Lincoln's School of Magic - Lost Treasure

Christopher Black

Lucia and I are sitting in our shared dormitory after coming back from the basement. On our way here, we ran into Madame DuPont again... she was not pleased with us. We're currently both laying on our bunkbeds, she's on top and I'm on the bottom. We stay silent for a while, trying to think of logical explanations as to why Christopher Black would have been in the basement.

"Perhaps he was doing the same thing as us?" Lucia suggests with a crack in her voice.

"Why would he attack us?" I ask her sternly.

"Maybe he thought we were bad?"

Lucia's voice softens in fear of Adrian having accomplices. Or that there are dark wizards in training at our school.

"Let's not worry," I say while turning on my side to get comfortable in bed. "We'll have to ask him about it."

To be honest, I don't want to ask him about it, or even talk to him at all. But, we are both chasers on the school's quidditch team so I can't avoid him. I'm sure there is a logical explanation for this.

-

I walk onto the quidditch pitch where the rest of my teammates are waiting. They're standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Omell on the outside of the circle, trying to grab their attention. It's funny watching him struggle.

"Oi!" He shouts at the top of his lungs as I join the circle.

"I want you all to practice your steering today," he begins after everyone settles down. "You all are bloody deficient."

Ouch. I'm sure he didn't mean that, but it looks like everyone else took that to heart. They're lowering their heads in embarrassment.

"Now, on your brooms and go!" Omell finishes sternly. He seems to be annoyed with us.

I quickly embark my broom and push off the ground to ensure I don't piss off Omell any more. He has every right to be upset though. We have yet to win a match. We played against Beauxbaton's junior team last weekend. They won by a landslide. 250-13. Practice seems to be going alright. I managed to get a few quaffles through the hoops, so did Christopher and Rowan. As we flew back down to the ground, Omell appeared to be more pleased with us than before.

"Not bad," he congratulates us. "This Saturday we are playing Durmstrang's Junior Boys team. They are a tough team, so I'm calling a practice for tomorrow as well."

The team seems to be upset by this because lots of moaning and whining is coming from the group.

"Bugger off now, would ya?" Omell finishes.

Omelll starts walking towards the change rooms, and the rest of the team follows behind. As I'm walking, I feel a hand touch my shoulder. A bit startled, I let out a small gasp as I turn my head quickly to see who's behind me. My eyes meet a pair of dark brown eyes, of course, it's Christopher Black.

"You played well today, Mitchell" he compliments.

"Thanks," I reply, "so did you."

"Thanks. I was actually wondering if you've ever explored the basement of the school before?"

I was taken back by this because I thought he saw me down there when I landed on him last night. I didn't know if he was saying this to call me out, or if he genuinely didn't know. I thought for a quick second whether I should lie or not, but ultimately decided to lie.

"No," I say. "We're not allowed down there."

"Why do you think that is?" He challenges me.

"I assume because it's dangerous."

"Or, that they're hiding something."

At this moment, I knew he was onto me. My heart started pounding out of my chest in fear that he was going to do something to cruel me.

"Maybe," I manage to mumble through my fear.

"I was down there last night," he says just as we arrive outside the change rooms. "I saw someone there."

"Oh yeah?" He surely knows I was there.

"I heard girls' voices."

"Could they have been ghosts?" I suggest to hopefully stop him from suspecting me and Lucia.

"Perhaps," he answers as he narrows his eyes slightly at me.

He slowly turns around and enters the boy's change room, leaving me frozen from worry outside the doorway.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Published August 8th, 2022