They walked in silence. The cloaked man seemed to be concentrating on which direction he was going. John was pondering what he had just learned.
Magic. It seemed almost impossible, but John believed it so easily that he felt it must be true. The idea of it felt right in a way that nothing really had since he had awoken in that hospital bed.
The walked for another fifteen minutes until they a reached a house on the outskirts of town. The house looked rather run down. Half of the shutters were missing and the screen door no long had its screen. The appearance of the house didn’t seem to faze the man as he walked up the rickety porch towards the door. He pulled the wand out of his pocket and John watched closely as the man waved the wand while whispering an incoherent word.
The door opened and the man beckoned John inside. The inside was the exact opposite of the outside of the house. The furniture all looked new, the floors were polished and several bookshelves held at least a hundred rather new looking books of all shapes and sizes..
The man took off his cloak, revealing mousy-brown hair. He threw his cloak on to a rack beside the door and headed into the sitting area to the right. John followed him.
“Please have a seat. Make yourself at home. We’re safe here.” The man sat down on one of the chairs closest to the empty fire place. John picked a chair across from him. They sat there in a few moments of silence, while the man examined his fingernails and John contemplated what to ask first.
“What was that that you whispered when opening the door?” John finally asked.
“Why that was a spell. A wand is useless if you don’t have spells to go with it.” Silence over took them again.
“Who are you?” John asked.
“The name is Eric Norris,” the man said as he repositioned himself in his chair.
“And who am I?” Johan asked. Eric looked up at him with an amused expression on his face.
“Why would I know that?” he asked.
“You’re worried about being safe, yet you invite me here. You automatically assume that I can do magic simply because I claimed to have seen a wand before. And,” here John paused and lowered his voice, “You seemed rather intrigued by my scar when we met in the bar.”
Eric eyed John for a moment before he spoke, “I don’t know specifically who you are,” he said at last. “But as some of my associates were scouting out this town, to see if it were safe they came across your magic, and warned me of you. And I don’t trust you, not yet anyway. But every now and again I am willing to take a chance.”
There was something in Eric’s voice or look that made John feel as thought this weren’t the entire truth, but he decided not to press the issue as he had other questions he wanted answered.
“So magic exists?” he asked.
“Yeah it’s everywhere. Witches, wizards and creatures alike.” Eric lit up his pipe as he spoke. He seemed to relax a little as John changed the subject.
“So then how come I haven’t seen any before?”
“Well, you may have very easily seen a witch or wizard before. We don’t like to go about announcing it however. First those without magic will want to use us for their own purposes and then they will abuse us out of fear. It’s happened before.”
“How do you learn these spells to use with you wand?”
“We have schools where kids go to learn. I suspect you probably attended one in your youth.” School. John had always thought he must have attended one but now his imagination ran wild with all that could happen at a magic school.
“Tell me something, or rather show me something. Please, so I know that you are not just making this magic stuff up.” John expected him to protest, but he obligingly pulled out is wand.
“Wingardium Leviosa,” Eric said as he made a swishing and a flicking movement with his wand. The chair next to John started to rise in the air. Eric directed it and a few moments later it landed across the room. John’s eyes widened in disbelief as his mind raced to find some logical answer for what he was seeing. The chair had moved with nothing but the wand to direct it, surely it must be some sort of trick
“Do you believe now?” he asked.
“No,” John said as he shook his head. Eric handed him is wand.
“You try. Wingardium Leviosa. Go ahead.”
John tentatively took the wand. He stared at if for a moment. It was made of darker wood than the one he owned. He looked back up at Eric, still unsure, but Eric nodded encouragingly.
With a deep breath, John waved it as Eric had done and repeated, “Wingardium Leviosa.” To John’s utter amazement the chair rose a few inches off the floor before crashing back down, and as the moved he felt a strange tingling throughout his body.
“Well, it always works better with your own wand. And besides it usually takes practice when you are trying a new spell.” John sat there for a moment in complete silence, still holding the wand up. He had just done magic, for surely that was all it could be. He had said a spell and the chair had responded. It was true the chair hadn’t gone far, but it had moved. He had made it move from across the room. And then there was the tingling feeling in his body. Even now he still faintly felt it, as though something had been awoken inside of him and it was reluctant to be put back to sleep.
John wanted to rush home and try the spell with his own wand. He wanted to see if the spell did work better, but as he handed the wand back to Eric, he remembered how little he knew of this strange man. And so he continued his questioning, his hand still shaking slightly from the shock of having done magic.
“So what are you doing here?”
“Ah, well now I am glad you asked. I am the leader of an organization that has decided to set up headquarters here in Burwell. You see, we believed this town to be completely free of any with magical powers and thus we thought it to be safe.”
“So now it is no longer safe?”
“That is what I am trying to determine tonight. It was my intentions when I entered that bar tonight to see if you might be willing to help our noble cause and consequently save us the trouble of finding a new town.” Eric took a big puff of his pipe.
“Me?” John said as his earlier suspicions of Eric returning. “But I don’t remember any sort of magic.”
“Well that can easily be taught. You won’t need to know as many spells as you once did. And this may turn out to be doubly beneficial for perhaps as you learn what you already once knew, the rest will come back to you.”
John pondered this for a while. He was still sure that Eric knew far more than he was telling, but perhaps there was a decent enough reason for this. And the therapist had often said that if he tried to do normal activities it may help jog his memory. If magic was normal, this might be his only chance. And he could always get out if things got too bad.
“What is this organization called?” John asked.
“The Wizards’ Society and we are dedicated to protecting the magical world from the many evils that surround it.”
“What sort of evils?”
“Well, there are dark creatures and wizards who solely want to hurt others and then there are the Muggles. The Wizard’s society has of late, really focused on the Muggle problem.”
“What is a Muggle?” John asked. Another mischievous grin formed on Eric’s face.
“A Muggle, you ask? Why a Muggle is a filthy dirty non-magic person, out to destroy the wizarding world.”
“But I thought you said that non magical people don’t know about the wizarding world.”
“Ah, true, most don’t. But you see, wizards do not always come from all magical families. Often they come from parents with no magic at all. And these are filthy Muggles out to destroy us.” Eric paused as he took another puff of his pipe, set it down on the side table and rose. “But let us not get too burdened down with details tonight. Tomorrow, the rest of the society will be joining me here, and I would like you to return as well. Bring your wand and we will begin to teach you spells.” With that he stood and directed John towards the door. “Tomorrow, shall we say eight?” John slowly nodded in agreement. “See you tomorrow then.”
John walked home barley noticing where his feet were taking him. His mind was racing from the thrill of doing magic to the uneasy feeling Eric and his society gave him. And deep inside was a growing hope that he might finally learn who he was.
When he reached the McGraths’, the house was dark. Being elderly, the McGraths were always in bed before ten. John quietly made his way to his room and pulled out a box from underneath his bed. Inside lay what he finally knew to be a wand. He took his wand out, pointed at a shirt that lay on the floor and said, “Wingardium Leviosa.” Instantly the shirt rose several feet in the air and at John’s urging the shirt made its way into his laundry basket.
John Doe and the Wizards' Society by hallie_p
Chapter Notes: Thanks to all those who have reviewed! And don't forget to keep reviewing!