The Adventures of the Junior Phoenixes, Part 1: The Pendant of Life

Chapter 2: Master Wolf

Chapter 2

     Across from the fabled House of the Seven Gables made famous by the novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, at 22 Hardy Street in Salem, Massachusetts is the old Morning Glory Bed and Breakfast. Inside the old Georgian Federal-style building was a taste of old New England, the old quaint style decorating the two-story B&B. It had been built in 1808, but had become very worn down over time. It was bought by a local merchant marine and turned into a B&B about the same time that Shade had ended his first year as a Hogwarts student: The summer of 1996. Since then, the building had become the best B&B in all of Salem, Danvers, Beverly, and the greater Salem-Essex area. The place had become very popular with both the locals and the tourists because of the history of the building itself and its location to both modern and historic Salem. It would only take a few minutes to walk to the Pickering Wharf Shopping District, and a few minutes from there to head to the center of Salem, where much of the business and history of the fabled witch town took place. People would flock to the Morning Glory mainly because of the very informal yet hospitable style that the innkeepers had created for the place, but also to taste Marcel’s Famous Cheese Bread, a recipe he kept secret. His mother, Mary Ann, would bake all sorts of sweets and baked goods, and still does to this day.

     There is a broom closet next to the staircase, and a mirror inside of the broom closet. Unbeknownst to the visiting tourists, but known to the innkeepers and some of their staff, the house was haunted by several ghosts, spirits of old local residents and former tenants of Salem and the Morning Glory itself. And known only to the innkeepers, the mirror inside of the broom closet was a portal. Beyond the mirror, long ago, a wizard had placed an Undetectable Extension Charm on the building, and besides the several rooms there, named after characters and people involved in the infamous Salem Witch Trials, there were three apartments hidden in the building, hidden from any non-magical folk. But the innkeepers, though non-magical, knew that they had tenants of the magical kind. Through some legal dancing and the placing of some Fidelius charms, the place had been designated a safe Muggle place for the occasional traveling wizard to lay his hat and hang his robes.  The Morning Glory had become a famous place for both the curious tourist and the travelling wizard, offering two of the three rooms hidden within as guest rooms for the occasional witch or wizard.

     The third room, on the second story and next to a hatch that led to the upper roof deck patio area, was where Shade had been living since he graduated from the Salem Academy of Magic two years earlier. He had nothing except a trunk full of books and only a few days worth of clothes. He owned little and kept less. A small kitchen opened up to a living room, one bedroom, and a single bathroom. There was a two-burner gas stove and a couch, a few trinkets, and a painting of a farm with a red barn on the wall. One lone window was on the far wall opposite of the front door, and next to that window was an old chair.

     He had only a few pictures that he kept. One was of a blonde haired boy with a camera in his hands that was taking a picture the same time his picture was taken. The boy’s name was Colin Creevey, a fellow student who had died eight years ago during the Battle of Hogwarts. He was one of the Prefects of the famous Gryffindor House, one of the four houses of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

     The second picture was of a sports team, all holding brooms and in the colors of the Bishop Ward Wolves from the Salem Academy of Magic. After the Battle of Hogwarts, Shade’s foster parents sent him to America, where he became a ward of the Ministry and was sent to the Salem Academy to finish his schooling. He tried out for Bishop Ward’s Quidditch team, being one of two beaters his last three years. The other beater was Jinx, who was standing next to him in the picture. They were both wayward kids and became good friends, both having a propensity for danger, but where Jinx hated reading and homework, Shade would often throw himself into books, often retreating into his self. But on the Quidditch field, he was bold and brave, and would often throw himself into danger, protecting his fellow teammates at any sign of danger against the other teams of the school’s wards.