Guardians

Chapter 15: "Mission Accomplished"

The Leaky Cauldron soon stood directly in front of us; its windows glared suspiciously and pointed fingers in accusation. According to the nearby bongs of a distinguishable clock, it was exactly two o'clock in the morning. My friend at length dropped the shroud of darkness he had kept on us and prepared for the final task of the night: facing Angelo and hoping we did everything right. Looking at each other in apprehension, we opened the door and entered the Leaky Cauldron.

"Do you have it?" the man in the far corner table asked statically. Walking over in silence I swung my backpack off and unzipped the large front pocket. The hilt had stuck out of the backpack because the sword was so long, but Angelo peered inside to see the blade, as if he doubted his own eyes.

"Well done," he simply responded.

"That was it? That's all he's going to say?" I thought furiously. I wasn't expecting a parade, but a little more gratitude would have been nice. It wasn't much of a sword, but still, there was the magic. How could anything that beaten up actually hold sorcery?

"What should we do with it?" my friend had questioned during my musings.

"Keep it with you," the Brethren wizard replied, shrugging his shoulders in the manner that my friend always did. "It is of no use to us until it is claimed." He got up and started to head out the door.

"Claimed?" I tried to ask, but Angelo had already gone.

Chapter 16: "Hello and Goodbye"

Later that morning, of course, Kari wanted to know every little detail of what happened. She would have forced us to tell her right when we entered the door to Lupin's apartment, but thankfully she was asleep. We had slept in for the first time since this whole fiasco started. Unbelievably we still hadn't seen or even contacted our parents yet. Now that our mission was over, we felt safe calling them. My conversation with my mother was as follows:

"Hello?" I heard her say.

"Hi, Mum," I replied.

"Rose?!! Thank God, are you okay? I was so worried; I thought I'd never see you again..." She would have gone on around these lines if I hadn't interrupted.

"I'm all right. My friend's with me, and we're with some other friends now," I said.

"Where have you been? Did you disappear on purpose?" she asked, her tone altering from relief to suspicious fury. I worked quickly to defend myself. As much as I wanted to tell her the truth, I knew it was too farfetched for her to believe me.

"No, Mum, it's too hard to explain over the phone," I answered.

"Where are you, Rose? Where can I pick you up? Is your friend with you?" she said, instantly forgetting her anger.

"Yeah," I answered her last question first. "We're at Remus... I mean, Mr. Lupin's apartment." Evidently this information caught her by surprise.

"Remus Lupin?" she repeated, shocked. Then in a softer voice she said, "Is this about your father?"

"No, Mum," I said once again. "Do you know where to go?"

"I think so," she responded, not quite as hysterical as before. "7840 Hackettstown Avenue, right?"

"Apartment 3C," I added. "I've got to go, now. Bye Mum; love you."

"I love you, too, Rose," she said at last and hung up. I was going to go back to the spare bedroom where Kari and I had slept last night when Kari popped out of the room and pulled me aside.

"Come on, let's go for a walk before you have to leave," she said, pulling my wrist towards the door.

"But I haven't packed yet!" I tried protesting.

"I did it for you. Now let's go!" Kari silenced me, and she dragged me downstairs and outside.

"So," she said as we crossed the street to a small park, "what exactly were you doing last night? It doesn't take that long to get a sword."

"What?!" I replied, stunned. "Do you really think there's something between him and me?!"

"Well, you two were out rather late," she answered slightly disappointed. "You got pretty close to each other on the train a couple days ago..." I shot her a look that would have curdled milk. Suddenly a rustle in the bushes near us caught our attention. Without warning a man dressed in a long trenchcoat bounced out of the bushes, blocking our path.

"Hi, my name's Anjou," he said, smiling with a crazy gaze in his eyes. "Wanna see something?" I was about to reply no when he pulled open his coat. At first I saw only his bare chest, but then I realized what he was doing when my eyes flickered downwards. He was flashing us! He quickly closed his coat and ran off in a zigzag direction, laughing and yelling "I got ya!" at the top of his lungs. Still shocked from the experience, I stared after the flasher with a mixed look of horror and disgust.

"Oh my God," I said slowly.

"Damn it, he wasn't even hot," Kari cried out in disappointment. I simply switched my stare of repulsion from the man who had long since disappeared to her. Then we started to crack up.

"That must have been the strangest thing that's happened to us yet!" I cried out between fits of giggles.

"Or at least the funniest!" she replied, and we began a new set of laughter. Just then, my friend came running up to us.

"You should have seen what just happened!" Kari laughed, but the look on my friend's face was so somber that we were silenced.

"Rose, it's another note," he explained, handing me a carefully folded sheet of paper. "I thought it would be best if we read it together." I slowly unfolded the note, fully sober now, and read the words to everyone.

" 'Guardians,

Before you go ahead and do something you may regret, we will tell you now that your parents are not allowed to be involved. You will dissolve all contact with everyone, including your friends Remus Lupin and Kari Sky. Proceed immediately to the Tower of London, the White Tower. We will contact you and your parents separately.' Oh no..." I said, appalled by this sudden turn of events.

"What do we do now?" Kari asked, stunned.

"I guess... we just have to do what it says," I heard my friend say softly, and he turned his head from us. "We were so close to getting home, too... I... I'm sorry." I noticed with shock tears gathering in his eyes before he turned away and headed towards Lupin's apartment. I looked at Kari, whose melancholy face mirrored my own.

"Well," she said after a while, "I guess you better go."

"Thanks for everything," I replied, remembering back to when she changed from phoenix to human in the light of dawn.

"We'll see you after this whole thing is over," she said awkwardly. Deciding that if I stayed any longer I would never leave, I took this chance to turn away and follow the footsteps of my friend. There was one thing that I regretted not doing: I couldn't bring myself to look back.

The old prison whose name once brought chills to wizards and muggles alike now loomed over my friend and me. My farewell to Lupin had been much like the goodbye to Kari, and I struggled not to think of them as I leaned against the wall of the White Tower. I focused my attention on the stones instead. Those bricks had seen both the innocent and the guilty led inside the tower to brisk trials and even swifter ends. Some were freed and others were doomed to spend eternity within those walls, but many were hung, disemboweled, quartered, beheaded, tortured, or burned at the stake, and all of these had been done to a select few. What did the innocent think as they were led through these walls only to be executed? Did they think of the same things I was thinking of now?

"Rose," my friend said, "he's here." The man we knew as Angelo had appeared before us with the stealth of a phantom. He had the demeanor of an executioner, however.

"You should be thankful that I have done this for you," he said, his voice so low that I could barely hear. "My master is not as forgiving as I am. Your next assignment is to meet a friend of the Brethren. At 7:00 tonight you will proceed to the Palace Royale restaurant. Ask for Monsieur Evrémonde, and the waiter will direct you."

"Excuse me," I ventured to ask, "but what exactly will we be doing with Monsieur Evrémonde?" Angelo gave me a slightly ruffled look for interrupting his pause, but he answered my question.

"You will give him this envelope, and you will answer his questions," he responded. "However, there is one word of caution: if he asks you to leave the restaurant with him, it is imperative that you do not do so. You will now stay at the Leaky Cauldron; a room is already reserved for you." Then he pulled something out of his pocket, an old, careworn photograph. "I believe this belongs to you," he said, handing to me. Without further ado, he abruptly turned away like he had never seen us before. I looked up at the sky just as the first of many raindrops tapped my nose. Although we were not prisoners of the Tower, we were prisoners at the whims of the Brethren. With these gloomy thoughts in mind, we left for the cell that Angelo had so "graciously" offered us.