Halley Wolffer

Chapter 12

Halley had been knocked out for a few seconds after the magical blast, her mind was shaken and now, as she was slowly coming back to her senses, she realized that her situation had become even more dangerous and she could not believe what the invaders had done to her.

"What on Earth is this?" Halley muttered, trying to break free- "Release me, Witch! Release me, I say!"

Halley was glued to the tree that she had crashed against, trapped by a glowing, purple slime that covered most of her body. The magical glue was transparent and cold, and even though it did not look that strong, it was so effective that not even Halley's werewolf strength seemed to be a match for it.

Joan and Kate came out of nowhere in flashes of white light not far from Halley, advancing a few steps towards her while she was still trying to break free from the purple slime...

"You know, I was going to give you a bottle of the special wine from our world" Joan said, picking up Halley's magic staff from the snowy ground of the forest- "But now that you have tried to hurt me, you can forget about it... and I'll take your staff with me as well, what a clever souvenir!"

Halley was outraged at the mere thought of losing her magic staff, terrified to realize that Joan really meant it... Kate was laughing, and without her staff there was nothing that Halley could do to break free from the slime.

"You cannot do that, it's my father's!" Halley cried- "The Second Task is coming in three days!"

"Oh yeah, the Tree Wizard Tournament" Joan replied, playing with Halley's staff- "I'll tell you a secret, Halley- All you have to do is to travel to the deepest part of this forest, precisely in that direction... and eventually, you shall find the place where it's hidden, you know... the thing that has been hidden for centuries, waiting for you!"

"Joan, you are altering the natural course of Halley's world!" Kate commented, a little surprised at the audacity of her friend.

"She has to find it someday, Kate..."

Halley could see Looney and Virginia from the distance, shocked to realize that her friends remained dreaming, twitching and utterly unable to help her. The castle was a good half a mile from them, it was a lonely night and Halley knew that nobody would come to her rescue...

"What is hidden? What do you mean?"

"A different staff, better than this one" Joan replied, adopting a mysterious voice just for kicks- "The ultimate magic staff, Halley, the Death Staff... the most powerful of all the magic staffs of the world!"

"Joan, Violet is waiting for us..."

Joan turned around and walked away followed by Kate, both girls chatting and laughing as they departed with Halley's autograph, Halley's magic staff and Halley's self respect as well. Their eyes were glowing with that eerie and unnatural light, their black coats rippling behind them thanks to the wind.

"Silver is never going to believe this!" Joan said, and then they disappeared in two flashes of white light.

The whispers of the wind followed the departure of the mysterious invaders, and Halley could do nothing but to cry and scream for help as she remained glued to that tree...

46-

December the 5th came with a beautiful sunrise at Lake of the Hallows, the sky was very clear, the Hallower could be heard howling happily to the sun somewhere in the lake and very soon Donald and Isabella, waking up at Raven Tower, realized that Halley and Looney were missing.

They were joined by Albion Dusseldorf at the grounds of the castle after breakfast, some of the Gryffin first years also showed up looking for Virginia and the Headmaster quickly came to the conclusion that something very weird had happened last night.