Muggle in a Wizard's World

Chapter 6

“Hey, where are you going?” John asked, jogging to match his long stride.

“I think that’s enough exploring for one day, don’t you think?” Sherlock asked. John frowned slightly, but kept walking with him, not brave enough to offer an alternative.

“What did you see in the mirror?” John asked. Sherlock looked ahead, not meeting John’s eyes.

“I was the minister of magic.” Sherlock said, not sounding very convincing.

“The what?”

“He runs all of the ministry of magic, but of course now would not be a good time to be the minister because the first thing Voldemort went after was the ministry.”

“He took it over?” John asked.

“Not yet, but he has a lot of workers under the imperius curse.”

“What’s that?” John asked.

“When someone can control you completely, it’s very illegal, but Voldemort doesn’t really obey the rules of the road.” Sherlock shrugged.

“Do you guys have some type of wizard prison then?” John asked.

“Yes, Azkaban, worst place on Earth.” Sherlock said. They were now walking down the staircase, and John noticed some of the paintings flinching at the word.

“What makes it so bad?” John asked.

“The guards are Dementors, creatures that suck the very happiness out of the air, most of the inmates lose their minds, go insane, because every thought in their head was horrible.” Sherlock said. John shivered, that sounded like hell on earth. He could never imagine not having a single happy thought in his head.

“That sounds harsh.” John decided.

“It is, and now the inmates are escaping, Voldemort lets them out, and he is now getting the dementors to join his side.” Sherlock said with a scared look on his face.

“Have you ever seen a dementor?” John asked.

“Once, it was dreadful.” Sherlock admitted.

“Are they the worst magical creature?”

“I think so, but giant spiders and werewolves can give them a run for their money.” Sherlock shrugged.

“There are such things as giant spiders?” John asked with horror.

“There’s all kind of things, I’ve got a book on magical beasts if you want to look.”

“Definitely!” John said excitedly. They walked down the steps to the potions classroom, and John felt an immediate change in temperature, like someone had just turned the air conditioning on. He pulled his new robes closer around him, hoping the fire was burning in the room. They walked through what was now a potions lesson, all the students stopped to look at them, but John ignored them and followed Sherlock through the wooden door. The teacher scowled at them, as usual, and the kids looked more confused. To John’s happiness, there was a fire in the fireplace and the small room was a lot warmer than the halls. Sherlock went over to a book case and pulled a rather thick book from the shelf, leather bound and old. He sat on the couch and looked at John, waiting for him to join him. John sat next to Sherlock awkwardly, hoping he had forgotten about the incident the other day. But if he did remember, he certainly didn’t show it, he opened the book, one side on his lap and the other resting on John’s. Dust flew out of it; obviously he hadn’t opened it in a while.

“Fantastic Beasts and Where to find them, all you need to know about magical creatures.” Sherlock said, flipping to a random page. There was a drawing of a giant snake thing, with bright, glowing yellow eyes and fangs that looked like swords. According to the book, it was called a basilisk, but John didn’t feel like reading the whole thing.