Thursday 8th
November
“Ow.”
Tasha mumbled as she awoke, her eyes opening on a scene that caused her some
confusion. “Train.” She complained at the world in general as she slowly worked
out where she was. She had fallen asleep, leaning against the window of a
moving train. Her neck was stiff and her back ached, and yet she felt more
refreshed than she had for a couple of days.
As she
came to she remembered why she was on the aforementioned train. When Reika had
pulled her out of the gang’s clubhouse, the pair of them had run for Tasha’s
flat where they had packed everything Tasha did not want to lose, sent it to
Reika’s storage unit using their Duel Monsters and left the rest behind for
when the gang came looking for her. Then they had legged it, getting a train to
the furthest safe point they could think of, getting the earliest available
train in the process.
Tasha blinked and looked around, seeking out
the friend that had come with her. Reika had not had to come with her, but the
other Duellist had done so anyway. Tasha was not sorry but she could not help
but wonder where her friend had gone.
She
stretched, wincing as her neck twinged, objecting to the angle it had been at
since she had fallen asleep, and stood up. The carriage was pretty empty, only
a few people were around, some of whom were fast asleep, just as she had been
until a few moments ago. Reika was nowhere in sight though, causing Tasha to
worry that her friend had changed her mind and gone home. There was no reason
for the other girl to run after all, she had no links to the gang of Duellists
and none of them had seen her.
She
should not have worried, Reika re-entered the carriage, carrying two bottles of
cola and looking amused. “Hey.” She nodded as she slid into the seat next to
Tasha, “Finally woke up then.”
“Sorry.”
Tasha looked sheepish, “Where are we?”
“Somewhere.”
Reika replied helpfully, “Between somewhere in the middle of nowhere and
somewhere else. It’s highly possible we might be in the lake district right
now.”
“Maybe,
it’s still rather dark out.” Tasha tried to look through the window, but there
was not even a hint of the outside world yet.
“Tasha.” Reika chuckled with an amused tone that suggested that her friend was
being a little slow, “We’re in a tunnel.”
Tasha
blinked twice and then face palmed.
“Give me the caffeine, please?” She held out her other hand.
Reika
chuckled and gave her a bottle before pulling out her laptop, getting it out of
sleep mode and started writing.
“You’re
obsessed.” Tasha snorted before chugging half of the cola, letting out a burp
and then going bright red as she blushed in embarrassment, “Pardon me.”
“And
you,” Reika chuckled, “Didn’t get any writing done yesterday.”
Tasha
paused, cussed and then pulled her laptop out of her bag and started tapping
away. Still laughing at Tasha’s reaction to the simple statement the only time
they got distracted was as they came out of the tunnel and got to see the lake
district in the light of the sun rising.
“Wow.”
Tasha commented, watching the huge lakes go flying past as the train sped on
down the tracks. “Just wow.”
“We
could stop here.” Reika offered.
“We’ve
paid to go much further.” Tasha sighed, before pausing and frowning slightly.
“We’re idiots, by the way.”
“Why?”
Reika looked confused.
“We
can get our Duel Monsters to take objects anywhere, right?” Tasha asked,
continuing when Reika nodded, “So it figures that they could take us anywhere
right?” Reika nodded again. “So why are we on the train?”
“Uhhh...”
Reika paused, thought about it then sighed, shaking her head as she did so,
“Scenic route.”
“At
least we know that it will be easy to get back here if we want to.” Tasha
sighed, frustrated.
Reika
did not reply to that, too busy feeling like an idiot for not thinking about
just getting the Duel Monsters to take them anywhere they needed to go. Not
that she was very good at summoning the beasts from her deck. Reika had much
more talent with the magic and traps that were at her disposal than she had in
calling the huge Guardian Beasts that resided within the card in the holster at
her belt.
“Right,
shutting up.” Tasha decided out loud, turning her attention back to the screen
of her laptop and tapping away, trying not to voice her curiosity as to why
Reika’s family had a holiday home in Cornwall. It was something she had been
wondering for a while but she had decided she was not going to ask until they
were safely there and ensorcelled away.
As
they pulled into the station in question, they shouldered their backpacks,
grabbed their suitcases and headed out, emerging onto a little backwater,
unmanned station. “It’s just a few minutes from here.” Reika informed her,
carrying her suitcase down the narrow corridor between the trees to the left of
the road they had emerged onto.
“Where
are we, exactly?” Tasha asked for the second time as they continued down the
well hidden pathway. The trees shielded them from view but also hid everything
else, giving Tasha no idea of where they were. She started to get nervous. Here
she was, out in the middle of nowhere with a girl she had only met days before.
If she had not been so desperately seeking a hideaway where she could be away
from the gang and they would never find her, she would have asked a lot more
questions as they emerged onto a small cottage overlooking a huge cliff and a
gorgeous cove which led around to a small village.
“That,”
Reika pointed to the cove below, “Is Sennen Cove and this,” She gestured to the
cottage, “Is our family’s hideaway.”
“I...”
Tasha gazed between the cottage and the cove and then moved her gaze to the
girl who had brought her here, “How?”
“This
is where my sordid little tale comes into it.” Reika sighed, “Maybe we should
put our stuff inside and then I’ll explain.”
Ushering
Tasha into the silent domicile, Reika hit the on switch on the radio by the
door. Tasha jumped at the sudden noise and swiftly became confused by the
announcements from the ‘Wizarding Wireless Network.’
“That’s
unusual.” Tasha commented, confused as Reika showed her to her room. “Custom
station?”
“My
family’s a little unusual.” Reika replied with a small, pensive smile. “Like I
said, I’ll explain once we’ve settled.”
“Okay.”
Tasha nodded. As Reika slipped off to check the water, gas and electricity
situation, Tasha examined her room carefully. The furniture was rather sparse,
just a single bed, a chest of drawers, a wardrobe and a vanity table, but it
was obviously old and very well made. Tasha could not help but wonder how
Reika’s family had managed to get their hands on such old, beautiful furniture.
“Wizarding
Wireless Network.” Tasha chuckled as she unpacked her stuff into the right
places, “Quite an imagination. I mean I don’t believe in...” She froze as she
realised what she was about to say.
‘I don’t
believe in wand waving nonsense’ sounded ridiculous when she thought about
CardCon and what had happened. Her hand went to the lower half of her right leg
as she sat on the bed and realised that she was in the home of a real live
witch. One who would not attempt to murder her horribly as the ones who had
attacked the convention would have done.
“You’ve
worked it out?” Reika asked, hovering nervously in the doorway.
“I...
Do you have a wand?” Tasha could not help but be curious.
Reika
paused for a second, confused, then smiled slightly and entered the room,
pulling the object out of her jacket pocket and warily handing it over. “Eleven
inches, rowan and dragon heartstring.” Reika explained.
“So...
your family is...” Tasha said as she gave the wand an experimental wave, looked upset when nothing happened and
handed it back.
“Mum’s
a Muggle, Dad’s a Wizard.” Reika accepted it, unsurprised by the inertness of
the wand when held by another, “Bit of a shock for her when she found out.”
“I can
imagine.” Tasha yelped.
“Laptops,
garden?” Reika offered.
“More
sordid life story.” Tasha poked her in the arm.
“Deal.”
Reika agreed. “Though I do have one request.”
“Oh?”
Tasha asked, wondering what it was as she grabbed her laptop from her bag and
followed Reika outside.
“Don’t
tell anyone?” Reika asked her, “Please? The Muggles aren’t very forgiving of
witches and wizards right now. Shadow-Touched are getting the sympathy vote
still, but other magicals...”
“I
won’t. I promise.” Tasha promised. Reika led her out to the garden, which
stretched as far as the edge of the cliff and had a fence surrounding it, in an
attempt to prevent anyone from falling down the sheer face. It was not a neatly kept garden, there were
too many wild flowers that looked like they had joined the garden by themselves
within the flower beds and a lack of regulation in the way the hedges had grown
that suggested that the cottage was not somewhere that was visited often. They
sat at a picnic bench near the edge that gave them an excellent view of the
beach below and the village that was, at most, a few miles further along the
sands.
“So...you’re
a wizard?” Tasha asked Reika as they opened their laptops and settled.
“Witch.”
Reika corrected absently, thinking about the food that needed to be gotten in
and whether it would be easier to get a certain servant of the family to get it
for her, “Guys are wizards, women are withes.”
“So,
you’re a witch.” Tasha nodded her understanding, “Why don’t you live with other
witches if ‘Muggles’ don’t like you very much?” She asked, slightly confused by
the whole scenario.
“That’s
where my story comes into it.” Reika sighed, “My Dad is a rather powerful
wizard from a long line of wizards, what those who care about such things would
call a ‘Pure-Blood.’ However his family were always rather progressive for
Pure-Bloods and my dad fell in love with a Muggle woman he had met while
spending time with his Muggle-Born friends.”
“Your
mum.” Tasha realised.
Reika
nodded, “There’s something you have to understand though, at the time my Mum
and Dad met, there was a Dark Lord causing terror amongst the wizarding
populace, the same Dark Lord who leads the terrorists who attacked CardCon and
Domino over in Japan. “
“How
old is he?” Tasha exclaimed.
“It’s complicated, let me explain my tale and you can ask questions afterwards.
You might have less if you get the full story.” When Tasha pretended to zip her
lips Reika continued, “Anyway, this Dark Lord rallied a lot of the Pure-Blood
community to his cause and he wanted my Dad on his side. Of course Dad had
fallen for Mum and was having none of it, so he hid among the Muggles. Gave up
magic and focused on rebuilding his life with the money his parents had given
his and his new wife. A decade after I was born, the Dark Lord made the mistake
of attacking the Potter family and Harry, their son, somehow managed to defeat
him at just a year old.”
“Something
the parents did?” Tasha asked, unable to help herself.
“That’s
the common thought.” Reika allowed, “Blood wards or something similar, very
dark magic but it worked. Voldemort was destroyed and the wizarding world could
rebuild itself. Just in time in fact because I had shown signs of magic, my Dad
had had to come out of hiding so I could get training at Hogwarts, the prestigious
school for magic up in Scotland and had started classes that September. With
the Dark Lord dead the atmosphere in the school did a one eighty for the most
part, though due to the influence of our headmaster who some people are sure is
the only person the Dark Lord ever feared, it had been a safe zone for most of
us.
Anyway,
school life improved, I learnt magic, blah blah blah, I graduated with a bunch
of OWLs and a few NEWTs, realised that even with the Dark Lord dead the
wizarding world was full of morons with their heads up their rears and returned
to the Muggle world and got myself a job as a secretary.”
“But
if he was dead, how can he be back now?” Tasha wanted to know.
“No
one knows.” Reika sighed. “We know he died when he attacked the Potters, but
somehow his soul survived. Now he’s back from the dead and everyone’s running
scared again.”
Tasha
frowned, mulling the problem over in her mind. “Do you think he used the
Shadows to do it?”
“Until
the Pharaoh showed up, no one had ever heard of the Shadows, or Shadow Magic.”
Reika shook her head.
“So
you’re in hiding because this guy’s back and he’s attacking everyone again?”
Tasha asked.
“He’s
worse this time around.” Reika shook her head, “And that’s only part of the
problem. The English Wizarding community doesn’t trust anyone who is
Shadow-Touched very much. It’s partly because of what happened during
Shadowmorn, partly the fault of the rumours that had come out of Hogwarts about
soul stealing and murder attempts by Shadow wielders and mostly because of the
blasted Daily Prophet.”
“Daily
Prophet?” Tasha asked, confusion obvious in her features, “Is it a newspaper?”
“It’s
the only newspaper since the man in charge of its only rival, The Quibbler,
died.” Reika nodded, “And it’s controlled by the heavily Death Eater controlled
government.”
“And
we all know how much Death Eaters love Shadow-Touched.” Tasha face palmed with
a groan. “So they’re printing propaganda against the Shadow-Touched and
increasing the paranoia of the general populace and they’re reacting badly to
anyone who might possibly have something weird about them.”
“You
got it.” Reika was a little surprised by that.
“It’s
not hard to work out.” Tasha sighed, “It’s happened lots of times in the course
of history after all. Look at Hitler, after all. He’s the most famous example.”
“Who?”
Reika blinked at her.
“World
War Two.” Tasha snorted, “You don’t learn history in your crazy magic school?”
“Only
Wizarding history.” Reika looked embarrassed, “And we had a ghost teaching it.
He seemed to be obsessed with the Goblin Wars.”
“Oh
yeay, a ghost on repeat, excellent way to learn things.” Tasha sighed, “Hitler
led the Nazis. They believed that people with blonde hair and blue eyes were
the Master Race and that everyone else was inferior. They thought they should
rule the world to make humanity perfect and persecuted those who did not fit
the plan. The ones who were worst off were the Jews,” Seeing Reika’s confusion
she explained, “They’re a religious group. The Nazis issued so much propaganda
against them because they generally had a lot of money and did not look how the
Nazis thought humanity should look, that people were aiding and abetting the
arrest and murder of a lot of them. Those who weren’t killed on the spot were
taken to ‘Concentration Camps’ where they would work till death in despicable
conditions or worse, be taken to the gas chambers and murdered on mass.”
“That’s
horrible.” Reika looked stunned.
“We
learnt about them in secondary school.” Tasha replied, “And it sounds like
that’s what this Dark Lord wants to do to the Shadow-Touched.”
Reika
fell silent and they wrote in the bright sunlight, the sounds of the wildlife
around them the only noise except fingers on keys for a long while before Reika
asked, “People wouldn’t let Vol... Him do that, would they?”
“When
people are scared, they’re not at their best.” Tasha replied, wishing she could
say otherwise, “And a lot of people will go with whatever makes life easier, no
matter how bad it is. Remember most people are firmly of the opinion that ‘it’s
okay as long as it doesn’t happen to me or mine.’ As long as they don’t had
people like us in the family, they probably won’t stop him. There will be
people who fight, there probably is already, but most will roll over and play
dead. It’s how most people are.”
Silence
fell again and Tasha watched Reika process this. Tasha did not like being
honest about this but Reika had already obviously run into the problem first
hand. “I take it you got chased out of London.”
“No.”
Reika smiled bitterly, “But we got a warning from a friend of my father’s that
we were going to get visited by some... not so nice... people who had heard
that I was Shadow-Touched and we fled. We like living after all.” Reika’s gaze
was sharp as she considered her friend, “You know all of the disappearances
that have been happening? Where the skulls have been found floating over the
houses afterwards?” Tasha nodded, “That’s the same guys.”
“So
basically we’re screwed.” Tasha realised. “The magical government won’t stop
them because they’re in the pockets of the ones behind it, and the mundane one
can’t...”
“I
know.” Reika nodded, “And this is why Mum and Dad let me bring you here. This
place is heavily warded, repels Muggles and there’s no one who knows we own
it.” She smirked slightly, “You have your gang to get away from, I have a civil
war to try and ignore. This place, out in the middle of nowhere, should be
perfect.”
It
was, Tasha agreed. The peace and quiet bar the sounds of the waves below
lapping against the sandy beach, the chirping birds in the trees and the wind
was incredible, certainly more relaxing than home could ever have been. On the
one hand she missed the low background chatter of the bakery. On the other she
did miss the thought that at any minute her former friends could enter the
bakery and cause everyone else a world of trouble.
“I
should probably phone my parents.” Tasha realised, embarrassed when she
realised she had not done so yet. “I mean I don’t think anyone has their number
but I left stuff behind that means that if people look than they’ll find out
where I came from and...what?” She trailed off as she realised Reika was
staring at her.
“You
can’t tell them where you are, you realise that, right? There’s no point in
making this place a secret if you around telling everyone.” Reika growled.
“I...
I’m not going to tell them where I am, just that I’ve gone away for a few days
and I’ll give them a call when I’m on my way back.” Tasha had to pause to think
about it, “At least that way they won’t worry if someone from the authorities
goes and talks to them.”
“Fine,
fine.” Reika grouched, “Just...”
“I’ll
be careful.” Tasha promised, pulling her phone out of her pocket and switching
it on, swiftly entering her parents’ phone number and hitting call. She got off
of her seat and went and leant against the railings as the dial tone started
going off.
“Tarrent
Household, Jennifer speaking.” Tasha let out a relieved sigh when her mother
picked up the phone on the other end.
“Hi
Mum.” Tasha mentally grinned as she spoke.
“Tasha,
hi.” Her mother sounded delighted, “How are you? How’s everything going?”
“Uhhh...”
Tasha let out a nervous chuckle.
“Oh
honey, not again.” Her mother sounded exasperated, “You promised me you were
out of the gang business, I told you Duel Monsters was nothing but trouble.”
“It’s
not the game’s fault Mum, it those idiots.” Tasha defended the card game though
she could not help but start to wonder if her mother was right. “Anyway, a
friend and I have gone on vacation, it was a bit last minute so I didn’t have
time to tell you before hand.”
“Anywhere nice? It can’t be abroad, you left your passport here.” Her mother
sounded intrigued.
“Just
some seaside place, I just needed to get away, you know?” Tasha replied, “I just
thought I’d let you know that I’d vanished for a while and there’s nothing to
worry about.”
“Be
careful.” Her mother requested, “You know we’d rather you were here than up
there. Especially after...”
“I
know.” Tasha cut her off, not wanting to get into a row about how she wanted to
live on her own and have her own life instead of being coddled by her mother
who was just concerned for her disabled daughter, “I’ll be fine Mum. And if I’m
not, you’ll be the first person I come to, okay?”
“Alright.”
Her mother was sceptical, it was unsurprising considering Tasha had said that
before and had not done so. Her mother thought it was because Tasha was afraid
her mother would get her committed again, like she had when Tasha had woken up
from the Shadow Game, she could not know that it was actually because Tasha was
afraid of telling her parents about her powers after the last time she had
brought up the subject of magic around them. “I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
“Sure,
Mum.” Tasha promised with a sigh. “Love you. Bye.” She put the phone down
before her mother could respond and turned back to the table to find Reika
watching her like a hawk. “See?” She demanded sharply, “I didn’t give our
hiding place away.”
“No.”
Reika allowed, “But that didn’t sound like a fun phone call.”
“My
mother doesn’t believe in magic.” Tasha snorted, “She believes Shadowmorn was a
publicity stunt gone wrong and the terrorists who attacked CardCon used some
kind of hallucinogenic drug so people thought they were using magic.”
“Seriously?”
Reika was incredulous, wondering how someone could refuse the proof of their own
eyes quite that thoroughly.
“Those
are just her saner theories.” Tasha nodded, slumping back into her seat, “But
then she never did accept my story about the Shadow Game. She had me committed
to an asylum until I stopped talking about it.” Tasha looked both frustrated
and sad about that, “It took me a year or so, but I worked out the sooner I
played along and pretended to stop hearing voices and talking about the game
world I’d lived in for the past year, the sooner I could get home, so I just
stopped talking to anyone.” She chuckled as she smiled at Reika, “You’re the
first person I’ve had an honest conversation about all of this stuff with
outside of the blasted Duelling Club for about eight years.”
“I’m
honoured.” Reika smiled back, though she felt like kicking Tasha’s mother. She
could understand where the woman had come from. It was not normal for someone
to talk about hearing voices and game worlds that only she could see, but would
it not have been better for Tasha to live in her own fantasy world than open up
to the wrong people because there was no one else she could discuss her
abilities and history with?
Still
she was here and Tasha was here and they could discuss whatever they needed to
with each other and even if they weirded each other out for a while at least
they knew that the other person would not flee or abandon them to their
troubles.
It was
a strange thought, that they had only just met and already Reika knew more
about Tasha than her parents did. The Half-Blood witch could not help but
wonder why they had both opened up to each other so much over such a short
period of time. It was not even like they had that much in common besides
National Novel Writing Month, the need to find somewhere peaceful to write,
being Shadow-Touched and a love of Duel Monsters. It was insane for Reika to
suddenly decide she needed to drag the other girl, to a magical hideaway and
show her part of her world.
And
yet it felt right, trusting the once Muggle, now magical brunette with some of
the secrets of her world. Trusting her to keep the secrets and not spread them
around was a huge risk, but for some reason Reika felt it was the right one and
she could not work out why.
Tasha
felt much the same way about her secrets. Why she had suddenly, out of nowhere,
decided that she could trust the Witch before her. She had not told many about
her past, mostly due to the lessons she had learned in the asylum before her
own lies had gotten her out of there. No one wanted to listen to what they
believed was the ravings of a lunatic, even when she had been able to show off
her powers to prove what she had been saying. Reika was the only one who she
had ever told who had both believed her and not wanted to use her powers for
their own gain. It was a weird feeling to have someone she could trust to be
like that.
Tasha
supposed that it was because Reika had her own abilities, ones that could
probably do a lot more than hers could. Magic was not new to the half caste
young woman in front of her. So she probably thought Tasha was weird but
probably was not fazed by the possibilities that were presented. Tasha found
herself curious as to what a school of magic could teach children.
“What
was Hogwarts like?” Tasha asked, interrupting the writing process as she hit
the twenty-one thousand mark and paused to check her notes as to what she was
writing next.
“Hogwarts?”
Reika blinked at her, confusion written all over her face. “You want to know
about my school?”
“Yeah.”
Tasha nodded, “It’s not every day I get to meet someone who went through a
magical senior school. I mean it has
to be more interesting than my boring old, what was the word you used? Muggle?”
“That’s
the official term for non-magicals, yes.” Reika nodded. “Though I don’t think
you count.”
“I was
born Muggle.” Tasha pointed out.
“And
that still seems weird to me.” Reika complained under her breath.
“Why?”
Tasha asked curiously.
“Well
Muggles are Muggles.” Reika tried to explain it, “I mean...” She sighed, giving
up on writing until she had explained properly. “Until Shadowmorn Muggles were
Muggles and Wizards were Wizards. It was that simple. As far as we were
concerned, everyone who had magic were Wizards and no non-Wizard was allowed to
know about the Wizarding world.”
“And
then the Shadows gave Muggles magic and everything changed.” Tasha got it.
“I
mean I don’t know what would have happened in your case.” Reika nodded, “You
were magical long before Shadowmorn, but people don’t like that Muggles
suddenly have control over this powerful magic that’s obviously dark and is
stronger than the magic we’ve hidden for over a thousand years. You’ve seen
some of the fallout.”
“CardCon.”
Tasha murmured, gaze falling back to the screen of her laptop.
“And
Domino.” Reika nodded, “Though that one, I’m pretty certain, was meant to be a
direct strike on Harry Potter and, in the same strike, the Pharaoh.”
“You
mentioned Harry Potter before. Isn’t he the one who killed the Dark Lord as a
baby?” Tasha asked, mulling it over in her mind.
“That’s
right.” Reika nodded, “He’s been friends with the Pharaoh since they both
started Hogwarts.”
“Umm,
the Pharaoh’s only a year younger than us.” Tasha pointed out.
“I
know, but he’s been going to Hogwarts.” Reika chuckled, “The Wizarding
community isn’t large, things like this get around quickly. Besides where did
you think he disappeared to for nine months of the year?”
“Huh.”
Tasha blinked, “That makes so much sense. I suppose they just overlooked the
age difference or something.”
“Rumour
mill says De-aging Amulets that make him and his friends look the right age for
school again.” Reika passed on with a giggle.
“Wizards can do that?” Tasha looked shocked. She grinned when Reika nodded, “I want
one that makes me look this age forever.”
“I’m
not sure I can do that but I’m sure there someone out there who would try.” Reika
shrugged, “Anyway, you wanted to know about Hogwarts.”
“I
did, yes. Details woman, details.” Tasha waved at her.
“Well,
there are four houses...”
