Hope - George Potter

4 - Sorcerers, toads and broomsticks

When he was sure the Dursleys had gone to bed, George quickly stood up and walked out of the room to escape the growing tension and to get a dictionary.

When he was on the stairs, he could hear footsteps behind him and turned around completely scared, only to see that Harry had joined him.

Harry and George smiled at each other and walked the rest of the stairs together. That was their usual way of making up. They didn't like apologizing, so it was just an unspoken mutual understanding.

When they were upstairs, George let Harry take the lead, as a sign that he did trust him.

They went over to the bookshelf. The Dursleys' bookcase was huge but George suspected that there were many books they had never even read that were just there for decoration.

They searched the shelf for a dictionary and Harry found one after a few minutes. He showed his brother and they quickly snuck down the stairs as quietly as possible.

When they were back in their room, they finally dared to speak again.

"Okay. Let's start. What should we look up?" Harry asked.

"We need to know what 'hcraft' could mean or which word it might come from. And maybe we can find out what 'Sorc.' means."

"The only words starting with 'sorc' are sorcerer or sorceress. This letter is weird. Sorcerers, toads and broomsticks. Are you sure it's not just rubbish?"

"Aunt Petunia's reaction says it all. It has to mean something."

Harry started turning the pages again. "There is no hcraft."

"I didn't think there would be but one can always hope. We have to think of words that end with hcraft."

The two boys sat in silence, thinking really hard. George's hand subconsciously went through his hair. He always did that when he was thinking. Harry stood up and started pacing.

"Leechcraft!"

George looked over at Harry, impressed, "Wow. You're a genius! I couldn't think of anything. My mind just kept going back to fieldcraft. So now we have 'leechcraft and' as the headline. Sorc. could either be the abbreviation for sorcerer or for some sort of organization or title. And then we have 'toad' and 'broomsticks'. Great work, but I really can't think of any way those words could be linked. Toads and broomsticks have something to do with sorcerer. But why would anyone write me a letter only to put some rubbish about witches in it. And the headline doesn't fit either."

"Yeah, it really doesn't make any sense," Harry said. George was looking depressed. He had hoped he could solve the mystery but now he was even more confused than before.

"Let's just go to bed. I'm too tired to solve any annoying riddles right now," Harry said.

"Agreed"

When they were lying in bed, George said,"I'm sorry that I leashed out on you like that earlier. I was just so annoyed with the whole situation."

After he didn't hear an answer from Harry, he feared that his little brother might still be angry at him but when he looked over, he saw that Harry was sound asleep.

George lay awake for a very long time that night. His mind just repeated the words leechcraft, sorcerer, toad and broomsticks over and over. He had a feeling that the solution was obvious, that he didn't see something that was directly in front of his eyes.

Somehow, he couldn't get Harry's remark out of his mind:

'This letter is weird. Sorcerers, toads and broomsticks. Are you sure it's not just rubbish?'

rubbish

'Rubbish' was what aunt Petunia said whenever he talked about something that couldn't be true. Whenever he defended himself after something strange had happened and he was being punished for it, even though he hadn't done anything.

Was something strange happening? Something that shouldn't be true?

Strange things always happened around the Potter boys, things they couldn't explain. Things nobody could explain.

George knew magic didn't exist. He knew that Santa Claus didn't exist. But sometimes it was difficult for him to accept that there was nothing strange happening in this world. The people thought they could explain everything, that there was no mystery left to be solved. They would usually just ignore strange things or think up some sort of explanation that would make them logical.

But it wasn't the truth. Those explanations were never the truth. George knew that from experience. Too many strange things had happened around him. It couldn't be a coincidence. And usually he was being punished for it, even though he hadn't done anything. Those explanations were always that he had done something but he knew very well that he hadn't done any of the things other people assumed he did. They had to be caused by something different.

Maybe he was just slowly getting mad.