Guardians

Chapter 12: "High Noon"

Everything had gone without a hitch, so far at least. We barely caught the next train to London at Calais, and we all felt uneasy about being on the Channel floor, with nothing but muggle technology to uphold the Atlantic water above. We arrived in Dover, and Lupin managed to flag down the wizard bus. Within fifteen minutes we arrived at Diagon Alley; by muggle transport, it would have taken much longer. As soon as we had gotten off the bus, my friend and I quickly left Diagon Alley and ran into downtown London. It seemed our luck had run out just then, because the subway train we were supposed to take had left two minutes ago.

"What are we going to do now?" I cried out in despair and exhaustion. "We have to be there in fifteen minutes!" The worst thing was that I didn't realize until then how much I had relied on Kari and Lupin. Now that it was just my friend and me again, we didn't have the support needed.

"Relax, Rose," my friend stated calmly as he directed me towards the schedule, "another train to Big Ben arrives at 11:48. Once we get there we'll need to run, though."

"We've been running all day," I replied with a sigh. "We'll just have to run some more, that's all."

The train arrived and left with us on board. Each passing minute was spent like years, and I could have sworn that I would celebrate my sixtieth birthday by the time we reached our stop. As soon as the sliding doors opened, my friend and I were already out of our seats and running to the stairway leading to the tower above.

"Sorry... excuse me... sorry!" I cried out as I swerved out of the path of a stern-looking business man. My friend was having the same problems as me, and we temporarily lost each other until we reached the stairway at the same time.

"No problem," he grinned at me while we took the stairs two at a time. Big Ben stood waiting for us down and across the street. The time was 11:59.

"HURRY!" I yelled as we took off again.

Just then the first tolls of noon began to toll.

We hardly looked both ways before dashing into the crowded street. The blood in my ears was pounding so hard that I only dimly heard the screeching tires and horns honking angrily. My friend remarked later that a car managed to slam on its brakes and stop only inches from hitting me. I almost tripped on the curb as my friend seemed to fly in from behind. Through the sidewalks of people we flew. Three chimes, four, five: I didn't think we could've run any faster until we did. I didn't even have the time or the breath to apologize as I bumped mindlessly to find the clearest path. Eight, nine, I could see through my sweat the man leaning against the tower, dark red suitcase in hand. Using my desperation to propel me even faster, I shot ahead like a dart towards a target. In fact I almost slammed into our destination, shooting my arms forward to catch myself. The twelfth and final toll rang throughout London, and as I fought to catch my breath I could see the man check his watch casually.

"I always appreciate someone who is on time," he stated calmly. "There are those who always too late or too early to engagements and these people... annoy me." The way he said that sent shivers up my spine despite the sweat. I looked up to get a closer look at the man. He could have been any age for all I could tell. The man wore the typical Dick Tracy hat, gray trenchcoat, and dark sunglasses. In fact it felt like the whole setup was phony. He waited patiently for my friend and me to recover.

"My name is Angelo," he said as we stood up straight. "I am the head of operations here in England. And your names are...?"

"My name is Rose, and his name is Anonimo," I quickly responded.

"Anonymous in Italian? Interesting," he interjected in surprise. "My role is to provide you with your missions for the next week." He paused here to randomly look around. "This place is too open for my liking. Let's go inside." Pointing to a door that I hadn't noticed before, we walked over to it, Angelo in the lead. A wand seemed to appear in his hand, and the unlocking spell required little effort on his part. He held the door open for us to step through and let the door close behind us, leaving a tiny sliver of daylight to signal our presence here. The clock tower echoed with the noises of various chains and gears. A loud "tic" signified another minute gone by. Satisfied with our surroundings now, Angelo continued.

"Your mission is as follows: there is an ancient artifact that now lies in a British muggle museum that we would like to acquire. At midnight tonight you will proceed to this museum and use whatever means necessary to apprehend the artifact. No one must accompany you. The name of the museum is the Museum of English History, and the artifact is the Galleon Sword. Do you understand?" We nodded in answer.

"Good," he replied. "Once you secure the artifact, proceed immediately to the Leaky Cauldron, where I will be waiting for you. I am sure I do not have to explain the consequences of failure, correct?" We nodded again.

"Then we will meet again at the inn no later than two tomorrow morning," Angelo answered in the silence. "Oh, and one more thing: I believe this belongs to you, Anonimo." A fling of Angelo's hand and a small gold pocket-watch flew into my friend's hands. With an abrupt about-face, he exited Big Ben, leaving us in the darkness of the empty clock tower. Or, at least, we thought it was empty. A voice suddenly materialized out of the black.

"Hey, what are you two doing in here?" the voice cried out, a powerful flashlight beam blinding us. I couldn't see, but I heard the shuffle of more than one pair of boots.

"Well, we... er..." my friend tried to explain, but we certainly couldn't tell them that we were being given our mission by an underground Dark Magic society, which was the truth. I recovered my sense of sight just as the nearest guard grabbed my arm. I tried to scream, but my throat was too dry in panic. All I could do was look in horror as they began to surround us.

"Hey, why don't you pick on someone your own size?!" another voice cried out, and a figure jumped out of the shadows.

"Kari?!" I heard my friend exclaim as she stood nose to nose with the largest of the guards, a defiant look on her face. I could see the guard fumble for something and realized what it was too late.

"Expelliarmus!" he yelled, and the spell threw Kari back onto me. Almost immediately afterwards my friend pulled out his wand and fired a Furnunculous curse in return, giving us enough time to get to our feet. Since Kari didn't have her wand, and it would have been dangerous for her to transform now, I tried to protect her as best as possible. There were four guards in total, but they kept going in and out of the darkness, making our jinxes go helter-skelter. The leader who had pulled out his wand first was distracting my friend, leaving me to fend off the remaining three. Without warning, however, the door opened wide; the light poured in like lightning flashing across a stormy sky. Now it was the guards' turn to be blinded because we had our backs to the doorway. Acting on instinct my friend and I both called out the Stupefy spell while they groped at their eyes. They fell to the floor in individual heaps as we allowed time for our own eyes to adjust.

"Are you all right?" the figure in the doorway said. I recognized the voice as Lupin's.

"Yeah, thanks to you," I replied in surprise. "What are you and Kari doing here? Didn't you remember the note?"

"I thought we left you behind in Diagon Alley," added my friend.

"We followed you, of course," Kari answered. "What, you actually thought that we would leave you two alone to deal with the Brethren yourselves?"

"But the note..." I started to say, but Lupin interrupted.

"The note," he repeated, "said that you were to come alone. We decided to follow you in case something like this happened."

"You think we were set up?" I exclaimed in astonishment.

"It was too much of a coincidence for that creepy Angelo to leave and those guards to show up," Kari responded.

"And those guards had wands," Lupin added. "No wands are allowed on guards protecting national monuments, in case they're discovered by muggles."

"They were hired," my friend said at last, "by the Brethren."

"But why would they hire goons to attack us?" I asked, suddenly very confused. "Why would the Brethren want to hurt us? We've already agreed to work with them."

"It was probably a test of your abilities, to find out how powerful you actually are," Lupin replied. This was met by silence, except for the echoing mechanisms of the clockwork above.

"We should probably talk about this somewhere else," Kari said at last. "This place gives me the creeps." We rapidly agreed and left the tower's inner machinery to four limp guards.