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Post by Eragon on Jun 12, 2012 14:00:36 GMT -5
Chapter 1: The Trunk
"I'm going to do errands!" Kat yelled up the stairs.
"OK!" Rachel shouted.
"I'll be back in a couple of hours!" The door closed behind Kat.
Rachel watched her get into the car and leave from an upstairs window. She grinned and grabbed Kat's wand from downstairs, then raced back up the stairs to the attic on the third floor.
"Alohomora." The lock clicked and she opened the door. She breathed in the dusty air, the old sturdy oak beams. She walked over to the old trunk shoved into the farthest corner of the attic and reverently opened the lid. It was filled with practically anything that reminded her mom of Hogwarts or her other old witchcraft school. Old spell books, robes, ink wells and quill pens, all ordered and put away. She pulled out a couple of spell books and opened The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 3. Technically, she was somewhat behind because she had to teach herself and she only got to get up there alone every so often. She spent the next hour practicing spells from Chapte 10. Then she put it away and opened the Defense Against the Dark Arts book, practicing hexes and jinxes for self-defense and attacking.
She heard Kat's car in the driveway. "Crap." She muttered. She shut the book quickly and placed everything back in the trunk, shut it and raced down from the attic, locking the door behind her.
Kat reached the porch and put the key in the lock.
Rachel flew down the stairs and placed the wand back in its proper place above the kitchen cabinet.
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Post by Eragon on Jun 12, 2012 19:46:04 GMT -5
Chapter 2: The WandThat night Kat and Rachel sat at the kitchen table eating dinner. "Dad working late again?" Rachel asked. "Yes." Kat glanced at the clock. "He should be home in about an hour." "That's the second time this week." Rachel picked at her food. "He's had a busy time at work lately, you know that." Rachel sighed and took her plate to the sink. "How was school today?" "The usual. Well, actually, I ran into one of Seth's train wrecks in the bathroom." She rolled her eyes and sat back down. "Who was it this time?" "Some blonde named Cristy." "You knew her name?!" Kat exclaimed. "That's a first." "She had it monogrammed on her shirt." Kat smiled, amused. "That would explain a lot then." Rachel smirked. "You didn't think I actually talked to her, did you?" Rachel didn't talk to popular kids. Mainly because they were jerks or made fools of themselves . . . all the time. "If that happened I'd think something was seriously wrong with you." She laughed. "But a little compassion never hurt anybody." "If you're the guidance counselor." Rachel said. Kat sighed and rolled her eyes, smiling. "You'll learn someday." "So . . . Mom, I've been thinking . . . " Rachel fiddled with the pepper shaker. "When can I get my own wand?" Kat sighed and leaned back against her chair. "We've been over this before, there just aren't that many wands out there." "But I'm sixteen! I needone! Incidents at school happen more often now and they're not that easy to explain!" Kat sighed. "I know honey, but you can't exactly walk into a wandmaker's shop these days. I'm sorry. You just can't find them anymore." "We could make one." Rachel knew it was a dead end, she'd suggested this a million times before. "Dragon heartstring, unicorn hair and Phoenix feather? Even if we did have the materials, wand making isn't for amateurs. It's a risky business." Kat sighed. They sat in silence for a few minutes. "What about Puoy's wand?" Rachel asked. "Didn't you say wands can change their allegiance?" Kat froze. "No. You can't. I destroyed it a long time ago." She'd never told Rachel what Puoy did . . . It had just been too painful. All she knew is that he was a Seperatist. "Oh." Rachel sighed. She knew her mom was lying. She'd always been a terrible liar. "I'm going to bed then." She got up to go upstairs. "Wait." Kat got up and gave Rachel a tight hug. "I love you honey." "Love you too mom." She kissed her mom goodnight and headed up to bed. Kat sat at the table a while longer, staring at a pattern in the grain of the wood on the table. She got up and pulled a wand out of a box sealed in a secret part of the desk in the living room. She twirled it around in her fingers and stared at it. Kat looked up as she saw her husband's car pull into the driveway. She sighed and put it away before going to greet him. ((I am so enjoying this ))
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Post by Eragon on Jun 15, 2012 14:39:58 GMT -5
Chapter 3: The Burn
Rachel threw her backpack down in the kitchen, still fuming after her meeting with Sam at Central Park. Why'd she bring Seth up in the first place? She looked at the clock. It was four o five, that still left plenty of time for her to search before Mom got home. She retrieved Kat's wand and wondered where would be a good place to start . . . the bedroom, of course.
"Accio wand." She said, hoping it would be that simple. Nothing happened. She sighed and started rummaging through the closet. Thirty minutes later she'd searched the entire master bedroom and found nothing. She already knew it couldn't be in the attic, she'd searched it top to bottom after she found the trunk. 'Maybe downstairs . . . ' she thought. 'Not in the kitchen.' Her mom wouldn't be stupid enough to hide two wands in the same room. That left the living room and the den.
"Where would I hide a wand . . . " she muttered to herself. She scanned the room, her eyes alighting on the desk in the living room. It had to be in either the desk or the grand bookcase.
"Victory." She crawled under the oak desk first and laid on her back, tapping the underside of the bottom drawers. Nada. 'Patience,' she thought. She continued until she got to the shallow drawer in the middle between the side drawers. Her fingers met with a hollow sounding thud. She smiled. 'Now for the wand.' She felt around looking for a switch or something to unlock it. She lit Kat's wand, needing the extra light. There it was. The grain of the wood was slightly askew from the wood around it. She pressed it and crawled out to open the drawer. A long narrow portion lay uncovered at the bottom, and in it was a black box. She took it out and opened it breathlessly. A shortish knobbly wand set against purple velvet almost made her want to do a victory dance, laugh, and cry at the same time. Now to try it out. She picked it up excitedly. Maybe she'd just try a simple spell the first time.
"Lumos." The wand tip didn't light. Suddenly Rachel screamed in pain. Her hand felt like it was on fire, the fire slowly crawling up the inside of her forearm. She dropped the wand onto the carpet and stared at her hand and gasped. Angry red burns laced where she'd held the wand, and they continued up her arm all the way to her elbow. Her eyes watered and she ran to the kitchen and put it under cool water.
"Yikes!" she hissed, that hadn't helped. Maybe she should've made sure it was numb first. She opened the freezer and plunged her arm into the ice box. No relief. She frowned. The pain hadn't gone down or anything, and when she pulled it back out she saw her arm was swelling rapidly. Frantically she picked up Kat's wand with her left hand and used a numbing charm. The pain dissipated somewhat, but it still throbbed. She sighed in relief and looked at the clock.
"Crap!" It was already five thirty. She rushed to the living room and wondered how to put the wand back without touching it. She looked out the window. Mom still wasn't there. Good.
"Wingardium leviosa." She shakily directed it back into the box using her left hand and then put the box back and sealed the secret compartment back up. Then she turned and ran up the stairs to find something to cover up her arm with.
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Post by Eragon on Jun 17, 2012 11:10:36 GMT -5
Chapter 4: The Wand's OwnerTwo days later Rachel came downstairs to eat breakfast before leaving for school. Mom had gone to work early. She sighed. Now her mom was too busy with work also. She checked her phone for any messages from Kat. Her mom could be a little scatterbrained sometimes and would remember something to tell her halfway to work, but apparently not this morning. She set it on the table and went upstairs to put more of the cream that Sam gave her on her arm. An old man with large, pale blue eyes and wispy white hair crossed the street and walked up to the porch, glanced around making sure no one was watching. Rachel heard a knock at the front door. She came down the stairs and wondered who it was. She peeked out the window from the living room. It was just an old man. She opened the door. "Can I help you with something?" she asked. "Yes, as a matter of fact you can." he said and stepped inside. Rachel frowned, suspicious. He closed the door behind him and slid the lock in place. "Give me my wand Rachel Holly." Rachel backed up, looking around frantically for something to use as a weapon. There was only one person who would come here looking for a wand, but how was he here?! He was supposed to be locked up in some institution according to mom. "Where is it?" he asked, advancing calmly with an unnerving glint in his eye. "Uh I-I don't know what you're talking about." she stalled, backing up faster trying to reach the kitchen. He lunged for her and grabbed her burned arm. The touch sent rivets of pain shooting through her forearm. She struggled to rest her arm from his grip, but he just tightened his hold on her. She swung a fist at him and felt it connect with his jaw. He grabbed her wrist and slung her hard into the hall table, breaking it and smashing the china vase to the floor. Her head slammed into the wall. Rachel looked up, dazed. Blood dripped onto the floor from where a piece of china had cut her left arm. "You call that a punch?" His voice was still calm, almost monotone in an inhuman way. He pulled out a knife. "Tell me where it is and I won't have to use this." A sinister looked flickered in his eyes. Rachel swallowed. "It's in the desk." she said. "Show me." He dragged her to her feet and shoved her in front of him while twisting her arms behind her back. She grimaced in pain and walked forward into the living room. "You open it." he said, on the lookout for any magical charms that could've been placed on the desk as a trap. He let go of her left arm but kept the knife pressed against the back of her neck and maintained his grip on her burned arm. Rachel took a shaky breath and pressed the concealed button. The drawer popped open and revealed the secret compartment. She took out the box and handed it to him, her eyes wide with fright. He released her right arm to accept the box. "Now that wasn't so bad, was it now?" He opened it and picked up the wand, carressing it like an old friend. "Been much too long my sweet." he whispered. Her heart stopped beating when he turned the wand on her. "Petrificus totalus." She was completely and utterly immobolized, not even able to move her tongue inside her mouth. He put the knife away and grabbed her arm again. "We're going some place special." He paused and pulled a paper out of his pocket. "I almost forgot. I was going to leave a note for your dear, dear mother." For once his voice broke from it's regular calmness and was filled with hate and malice with special emphasis on the words 'dear, dear mother.' He put the note on the kitchen table and then swiftly apparated themselves to an underground chamber. Read more: unitedfictions.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=pmview&view=1&id=764#ixzz1y49SGyW5
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Post by Eragon on Jul 14, 2012 21:05:31 GMT -5
Chapter 5:
((same day as Chloe's last edition to wallflower))
Rachel opened the front door with a hollow feeling in her stomach. She swung her backpack down in the kitchen and went up to her room, guilt seeming to assail her from every side. Of all the times to lose her cool. She sat down on the bed and rubbed her temples.
I'm such a jerk, she thought miserably. There hadn't been any real reason to get so snappy and rude, had there? This was one of the few times she actually felt like crying. Actually, she'd been crying a lot lately and it was always somehow related to Sam. She pulled out her phone and sighed. She knew she should apologize, and quick too. Sam was the only friend she had, and the one day they weren't being attacked by Puoy or something, she just had to blow it by being nosy.
Rachel took a deep breath and dialed Sam's number. She waited while it rang. No one answered. Rachel sighed. It continued to ring until it came to his voicemail.
"Sam . . . I'm really really sorry." She twisted her fingers in her comforter. "I can be a jerk sometimes and I know it, and I'm so, so sorry. I--I shouldn't have been so nosy and rude. I'm a real idiot and I can't tell you how bad I feel right now." Her voice broke slightly on the last word and she pressed end.
He must be really mad at me, she thought and felt her chest tighten. She buried her face in her pillow and cried her eyes out. Finally Rachel got up and went to the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face. Bags were starting to form under her eyes from all the sleep she'd lost from the nightmares. I'm a wreck.
That night Rachel tossed and turned in her sleep. Every detail of her dream was horribly real, and she woke up, gasping, the sheets clenched in her fists. A while later she managed to get back to sleep only to wake up again from an even worse nightmare, this time sobbing. She then sat up and wouldn't let herself go back to sleep for fear of what a third nightmare might bring. Her greatest fear wasn't of George Puoy, even though he terrified her. It was the thought of anything happening to Sam, or worse, losing him, that chilled her bones to the core.
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Post by Eragon on Jul 22, 2012 11:09:13 GMT -5
Chapter 6:
((weekend after she goes to see Sam in the hospital))
Kat sighed. Rachel would probably never get a wand, and she needed to learn how to control and use her magic. She had put it off for a while, but what with Puoy running around again--well, it didn't leave her with much of a choice.
That weekend Kat took Rachel over to the training rooms at the Hero Institute.
"No offense honey, but I don't want you accidentally bringing the house down," she smiled, unlocking the door to training room three. Rachel rolled her eyes. She still felt tired from lack of sleep, though taking some melatonin before she went to bed had helped knock her out and have more hours of sleep before a nightmare hit.
"As if I do it every day." She followed her inside. "So what're you going to show me?"
"How to successfully use your magic. Now be honest with me. How much do you already know?"
Rachel paused. Here goes nothing, she thought with apprehension. "Um . . . well, I've been sneak-practicing with your wand for a while in the attic so I'm at about a third year level . . ." She's gonna kill me. It was left understood that that meant she'd been snooping around in the trunk too.
Kat smiled. "Good job."
" . . . You aren't mad?" Rachel stared at her. She couldn't believe her ears.
"Nope. I should've started teaching you a long time ago. I'm impressed you got that far all on your own."
"T-thank you?" Rachel stuttered in shock.
Kat smirked. "Let's get down to business." She pulled out her wand. "This is completely uneccessary for what we are about to do." She then placed it inside her bag. "Because even if you had a wand, there are a lot of situations where you wouldn't be able to pull it out for whatever reason. That's why I started learning without it."
"Does this mean I'm going to learn how to control my magic even when I'm mad?" Rachel asked. Maybe then she wouldn't go creating pits in the school sidewalk.
"That depends completely on you." Great, Rachel thought. "I can teach you how to use magic," Kat continued, "but self-control is something you're going to have to learn for yourself."
Rachel groaned. "Why does this sound so familiar?" It was a redundant question. Rachel lacked self-control in practically every area of her life. Temper, tongue, magic . . . the list went on. In short, it had been a well-discussed topic over the course of her life. She'd only gained a slight advantage over her mouth for her efforts at it.
"What you do is you direct it with your mind. You tend to do so with your emotions," here Kat gave her a pointed look, "which is why you leak so badly when you don't check your temper. When this happens it becomes very hard to control and usually comes out in the form of explosions." Rachel looked at the floor and suddenly became very interested in a small bug crawling around on it. She's had her fill of explosions over the past two weeks. "And it if it helps, you can use your hands to help visualize what you want the magic to do. The way some people use their hands to talk, you can do that with the magic." Rachel looked up to watch Kat move the weights on the other end of the room in a circle above the ground by magic. "It also helps immensly if you know the spell." Kat added. "Otherwise an incredibly large feat of magic will drain your energy, but that should be the only time it taps into your body's energy supply."
Rachel nodded. "Okay. Can I try now?"
"Go for it."
Rachel focused on of the weights. Wingardium leviosa wasn't too terribly hard. She levitated it and started zipping it around the room. It came easily and just felt so--natural. No explosions, thank goodness.
Kat ducked. "Rachel! Watch where you fling that thing!" she said.
She shook herself. "Sorry mom!" Rachel set it down in the pile. Kat pushed her bangs back, running her fingers through her hair with a grin.
"No, no, that was good," Kat smiled. "You're catching on fast." Rachel grinned back at her. They continued practicing for a while until Rachel felt comfortable enough to experiment with it on her own, which didn't take long.
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