Charles Chandler and the Staff of Fury

Chapter One: A Day at the Game

It was a fine early spring day. No one wanted to be inside on a day as glorious as this one. The Chandlers least of all wanted to spend today indoors. It was fortunate that this day was so beautiful. The Chandlers had made plans to travel to London and see Arsenal play a home game. The whole family piled into Mr. Chandler's minivan and they drove to the stadium.

Unfortunately, the game did not start off near as good as the day had. The Gunners, through a couple of careless errors, got down two goals early, and were struggling to find their pace. Mrs. Chandler looked positively bored, she spent most of her time watching her sons, and smiling whenever any of them noticed her looking at them. Mr. Chandler, however, enjoyed watching the game, but really did not understand proper football very well. His oldest son, Willis, had to keep him abreast of what calls were what.

"No, Dad, when the linesman raises his flag, it usually means there's a man offside," Willis explained for the fifth time that half.

The half ended with the Gunners down three goals to the Tottenham Hotspurs. None of the children were too happy with this result. Charles and Willis were almost livid at how poorly their football team was doing. The youngest, Renard, seemed to be content in his own world. A robin had flown next to him, and he was feeding it popcorn from his box.

Mr. Chandler looked around, and said, "Well, it looks like we need some more drinks and snacks. Wish I could buy a hot dog here. Anyone want to come with me?"

"Sure, I'll come with you, Dad," piped up the ten year old Charles.

Mr. Chandler and Charles headed down out of the stands and towards the nearest concessions vendor. He ordered four drinks and three boxes of popcorn. The vendor prepared the food and handed it to him.

"I didn't think you Yanks liked to watch proper football," the vendor told Mr. Chandler.

Mr. Chandler's head snapped up at this and he looked angry at what the vendor said. He calmed down almost immediately, took the food and turned to walk away. Charles followed his father, looking quizzically at him.

"Why did you get mad when that man called you 'Yank,' Dad?" asked Charles.

"It's not a reason that matters to anyone in this part of the world," responded Mr. Chandler. "I was born in New Orleans, and Yankee is just not a polite term to me."

"Okay..." said Charles, slowly, still not understanding.

The half was about to start again as Mr. Chandler and Charles returned to their seats. By the time they made it back, the kickoff had occurred and Renard had an owl and a swallow next to him, as well as a tabby cat.

This half started off just as bad as the first for the Gunners. They lost the ball straight away, and the Tottenham strikers got on a breakaway. The striker skillfully moved past the keeper, and there was nothing between him and the net, when he suddenly tripped and sprawled over the ball and accidentally handled it. Play was stopped and both sides looked amazed at this. The Tottenham supporters were angry at their striker's inability to keep his feet. The Arsenal keeper put the ball back in play, and the Gunners seemed to come to life after that fluke play. In ten minutes they had narrowed the gap to two goals.

"I thought the purple guys had a goal for sure," said Mr. Chandler.

"Yeah, me too, Dad," answered Willis.

After their initial resurgence, Arsenal fell back into its pattern of poor play. They gave up a corner kick, and Tottenham set up to take the kick. It came right across the goalmouth. The Arsenal keeper punched it out, but the ball fell right out the feet of a Hotspurs midfielder. He launched a shot straight at the goal, the Arsenal fans let out a groan at the inevitable goal.

Then the ball seemed to bounce off of nothing. It just rebounded straight out of the penalty area as if it had hit a crossbar right on level with the shot. Every player on the field stopped in stunned disbelief; all of them thought that was a sure goal. Arsenal recovered first and made a run into Tottenham territory that was eventually stopped by a backtracking defenseman.

Mrs. Chandler perked up when she saw the mysterious goal deflection. She looked at her two youngest sons. Renard was totally engrossed with what could now only be called a menagerie. He was happily feeding and petting five different birds, and three cats.

Next, she looked at Charles. He was totally engrossed in the game with a look of satisfaction on his face. She reached out and touched his shoulder. He jumped when she touched him.

"I wasn't doing anything, Mum!" Charles exclaimed quickly.

"Of course you were dear. You caused that ball to move like it did," Mrs. Chandler replied.

Charles looked sheepish. "Are you mad at me?" he asked.

"No, dear, I'm not. I just think you shouldn't try and do anything like that in public."

While Charles was talking to his mother, Arsenal managed to score again, and cut the Hotspurs lead to one. Charles jumped and cheered with the rest of the crowd. Mrs. Chandler applauded along with the rest of the family and looked over at Renard.

"Are you having fun?" she asked him with a smile.

"I wish there were dogs here," responded Renard, "That would be really fun."

As soon as Renard said that two more birds, one an owl fluttered down next to him. The owl had a note tied to its leg. Mrs. Chandler grabbed the letter, opened it and read it. When she finished she sighed, and tapped Mr. Chandler on the shoulder.

"Can I borrow a pen, dear?" she asked.

"What? Oh yeah, sure," responded Mr. Chandler distractedly. He dug around in his pocket for a moment and handed her a ballpoint pen.

Mrs. Chandler scribbled a hurried response on the back of the note, reattached it to the owl's leg, and with great difficulty, got the owl to take flight. The owl looked at Renard in a sort of longing and took off.

Renard looked upset. "Mum, why did you tell Hermia to leave? I was having fun!"

Mrs. Chandler looked astonished, "How did you know the owl's name was Hermia?" she asked Renard

"She told me, Mum," responded Renard with a pout. "I wish you hadn't made her leave, I was planning something neat."

Before Mrs. Chandler had the chance to ask what Renard was planning, a huge roar erupted from the crowd. The Gunners had tied the game on a marvelous 20-yard shot by their star forward. Charles jumped up again and cheered louder than ever.

The rest of the game passed without any change in the score, and ended with Arsenal making a stunning comeback after what seemed like a huge disaster. Charles and Willis were excitedly discussing the game when they made it back to their house just outside of London. As they entered the house, Mrs. Chandler pulled her husband aside and talked to him in a low whisper.

Charles looked curiously at them when he heard his name. He managed to pick out words like "magic" and "fluke." He also heard them mention an owl that landed next to Renard. Charles looked from his mother to his father. She looked pleased at they were talking about, but Mr. Chandler was looking more and more sour.

"I think we should talk about this later, Catherine," Mr. Chandler finally said, noticing Charles. "Son, it is time to go to bed."

Charles climbed the stairs to his bedroom, wondering what his parents were talking about. Maybe they were talking about how he made the ball bounce away from the goal. He hadn't meant to do it. He just got so mad that Arsenal was playing so poorly and he wished he could have stopped the inevitable goal. He lay there and thought about the game for a long time, and drifted off into a deep sleep.

***

Eventually spring turned into summer, and all of the Chandler boys were out of school. When school ended, the boys got their end of the year marks. Willis and Charles couldn't wait to show their scores to their parents. All three boys came running into the house as fast as they could.

"Mum! Look at this, we got our marks today!" Willis told Mrs. Chandler excitedly.

"Yeah, Mrs. Appleton said I was the best in Arithmetic and spelling," Charles added with a smile.

"What about you, Renard? How did you do?" asked Mrs. Chandler.

Renard was distracted by Buddy, the family schnauzer, and did not answer right away. When Mrs. Chandler finally got his attention again, Renard looked unhappy.

"Ms. Keaton says I don't pay attention in class, and that I bring too many animals with me," Renard explained glumly, handing his report card to Mrs. Chandler.

Mrs. Chandler sighed, and then told the boys to go change out of their school things. But before Renard could get away she grabbed him by the shoulder, sat him down at the table and spoke to him about his scores.

"Renard, I know you don't like school, but this is very important. You need to at least know how to read, write, and do math if you want to progress in this world," Mrs. Chandler explained.

She saw that this wasn't getting through to him, because his attention was again dragged away by Buddy. She sighed and let Renard go play with the dog.

***

About a month later, Willis received a letter. He quickly tore it open and gasped in surprise. He hurriedly showed the letter to Mr. Chandler.

"Look, Dad, I made it into Eton!" Willis said excitedly.

"That's wonderful, my boy!" Mr. Chandler responded proudly.

"Look at this! I made it into Eton!" Willis told Charles. Willis had rushed upstairs and showed Charles the letter.

"Wow, neat," Charles responded, uninterested.

"Don't you know what Eton is?" Willis asked.

"It's some school or other. It was in the news recently, but I didn't pay attention."

"It maybe the most prestigious secondary school in all of England. I'm going to go there and learn from some of the best teachers around!" Willis replied, getting a little fed up with Charles's nonchalance.

"Have fun. Just don't be late for tea. Mum hates that,"

"You prat! It's a boarding school; I'm going to stay there for school"

This got Charles's attention. He shot upright and stared at Willis. He reached out, and grabbed the letter. He read it, and then looked at Willis for a second. Then he hopped off the bed and went tearing down the stairs.

"MUM! MUM!" he yelled, frantically searching the house.

"What is it, dear?" Mrs. Chandler responded.

"Willis is leaving us!" Charles gasped out.

"No he's not, he is just going away for school, rather than going to the local public school," she answered calmly.

"Well...I want to go then," Charles replied firmly.

"We'll see. But right now, we have the rest of the summer to spend together. I suggest we do that and have fun."

***

When the time came for Willis to go to Eton, plans were set in order for him to get to the school. Mr. Chandler purchased Willis's train ticket, while Mrs. Chandler bought all of his necessary school supplies. When Charles and Renard got wind of all these preparations, they wanted to go to Eton with Willis.

"No dear, you're too young to go to Eton," Mrs. Chandler told Charles. "You have to be at least eleven years old."

"But I'm almost eleven, Mum!" Charles whined. "Willis isn't that much older than me!"

"No dear, he isn't, but you still aren't eleven, and nothing you can do will change that," replied Mrs. Chandler.

At that, Charles stomped off in a huff. Never before had he been unable to do what Willis was doing. He always got to join in. Even when Willis protested, Charles always managed to get in somehow. He got onto all of Willis's football, cricket and rugby teams, despite the fact that he was two years younger than most of the boys playing.

Renard was not taking this change well either. He did not want to go with Willis; rather he did not want Willis to go at all. Such a major change was upsetting Renard, and things near him started breaking or flying around. Mrs. Chandler managed to distract Renard long enough to calm him down.

On the day before Willis was to leave for Eton, the whole Chandler household was in disarray. Since neither of the two younger boys wanted Willis to leave, a lot of mischief was occurring. Charles would hide Willis's shoes or his coat. Renard would take all the clothes or school supplies out of their cases. It was only when Mr. Chandler angrily told Charles to take Renard to the park that Willis finally got to leave.

When the two younger boys returned, they were most upset to see that Willis had finally left. It took Mrs. Chandler the rest of the night to calm them down enough to go to sleep.

***

About 11 months later, around the middle of July, an owl arrived with a letter. This was something of a surprise. While the three boys often played with the family owl, Janus, they had never seen an owl deliver a letter. This one fluttered down right in the middle of the table.

Mrs. Chandler looked completely unfazed by this occurrence. Mr. Chandler on the other hand looked resigned. It was plain that he didn't like owls flying in and landing on his dinner table.

Mrs. Chandler read the letter and, began to smile broadly. Her eyes began to tear up as she passed the letter to Mr. Chandler. He read the letter and looked at Charles. He then read the letter again, and put it back into the envelope and gave it to Charles.

"Read the letter, and afterwards we'll talk about it." Mr. Chandler said.

Willis stood up and started to move out of the room. Renard saw this and also started to move away, but Mr. Chandler stopped them and told them to sit back down.

Charles read the letter carefully. It said:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. Of Wizards)

Dear Mr. Chandler,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours Sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall,

Deputy Headmistress

After Charles read this, he looked up at his parents. Mr. Chandler's face remained very neutral, but Mrs. Chandler was beaming.

"What does this mean?" asked Charles.

"It means you're a wizard, son," responded Mr. Chandler. "It's part of the reason that I moved out here with you."

"Yes dear. We wanted to give you the best magical education available in the world, provided you were accepted of course," said Mrs. Chandler.

"I was upset when Willis showed no signs of magic," she continued, "When that happened I was afraid that all of my children would be Muggles."

"Be what?" piped up Willis.

"Muggles, non-magic people like you, your father and our neighbors," answered Mrs. Chandler with a smile.

"But when you came along, and somehow always managed to match your older brother, well, I just knew you could turn out to be a wizard.

"Renard was so obviously magical to me, that I knew he would be accepted later. But his learning is not progressing as well as I had hoped," she went on.

Charles then turned to the next page of the letter and saw a list of school supplies. "How will I get all of this stuff?" Charles asked.

"We'll go to London tomorrow and pick up the things you'll need," responded Mrs. Chandler.

"This means Charles is going away, too," said Renard sadly, "Both my brothers are leaving me."

Renard began to break out into tears, but Willis grabbed him, mussed his hair, and said, Squirt, I always come back! I'll bet Charles will too."

Charles felt stunned by all of this. His parents had hidden the fact that his mother was a witch for over ten years from him. How was this possible? He never noticed anything odd around her.

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?" asked Charles.

"Your father and I didn't want you to get any wrong impressions if you didn't turn out to be a wizard. We made this decision when Willis turned out to be a Muggle."

"I want to go," Renard said suddenly, "I want to go with Charles to school."

"You'll have to wait, sweetheart. You need to be 11 years old to enter Hogwarts," answered Mrs. Chandler.

"That's what you told Charles when Willis went away, and now they aren't going to school together."

After this Charles stopped listening. So many questions floated around in his head. Why did his parents not tell him he was a wizard? That night, Charles couldn't sleep. The combination of excitement and nervousness kept him up. Before he finally dozed off, Charles looked at the letter and envelope sitting on his nightstand and knew that it was all real; he was a wizard and he was going to Hogwarts.