Login
MuggleNet Fan Fiction
Harry Potter stories written by fans!

Scorpius Malfoy and the Salem Witch Trials by Hotrav

[ - ]   Printer Chapter or Story Table of Contents

- Text Size +

The windows of the caravan flashed blue, the chairs under the passengers shook to the left and back to the right, and the bright Sunday noontime Isle of Man sun was replaced by the dawn light of the new world. The team, strapped in chairs in the back, began to burst into nervous laughter as the rocking of the vehicle died down. They were in America.

Ginny Potter’s voice silenced the lot. –Hold on. Everyone must stay in their seats. And be quiet! We have to wait until the organizers unseal the door.–

Kaitlin rolled her eyes. Kitty-Kat could be loud, happy, arrogant, proud or angry, but no one alive had ever seen her being patient. The girl began to undo her belts. Rose reached out a hand to stop her from unbuckling the strap.

–We have to wait.”

Kaitlin gave Rose a look that would have melted a cauldron. –Fine!”

The caravan lurched again and began to roll over what seemed to be uneven ground.

–Bumpy road,” said Albus looking at Scorpius. Scorpius could barely control the excitement he felt inside.

When the rolling stopped, the door opened. The head of a grey haired, plump witch looked in. –United Kingdom?” Scorpius and the rest of the team nodded. –I’m your liaison, Kim Davis.” The woman entered the caravan and walked over to Bobby Devon, who was undoing his straps. She handed him a map and a binder full of papers. The woman looked at the team and said, –Welcome to United States and to Maine.”

–Maine?” Rose Weasley was really confused. –I thought Salem was in Massachusetts?”

Kaitlin pushed her way past the American witch to the outside. She ignored the girl’s lack of courtesy. From outside, the team heard the sound of someone choking as if they were sick.

–It is. However, only the offices of the Salem Institute are located in its founding town. The school is located in Maine and the Quidditch tourney will be held at the school. You see, at the time of the establishing of the campus, Maine was still part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. So the school didn’t leave the Bay Colony, the state actually left us.” Davis seemed to chuckle at her own joke. No one else did.

–I want all of you out, while Bobby and I get this set up properly. Mrs. Davis, will you give our team a quick tour of the facilities? Rose and Scorpius, you’re in charge.” Mrs. Potter pointed toward the open door.

–James, I want you to take Lily with you.”

–Mum, why can’t she stay here with you?” whined James.

Scorpius saw the blood rise in Mrs. Potter’s face. He had never seen her mad. He had seen the Potter brothers mad and he wondered how big their mother’s explosion might be.

James, realizing how angry his mother was, gave her a shrug of surrender and held his arm out toward his little, red-headed sister. Lily looked at her mother for a second and flounced her way to Rose’s side totally ignoring the existence of her big brothers.

When the rest of the team exited the caravan, they found Kaitlin doubled over clutching her stomach. Scorpius was surprised that James did not make some sort of joke about Kaitlin’s condition. Before they left, Mrs. Davis and Rose checked with Kaitlin. She was waved them off and the tour began.

The team stepped away from the caravan and looked around. A large area of different Muggle style campers filled a large clear cut area in a pine forest. In the middle of the circle of campers were two large buildings. In between their caravan and a camper with onion topped domed corners, stood a large wooden pole with the sign bearing a large letter D on it.

–What’s the D for?” asked Rhys.

–Group D, all of the teams you will be playing will be in the same area.”

Rose raised her hand. Their guide seemed amused by the girl’s deference. –I read that all of the groups had teams from each of the six different zones: Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South American and Oceania. We were put into the European zone. How can we then be in the same group with Russia?”

–Well, Russia is so big that they were given a choice to be the second seeded team from Asia or the fourth seeded from Europe. They chose Asia.”

The guide led the group over a log plank walkway. As they approached the two large green colored wood shingled sided buildings, she pointed to the larger of the buildings and said, –Here is where you will be eating your regular meals. The time for each meal is listed on the schedule. The second building is the commissary. You can buy food there at anytime, and souvenirs and mail services to your home country will be provided. Any letter sent from here will be delivered by the evening of the next day.”

Rose seemed impressed. Scorpius was not paying attention to the guide. He was looking the commissary and the steady flow of kids of all races and dress walking went in and out of the building. Davis looked at her wristwatch and motioned for the team to return to area D.

As they entered the zone, Scorpius noticed that two additional groups had arrived. Walking out of a large canvas tent, a group of tall black skinned players followed a lighter skinned black woman along a parallel walkway.

–Who’s that?” Scorpius asked trying not to point too noticeably.

Without consulting her map, the guide replied, –They are the Nigerian team and the team just coming out of their camper should be the either the Honduran or the Peruvian contingent.”

–Russia, Hondurus, Peru, Nigeria, and us; who is the sixth team?” Rose asked.

–New Zealand. They will be arriving in a couple of hours. They will park in the spot next to yours.”

–What position are we seeded in?” Kaitlin asked.

For this information Davis had to consult the paperwork on her clipboard. –New Zealand is top seed, followed by Russia, the UK, Peru, Honduras, and Nigeria.”

Kaitlin made a face, –Third?” Davis nodded. By this time, they had reached the caravan. Above the camper towered a pole proudly flying the Union Jack.

–Well, the seeding doesn’t matter really. You will play all of the teams in the group in a round robin,” replied a bemused Davis.

Kaitlin ignored the comment, waved her arms above her head, and shouted toward Rose, –Third! We’re not third to anyone!”

Lily silently mouthed Kaitlin’s word with over-exaggerated motions of her head and arms behind the girl’s back and all of the boys exploded into laughter. Kaitlin turned toward James, certain he was the source of the laughter. James returned a well practiced look of innocence. When she turned back toward the front, Lily stuck her tongue at Kaitlin and continued her mimicry behind her back again. This time the boys were better able to hide their laughter. Scorpius thought that having a little sister along may not be as bad as her brothers had feared.

When they re-entered the caravan, it had grown in size by at least of factor of ten. The area just inside the front door was a seating area with a white board. A sign to the left pointed to the girls sleeping room and another arrow pointed to the right towards the boys sleeping rooms.

Behind the relaxation and class section was a kitchen area near the door to the girl’s rooms and next to the wall next to the boys was a room with a door. The door had a brass sign that said ‘Coach’s Office’.

On the whiteboard in the center of the entry way of the caravan was a message written in Devon’s rising handwriting:

Practice pitch 3: Monday 9 A.M. local

Game number D3: Peru vs. the United Kingdom pitch 2 Tuesday Noon local.


As the team sat down to eat their first evening meal in the cafeteria, Rose, bringing up the rear, was telling Lily that the ‘hot dogs’ on her plate were not made from real dogs and that they were sort of a bland type of a banger.

From behind them, they all heard, –Hogwarts. Hogwarts. Hoggy warty Hogwarts. Teach us something, please!”

Scorpius shot up out of his chair. Only one person could sing that song so off key and he turned to find him standing behind him. –Jimber!”

Jimber Dokes, bedecked in a green, tan and gold boubou grabbed his best friend. Scorpius felt the air being squeezed out of him by the bear hug. By the time Jimber released him, Albus had lined up for the similar treatment. As Jimber greeted all of the Gryffindors, including Kaitlin who he had to practically hunt down, Scorpius could not take his eyes off of his friend.

As he hugged Kaitlin, Rose asked, –Jimber, how did you get here? Does ‘The Island’ have a team in the tournament? I didn’t see you listed on the schedule.”

Jimber shook his head. –No, we got defeated by Cuba before I got home. However, my grandfather Quarrel was able to get us an invitation as members of the National Quidditch Committee.”

Rhys Jones seemed impressed. –Your grandfather is on your National committee?”

Jimber grinning even larger just shook his head and leaned forward to confide a secret to them. –Actually, the man who was our country’s entire committee for our Quidditch program was Ka-Sich Korhogo and he’s on the run. So my grandfather was able to get the invitation off of his office desk and returned it to the International Committee with our names as officers. So I am the ‘Shaman for Youth Development for the Island’.” As Jimber finished, he struck a pose with his thumbs pulling out the boubou from his chest.

Everyone burst into laughter which died when Devon and Mrs. Potter joined them. Jimber sat down with the others and waited for the adults to notice. Ginny Potter froze as she asked for someone to pass the mustard to her. Jimber gave her a very energetic wave.

–Jimber,” shouted a high pitch voice. Lily Potter handed her tray of food to Albus and walked over to the newcomer.

–Hey, Lily,” he replied leaning back. Scorpius, gauging by his friend’s reaction, thought that he must be recalling how his own little sister, Bethany, kissed Albus on Platform Nine and Three Quarters back in London.

Lily placed her hands cupped in front of her waist. –Don’t worry, Jimber; I’m not going to kiss you like Bethany did Albus. I don’t consider myself engaged to you like she does to him. I’m not going to have just one boyfriend until I check out all of the available boys at Hogwarts.”

–Lily!” Mrs. Potter said a bit loudly. –Get your tray and sit next to me, now.”

Lily smiled at Jimber, took her tray back and sashayed around the table to sit next to her mum. She was somehow able to do all of that without once breaking eye contact with Jimber.

Mrs. Weasley seemed flustered to Scorpius as she asked, –So Jimber, what are you doing here?”

Jimber struck his pose again and recited to the crowd, –Observing the training methods of the participants so we can help the youth of ‘The Island’ develop into better players and citizens.”

James laughed. –Who thought that crock of dragon dung up?”

–I did,” Jimber replied. He seemed hurt by James comment. –I thought it was clever.”

Scorpius slapped Jimber on the back and smiled.

Jimber’s mood lightened as he said, –So tell me about everything that happened in tryouts. I mean, how can Rhys and James be on the same team? Who’s the second Beater?”


Harry Potter’s Auror Office, London

Harry stood in the doorway of his office looking at Aurors Sterling and Broomwright fumble the paperwork they had held in their hands. He wondered how after working with Sterling for six years he could still cause an experienced officer to act like a his daughter did at the mention of Jimber Dokes’ name. He wished they would get over this.

He sighed. With his family in the States, the only person he could really talk to was Ron. And when he and Ron got together, they always ended up talking shop. For a second, he wondered where Luna was. He’d even drink Gurdyroot extract to have one of those old fashioned heart-to-heart talks with someone who cared.

Sterling readied the paperwork and walked toward his boss. Harry walked to the front of the desk not the back. Sitting on the edge of the desk, he waited for the partners to begin. The news was mixed. While they had captured the three foot men of a protection racket in Hogsmeade, they had not been able to get the names of the leaders of the organization out of the underlings.

–Has Honeydukes reported more threats to their shop since you got that lot?” Harry looked into his officer’s eyes. Their eyes would tell him more than the words they would speak. He knew they tended to be too optimistic in their estimates.

–No and neither has the ‘The Three Broomsticks’. However, they are still on edge after your brother-in-law’s joke shop got torched.” Broomwright chimed in. Harry looked at her. She was a young, solid Auror, but she was trying a little too hard to please.

–The foot men you caught, what is their blood status?”

–Sir?” Broomwright was confused by his question. Sterling flipped through his notes.

–They were a Muggleborn and two quarter-bloods, to use the old terminology.”

Harry nodded and thought, –Lucius would never trust such non-purebloods with anything important and they are a dead end to get to him.” He stood up from the desk and walked toward his window. He looked out of the window at the magically simulated bright late July morning and missed tossing the Quaffle with the boys. As the thought left him, he noticed the other people in the office watching him. He became the detective again.

–Pull the crew out of Hogsmeade for now; I want you to split them up. I want one of them sent to check in with Hannah Longbottom about if anything similar is happening in Diagon Alley. Also, send others to Mold-on-the-Wall and Godric’s Hollow to see if protection payment schemes are occurring there.”

–Right,” said Sterling, who was sitting on the edge of his chair ready to spring at a word’s notice.

–And, Rodger,” Sterling looked up at the mention of his first name. –You did a fine job leading this investigation. Tell all of the members of your team that they did a good job and their work is appreciated by the ministry.”

Sterling snorted and quickly looked around to see if the door to the office was shut. It was. –I’ll tell them, sir, but with the way the Minister is talking out of his hat about the incompetence of the office, they won’t believe me.” Broomwright gave a small, almost involuntary, nod in agreement to the sentiment.

–Well, if we wanted to be adored, we’d all be Quidditch stars or on the Wizarding Wireless, not working as Aurors.” He smiled at them.

They smiled back, gathered their reports and left the office and Harry alone.

Harry looked out the window again. The mention of Quidditch made him miss his family even more. Ron had pulled the night shift and would be at home sleeping. He grabbed a quill and wrote down a note for Hermione. Would she meet him for lunch away from the office, perhaps at Hannah’s Bistro? He tapped the note and it flew off his desk, slid under the door and headed toward the Hermione’s office.

Harry looked at the photos on his desk. He focused not on the picture of his large family, but upon a picture taken by a Daily Prophet cameraman after the Battle of Hogwarts. Harry marveled at the three grinning faces who were so sure that all of their troubles we gone with the fall of the Voldemort. He envied their naiveté.