“Voldemort’s father was a Muggle,” Jordan pointed out darkly. “Ivy, what exactly happened?”
Ivy took a seat. “For the last couple months, I’ve kind of been sneaking out at night to transform and get used to moving around like a fox and everything. And after the Third Task, I went into the forest and transformed and started walking around. Well, my hearing’s a lot better as a fox, so I heard some voices, and it was weird, because I recognized them as Apple and Skitesby and Schiffington. Only it didn’t sound like Apple was mad at them, which was weird, because Skitesby and Schiffington had just been caught rigging the Triwizard Tournament.
“So I walked a little deeper into the forest and I heard Apple say, ‘…so, tonight at the speech at Regent’s Park, the Muggles are going to get it.’ And then, Schiffington said, ‘Be careful, Tancred. You know it’s illegal. If anything goes wrong, you’ll be thrown in Azkaban.’ And that was when I came running up here.”
Jordan sat down and gripped his head in his hands. “I need to think,” he said in a low voice. “We have to do something about this.”
“Shouldn’t we tell Dad?” Ivy asked anxiously. “Or some teacher or something?”
“There’s no time for that!” snapped Jordan. “According to what I read in the newspapers, Apple’s going to give a speech in about an hour. If we have to go all the way over to the Auror office at the Ministry and explain everything again, the Aurors may not get there in time. It’s safer if we’re over there as witnesses and then try to get the Aurors if there’s time.”
“You read the Muggle newspapers?” Ted asked with some interest.
“He’ll read anything you shove in front of him,” Emma replied. She looked around anxiously. “What do you think Apple’s going to do?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” said Jordan. “But I’m starting to think up a plan. We’ll need to get at least four more people, though. You four, go and get some friends to help us out, and I’ll work on my plan,” he instructed.
No one complained about his bossiness as they took off”there was no time to argue, and besides, Jordan happened to be a very intelligent boy. The authoritative tone of his voice helped, too. “Meet up in the Room of Requirement in five minutes,” he called after the others. And Potter’s Pentagon went their separate ways, planning to rejoin as nine.
Ted rapped frantically on the door to the Beauxbatons carriage. Five minutes was not a long time, and he had to be both speedy and persuasive in his argument. He took a slow, calming breath as a sharp-featured boy opened the door “Hi,” said Ted, somewhat out of breath. “Could you please get Arden DuBois and tell her that Theo’s here? It’s kind of important.”
The boy squinted. “Arden…” he said in a thick French accent, then his eyes lit up with recognition. “Yes, I know her. She does not say very much.”
“I need her help,” Ted told the boy, keeping his voice friendly although there was an underlying urgency to his tone.
“I will get her, then,” The boy responded, then disappeared back into the carriage.
A few seconds later, Arden appeared, the black traveling cloak she wore over her powder blue robes matching the black ribbon that was invariably tied around her throat. “Theo? You wanted to see me?” she asked, a note of confusion in her voice.
“There’s something bad going on over in London,” Ted told her. “And my friends and I could really use your help.”
“Tonight?” Arden winced. “But it will be a full moon!”
Ted shrugged. “Never stopped me,” he said. “Did you take your potion?”
“Yes, but…”
Ted stopped. He didn’t want to drag his friend into anything that she didn’t want to do. He was a Gryffindor, and he’d always been brave (“to the point of stupidity,” as Emma often said fondly), but Arden was more reserved and apprehensive than he was. And then there was the matter that no one knew she was a werewolf.
“You don’t need to come if you don’t want to,” he let her know. “I didn’t think about the fact that everyone will find out you’re a werewolf if you come. I’m just a little bit, you know, distraught. I’m not thinking straight.”
But Arden’s navy blue eyes were resolved. “If you need help, then I will come,” she said quietly. “Let’s go.”
Ted blinked, then grinned. “All right,” he agreed.
“VLAAAAADISLAAAAAV!” screamed Haley, racing across the grounds with her arms outstretched like an airplane about to take off.
Vladislav Poliakoff, who was sitting by the lake reading a book of some sort, looked up, a look of surprise passing briefly over his usually unexpressive features. “Me?” he asked.
“Nooo, I named the giant squid Vladislav,” replied Haley, rolling her eyes. “OF COURSE YOU!” she yelled.
“What did I do?” asked Vladislav.
Haley found this response rather humorous, as the boy struck her as the kind of person who had never done anything worth blame in his life. “Listen, something’s really wrong, and my brother’s trying to stop it, and he said to get as many people as possible to help.”
“Your brother? Is he the Quidditch player?” asked Vladislav.
“Yeah,” said Haley. “But that’s not impor””
“He is very like his father,” the boy said.
Haley snorted. “No, not really,” she told him. “But really, he wants people to help with this, and he may be a genius, but I’m not, and we need all of the brainpower we can get for this. And I figured I’d get you, since you’re smart.”
“Not that smart,” muttered Vladislav, but he got to his feet, stowing his book in his bag. “What is the problem, anyway?”
“Tancred Apple,” Haley let him know succinctly.
“I’ll help,” Vladislav agreed quickly, and followed her back to the castle.
Ivy knew who she needed to recruit, but she wasn’t sure her victim would take to the idea. The ‘victim’ in question was sitting at a table in the library, chatting with her friends and not doing any studying or reading whatsoever. “Marina?” she said cautiously, stepping out from behind a bookcase.
Her cousin looked up. “Please don’t talk to me about Emma. I’m not taking any stock in the whole ‘she means well’ speech,” she told Ivy, tossing her outrageously long strawberry-blonde hair so that it hung down the back of the library chair and brushed the floor.
“This isn’t about Emma,” Ivy replied, realizing that her voice sounded depressingly childish. “And it’s not about me, either. It’s a bit more important than that.”
Marina blinked. “Is it someone in the family?” she asked, going pale. “Don’t tell me something’s happened to our grandparents?”
Ivy shook her head frantically, then realized that several of Marina’s Beauxbatons friends were watching with interest. Although French was their first language, Ivy was sure that they spoke enough English to comprehend what she was about to say. “I think we should talk about this alone,” stated Ivy, nodding over toward the corridor.
“Er, okay…” said Marina, her eyes wide with confusion.
As soon as they were out in the hallway, Ivy blurted, “People in the Ministry”even Tancred Apple… especially him”are going to do illegal things to Muggles in London, and Jordan and Ted and Haley, and Emma and I can’t handle it on our own. We need your help.”
“Why?” asked Marina, her hands on her hips. “I thought I was the enemy.”
Ivy was worried now”she only had five minutes. “Who cares?” she exclaimed more forcefully than she’d intended. She didn’t mean to sound angry or loud; Ivy was usually nothing if not quiet and tactful. But she took this personally, and for some odd reason, she couldn’t restrain herself for once, couldn’t be quiet and accommodating. “It doesn’t matter if Emma was mad at you. Do the Muggles care if you like each other or not? They’ll just care that you helped save their lives!”
“Ivy, you…” began Marina.
Ivy interrupted her. “Last year, Malfoy did horrible things to Muggles and innocent people. How do you think I felt? I knew him, and he was doing terrible things, and there was nothing I could do about it. Now I can help keep people from getting hurt by Apple, and it would be really pathetic if we couldn’t do it just because two girls were jealous of each other.”
Marina stared at her cousin. “Ivy, have you ever seriously considered becoming, like, a marriage counselor?”
“No…” Ivy responded, her voice soft and gentle again. “Why?”
“Because that was the most convincing speech ever,” replied Marina, fixing the belt on her voluminous trousers. “And you made me feel guilty, which isn’t easy. I’m coming.”
“I must be insane,” Emma groused to herself. She couldn’t believe what she was about to do… but desperate times called for desperate measures. “Hey,” she called, her voice echoing down the hallway.
A tall, curly-haired figure standing halfway down the corridor turned around at the sound of Emma’s voice.
“Hi, Tyrone,” Emma said, her voice uncertain and nervous. Merlin, why did she sound like a three-year-old on helium?
“Why are you being so buddy-buddy with me all of a sudden?” replied Tyrone, his voice frosty. His dark eyes were cold and distant, his jaw was set, and his lip curled”he was suddenly very formidable-looking. It was easy to forget how big he was.
His words stung. Especially since they were Emma’s own, thrown harshly back at her. It was like looking in a brutally honest mirror on a bad-hair day. “Hey, listen…” she stammered.
“What do you want to yell at me for this time?” Tyrone asked coolly. “What tiny little thing have I done to tick you off now?”
“I need your help,” she said in a small voice quite unlike her own. One thing about Tyrone Thomas was that he liked everyone unless proven otherwise, and the thing that bothered him the most was when people didn’t give him the attention or respect that he wanted. It seemed Emma had treated him tactlessly one too many times.
“Actually, a lot of people need your help. Tancred Apple… he’s trying to do something bad to the Muggles, and Jordan’s asked me to get people to help stop him. And… you’re pretty brave, so I figured, you know, why not get Tyrone?”
Tyrone’s face, always expressive, changed instantly. His icy, indifferent eyes went wide with shock, his eyebrows shot up, and his mouth gaped. “Apple?” he confirmed. “You’re kidding.”
“I wish,” Emma said grimly.
“Is he going to kill them?” the boy asked quietly.
Emma sighed. “I don’t know. All we know is that he’s going to do something illegal to them.” Tyrone started to say something, but she cut him off. “Listen, I only have five minutes to convince you, and I don’t plan on using the Imperius Curse to do it.”
“I don’t need convincing,” Tyrone told her in a low voice. “My mum was murdered last year by Muggle-haters even though she was a pureblood, remember? I don’t want anyone else to have to go through that, especially Muggles who can’t put up a decent fight. I’m going, no further questions.”
“There can be times,” thought Emma, “when Tyrone can actually be really cool.”
Jordan was in his element when the eight students entered the Room of Requirement. He sat in an armchair, and his posture was straight and demanded attention, completely unlike his usual slump. He gripped the arms of his chair in a commanding manner, and his head was set at a dignified angle. He was in Quidditch Captain mode.
He looked powerful and in charge, and Haley suddenly felt intimidated by her twin. Something about the way he was sitting was completely alien and unfamiliar, and she almost wondered whether she really knew her brother after all.
Jordan scanned the group”Ted and Arden, Emma and Tyrone, Haley and Vladislav, and Ivy and Marina. “Excellent,” he said. “You’re probably all wondering what we’re going to do, so I’ll get right down to it. We’re going to””
“Wait!” said Arden. Everyone stared”Arden DuBois had never interrupted anyone in her entire life. In fact, no one in attendance but Ted had ever seen her speak. Arden opened her mouth, but no sound came out. All eyes were on her. “I… I…” she looked absolutely terrified at the prospect of speaking in front of eight other people. She turned toward Ted. “I can’t do it,” she whimpered.
Ted smiled encouragingly. “Come on,” he whispered. “Somebody’s got to explain before we go”and better you than me!”
Everyone was still staring at Arden. The girl closed her dark blue eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and said, “I think you should all hear of the truth about something that only Theo and I know.” She looked over to Ted for support. “I… I am a werewolf,” she told the others in a voice quieter and softer than the breeze blowing over a field of grass.
Ted stepped forward and began to speak, his words filling the vacuum of silence that had been created after Arden’s confession “And…well, I lied to you,” he told them. “Madame Patil wasn’t really doing a project on teenaged werewolves. It was just, Arden didn’t want anyone to know that she was a werewolf, and she transformed with me every full moon in the Shrieking Shack. So I couldn’t let you come and watch during my transformations, because then you’d find out about Arden. I didn’t know what else to do.”
Unlike the girl, who had stared down at her feet as she spoke, Ted looked up at his friends’ faces. His glance lingered upon Ivy, who looked rather pinch-faced as she always did when uncomfortable.
“I know I shouldn’t have lied to all of you. I’d have felt lousy if one of my friends had lied about something that big to me all year long. But it wasn’t like I didn’t trust you or anything like that. I really hope you’re not mad at me, but I guess I’d get it if you were.”
He smiled slightly after delivering this speech, despite himself. He’d known it would he hard, but Arden had done it. She’d told a crowd of people her biggest secret, and she barely even knew any of them. She’d been truly brave”it hadn’t been especially brave of Ted to have told everyone that he was a werewolf after being bitten because he wasn’t even a bit apprehensive about it. He felt no different than always after being bitten, and he saw lycanthropy as nothing to be ashamed of.
But Arden had been brave because the idea of revealing the truth completely terrified her, and the bravest thing of all is to face your fears. Ted couldn’t begin to say how proud he was of his friend.
Meanwhile, Ivy stared up at Ted, unsure of what to think. She’d thought that they knew absolutely everything about each other, but here was something that he’d hidden from her all year… it suddenly dawned on her that maybe this was how he had felt when she had revealed that she was an Animagus.
But she knew”and she knew that it wasn’t selfish when it was true”that Ted liked her and wanted to spend time with her, and he wasn’t trying to be deceptive when he lied about Arden. He was just helping another friend; Arden couldn’t stand up for herself. And now, everything made so much more sense”how Ted had come to know the French girl in the first place, why she saw them together so often, the thing that Ted had been ‘helping’ Arden with that he’d mentioned that night in the broom closet.
Jordan cleared his throat loudly, and eight heads turned to look at him. “Right, that’s very interesting,” he said, so nonchalantly that Arden had to smile, “but we’re going to have to pull off my plan, so we’d best get to the details.” He paused. “And after that, there’s one more person I’d like to bring.”
“That’s insane!” gasped Marina as Jordan finished recounting his tale. “We’ll never be able to do it! There are so many things that could go wrong!”
“There are many components,” agreed Jordan, sounding like a textbook, albeit an unusually calm textbook. “But there are many way that the plan could succeed as well. So if Group A fails at one part, then Group B fails, there’s still Group C to rely on. But hopefully, that won’t happen.”
Haley raised her hand. “Yes?” said Jordan, feeling like a teacher calling on a student in class.
“Why the names Group A, Group B, and Group C?” she asked. “I don’t want to be in Group C! It makes it sound like we’re not as good as Group A.”
“You can call it anything you like,” Jordan told her testily, “as long as we do this properly. Now, I have to go pick up someone to help us out.”
“Right, we’re now called Team Sparkle!” Haley proclaimed to the other members of her group. Vladislav raised an eyebrow disdainfully, and Haley whirled around and glared at him. “Be very glad that I’m not making you wear this pockety jacket and be the Team Sparkle mascot,” she hissed. “No more eyebrow antics, please-kay-thanks.”
Ivy and Ted looked at each other. “I’m fine with Team B for our group, personally,” said Ivy.
“Me, too,” agreed the other Team B members. They didn’t pretend to understand Haley’s mind”it was a confusing thing.
Meanwhile, Jordan pulled some floo powder out of a small bag and walked toward the fireplace. Normally, only the fireplace in Professor G.W.’s office was used for student floo transportation, but this was the Room of Requirement after all, and they required a floo network.
He tossed the powder into the fire, which blazed green, and stepped inside. “To Number Seven, Griffin Circle, Godric’s Hollow,” he said deliberately.
“Yeah, uh, why are you going home?” asked Ivy, her voice rather frantic. “Why are you skipping out of school?”
“He said he has to go get someone,” Tyrone reminded her. “Maybe it’s your dad.”
Jordan shook his head just before he was whirled away. “Dad’s at work.” And with that, he disappeared.
Everyone exchanged glances. “Should we follow him over?” asked Ivy, looking nervous.
“Jordan likes to do things on his own,” Haley said thoughtfully.
Emma, who had been pacing back and forth like a caged tiger, stopped sharply, and her head snapped toward Haley, making her look mildly possessed. “What?” she exclaimed loudly, clearly agitated. “Just let Jordan go ahead and do it on his own? Remember last time Jordan tried to handle something all by himself?” There was a pause”no one had forgotten how Jordan had defeated Malfoy the previous year, but not without some help from his friends, who had gone after him.
“I never said that,” Haley told her. “I said that Jordan likes to do things on his own, not that he should. He’s smart, but he’s not perfect. I say we go after him.”
Vladislav stood up. “Agreed,” he said, speaking for the first time since being brought into the room.
Emma grinned. “Seconded.”
“Third-ed!” exclaimed Tyrone, getting to his feet.
“Um… fourth’d?” Ted said sheepishly, standing as well.
“I’ll go with that!” Marina added, her hair swishing behind her as she stood.
“Me, too,” Ivy said.
All heads turned toward Arden, who said nothing. When she saw the attention that was fixated on her, she blinked. “Why are you all looking at me?”
“Well, we want to know what you have to say on the subject,” Tyrone told her.
Arden’s eyes widened. “Why do you want my opinion?” she asked softly.
Her fellow werewolf placed a hand on her shoulder. “Because you’re part of the group,” he said. His voice was light, but his meaning wasn’t and after letting this set in, Arden whispered, “I’m in.”
Ted smiled crookedly. “So,” he said, “What are we waiting for?”
Jordan stepped out of his own fireplace and onto the nice, clean rug. Well, at least, it had been nice and clean before he’d trodden all over it with his dirty feet. He brushed flecks of ash from his body, ran a hand through his hair in a futile attempt to try and control it, and strolled out the front door.
Of course, his final destination hadn’t been is house”it had merely been a stop along the way. The home he intended to visit wasn’t part of the Floo network, and his own home was the closest house in the network.
He walked out onto the street in front of his house and turned left. A burning lump rose, sunlike, in his throat as he contemplated what he was going to do. He was nervous, but he knew he could do this. He marched up the door of the next house and rang the doorbell.
There was what sounded like a loud ‘crash’ inside the house, and a few seconds later, the door swung open. A girl stood in the doorway, tall and skinny and dressed in quite an odd assortment of clothes. She wore a neon blue top with puffed sleeves, a red-and-white polka-dotted necktie that looked like she’d stolen it from Ted, painfully bright red-and-white striped leggings, plaid Converse shoes with the word ‘right’ written on her right toe and ‘wrong’ written on her left toe, huge peace-symbol earrings, countless bracelets, and a black headband with fuzzy cat ears attached. Her hair, chopped off short at the ear, was dyed maroon and two tiny pigtails sprouted from the top of her head.
“Whoa,” she said, blinking at Jordan. “Hi.”
“Hi, Giorgi,” Jordan replied, somewhat nervously. He glanced at her hair, which had been neon tangerine the last time he’d seen her, and added, “You look, uh, different.”
“So do you,” replied Giorgi.
Jordan snorted. “Well, sorry if I’m uglier than you remembered, but, no, I haven’t changed. Except, obviously, I have changed my clothes, but you know what I mean.” He was stumbling over his words, something he never did. Usually, everything he said was logical and well-thought-out, but his mind was elsewhere at the moment.
This was not lost on Giorgi. “You sound freaked out,” she told him. “What’s wrong? Why are you here, anyway? Last time I checked, you were up in Scotland.”
“I just got back,” said Jordan. “Erm, listen, there’s a problem, and it’s kind of incredibly serious, and I wanted you to help me with it.”
“All the way from Scotland, huh?” Giorgi raised her eyebrows. “I’m flattered, but I’m not bailing anyone out of jail.”
Jordan did not laugh. “It’s not just my problem,” he said. “It concerns my whole world… yours, too.”
“Your whole world? Planning on taking over the planet anytime soon?” Giorgi smirked.
Jordan looked up at her very seriously and took a very deep breath. He knew that it was dangerous to tell Muggles about magic, but it had happened before”Muggle parents with magical children knew about magic, and so did many Muggles married to wizards. Giorgi was a trusted friend, and she was also crazy enough anyway that even if she did tell anyone about magic, no one would believe her.
His mind resolutely made up, Jordan looked straight into her eyes (which wasn’t that easy, seeing as she was considerably taller). “Giorgi,” he said, his voice low but determined. “I’m a wizard.” The words seemed to ring in the air.
The girl’s expression was bemused. “You’re… you’re a what?”
“I’m magical,” Jordan informed her. “Remember when you told me about the Harry Potter books and I was so surprised? It’s because they’re all true! Harry Potter”the real Harry Potter”is my dad, and my mum’s Ginny. Hermione and Ron are Emma’s parents. Ted’s Professor Lupin and Tonks’s son. And we all go to Hogwarts.” There. He’d said it.
Giorgi burst out laughing. “You are such a nutcase,” she let him know. “You”” She trailed off when she saw Jordan’s eyes, dark, purposeful, and completely devoid of humour.
Jordan reached into his belt and unsheathed his wand. It was dark and glossy, twelve inches long and made of rowan with a dragon heartstring core”definitely not a random stick that one would pick up at a playground. “This is my wand,” he said. “I’m not supposed to do magic outside of school, especially in front of the Muggles, but if you really don’t believe me, then I’ll have to risk it.”
He pointed his wand at a huge boulder and whispered, “Wingardium Leviosa,” swishing and flicking his wand expertly. It was a first-year charm, nothing special, and about as difficult for Jordan as blinking. As light as a dandelion puff, the boulder floated up into the air, high above their heads, and levitated there as if suspended until Jordan lightly returned it to its original location.
Giorgi’s jaw dropped like a broken elevator. Her eyes were like saucers, and her lanky frame was doubled over in disbelief. “I… I don’t believe it!” she gasped. “You’re… you did… you can’t… you”
“I don’t play football, either,” Jordan told her matter-of-factly. “I lied to you”but I had to. In any case, what I really play is Quidditch. I wasn’t lying about being captain, though, or the ten-second game”that part was true.”
Giorgi looked absolutely ill, and she sat down heavily on her front porch to keep her head from spinning. “It’s all true?” she said in a very small voice. “Voldemort and everything?”
Jordan nodded. She was accepting this much faster than he’d thought”he supposed it was lucky that the Harry Potter books were around, because if Giorgi hadn’t had that background knowledge, explaining the wizarding world would take eons.
“If it’s true…then… I can’t believe you lied to me about all of that for so long! Like, you talked about your chemistry class”were you just making that up? The whole thing with your chemistry professor and the potato? And what about your father being a cop, and the contest Emma’s in?” she demanded, her voice gaining speed and strength as she spoke.
“I only met you one time before we started writing emails… what if it turns out that you’re really a juvenile delinquent who’s flunking school and the smart kid you’re supposed to be is just all made up?” Her voice was rising to a frantic crescendo.
For once, Jordan didn’t know what to say or do. His mind and judgment were flawless when it came to schoolwork or other intellectual matters, but feelings completely alienated him. He’d never understood emotions, and had dealt with his own by suppressing them as much as possible. But now, he had genuinely hurt his friend, and he didn’t know what to do to regain her trust.
“The truth is,” he told her, “I wanted to have just one friend who could actually see me for who I am”and you do know me, because I didn’t lie about anything but magical things”without knowing about my dad. He’s Harry Potter. He’s essentially a wizarding superhero, and I absolutely loathe it when people compare me to him. I liked being just Jordan Potter for once, as opposed to Jordan-the-son-of-Potter.”
He broke off and looked up at Giorgi, whose expression was that of someone who couldn’t decide which expression to wear and so combined them all at once. “I’ll have to take you for a ride sometime on the back of my broomstick,” he told her. “It’s amazing… you’d really enjoy it. You can see everything from up in the clouds, and everything seems so small… er, literally and metaphorically.”
He had no idea what had gotten into him. He was a logical thinker, not a poet, so why was he rhapsodizing about feelings and colours and flying? But as odd as it felt to say such things, oddly enough, it was just the right thing to say.
Giorgi smiled confusedly and said, “You know what, I’m pretty sure that this is all a weird dream anyway, but in some whacked-out way, this makes sense. I always thought it was kind of strange that I live in a town called Godric’s Hollow and that my dad’s boss at Grunnings is named Dudley Dursley. But… if this really is real and you really are a wizard”and seriously, based on your personality, you’re the last person I can imagine having anything to do with magic”I can see why you didn’t tell me. If you just, like, said ‘Hey, how are you? I’m Jordan, and I’m a wizard!’ when I first met you, I might have thought you were just some loony.”
Jordan gave her a half-smile. “Well, I am some loony. But then, we’re all loonies, aren’t we?”
“Especially me,” added Giorgi. She blinked. “Wait a minute, you said that there was a big problem before you told me the whole… magic thing. What was that?”
Jordan gasped and looked at his watch. “Oh, no!” he growled. “I was supposed to have brought you back to Hogwarts to meet my friends ages ago. I’ll have to be fast…” He couldn’t believe how much time this simple conversation was taking. “Giorgi, you do know who Tancred Apple is, correct?”
“Duh,” she responded. “He’s the Prime Minister!”
“Yes, but he’s also the Minister of Magic,” Jordan told her plainly. “And… he’s about to give a speech in Regent’s Park, and apparently, he’s planning on doing something illegal to the Muggles who are there. I thought it might help if we had a Muggle with us since none of us have ever really pretended to impersonate Muggles before, so I came to recruit you.”
Giorgi looked as though she’d just been clonked by a giant anvil. “TANCRED APPLE IS A WIZARD, TOO?” she screeched.
“Shh!” Jordan cautioned sharply. “You never know who’s listening?”
“He seemed so nice, though!” Giorgi exclaimed. “He… he really wants to hurt people like me?”
“That’s what Ivy said,” Jordan replied gravely.
Giorgi stood up and did a rather dramatic twirl, her arms outstretched. “So, just as a recap”Apple’s a wizard…”
“Correct,” said Jordan.
“And he wants to hurt Muggles.”
“Correct.”
“And I’m a Muggle.”
“Yes.”
“And so you want me to go over to where he is?”
“Ye… oh. I do see your point,” Jordan noted. “Please, come though. Nothing bad will happen to you”I happen to be an extremely capable wizard after all, and eight of my other friends will be there as well.”
Giorgi raised her eyebrows. “You know what, you are freakishly convincing. You could sell Decapitations For Tenpence, and you’d somehow still find a way to get people to come.”
“Is that a yes?” asked Jordan.
“I’d call it more of a ‘sure, why not,’” replied Giorgi.
“Well, that’s good enough for me.” Jordan shrugged. “Now, I should really get you back to Hogwarts to meet up with my fr…” He stopped speaking when he saw a most unusual sight. Eight people, all dressed in Muggle clothing but each carrying what were obviously wands (or else large pretzel sticks) were running toward them from the Potters’ house.
Jordan made an indignant noise in the back of his throat. “This was not included in the plan,” he informed them.
“Neither was you taking so long,” replied Emma. “This is the part where you’re supposed to be grateful.”
Jordan looked rather taken aback. He coughed slightly, then said, “People, this is Giorgi. Giorgi… these… are people.” After realizing how incredibly moronic he sounded, he added, “More specifically, Haley, Ted, Emma, Ivy, Tyrone, Marina, Arden, and, Vladislav.”
Now it was Giorgi’s turn to look taken aback. “Uhh, hi, Haley, Ted, Emma, Ivy… uh, I’m sorry I forgot your name, the tall curly-haired one, er, Maria”is that right?, Arden, and Vladithingy,” she muttered disorientedly.
“Vladithingy?” repeated Vladislav.
“Sorry,” mumbled Giorgi, shifting from foot to foot, clearly embarrassed. “So, uh, are you all wizards?”
The other eight all nodded patiently, as if they’d just been asked if they all had heads.
Giorgi smiled shyly. “Well, I’m a Muggle,” she said. She held up her hands before the others could say anything else. “Yeah, I know all about magic and stuff, thanks to Jordan. But yeah, even though I can’t do any magic and I’m pretty much lame, I want to help.”
There was a bit of a stunned silence, the awkward kind that seems to stretch on forever. Like with so many other things, Haley was the one to break it. “Wow, okay, I am really surprised here. I can’t believe that, A. Jordan went against the rules and told Muggles about magic, and B., he somehow managed to make a friend that’s actually cool all on his own.”
Giorgi beamed. “Thanks,” she said happily, then paused. “You know what?” she asked, then answered her own rhetorical question without even waiting for a reply. “Whatever Jordan’s plan is, we should probably start actually doing it.”
Jordan stiffened, and his eyes flashed with authority once again. He suddenly looked years older. “Right,” he said. “We should floo over to Regent’s Park, and the fastest way to do it is from the fireplace in my house, so everybody follow me inside.”
It must have been a humorous sight, the ten of them traipsing back over the walkway, up the front steps, and into the door of the Potter mansion. But humour was the last thing on Jordan’s mind”his focus had slipped too many times already, when what was really important was stopping Tancred Apple from whatever he was planning to do.
He was by nature a motivated person who had no trouble concentrating on things, but his nerves were getting in the way”he was very bright, but his brightness surpassed his bravery. This was real and extremely important, he reminded himself, not just some test for school.
Jordan shook his head in disbelief as he led the party into his living room. He couldn’t believe that he’d just thought of a school test as unimportant.
He took a handful of floo powder from the dish on top of the mantle and threw it into the fireplace, causing green flames to shoot up with a gentle roar. Giorgi exclaimed, “Oh!” softly, having obviously never seen floo powder in action before.
“Regent’s Park,” Jordan said clearly after stepping into the flame (which frightened Giorgi even more). And then, he was gone in a whir of green light.
Emma was the next to go, followed by Haley, Tyrone, Marina, Ivy, Vladislav, and Arden. But Giorgi stood on the spot, staring helplessly.
“Okay, I do NOT want to walk into the fire,” she said determinedly.
Ted, who was about to step into the fireplace himself, stopped where he was and turned around. “That’s right,” he remarked. “I forgot, you’ve never used floo powder before. It’s not so bad.”
“I’m no rocket scientist,” Giorgi told him, “but I do know that fire burns you. I learned that when I was little”fire is ouchy. I’m not going in there.”
“Watch me,” replied Ted, throwing some powder into the fireplace and slowly letting the green flames envelop him. “It doesn’t hurt.” Giorgi’s expression did not change, and Ted said softly, “Do you want to do it together? I’ll make sure you’re okay.”
“Well… all right,” Giorgi said hesitantly. She had heard a lot about Ted in Jordan’s emails, and what she had heard seemed to be true. She began to walk slowly toward the fireplace, but stopped abruptly before actually stepping into the flames.
“Listen, Giorgi, they also taught you when you were little that there was no such thing as magic, but now you know that’s not true. I know it sounds crazy, but you have to forget some of the stuff you learned before you knew about magic,” Ted told her, lapsing into peer counseling mode. “Just trust me. You’ll be okay.”
Giorgi exhaled a long breath, squinched her eyes shut, and took a step into the fireplace. It didn’t burn. It was warm and tingly, and not at all painful, and she slowly opened her eyes. “One small step for me,” she said, grinning. “One giant leap for Muggles everywhere.”
Ted grinned back. “Great job,” he told her. “You’re really fast at this whole magic thing. Muggle born kids usually take a lot longer to adjust.” And then, he announced loudly, “Regent’s Park!” and the two of them were whirling away, everything a green blur whizzing past their faces.
And just as quickly as it had begun, it all stopped. Giorgi fell flat on her face as she flopped out of the fireplace, dizzier than a tipsy goat. “I wanna ride again!” she chirped jokingly after peeling her face off of the ground. She was wearing a wide, goofy smile, and her eyes were dancing.
“See, that wasn’t so bad,” Ted told her, helping her to her feet.
“I guess you were right,” she agreed, bounding over to Jordan. She flicked the back of his ear hard, causing him undue pain and suffering, as she said sarcastically, “So, you were a gentleman and waited for me ‘cos you knew floo powder would flip me out, right?”
Jordan, the boy who could read everything but emotions, looked rather startled. “I didn’t know you’d need help.”
“Could’ve asked,” Giorgi told him darkly, though she wasn’t really serious. “Ted helped me, though, so I’m fine. Ted’s a really nice bloke. Very THOUGHTFUL. You know, unlike some people.”
Jordan cleared his throat. “Enough,” he said sharply, regaining his almost dictatorial poise and tone of voice. “It’s time for us to split up. Giorgi and I are Team A, so we’ll hang around here. Team C””
“Team Sparkle,” Haley interjected loudly.
Jordan rolled his eyes. “Yes, that, will head over to where the media is setting up while Giorgi and I create a diversion. I want you to find a way to destroy all of the cameras without being spotted.”
“Why are they doing that?” Giorgi asked, puzzled.
“Well, first, so that Muggles all over the world don’t see what Apple’s going to do. But also because of Team B,” Jordan replied simply without elaborating on the subject. “Now, Team B, I want you to head over into the London Zoo. It’s here in the park, so that shouldn’t be any trouble. The new wolf exhibit that they’ve built is right by the fence, and it’s directly next to where Apple’s going to be delivering his speech. You know what to do.”
He had debriefed everyone except for Giorgi already as to what duties the individual groups would be performing; naturally, the Muggle girl looked confused and opened her mouth to utter a question.
But before she could, Jordan continued casually, “Oh, that’s right, I didn’t tell you. Well, two of the members of Team B are werewolves, and tonight’s going to be a full moon. It’s all part of the plan.”
Giorgi, who always looked a bit like a cartoon character, reacted in the over-the-top, caricatured manner of an animated figure. Her eyes were the size of pies, and they seemed to bug out of her sockets, and she jumped back from the group “Are you KIDDING ME?!” she exclaimed. “As if I’m not in enough danger as it is being a Muggle who’s trying to stop some evil man from killing other Muggles, now you tell me that you’ve brought in a pair of werewolves and it’s a full moon? Are you trying to kill me or something?”
Ted saw Arden’s face go blank and her shoulders slump. This was her first day of revealing the truth about being a werewolf to people other than Ted, and already, someone was recoiling in fear from her. It was exactly the thing that Ted had promised her would not happen.
“We don’t kill people,” he said softly. “Do you really think I’d do that?”
“Yeah,” Haley chipped in. “You were the one who said Ted was so nice and thoughtful and all that. He’s still Ted when it’s a full moon. It’s like seeing a friend in a bad outfit”he looks kind of freaky, but he’s still your same friend.”
Giorgi blinked. “Bad outfit, huh?” She looked over at Jordan and raised her eyebrows. “I guess seeing a friend in a bad outfit is definitely something he can relate to,” she said, gesturing to her own wardrobe. She turned toward the two werewolves and stuck out her hand to be shaken. “I’m really sorry,” she told them, “all this stuff is new to me. I really had no idea you were a werewolf. I’ve seen too many Muggle horror movies.”
“No harm done,” Ted assured her. He glanced over at Arden and Ivy. “Come on, Team B! We should get to the zoo before the moon rises.” He started humming (extremely off-key, since Ted couldn’t carry a tune if it was strapped to the back of his broomstick) the chorus to the old song “There’s A Bad Moon On The Rise.”
“We should get going, too,” added Tyrone, nodding toward Team Sparkle.
Emma held up her hands. “Wait a minute!” she exclaimed. “I have to go fix my hair!”
Jordan whacked himself in the forehead. “Emma, I hardly think that fixing your hair is a top priority at the moment,” he told his cousin flatly.
Emma’s eyes sparked menacingly. “You don’t get it. I need to put my hair in pigtails.”
A slow, slightly twisted smile meandered across Jordan’s face. “Take all the time you want,” he said.