The Silver Duo - Part Three

Chapter One

It was stupid. It was the most stupid thing he'd ever done. He felt like a madman. He wasn't totally sure what to do. He didn't know how he would do it. But Kane was on a train, riding from his home in London to the mountains in Scotland at a hundred miles per hour.

A little later, he stood at the gates of Hogwarts, now closed. No one was there, and it was a month early. He was going to break in.

Okay, maybe not.

He woke up with a start in his bedroom. It was one thirty five in the morning. He'd been out of Hogwarts for two weeks. He didn't want to go back to sleep in case he had another dream, so he walked over to his computer. He was following Dumbledore's advice to find out the source of his ability to see the future. It was a lot harder than he expected. Mother's parent's, mother's mother's parents, mother's father's parents, mother's father's mother's parents, mother's father's father's parents... it was enough to drive someone mad.

And he didn't need another thing driving him crazy. The dreams that he was having were already enough to make him feel like he should be in a hospital wearing a straightjacket.

He opened a drawer and pulled out his dream journal. Yes, he had a dream journal, but it didn't have any unicorns and rainbows on it. In fact, the insides were almost the opposite of that.

Once he finished writing about his dream about the train, he started to look over his other ones. Once, he was in a dark room, and he saw something on the ground. He recognized it as one of the huge label chain things people wear in prison. It was lying on the ground, and there were pawprints in the dust leading away from it...

In another dream, he was standing on a mountain with a faraway view of Hogwarts. There were black, hooded figures floating around everywhere. Everything was cold. He felt like he'd never be happy again.

Another time, he was standing at the edge of the Dark Forest at night, looking out over the hill leading up to Hogwarts, where the crazy Whomping Willow stood flailing around its branches, shadowy figures of people under it, trying to avoid getting killed.

And in another dream, he was eating pizza. His family ate pizza the next night. It was good pizza.

He closed the book and put it back in the drawer, turning back to the computer. He hadn't found any meaningful names yet. Once he found out that he comes from a long line of the last name 'Dikshit'. Go figure.

When he got to someone named Hugh Janus Dikshit (who would be so cruel?) he looked at the birth and death date and realized he was already in the seventeenth century. Oh gosh. And still no answers, except that his grandmother's side of the family was very unfortunate when it came to names.

He didn't remember going to sleep, but he woke up with a face full of keyboard. His computer sounded like it was going to explode. He turned it off and looked out the window, which was already lit up by bright sunshine. He checked his watch, but it was still cracked and stuck on nine fifteen. He grinned when he remembered last year, when he and Anna were running for their lives and he hit the watch against a wall as they made an awesome escape from the Basilisk's lair.

He stretched and walked up the stairs into the kitchen, just in time to catch his parents getting ready to leave for work.

"'Morning," Mom said, kissing his head. He glanced at the clock, which read nine fifteen. Go figure.

"Bye, buddy. See you later. There's Oreos in our closet."

"Dang it, David!" Mom said to Dad. She hated it when he gave up her hiding places. "Bye, honey! Love you!"

They walked out the door, and he heard the car engine start and leave the driveway.

He plopped down on the couch and turned on the TV to hear the shrill singing of elmo. He couldn't help but sit there for a few seconds and hum along to the theme of Sesame Street.

He clicked turned the channel and smiled when he remembered a story Anna told him two years ago when she found out she was magical by being too lazy to get the TV remote. The last time he wrote her was about a week. She hadn't written back.

He rubbed his head, which still hurt from getting hit against a wall by a giant snake a few weeks before. Good times.

After two episodes of Doctor Who his older brother shuffled in from the hall with wild hair.

"'Morning."

"Hmblumblebblmbul," he muttered.

His family had taken the news really well. Well, the news that he was going to a new boarding school for musical arts. His parents didn't even believe that he was a wizard when he showed them the letter. It was just too much to process, finding out that magic was real. But he had no choice but to believe. He couldn't stay in Bradford, going to Ian Mikardo for the rest of his childhood. So he faked a few brochures and just like that, he was spending his years at Hogwarts. The only problem was the questions they asked when he came home with an owl. He told them it was a class pet and he was taking care of it during the summer. They agreed to it as long as it didn't poop in their food.

Soon he got bored and those Oreos were starting to seem pretty good.

He was back at the computer, twisting apart another oreo.

It seemed impossible that he could be related to all these people. It seemed like he was going through everyone who ever lived on the earth. He was tempted more than once to put his head through the screen.

He got past the Dikshits and started a line of Eurydice's. Just to see, he scrolled up as far as he could. He wasn't even halfway through. He wondered how it ended. Maybe he would get all the way to Adam and Eve. It seemed like it.

Then he found the big problem.

The family tree stopped at the year 1625. No more people listed. He kept scrolling, but it didn't budge. This was the end. And he hadn't seen any names more meaningful than Hugh Janus Dikshit. He could sense himself getting so close to the truth...

Now, he really did want to throw his head into the computer.

He got out of his chair so forcefully it toppled over. He paced around the room, thinking. He decided he would go to the library later, but he didn't have a ride at the moment.

He sat down on his bed and pulled out his Hogwarts stuff from under his bed. It seemed stupid that he should have homework during the summer, but he did. Splurg. Stupid Goblin Revolution. Why can't they just be happy without wands? Why can't they realize they can't win when they're less than four feet tall?

Finally he got to the limit he promised himself he'd do every day (about three words) and he put the books and the essay back under his bed. His hand brushed against a thin box, and there was a tiny whizzzz!

He let out a breath and brought the box out from under his bed. He felt it vibrating in his hands. The box was brown and firm, with the tiny word Ollivander's imprinted in the corner. Along the side, it described what was inside.

It was his wand.

He never dared to touch it because if he did, it would let out a bang and burst of light loud and bright enough to shake and burn down the world. The same thing happened to him a week ago. Thank goodness, no one was home at the time, but he still had some ringing in his ears. His wand was pretty excitable.

He slid off the lid and looked into it at the powerful light brown stick of wood. He could see it shaking, a little at first, and then as if it was trying to jump out of its box. He quickly shut the lid and gently put it back under his bed, and it made no more noise.