Her mother stood in the doorway, smiling nervously at her daughter. “Oh, thank goodness you’re here,” she said, shaking Lottie by the shoulders. “I was so, so worried, what with the Death Eaters running amok…”
“Posy?”
Posy blushed and turned back to Lottie. “Oh, I’m sorry, love, I forgot. There’s somebody here to see you.”
Halfway to Infinity by Eponine
Chapter Notes: Thanks again to Deanine and "the Bird" for all of their help with killing all of my silly errors in this chapter. Also, sorry for the late update everyone.