Dodging Prison and Stealing Witches

Chapter 25: Necromancy for Fun and Fun - Part One

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text
[Warning: This chapter contains strong and potentially offensive language]

[August 5th, 1991 — The day after Alexandra's tenth birthday party]

In a dusty corner of a dusty library, a pair of bright violet eyes were glued to the occasionally turned pages of a colourful book.

And then, the boy who lived swept down on the foul beast and sliced it in two.

"Hah!" the boy who lived shouted. "Your foul magics won't help you this time!"

The black witch of the north cackled. "Oh, you think so, do you? You haven't even seen one-tenth of my true power!"

And then, the black witch of the north drove her staff of supreme evil into the ground, which started to shake terribly.

"What is this?!" The boy who lived was startled. He'd never seen such evil before.

"This! This is my TRUE POWER!" And from the ground emerged a dragon, and the boy who lived could see that it was undead because its skin was yellow and flaky and bony and yet it still moved.

"Do you see, boy who lived?" the black witch of the north cackled. "You cannot possibly hope to defeat such evil! Now, bow before me!"

"Never!" The boy who lived got shakily to his feet. "I can defeat you! Because I have my friends!"

And the friends of the boy who lived all gathered round him.

"Use it now!" shouted Maldeve.

"Yes!" shouted Vivian. "The ancient artefact! It's the key to defeating the black witch of the north!"

And the boy who lived pointed the ancient artefact of Zak'ra'na'fu'si'ta'dul at the huge undead dragon and the power of friendship rushed through them all, hit the foul dragon, which let out an evil cry of rage, and dissolved into nothing.

"NO!" The black witch of the north cried. "This cannot be! I cannot be defeated by—"

Wham! The book hit the nearest bookcase and dropped to the floor, face down, still open, its colourful front cover showing a boy of no more than six standing on the head of a dragon and holding a sword. A startled Amethyst jumped up and fell from where she'd been sleeping, landed lightly on the floor, righted herself and looked around, dart like, for whatever threat had awoken her.

Alexandra Patricia Black, wearing a long night dress and a frown, folded her arms and glared at the fallen book. That was how the 'boy who lived' took down a seventy foot long undead dragon? What a cop out. He should have been a greasy stain on the castle floor! The black witch of the north should have won! She'd been better prepared, better armed, better manned. She'd had a whole army of skeletons in book four. Where had they been?

Still grumbling, Alex hopped out of her armchair, snatched the book up, carefully gathered a mewing Amethyst in her arms, made her way out of the library, and down to where breakfast was being served.

"Morning, sleepyhead." Lord Sirius Black hastily buttered a slice of toast while she slid herself into one of the high back chairs and spooned herself a boiled egg from a large silver bowl filled with sand.

"Been up for ages," she muttered, depositing the cute black kitten and tapping the egg with a convenient silver spoon.

"Oh? Doing what?"

She held up the boy who lived adventure book in her other hand. "In the library."

A brief look of concern flashed over her father's face before settling back into its usual jaunty demeanour. "Just so long as you're staying out of those areas."