Knight of the Black Rose

by Nissa Gordon

  "I'm not sure," Anne said uneasily, not really wanting to leave him alone, even though she knew that he would probably be alright for a little while until Glen got back, and it wasn’t like he had never been in the house alone.

  "Come on Aunty Anne, it's not as though it'll be my first time in the house on my own waiting for him; and beside, I've got loads to do," Will told her, he really didn't mind having the house to himself for a while today as he could have a proper look at everything before his dad got in, so it wasn't as though he was lying to get rid of them.

  Anne seemed to reluctantly give into him. "I guess so, if you're sure...call me if you need anything, I’m just on the end of the line,"

  "Course," Will said smiling at her, as Stuart picked up his thing's off of the middle island and headed towards the door not wasting any time getting out of there.

  "Ok then," Anne said still sounding unsure.

  "Come on mum, it's not as though he's going to burn the place down in an hour or so," Stuart told her.

  "Yeah, that helps," Will said sarcastically. "It's been a while since I've done anything like that,"

  "See; he's fine," Stuart said glaring at him.

  Anne nodded reluctantly and followed her son through to the front door, with Will right behind her; Stuart pulled out his key chain and unlocked the front door.

  Will suddenly thought of something as he watched Stuart unlock the door. "You know I'm kind of surprised that the neighbours haven't picked up on the fact that we don't seem to sometimes leave the house for days. And look at him, leaving with all that stuff; don't you think they'll wonder where he got it from?"

  "Perhaps they'll just think that you gave it to us," Stuart suggested not at all bothered, it wasn’t like it concerned him.

  Will wasn't convinced, but it wasn't as though he could do anything about it now. "I guess,"

  "Now don't do anything foolish because you have a wand now," Anne told him half heartedly teasing. "You're not trained yet how to use it properly, so just wait until your father comes home,"

  Will smiled as innocently as he could. "Of course,"

  He didn't say what he really wanted to, 'it wasn't as though he was going to blow up the car like Stuart did; mainly because they didn't actually have one.' it would only worry his aunt, and of course the main factor it would really annoy Stuart for bringing it up again, as he never wanted anyone to know what he had done; but he could do without the bullying, so he kept it to himself.

  "See you later," Anne said kissing him on the cheek before she turned and left.

  "See you," Will shouted as he watched them walking down the garden path; when they reached the bottom of the path he closed the door and put the chain on because it wasn't as though his dad was going to use the front door; he knew he could even lock it if he wanted and probably should so that he would forget for later.

  He smiled to himself as he went back through to the kitchen, he had more important things at the moment and his dad always checked the door before he went to bed, so he didn’t have to worry.

  He went straight over to the table, picking up the smallest box and undid the fastenings on it with shaking hands because he was so excited; he took the lid off of it and pulled out the tissue. There inside was his wand; he carefully reached in and took it out. It felt warm and right in his hand as though it belonged to him and him alone, he couldn't hear the voices any longer, not that bothered him of course as he didn't really think that he should be able to hear the wand actually talk to him, well no one had ever said that they could; unless it was just one of those things that everyone was just supposed to know. Will shook his head, that was just too stupid and out there, even for the magical world.

  "Books...which one..." Will said thoughtfully as he started to unwrap all of his books not bothering to take them up to his room first.

  Once all of the paper had been ripped off and dropped on the floor, he glanced at the titles to see which one would be the best one to start with; he wanted a simple spell to begin with, just something to try out his new wand with. He picked up his charms book and started to flick through the pages hoping that something would jump out at him, but before he could find anything he heard the doors under the stairs and rushed through with his wand in hand.

  Stood before him were his uncle and his dad who didn't look at all happy about something, his uncle smiled at him at then seemed to notice that he was holding something and nodded at it.

  "Oh right...I got my wand..." Will said holding it up for them both to see.

  "Good, at least one thing went right today then," Glen said clearly annoyed about something that had happened, but Infidus seemed fine.

  "I'll have a word with my contact, when I see him," Infidus told him dismissively, and then turned his attention back to Will. "So how did it go? What is it?"

  "What?" Will asked confused by the question.

  "Your wand, what is it made out of it?" Infidus prompted.

  For a moment Will didn't understand the question. "Oh right yeah..."

  "Perhaps another time," Glen interrupted; he had had enough of Infidus for one day and just wanted some time with his son. "Where's Anne?"

  "I told her that she could head home with Stuart," Will told him, wondering why he wouldn't want to know about his wand, it was important. "It wasn't that long ago either...just a couple of minutes,"

  "Why don't you head on home, call me if anything comes up again?" Glen told him before he went through to the kitchen, not bothering to wait for his reply.

  Will stared after his dad and then back at his uncle, who didn't seemed overly impressed with just being dismissed like that, but he smiled at Will and then did as he was told and left without another word. Will followed him to the door so that he could put the chain back on and then went through to the kitchen to his dad, wanting to know what had happened because he couldn't remember the last time that the two of them had fought.

  "Didn't it go well?" Will asked his dad, who was looking over the books on the table; making Will wish that he had put the paper straight in the bin rather then leaving it on the floor.

  "Not really how we thought it was going too," Glen answered after a moment, and then turned around to face him. "I'm sorry that I wasn't there with you,"

  "It's alright...I know that's it important what you do...even if I don't actually know what every job is," Will told him, it was a half truth because he did kind of understand that he wasn't the only important person in his dads life, he just wished sometimes that he was. "You catching the bad guys, that's important..."

  "Yeah..." Glen said nodding, and then changed the subject. "So, did you see anyone while you were up there?"

  "I saw Lucy," Will told him, hoping to get some sort of reaction out of him considering what he had found out.

  "Oh really, how was she?" Glen asked.

  "She got into Burnaby Advanced as well," Will told him, wondering if he already knew or not as he was sure that his dad had seen her the day that they got their letters.

  "No surprise there then," Glen said pleased that she was going to the same school as his Will. "It's a shame that she hasn't been around lately, but her dad needed her at home,"

  Now that hadn't been Will's first thought on why she had been avoiding them, but he had spoken to her dad the other week; he wanted to bring it up but had a feeling that he wasn't really supposed to know about that, so decided to keep it to himself for now, he might need to bring it out later for something important.

  Will decided to tell him about the guy that he had met, but without all of the details of course. "I bump into this older lad...I don't think it went well in the end,"

  "I'm sure everything will be alright," Glen assured him, as he knew his son and was sure that it couldn’t be as bad as he thought it was. "Now, these books of yours; I want you to start studying them first thing in the morning,"

  Will couldn't believe it. "What, all of them?"

  Will couldn't believe his dad, yes he had wanted to flick
through them, but his dad wanted him to start studying before he even got to school, how was that even fair; there would be plenty of time to study once he got to school.

  "I'm not expecting you to remember everything in every book here, just to have a basic understanding," Glen told him.

  "It's not as though they're expecting us to know everything in these books considering that some come from none magical families," Will told him, but he could see that his father was dead set on this, so he knew that there would be no way around it no matter how much he argued with him. "Okay...I guess I'll read through them all...or as much as I can,"

  "Good, now tea," Glen said handing him his charms book before he walked over to get started.

  Will put his books to one side of his chair in his bedroom, he had been flicking through them for the past couple of hours since he had gotten up early and couldn't get back to sleep, he then had to wait for a suitable time before he could go around to his friends seeing as they never got up as early as he did. The plus side about going away to school, they would have to get up at the same time as him, or they'd end up in trouble.

  Will was looking forward to seeing them, because he hadn't been able to see them the whole weekend because his dad had kept him in going through all of these books, wanting to make sure that he at least read something before he went away to school. Even though his dad had kind of kept pushing him, he had found out quite a bit when he was actually allowed to practice a couple of the charms as well, but it didn't mean that they all worked, so it wasn't really all that boring. Now he was allowed out and was going to see them, and if he could get the spells right, show off a little.

  He closed his bedroom door and then near enough ran down the stairs straight for the front door, his dad was still in the house but he was in the basement and Will wasn't allowed down there no matter what; it wasn't as though he needed to see him because he had already told his dad before he went down there that he would be going out as soon as it was a normal time with his friends.

  He had wanted to take his wand out with him, but his dad had told him that he couldn't; for one he didn't know how to use it properly yet and he didn't want him to lose or damage it. His dad also didn't want anyone around here finding out what they were and putting them in danger. Will thought that he was over reacting to the whole situation, anyone would think that he was a disaster waiting to happen; but of course he had agreed with his dad and left it behind.

  It took him no time at all before he was around at Alex's house knocking on his front, and waiting for his dad to open it, and of course to be in a bad mood like he had been recently; but he didn't open the door on his way out it was Alex's mum, Laura.

  "Will, I was wondering what happened to you," Laura said pleasantly. "They've both been waiting for you to be able to come around to talk about what you got up to,"

  "Troy's here as well?" Will asked surprised, as neither of them had said that they were staying over and felt a little left out.

  "Yes, he came over...they've been experimenting," Laura told him smiling slightly and then suddenly looked quite tired. "Nelson...he went out early...it's all a little too much for him to take in at the moment,"

  "Oh...I'm sure that he'll be fine with it all..." Will told her, though he had no idea what else to say, as Nelson had always been a little funny about the whole magic situation even before he had met them or so he had been told.

  "Go on, dear...they're waiting for you upstairs," Laura told him smiling again.

  Will smiled back as he came inside and closed the front door before he went upstairs; he knocked on Alex's door once before he went inside, where they were both waiting for him.

  Alex got up pleased that he had finally arrived, as it had felt like they had been waiting for him for ages. "So come on, how did it go...where is it?"

  "Did you see anyone...we didn't?" Troy said somewhat disappointedly.

  "Actually yeah, I saw Lucy," Will told them.

  "Really," Troy said smirking.

  "She was with my dad that day, remember when we got our letters; she said that she had ended up breaking her arm...she didn't really going into detail, but she was there with them," Will told them as he had been dying to tell them all weekend considering that he couldn't really bring it up with his dad, because he knew that he would just dismiss it, one of those things that they weren’t really supposed to talk about.

  "Lucy, went out with her dad and yours hunting?" Troy said as though he didn't believe what he was hearing. "Please, she's not like that,"

  "Yeah, I can't really see her doing that either..." Alex agreed. "And anyway, your dad wouldn't agree to let her come along, would he?"

  "See, that's what I thought; but when I brought it up the other day the reason that she hasn't come around is because there's a lot going on that her dad needs her for," Will told them.

  "That he needs Lucy for?" Troy said confused, he didn’t understand why her dad would need her for anything; as far as they were all concerned she wasn’t anything special, just like the rest of them.

  Alex was annoyed that she was getting to go on exciting missions, and they weren’t; especially him if it was up to his dad. Still a part of him wasn’t completely sure. "More like, he probably doesn't like her hanging out with us,"

  "That's just stupid," Troy said.

  "I know...I didn't really get it either..." Will agreed.

  "So anyway, what was it like for you when you got your wand?" Troy asked him excitedly, changing the subject seeing as they didn't know anything else about what was going on with Lucy.

  "It was kind of strange to be honest," Will told them, he had thought about it himself and still hadn't been able to get his head around it, he still hadn't actually mentioned it to his dad, even though he knew he should because he would probably understand it more than him.

  "Of course it was, but you know...how many did you have to try out?" Alex asked him. "I think I tried like six, I was getting a little worried that I wasn't going to find a match,"

  "Mine was on my third," Troy told him smugly.

  Will was even more confused now at hearing this, but he might as well tell them, he trusted them. "I didn't try any of them...it kind of came to me,"

  "It came to you?" Troy asked not understanding.

  "It said my name, then raised out of the draw and came to me," Will told them, making them both stare at him as though he was making the whole thing up, which didn’t make him feel any better about the situation.

  "Maybe that's what happens when you're all magic," Alex suggested, he didn't really know because he was only half.

  "No...the old man in the shop thought it was strange as well...and well...I haven't told my dad about what happened yet either..." Will told them. "I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, especially if it wasn't anything big."

  Alex and Troy both looked at each other and then at Will, he didn't always like being centre of attention, especially when he didn't know why.

  "So anyway, my dad has me reading all my books since I got them," Will told them changing the subject seeing as none of them knew that much about the whole wand choosing matter, which meant that he would have to ask his dad after, which he should have done in the first place.

  "All of them?" Alex asked in disbelief and horror.

  "Yeap," Will answered.

  "I've gone through them; you know flicking through to see if I could find any easy spells to practice on," Troy told them.

  "There's a few really basic ones in them..." Will said thoughtfully.

  "Did you see the potions book, it's massive," Alex said. "And all the stuff that's in there about the ingredients and what should be with what...I'm never going to get any of that,"

  "My sisters said that Professor Loring is probably the best one out of all the potions teachers," Troy told them scowling. "And we defiantly wouldn't want to end up with Jevidah...actually he doesn't really like any of the students except for those in Disa; but he's not their head of estate, Eldamar i
s,"

  "He's the Deputy Head teacher right?" Will asked remembering the name from his letter.

  "Yeah, it was on the letter we got," Alex agreed.

  "Great..." Will said. "It would just be our luck to get him,"

  "I thought that we were having a lot of luck lately," Alex said smiling.

  "That's what he means, it only last for so long," Troy said. "Anyway, who cares about that...lets see what we can do with these spells,"

  "I haven't got my wand," Will told them.

  "I haven't either; mum didn't think that she could trust me," Troy said annoyed.

  Alex grabbed his books off of his bed and handed them over, as though this was going to stop them; they went through the books getting Alex to try out some of the spells seeing that he was the only one there with his wand. Well they wanted to know how some of the spells worked but not look as though they had been trying too hard either. Some of the spells that they were trying out, nothing at all would happen for them like they weren't doing it properly; maybe the spells did take more practice and training than any of them originally believed.