Begin to Hope

Within a minute, as I had predicted, the door flung open and Klaus barged in.

"Well I'm glad you have respect for my privacy and you knock every time you come in," I said sarcastically.

He ignored me and glared at Orlando.

"What are YOU doing in here?" He demanded of Orlando.

"Nothing. I came to wake Kerry up."

Klaus narrowed his eyes at Orlando, not believing him.

"Anyway, Kerry, have you seen Farley? He's not in his bed."

I glanced at Orlando out of the corner of my eye and saw him give the slightest shake of his head no.

"I--no, I haven't. Where could he have gone?"

"I don't know. Should we look for him?"

"No, he should be back soon, wherever he is. Maybe he went for a walk."

Klaus looked at me as if I was stupid. "A walk...right." He turned and left the room, shaking his head and muttering under his breath.

I looked at Orlando slowly. "Why did I just lie to Klaus?"

"Because you don't know where Farley is."

"But that's a technicality. I kind of do, I mean, we know that he went somewhere to hide the necklace--"

"But we don't know where. Simple, isn't it?"

"I guess so." I looked at him, unsure of what his motive was for not letting me tell Klaus the truth.

Orlando laid back against the headboard of my bed and a thoughtful look came across his face.

"When Farley comes back, will he be bragging about hiding the necklace, or will he keep quiet about it?"

"He'll probably be quiet until someone asks him about it, and then he'll brag."

Orlando let out a thoughtful noise and scratched the top of his head, thinking.

"Well, we'll just have to find out where he put it and get it from him, shan't we?"

"Yes. Yes, we should. It's our duty to save the world, isn't it?"

"Of course! Because, my friends, if we don't do this, who will?"

Two hours later found all ten of us scrubbing up the house as best we could. Annabelle had burst in everyone's rooms, demanding that we wake so we could get started cleaning. She hated seeing the house in such disaster and wanted to at least make it look presentable.

"But, why?" Kimberly asked as she cleaned up some garbage that had spilled all over the kitchen. "Who are we trying to impress?"

Annabelle didn't have an answer for that one, but she insisted that she found it important to keep a clean image.

We cleaned for quite a while, finishing the entire first floor in just under four hours. We were just cleaning up the last room when Farley burst into the room, looking extremely happy.

"Well, we are rid of it!" He exclaimed, looking about the room for praise.

Orlando and I glanced at each other and shook our heads, but Farley ignored our glum expressions.

"Got rid of what?" Princeton asked eagerly.

"The necklace! It's gone forever!"

"You really got rid of it?" Annabelle asked, biting her lip. "What if--"

"No 'what if's', you little twit! It is gone! Gone and forgotten! No need to discuss it any longer!" He grabbed a broom from Tally's hands and started to dance around the room with it.

"You're messing everything up!" Penelope grabbed the broom from him and began sweeping up the pile of dirt he'd run through. He made a face at her when she'd turned her back, but then turned back to the rest of us.

"Yes, and that's the end of it. I'm off to my room to study some Latin or something. The rest of you be good. And by 'be good', I mean 'don't kill each other'. Ta ta!"

Maverick stared at Farley's back as he exited the room happily, skipping every third step and humming an off-key tune.

"I'm pretty sure he's gay,"

Annabelle shot him a look, but he ignored her and stood up.

"I'm done cleaning," he declared, dropping his wet cloth upon the ground and turning to leave. "I've had enough of this."

"No you're not, you forgot a spot!" Annabelle yelled, pointing emphatically at a clearly forgotten mark underneath the partly demolished dinner table, but he just kept walking and even made a rude gesture as he left the room.

She looked at me, a shocked expression on her face, as if I'd agree with her but I just shrugged and averted my eyes.

When Annabelle finally told the rest of us we could leave as well, Klaus asked to speak to me. Before I had time to say no, he ushered me quietly into a broom closet and closed the door behind him.

"Kerry..." he whispered, looking at me through the dimly lit room. His eyes stood out like bullets of light through the darkness. "I think you should stay away from Orlando. I've got a bad feeling about him."

"What? Why?"

"Because he just -- he doesn't seem right. There's something a little odd about him. I don't like him."

"Klaus, I think you're being a little judgmental."

"I'm not being judgmental, Kerry, it's just this feeling I have. And Farley doesn't like him either."

"Farley doesn't like anybody!"

"Well, yes, but... Orlando just appeared out of nowhere and we took him in and everyone seems to like him. He jokes with the younger boys and he's so strong and handsome, and Kerry, my thought is... what if he was placed here, by Voldemort--" he shuddered at the thought, "--or someone? What would we do then?"

I looked at him, completely surprised. "Klaus, what gives you any indication that he would be sent here on Voldemort's orders? Nothing! You're just making things up now!"

"Kerry, I'm not! I really think he's not a trustworthy individual. Why can't you just believe him?"

"I have no proof. Nothing you say seems reliable! None of it makes sense, and you have no proof to set your assumptions on."

"But, Kerry--" he stood up and tried to pace back and forth but the closet was so small he couldn't. "--I don't like him. I want him out of this house!"

"Klaus, shut up. You don't know what you're talking about. You're--" I fumbled for the right words. "--you're just jealous because I like him!"

He immediately turned bright red and sat back down. I reached for the door handle, turning to leave.

"When... no, if you ever get any proof, then come see me," And I dramatically swung the door open, stepped out into the light and threw it closed behind me.

Humphrey looked up from where he was perched down the hall, silently reading, and gave me a questioning look.

"Don't ask," I said brusquely and stomped down the opposite hallway.

The weeks went by slowly. We really didn't have much to occupy us anymore. What with no more lessons or anyone to teach us, we didn't get much accomplished. Farley sat up in his room and studied(or so he claimed), and didn't really come out for anything other than dinner. Annabelle put herself in charge of finding food for the rest of us, and would once a week put her life on the line and venture out and find someplace decent to buy or sometimes even steal.

The rest of the kids would idly pass the days by, playing a game of Exploding Snap or reading listlessly. They grew anxious, wanting to do something and not just sit around the house, but there was nothing for anyone to really do.

Not taking heed of any of Klaus' warnings, I became adamant in my friendship with Orlando and we spent more and more time together each day, just talking and getting to know each other. Klaus kept giving me dirty looks whenever I spent time with him, but I grew to ignore them, and him.

But with growing closer to Orlando, I also grew to like him more and more. As much as I tried to ignore it, I found myself slowly developing a crush on him. I tried telling myself he was much too old, he would never like me, and he wasn't right for me, but the more I tried to dissuade myself the harder I fell for him. He never failed to make me smile. I soon wondered if he felt the same, but I was way too nervous to even attempt to try and tell him of my feelings.

He never slept in my room; he was too much of a gentleman for that. He did, however, spend many hours in there. We would talk until late hours of the night and right before dawn he'd sneak away to a guest bedroom and sleep there. Neither of us got much sleep this way, but we both couldn't resist talking to each other for so long.

One night, as I was reading in bed, Orlando came to the door as he had done so many other nights before and sat at the foot of my bed. I slowly lowered the book and looked at him. He was casually smiling and his eyes had that distant look, as if he was thinking about something else.

"Orlando..." I said slowly, carefully choosing my words, "I'm afraid I've been thinking..."

"A dangerous pastime."

"I know. But... well, I was just wondering if..."

"Yes? Spit it out."

"Do you remember anything of before Voldemort came to power?"

He looked at me hesitantly, as if deciding whether he wanted to disclose that information to me or not.

"Yes, I do," he replied finally, looking away from me.

I clamored out of the bedsheets and closer to him. "What do you remember?"

He stared at me for a minute, and I thought that he wasn't going to answer at all, but finally he spoke softly.

"Life was... wonderful. There wasn't any secrecy, no hiding, you could go outside anytime you liked. I mean, sure people were afraid but it wasn't like terrified, like it is now. Most people were good, not just the occasional people you run into now. There were lots more wizards and witches; it wasn't just once in a blue moon that you'd run into someone like yourself. There were entire towns that were entirely occupied by witches."

My eyes grew big as I listened to all his incredulous story. He went on.

"There was a huge alley--Diagon Alley--that was full of shops and such to buy things. And in Hogwarts, I never got to go, but I heard talk of it from my parents and older brother that--"

That's the first time I've ever heard him talk of his family.

"--that there was a town there called Hogsmeade which students were allowed to visit on their own! And there were Quidditch games, huge Quidditch tournaments, the Quidditch World Cup, in fact, and I went once, when I was three, and I don't hardly remember it except getting some food with my father but it was spectacular. You see, I was only five and a half when the Ministry Massacre occurred, and that's what sparked everything else, of course, but it was just--unbelievable. There's no way for you to imagine what it was like back then. I took it for granted. Everyone did. We always thought we'd always live in semi-peace, that Voldemort wouldn't gain that much power... but his followers kept growing, and he managed to get inside the Ministry with the help of some of his most trusted people..." Orlando's voice trailed off and his eyes took on that hazy distant look again.

I shook my head, thinking hard. "Voldemort is so--so--"

Orlando laughed loudly. "There's nothing left to say about him. Every negative comment anyone's ever had has been said already. There's nothing left for anyone to even do anymore, except wait for Voldemort to come and kill them."

"That's not true!" I cried, throwing my book to the floor and springing from my bed. "That can't be true. This is so stupid. That way--the way it used to be, that sounds so wonderful. Never having to wonder about whether you'd have enough food that night or where'd you be sleeping, if you'd still be alive? Why is everything like this? Because of greedy, selfish, malicious, stinking, fucking little Voldemort!" I viciously kicked at my dresser in frustration but I only ended up wounding my foot. I hopped back to my bed and sat next to Orlando. I noticed he was smiling.

"What are you smiling for? I'm being very serious!"

"I know you are. But there's really nothing any of us can do. Really. Believe me, I had friends, a few years back... they wanted to rally, they wanted to fight. Nothing can ever really be done. Well," he looked at me wistfully. "--unless we had the necklace...."

"Would the necklace even work against him? He is, after all, the greatest wizard, nearly ever."

"I suppose it would. But Farley has it hidden who-knows where. We'll never find it."

"We will. Don't worry."

"But how do you know?"

I looked at him eagerly, positive he had already cooked up some outlandish plan to get the necklace back, but instead he stood up, yawned and stretched.

"I'm tired, and I'm going to bed. Goodnight." He headed for the door.

"What! Where are you going? You can't just leave now! We were discussing what to do about Voldemort and the necklace!"

"No, no more time for play. Time for sleep. Goodnight. Farewell." Without another word he opened the door and exited and I was left to spend the night alone, thinking of every word he had said.