Sunday morning dawned with a mixture of sunshine and clouds. In many ways this reflected John’s mood. He was excited because he felt that he was finally on the right path to discovering who he was, and he was anxious to meet other wizards and witches and learn even more spells. But despite this excitement, doubt kept creeping into John’s mind. What if it were all a hoax? What if he were merely dreaming? And what was the Wizards’ Society really about; for John knew there was far more going on than Eric had mentioned.
Still, John knew the only way to answer his questions was to go to the meeting that night, to be on guard, and to remain skeptical.
And so the day dragged on for John. He tried to pass the time until eight by visiting Mike. But Mike was still hung-over from the night before and in no mood for company. So instead John sat in his room, periodically making things levitate, just to ensure the night before hadn’t been a dream.
Finally eight came and John headed out to the house he had been at the night before. It still looked as run down as ever on the outside, but that didn’t worry John tonight. He was more afraid of what lay inside.
He reached the door and after a deep breath for courage, he knocked three times.
“Who’s there?” a voice demanded.
“Umm, John Doe,” John said wearily. The door opened and John was ushered quickly inside. The door was shut immediately and loudly behind him and John jerked his head back at the noise. When he turned back around, he saw that the entire sitting room was full of people.
The oldest could have easily been John’s grandfather twice over while the youngest looked barely eighteen. As he stepped into this room all eyes were on him and all seemed to glance up at his scar. There was an awkward moment where the expressions ranged from delight to fear before Eric broke the silence.
“Hello, John,” Eric said from the same chair he had sat in the night before. “Everyone, this is John Doe. John, this is everyone. No need for introductions, you’ll learn everyone’s name as we go along.” Eric stopped and puffed from his pipe. “Now, please sit down.” He motioned to an empty seat on the sofa next to a young girl with long brown hair. John took the seat, his fear subsiding slightly as he waited eagerly to see what the meeting was about.
“Well, now that we are all here,” Eric said, “it is time for an update. Marcus how goes things with the Muggles?” A tall blonde haired man of about forty stood up as he spoke.
“Well they are completely clueless as to our being here. We have done well at concealing our position. So, as far as the Muggles are concerned the sooner we strike the better chance we have of catching them off guard,” he said with a wink to Eric.
“Yes, yes, that’s all fine,” Eric said as Marcus sat back down. “But how is training going?” This time a youth of about John’s age stood up.
“Well, Eric, I wish I could give a more positive report but I am afraid we have a few stragglers. However, we should all be ready and in tip top shape in a little more than a fortnight.” This man sat back down.
“All right then three weeks it is. Can you have the plans ready by then, Justin?” A man in green robes nodded. “Perfect. Greeley,” Eric said to the witch beside John. “You know your spells well, do you not?” She nodded. “Then I am putting you in charge of John’s training. Work mostly on spells that will be used in battle. No sense in clogging his head with other useless nonsense.”
“Yes, sir.”
“All right then, meeting adjourned. I expect everyone to spend some time practicing those spells. They may be only Muggles, but you can bet they won’t go down with out a fight.” And with that everyone got up to leave. John sat there in shock at the brevity of the meeting and the mention of a battle. He wanted to talk to Eric about all of this but, the witch called Greeley turned to speak to him.
“My name is Elizabeth Greeley,” she said as she held out her hand to John.
“Nice to meet you.”
“I suppose we should work on some spells tonight, if that is all right with you.”
“Sounds great, but can I ask you a few question first?”
“Absolutely, but do you mind if I speak with Justin real quick? He is rather difficult to find once meetings are over.” John nodded and Elizabeth got up, leaving John alone on the sofa.
John watched as the room slowly empty. In every conversation there seemed to be a large amount of laughter and frequently he caught eyes staring at him. To avoid the looks he stared at the fireplace as he waited for Elizabeth to return.
“Interesting man, that one,” Elizabeth said as she joined John back on the sofa. She smiled warmly at him.
“That meeting was pretty short,” John said. Elizabeth laughed.
“Yes, that’s how, Eric does business. Quick and to the point. It’s quite nice actually.”
“What was the battle he was talking about?” John found Elizabeth easy to talk to and he was already glad that she was to be his teacher rather than Eric.
“The battle against the Muggles. Eric told you what a Muggle is?” John nodded. “Well the Wizards’ Society intends to end their wickedness towards wizards and a fight is the best way to do that.” Elizabeth did not seem enthused at the idea of a battle but she changed the subject before John could question further. “We really need to start on your training,” she said. She stood up and John followed suit.
“You brought your wand, right?” John held up his wand. “Great. First we need to start with the basic. How to properly hold and wave your wand and that sort of thing.” They spent the next twenty minutes working on this. John felt pretty silly when Elizabeth made him say out loud “Swish and flick,” over and over while he waved his wand.
“Okay, I think we can move on. I’d like to start with a fairly simple spell. It’s not quite one you will use in battle but it could come in handy. It’s called Lumos.” She then waved her wand and said “Lumos” causing the end to light. It was almost like turning on a flashlight. It only took John two tries before he got the Lumos spell to work. They then moved on to other spells. Elizabeth was very impressed with how quickly John caught on. She constantly told him that she was sure he had to have been a pretty great wizard before his memory disappeared. John couldn’t tell if she really meant it or if she was just saying it to keep his confidence up.
It was after midnight when John left the Wizards’ Society. He had learned a shield spell, a disarming spell and had begun to work on a stunning spell.
As he lay in bed back at the McGraths’ his head was spinning with different spells and the smell of Elizabeth’s brown hair. He was still sure that the Wizards’ Society wasn’t telling him the whole story, and the idea of a battle still felt wrong, but being able to do magic felt so wonderful to him that he wasn’t ready to question them. Not yet. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t back out if he got in too deep.
He fell asleep to new thoughts and new information, but the dream that came was the same as it had always been. Bright green lights and the outline of a red haired girl. But the screams were louder than normal and he even thought that someone was hollering a name, but try as he might, he couldn’t figure out what that name was.
John Doe and the Wizards' Society by hallie_p
Chapter Notes: School is out now, so theoretically updates will be coming more quickly. There are 3 chapter after this one and all three are written they just need a little more editing. Thanks for reading and please review!