An American Wizard

An American Wizard.

Adapted from a si-fi story by William Dietz, as well as others. and of course, J.K.Rowling.

When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse, Out of the corner of my eye
I turned to look, but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown, the dream is gone.

Pink Floyd
Comfortably Numb




Ch 1, The night of the skulls.

Oct 31, 1981, A small town in North America

The attack had came without warning, and ended just as quickly. The Pegasus-drawn coach had been under way for only a few minutes sense the end of the attack, having left the town of neatly shingled roofs, and miles of roads for the earth bound muggle cars far below. The magical animals strained at their harnesses as they rose into the night sky, the driver's long, supple whip cracked loud but harmlessly over their proud heads as they pulled the four-wheeled vehicle's entire weight upward at a steep angle. The Pegasus' expressed their unhappiness at being rushed via snorts, grunts, and occasional bursts of flatulence as the town fell away, and they pulled the coach up through the low hanging clouds. But the driver was accustomed to such displays, and his passengers were largely unaware of how the normally contented creatures felt, since two of the three were asleep within the boxy cab.

The town was hidden from view now, along with the smoke rising form a burning house, and the flashing red and blue lights of the muggle emergency vehicles.

The only one awake was Lonni Rebo, who sat facing the front of the coach with little Jak Rebo resting on her lap. Her right leg was going to sleep, but because of what had just happened she couldn't bring herself to move the boy and thereby break the sleep spell. Little Jak was now temporarily at peace. He had been ever since their departure from the small mountain town now somewhere behind them.

Lonni had been trained to sense things that other Witches and Wizards could not. So even as the burned Auror who was lying unconscious on the seat across from her continued to softly mumble, and Little Jak flinched as if in response to a dream, the young woman knew that conflict lay ahead. It was as unavoidable as the sunrise.

Later.

The windows were open, which meant Lonni caught a brief glimpse of the starry night above as the coach lurched over a cloud and began its long descent. In contrast to the soft clouds the coach had passed earlier in the evening, a rocky mountain surrounded by dense forest awaited them below. The interlocking foliage stretched down the sloops for as far as the eye could see. A road had now become visible, and, judging from the occasional glint of reflected moonlight, was mostly covered in light snow.

Jak Rebos’ father mumbled something in his spell induced sleep, and Lonni Rebo smiled tenderly as she ran her fingers through the little Jaks’ thick black hair. His features were much like his fathers, but a bit too serious to be described as an average, “happy-go-lucky” child of three.

In spite of the fact that women generally found him to be attractive. Her relationship with Jak Rebo Sr. had been part of a long journey that had begun at school, and subsequently taken them to all corners of the Earth. What had began as a childhood alliance had gradually evolved into a friendship, and then a career fighting the Death Eaters. Only then did the relationship blossom into romance and marriage.

He would survive his injuries, a person with her gifts could tell.

Such were Lonni Rebo's thoughts as the coach descended toward the mountain side forest, bounced along its way by wind gusts, and was soon embraced by an army of leafy trees. Their trunks were four to five feet in circumference, and their massive branches came together to form a dense canopy overhead. Snow lay deep in the road they now followed.

But the chill that Lonni Rebo felt was not entirely physical. Other senses had come into play too, senses that most Witches and Wizards possess, but rarely were able to take full advantage of. What one of them might have experienced as a vague uneasiness, Lonni saw as a roiling blackness, and knew the sensation for what it was: dark magical energy being broadcast by a group of hostile minds. The Witch put her hand protectively across little Jaks’ shoulders. Something was wrong.

But the warning came too late. One of the Pegasus uttered a bloodcurdling scream as a enchanted arrow sank into its haunch, and hobnailed boots made thumping sounds as Death Eaters landed on the roof. That noise was followed by a flash of blue green light as the driver cast his spells and sent one of the intruders into the snow beside the road. But that did nothing to protect the coachman from the rope spell cast by the other, a noose appeared and began to tighten around his throat. He lost his grip on the reins as well as his wand in a desperate effort to restore his air supply.

Lonni aimed her wand at the unconscious and bandaged man across from her. "Awake! Death-Eaters! On the roof!" She exclaimed, as her husband awoke.

Like all his profession, Big Jak Rebo had a body hardened by a life of fighting. That meant he was strong, so strong that he could smash a fist up through the thin roof, and grab the Death Eaters’ ankle. That was sufficient to startle the would-be attacker, who was forced to take his concentration from the rope spell, while he attempted to pry the Aurtors’ fingers off his ankle. And that's what he was doing when Rebo drew his wand with the other hand, pointed the tip up toward the ceiling, and cast a burning spell through the roof. It struck the brigand in the legs and set his robes afire. The coach rocked slightly as Rebo let go; the flaming Death Eater bounced into the air and fell past the coach window.

The driver had control of the reins by then, but no amount of swearing could make the wounded Pegasus move faster, and that slowed the rest. All of this was surely part of the plan to stop the coach.

What the attackers didn't expect were the wands that emerged from the carriage windows blazing all manner of spells, some legal and some not. The death Eaters quickly found that the passengers were clearly more formidable than the wounded family they had expected, they had little choice but to hurl themselves backward as the volley of spells blazed past them.

And so it was that having lost fully half his small band in a matter of minutes, and with a badly burnt left thigh, the group's leader issued a shrill whistle. Grabbing his broom from the ground, his feet lifted clear of the snow as he and the other Death Eaters flew off into the safety of the woods. All the attackers were gone within seconds, leaving the two battle dazed Aurors in sole possession of the small battlefield.

"Well, that was an unpleasant surprise," Big Jak said calmly as he slipped his wand back into the cross-draw holster in his cloak. He gingerly felt the bandages on his face, he ground his teeth. "Let's get out of here before they regroup."

Lonni tried to separate the nervous apprehension she felt from the feelings coming from her highly specialized senses, but that was hard to do. So, with no assurance that they wouldn't be attacked again, all they could do was to keep their eyes peeled and look forward to the moment when they put the forest behind them.

Eventually, after an hour of suspense, that moment came, as the driver turned into what looked like dense forest. A road that no Muggle and few of Wizardkind would be able to see appeared between two trees. It was well past midnight by then, the moon had set and Big Jak wondered how many more days he would witness before he and his companions saw the end of the war that had started that very night. The coach slowed slightly as it encountered a rise and entered a tunnel into the mountain side, the driver had lost his whip, but the Pegasus pulled harder anyway. The Pegasus were well loved by the driver, and knew what was needed of them.

The undercarriage rattled, darkness gathered, they exited the tunnel into a dead volcano crater. A lake surrounded by the Wizarding city of Lud, and above them stars lay like white dust on the black velvet sky.

It was near morning now, and the two Aurors had been sitting in the forward seat with Little Jak sleeping between them, horror overcame them as they looked out at the city, flames rose above the government buildings as well as the school. Almost at the same instant a frantic Wizard ran up to the coach; “Voldemort is DEAD! They killed him in England! The Death Eaters are on the RUN! He who must not be named is DEAD! IT’S OVER”

The frazzled Wizard ran on down the cobblestone street shouting at the top of his lungs. Lonni found that she did not feel relief at the news. Something was still wrong.