The Other Witches

17. Prophecies and Pursuit

The instruments are quiet. The cloaked man strides forward, up onto the stage. No one moves as he points his wand to his throat in the same motion that Von and James did mere minutes ago.

"Hogwarts. Beauxbatons. Durmstrang. All gathered under the same roof." His lips curl contemptuously. "Ignorant fools. You seem to all be completely forgetting your own situation." He pauses, scanning the forested hall. "Or perhaps you are simply....unaware."

Albus's hand is locked, frozen around my wrist.

I feel a horrible jerking sensation in my gut, and I am torn from Albus's grasp and into the air. My wand is yanked from my fingers with the second flick of the man's wand. My four friends are in similar cases: hovering in midair, wands confiscated, confused out of their minds. Lucy is struggling against the invisible force, though in vain. From somewhere, a fierce wind tears through the room, sending hair airborne and skirts rippling.

The stranger in the cloak twitches his wrist again, and five heads (including my own) are thrust back. From the area over my heart, a small orb of blue light seems to seep out of my chest until fully formed, about the size of, say, a Remembrall. When my head is released from the iron force holding it back, I take in the sight: each of us has her own orb, in the corresponding color of her house, floating in front of her. The foreign wind shows no sign of dying down.

"Listen, and listen well!" the stranger booms, and the room falls silent save for the strange gusts. The five of us are still hovering some twenty feet in the air, illuminated by the glowing spheres. "I bring a warning, both to you all and to the five themselves, lest you let them destroy you." He waves his pale wand once more, and mist seeps through the spaces between the tables and trees, filling the room.

Then Lucy's ball of light explodes. The million tiny scarlet pieces begin to fly around her suspended body at dizzying speed, forming a kind of cage made of light. Several of the fragments break away from the rest as the man begins to speak.

The bold daughter of Gryffindor

Destruction does foresee

As Hogwarts' tallest tower burns

By a wand of the acacia tree

The stray pieces of red light gradually form a picture, a scene, right in the air where everyone could see it. At first, the image is blurry, but eventually I recognize it. Lucy, seated in front of a crystal ball.

The Inner Eye is strong with her

And chaos is her friend

With second sight she will predict

Three schools' untimely end

The gazing ball catches fire. The image of Lucy fluidly picks it up and throws it to the floor, sending the whole scene up in flames. All of the light fragments return to Lucy's orb, which is again stationary in front of her.

Lauren's yellow sphere partially evaporates into a glowing mist that surrounds her floating body. A golden version of her forms, taking slow steps through the air to the middle of the room.

One of two in Hufflepuff

One day will disappear

Consorting with the enemy

Out of cowardice and fear

The light-beam Lauren pulls something out of thin air. The invisibility cloak. A circle of yellow adversaries, Hogwarts students, trap her in their center, advancing towards her, but as allies, not enemies.