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

Chapter 24: Misery Island

Chapter 24

     Misery Island is actually two islands. There’s the Great Misery Island and the Little Misery Island. The Great Misery Island is an eighty-seven acre conservation area that is uninhabited by humans, or so it was thought. It was named in the Seventeenth Century by a shipwright who got stranded there in a cold winter storm. There was once a golf course on the island but it was abandoned and destroyed many years ago. The island itself has long been rumored to be haunted. Many Muggles in the area go fishing in the northern bay while others travel to the dark sands between Great Misery Island and Little Misery Island. The fishing there has always attracted Muggle visitors to it. The island has a few footpaths that crisscross it. There’s also a small growth of mandrake root and dittany stalks on the island, along with a small herd of thestrals on it, unseen by Muggle eyes. Misery Island was not really a place for escape. Nor was it a place that many flocked to besides fishermen. It was simply there; an island that seemed to serve no greater purpose than to conserve wildlife and indigenous plants. A large portion of the island was mostly unchecked by Muggle eyes, even by magic folk. But when Shade had performed the Soul Search for Jinx he saw that Misery Island yielded more than what appeared on maps and to the naked eye.

     “Misery Island,” Shade said to himself.

     “Where is that?” Rain Fox asked.

     “It’s several miles north of Salem Harbor,” Star said. “My ‘rents always said that Misery Island was haunted by ghouls and Dementors. They said never to go there. I don’t believe them but whatevs.”

     “Funny,” Shade said. “There was a guy named Arlington Speckles that worked for the Ministry in the Magical Creatures Department. He had Misery Island on his list, but he had scratched it off for some reason. I wonder why he didn’t go to it.”

     “You saw Jinx there?” Sherman asked. “Bet that slimy git, Leech, put some enchantments around the island. You know, to make people forget things, or to make you think that you don’t need to be looking for the place.”

     “What do you mean?” Ignatia asked.

     “Well, there are a few places that have enchantments like that. Take Witching Way, for example. Muggles can’t get there unless they’re brought in. Or take anywhere under a Fidelius Charm’s protection. Unless the Secret-Keeper lets you in on the secret, you’re bloomin’ out of luck, mate. Any person looking for it won’t find it, unless they know about it, you understand?”

     “So we need to find someone who is under its protection. Someone who is a Secret-Keeper, or something like that,” Shade said.

     “What about that Scorn guy?” Echo asked. “He was still  there!”

     “Where?” Shade asked.

     “At my mother’s work,” she said. “He’s at the Ministry.”

     “Well, that’s no good, now, is it?” Sherman said. “We can’t get in there, not with the school shut and the night on. What about the Talk-Box?”

     “No good,” Shade said. “It’s at the apartment. She left it behind when she took off to take you to the Ministry.”

     “Well, that’s no good, either,” Sherman said.

     “You said you saw Jinx in your mind, right?” Rain Fox asked.

     “Yeah, why?” Shade asked.

     “That means she’s still alive,” Rain Fox said. “If her soul had departed, she’d be dead. I’m telling you, I was reading something in one of these books. This one right here!” Rain Fox lifted up the copy of “Beyond the Magic”.