The Adventures of the Junior Phoenixes, Part 5: The Last Pendant

Chapter 21: Conversations

Chapter 21

     The group looked around at each other as Teller stood in the midst of them, holding the Talk-Box that boomed the voices of Sherman Locke and Bria Brightwater.
     “Hello? Did you hear what Bria said? They have both Master Wolf and Mr. Cloudstorm in the school,” Sherman said aloud. “Now, I hate to be rude, but can someone get us out of here?”
     “We’ll send the house elf,” Teller said, “Just hang tight. We’re waiting for him to return.”
     “We can’t bring them here,” Sky Heart said, “There’s no room here.”
     “We can’t fit Sherman and Bria here?” Star asked, “They’re not fat, geez.”
     “No, of course they’d fit,” Sky Heart replied, “I was referring to the others with Sherman and Bria. They won’t all fit here.”
     “Not to mention Marcel and the others downstairs would have a cow if we brought that many people up here,” Echo said.
     “What’s the plan, people?” Teller asked.
     “We wait for Mawl and Spirit,” Rain Fox said.
     Most of the group nodded their heads.
     “So,” Sherman said over the Talk-Box, “How long will that be?”
     “Just hang on, Sherman,” Teller said, “We’re figuring out a plan.”
     The door to the apartment burst open. A tall woman with her wand held out rushed in. Dev jumped up and held his wand and was about to cast a spell at the woman when, as their eyes met, they both ceased and paused.
     “Jinx!” Echo shouted.
     “Holy balls!” Jinx shouted back. She ran over to Echo and grabbed her, hugging her. “I was so worried about you guys!”
     Rouge stepped into the apartment behind her. He had his wand out but put it back into his coat. He approached Dev and the others with a smile. “Boy, I’m glad to see you guys are alive,” Rouge said.
     “How did you know we were here?” Echo asked.
     “I didn’t know you guys were here!” Jinx said as she squeezed Echo. “Gosh, I’m glad you’re okay!”
     “Do you know what happened?” Dev asked.
     Rouge put a hand on Dev’s shoulder. “Yeah, we heard about the attack on the school,” he answered. “Master Blessed brought a gaggle of people to the ‘hood.”
     “Really?” Star asked. “Did you see who went with her? Were Iggy and Lu-Lu there? Did you see Nymph and Moonstone?”
     “I saw them,” Rouge said, “They’re okay. Master Blessed showed up with them and their families, along with some other students, a bunch of teachers, the house elves and goblins, those weird Atlas wizards, and some of the Wapanaki. Where’s everyone else? Where’s Sherman and Master Wolf?”
     “Master Wolf’s still at the school” Shade said.
     “That’s not good,” Rouge said. “What happened to you?”
     “I got Splinched,” Shade said.
     “Ouch,” Rouge replied. “Sucks, huh? Happened to me a few times.”
     “What are you guys doing here, Jinx?” Teller asked.
     “We were gonna go to the school and look for you guys, actually,” Jinx said. “When Master Blessed showed up without you guys, we thought you might still be there. I was gonna pick up some Dung Bombs and some Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, just in case.”
     “So what the heck happened?” Rouge asked.
     “Your guess is as good as ours,” Shade said, “One minute Fallborn, Dev’s dad, and Fox and Sky’s dad show up, then Dev and Echo hatch their plan to get Fallborn to admit whether he’s the traitor or not, and then the sky fills up with Embers everywhere. We got here first, then Sam and Rain Fox, and now we need to get Sherman and Bria.”
     “What about Sherman?” Jinx asked.
     “I’m at the school still!” the voice in the Talk-Box shouted.
     “Where did that come from?” Jinx asked.
     “The Talk-Box,” Star answered. “Sherman and Bria are still at the school.”
     “What? Why?” Jinx asked. She grabbed the Talk-Box and yelled at it. “Why are you still at the school, Sherman? Get your dumb, dorky butt out of there!”
     “I can’t really do that, love,” Sherman said, “We have more than a few people with us, and the Embers have put an Anti-Apparating jinx on the whole school. They’re locking the place up rather tightly. We’re stuck here.”
     “They’ll be coming up here soon!” Bria said. “Please hurry!”
     Suddenly, with a loud pop, Mawl appeared. He looked around the room with a sense of surprise. “There are more people here,” he croaked quietly. “Hello!”
     “Mawl!” Sky Heart cheered. “Oh, thank goodness you’re safe!”
     Mawl smiled his crooked, toothy smile. “I am humbled at your concern, Mistress,” he said.
     “Did you find Spirit?” Rain Fox asked.
     “Yes, Mistress Rain Fox,” Mawl answered. “I directed the ghost girl to arrive here at once. It was not easy to find her, though. She was hiding.”
     “You did splendid, Mawl!” Sky Heart told him. “Jolly good show!”
     “We have another task for you, Mawl,” Rain Fox said, “This one is less dangerous.”
     “Still danger involved, I imagine,” he croaked.
     “Some,” Rain Fox said, “Do you know where the Star Chamber is at the school?”
     “On top of the Iron Mountain, yes,” Mawl replied, “I’m familiar with it.”
     “Sherman Locke and Bria Brightwater are there in the Star Chamber,” Sky Heart said, “They’re trapped up there!”
     “But there’s still too many of them to bring here,” Teller said.
     “I have an idea,” Jinx said, “Take them to the ‘Hood. That’s where Master Blessed took the students with the help of the Salem kitchen elves. Take everyone there.”
     “Take them to Jamaica Plains?” Echo asked.
     “Yeah,” Jinx answered, “That way everyone’s still together. I mean, Anthony’s already stressed out with the people there, but he ain’t refusing people, you know?”
     “That’s not a bad idea,” Teller said.
     “I’ll go with Mawl this time,” Echo volunteered.
     “I’ll accompany you,” Dev said.
     “No, Fuzzy,” Echo said to him. She put her hand to his face and gently forced him back to sitting on the couch. “You’ve been through a lot today. I’ll be fine. You just relax for a bit. I’ll be back soon.”
     “You sure?” Dev said.
     Echo kissed his forehead. “I’ll be fine.”
     “I’ll keep an eye on her for ya, Dev,” Rouge said, “Jinx and I will roll with her.”
     “I’m going, too,” Star spoke.
     “Are you crazy?” Jinx asked. “This ain’t no party, glowstick!”
     “Bria’s there, Sherman’s there, and I want to see Iggy, Lu-Lu, Nymph, and the others!” Star defended herself. “Besides, it’s best they hear bad news from me and not someone else.”
     “Let her go with you guys, Jinx,” Shade muttered, “The better protected you guys will be with her and Echo.”
     “What am I?” Rouge asked, “Chopped liver?”
     “Echo,” Shade said, “When you get them to Jamaica Plains, talk to Master Blessed. Let her know what the score is. Tell her what we know.”
     Echo nodded and said, “Okay.”
     “Star,” Shade said to her, “Don’t go hunting for anyone, do you hear me?”
     “I won’t,” Star said.
     “I mean it,” Shade urged, “We need you back here in one piece!”
     “Alright, already!” Star bellowed, “Yeesh, you guys think I’m some kinda nutcase or something, like I’m gonna hunt Argent myself!”
     The whole group looked right at her with wide eyes.
     “Oh my God, people,” Star groaned, “I’m not stupid!”
     “No one said you were, Little Vamp,” Rouge chuckled.
     “Whoever is assigned to accompany me,” Mawl croaked, “Please hold my hands.”
     “Be careful, all of you!” Sky Heart told them.
     “What about you, Fox?” Echo asked.
     “I’m going to stay here,” she replied, “I’ll keep an eye out here. We don’t need to crowd poor Mawl.”
     “I’ll stay here, too,” Sky Heart said. “Be cautious, Mawl!”
     “I will, Mistress,” Mawl said. Echo, Star, Jinx, and Rouge took hold of each others’ hands. Mawl took Jinx’s and Echo’s hands and took them away.
     Sam, Sky Heart, Shade, Dev, Rain Fox, and Teller were left in the apartment. An awkward silence followed after the others departed. Everyone looked at one another with a reserved quiet.
     “I need to lie down,” Sam said finally. “I can’t think right now. I’ll be in the bedroom.”
     “Okay, Sam,” Rain Fox said gently. She rubbed Sam’s shoulder lightly before Sam retired and went to the bedroom solemnly.
     “Poor Sam,” Sky Heart said, “And poor you, Dev! Good heavens, your father!”
     “I know, Sky,” Dev said quietly. “I’m just- I’m still trying to figure a few things out. Mon Dieu, I should have brought his body back with me! Connard! How could I be so stupid?”
     “Don’t blame yourself,” Teller said, “You did what any one of us would have done.”
     Dev stood up. “I’m going to go for a walk,” he said, “I need to- I need to take a walk. I will not go far. If you do any enchantments to protect this place, find me first before I can’t get back in.”
     “We will,” Teller said.
     Dev nodded as he looked at the ground. He walked out of the apartment and stepped into the hallway. He turned right and out of sight.
     “Poor Ceddy,” Sky Heart said, “Losing his father, good Lord. Oh, what if the Embers kill Dad? I don’t even want to think about it!”
     “Calm down, Sis,” Rain Fox said, “I’m sure Dad is fine.”
     “But he’s captured, Ari!” Sky Heart cried, “What if they torture him? Oh, how are we going to tell Mum? She’ll be so upset!”
     “We can worry about that when we tell her,” Rain Fox said, “Right now, give Dev time to grieve. We all need time to grieve. We lost friends and family today. We need time to gather our strength before we- well, what are we going to do, Shade?”
     Shade, still seated in his old reclining chair, sighed. He had his right hand covering the wound on his neck. “I don’t know yet,” he said, “I need a little time, too. My head is in a thousand places and none of them are here right now.”
     Rain Fox looked at Teller with a concerned look. She turned to Shade and nodded. “I think I’m going to take a little walk as well. Teller, can we have a moment?”
     “A moment?” Teller asked. “I guess, sure.”
     Rain Fox walked towards the door and walked out of the apartment. Teller followed with a grunt.
     “Oh, everyone’s splitting up!” Sky Heart groaned. “They shouldn’t be everywhere else except for here! I should go after my sister and Teller! I shouldn’t leave them alone! What if trouble finds us here? What if they attack here next?”
     “Sky Heart,” Shade said, “Breathe, dear. You’re gonna put yourself into a panic attack.”
     “But this is the time to panic, Shade! What if the others get snatched up while they’re out? What if they kill Dad? Oh God, why is this happening? Everything was going so good!” Sky Heart made her way towards the window and looked out to the House of the Seven Gables. Tears fell from her eyes like tiny streams. “What are we supposed to do? I’m so scared, Shade! I’m so scared for us! I’m scared for my Dad! I don’t- I can’t!” She put her hands against the window and wept.
     Shade stood up after a while and waited. He stood beside Sky Heart but did not disturb her while she wept. He had no immediate words for her. He looked out the window and stared at the House of the Seven Gables.
     “Why is this happening, Shade?” Sky Heart asked. “We were so close. We had all the Pendants together. We had everyone together for the first time in ages. Dan, Jean, Master Wind; they’re gone. The school’s occupied. Everything’s so dark right now. There’s a shadow over us. It’s not supposed to be like this. This isn’t how life is supposed to go. We’re teenagers, my sister and I. We should be doing normal things, like shopping for new robes or going on about someone’s funny clothes, or wondering whether boys fancy us, or making trips to Diagon Alley and having a butterbeer at the pub while laughing at whatever ridiculous story had been published in the Daily Prophet that morning. Instead we’re here. We’re running away from battles and hiding from villains and watching people die. It’s horrible, it’s all horrible. I wish it weren’t this way. I wish none of this had ever happened.”
     Shade sighed as he listened; he kept his gaze focused on the world outside the window.
     “Don’t you agree?” Sky Heart asked him. “Don’t you wish none of this had ever happened?”
     Shade took a few moments to answer. “I don’t know,” Shade replied with a shrug, “I never really think about hypothetical situations. I think of possible outcomes before I make a choice, then I never look back on how it might have been different. I never ponder about how things might’ve been. I’m always looking at what’s next. In my life, there was never time to sit and wonder what might be; there was always just what is. From foster home to foster home, from one place to another, it was always one more thing that made life worse. When things got better or got routine, I always figured, ‘Well, this is nice and all, but when is the other shoe going to drop?’ Nothing in my life has ever been permanent. This apartment, and especially that chair, they have been the most constant things in my life, besides this coin.”
     Shade reached into his coat pocket to pull out his old gold coin, the one that was given to him by a former headmaster of Hogwarts, when he realized he didn’t have the coin anymore.
     “That’s right,” Shade said with a smile, “I gave it to Star. Go figure. See? Nothing is permanent. Some things are constant, which is good. Most things are not. The only place that I’ve ever been to where things seemed permanent is the Realm Beyond, and even that place wasn’t permanent.”
     Sky Heart sniffled. “What was it like?” she asked.
     Shade took a deep breath before he answered. “It was like the ocean. When I was a kid, I always dreamed of flying on a broom over the ocean; I always wanted to fly over the ocean because the ocean was so big and so wide and there was so much of it to see that I thought it was impossible to fathom ever seeing every inch of it. The Realm Beyond was like that; this big, wide, unfathomable place that you just felt like you could never see every inch of it. Time had no meaning there; minutes felt like days, and yet days and months felt like only a few moments. Every place you came across was different than the next and stranger than the previous. I met some really amazing people there and some rather interesting ones, but there were people there that I didn’t expect to see again. I don’t remember all of it just yet; it keeps coming back to me. The one thing I knew, the one thing that was certain, was that I didn’t belong there.”
     “How did you know that?” Sky Heart asked.
     “Because everyone I met had their own place,” Shade answered. “Every person I met had a place or a role of their own. When I got there I felt lost. I was in the middle of this big, empty nowhere and I was in pain. Pain doesn’t exist there. But I was in pain. I had no place of my own. I realized later, with some help, that I wasn’t supposed to be there.”
     “But why not?” she asked.
     “Because it wasn’t my time to die,” he replied. “Only those whose time had come had a place there of their own. Me? It wasn’t my time. I wasn’t meant to be there, I was meant to be here. That was my mistake. I missed what was most important while it was right in front of me the whole time.”
     “What’s that?” Sky Heart asked.
     “You,” Shade said with a smile. “You and your sister, Echo and Dev, Star and Sam, Dan, Sherman, Bria, Teller, Jinx, even Rouge and Iggy: You’re what’re important, and I misplaced that in my heart. I put my focus on the Pendants and on defeating Easter and Leech when I should have kept my focus on what was more important and more powerful than the Pendants or Easter in the first place. To answer your question, Sky: No, I don’t wish things would be different. I mean, yeah, I wish Dan wasn’t dead, or John, or Master Bullavin, or Jean, but if it hadn’t have been for this madness, I would never have met you or any of the others. When you think about it, look what we’ve been through! It’s been a long time. I know it may not seem like it, but it’s been a long journey. We’ve gone through so much along the way: Friendships, triumphs, heartbreak, tragedy. We’ve lost some good people along the way: Friends, family, loved ones. We’ve been hurt, wounded; we’ve stood before death face to face. We’ve been beaten down and bruised, but we’re still here. We still have each other. We’ve gone through hell and fire and we’ve come back; we found each other across the oceans and countries, even across realms, and we’re still together. We’ve lost parts of this team, this group, but we managed to bring ourselves together again. That’s something incredible, Sky. That’s because we have love for each other that Easter and Leech don’t understand. See, they don’t understand that what we have is stronger than magic; it’s in every single one of us. That’s why they can’t stop us. Because we are Phoenixes, and Phoenixes never die; instead they rise from the ashes. Right now we’re burned out. We’re a smoldering pile of ash and smoke and it may take some effort to recover, but we will rise. We will rise up and take the fight to the enemy and we will not fail. We will rise. We have a fire inside of us that they can’t put out. We are Phoenixes and Phoenixes never die. This is our time, Sky. This is the greatest threat that we will ever face but we will meet it head on. Together.”
     Sky Heart tearfully nodded. “You’re right,” she said, “We can do this!”
     “Yuppers,” Shade said, “We’ll rescue your dad and Master Wolf. We’ll get to the Fountain of Fair Fortune and we will put the Embers out together, once and for all.”
     “Hear, hear,” Sky Heart said softly. She hugged Shade and breathed deeply. “Thank you,” she spoke. “I needed to hear that. It just seems so dark right now.”
     “I know,” Shade said. He stepped away from her and winced; a flare-up of the pain from the Blackwell Toxin. “But this shadow will pass. We’ll set those Embers on fire and they won’t know what hit ‘em.”
     “I second that,” Sam’s voice spoke aloud. She stood in the doorway to the bedroom, leaning against the door frame.
     “How long have you been standing there?” Sky Heart asked.
     “Long enough, English,” Sam said, “Long enough.”
     Shade walked to Sam slowly and stopped a few feet from her. “I’m sorry for everything that’s happened. I’m sorry I didn’t say goodbye. I’m sorry about Dan. I’m sorry for everything.”
     “I know,” Sam said, “I’m sorry, too.”
     Shade and Sam embraced. She cried into his chest. Sky Heart stepped over to them and rubbed Sam’s arm gently. The three of them stood in the apartment, grieving over the loss of their friends, and yet comforted in the presence of each other. Outside the window of the apartment the clouds thickened and rain began to fall. Thunder rumbled over their heads but they were consoled by the fact that they were still together, still alive, and ready to rise.