Begin to Hope

Farley reached back, snatched the necklace off of Humphrey's neck, and began to examine it.

"What did you do to this, boy?" he demanded of Humphrey. Humphrey shrugged, looking scared.

"I didn't do anything to it!" Humphrey managed to stutter.

"Well?" Farley snarled, looking round at us all. "What did you guys do? This isn't a very funny trick to pull."

"It's not a trick, Farley! I think the necklace -- it can -- " Maverick choked on the words, not knowing where to go with them.

"It can what? You're stupid. Go to bed." He tucked the necklace safely in a pocket of his robes and laid back, resting his head on the car seat. He closed his eyes and paid no attention to us. "I don't want to hear another word out of any of you."

"Farley -- that necklace -- there's -- maybe it prevents others from doing magic against the wearer!" Annabelle leaned forward so she could talk to him, laying a hand on his shoulder as she did so. "Shouldn't we perform some tests on it?"

"No!" He ripped his arm out of her grasp. "It's nothing. The children were just playing. Go to sleep!"

Annabelle leaned back, looking disgruntled. "Well... if you really think so."

"Of course I think so!" he snapped, opening his eyes wide and whipping around to face her. "And I'm the oldest, and my word is law!" Turning back in his seat, he laid back again. "And that's final."

Klaus and I exchanged glances, thinking the exact same thing. Farley has taken too much power.

However, for fear of being snapped at, we didn't say anything. Everyone remained quiet for the rest of the night.

The next morning Klaus and I were the first ones up. We immediately snuck out of the car, trying our best not to wake anyone else up.

"What do you think?" He immediately asked, shielding his eyes from the rising sun.

"About the necklace?" He nodded. "I think... we've got something big on our hands."

He nodded again. "That's for sure. But imagine -- if that necklace can really stop others from using magic against the person? Do you know what that means?"

"Well, we'd never be picked on again, for one." We turned the corner around an abandoned building and noticed a gang of guys eyeing us. We glanced at each other and instead turned and kept going straight.

"We would never have to be afraid of anything, ever again! Because no one would ever be able to hurt us... " Klaus' face lit up at the possibilities.

"Well, except for Muggle tools."

"How many times a day do we come in contact with Muggles? That wouldn't matter that much. But just the thought -- we'd be unstoppable!"

I looked at him hesitantly. "It almost seems like too much power." I bit my lip, examining his expression, trying to figure out what he was thinking.

"We'd be unstoppable. Unstoppable..." He turned to me suddenly, his eyes wide. "Kerry, do you know what that means? It would mean that we could take on Voldemort!"

I stopped and stared at him blankly, taking in that piece of information. Taking on Voldemort...? We could beat him, us, eleven children from Bristol, taking on the worst villain of all time with a single piece of defense? Could it be done?

"Klaus, you're brilliant!"

"Well, I know."

"No, I mean -- don't you see? We could take over the world with this! We could make anyone bend to our power. We'd be unstoppable!"

"Precisely! Exactly what I've been trying to tell you! But I also think... that, well... maybe we shouldn't tell the others."

I looked at him oddly. "Why wouldn't we tell the others?"

"Well, you know how they get." He spoke slowly, choosing his words carefully, waiting to see my opinion. He shoved his hands deep in his pockets and started to kick an empty soda can along as we walked. "Farley would try to deny everything, and Annabelle would wanna take over... the kids would all wanna join in and rescue the world themselves... "

"But we're a team. The eleven of us! We are all the children have. Why would we abandon them?"

"It wouldn't be abandonment, hell no! I'm just saying, maybe we should disappear with the necklace and come back in six months after we've saved the world."

"You just want all the glory yourself."

His jaw dropped, revealing his astonishment. "That's what you think?"

"That's what it looks like. You just want to save everyone yourself."

"Kerry, that's not it at all! I just think it would be easier to accomplish by ourselves."

"Well, I don't," I said sharply. I stopped and looked at him. "Let's go back. They'll probably be awake by now and we can just figure out what to do then."

But when we arrived back at the car all hell had broken loose. We managed to learn from Humphrey that Greg and Princeton had teamed up on Maverick and had attacked him while he was sleeping. Tally had been sleeping and when she heard the racket she thought someone was breaking in and immediately started to thrash about, hurting everyone within contact and breaking Penelope's nose. Farley had taken Greg and Princeton out separately to have a talk with each of them and Annabelle was trying to tend to Penelope's nose with some gauze she found in the back of the car.

"But at least the car's up and running now," Humphrey stated, looking at me for praise. "Farley and I discovered that the problem was there was no gas left, and I scrounged some up from one of the empty buildings down the street."

I gave him an encouraging smile and rumpled his hair. "That's a good boy, Humphrey. Where did Farley get off to, then?"

"He's just around the corner, finishing his talk with Greg. He should be back in a moment." Humphrey ran over to talk to Tally, leaving Klaus and I to wait for Farley.

We didn't have to wait long. After a moment, he came storming around the corner, sputtering out obscenities and cursing everyone.

"There is NO disciplining that child! He is as unruly as an untamed monkey, as wild as a -- such unmanageable, obstinate -- I don't even know!" He glared at Klaus and I before barking, "Get in the car; we're leaving!"

We obeyed without question.

Farley beeped the horn twice and Greg came strolling around the corner, whistling and looking around nonchalantly. When Farley finally raised a fist to shake at him, Greg frowned, rolled his eyes and hurried along to take his seat in the car. When he was seated and we were all ready, Farley got the car started and off we went, invisible and all.

We all sat in silence for about half an hour. No one dared to be the first to speak, in case Farley was to snap at them.

Finally Kimberly broke the strained silence. "So what do we do with it?"

I leaned forward so I could clearly hear Farley's response. I heard an intake of breath, as if he was about to speak, but then stopped.

"Come on, Farley. We are all dying to know what you have to say about it." I was pretty sure I could hear a hint of sarcasm in Tally's voice.

"I think we should throw the necklace away." Farley said finally.

"WHAT?" Klaus and I screamed together.

"Why would we do that?"

"How absolutely foolish!"

"We have the power to do anything we want with it! Why would we give that kind of power up?"

"Because if someone were to find us with it... we're only a bunch of kids, Kerry. If the Death Eaters were to find one of us with it, they'd torture us until we gave it to them."

"We're not stupid, Farley! We wouldn't just give the necklace up like that." I furrowed my brow at his thinking.

He was silent for a moment.

Then I understood.

"Farley -- you don't think you could withstand Death Eaters, do you? You think you'd be a wimp and chicken out and give it to them, don't you?"

"No, of course not! I'm just saying, I think the younger kids would -- would, of course -- under pressure -- well, anyone would crack!"

"I agree with Farley." Annabelle's shrill voice pierced my eardrums, making me hold my ears for fear they would bleed with the stupidity.

"Please, Annabelle, for once in your life, shut up," Klaus snapped at her irritably.

"Don't you talk to me that way Klaus! I will --"

"Will what? You can't do anything. You have no power over anyone anymore. Everyone's gone, Annabelle. Whatever you say doesn't affect me anymore!" Klaus' tone took on a fierce tone as he continued, "You can't go crying to a teacher or to Profesor McGonagall! They can't help you. They're all dead now! All of them, every single last one --!"

"Stop it! Just stop it!" Penelope cried out, interrupting Klaus' increasingly angry rant.. She started to cry loudly.

"Now look what you did! You made Penelope cry, you stupid git!" Maverick yelled from the back. He kicked our seat and Klaus and I pitched forward, falling into the space between the dashboard and our seat. I landed on something sharp and felt my left hand split open.

"Stop it, Maverick!" I got up uneasily, holding my hand, feeling a wet sticky liquid drop onto my lap. I started to feel queasy. "Guys, I think I --"

"If you all weren't so bloody stupid!" Klaus shouted. "You think you know everything, don't you? Do you know anything, absolutely anything at all? You don't. You were shielded from most of it, and I was the only one who saw what was happening. I knew the day would come, when Death Eaters would break in and kill everyone, and I knew something had to be done, but I never knew what exactly, until this necklace business came about. Don't you understand? This is the only way we could ever defeat Voldemort. And none of you even know a life without Voldemort! Wouldn't that be something? To live without fear? To be able to get out onto the street and not think that you're risking your life every time?" He took a pause to breath. "Wouldn't that be worth it all? For a chance at that?"

I could feel the group reflecting on his words. I, myself, had been stunned at his outburst, and I suddenly looked down and remembered I was still bleeding terribly.

"Guys, I'm bleeding!" I cried out, the pain rushing back.

Immediately several offers of help came from everyone, but I pushed them away and laid back in my seat, gritting my teeth to shield myself from the pain.

"Farley, how much longer until we get home?"

"A little while," he said sharply. I nodded and tried to get comfortable in the seat.

I felt Klaus beside me shift uncomfortably and then reach out and take my right hand in his and slowly rub his thumb in circles on my palm. It was oddly soothing.

I sensed the others in the backseat quietly arguing over what to do with the necklace, but I tried to ignore them and get a bit of rest before we arrived home.

We made it there in under an hour, but even that was almost more than I could stand. My bloody hand was seizing up and the blood had dried and caked on my other hand and on my robes.

When we finally landed and Farley turned the invisibility off, I looked down at my hand to see how bad it was and cringed. It was worse than I thought. Apparently it had cut right through the skin between my thumb and forefinger, and it was pretty deep. I looked at the floor of the car and realized that when I had pitched forward, I must have landed on a little object that had been lying there. Farley claimed it was called a windshield scraper.

When I lifted my hand to show the others, Annabelle shrieked, and Greg had to kick her shin to get her to be quiet.

"Let's get you inside," Klaus said firmly. He helped me out of the car and we started inside, but we didn't get very far.

We bumped into Maverick a few feet from the corner of the house.

"Shh!" He quieted us. "There's something in front of the door, going through the rubbish bins."

"What are you talking about -- "

"Quiet!"

We listened carefully and heard someone muttering to himself.. Maverick got out his wand, as did Klaus and Kimberly, and the four of us turned the corner swiftly, surprising the dark figure and making him fall backward, knocking over all of the bins.

"What the --!" The figure yelped. He let out a low moan, before popping his head out from behind the bins. "What did you go and do that for?" He asked loudly in an accusatory tone. I liked the sound of his voice; he had a slight Irish accent.

"Who are you and what are you doing?" Maverick demanded, his wand firmly pointed at the figure.

"You broke my wand!" The figure cried, holding up two halves of what had clearly once been an expensive wand. "I paid ten Galleons for this, I did..."

"Who are you?" Maverick repeated, his tone threatening.

"Oh, sorry I didn't introduce myself." He stepped out of the overshadow of our house and smiled at us, showing off his pearly white teeth.

"My name is Orlando. Orlando Broom."