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After Bobby’s reappearance and second duel with JJ, I’m sure the Marauders were behind the chaos at the Night Jubilee. There was no way Bobby stuck around just to try to best him.
As Chancellor West said, everything in magic has a positive and negative energy. Good and evil. Contrasts. What was a fun and exciting event (not to mention time off from studying), turned into a night streaked with fear and danger.
The scaly creature was a rare and deadly Snodgrass. The girl, Emily, who it almost attacked is relatively fine and escaped with only a few scratches (mostly due to the stampede) rather than a gnashing by the animal’s sharp teeth. Unlike me whose entire body aches from when it slammed me into the wall.
This disaster prompts me to call a Mavericks meeting as soon as possible because I don’t want to see my friends, or anyone at Riptivik for that matter, helpless when under attack. It’s not so much that we don’t know which spells to use. Rather, the issue is we don’t have practice or, for many of us, the confidence to use our magic. More than ever, I feel an urgency to fulfill the prophecy and end this madness and mayhem once and for all.
However, a week passes before the original members of the group are able to gather in the hidden room below the library. The upside is they’ve each brought someone—a friend or roommate—, doubling our size.
I take a few minutes to talk about our purpose and intentions then explain what happened at the Jubilee after everyone was magicked out. “After the events at the Jubilee, I feel like this is more important than ever,” I conclude.
“I don’t expect we’ll find Snodgrasses roaming around campus,” a boy with a pointy face says.
“Don’t be so sure about that,” Yassi says. “We faced a Cinderbeast a few months ago.” She crosses her arms in front of her chest.
Someone else adds, “My mom said they shouldn’t have had a dangerous animal like that at the Jubilee.”
“You’re missing the point,” Yassi replies.
I press my lips together and inhale. “It was the Marauders, proving that they’re the ones who’ve been creating or inviting danger onto our campus lately.” I then go on to explain what else I know to the newcomers.
“In a way, it’s like the Marauders replaced the demon snatchers,” Nia says.
“They may be gone for now but not forever.”
“We have to be vigilant, aware, prepared,” Dewey adds.
“It’s up to us to learn how to stay safe, look out for one another, and to be on the defensive,” Yassi says.
“But they don’t teach us how to do that in any of our classes,” the boy with the pointy face says.
“That’s why we’re here, Doofus,” Dewey says.
I raise an eyebrow, surprised at the insult. Dewey shrugs. “What? That’s his name. Honest.”
“Doofus?”
Doofus nods. “Doofus Bringle.”
I start to explain what the word means in the non-magical world but cut myself off, realizing I’m off-topic.
“They used to teach defensive skills,” Manolo, the vamp, says smoothly. “The last administration decided to axe it from the curriculum. That’s what my aunt told me, anyway.”
“They may not teach us these skills at Riptivik anymore, but we have someone who can help us with the basics. JJ?” I call.
The crowd parts for him from where he’d been sitting in the back. He shifts and gives me a you didn’t just ask me to teach defensive magic look.
I reply with a look that says even if I did ask, you never answer my questions anyway.
His look is touché, I think.
Or it could be we’re going to talk about this later.
Or it could be alright, alright, I’ll do it. Sometimes it’s hard to read his shades of gray expressions.
When the lesson concludes about an hour later, I say, “Listen, everyone, we’ll meet again next week. Same time and same place. For now, practice together, don’t go anywhere alone, and watch out for the Marauders.”
“Can we bring others to the meeting?” one of the newcomers asks.
“The more in our number the stronger we’ll be,” I answer.
“Wait,” Doofus, says.
Everyone turns to him.
“How do we know what she says is true? What if this is a waste of time?”
I sigh, not having anticipated any doubters because of everything I’ve seen with my own eyes.
“Why would I lie?” I ask.
JJ steps forward and without a word waves his wand. Memories of my experiences play like a slideshow on the bare wall of the room: starting with the incident in the orchard on Hallows Eve and leading up to the night of the Jubilee. The room spins and I feel increasingly dizzy until my memories return to my head. Gregor’s Axe that was weird. Why wasn’t that in West’s seminal seminar lessons?
I give JJ an admonishing look that says you didn’t ask if you could broadcast my memories.
He returns with a you weren’t blocking them tilt of his head.
Touché.
That night, I’m up late, unable to sleep. Like the slideshow at the meeting, I replay the night of the Jubilee (rumor has it the organizers are convinced someone tampered with the Snodgrass enclosure). I go over the same information and details until my mind spins (and not because I’m dizzy).
The moon crests the night sky, repeatedly drawing me to the window. I gaze into the endless firmament of stars but don’t find any answers. But I do find something else. Comfort. Connection. The feeling that I’m teeny tiny but also vast with possibility.
After I do a few assignments to catch up, I still can’t sleep. I pace. I try counting sheep. I take deep, relaxing breaths.
Hashtag triple fail.
I study the map from Imogen’s journal. As long as I’m awake, I may as well figure it out. The quadrants of the campus are like a puzzle that doesn’t quite fit together. Well, the central area does, but several of what would be the edge pieces fade like whoever drew the map wasn’t sure what was there, which is odd because if it was JJ’s father who created it, many of the buildings were already constructed.
I leaf through the journal, trying to put pieces together. It makes sense now that JJ would have this, knowing Imogen is his mother. Either his father had it before that and put the map in it or Imogen did.
What’s it for and why? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Me and my questions.
I dig through my desk to find the map of campus I received from Yassi at the beginning of the year. Thankfully, I never needed it because she showed me around, but I gathered it was a holdover from when Riptivik was an academy and not a reform school. Although Storch has lost her hold so hopefully things will change back to the way they were sooner rather than later.
I compare the two maps.
There’s the central campus with the dining hall, Lindholm Auditorium, the dorms, the woods, the Lake House, and Nightingale Hall. There’s also a path to the orchard and beyond that the cemetery.
I find another part that sort of dissolves where the library should be; it’s like there’s a missing piece.
Strangely, Gould Hall is on the north side of campus and the administration building toward the east by the lake. It’s almost like an alternate version of Riptivik.
I hold it up to the dim light in my room, revealing the X that JJ and I found.
I lie back on my pillow, pondering, and then slip into sleep. Finally.
JJ’s brother, as faded and ghostly as him, leads me across the lawn where the Jubilee was. The house I grew up in, Hamilton High School, buildings from my town, the Jubilee tent, a pumpkin pyramid, and the regular buildings clutter the Riptivik campus. He urges me to keep going: through walls, obstacles, and obviously solid objects. Then the ground disappears beneath me and I’m falling through the night sky. He looks at me imploringly over what could very well be the edge of the earth. I continue to free fall. His expression changes as if he’s suggesting I’m dense and don’t get it.
My eyes blink open. It’s still night. I look at the map again, gleaning that he was trying to lead me forward, and perhaps tell or show me something about where I was going. I wonder if the faded buildings are like portals, like the shimmering door we passed through to reach the Jubilee.
When we were in the chapel and saw the X by candlelight, it was as though JJ knew something. Maybe this is where the wand is located, hidden behind a magic door in the building named after his parents.
Now that the demon snatchers are likely gone, (probably, hopefully, fingers crossed but not likely) I could go over there right now and ask him. We’ve hardly had a moment alone since that afternoon.
The moon is bright and the night clear. My room is over the entryway to Penny House and the little roof isn’t that far from the porch rails. I could easily shimmy down.
If I encounter a demon snatcher since I wished them away once, I could do it again, right?
It’s a risk I’m willing to take.
