The Legacies Only They Knew

Chapter 11 - Something Wicked This Way Comes

The main square of Hogsmeade was indeed quite hard to miss as the street Coraline was following went under a large stone archway that connected two buildings together on opposite sides of the street, which revealed a large, open square. Several shops of all sorts of different colors lined the outskirts of the square, with several carts and signs positioned just outside some of the shops. At first glance, if Coraline hadn't known ahead of time, she could have mistaken the square as that of a muggle village. However, after a closer look, she was able to recognize the presence of magic in the square. Dancing pink and blue cones of cotton candy in the front windows of the green and pink shop called Honeydukes, the never-ending moving pictures on the front pages of the newspapers stacked at a pop-up shop to her right, the wall on the front of the post office completely covered by shelves with perches for owls and the drastically leaning buildings that could only be held up by magic.

Coraline smiled brightly, her eyes wide with wonder as she took in all of the sights around the square. A part of her desperately wanted to visit each and every shop before heading back to Hogwarts, but she had a feeling that Professor Weasley would want them back at the castle before dinner. So, instead, she opted to go sit at the small outdoor seating area directly in front of the tea shop, two buildings over. But she wasn't able to get far in that plan as a familiar voice called out.

"Well, well, well. I see Mr. Ollivander was able to get you matched with a wand fairly quickly."
Coraline spun around to see Sebastian sauntering up to her from the same street she had just walked along mere minutes ago. "It took a couple of tries, but it worked out in the end. Did you get what you needed for Anne?"

"I did. So, I suppose the world is our oyster now..." Sebastian said before trailing off as a loud thudding sound started to echo throughout the square.

Both of the Hogwarts students looked around, confused, trying to identify where the sound was coming from, but saw nothing amiss. Several of the other people around the square stopped what they were doing and turned toward the large opening that faced the river, equally as confused. However, they didn't need to wonder for long as suddenly a massive gray beast of some sort came running around a corner before leaping into the middle of the square with a deafening thud. The beast was protected by intricate metal and leather armor tightly strapped to its body and held a large wooden club tipped with sharp metal.

Coraline, on the other hand, was far more concerned about the fact that the beast's armor had the same dark red glow as Ranrok's and the other goblins' armor from Gringotts. The constant re-appearance of the red glow did not sit well with her, especially since it seemed to follow her wherever she went. The beast roared loudly causing the dark red glow to briefly flare in intensity before returning to the normal level.

Sebastian whispered under his breath, but still loud enough for Coraline to hear, "Troll."

Her eyes widened, and she adjusted her grip on her new wand as her head snapped toward Sebastian at the identification of the beast. She didn't keep her gaze on him for long as the shouts and thudding of spells from the other townspeople making contact with the troll's armor forced her to pay attention to the situation at hand. The troll turned toward the group of townspeople that had assembled around the square, swinging and smashing its club into the ground in an effort to hit them.

Coraline was so caught up in the commotion of the fight that she hadn't even noticed Sebastian had drawn his wand as well until a burst of fire flew past her left side and exploded on the troll's armor. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see him ready to send more spells at the troll but faltered as it fully turned away from the other townspeople and started heading towards them with its club lifted. Sebastian cursed his luck under his breath and sent two more bursts of fire at the troll, which only caused a slight twitch in its shoulder.