Guardians

Chapter 11: "Plans"

It had not taken me long to figure out what had been taken from me. A photograph of my parents and me, the only one I had, was gone. Kari was missing a feather, one that had been given to her by her grandmother before Kari was taken. A pocket watch had been taken from my friend's belongings. He had told me once that it had been in the family since the early nineteenth century. What Lupin was missing was the only thing I didn't know. He hadn't spoken since he had cleaned up his own possessions, and once that was finished, he had simply left. I mentioned this to Kari and my friend.

"Maybe he just doesn't want to talk about it," my friend suggested.

"Or it's so secretive that he's going to refuse to tell us what it is," Kari added, still irked about my friend's own concealment.

"Hey," I said, turning to my friend. "What about the man two doors down? He could have easy access to our rooms, especially if he was a wizard."

"He's not a wizard," he replied with the self-assurance of the Othersight, "but he could have stolen the keys from the conductor."

"Wait a minute, who are you talking about?" Kari asked, clearly confused. I told her about our conversation from the night before. By the time I reached the end, Kari had already made up her mind.

"Don't you see? It's got to be him," Kari cried out excitedly just as I finished. "You know, I have half a mind to go right up to him and confront him..." She started to stand up, but my friend held her back.

"No, Kari, we can't just go up to him and demand our stuff back," he protested Kari's quips of anger. "Do you want us to get in more trouble?"

"He's right," I said in the silence that followed. "We should just follow the instructions. Remember from the note before this one? 'The consequences are clear'."

"But this could be our chance to get back at the Brethren!" Kari exclaimed angrily, reminding me of the furious phoenix she had once been.

"The reason we're here isn't for revenge," my friend said gently, trying to calm her down. "We want to try to stop whatever the Brethren are planning, so that innocent people aren't hurt."

"But..." Kari tried to say again, but he shook his head. She grumbled incoherently as she sullenly crossed her arms. A long quiet ensued before I ventured to speak once more.

"So we're back to where we started," I said. "What can we do against the Brethren?" Another silence followed, and I felt the need to burst out and say something before something else happened. Fortunately Kari did so for me.

"Hey, Anonimo, or whatever Lupin calls you," she said rapidly. "How come you don't use a name?"

"Wh... what?" my friend stammered in reply, shocked out of whatever he was thinking of. Kari repeated her question, impatient for an answer. "I... well..." He wasn't off to a good start. Without warning, however, the door coasted open, and Lupin stepped inside. He unknowingly saved my friend from certain embarrassment.

"Listen," he said as he took the only available seat next to my friend. He didn't notice or ignored by friend's sigh of relief. "We're pulling into Calais in about a half-hour, so we need to pack up. We'll take the Chunnel to Dover and take the bus to London. From there the note told us what to do."

"Hold on, Remus," I said, doing some calculations in my head. "We'll never make it by noon if we take muggle transportation. It's already ten o'clock."

"Maybe we don't have to take a muggle bus from Dover to London," Kari commented after a moment. "We could use magic, you know. It's not like we're not allowed to use some."

"That will shave off some time," I inferred.

"I thought the Knight Bus only ran at night," my friend inserted.

"Another bus runs during the day," Lupin answered. "For the time of day we want, however, it may prove difficult to board."

"That bus doesn't happen to run over water, does it?" Kari asked hopefully, but Lupin shook his head no.

"It should give us enough time to find out where we need to go exactly," I concluded. "The instructions say that as soon as we're in London, we need to take the underground to Big Ben." As I said this, I glanced over towards my friend. The note had also said for the Guardians to come alone. Kari and Lupin seemed to sense this at about the same time.

"You two will be all right," Kari said, sounding very unsure. "Remus and I will... explore the wizard half of London, I suppose."

"I could show you around. I've been there more often than not," he replied, but still there was a slight look of helplessness in his eyes. He abruptly turned businesslike. "Let's pack now, and talk about this later." Lupin stood up and held the door for my friend to pass through, and they left. Kari started packing as soon as they were gone, and I was left to wonder about the future. With a long sigh, however, I decided to follow my friends' example and opened up my case.