Drop in the Ocean

As planned, Celeni, Joyce and Oliver met up after supper.

“How are we going to do this?” Oliver asked Celeni.

“How did you go to the Forbidden Forest before?”

“Well, Joyce called on practice. No one was guarding the field so it was easy to get out.”

“Don’t worry the both of you,” Joyce told them. “I have here a potion I cooked up in Snape’s class. We don’t really have to go to the Forbidden Forest ourselves, all we have to do is place this potion on our owl, and in our eyes, and whatever the owl can hear, or see, we will hear and see it too!" Joyce said.

“Brilliant!” Celeni commended her friend.

So, they followed Joyce’s explanation. They decided to send Joyce’s owl alone because it will be too suspicious if there were too many owls. But it was Celeni who was going to see what the owl was seeing and what it was hearing.

The owl set off to the Forbidden Forest but nobody was there.

“Oh no! No one is in the forest!” Celeni panicked.

But then, something appeared from the bushes. It was a big man carrying a large sack.

“This is him. This will be our bait.” The big man said.

“Who is that?” A man wearing decent clothes asked.

“This is a friend of theirs.”

“I see…”

“We are going to use him to bring that kid and her owl here.”

“Hmm…”

“It must work!”

“Show him to me!” The man in nice clothes pointed at the sack.

The sack opened, it was a scarred Ethan.

“Ethan!” Celeni shrieked. “He looks so weak!”

“Do you think that your little friends will be here to save you?” The man in nice clothes asked.

“Leave Celeni and her owl alone! If you want to kill them, then just kill me!” Ethan screamed with all his might.

The man tortured Ethan a bit, Celeni can hear Ethan’s cries.

“Joyce send your owl back, I can’t!” Celeni said.

Joyce whistled, and in a flash, her owl was back in her room. Celeni was crying and looked like she saw a ghost.

“What is it?” Oliver asked.

“It’s Lucius Malfoy! He was the one who wants to get my owl!”

“Lucius Malfoy? You mean?”

“Yes, Draco Malfoy’s father! He’s behind this all along!”

“But why?” Joyce asked.

“Well, they did say that Malfoy was a follower of the Dark Lord, maybe they want to use you owl to cure him.” Oliver said.

“But when we heard them talking, they only said that they wanted to make a fortune out of it!” Joyce told Oliver.

“But, Joyce, who knows-“

“We have to save Ethan!” Celeni screamed.

“I hate to ask this all the time, but how?” Oliver inquired.

“By giving him what he wants!” Celeni said.

“Are you crazy, Cel, he wants you and your owl!” Joyce said. “Look, I’m worried about this. What if Oliver is right, what if he wants You-Know-Who to live?!? I want to save Ethan too, I really do. But with your plan, I think that Ethan will be happy if you’re safe and alive, though it means taking his own! He loves you very much! He has been telling me that, but we thought you liked Oliver. He wanted you to be happy so we just pretended that we like each other!”

“Nevermind about that!” Oliver interrupted. “I don’t think your plan is good…”

“Any better ideas?” Celeni asked Oliver. She was being a bit aggravated at him. However it hit Joyce.

“Celeni, I think Professor Flitwick ought to know.” Joyce said.

“WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THAT? Of course! He has been lost for a couple of hours. But… what will happen if we tell him? I think… Dumbledore is a better choice. Did you talk to him after the incident with the Blynx.”

“Of course we did! And he said, he’ll look up to this case. But with all these Heir of Slytherin thing and the Chamber of Secrets being reopened, this issue might not bother him as the other cases. You know Penny is petrified already.” Oliver replied.

“But let’s find Professor Flitwick first. Then let’s ask him for Dumbledore.” Celeni concluded the planning.