May I Talk to You About My Boys

"Well, maybe that thingamajig that I found in the woods has some meaning, then," Sam shrugged. "Suppose?"

"What thingamajig?" Angus looked at him.

"Meh, I just thought it was a cool little rock, but it really is kinda weird looking," Sam said. "The professor...well, the hag, I suppose, at some point got irked because she said she had dropped something. She didn't say what she dropped but she did try to look for whatever it was. Regardless, she didn't find it, and Suzanne got irked with her because she just wanted us out of the woods and off to wherever she thought she was taking us. I suppose that was why I was still looking down at the ground when I saw this rock. It sorta glows. Maybe it wasn't just a rock. Maybe it meant something."

"So where is this rock now?"

"Its in my trunk downstairs," he motioned upstairs, as being downstairs in his trunk in the Hufflepuff boys' dorm room. That was most disquieting for Angus to think that perhaps some dark arts artifact was sitting, relatively in the open in Sam's trunk in Hufflepuff. If they had been at home, Angus would have ordered Sam to go get the darned thing immediately and give it to him. Here, Angus had no jurisdiction whatsoever, so he inhaled deeply and exhaled to let go of the matter and to let Wilson deal with it. If Wilson wanted Angus to take the stone home with him, Angus would surely take it, but he rather suspected Wilson was a man of study, and he would very likely not be taking any dark magic artifact lightly. Nor would Wilson probably let the boys just leave the darned thing lying about in Sam's habitually unlocked trunk.

"You brought that creepy thing here?" Victor scowled. He looked at Wilson. "I told him to leave it at home. It looks like it's got some sort of nasty looking black smoke rolling around inside it. If you ask me, its bad juju."

"I was gonna look it up in the library," Sam said, "in the Bad Juju Lexicon." His last remark was pure aimed solely at his brother. Victor clearly did not approve of Sam's bringing the rock to school, and he rolled his eyes at his brother.

"Well, you're right about Blood," Angus said. "We have tried to get rid of him, but he has proven to be quite slippery thus far. A more strategic approach does appear to be the way to go because any thoughts we've had to just capture him at his next appearance has never worked for us."

When Wilson told the boys that being a fighter just rather happened, they couldn't disagree, but they also knew that Wilson had more to learn, too. For now, they just nodded and agreed. There was more to the story, but it was not their story to tell.

"Monday's great," Victor agreed for both himself and Sam. "We'll be ready. Thank you, Professor."

The boys certainly gave an interesting remark. Wilson had travelled the world exploring various aspects of Dark Magic, so he was well acquainted with various 'thingamajigs', as the boys said. He had, in the meantime, also studied ways to explore them, analyse them and decipher them. This rock-like object that the boys had taken from the scene certainly seemed intriguing and based on his earlier deductions, it did, indeed, seem like it could be the solution to this conundrum. Dark objects, however complex, always contained - even if only a small one - a signature of its creator and if one knew how to find it and read it, he could, with relative ease, trace it back to the source. ''This is definitely a fact you should have disclosed immediately, gentlemen, but better late than never, I suppose'', Wilson replied, still mulling things over. ''I would kindly ask one of you boys to quickly fetch the object and bring it to me, but be careful, please. Although it is not likely to cause any trouble now, as it has not so far, I cannot vouch for it until I analyse it myself, and we'd certainly want to avoid an explosion or the likes within the castle walls'', he added and observed the boys, then turning to Angus. ''This will definitely help me provide you with more information, Mr. Donohue, and I am certain I will have more information on the culprit very soon'', he concluded.

The topic then, once more, shifted to James Blood. ''I think that Robert's help will be of vital importance here, Mr. Donohue. Robert Lupin has always had the necessary resources to help us with our missions, and I am sure that he will be a crucial ally once more. The world does not need a James Blood, not anymore. Whether it's Azkaban or the graveyard, I am quite convinced that the world will be better off without his presence'', he concluded.

Finally, he turned to the boys once more. ''Expect the unexpected, gentlemen. I shall not simply teach you how to use your magic, I shall try to teach you how to be ready for... anything'', he added, calmly.

"Excuse me," Sam said politely. "I'll go get it." He stood up and left the professor's office but when he got out into the hallway, he took off like a shot, dashing down the hallways to hurry down to the Hufflepuff dorm to get the stone. Zipping around a corner, he came to a screeching halt when he saw Professor Doyle. He didn't dislike Doyle but Doyle disliked everybody. Sam didn't need a conflict. He straightened himself to look proper long enough to get out of Doyle's eyesight and then resumed his mad dash. He flew down into the Hufflepuff common room, into the boys' dorm, flung open his trunk and chucked everything out of it to find the stone. When he found the stone, he shoved it into his pocket, jammed everything back into his trunk and tried to shut the lid, which would not close now because of the mess he had just created. He decided to deal with that later, and he bolted back out of the Hufflepuff house and straight back to Wilson's office the way he came. He took just a breath outside the door and then re-entered the Professor's office, trying to look like he had not just dashed from one end of the castle and back.

He drew the stone from his pocket, flashed it briefly at Angus, as if Angus could see the darned thing in 3 seconds or less and then laid the stone on Wilson's desk.

"Thank you," Angus said quietly to Sam. From what little he could see, the stone was a creepy thing indeed. The stone was an octagon. As near as Angus could estimate it was 48 or 50 mm long, 15 or twenty mm wide and and perhaps twelve or so mm thick. It reminded him, in some ways, of smoky quartz. It was blackish in color, but it was also rather translucent, and Sam was right. The thing glowed, and inside there was some sort of blackish swirling smoke that just kept rolling around inside it, as if someone had trapped a teeny little dementor in it that couldn't find its way out now.

Angus didn't like that Sam had brought it here to the school, but quite honestly, he wasn't sure he liked the idea of taking it home to his house any better. To Angus, this had all the hallmarks of being something that no one had any business handling unless they had some expertise in the matter.

'I couldn't agree with you more," Angus said to Wilson regarding James. It then finally registered with Sam who James was.

"Hey, he's that big goofball that tried to take Abbey a couple weeks ago, isn't he?" Sam asked Angus. Angus nodded, not wanting to recount the story. It had been too close for comfort though. James somehow had gotten ahold of a portkey to Khaat's unplottable estate, and he had come at the last full moon and had gotten ahold of Khaat's three and a half year old daughter, Abbey. Robert's private security men had sparred with James, and he had been forced to go, leaving Abbey behind. It had been entirely too close for comfort, though.

Then Wilson had told them he would prepare them how to be at the ready, and both boys nodded. That was exactly what they both wanted. They did not want to be useless anymore. They wanted to be ready to help defend their new family.

"Awesome," Victor grinned. "Perfect."

"Count us in," Sam told Wilson with a broad smile.